Bruce is always happy to be done at the Ehler's farm and with his good buddy, Grassy, helping this year, it went fast.
It's about a 3 mile drive from there to the bin site so we both hauled, switching tractors along the way and Grassy dumped the corn. Grassy is such a good friend that he volunteered to stay home from the Iowa game yesterday to help Bruce finish!
Now that's a good friend!
Bruce reassured him that we could handle what was left in the field and we did. I hauled the wagons home and left them for Bruce to unload.
This is the last pass through the field.
Bruce is getting a sample of corn....
...to check the moisture content. The new unloading auger is awesome, he unloads the bin in half the time it used to take.
Bruce was unloading wagons for the final trip back to Ehlers yesterday when he called me at home and said he had a bearing going out on the Peck auger and would I call CS Agrow to see if they had one, giving me the part # and said it was the main bottom bearing.
But these farmers never give us ALL the information we need, do they?
Me - "Do you have the bottom main bearing for a Peck Auger?"
Mark - "What kind of auger is it?"
Me - "U-h-h-h, how many kinds of augers are there?"
Mark - "Is it a truck auger or a long auger?"
(No problem, I had that one nailed.)
Me - "It's a long auger that he uses to transfer grain between bins."
Mark - "What size is it?"
Me - "U-h-h-h-h, how many sizes are there?"
Mark - "Is it an 8" or 10"?
Me - "U-h-h-h-h, I think it's an 8", yeah I'm pretty sure."
Mark - "I think I have what you need."
Me - "U-h-h-h, can you be more specific, I'd hate to drive up there and not have the part."
Mark - "I really need to know the size for sure."
Me - "Can you call Bruce and talk to him, he has my pretty pink paisley phone because he left his in the combine, just don't make fun of him."
Mark made the call, confirmed the specifics and I hit the road to Calumet to retrieve the new bearing. Bruce is still babying the old one along, using lots of grease but when that no longer works, he has a new one to replace.
I'm always amazed at what he can fix, how many years it took for all that knowledge but the main motivation is that he's just a little bit tight and doesn't want to pay a service call. But it has served him well.
Yes brother Brucie is a wee bit tight but so was Dad!! Maybe more so!! A farmer's skill at fixing issues with machinery has always confounded me - HOW do they know what to do??!! I love these pictures of fall harvesting, Julie. I can almost smell that, well, FIELD smell - ya know?? And look @ Bruce - in shirtsleeves!!! Aren't we grateful for this beautiful fall weather?? I'm glad you are done!
ReplyDeleteI should have been more specific, we aren't done, just done over there which is always a relief because of the distance. Bruce thinks he is about 2/3 done with corn and has been baling corn stalks right along, when he's not fixing things. It's funny you talk about the smell, Bruce said the same thing when he climbed down from the combine!
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