2010 Wheat Harvest Part III.

On the 1st of July I changed the oil on the Puma for the very first time. The tier III engine burns so clean that the oil only needs changed every 600 hours. I was pretty skeptical about this at first, but after the oil was still amber colored after 300 hours, I became a believer. The oil on the 8100 turns black after about a day (and has a 250 hour oil change interval.)

Then we tried the Fuller. Too green.
The next day Anna came along and we tried the Dumas.


It was just barely dry enough.

So we cut around it and were ready to clean out in the morning.

Levi found this interesting piece of metal while cleaning out the grain tank. Weird.

The combine seemed to work fine without it.

I thought the sky looked nice.


The Dumas didn't take long, and so we went ahead and cut around the Fuller. I had to leave a pie shape where all of the volunteer Jagalene from last fall had survived. If you look closely, you can see it.

We took this little jag to the elevator just to see what it would test at. It was plenty wet. Then on the way home, with an empty trailer, I blew this tire, which as you may recall, hauled a full load without help from its buddy last week.

It kind of messed up my ride.

I was so busy checking the tire out that I almost didn't see what I had forgotten to pay attention to earlier:

Then it almost rained again. at least the sun dogs were cool.

We took the Fourth of July off, which we hadn't been able to do for a long time. First we went to the pool for some waterbendin'.



Then some dancin'...
...And grillin'.

It almost rained again the morning of the fifth.

It did rain Over East.

The sprinkler was stopped on the corn with a flat tire. Here is a picture after the mud thwarted our attempt to retrieve the tire:

We had more luck on the 6th.

And succeeded in getting the tire out after a monumental struggle.

We got a new tire and brought it back in.

Then we worked on the sprinkler which had stopped in the 'beans.

And then I made an octopus.

On the seventh we worked on the sprinkler in the wheat.

And took another sample of the Fuller, which was still too wet.

On an eighth I got a used tire on Swheatie's trailer. I figured that all of the tires needed replaced, but I figured I would wait until wheat harvest was over.

On the ninth we were able to do some cutting, even as Betsy and Anna left for Oregon.




This tire blew while I was unloading the truck.
So on the morning of the tenth (happy anniversary!) I took Swheatie to town for new trailer tires.

I guess it worked out because I was finally able to finish my waiting-in-line-to-unload viewing of Star Trek.

Nothing like eight new steel belted radials to celebrate our steel anniversary.

Then it was back to finish up the formerly Certified TAM 111, which we hauled to the elevator.

And then we were done!


Then I went to Witchita for a few hours. It was classy, as always.

And then I came back to bring in the last truckload on the 12th.