Babysitting the Corn Dryer

Something new has happened this year on the farm.  We bought a used combine so we could have two combines going in beans.  It was great and we could get through the beans a lot faster.  This is important, because beans are fickle and can only be harvested under dry and optimal conditions.  The optimal conditions don’t usually last long, so when it is a good day for bean harvest (even a Saturday) we have to go.  Something I understand, but don’t love. 

Then since we had two combines around late last week they somehow came up with another corn head for it.  In theory it sounds like a great idea because why have a combine sitting around.  But another combine means you ideally need another grain cart and someone to run the other grain cart.  We don’t exactly have a plethora of employees, except on the weekends when we have some wonderful people who spend their time off from their real jobs to work for us.  Even then we don’t usually have anyone sitting around.  Another problem is the corn dryer gets filled up faster and has to run longer into the night and possible straight through to the next day.  Ok, it isn’t a problem to have a lot of grain, but in the past Brad could run the dryer during the day and by the time he went to bed he could shut it off overnight and it could keep up just running during the day (8am-11pm).  With two combines running it has to run longer into the night to keep up. 

Brad is in charge of the grain set up.  It is his “baby”.  Not totally a “baby” he wanted at first but I think he really likes it now.  Friday and Saturday night Brad had to babysit the dryer, but didn’t want to be next to the dryer all night.  He was trying to figure out what to do because our wifi camera would work, but the program itself wasn’t working on the phone.  I told Brad about some baby monitor apps on the app store and found him one that I heard was good.  Brad had recently purchased a new phone, so he could use his old phone as a monitor.  Then when there was a problem he could just ride his ATV down the path to the farm and deal with the dryer.  Both Friday night and Saturday night Brad woke up every 90 minutes to check on the dryer to make sure it wasn’t out of corn and that the levels and numbers were all where they should be.  Sunday in the wee hours of the morning his Dad called him to tell him the alarm was going off and it was out of corn to dry, it was 30 minutes before Brad’s alarm was going to go off so I am really glad we couldn’t hear it at our house.  Between the long hours in the field and lack of sleep babysitting the dryer I was surprised Brad was still functioning.