Harvest on the Edge

Late in the day as the 8010 pulls up a draw back toward the landing
at "the saddle".........in the background is the assignment for the next
day, a big ridge that lays to the west. Mt Hood looks on in the distance.



A little closer look at the 8010 at work.......and where it will be in the
morning.

Starting to lay out the east slope.



Getting close to the max leveling limit on the 8010 of 27%........



The 8010 will harvest from this pass down the hill.......the wheat
above is reserved for the 1670.

Up on top........and the wind was really bad on this morning. Here
8010 operator "Steep" has switched the leveler to manual and tilted
the machine over into the truck to minimize the amount of wheat
lost to the wind.

Like I said.....harvest on the edge, so let's do some of that. Here the
8010 starts a pass down around a scab.



No left turn here........



A little closer look as the 8010 munches through some pretty nice
wheat along this edge.

Working underneath the scab seen in the series above.......triple
digits down in here.



Always nice wheat in this cove.......



At the leveler limit here....the separator is leaned out just a little.

Getting on back to the truck landing.....



My personal favorite so far this harvest...I have it up as my Wallpaper
right now.......a good look at "Steep" in his baby, the Hillco equipped
8010.



I include this shot to give an idea of the lay of the land here near The Dalles........the neighbors chem-fallow climbs the ridge in the
background.

Seeding the cove seen above last fall...........





..........and spraying it this spring....a different angle here, shooting
from the top looking west toward Mt Hood.

My turn!! Some of the edge cutting is better left to the 1670. Since it's pretty hard to be in two places at once, these shots were taken
by a couple of our ace truck drivers. Here Kirby & I open up an edge
with a really fun down hill ..........



......down into low gear to head down this pitch.....




The first pass is really not all that steep....but the jump off from the
top gets your attention........

The steep part comes on the next couple of passes.......



......on the second & third passes, the leveler on the "70' hits the
max of 48%......



........a long shot........



While Kirby & I take care of this little deal, the 8010 cuts on another
ridge.

Had some time to post up a few photo's last Sunday and was working
away at it, when I was very rudely interrupted by a fire call:



.......came up off of I-84........got to go back to it again Monday as the
east winds kicked up and got it going again. Back to the edge........

harvesting near the Deschutes River, the 8010 comes around an edge
check out the cliff in the upper left of the frame.......



.........looking down a side canyon into the river......

The 8010 hard at work with Mt Hood in the background: