I had big plans for Saturday, I thought I may be able to finish the barn but the skunk Friday night had other plans. We had a skunk come into the front yard and Chance took umbrage. She ended up getting sprayed so badly that her neck turned a yellow color from all the skunk spray. She stunk so badly you could not get within ten feet of her. The skunk got away and we were unable to dispatch it. This meant that my priorities had to change. So Saturday morning I went to D and B and purchased some skunk stink free liquid and some soap that supposedly did the same thing. The liquid worked pretty good and then after rinsing that out I went for the skunk soap next. She smelled so much better after those two treatments that I figured I had gotten it all off of her. Nope, my nose had just been so abused during the washing process that the improvement had me believing I had it all. I did not and especially after she got wet again in the rain. I am going to have to wash her again. Skunks suck. I think the skunk had been eating my chicken eggs.
I messaged the nephews and Gingerman to see when we could arrange tag and band of the one male calf and tag the one female calf. Mind you the calves are four months old. Gannon wanted to do it right away as he was just coming back from helping someone else with cows. So the Gingerman and I went up and herded the cows back down to the barn lot. We got the calves separated into two pens and the female calf just kept smashing into the gate and fence trying to get away. We had to get a rope to tie her up so I could tag her ear. She made a cut on her forehead. The boy was worse, he was bigger and the bander would not fit so we ended up cutting him. Only the Gingerman knew how to do that so we held and he cut. Nope, I am definitely going to be tagging and banding way early from now on, that was fairly barbaric and traumatizing to Gannon! Luckily, the temperatures have dropped off and the fly population is low. We cleaned it up and put blue goop on it. It should heal fine but it was brutal. The pigeons currently number over 50 and the doves are everywhere. I am going to have to take some time next weekend to try and cull the population some.
Summer is definitely here. We are getting fire and lightning weather advisory messages every few days and have not had rain for a few weeks until yesterday. Mind you I am not sure that 2/100” counts as rain but it came quickly and just dumped on us. I had to run out and put all of the tools for the greenhouse assembly into the greenhouse so they would stay dry.
I have been focused on getting the greenhouse completed. I do know that the water piece won’t happen until next year but I needed to get the fence up around the greenhouse so the sheep or cows don’t damage it when they come into the ram pasture. To make sure that it is safe I used all wooden posts so the animals could not bend them and I used three cattle panels. I had these twist on joint anchors we had purchases for the barn and I used them to connect the panels together, even if the panels ended up on a post and both ends are stapled. The fence is one contiguous piece of fencing. I always have trouble with the gates spreading when they animals start pushing on the fence so I left the post tall and connected a piece over the top of the gate so it does not spread open or close up. The gate is set so that outside pressure closes it more and it cannot be pushed through the gap. The chicken coop serves as a stopping point for it. I did not put horizontal braces in as I did not want to limit light. I feel like we are going to get super lucky on our placement. In the afternoon when it gets super hot the sun is blocked from the greenhouse by our large trees in the front yard. I don’t think we will have to use a heat screen cloth to keep the temperature down in the greenhouse.
Gingerman came out while I was working on greenhouse with grandson. We walked out to the old chicken coop to look for the tables and automatic vent openers I thought we had already purchased for the greenhouse. I was able to find both tables, some construction glue and a bunch of brand new gaskets for aluminum irrigation sprinklers. I did not find any automatic vent openers. We did find a new driveway light and post for the kids. I also found a few more boxes that I had not dug into in the old grain room. This might be where I stashed the progressive reloader I have not been able to find! I have a shotgun, a single reloader setup and a progressive but I am still digging around for the progressive. When I set up my man cave room one half will be for a jewelry bench with all of its associated tools and storage while the other half will be the three reloaders with all the accouterments and storage. I really want a tall safe for the room but I want an old one, plus the thing will weigh a ton, actually so I will have to reinforce the floor underneath the building with some more concrete blocks and piers. I may even have to build a new frame underneath the building and support that frame separately. It’s just a dream at this point. I want the jewelry setup far more.
I started assembling the work tables but after getting one finished I realize that I will need to buy several more. Luckily, we are headed towards the time when all the stores want to get rid of containers and soil at discounted prices. So I will be on the lookout for good deals. I have an idea to use pond liner and some 2”x8” boards, form up four to make the sides and then use the pond liner. I could use 1/4” drip line hose to create a drain that would go all the way to the floor to minimize water just running around everywhere and this would allow me to stack the planters onto a multi shelf rack and regulate the water for each unit. I am going to have to think about this some more.
I am of course missing one piece of the greenhouse. I did read the warranty from Harbor Freight. I had 90 days from the date of purchase to notify them of any issues. Since I purchased it years ago and had it stored in the machine shed, new in the box, that is not going to work for me. Luckily, it is just a panel for the door and I can order the material and cut one to fit. Those supplies have been ordered and are on their way. We got a remote thermometer and humidity detector that we are going to store in the greenhouse so we can start tracking and trending the temperatures. This will let us know how it is going to perform as winter approaches.
I had to stop and move some items out of the yard as our younger border collie has figured out how to get out of the yard. I moved the blocks that have been in the yard hoping that was how she was getting out of the yard. By the next day she had found a different way to get out of the yard. I had purchased eyelets in the past to mount on top of the posts on the side yard fence near the lavender in the past but had never had to use them. I had to use them. Of course I had run out of wire so this necessitated a trip to town. So far she has not gotten out but that doesn’t mean I fixed the problem. She could be getting out over the fence on the front hillside. Who knows she is a border collie and the smart ones are about impossible to keep inside once they figure out a way out.
Annmarie has been canning, we have over 24 pints of green beans already processed. They are going gangbusters and hopefully we can get another 24 before the plants give up. We picked three times this last week to get enough for that many pints. We are trying reusable lids but so far 1/8 on two test batches have failed. So the verdict is still out on whether we are going to keep using them. We will try them for the rest of the season and see if we continue to have issues with them. This is our first year trying them.
I was given an old granary this year. It was from a very old combine and had been converted to hold grain for chickens. It had not been used in a very long time and the entire bottom had rusted out. It still had the old pto motor for an auger on the front. It was trashed but it was still there. I have finally gotten around to repairing it. The problem is I have never really attempted a metal project this big before. My one quarter at BMCC with the welding class to learn stick welding did not cover this. Especially since the Gingerman changed the welder to a wire feed system. I have been trying to teach myself to wire weld. It is not quite the same as stick welding.
I have spent a couple weekends cutting out the bottom with a disc cutting wheel on my DeWalt 60v grinder. I have accepted that to work with metal I do actually need to wear some protective gear. I am wearing long pants, long sleeve shirt, leather gloves and eye goggles when I grind or cut anything. I switch out the goggles with a welding helmet and welding gloves when I use the welder. I get popped on the arm or face every once in a while but the important stuff is protected. I needed to buy some sheet metal and when I went to Packy’s the only type they carry is 14 g. I do not have a sheet metal brake. I needed to bend an angle into the sheet metal, both sides. I cut the piece then tried to bend it with a hammer and some clamps. No go. So I then tried to bend it over a piece of angle iron with one piece under and over the bend and beat on it with a heavy hammer. No go. So then I ground. Groove on the bend line and tried again. No go. I then proceeded to cut two inch grooves along the crease line about every six inches, so I cut out about 25% of the material along the bend. I then put it in place, welded one side down and then started to beat on it with a hammer, jump on it and used the forks on the tractor to bend it to my will!! I still ended up with 1/4” air gap in a few places that was painful to fill in with the wire welder. It would have gone faster if I had used the stick welder. But who wants to do the conversion again and then convert it back? I am too lazy for that much swapping around.
I was able to get the first half welded on and welded the gate holder in place. I marked the drill holes for the gate but I think they are wrong. One side looks good but the other looks like I let it slip while I was marking holes. I will just drill one hole. Put the gate on, mark and drill a second hole, insert bolt then I can get the other four in the correct spot. It will most likely be the very last thing I attach and I am going to bolt it on instead of weld it on. I bought a grain gate just for this purpose.
A full sheet of 14 g sheet metal cost roughly $110. So I think I can make it all with this one full sheet, if I piece the other side together. It will be close. I want a second granary, five feet on each side and five feet high. I have been looking to see if there is one out there available. The reason I want that size is I can fill it with the bucket of my tractor. If I get a real tall one I will have to use a grain auger. At this point I may have all the structural material in scrap and would only need maybe 2 pieces of angle iron for the lid and all of the sheet metal. Each side could be done with a full sheet of sheet metal, I would need one for the bottom and one for the top, six full sheets plus the grain door and it would cost $700 in materials, plus $100 in welding wire. I am thinking that this is the way to go to get a second one. An old water tank would be the bomb! I may keep looking, if I mounted the tank on a downhill angle I could just put the gate on the low side, a fill lid on the high side and I would be set!
My welds are improving as the project progresses. I have had to lower the voltage to minimize burn through and I have had to increase the speed of the wire. I had turned it down but had to adjust it faster on three separate occasions. I will need to move over a couple of railroad ties to set it on. Slow and steady progress. Eventually, I would like to have enough storage to be able to go get our wheat truck filled with 3-4 types of grain/peas and then store it on the farm. One wheat truck full would get us through the winter for the sheep and the year for the chickens.
I was forced to finally tear into the instant hot water propane tank. We had gotten past the decision to run the dishwasher or washing machine; washing machine or shower; shower or washing machine, if you tried to run two at the same time no one gets hot water. I have to do it every 1-2 years. I do run vinegar through it every year to minimize the hard water deposits to prevent the pipes from corroding. However, there is no warning about the flies. The flies come down the exhaust pipe and then die in the squirrel cage fan. They get stuck in the fan and get smeared inside the circular part of the squirrel cage, creating a drag for the air so the heater is not cooled down enough. This causes an error when there is too much demand on the hot water heater. I have to unplug some electrical connections and remove the fan then clean up the fan and then wipe out all of the bug guts from the inside wall of the fan housing. It takes a couple of hours to get it all cleaned and dried. Annmarie was wondering why her hair dryer was out and plugged in upstairs when she got home. I used it to make sure the fan was completely dry before reinstalling it. I only forgot to plug one thing back together and I figured that out when I tried to start it and it threw a code immediately and refused to heat up water. We are now back to unlimited hot water of any quantity!
We had a fire scare last week. Someone had one of their hay stacks catch on fire on the edge of Pilot Rock. The trouble was it was the edge closest to our house and the wind was blowing almost 20 MPH directly towards our house. The state police stopped and gave us a warning to get ready to evacuate. I went out and hooked up the disc to the tractor and started to disc next to the fence and next to the road and around all of the buildings. Normally, we have fires a little later in the season after the wheat field is harvested. They disc in a nice fire break all around the wheat field as soon as they harvest the outside. In a month there would have already been a fire break in place. The Gingerman is working on the brakes of the old truck so we can get it set up to fight fire. I ended up getting very dirty and will be spraying the area in the early spring to kill the vegetation so that it will be easier to disc.
One of our neighbors offered to have me cut one of their fields that had been flooded out in the spring. It had random cheat grass throughout it and it took some driving around with the sickle bar before I figured out what parts of it were worth cutting for hay. Of course before I could even cut anything I had to repair the tractor tire that got punctured while discing for a fire break. Of course, the tire could not be repaired the internal side wall was breaking apart, I am sure it is from moving the large bales. I need to keep more air in the front tires. I had to go in and pickup the tire on Friday.
I had a hard time getting to the sickle bar mower as it was on the tractor with the flat. I got the sickle bar off but had already taken the flat tire off of the tractor. So I just started the tractor, leveled off the bucket, lifted the front tires off the ground and slid forward on the bucket, Clementine did just fine. I did this so I had enough room to squeeze in Juicy behind and hook up the sickle bar. I had to fight, wiggle, cuss and lever the sickle bar to get it hooked up to the new Kubota. The five foot mower is lot for that little tractor. I was able to get the field cut. The next afternoon I turned the hay and it was going to be ready to be baled on Saturday. It is drying out very fast. I just needed to finish reassembly on the baler.
Well I want a new tractor but what I really need it for is to lift big bales full height. So it needs to bigger than the two I currently own. I went to the dealer and for that lift capability I need to get something with over 50 HP. Which is going to run somewhere in the $50k range without a cab. I cannot spend that much for a little convenience. I need the smaller tractors to run my hay equipment and I need the little John Deere as it is the only tractor small enough to get inside the barn. It takes almost 30 hours to dig the barn out with the tractor and move all of the poop. That is not a job I want to do by hand anymore. It would take me a month or better of back breaking labor. As it is I have to dig by hand for about 8 of those 30 hours. So that dream was crushed by reality, I need to win the lottery.
I got the John Deere loaded on the trailer so it could be dropped off at the shop. They told me that if I delivered it they could look at it same day. It was leaking so much hydraulic fluid that I had to toss a five gallon bucket and spout into the back of the pickup so I would be able to fill the fluid level up, allowing me to drive it off the trailer. It was pouring out by the time I got it off the trailer. They said they would call with an estimate. They called a few hours later, $9K to fix it! The hydrostatic casing had a hole worn in it and the casing and the pump need to be changed, $6k in parts, $3k in labor. I had a minor meltdown as the front left knuckle will need to be rebuilt in a couple of years also and it was $3500 for the left, it will be more this next time. I thought that was half a tractor.
Again, I go back to the Kubota tractor dealer and say I want another new tractor but I need something smaller than what I currently own. It turns out they had just gotten a subcompact in the day before and it was still crated up. So we looked at it in the crate and I said it had to have rear PTO hydraulic connections. I need them for my baler and my smaller sickle bar mower. I tossed in a new 5’ brush hog and 5’ land plane for my bigger tractor. I am going to have to name them now. The Mistress (my very first tractor, John Deere 2520) will have to be laid to rest. The Gingerman said he would take it and eventually do the work himself. He is super busy for the foreseeable future and will need to work it in. The repair price was not half of a new tractor. It was more like 30% of a new tractor! A new tractor was $28k, the two pieces were only another $4k.
They are now going to assemble my new ride but the hydraulic takeoffs have to be ordered in and then installed. So it may be a couple more weeks before I actually get to use it.
I discovered another repair project. The old lamb shed wall is pushing off its bottom supports. I will need to add a couple of new supports and then drill and concrete in a couple of pieces of steel pipe to prevent the wall from pushing out when we stack hay in the building. This is not a surprise but it will need to be fixed before the wind tears the building down.
I had another neighbor tell me that they have a wild honeybee hive that they want removed. I had them send me pictures and yes they are honeybees and yes it is going to be messy. You can see the honey coming out between the boards near the bottom of the wall. Luckily, they are going to tear the building down so we have permission to just tear into the building. That is on the list for the upcoming weekend. The Gingerman and I are going to attempt to find the queen.
