Today was a very relaxing day. it was a warm for mid-December with clear blue skies! It seems we have endured a lot of cold days this fall with cloudy skies. Today I drove my John Deere 4430 from Kibble Equipment in Owatonna out to the farm and then drove my 9500 combine back to Kibble Equipment.

My cousin Chad and I were putting machinery in the shed for the winter and we noticed the 4430 was leaking hydraulic oil. There is never a good time for a breakdown but this was as good as it could be. I had Kibble Equipment come out and get the 4430 because the oil leak was too bad to drive it in to Owatonna. A hydraulic pipe was leaking and I felt I was lucky it happened when the fall harvest was done and not next spring when I was planting corn!

Doctor Bill my John Deere technician got the 4430 repaired and checked over for this spring. It only took two hours to drive it out to the farm. My 9500 combine needed to have "surgery" to repair some internal injuries from last fall. Some how when I was combining corn a rock about the length of two large paper clips got into the combine and caught in the beater.

It was 4:00 on a Saturday afternoon when I called Kibble Equipment in Owatonna. Doctor Bill was on another farm call so my "new best friend" Andrew came out to the farm, He got the rock out, replaced the burned belts and said he thought I would be able to finish combining corn. However, he thought the combine should be checked over in the shop because there was some damage to the beater.

In addition there may have been some damage to the cylinder rasp bars and concave. I have the combine insured plus I have the "rock endorsement " So, I called my insurance agent and turned in a claim. Hopefully there was not too much damage!

I was waiting for a warmer day to drive the combine to Kibble Equipment in Owatonna and Saturday sure was nice. In the picture is the view from the cab driving down Highway 14 between Waseca and Owatonna. It did take about 3 hours to drive the combine from the farm to Owatonna.

More From KQCL Power 96