a break in the action

Smokey Butte and location #3

I think our farmer may have mentioned to Jim that combines tend to get stuck in the field in location #5. So, with the latest rains we had, the Beast and I have been separated for a few days. That’s OK, though, because I was starting to miss Frank anyways.

I have cut mud holes and I know when it’s time to move on but if anyone is going to get a combine stuck, I’d just as soon it was the boss. By the way, we’re down to the last 20 acres in this particular area and I don’t think Jim has seen even a little mud.

After moving the equipment to location #5 late Sunday afternoon, we parked everything for the night and decided to get a good start the following morning.

Without being the combine operator and without an elevator ticket to tell me how the wheat is doing, I’m fairly safe in saying I really don’t know how it’s yielding. From the seat of Frank, it looks above average. There are some thin spots on top of the knobs.

If you haven’t figured it out by now, I don’t like to sit still very long. I like to stay busy and when I do have to sit for long periods of time, I wish I had someone to visit with. Well…I have no one to sit with me and plenty of time to kill because the phone service in this location is zilch! If I get a text, it’s probably because the wind blew in the wrong direction. We all know these darn phones can be time killers. It’s times like this, though, I wish I had one to help me kill time.

This particular day, I was hauling to our farmer’s abandoned residence which happens to border the Missouri Breaks. Beautiful! I mentioned to you in a previous post the further west we come out of Jordan, the closer we are getting to the Breaks. This is what it looks like at the grain bins.

 

Completely different from the first four locations. These Breaks are ideal for Elk and Elk hunters. As a matter of fact, the hunters should be showing up any time soon (if they haven’t already). Jordan is headquarters for at least three different industries – the bone (dinosaur) diggers, the harvesters and the hunters. I haven’t seen any bone diggers this year but I’m sure they’re here. The harvesters are just about done. So, now it’s time for the hunters.

As the afternoon turned to early evening, I decided to venture out into the wide open spaces again. (It had been pretty darn hot!) So, I took a short walk just to see what I could see.

By the time I made it back to the truck, Jim was nearly there with the final load of the day. I still had to take it to the bins and dump it. After I arrived at the bins, I realized a hired semi was there to take grain out of the bins. So, my day was done. We decided it would be too dark by the time the semi was done loading out so I would dump Frank in the morning.

Yesterday (August 19) began like any other day with the heat cranking up early. I had one load on Frank and was waiting for the next when I realized we must have problems. Jim started the combine up at the end of the field as though he was going to put the head in the wheat and then he stopped. He got out and walked around. He walked around again and then the Beast got shut off.  Now I know something is definitely wrong.

A bearing went out in an arm which is part of the shaking system. (I hope I’ve told this correctly.) Anyways, we were done for the day. By the time we got the broken part removed, it was nearly noon by the time we got to the Cottage. We jumped out of the service pickup and into the dually and headed for Glasgow. Glasgow is approximately 115 miles from Jordan.

And the roads are narrow and scary!

Scary because there are no shoulders and if you got two wheels off the road, you’d be down a very deep ravine very fast. I know I wouldn’t want to pull a wide load on this road. The scenery is beautiful, though. Jim’s dad used to love this trip for this reason:

Ft. Peck Reservoir – 134 miles long and 1,600 miles of shoreline.

About to cross the world’s largest embankment dam (4 miles long) – Ft. Peck Dam

As soon as we arrived in Glasgow, we found the store we were looking for, got our part (and a few other items to have on stock) and turned right back around and headed for Jordan. A short, get-what-you-came-after-and-leave-again sort of trip.

Zerbe Bros. of Glasgow, Montana

We made the 115 mile trip back to the Cottage and called it a day.