machine shed

Too much fruit

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Labor Day weekend was spent getting ready for the next thing whatever it is. Annmarie wants me to get the Dodge pickup cleaned out and the Ford diesel up and going. I bought two new batteries for the Ford and the Gingerman got them in and the pickup started. He has spent a few days tinkering with it and it is running pretty smooth. It just needs a couple of quarts of power steering fluid. Plus, he found a brand new tire weight on the ground so it will need to go back in and have the tires rebalanced. I was able to unload the sand out of the Dodge. I needed space to fit a piece of plywood and there wasn’t any with the sand still riding around in the truck bed. I needed to get the replacement throttle cable ordered for the compactor so that we can spread the sand out and pound it in place. I left the sand in the bags so that the cats would not use the gazebo as a personal toilet.

I was able to snag some shelves at a reasonable price and got them installed on the shop wall. I am going to move all my various anchor bolts into one section so I know what I have and can find it when needed. The left side is plumbing and air line brass parts they came with the organizer. Slowly but surely we are getting organized. It is much easier to find things when they are in their place.

I spent one single day doing nothing but picking fruit. I picked 24 cups of tame blackberries then about 8# of plums and then nectarines. The bad part about picking the fruit is when you pick that much you have to do something with it. Our large upright freezer is stuffed full of frozen fruit. I truly believe we have enough to get through the next year. Irregardless of that the fruit trees just keep producing. I have taken boxes of plums and nectarines to work for the produce table in an effort to give it away. So far it disappears fast enough that it doesn’t go bad. I kept track of how many blackberries I have picked in the last six weeks, 21.5 gallons! That is a personal best. Annmarie has made jam and syrup that we have canned. So we have canning supplies all over the house as we process fruit. Making your own food does take time.

Staycation day 5

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It seems like every project is two steps forward and one back. I was able to work on the machine shed ridge line install yesterday. I had found some small two foot peak sections somewhere on the farm but they were not enough to cover the entire ridge line. I purchased some trough metal that I turned upside down and used as ridge cap. It was at a close out and I only paid about $8/piece. I was trying to use up my leftover roofing screws from the barn. The only problem is I ran out with only 27 left to be installed. They are oversized as I was reusing metal tin and needed a larger size to go through the existing holes. This meant I had to drill a pilot hole first. I drilled those 27 holes before climbing down from the roof and of course could not find a #14 screw anywhere in town. I had some #10 but they were red! I ended up ordering some and they should be here this week. Luckily, I ran out of screws as the sun was heating the roof up to unbearable temperatures but I kept trying to get it all done so I would not have to climb back up on the roof. I ended up going to town to get some oak, some trim for the cook stones enclosure, sheep and lamb pellets and some bolts to fix the gazebo door.

I had enough time to repair the gazebo door, cut off the door handle bolt and install a new one. I still ended up beating and bending the door into submission to get it on. Our original plan was to use the door to get to the grill outside after I built a lean to on the back of the gazebo. Nope, not going to happen. That door will be staying shut, it took a hammer and a couple of minutes to get it shut the first time. The grill will be going inside the gazebo. I just have to figure out where the grill is going to go as I need to run the power to that spot.

Today I took the second repaired cattle feeder out into the alleyway and got it ready for a large bale. I dumped some more scraps onto the burn pile. All the burn piles are starting to grow pretty fast now as we continue cleaning up. I got the weight box for the tractor and took it over to the machine shop so it could be repaired. The supports keep bending from the weight of all the metal horse shoes. I beat on the three point supports with an eight pound sledge hammer then proceeded to weld some supports on all three attachment points. I am hopeful that it will keep them from bending now during the winter use. I am still welding pretty roughly but it is holding and that is the main purpose for my welding skills.

I took 1000# of sheep and lamb feed out to the barn. We are storing the sweet feed in the large grainbin we have in the momma/baby area. I put 450# in it today and I am pretty sure I can fit another 1000# in it. The lamb creep feed gate is up and we are now feeding the lambs where the mommas cannot reach. This should hopefully help the mommas not slough so much weight. I took all of the leftover feed bags and net wrapping and bagged it all up and took it out of the barn. Annmarie had been complaining about there being no box knives out in the barn. I found two knives in the trash bin, some lamb nutrient mix and some hoof treatment powder. So now we know where all of that is located.

Annmarie really wants the house number holder completed so I started welding that project today. I am a mediocre welder so hopefully this turns out well. I got the rough frame welded today but had to let it cool off before I could work on it some more. Tomorrow I will grind it smooth and try and make it pretty. Hopefully the tile will still slide into the end. We will know tomorrow!

The porch lights went out for the third time! This is after I wired the new ones in. I took the main one down again, took it all apart and used a voltmeter this time to check everything and the switch. It turns out that it was the cheap porch light bulbs. They had blown up with all of our power losses. I bought LED this time!

Winter hay ready

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Yesterday was the start of the Pendleton Roundup. The Gingerman and my wife were in the parade playing with the mounted band. I opted to go out and work on the Abbriata M50 round baler. I still need to get the chain sprockets replaced. I had more parts sent last month so I was going to install them. I could not get this double sprocket assembly off of the drive shaft. I had the gear puller maxed out! I finally took the gear puller off, separated the gears, as I had managed to move them 3/8”. I then pulled off the first gear and it had a key! But the second gear did not have a key, so I was trying to pull the rear gear against the key. It came right off after I removed the key. There is not a written instruction manual.

I went to put the new gear on and it doesn’t fit. I need a 2.5 cm hole in the gear not a 3 cm. Also, after closer inspection all of my large gears should only be 2.5 cm deep not 3 cm. I think they will work but the nut holding them in place used to be flush with the bolt and now it will be 1/2cm out from the end of the bolt. My dad was a machinist and he used to tell me that you only need the nut to go on far enough to be 1/2 the diameter of the bolt and you have gained maximum strength from the nut. That is exactly what I will have if I have to use those. I am calling the parts place tomorrow so we can go through the list again! I am going to send some parts back. As always I hate being a mechanic. I am capable of figuring it out but it’s never easy. Luckily, since all the equipment is made in Italy and no one else knows I am in good company. I have one more tool box coming so that I can create a Metric and nonmetric (US standard) tool box. I am tired of digging around and trying to find the right size and type.

Once the Gingerman showed up with his large tractor he started to stack the bales into the machine shed. While he did that I started to stack the extras on the backside of the machine shop. It took a couple of hours to get the bales loaded up. He was able to get half the bales into the machine shed. I will use from the outside pile first and by January I will be able to use the protected bales from the machine shed.

French drain completed

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Memorial Day I could not do any haying. So I decided to just grit my teeth and finish digging the French drain for the machine shed hay storage area. I only needed to dig the sump area but that took a while as the tractor could not reach down very far. I tried to put the clamp on forks on the John Deere bucket but that did not work very well. I think if the ground had been easier to dig in then it would have worked great but it’s not. I finished lining everything with gravel, laid down the drain pipe and buried the entire thing in gravel. I then went ahead and filled the bottom of the space with a couple of inches of gravel. After a week of being in place the space feels drier when you walk to the back corner. It smells less like moisture and the humidity is even lower. It’s pretty amazing. I

t was early afternoon so I then leveled the dirt mound for the gazebo and laid in about one inch of gravel over it. I tried to break out the compactor but the throttle cable needs to be redone. It’s torn and won’t keep the throttle wide open. It’s an easy fix, I just need to get the part ordered. As soon as we finish haying its back to fencing and getting the gazebo area prepped. The holes for the gazebo supports need to be dug before the ground turns into concrete.

The sheep almost killed the chives that I planted in the big ceramic planters next to the front steps. They really like chives! They ate them down to the dirt level and then even tried to nibble down further into the roots. I have been thinking about making a screen that goes around the planters to hold the chives in place when they get big they drop down and hang everywhere. I had taken a couple of measurements and decided that the easiest way was to paint a circle on the welding table and just free hand it from there. I am still using stick welding. I have a wire feed but have not tried using it. I was under the impression that the wire fed items needed to be clean and ready for a weld. The stick just burns through all that crap. I need the practice anyways. So I started working on it. I had to grind out all of the nails so there were no sharp edges to the design. It was fairly warm outside so I decided to weld in a short sleeve shirt. This is not something I have done before. I remembered why when I went to take a shower. I had a major flash burn to my forearms and lower biceps. It looked like I had been standing in the hot sun all day. It did not feel good in the hot shower. Eventually, I will get back to the project and finish it.

Baa Baa, the sheep

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Friends of ours are trying to sell their farm and wanted us to take “Baa Baa” back. The wife had tamed down one of our sheep and it was a pet. I had the stock rack on the back of the pickup and Mr Rainman and I drove over. The wife got Baa Baa back into an old kennel pen. I went in to grab her. Holy Smokes!! Our rams are about 150#, this ewe is so fat that she has teats and has never been bred. I put her at a solid 225#. Mr Rainman and I had to get on each side of her and drag her by her collar to the pickup. It took three grown men to get her up onto the tailgate and into the pen. I was trying to pull down the gate and it got stuck then loose suddenly and hit Mr Rainman’s right hand. This resulted in a lot of pain and swelling and a small amount of blood. (It’s not broken, he had an X-ray). When we came back to the farm we just backed into the field and let Baa Baa jump out of it on her own. Surprisingly, she did not have any trouble jumping down.

Mr Rainman worked on mowing cheat grass in the fields while I tore apart the baler and fixed it. I needed to replace seven pickup teeth and one of the spacer tubes. I stripped about half the screws on top and had to grind them off, so painful. Luckily, I had lots of spare screws. It took me a few hours but I got it all torn down and put back together. I hate doing machine repairs. I know how but I never learned to embrace my grease monkey side.

Once I had the baler back together and the baling tool bag full of needed tools, only the ones needed, I went back to digging the trench for the French drain under the hay room. This project is going to take a while as I am down to using a Polanski to dig out the last eight inches. There are a lot of palm sized rocks that are impeding any rapid progress. The trench is too deep to use the irrigation trencher. I used that to get the first twelve inches. My goal is to get this project completed this weekend.

The Gingerman came out with a spiffy painted beautiful rebuilt orange master cylinder for Little Dumper (1957 Chevy 1 ton). He managed to get it installed and got a slight amount of pressure in the system but now wants to get an easy bleed connector so he can get the brake lines vented. He said he will be back some other time this weekend. It’s the only clean part, other than hoses, in the entire engine compartment. I still have not figured out how to change the side door channel glass holders. I will have to do more you tube searching to find a step by step plan.

I finally made it back inside and as Annmarie is feeding the dogs their evening meals I suddenly start hearing her screaming “mouse, mouse” and running out of the laundry room. This was very confusing for our older Border Collie dog who is named Mouse. He just wanted food and Annmarie just wanted away as she had scooped up some dog food and a dead desiccated mouse. We knew we had a mouse downstairs in the laundry room but I had been unsuccessful at catching it in a trap. I finally put out some bait poison in the closet where we keep the animal food. The mouse must have eaten some poison on their way to the all you can eat buffet. The lesson here is to not get greedy!

Annmarie vowed to never again feed the dogs. As this was no treasonable she now refuses to reach into the dog food container until she has shined a light in it to check for any mice. When I heard her yelp I thought the mouse was alive! The dog, Mouse, thought he was in trouble.

The house is getting sided. We thought they were at a standstill but had not noticed that the fascia was getting installed. This week our new double hung window for the master closet should be installed and they can get the trim up on that side of the house. Pretty quick the new siding should be going up. It’s starting to look like progress now!