It was sprinkling when we woke up this morning.

We had an additional .25 of an inch of rain last night. As I said in my last post, it came down at a nice slow pace. Not like the past several storms where the sky turned black and green and very angry with rain and hail pounding the ground. It was a relaxing rain. The day was so not like SW Kansas on July 1. We are typically faced with extreme heat and wind. So much wind you wish you could just cover your ears and make it go away (lalalalalala).

I remember one summer in particular staying in the farmer’s yard near Anthony, Kansas. The electricity wasn’t enough to pull the air conditioner in the trailer house so we had to endure the heat and the wind with the windows open. At that time, I had little kids and I wasn’t the “hired man”. I was the cook. Have you ever cooked in a trailer house that’s about 150 degrees already? And the wind just howled. I felt like I was going to go out of my mind. This one afternoon, I just closed up the windows and turned on that air conditioner just to get a break from the wind. I didn’t win the battle. The breaker clicked and I had to open the windows and endure. Until you’ve listened to wind howl like that, you can’t judge my decision. 🙂

The coolness of today allowed me to sit in here most of the day with the windows open. I enjoy having the Cottage windows open, if I can. I was also able to get caught up on the bills and paperwork that had to be done after the mail was picked up on Saturday. And…I was going to fix a REAL supper. I had set out some frozen hamburger and intended on making our favorite meatballs, mashed potatoes, corn and rolls. I couldn’t wait!

Jim, on the other hand, was busy trying to fix a breakdown which he discovered earlier this morning when he went out to service the Yellow Beast. Apparently a fuel line wore thin in a spot due to friction and eventually created a hole. The fuel sprayed all over the engine compartment, including the exhaust pipe. Things could have gone from bad to worse BIG time had we not shut down for the rain last night. We may have been wondering what to do with a burned combine today rather than how much rain we had overnight. “I thought I smelled something funny before I got out of the combine but I was too concerned about the rain when I got out and didn’t check”. (Jim)

The problem was with the two hoses found near the top right of the picture.

The fuel sprayed all over the inside of the engine compartment. The exhaust pipe is the larger piece closest to the left of the picture. The hole in the hose was where Jim’s hands are on the right.

Jim began his day with a trip to the New Holland Support trailer looking for a particular hose. Trying to figure out the part number was first on the list. Once they figured that out, they realized they didn’t have what he needed. But the Case IH dealership in Pratt, KS did. This was about noon-ish or so when Jim called to let me know he was going to be heading to Pratt for the part. I very briefly thought about going with him but decided I better stick with what I was working on. Then I got the call from him telling me that Monte’s wife, Caroline, had the wonderful idea that maybe they should check with the Case IH Pro Harvest Support trailer (which is basically across the street) to see if they had the part. They did. But it was the wrong part. The right part number but the wrong part. Come to find out, the part Jim needed was for a newer engine which was in his older model of combine. Good grief! With a great amount of thinking and scheming, something was finally figured out and Jim was on his way.

So, by the time he got it fixed and the Yellow Beast was up and running, it was 6:00 and the farmer was cutting. That’s when I got the phone call. “I just got the combine fixed and the other combine is running. Why don’t you jump in the Dodge and go fire up Frank and bring it to the field”.  Okkaaaaayyyyyyy. Time to switch gears and put on my field hat. So, I get to a stopping point, put the thawing hamburger in the frig, pull the rolls out of the warm spot I had them in to raise, turn on the air conditioner and walk out the door.

As I was pulling up to the edge of the field, Jim was almost there with the Yellow Beast and a somewhat full load. Whew! He didn’t have to wait for me! In an ornery sort of way, I wanted to make him wait because he has no idea what it takes to make everything work. And…I was so looking forward to a REAL meal tonight! As he was finishing the unloading process, I gathered my phones and my camera to ride along. Just as I get settled in, he tells me we may not be able to cut anymore. The moisture may be on the verge of being too wet. So, he grabs his hand-held tester and jumps in the back of Frank to see where we’re at. Just what he thought – just dry enough to finish this field. The elevator was closed so we wouldn’t be able to do more than load both trucks anyways. A bit of my Grandpa’s harvest ingenuity comes out once in a while. Jim was trying to figure out how he could prevent the two hoses from rubbing together. I suggested wrapping a blue towel around it to cause a gap. It was Jim’s idea to use the zip tie. It’s a great temporary fix until something better can be done.

It wasn’t baling wire and it wasn’t duct tape but it’ll do for now!

I jumped back in the cab with him while he cut enough to fill Frank. While I was in there, he relived the frustrations of his day. He wasn’t as much frustrated with the chaos of it all as he was with the little issues that seemed to take forever to solve. And even more is that it could have been prevented. He told me communication from the Case IH/New Holland plant should have been made available to him regarding the plastic clips on the hose. Those plastic clips should have been removed and thrown away. He never got the memo. Thank goodness for the rain and having to stop when we did.  Today could have been a whole different day had the Yellow Beast burned. Losing that sort of investment would have severely damaged this “Mom and Pop” operation!