microhay equipment

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.

Only a little Gimpy

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On Tuesday I did a walk around the house with the contractor. He wanted to return the overhead lift so he spent a couple of days finishing up the caulking on the upper part of the house. It is looking good. They just have to fix a corner of the front gutters, replace a screen in a window and finish caulking the lower part of the house. They got the yard all cleaned up and we are going to start putting some water on it to cut down on all of the dry weeds the dogs keep bringing into the house.

Mr Rainman came out to mow the fields and has missed coyotes two mornings in a row. Gingerman and I went out Thursday evening and Friday morning and did not see a single coyote. So maybe he managed to scare it off, no body, no credit.

On Wednesday, we had another big event, the dreaded lightning strike fire. We had a storm pass over Pilot Rock and lightning started four fires in a very short amount of time. A couple of the fires got controlled fairly quickly but the wind picked up and started to really spread the flames. The lightning continued to start more fires as it moved. Our area ended up with several big fires. Four days later and there is a state disaster team, agencies and assets from all over the state fighting fires around us. Highway 395 is closed down 39 miles outside of town and we are surrounded by smoke. The fires are continuing to grow. Luckily for us the fire never jumped the highway before town so we were safe and the wheat crop next to the houses is intact and ready to be harvested, not everyone was as lucky. I spent a couple of hours driving around looking for our Border Collie, Chance. She got out of the yard during the storm. She came back to the house as I was headed down the driveway. Annmarie called me to let me know she just showed up at the front gate ready to be let inside the yard. Milo is doing great, he is going to the vet to get neutered next week. He doesn’t know it yet.

Well I am officially out of the boot and able to bear weight on my healing foot as long as I wear a stiff soled shoe. I heard this on Monday so I started walking around with the boot as I did not have any shoes for the right broken foot. It hurt, pins and needles and stinging when I bore weight on it. After only six weeks no weight bearing I expected to just jump right back into the hard manual labor and, per the wife, I did not listen again. I didn’t want to listen, I don’t want to rehab, I don’t want to take it easy! But after having to sleep 10-12 hours each night after bearing weight I would say it is a lot harder than I expected. First thing in the morning when I put my foot down the whole thing has pins and needles. I am walking with a slight limp that progresses if I push it too much. So I am trying to take it easy for me.

Mr Rainman came out on Saturday and we went out and wormed the sheep. Most of the sheep look great but some of the ewes are pretty skinny so we worm when that happens especially since they are out and about on the farm. I was able to use the drencher device and it is so much faster than filling syringes. It still took us a couple of hours to go through the herd. He jumped in with the sheep in the chute and held them so I could dose them. You always get your feet stepped on when you are in the chute and I do not need that yet. One ewe had an abscess on her chin that I lanced. They get them from the cheat grass. We have been mowing and spraying the cheat grass but this year it is winning. We are planning on spraying Rejuvra on the fields this fall to help us control the cheat grass. This time in the barn pointed out that we still need to dig out the barn and the chicken coop. They are on the list. Mr Rainman wants to put the heavy panels in the hay room so he doesn’t have to carry them as far. Normally we take them outside the barn. This is a valid strategy he employed today to get the barn opened up today so he is ready to start digging it out with the manure forks on the John Deere 2520 tractor. The smaller tractor is the only one that will fit into the barn.

The plan was to hook up the small sickle bar mower to the John Deere tractor but Mr Rainman had to move equipment around in the machine shed first. I put away my auction winnings that the progeny, Gingerman and I picked up on Friday. The tools were brand new and looked unused, I should have bid on more tools. I did not win the large toolbox I wanted. I am looking to create a metric toolbox and a standard so that I can easily find the correct tool. I am filling up the big tool box and cannot fit any more open end wrenches or sockets in it. We wrestled the mower onto the tractor then spent an hour getting it greased up and the teeth oiled. I needed to mow the orchard and for it to be feasible we needed the smaller tractor and the smaller sickle bar. This was not the offending sickle bar that I broke my foot on. Except we were not sure that this sickle bar was in working condition. After doing everything possible to make it work I cut the orchard with it. It was brutal as the grass was too high. I also managed to hit one of the metal horse panels encircling a tree. Luckily, the mower belts started to slip and I quickly turned off the pto, usually I pop off a bar tooth when this happens. I was able to pry it off and get back to cutting. The plan was to just pick up the downed grass and toss it over the fence for the animals. The sheep and eater cows can get to it.

After all that I was whooped and needed a shower and some rest. I took a nap!

On Sunday, I cleaned house and moved upstairs back into our bedroom. I have been sleeping downstairs so I did not have to try and maneuver the stairs with a bum foot. So the puppy and I are now back in the master bedroom. Things are starting to get back to normal.

Haying is progressing with a little help from my friends

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The big obstacle after breaking my foot was going to be getting the rest of the hay baled and then put up in the barn. The day after I broke my foot the baler broke, it is skipping a drive chain due to all the wear on the gears, the gears need replaced, adjusting the chain length and tension is no longer working. That same afternoon the John Deere tractor blew out seal and quit moving due to a malfunction in the front right steering mechanism. Turns out this is a common issue and a design defect that eventually rears its ugly head. The tractor is over ten years old and has been used hard, It has over 2000 hours on it. Due to it not being able to move they had to come out and pull off the assembly. This took about a week to fix but the cost went from $2000 to $4100. This is a lot cheaper than a new tractor but not pleasant. Especially, when you consider I had to order parts for the baler.

The baler is an Abbriata, made in Italy and really only one dealer carries parts in the United States. When I called to order parts the first time I learned that the company no longer sells this brand small round baler. Abbriata was sold recently and the prices jumped almost 50%. So my $13k baler is now $20k. This made it easy to order replacement parts. I got roller gears and chain ordered then the next day remembered that we forgot to order the small gears. I called back and got the same service representative and those got ordered, I now have $2k worth of spare parts coming for the baler. On the plus side, I will be able to sit in a chair and help direct the baler repair. I am getting used to working on it even if I don’t like it.

The Go Getter, Mr Rainman and the former Gimp, now called the Mermaid volunteered to help me bring in bales. (The Gimp made an argument for a name change. Normally, I don’t do name changes for the blog but she was compelling and she stated that a Gimp could not pickup hay and that currently I was the Gimp. It made sense in a convoluted way and she was correct as I was wearing the walking boot not her.) This made me the designated driver but since we were starting first thing in the morning and I could only use one foot to operate the gas and brake simultaneously the first trip was a little jerky jerky and I killed it about ten times before the engine warmed up and I did not have to keep my foot on the gas 100% of the time. We managed to pickup four loads (by we, I mean that the puppy, Milo, and I watched while everyone else did the hard work). It was a Friday so he had to come with me so the siding guy could use the boom without fear of driving over the puppy.

Luckily, the Gingerman offered to come down the next weekend and rake and bale the hay we had down. It took a solid day but he was able to bale around 150 square bales equivalent to 6 tons of grass hay.

Mr Rainman, the Go Getter and Mr Second Career came over during the week and picked up more bales in an attempt to get them out of the fields. Mr Second Career had borrowed the Kubota to mow down weeds and volunteered to help pickup hay. The Go Getter just feels sorry for me and volunteered to bale me out. They got most of the hay into the barn or lamb shed. The square bales are a lot heavier so they went into the lamb shed as they are easier to load and don’t get stacked as high.

The Gingerman tells me there are about 70 round bales in field one still to pickup. He thinks he can do it on Monday. Once that is done we will only have the orchard to mow and rake. I think we will just pick it up loose and feed the alpaca. The last bit down by the school house is about 25-35 bales only. But we have to have the round baler working and the small sickle bar mower working. Both spaces are very small and tight and need the small equipment to be able to fit. This won’t happen until after Fourth of July. I am unable to help with this issue.

Haying by moonlight

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Mr Rainman came out this week on Tuesday and turned the cut grass from field one so I could have the pleasure of baling it all. I had a neighbor call me and ask about cutting their field. I ended up just going over and cutting it and then raked it after work and then baled it after work. It is beautiful grass hay. I was able to get about 1.6 tons off of their 3 acres. I had to work fast to get it all done before the sun went down as the external lights on my John Deere are dead. It also gets cold once the sun goes down. I was at the neighbors finishing up and it started to get cold and I realized my vest was no longer on the back of my seat. I happened to look over and spotted by vest inside a bale of hay! I had to cut the bale open and unroll it to get my vest out. Surprisingly, the jacket was just dirtier than normal, it did not have any tears in it.

I then ended up staying up till midnight on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday night trying to get all of the hay baled from field one that we had cut. I was supposed to only cut half the field but I think I cut about 70% of the field instead!

On Friday I had puppy duty so we went to town early to get dog food and chicken food then he had to stay on the breeze porch for three hours while I baled hay. I came back around 1400 and we went to town for tractor parts. I knew I needed to drive the pickup in the am but could not remember why so I took the car, I remembered when I got to town that I needed to pickup tractor parts. The puppy thought he was dying by having to spend three hours on the porch. He cannot run around outside because the man lift is in use and there is no way you could not run over him if he was outside. He has no fear of the equipment.

At 1600 I went back out and baled. The baler was causing me problems and not rolling bales well. I opened up the side and realized the main gear chain was loose and I could no longer adjust the tightness any more, my adjuster was adjusted to the maximum. I drove back to the house as it was getting dark and worked on shortening the chain. Mr Gingerman came out to help me and the progeny held the light. I still have not gotten the machine shed lights wired up yet. I am closer but I need to get it finished. We ended up taking out three links. Should have done 4-5. While we were fixing the chain, of course it had to be totally removed, it was discovered that I had better order a full set of gears as the teeth on some are pretty worn. That is going to be expensive. I have two gears already I believe, so I will need to generate a parts list first before calling for replacements. If they have to come from Italy it will take 30-45 days unless I air mail them and I don’t need them that bad.

Gingerman worked on the 1957 brakes and got them working well enough to safely drive the beast to a shop and have the brakes fully worked over. So I will be adding that to the list next week. He did say there is a radiator leak also. Who would have guessed after sitting idle for 25+ years? So that will need to be added to the list. I have still not figured out how to install new side window felt to keep the windows from rattling around and braking. You Tube is not helping me there. I need to get those repaired before I can start using the truck, I am afraid I will just beat/brake the windows from driving around on the rough ground unless it is repaired.

I went back out to bale some more and it worked much better but the grass is getting too dry, 8% moisture and its just so slick that it does not want to roll up well. I need to put a few more gripper strips on the rollers to get it to form better bales. At midnight I just gave up, there was about another three hours of baling left, if everything worked normal which it was not. I was dumping more bales than I could get formed and wrapped. Besides after three nights working 19-20 hour days I was was wearing down.

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!