Author: Steve Hardin

Mechanic blood sacrifice

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Sunday I spent all day repairing equipment. The eight tines that I replaced on the power rake did not take too long. I was missing a bolt and had to dig through a three gallon bucket to find the correct size bolt and nut. I had cut late Saturday morning but the hay would not be ready to turn until Monday. It would have to wait until after I got off of work.

I do like the Abbriata M50 round baler but I snapped off two pickup tines on the same support bar and they created a stopping pin effect. The tines cannot be turned. I don’t have an overhead lift so I have to just lay on the ground and work on it. I also can crawl between the arms and reach inside the machine. It is not super comfortable and requires a lot of crawling around and stomach crunches to lift your upper body 6-8” off of the ground. I of course could not get three of the hay guides removed and my large 60V DeWalt grinder would not fit inside the opening and allow me to move it around enough to grind the heads off. I ended up driving to Pendleton and buying a 20V DeWalt grinder that is much smaller and fits inside the baler opening. I had all three bolt heads ground down in ten minutes. Of course once I got the guides out of the way I could hand turn the stubs of the bolts out of their retaining nuts. I was able to change out and install the new rake teeth and support bar.

There was a lot of swearing and I kept tearing up my hands and bleeding all over the equipment. I actually had to stop working and slide my hand into a leather glove so the blood would quit running down my knuckle. The leather glove absorbs blood and puts pressure on the wound. Eventually, I found a first aid kit on one of the tractors and used a bandage and some cleaning solution to treat the injury. There was more swearing before I was done. Once my abdominal muscles started to cramp up on me while I was reassembling the equipment I wanted to quit. But I knew I would just have to get it done eventually anyways so I might as well just get it done. My abdominal muscles still hurt two days later.

Monday I came home and spent four hours rowing hay. I had plans to row hay Sunday evening but the hay was still wet and instead I rolled bales that were on the ground in field #1. They were getting a wet spot on the bottom. I cannot pickup hay bales yet until I get them all cut. One the neighbors offered to have me come cut one of their grass fields so it doesn’t go to waste. I am still figuring out how to squeeze it in.

I did go out and work on making some bales today after work. I have about 1/3 of the hay put up but I was running out of shear bolts. The hay is in large rows and it keeps sucking in too much and snapping the shear bolt when I am close to full. I think I just need to dump lighter bales to avoid this issue. I will pick up more bolts tomorrow and hopefully finish tomorrow.

Haying will end eventually

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It’s the weekend so it is time to do some more haying! I would have cut hay yesterday but we had a high wind and rain advisory so I opted to not cut anything. It spewed a little rain but nothing exciting. The clouds made it look like it was going to be bad at any moment all day long so there was not really a great indicator that it would be safe to cut.

I decided to spray some weeds Friday morning. The wind had not picked up yet and I wanted to get over to the neighbor’s to kill the noxious weeds in the lower pasture. I got a hose hooked up and filled the sprayer. Unfortunately, I did not check that the pump would work first. I could not get the pump to turn on. I thought the pump had gotten sticky so I beat on it with a hammer a few times and that did not fix it. I tried the power and lights in various positions and could not get the pump to turn on. Giving up I went and got a voltmeter and started at the pump and checking each connection for power. I know this will be shocking but I did not discover the problem until I got to the fuse box and found a burned out fuse. For future reference I need to track the power interruption from the source out to the load not the other way around. It would have been a lot faster. We had some nonorganic extra grain delivered. I need to get our granary bottom repaired. It will hold over 100 sqft. I am on the lookout for another small granary that will hold 100-250 sqft of grain.

I got the neighbor’s field edges sprayed and had a nice visit with him in the middle of the gravel road. We made a side by side drive around so it did not interrupt our gabbing. I sprayed the road side of the CRP and most of the upper fence line before running out of chemicals. The wind was blowing so I put the new land plane on the tractor and leveled out the driveway. The land plane makes the driveway flat and smooth plus it is easy to use. I am super happy with it. It also did not leave groove marks in driveway.

Today I had a few honey do chores outside then I worked on fixing the sickle bar mower. I had a couple more loose bolts on the bar so all the bolts had to be tightened. I only found four movable bolts. I had already bent the bolt for the outer flange so I found the biggest bolt that would fit and pounded it in with a hammer. I had to use an impact hammer to get the nut on the bolt. I did take the main piece off and beat it profoundly with a very large hammer on the anvil to get some of the curve out of it. I tried the vice first but a large hammer was the ticket!

Once I had it all working I went out and cut all of field #2 that was good hay. It took about three hours to get it all cut. The upper pond in field 2 still has water in it, which is a first. It is always dry by this time of the year. I have never seen it with water in it this late. Annmarie and I talked about maybe fencing in the pond so the farm animals cannot get into it. It does dry up but if we fence it off they cannot disturb the plants.

I did manage to get a single picture of the first calf. I came back by thirty minutes later and there was no calf to be seen. It had vanished! The first month of their life they are very elusive. The mothers hide them very well.

Tomorrow I have to fix the rake first thing then tear into the baler. Annmarie was less than impressed with the new mistress’s name. She stated that she was not going to call the new Kubota “Juicy”. I suppose there is some rationale in that as most wives don’t like their spouse’s mistresses.

Getting lucky

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By the third dayI figured that a little bit of sunscreen on my face was not going to help if I spent all day on the tractor again. I had already managed to sunburn my lips. I took the, still in the box, sunshade that had been purchased for the older Kubota (Clementine) and installed it on the new one (Juicy). It took a couple of hours to get it all pieced together and up on the tractor. This one has a very nice locking mechanism that virtually makes it impossible for the shade to blow off the tractor. It is quite clever. After baling hay for an hour I asked myself why I did not do that two days earlier! Keeping that direct sun off of your face is a huge relief.

The hydraulic takeoffs do work! I only need one to get the dump lid on the baler to work and it worked great once I got the port all cleaned up. It had a lot of dust and dried grass in it. Unfortunately, I did order dust caps but do not order them by the size of the plug. They are ordered by the size of the hose. I did not know that until the wrong ones arrived in the mail. The correct size is now on order.

I spent all of Sunday baling hay until 2330. I really wanted to keep baling but we had scheduled help to come out on Monday at 0800 and help us with shear the alpaca. The haying got a lot easier once the sun went down. The moisture started to come out and the grass was not as slick. It baled super nice, no jams and it just wound up without any difficulties. I made twice as much progress after darkness hit. I started to just pick the big rows to bale as it was so fast. I figured I could get the smaller rows after we sheared the alpaca.

We had four alpaca that I had managed to get pinned on the back hillside. I thought they would cross the back creek. Nope, I ended up taking a header into the creek when the alpaca I was attempting to drag across the creek suddenly jumped and scrambled up the opposite side. Of course that same alpaca ended up jumping back across the creek to be with his buddies. One of the babies kicked Annmarie in the lower leg. It was a solid blow. That same alpaca proceeded to try and give us all the rear kick anytime we walked up behind it. So we grabbed it from the side when we drug it into the shearing area. It has grown significantly, it is probably our biggest alpaca now.

We did eventually get all four alpaca across the creek and I did not end up in it again. We only have six to shear, trim feet and inspect/cut teeth.

The shearing table makes it pretty easy to do everything. Our helper, the Quiet One, had never sheared alpaca before but she had just paid someone to come out to her place and shear her two alpaca. It was decided that she can just bring hers over to our place and we can just shear all of them on the same day. We had all six done within three hours. After three days of riding on the tractor my upper shoulders were killing me but I am getting much faster at shearing the alpaca than I used to when I started. I passed the trimmer off to the wife and Quiet One but ended up going back to it as I wanted to be done. I only cut three of them with the razor. No stitches have ever been necessary.

We dragged a tarp with the last two years worth of discarded hair over to the garden so we can use it as weed barrier. It makes great barrier. I showed the Quiet One how to work the new tractor and she will come out and mow the cheat grass down during the week. It needs it. I have been trying to mow the cheat grass while haying but once I started to bale nothing else gets done until hay is all formed into round bales. Once the bales are made I will leave them in the field for a couple of weeks. This is why I like the round bales so much better. They work for my delayed schedule.

I called in to the house and the wife brought me coffee out to the field! It was one of the best cups of coffee ever. I needed that coffee. Going around and around and watching the baler is monotonous. Even if I did manage to knock out two audio books over the weekend.

I went out and started to bale for another seven hours. I had enough material on the ground for approximately 12 more bales when the big boom was heard. The shear nut gave on the baler and I tried to replace it. I could not get the baler tines to move so I figured I better look closer to see what made that noise. One of the pickup tines exploded and broke some stuff that pinned the pickup shaft solid. I need three hours to tear into it and replace all the parts. It is close enough to finished to call it finished!

I now have to fix the sickle bar mower, the rake and the baler before I can cut some more hay. My plan is to fix the mower, cut hay, then fix the rake, rake and then fix the baler! As long as I get it fixed before I need it I am good to go.

Haying

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I have embraced the mechanic option out of necessity. All of my hay equipment is out of Italy and no one around here will work on it. So I have to fix it myself if I want to use it. I had to fix the sickle bar mower before I could go out and cut the first batch of hay on our place. Luckily, when I placed the order for parts I ordered everything I thought I would need except for one bolt that was going to have to come from Italy. That single bolt would have cost me $50. I figured I could find a bolt that would work for less than that.

I got the end of the sickle bar torn off and the new parts on. I was able to find a workable bolt to substitute for the Italy special. I went out and started to cut all of field #1. About halfway through it the mower stopped working. I had lost a bolt on the bar itself and one of the retainers had spun around. I drove back, replaced the bolt (I had purchased spares) and then tightened all of the bolts on the entire sickle bar and regreased everything. I went out and finished cutting the entire field. I did have to work past sundown. I did not want to come back and cut the last section in the morning. It would screw with the drying rate. When I got back I did notice that the Italy special replacement bolt had already bent. I am going to have to tear that fin off and beat on it with a very large hammer. I think I have gotten a sharper angle bent into it than it should have over the years of just normal usage. It needs some hammer therapy on the anvil to set it straight, literally! I know there is a second bolt available so I will replace the bent one when it is reassembled.

I found two batches of pheasant chicks out in the field when I was cutting, both were in the far middle of the pasture. I had to work hard not to run them over or cut them up with the bar. I managed to not hurt a single one.

I went out the next afternoon and turned and rowed the hay. So some of it had just barely had 24 hours or less since it was first cut. It was not super hot out but the hay was drying out fast. I rowed it with the power rake but again by the time I was done with the rake I had broken 8 tines! It was set too low and I had a lot of old tines on it. I do not believe there are very many old tines left. I had to go past dark again before it was completed. The hay was pretty dry so I knew I would be baling the next day. I will now need to repair this piece of equipment before it can be used again. I have instituted a repair personal priority system. The order in which the pieces of equipment are going to be needed are the order in which they are repaired. So the sickle bar mower first, then the powered rake then the baler.

We have our three yearling calves in the orchard near the houses and driveway. We are just tired of the butcher calves just being crazy because they never have to deal with humans until we run them into the pen to be killed. We are hoping that by us being able to talk to them and them being around us they will calm down. They are a little calmer currently than last year. The real problem is that Annmarie thinks we missed a testicle when we banded the calves. So far we have not ran them into the chute for a definitive grab/inspection. We are usually pretty careful about the cows when they are getting banded. Time will tell on this issue.

New tractor!

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Well it was delivered! My new small Kubota tractor was delivered on Thursday with a new bigger 5’ brush hog and a 5’ land plane for the driveway, the total cost was a paltry $32k. Most people buy a new car, I would rather have a new tractor! I can drive a beater car forever as long as I can have two tractors. I am not going to get greedy, I don’t think I need three tractors, two is sufficient for one person. But if I had to get a third tractor I would get another Kubota. Honestly, they started out in the small tractor market and have just been making them bigger. I love the amount of metal and minimal amount of plastic.

Every size and make and model has its own quirks. You just have to get used to how they operate and then figure out what works for you. This new tractor is all hydraulic, no clutch just shove the appropriate lever in the correct direction at the correct time. That takes some getting used to when a clutch is what you normally use. I always forget about the little things that I add onto the tractor. It didn’t come with a speed handle so I ordered that over the weekend. It only has a small plastic tool box so I have these metal tool holders that clamp onto the roll bar so you have have a hammer, crescent wrench, pliers, screwdrivers etc hanging on the side of the tractor readily available. I did remember to have them install lights, weld on three chain hooks on the bucket and a rear set of hydraulic takeoffs. I happened to have an overhead canopy that had not yet been installed on the older tractor so on day three I installed it on the new tractor. I ordered the clamp onto the roll bar tool holders also. I have to add a heavy duty bag to hang from the roll bar so I can store food, drinks and a first aid kit (or blue rag to use as a bandaid). I had to order new caps for the hydraulic takeoffs to keep the dirt and grime out of them. As you can see there were many things still needed to dress up the new mistress.

Annmarie says I need to give it a name but now that I own two Kubota tractors they need different names. My very first tractor was called the “Mistress”. I have been tossing ideas around and think I have finally settled on a pair of names, Juicy and Clementine. Juicy is the new all hydraulic tractor and Clementine is the tried and true with a clutch. Both are Kubota so they are bright orange in color.

The first evening I put the brush hog on it and started to mow down the cheat grass. The seat is quite comfortable! It’s the small things that matter. There is a foot release for the steering column so you can just move the steering wheel up and out of the way as you get on and off the tractor. It also has a flexible screen that catches the dead weed debris to keep it out of the radiator. The screen is super easy to get on and off without having to lift the bucket arms first.

I would say the fuel gauge is par for the course on a small tractor. Which is basically you have fuel forever until it suddenly vanishes in thirty minutes. Of all the things this seems to be an elusive goal for small tractor manufacturers, at least Kubota and John Deere. I have learned to measure fuel consumption by run time and the type of job I am doing.

I am super thrilled and will be spending all weekend on the tractor.