I knew it! I just freaking knew it!
As soon as I said I hadn’t had to run for parts, I’ve done almost nothing BUT run for parts.
And has it gone smoothly? No, of course not.
The first run was Saturday morning after I picked Cubby up to watch her for the day. I was supposed to just pick up one thing that Captain had ordered the day before. A plain old belt. Easy enough, right?
Sure. I don't know which one of these belts it was, but they had it, and Captain knew what to do with it.
Then he calls me and adds a couple of things to the list. So I write it down on my hand because I didn’t have any paper handy. Now I need a belt, an auger cover, and guard bolts. No nuts, thanks...he says he has plenty of guard nuts. Fine.
Cubby and I made it to the dealer where the belt was waiting, and I added the two new things to the list. They loaded me up and sent me on my way.
We get home, with Cubby chanting “Yampa, ombine...yampa, ombine” (translated Grampa, combine) all the way home.
Wouldn’t you know it...wouldn’t you just know it?!?! Now he decided he really did need the guard nuts. Except it isn’t a simple run to Hardware Hank to get them. These nuts have to fit a 15-mm wrench. Color me stupid, but wouldn’t that just be a 15-mm nut?
Nope. I found this out when I made my second parts run in one day to Bishop’s in Kasson for a seal kit for the ripper. Nuts are nuts, right? Green or red machines...shouldn't matter.
That might be true, but apparently metric nuts come in even sizes like 6, 8, 10, and 12...none of which fit a 15-mm wrench. I’m no mechanic but shouldn’t metric nuts fit metric wrenches? Guess not.
On top of all that, the stupid auger cover was the wrong size. I was quite specific about it being for a John Deere 925 bean head, mainly because that’s one of the implement numbers that I remember.
The belt worked, though, so that was a plus, I guess.
Captain cobbled everything back together and hit the last 40 acres of soybeans here at home. Whew...finally some progress.
Then I get a phone call: “Go out and hook up the hose, I’m coming in hot...and I mean I have a fire to put out.”
What the fudge?! Should you call the fire department?!
Oh no, it’s just a little smoldering fire under the motor. Doused it with water (and can we say STINKY), called it good, and headed back to the field.
Cubby and I decided this would be a good time to retreat back to her house, so off we went.
When we arrived back at Chez Cubby, nothing would do but she take a few trips down her Little Tykes slide. Since it was a nice afternoon, I had no problem with this.
There isn’t a ladder on this, and she can’t quite handle the faux rock wall to get to the slide platform, so I have to lift her up. I stood beside the slide prepared to help her sit down and then give her a little nudge down the slide.
Nothing doing. One of her new words is “Stay” complete with the hand up, palm facing outward. She meant she wanted me to stand back and let her do it herself. Oh boy.
Luckily she did just fine, so we did another half dozen trips down the slide before she was tired of that.
Tired altogether, really, so I put her down for a nap that really didn’t work so well, but she was quite for an hour or so, so at least she rested.
Mama Bear got home to a little girl thrilled to see her mommy. I left them to some bonding time and headed home.
Captain called me about halfway home to tell me he’d had another fire in the combine, but this one was full flames. Thank goodness he, once again, got it out...even though he had to use the fire extinguisher for this one PLUS douse it with water.
Do you know how unsettling it is to go to bed wondering if the dang machine is going to spontaneously combust overnight?! Some of you do, I know.
Thankfully, nothing untoward happened overnight, and Captain was able to get the last acre of beans picked here. During that process, he calls me and says I have to make a third parts run, back to John Deere.
This time it’s for something for the sickle. That’s the part that cuts the bean stalks before pulling it all into the machine to separate the vines and pods from the beans. John Deere knows I’m coming and has the part I need waiting for me.
“Oh, and pick up half a dozen of those guard nuts while you’re there, too.” Dude, I’d have done that yesterday if you hadn’t specifically said you didn’t need them, but whatever.
Parts got picked up and delivered back here so he could fix that before heading to the very last stinking bean field for this year.
I am pretty sure we’ll both be glad to transition back to corn harvest. More than that, we’ll just keep crossing our fingers that the old combine holds together one more year!
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