Mr Rainman

Sidelined the hard way

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Fridays the puppy and I hang out, do some housework and then eventually go out and do some other things. The siding is still being installed so the puppy cannot be running around the yard with the overhead lift being used. So we worked on installing two more eye hooks on the green bean bin so we can tie up the bean pole evenly and keep the wind from bending it under the weight of the bean vines. We also had to go out and drill about 25 holes in the asparagus/strawberry bin. It was holding water again. The drain hole at the bottom is working but its slow and it cannot keep up. I have holes at all levels now so it should drain out just fine now.

The correct siding came on Thursday, the wrong kind had been delivered, so on Friday the base row needed to be set. It takes this special metal hanger that is installed first then the siding sits on it. The worker was having quite the time finding a way to run a level around the base as in some corners there was a 2” difference over 10’! He spent a lot of time getting it set in the correct spot. The first piece of horizontal siding went up on Friday. I was able to leave the puppy in the yard so I could go work on the sickle bar mower. It looks like they just need to get the horizontal siding on and then caulked and they will be done with the siding job.

There is a piece at the outer edge that pushes the outside edge back into the middle. It got bent so I wanted to take it off, beat on it with a hammer and decide if it needed anything else. I was working on it with the sickle bar in the upright position and it was slow going. I opted to lower the sickle bar to make it easier to work on. I undid the bar holding it upright then just dropped the bar. There is this chain mechanism that usually catches it. Upon later reflection that chain only engages when the three point hitch is elevated which it was not. I dropped that bar directly on top of my right foot. To say that I may have said a few choice words after a solid howl is an understatement. As soon as I could catch my breath I went on a verbal rampage against the sickle bar. It took about 15 minutes before I could move or feel my toes. Once I could move my toes I was pretty sure I had broken my foot, the pain and swelling were getting localized.

I had called Annmarie, she was still at work, to come get me. I considered driving but it was my right foot and I could not walk. My car is a standard and I was certain I could not drive with my right foot. I made such a raucous that the siding guy hollered out and asked if I needed any help. I yelled back that I had just broken my foot but was fine. He went back to siding. I ended up in the ER, I broke a metatarsal in my right foot. I am on crutches, wearing a boot and am 100% non-weight bearing for the next eight weeks! This totally sucks! Luckily, Mr Rainman is chugging away at the hay. He has another 300 bales done and two more fields cut. There is hope that he can be done with haying by the end of the week. Once the haying is done then the gazebo is the next project. I have a new throttle cable coming for the compactor and once that is installed we can prep the pad for the gazebo.

This is really going to slow down my summer. The hardest part of the whole thing is just sitting around. I hate it already and its only been two days!

Farm 3/ Predators 3

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The predators are gaining ground fast. We had another chicken killed the day after the first two. I have been going out at dark and again at 0200 armed with pistol and spotlight. I need more light than a flashlight, 400k lumens of brightness. I have not seen the raccoon since the first night I shot at it. Unfortunately, Mr Rainman and Gingerman have both spotted a raccoon but have been unable to get a shot off as they were unarmed. So everyone is starting to pack all of the time now so they can snag a predator.

Friday evening the Gingerman missed out on an opportunity to shoot at a coyote because he was unarmed. We had a cow die and he went up with the pallet forks mounted on the Kubota to remove it from the field and place it on the bone pile. It was one of our original heifers, so she was 15 years old. Unknown cause of death, but she had just been walking around earlier that morning. Luckily, Gingerman got to her before she popped. It has been very warm and they bloat up pretty fast and opening up that will make a very odiferous mess. I expect the vultures to show up in a couple of days. They fly up from the reservoir and can eat on that carcass for over a week. We might even get an eagle or two scavenging. The eagles will chase off the vultures, they chase off everything! No one wants to mess with a bird that is that big. We have not lost any sheep that we know of so far.

I did tear apart the John Deere driveline this week. I was convinced it was the U joints on the driveline. Surprisingly they made it really easy to remove. Pop the snap ring off, drive out the shearable pin then drive the shaft toward the back wheels. The back end slides along splines and then once the front is off you just drive the shaft off the rear splines. Nope, once the thing was off the U joints have zero slop in them. I think it is the rear spline attachment getting sloppy because the rubber guards have been missing and this allows grass to wrap around the U joints and drive shaft. I dug out all of the dirt in the rear cavity and installed both U joint guards, rubber sleeves. I need to order some more parts so I can fix it. I have started a new shopping list with each piece of equipment a category and then just list the part I need under that category. This way when I get around to ordering parts I don’t forget something.

Gingerman took out the radiator on the 1957 truck and is getting it repaired. Once it is repaired then we can drive the truck in to the brake shop and they can finish adjusting the brakes. The drums and pads will need to be inspected. Once that is done I will need to work on a 12 inch rail going around the truck bed to hold in the dirt and or rocks that we put in the dump bed. They have to be attached to the bed so when you engage the dump bed you don’t throw off the racks every time.

Farm 3/ Predators 2

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There tends to be an optimism that persists whenever you are talking about predator control. Maybe it’s hope, maybe it’s bragging rights but whatever it is it does happen. I have had to decrease the farm score this year as last night a raccoon killed two chickens. It was most likely the same raccoon I saw at 0200 when I took the puppy outside to potty. I was of course in a robe and slippers without any glasses on. No way it was a cat as it jumped out of the large wild rose bush and proceeded to run down the creek and under the fence and then down the creek. It was very noisy. I was ignoring it until Mr Rainman sent me pictures of two dead chickens today with a third one injured. If the stupid chickens would go inside the coop this would not happen.

So now I am going to have to go out, check on the chickens and then just stand around looking for frogs to see who can out wait whom. A classic game of prey vs predator.

Since the farm is ahead of the predators I decided I had better be proactive tonight and make sure all of the chickens went into the coop before the automatic chicken door closed. All of the chickens were inside and the only animal I spotted was the grey barn kitty down by the creek. I was standing by the coop looking into the back creek with my spotlight trying to find the noisy frog that I know was right in front of me when a damn raccoon jumped out of the bush next to the chicken coop. It was running over the overhead soon to be roof supports. I had my trusty suppressed 22 pistol and started flinging lead into the sky. I for sure hit it at least once if not twice. By the time I got around the coop and into the ram pasture it was running toward the barn. I am a firm believer in more lead matters, so I continued to fling it. I managed to get off nine rounds and had to search the barn. I was unable to find the raccoon in the barn. Annmarie thinks it is living over the tack room during the day.

Mr Rainman came out today and repaired the sickle mower for the Kubota tractor. Later he went out and finished cutting field one. I think there is about three acres left to process in that field. I really need to focus on repairing the u joints on the John Deere tractor tomorrow. I had to dig out some grass on the driveline on Sunday and the U joints are bad! I have all the parts to repair it but have not taken the time to actually do it.

We had to take a break today to unload the antiques we won at an auction. One of the local antique stores in Pendleton was having multiple clearance online auctions and today was pickup day. I had to make two trips with the pickup to get everything. Now I will need to wash and polish everything up. We are going to rearrange our living room and Annmarie’s office to fit the new furniture. We are actually going to get rid of three items and replace them with three new ones! I scrubbed the bronze book ends and small brass sculpture tonight. Plus, I managed to score some more old marbles!

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!

Can we mow?

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All I wanted to do on Sunday was mow cheatgrass. We had to bend out part of the metal skirt on the mower on Saturday and after mowing into the dark I had managed to bend it back. Mr Rainman said we had better fix it before going out to mow as we would just have to fix it again the next day. So we broke out the welder and grinder and then really looked at the mower. Wow! After 15 years the poor mower has cracks, bends and broken stuff all over the frame. We tried to bend the skirt but even with pipe wrenches we could not get it back in place. We had to split the skirt with a grinder cutting blade and bend smaller pieces. I would then attempt to weld them back together.

I did wear heavy leather gloves, arm and chest protection. I still managed to drop hot metal on my ankle by sitting too close to the welding. We had to cut a few filler metal pieces that I welded in place. I was also able to weld some of the cracks closed. I am still having trouble at time with making holes and then not being able to fill them. I keep getting a little better at welding every time I do it. I don’t expect to ever be an expert but in a couple of years I will be passing. Currently, I would rate my welding skill as good enough to hold stuff together. Welding overhead is not very fun and requires a lot more technique. This took a couple of hours to complete.

I am trying to use up all of the different types of spray paint I have on hand so color matching an item is not really a concern. Once I get all the extra used up I will keep green and black on hand. For now I am just getting a coat of paint on to help provide some needed rust protection.

The mower worked like a champ after that when I went out and mowed. After working on it last year and this year I am hoping to be able to ignore it for another five years. I do recommend eye protection as the rubber guard on the intake area is no more and occasionally stuff comes flying out.