Author: Steve Hardin

Hay completed for this year.

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I had to work late on Wednesday so I decided to move the straw into the barn. The real problem with this is my $80 toy, it’s in the way. I really need to mount a pulley about 22 feet up near the middle of the roof so I can stand the hay elevator upright to store it. Unfortunately, when you get the “good deal” it always needs some work. I need about three pieces welded and to tighten a section and then run conduit to protect the wires. Now all of this will probably only cost a couple of hundred dollars more. I just don’t have time for it, Winter is coming! This meant rearranging all the hay currently being stored and moving it near the sheep entrance so it can be used first as it is last years hay. So I got all the hay moved and swept out the hay area. There was not a single mouse under the bottom bales. This is fairly unusual for us and hopefully an indicator that we are making headway on our barn mouse problem.

The straw bales are fairly light and were pretty easy to move around. I was having to pull them down then walk six feet and put them into the barn then stack them. After four bales I decided this was wasted energy. I got into the pickup and spent 10 minutes getting the front corner of the trailer within 2 feet of the barn. I then dropped two bales off the side of the trailer to create a bridge and just drug the bales into the barn. This was much more efficient. I ended up moving 5 ton of hay, 714 stones of hay or 10,000 pounds before going to work. It was a good day. Now we just need to not run out of hay this winter.

Benevolent dictatorship

Steve Hardin3 Comments

Today was the day to pick up straw for the barn. We usually use 25-30 bales a year for the sheep and horses. I like to buy 60 bales at a time and just store them in the barn. The nice thing about straw is it just gets drier! Therefore it works better at absorbing moisture.

Unfortunately the new toy, hay elevator, is in the way. So I will need to move the old alfalfa out of the way, the grass hay to the other side of the room and then pile the straw into the previously occupied corner. A whole 60 bales equaling 2.5 tons of straw costing $150. I of course used my fancy 7500lb capacity trailer. It only had 5000lbs on it and it looks like it is crying every time I load it. I had to beat out the tire fender on the left side again. I keep hitting stuff with the trailer, maybe. I never feel the trailer hit anything. I think something is attacking my trailer with a hammer. I think its gremlins. I noticed a second new dent while the trailer was being loaded. I am seriously considering airbags or an extra spring leaf to stiffen the trailer. It’s on the list to do something about. Annmarie reminded me that I need to advertise the enclosed trailer so we will have the cash necessary for a used stock trailer. We want a decent one 10 feet long. I would like a stock trailer as they are sturdier than a horse trailer. The dogs and I had a discussion about our ruling style while we were feeding last night. I started out with the democratic process and told them we were going to the barn to work. They seemed super excited and came running. Then they did not want to stay in the hay area while I fed the horses. So we switched to a benevolent dictatorship model. This appeared to work until they got bored then they tried to sneak away. I finally put them in the sheep area to hold off the sheep so I could feed. I have not had to have a clubbing match with the ram yet this fall and am attempting to hold it off for the entire winter. The dogs are my solution to him wanting to be macho man all the time. I was in the hay room, the dogs were in the sheep area and the sheep started to come in. I cannot see anything but I hear much commotion and start hollering automatically at the dogs to stay still. When I came around the corner both dogs were laying down but Mouse had advanced another 10 feet closer to the sheep. We had to switch to a strict dictator model and I gave them both a severe lecture about the politics involved and why it was necessary. Usually, we operate on the benevolent dictator model and the dogs do fine.

Catch up

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Today was a day of little tasks. Those last few pesky things that have been bugging me all summer long and I had just never gotten around to dealing with them.

I had taken the outside corral gate off its pegs a couple of months ago. It was dragging severely as I had tried to stay too close to the ground and it opened up on the wrong side. When you kill a cow in there and try and drag it out the gate is in the way. So I had planned on switching sides the gate hung on. It took drilling two new holes and then finding another nut to use as a stop nut on the inside of the hinge. I finally got the gate on then had to run to the hardware store to get a chain link so I could add a section of chain to the existing latch so it would fit all the way around the railroad tie. The gate opens very smoothly now and has a couple of inches of clearance.

I moved onto the chute gate since I was working on the corral. We were going to run the cows in and tag the baby cow and potentially band it if its a boy when I got done fixing the corral. I ended up screwing a 4×4 onto the outside of the latch area and drilling into it. I also used a couple of pieces of metal to go alongside the bottom lock. No more chain to hold it closed, you can use the locking slide mechanism for ease of use.

I went and got Annmarie so we could sort cows. I brought the dogs along so they could work. We got the cows into the barn lot fairly easy. I was running the dogs as Annmarie’s voice is still tender. The dogs were working but being stubborn. Annmarie got a ahead of me and was over by the old granary concrete pad. She was hollering for me to put the dogs away and why did we bring them. I always work all the animals with the dogs. The bull was very angry and was snorting, pawing at the ground and throwing dirt into the air all while staring at Annmarie.

So I put the dogs in the old chicken coop and then we tried to herd the cows into the back barn area. Nope, they would not leave the feed area. We tried to throw out some food but they would not come. I ended up grabbing a flake and walking up to the cows and enticing them into the corral. The momma and baby we wanted were the first ones into the corral so we shut them in. I went to go get the ear tagger and the banding pliers. It was a boy. By the time I got back with the tools she had them separated out into adjoining pens in the corral. The calf is one month old, he is huge. We should have done this two weeks ago. I missed jumping on him the first time and just ate dirt for my troubles. The second time I went for the neck and got a good grip around it and proceeded to get drug around the corral. I could not tip it over and I could not get a hold of one of its legs. My ride was over 20 feet long and finally I managed to get the opposite front foot and pull it toward me causing the calf to tip onto its side bawling for all its worth. I managed to get the ear tag into the the right ear as we are not keeping this calf. I needed to trade places and get Annmarie to lay on the calf so I could attempt to band him. Oh Boy, we need to do this at 2 weeks for more reasons than just catching them. I messed around for a good 15 minutes trying to get the correct angle and both testicles into the scrotum. No matter what I tried I could not get it. I needed a third hand. I finally had to put one band on at a time so I could open the pliers far enough. He is a mighty fine looking animal. It is real hard to get pictures when its only two of us and we are both working.

After lunch I went into the barn and bolted on the old front door latching system. This worked great and now that we will be locking the sheep up every night it is necessary. I also installed a couple of eye bolts inside the door so we could attach tension bands.

The cows are all mixed together down below now so we can start watching their hay consumption. I gave them a 1300 pound bale seven days ago and it looks like 1/3 of the bale is left. Its going to be tight on hay.

We have started looking at micro hay equipment already. It will work with our small tractor and will only make 50# round bales. I just need to get the upper prime squared field burned and planted.

Another sad death

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Snow is upon us and winter is soon here. We had our first solid freeze this week. I have all our hay on the farm but wanted to get as much as possible under cover. Well the old tractor has been misbehaving and did not do it when my consultant was here last saturday. So it has just been stalled in front of the machine shop.

I got a call out of the blue this week from my consultant, I know I need a name for him but I am still working on it. He has been perusing old tractor forums and thinks my problem is a coil issue. He had read several people had the same problem and replacing the coil fixed it. I thanked him and since he is out of town till late next week I decided to replace said coil. I had to look up on the internet what a coil was and then I had to find it on the tractor. It was in plain sight and not too hard to get off. It had his ceramic piece on top with a wire at each end. I am not sure what that was as I removed the coil. I took Gizmo with me and we went to the auto parts store. My consultant told me it was a $20 part, it cost $30, a steal if it fixes the problem. I made an assumption that the ceramic thing was an external resistor. I had to choose a resistor or no resistor type of coil.

Gizmo has to stay in the pickup, I don’t drag him around in my arms, I am just trying to get him used to traveling so he is not afraid. He is starting to settle down. I don’t think he likes my driving as he usually lays down in the back seat right in the middle. The single safest spot in the vehicle in case of an accident.

The part did not go in as easy as it came out. I had to cuss and beat on it and loosen up some more stuff to get it to fit inside the metal ring. I tried to start the tractor. Nope, I forgot to put the negative battery cable on the terminal. I tried a second time and could get no spark the engine would not take off. I investigated my newly finished work and realized I had put the coil nuts on loosely and never tightened them with a wrench. So I did that and after much effort and playing with the choke I got it to run!! So I started the warm up game and kept increasing the rpm slowly. I noticed a few water drops coming out of the exhaust pipe on top of the tractor. Its cold and we just had a severe rain, no biggie. I get the rpms up to pto speed, 18K, and all of a sudden I start seeing this spurting in my peripheral vision. I look to my left and oil and fluid is spurting out the engine. I quickly shut the tractor down. I blew a gasket. I am no mechanic but I believe that when you get fluid and oil its usually a head gasket which means tearing down the engine. This sucks. So we may be selling a parts tractor soon. We have yet to decide what to do but I don’t have the time to tear apart an engine. We are going to start doing our own hay in a year and we will be using a small hay baler that only makes 50# bales so a large tractor is really unnecessary. Unfortunately, I wanted the reach the old tractor provided to do some barn window work. Now I will just have to plan better.

Next year we will be buying way more small bales so I can keep them under cover.

My new toy!

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Our last big hurdle for moving bales has been solved. Our favorite, only, housekeeper told me about it. She saw it on Craigslist and I happened to see her message quickly. I sent pm immediately requesting it. Only $80 for a used hay lift!!! I had to drive 75 miles for it leaving directly from work. Now this meant hooking the trailer up in the dark. Not something I have done before. Not easy to do as I had not dropped the trailer off in a nice flat open area with a straight approach. I bumped the trailer off its hitch stand, block of wood and could not raise the tongue above the ball on my pickup stinger. So I ended up wrapping the trailer chains around the hitch onto themselves and lowering tongue until the elevator Post was retracted fully and I could skip the three inch piece of wood under and raise tongue back up. I only needed 1/2” of course but without that I could not physically lift trailer tongue and my handyman jack was not in the trailer box where it should of been. I need to find it.

The elevator is 20’ long and is electric. The motor got put in the cab of the pickup to keep it dry. I need to put some tape and red rags in my trailer box also. It kinda hung over the end but it was pitch dark by then so I figured I would just go with it.

We have been looking at these used and they go for around $700-900. We looked at brand new and it’s $1700. We were going to go with the new one just to ensure it functioned perfectly, but for $80 we have personality!!

A new motor is only $215 so either way we come out way ahead. I need to get it unloaded off the trailer and into the barn and get the motor all attached. I need to see how it works then I need to duct tape a bunch of loose wires to the rails and neaten it up with a lot of duct tape. I also want to stiffen a few spots with some hose clamps. Like I said, it’s going to have a lot of personality!