Back in Business!

A good day on the farm. Brad seeded last night so I was able to come home early. Felt rough this morning but it was much cooler, +20, and not windy yet. Brad was also nice enough that he even filled my drill with seed and fert when he finished so after the look over this morning I was able to get rolling right away. With both drills running things really sailed along and I think it was maybe 1 pm that we finished my wheat and moved to the next field, mom's by the lake and started that.

Of course, this is when my gf calls to tell me that the alternator light is on again! Sigh. But as I had to depart to get my son I had to leave it in the hands of Dad and Brad and to quote my gf "The two mechanics don't seem too concerned" so what can I say? And a bit of a delay with the delivery of NH3 (anhydrous ammonia fertilizer) to the field so one drill is down. We have a 3rd tank available so I'm hoping that they switched the 58' drill to it and are still with one drill running.

As I am in parenting mode I have to leave them to their own devices and to show them that I have confidence in their abilities to work together to solve and problems they may encounter. As well Dad I hope is finally done with his engineering stuff and will be more focused on the seeding side of things.

Odd thing, you lose things in fields all the time and find things too, usually by hooking them with a drill shank. Case in point found a 8' 1/4" chain with hooks that I'd lose a year or two ago - score! and then this morning a swather crop lifter I'd lost God knows when got hung up on a hang and reacquired!

As for Ponoka, I hate to jinx myself but I do feel some optimism that I'll be done seeding. The 4th of May today, they still may get the 5th field done today and then two more wheat fields out west, 5 of canola and done! If both drills run well then it could easily happen!

It doesn't look like there will be any rain to stop us either.

I have a former summer student of mine who is married and living in Fort McMurray. But they got away OK, no work on their house. It has to be pretty stressful not knowing what you're going to find when you return............

Hopefully forum members are safe and we might hear from them eventually...............

Cheers,

Garry
 
thanks for the encouragement guys. Oh and buy the way, while riding my bike the back end does get loose but I don't smell rubber from I,t I smell natural gas.
 
Good one Jeff! I need to get you out here. Sometimes is is so long a period of time with farm work that the battery is dead by the time I get back into the Z06. I'd offer you a job as daily driver to keep the battery charged!

Finally ordered the new rear tire after last fall's incident. It is coming from Vancouver and should be here in a week.................


I finished my wheat at 1 pm yesterday and moved to mom's field by the lake. I had a chance to start the headland and then had to leave to get Aidan. So Brad replaced me. A huge major f'up with the NH3 delivery where it took 2 or 3 hours before they made a delivery. We have our two tanks and we were suppose to get two tanks from CPS as well like a week ago. Two days after we started (peas so no need yet for tanks) still no tanks. One arrived yesterday morning in the field but I didn't need it. For some reason, although I haven't confirmed this with Brad, the tank was delivery empty (?). Can't see that myself but maybe.

The 895 alternator light came on again - not sure what is wrong there.

But poor Brad. He is a great worker but majorly overconfident. Typical mechanic. Anyway, he turned short and hit the loading auger hopper on the NH3 tank and broke the plastic hopper and bent the bottom flighting. He feels bad but I told him not to worry about it. Most likely solution will be to replace the auger bottom with the stock one instead of the extended one for loading from Super B's. I just hope it won't be too long to get one in. Likely have to bring out a tractor and auger to go in the meantime. Still it happened on his final fill so he was able to finish the field so 5 down and 7 to go.

One of my summer students is now married and living in Fort McMurray but made it out OK. Not sure what she'll find when she returns though. I can't imagine going through that sort of a situation...........

Showers forecast for Sunday! How well timed would that be?

I was shocked by the wind erosion north of Fairview yesterday, it was like a fog it was so bad. Some farmers just don't get with the program. Even here seeding beside Lorne, both canola stubble fields and the plum of dust in his field and next to nothing in mine and wondering why and then it occurred to me, Lorne uses a heavy harrow, a complete waste of time!!!!!! I did trials evaluating them back when I was working in Spirit River and discovered that they actually reduce crop yield!! Oh well, what can you do?

Cheers,

Garry
 
1600 plus homes but I haven't heard anything updated in two days now. How do you rebuild a city? But then again a lot of that sort of thing occurred in Europe and Japan during the war so it can be done.

Forecast for here (almost directly west of Fort McMurray by a few 100 km's) is showers for Saturday and showers and RAIN for Sunday. I can wait yet so I hope it all goes east instead and helps end things there.

Straightened the auger, ordered a new hopper for it which should arrive tomorrow morning. Tube and flighting were also damaged but we cut replacement sections from an old auger and brazed them into place. May it hold!

Hump day yesterday, 6 fields of 12 done.

Going to be a less productive day today though. Cousin Brad got called back to work but will still come evenings and weekends. My gf has an interview today (!) and it is an Aidan day so I have to take him to school this morning and also leaving early afternoon to get him so about 3 to 4 hours lost there.

Another hard to believe situation, the new alternator on the 895 appears to be toast so i have to see if Greggs has another one on hand. Sort of frustrating.

But overall still pretty happy and upbeat.

Talked to my son about going to Ponoka - he's not interested! Unless there is going to be an XBox console in the parking lot and a bevy of 11 year old girls handy??!!

Cheers,

Garry
 
Hahaha. Too funny of a comment about the Xbox and girls. Give it a few years and I'm sure cars will start to become more important because:
A) Once you can drive, it means freedom.
B) Girls dig guys with cars and the nicer the car the better... :D

Best of luck with the rest of the fields and Jeff, that "loose" rear end isn't as much as a loose rear end but a natural rocket booster to help you bike. :D
 
An OK day here. Finished field #7, got about 40% of #8 done. I'll have my son until around 10 but cousin Brad will be rolling at 7 and so I asked my gf if she could go out to help him - loading with seed and fert is a lot easier if there are two people............

But feeling sort of optimistic. We could have been done Monday, easily, as we should get switched over to do canola (just have to change one metering roll in each drill) and probably will even get the 1st canola field done.

The new auger hopper should be in this morning. Not sure if I'll put it on today or maybe after the rain.

But the forecast for tomorrow is 5 to 10 mm with 60 km winds. That ought to be interesting to watch! I really am OK with it happening especially if it blows east far enough to Fort McMurray and helps that situation out. And if as a result I don't get done until Tuesday I'll be fine resting until I can roll again. Besides which 10 mm isn't going to stop me much, I assume as soon as it is not actually raining I'll be able to roll in the fields again.

So, things are at this point looking more positive for Ponoka. Logistically it will be tough though. If I want to take my son with me then I have to wait until he gets out of school and then have to start for Edmonton immediately. Or if he really doesn't want to go then I could leave him with mom and dad................have to play it by ear as the week progresses I guess.

Cheers,

Garry
 
Geeze another flat tire on the drill just now. Makes me happy that when I had the previous flat tire fixed I had a spare repaired too, and a spare for the NH3 tank to be safe. Just had to run to the farm to get it rather than having to wait at the tire store...................
 
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So finished field #9 last night. Tired this morning, moving slowly, moved the drills to #10. Filled with fertilizer, it started spitting, even showering and then.............I kid you not it started snowed! Almost white out conditions on the drive home! Thankfully emptied out the fertilizer truck into the drills beforehand.

Went home, had lunch with mom and dad, everyone had a nap until mid-afternoon. Woke up, now showering and even actually rain! Came home, 8 mm so far!!!! Just excellent and with luck may it blow east far enough to help with the situation in Fort McMurray.

Forecasting highs of only +10 for the next 4 days so not sure when I'll be able to return to the field, but being 75% done we're all pretty happy let me tell ya! Nothing better than a good soaking on newly seeded crops!!

Cheers,

Garry
 
Garry it must have got cold right across the country. Very cold in mid Ontario tonight, forecasted for below freezing. Did not think I would need the wood stove on again. Guess what? It is blazing away now trying to warm the place up. It is cold here.

Best of luck with the planting, hope you can make the big show next weekend with your Z06.
 
So looks like a grand total of 10 mm of water, what a solid start!

As for Saturday I'm going to do what I always do, and that is to live in hope!

Wood stove heat, now that would be nice!

With luck maybe the new rear tire will arrive this week. I'll give them a call when seeding is over to see what luck I've had there.
 
Got back seeding again at 3 this afternoon. Finished #10, moved and just did 6 acres on #11.

Interesting events on #10. Broke a shank. GF finds said shank, nice as all the bits on it are worth about $450! Then had the exhaust pipe on the 1150 break off on top of the muffler, pity that. Had an NH3 leak on the 33' drill this afternoon, replaced an o-ring and it stopped but noticed tonight it was leaking as bad or worse. Maybe the male/female fittings need to be replaced?

However, with luck, and it will be a bit of a long day, we should still finish tomorrow. At the very least get onto #12 which is the home place which is where we want to be!

Badly in need of Z06 set time.

Possibly do some seeding for a neighbour who is having a slow spring, good $$$$$$ to be had if so!

Cheers,

Garry
 
I'd take a dump of water here again. Peas seeded on the 9th have germinated but not emerged yet, but exciting to see some action. No water in the forecast for the next 5 to 6 days. Regardless of custom seeding, I need my new tire before I can consider a drive to Ponoka now. I'll be calling the store tomorrow morning pronto!

As usual for post-seeding, I'm awake and can't sleep!!! Too wound up............
 
Wow. I haven't been able to read the thread for a while so it was pretty exciting to read the progression of each field getting done! Glad you have it all wrapped up! And funny, but not haha funny that after that huge push and rush, it's a tire that would keep you from getting to Ponoka. Weird how if you ordered one from the states, it probably would have been here on time.
I vote that you still come to Ponoka with or without your Vette. I'm sure there will be lots of open passenger seats for the cruise, including my car, IF it won't bug you too much not having your car there.
 
Good morning Riley,

Odd but this is shades of the circus of trying to order the tire from a different store in Peace River last fall. I mean I had them order a tire for my Sentra and that came in find and dandy when they said so so I actually spent a week or 10 days living in hope that the Nitto would be in, especially when the lady I talked to told me is was scheduled to be on their truck today. Now granted that was to be for 10 am and I was there at 9:40 but here it is 11:20 and no call.

I finally went to the GM dealer in Peace River too for the low beam recall for the Z06 and to also try to deal with the "Service Active Handling System" warning. There was the recall back in 2010 and the car was inspected in Vancouver at the time and it was not deemed to require having the clip installed to hold to plugs together. But I'm unconvinced of this as it started to happen when I was playing around with the telescoping steering. So I asked them to order in the clip and I'll get it done at the same time as the light wiring recall..............

Riley I can't say that I've been this happy post seeding in memory! The weather is just great, the wind has sort of died down and it is not super hot which is good as we're all watching the forecast looking for rain.

As for Ponoka, I'm still on the fence right now. While there would be no doubt it would be fun to bounce from shotgun to shotgun and to experience different cars, I have to see what is going on, tires, custom seeding etc. 55 km trips to Fairview I'm OK with if the tire goes south but I'd be disappointed if it happened to me say by Fox Creek or something like that..............

Stopped in to get a piece of exhaust pipe, discovered that they don't stock 6" as a rule so they'll have to order it.

Went to the elevator, found out I missed a canola rally at $11.70 a few days ago, going to try to get $11.50. By comparison the canola I sold about 4 weeks ago or so I got $10.40 for and was thrilled!!!!!

But for now, as perhaps more common in my life, I'm just living the dream!!!!!

Cheers,

Garry
 
Very glad to hear the seeding is wrapped up and things went well. I have to agree about going on a long trip with a suspect tire. That wouldn't be fun at all. As for the canola, glad it's at a good price and we'll hold our breath waiting to hear if the tire comes in!
 

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