LP SmartSide

Fire everywhere

Steve Hardin1 Comment

Summer is grinding on with our entire region surrounded by wildfires. Luckily for us, the wheat field next to our houses was harvested last week. The wheat crop did very well, they harvested almost 48 bushels/acre. I realize that may seem low to a lot of people but for a dryland wheat crop in Eastern Oregon foothills with marginal soil that is fantastic. As an added bonus they disced a fire break around the entire stubble field so even if the field did catch fire it would be contained. The family leasing the property are great!

The smoke is bad. So bad I have started to snore nonstop due to congestion. We have two carbon air filters going in the house at all times in an attempt to cut it down. The fires are all around and have now moved into the surrounding mountains.

There is a small grass airstrip on our neighbor’s property parallel to the road. He uses it to fly his small plane. It has been taken over by fire fighting helicopters. There are 5-7 helicopters with assorted fuel tanks and support vehicles all over the runway. They fly mostly during the day and are dipping water from rivers, ponds and dams. This means they don’t have to bring any water out to the airstrip. There are all kinds of helicopters. I took the one picture from our front window.

The foot is improving but by the end of the week work my limp is back and I need some rest. We were sick on Friday but I did manage to go out and get started on fixing the Abbriata M50 round baler. The chain drive gears have worn down so badly that the chain no longer drives anything. It’s not hard to see why as some of the gears are worn down to nubs. I had looked at this a couple of months ago (before broken foot) and ordered all of the parts I thought I would need.

I am no mechanic. I don’t claim to be one but I am capable of doing it, I just don’t like it at all. That being said there is no one in the area that is used to working on a mini Italian round baler. Nor anyone that has better access to parts than just calling the same place I do. So I started to tear into the baler to get to the gears. By the time I had replaced three small gears I had almost everything off the one side. I am working on taking off two gears at the top that are chained together now so I can pull the gear off behind them. I really only need to pull one gear but I either break the chain or pull both gears off at the same time. It’s a toss up as to what is easier but by pulling off both front gears I can inspect and or replace both gears behind if needed. I know one gear needs replaced.

I need to get down below to the lower drive gears but after really looking at it I think I am going to have to jack up the one side of the baler, block it in place and remove the left wheel and all of the covers to gain access to those bottom gears. By the time I get everything fixed there won’t be anything on the drive side of the baler but exposed gears. This is why I hate doing mechanic work. I of course do not have all of the needed pieces to repair everything. I lost a key when I was pulling a gear off, so I need a replacement. I need to replace a small gear but it is not bolted in place it is welded to another piece so I did not order it before, will need to order. That special gear probably needs a bearing but I cannot tell yet as I have not removed it. I need a special shear pin I don’t have. Also, those double gears at the top I think are special and need another sprocket and gear setup I do not have.

I scrutinized the parts catalog and think I have the correct part t numbers now. On Monday I will call the dealer. The dealer and I will go over the diagrams together and I can walk them through what I am trying to replace. They are very good about helping me order the correct parts. I am replacing all of the bearings as I put in the new sprockets. The bearings feel good but I am not doing this again and you should never really reuse bearings. It just sets you up for failure.

Our siding is completed! It only took three and a half months. It looks amazing! There is a small piece of gutter to repair and we are going to get gutter installed over the back door. I don’t want an ice puddle forming directly outside the back door in the winter. This has allowed us to start watering the front yard finally. The entire yard was almost dead and the cheat grass is trying to take over. Water will help this dramatically. The dogs are coming in covered in dead grass all of the time.

Hopefully, we can start in on the gazebo this week. Mr Rainman will be out this week to help with that. There is one more field to finish mowing and all of the mowing will be done.

Siding continues

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The siding is really starting to come together. We can see how good it is going to look by the time they are done. I figure another 3-4 weeks before they will be finished. It will be nice to have everything done and to not worry about letting Milo out into the yard. Once that is done we can think about putting gravel around the base of the foundation.

The next big project to happen will be the Gazebo. The new throttle part for the compactor came, so once it is installed and all of the hay is inside, that will be the next project.

The mice are making us crazy this year. This is the worst year for mice in 17 years. We have them in the house and it has been very hard to get rid of them. Today, I put poison in the subfloor of the second story and down near our animal food storage bins. We have already killed four mice but we hear them in the ceiling every night while we are watching television. It’s annoying. The cats are not doing their jobs. Neither are the chickens or the dogs. Everyone should be killing mice at every chance they have.

It has rained a couple of times but not a whole lot. Just enough to make some spectacular rainbows but not enough to soak the hay bales on the ground.

The wife was gone last night, she has a convention to attend, so I was able to make a BTT sandwich for dinner, Bacon, Tomato, Toast. I even added pepper to the bacon! It was very good and as a secondary benefit I used up the last of the bacon, the last of the bread and an old tomato from the fridge. I didn’t want to dirty a dish so I used the cutting board dirtied when I cut up the tomatoes as a plate.

I have graduated to using a Peg Leg for getting around without crutches at home. I get tired of using the crutches and it’s hard to do any chores around the house with crutches under your arms. I can do the dishes, fold and rotate laundry and cook dinner with the peg leg. I have only fallen once so far and it was on the crutches trying to take the dogs outside for bedtime potty after a long day. I was too tired and lost my balance and fell back on the stairs. I did not injure anything other than my pride. I am still sleeping downstairs in a boot, propped up on pillows every night. By the end of the day my foot is still pretty swollen. Sleeping with it propped up is not ideal but first thing in the morning there is not swelling! I will be glad when the swelling stops. My foot is a nice, purple, yellow green color.

New siding work in progress

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Well the contractor did their part and came out and started tearing up the house. They had the siding off in a week. The 60’ boom truck is a little rough on the yard as it sinks in as it moves and the tracks are about 4” lower than the surrounding yard. This works well for Annmarie as she wanted to redo the front yard anyways and this will just move that project up on the timeline. The nice thing is the gate can stay closed so we have not had to move the dogs. They just harass the worker to throw the ball for them. The problem with that is they never get tired and would keep that up all day long. We are installing LP SmartSide siding on the house. We need to have to not paint before we die in 30-40 years and it looks good and is durable. This will be the test. I was able to drive by a house and see it before choosing this contractor. I really liked the final product and I think it will look very good on our home. For the price I sure hope so, but anyone who has had to hire a contractor recently knows they are very expensive. My advice to you is to do your due diligence and find someone who is very reliable and does good work. Don’t skimp out, get it done right the first time. Because paying for it twice or to get it repaired will cost more than doing it right the first time.

I had to call for more farm diesel and again they only filled one side of the tank. It has two 65 gallon tanks in the large tank. It came from a trap wagon so one side had diesel and the other gasoline. I only want it to hold 125 gallons of diesel. So when I sent the check for payment I asked if they would come out and fill the other side. The salespeople keep telling me that both sides should be filled by this is the second time only one side has been filled. So I bought a paint stick, cleaned off the diesel and wrote directions directly on the tank. I am pretty sure they will get it right now.

Parts for “Little Dumper” (1957 truck) keep trickling in. The $44 seat cover arrived and I got it installed. This was not easy to do considering you cannot open the driver’s side door yet. The front left fender needs to be moved forward about one inch to allow the door to open. It needs a little adjustment but it is way better than the original seating. I may still throw a horse blanket over this to keep it protected. But before I can do anything else inside the cab the driver’s side door has to be fixed. It was hard to be inside the cab and contorting myself enough to get the straps in place. The Gingerman is still working on the engine so until that is up and going the door issue is on hold. Plus, we really need the new tires on the vehicle to get it off the ground enough to be able to crawl around under the truck. I have been at the shop twice weekly to get things going but the parts are not easy to find.