Bruce's Journal

[Baymule]

Yep, candidates for the dumpster...... does your daughter have an aversion to leather because it comes from an animal? If so, then what is her take on all this fake stuff that won't even biodegrade????? I can't seem to get my head around some of the reasoning that the "tree hugger" types have. Not trying to be disrespectful.... I just don't get the not killing anything yet nature has intended for "higher life forms" to kill, eat , use and eventually discard "lower life forms" that will return to the earth in a natural way.

I think your idea of having the racks to put up on the porch all in a big "piece" rather than having to do it all by hand is a great idea. Who the he// cares what it looks like if it does the job?

If looks were important, I would be driving a new(er) truck, making payments, have newer tractors, and cows with registration papers.....
Instead, I have ALL PAID FOR....a 2000 subaru forester ( as soon as the rebuilt engine gets put in it), a 1994 ford ranger pickup with some "DEER MODIFICATIONS" and a different colored drivers door from a slight bent backwards door that was sprung and we had to replace it; a 1984 4wd ranger pickup with faded black paint, no tailgate but a short "stop board" and right now a broken muffler, and no radio but the heat does work....
Our newest big P.U. truck is a 1998 ford f350 crew cab; our preferred truck to pull the cattle trailer is a f-250 maybe a 95(?), plus various other trucks to take to and from fields... most on "farm use" tags.
Plus my preferred tractor is a 40's model faded paint, iron seat, no power steering, type, Farmall H to rake hay in small tight fields; faded old ford 4600 and 6600 tractors with live hydraulics to use other farm equipment; old Allis Chalmers 190's and 200's for other stuff, a BIG 7040(?) allis that actually has a cab.... plus the 2 newer tractors, a big agco allis to use with the discbine, and the 4wd big John Deere that is part of the payments on the rented farm....they both have air cooling ( not really air conditioning cold...) both over 100 hp each for the big equipment.
Plus so much other equipment it looks like a used tractor/equipment lot; rakes, tedders, round and square balers, wagons.... All paid for except the discbine.....
All the angus and other cross bred cattle.....paid for. All the bulls are registered purebreds so we do believe in "upgrading"... again paid for.

We are into as much paid for as we can.... yet we still owe nearly $20,000 in seed and fertilizer, spraying some fields, from 2018 operations....with feeder calf prices down and not looking good so don't know how much of that we will have to carry over .....

So don't apologize for being practical and a little ingenuity for the rack. Looks be d#@%d.

LIKE x 1,000!!!!!

 

[Bruce]

Not trying to be disrespectful.... I just don't get the not killing anything yet nature has intended for "higher life forms" to kill, eat , use and eventually discard "lower life forms" that will return to the earth in a natural way.

She figures people can live without eating animals. Which is true in most areas though I gather that some places in Africa are SO poor in soils and water that they eat far more meat than the average "American" because animals that evolved to live on such plants that can grow there are utilized. Might explain the popularity of goat meat.

I don't imagine she spends a lot of time thinking of the ramifications of man made versus nature made materials.

You have a LOT of equipment! We owe only on 2 things - the house and the credit cards. And the credit cards are paid off every month. Used to be only the LL Bean CC but they switched from Visa to MC and Costco only takes Visa so there is one charge on my CU Visa monthly.

Hey, if it runs and is paid for, fine with me. If someone doesn't like it, they can buy me a new one. I wont mind.

Your future BF @Latestarter will buy them for you when he wins the MM.

Planning to put snow tires on DD1's car (which has a slow leak in the RR summer tire) and the remaining 2 snow tires on DW's car today. One of the rears that I was going to put on last Sunday was dead flat. Some loss is expected over the summer but not 36 PSI. Took it to Bill last week and he said it had a bead seal leak, took care of it. And I plan to get the new splitter out since it isn't supposed to rain today. Will try to remember to take pictures of it and the wood racks. Will also take pictures of the pond which is filling nicely with all the rain we have gotten the last couple of weeks but SHOULD have been spread out over the summer months

 

[farmerjan]

@Bruce , yes we do have alot of equipment. More than maybe is needed but much is old. We were able to buy most of his equipment off the farmer friend that passed away from cancer a couple of years ago for bargain basement prices because he did not take as good a care of it as should have been and it was appraised at very low prices. We had several pieces of our own before that but we weren't doing as big of an operation.
Much is cosmetic, not being stored inside, paint faded peeling and such. But several have some small stuff, minor hydraulic oil leaks, one has power steering issues, stuff like that. We have done some work on some and will do a little more on some more this winter. But, like having 2 round balers... had one, used, then got the second one in the group of equipment from him. Ours had a major breakdown. If we didn't have his we would have lost alot of hay to rain. Neither are new, a new one is like 30,000. We are not going to pay payments or interest on something like that. So we dropped the one, got the other finished baling and the other had to go to the dealer to get fixed and will be picked up after a bit over 1,000 of parts and work. We had a small square baler; bought at a sale for about $5-600., about 30 yrs old; some things are a little "loose and sloppy" but it works. Then found one that had an attached kicker a few years later, bought it and now keep the "little one" as a backup. Broke the tongue that the baler attaches to the tractor and did some damage. It was metal fatigue/ weak spot. Had to use the small one. Got the one with the kicker fixed for over $500 but it is back and working pretty good. A new one is in the 20,000 range. We have a virtual junk yard of old stuff that some are just for parts now. Just bought a small used chopper, about 20 + years old. About 3,000. Couldn't get the custom guy to get to our "small acreage" of 15 acres, then he broke down, not going to fix it until after the first of the year. Could not find anyone else to do it. Do you waste 15-20,000 worth of seed, fertilizer, and subsequent grain sorghum silage? Nope we will do our own. The big plastic bag that it goes into is $400 for the 8x150 ft bag. Rent the bagger, use our 2-3 tractors to get it done. The bag is a one use thing, so money spent every year. If we owned the farm we would put in a concrete slab, and concrete pony walls and pack the silage in a trench instead of spending money on a bag. Capital improvements, but again money spent... But it enables us to have this as feed, and a cushion against years of crummy hay like this year where the quality is poor due to wet and over mature late first cutting.
We have more equipment than alot of farmers, but we do not trade in stuff every 5-10 years except our discbine. It is one piece that gets all the wear and tear and when it starts to wear out, is very expensive to start replacing parts.
Because we also make hay in several different places, it helps to have extra equipment to have at each place and not have to constantly move equipment from one place to another. That is in itsself very time consuming.
We bought a couple of tractors at sales where they couldn't get bids, or not above scrap prices. We don't care what it looks like, and some have not been well maintained and that hurt sale prices, but we are well adept at "jury-rigging" things to get them to work. So we get stuff for next to nothing because everyone wants something that is nice and in A-1 working order and don't want or know how to work on it. And I prefer an open station tractor for much/most of my hay raking and everyone wants cabs and air conditioning and all that.

 

[Bruce]

Pond pictures
Looking west, then south


Looking north


Still picture of running water under the rocks in the prior picture. I guess if we get enough rain some of it must drain into this area.


NOW we know why the pond went dry!!!

 

[Baymule]

all your hard work paid off, it looks good!

 

[Bruce]

Wood rack pictures and the pile I'm working on that used to be the big maple from the other house. I can't even pick up the full rounds, I had cut crosses in them with the chain saw then used a sledge and wedges to quarter or halve them.

 

[Baymule]

Looks like you are ready for winter.

 

[Bruce]

And the splitter. Jury is still out. Started splitting a good size chunk and noticed an odd noise. The pulley on the motor had moved outboard. Pushed it back. Same thing only this time as the motor slowed to a stop, the key fell out of the motor shaft. Good thing I saw it drop or I wouldn't have known where to look for it. Of course I had to take the safety shield off to get the key back in. The 1 set screw was loose and the pulley had rotated away from the "keyable" position. I ASSUME that there is supposed to be another set screw in the threaded but empty hole on the pulley. I will have to check the manual and have them send me one FREE since THEY didn't tighten the set screws properly.



Splitter in action, the belt noise is louder than the motor. I think I had the pulley in too far. After I finished splitting and had unplugged the machine I moved the pulley out until the belt and pulley looked more in line.

 

[farmerjan]

Pond is looking nice. You will have it full for spring from whatever more rain you get and then subsequent snow melt.
By the time you wait for them to send you another set screw, you can take the one still there out, take it to the hardware store get a couple and get back home and back to work, and not waste days waiting on the mail. They aren't that expensive. It helps to have an extra or two of small stuff like that. Keys for the keyways are another thing we keep extras around. Although sometimes things are special sizes and are not easily replaced locally.

 

[Bruce]

And the splitter. Jury is still out. Design of some parts could be better. There are 7 bolt/nut pairs and 4 bolts that must be taken out to get the shield off the machine. If they want people to do proper maintenance, they could have designed it so it was fast and easy to get that shield off. There are 2 grease fittings. One is easy to get to, the other looks impossible. Although there may be a way but they didn't explain it in the greasing instructions. Later in the manual it talks about removing the 2 return springs and sliding the ram forward (for a different maintenance item). MAYBE with the ram forward the grease fitting will be accessible. But at the moment I'm not willing to take the time to take the shields off AGAIN. And, as the manual suggests, this thing really doesn't like angles on EITHER end of the piece of wood. The other one could deal with that since the wedge was pushing against the wood and since it was moving really slowly, I could hold the piece in place. This one slams in pretty fast and I am NOT putting my hands on that wood. Not that I could anyway, they have a safety lever that must be held up while the handle for the ram is moved forward. No hands left to put on the wood.

Started splitting a good size chunk and noticed an odd noise. The pulley on the motor had moved outboard. Pushed it back. Same thing only this time as the motor slowed to a stop, the key fell out of the motor shaft. Good thing I saw it drop or I wouldn't have known where to look for it. Of course I had to take the safety shield off to get the key back in. The 1 set screw was loose and the pulley had rotated away from the "keyable" position. I ASSUME that there is supposed to be another set screw in the threaded but empty hole on the pulley. I will have to check the manual and have them send me one FREE since THEY didn't tighten the set screws properly.

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Splitter in action, the belt noise is louder than the motor. I think I had the pulley in too far. After I finished splitting and had unplugged the machine I moved the pulley out until the belt and pulley looked more in line. I'll see if that changes the belt noise.