haying

Getting lucky

Steve HardinLeave a comment

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

Steve HardinLeave a comment

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.

Hay needs a home

Steve HardinLeave a comment

I needed to get all the baled hay from the neighbor’s place moved into our barn. The real problem is I needed to move the hay from two years ago out of the way first. We have an overhead walkway in the animal area that I keep “straw” on for the barn floor. We have just started to use the oldest hay for the floor covering instead of buying straw. It works pretty good and keeps our costs down. The only hard part is getting the bales up onto the walkway! I cut a bigger hole from the walkway to the second storage room and just started grabbing bales from the top of the last two rows. As you can see the raccoons are having a fine time in the barn and have created another huge poop pile. They are so annoying. They make a mess of the barn. I will need to get up there in a couple of years, next time the hay room is empty and clean all of that poop off the stacked wood. What I should really do is just remove that wood and stack hay on top of that hallway. The raccoons don’t do that in the other hay room because I store hay on top of the walkway.

I only managed to smash my head twice on the roof beams. Luckily, I did not knock myself out. I only had a cloth tied over my bald head so I ended up with two big abrasions to the top of my head. It is too hot to wear my safety helmet. Honestly, I did not think it would be possible to hit my head while I was on top of the pile. I got the overhead walkway about 80% full and then moved all of the old hay in front of the doorway. It will be the first hay I will be able to pull for feeding. I may even just pull about 15 bales once I have the floor cleaned off so the sheep can spread it around and I don’t have to pull it from the overhead walkway!

There was a lot of sweating involved for this old man to get it all moved around. I still have a pile of netting that will need to be taken out of the barn and tossed into the trash. I gotta get all of this old hay moved around before I can bring any of the new hay from this year into the barn.

I do need to go around and fix my 12v overhead light system. The damn raccoons pulled some of the wires loose. I need to use those zip ties with screw heads so I can anchor the wires in place. This needs to happen this summer as it was very inconvenient not having lights in the hay rooms.

Who needs a new tractor?

Steve HardinLeave a comment

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.

Officially haying

Steve HardinLeave a comment

Well hay season has officially started. I took the arena groomer off of the Kubota and had the Gingerman help me get the sickle bar attached. It is a five minute job with two people, alone it takes me 20-30 minutes using a pry bar to get it in place. I was able to use the five foot blade instead of the little four foot one I usually use on the John Deere. I went over to the neighbor’s and started to cut grass hay. I spent a few hours cutting his upper and lower field. I had spotted a white peacock hen in his chicken coop the evening before so when he came out to talk I asked him where he got it. Turns out it roams around a few miles and the neighbors see it occasionally. It had snuck in the back door of his chicken coop and was having a free easy meal. It had already flown the coop! I managed to not shear a single upright pipe on the bottom pasture. He does have some poison oak growing in one corner so I am going to have to brush that out of the way and come back with some herbicide and clear the fence line. I don’t want that gaining any more pasture ground.

When I came back I noticed that there was a large hydraulic streak running down the driveway. That large rock I hit with the John Deere caused a hydraulic leak on the middle bottom side of the tractor. It is going to have to go in for repair. I am not qualified to do that type of work. My mechanic skills are basic to middling. So I took the Kubota up to field one to cut down some of the cheat grass. I want to hay the field but not the cheat grass. My plan was to cut the cheat grass out of field one and two then when I rake the cut hay I can come out and rake all of the cheatgrass into a single row so I can burn it or bury it into one pile. This helps remove the seeds from the field. I was going along great until I hooked the end onto the gate and broke a tooth. The tooth got jammed in place and bar froze. This was on Saturday.

So I came back to the house and put a panel on the side gate near the top. The Gingerman had finally spotted our Border Collie, Chance, climbing the gate and going through the top of the gate. We knew she was getting out but had not yet caught her doing it. We had isolated it to that side and that section of fencing but the exact location was still unclear. Since adding the panel she has not gotten out once.

On Sunday I tore apart the sickle bar, fixed the tooth. It was of course installed upside down the first time. I had to grind down the rivets and then beat them out, turn it over and do it again. I headed out and started mowing more cheat grass until the entire end of the sickle bar fell off. The bolt I had welded on last year broke and I lost a few pieces in the grass. I will need to order some replacement parts but the mower is out of commission until they come. Luckily, I had all of the actual hay cut and I will be able to bale it. I can wait 2-3 weeks before I cut any more fields.