Baymule
Herd Master
I am glad that you got your tractor back. A tractor makes a LOT of difference when working on your land. As in, get something done or just look at it...….
Senile Texas Aggie - comic relief for the rest of you
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Bruce
Herd Master
Glad your toy is fixed! I've dug good size rocks with my pallet forks. I guess for tree stumps, breaking out the side roots with the backhoe would be better. I've seen Mike Morgan use an excavator to do that, digging around all side of the stump then pushing the tree over.
AmberLops
Herd Master
Yay! Glad your tractor is fixed...now you can keep on workin' 
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- #1,434
Senile_Texas_Aggie
Herd Master
Well, my happiness was short-lived. My daddy didn't fix my favorite toy right! 
I didn't notice it yesterday when I loaded and unloaded the tractor, but this morning I noticed it when after hooking up the shredder, and then went to hook up my grapple. Hydraulic fluid was dripping out the left curl function cylinder! When I took it in, it was for an internal leak, and now it has an external leak! At the time I hooked up the tractor, I really needed to mow along the driveway and near the gate and around some trees next to the driveway. The hydraulic fluid was dripping at about a drop a second. But by the time I got finished, it was dripping a good bit faster. So I decided not to mow any more, as much as I wanted and need to. So I will be taking the tractor back to the dealer on Monday and hope that they can get it fixed quickly.
I definitely would use the backhoe -- if I had one! I have priced them in the past, so the cost of the backhoe itself, along with all of the additional hydraulics that would be needed, made me think there were implements I could buy that I would use more often. But with me trying to reclaim the burned over and now overgrown land, maybe I would use it often. I'll have to think about it.
Senile Texas Aggie
I didn't notice it yesterday when I loaded and unloaded the tractor, but this morning I noticed it when after hooking up the shredder, and then went to hook up my grapple. Hydraulic fluid was dripping out the left curl function cylinder! When I took it in, it was for an internal leak, and now it has an external leak! At the time I hooked up the tractor, I really needed to mow along the driveway and near the gate and around some trees next to the driveway. The hydraulic fluid was dripping at about a drop a second. But by the time I got finished, it was dripping a good bit faster. So I decided not to mow any more, as much as I wanted and need to. So I will be taking the tractor back to the dealer on Monday and hope that they can get it fixed quickly.
I definitely would use the backhoe -- if I had one! I have priced them in the past, so the cost of the backhoe itself, along with all of the additional hydraulics that would be needed, made me think there were implements I could buy that I would use more often. But with me trying to reclaim the burned over and now overgrown land, maybe I would use it often. I'll have to think about it.
Senile Texas Aggie
RollingAcres
Herd Master
Oh no!
frustratedearthmother
Herd Master
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Oh no.... talk about a let down! So sorry it turned out that way and hope they get it fixed FAST this time!
AmberLops
Herd Master
That's too bad!
Bruce
Herd Master
And at no cost
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- #1,439
Senile_Texas_Aggie
Herd Master
We'll see. The service department manager, Tim, suggested that perhaps the piston shaft may be damaged in some fashion. I am not sure why I did not see the external leak after I damaged it while trying to pull up the cedar stump, nor why they didn't see the leak after repairing it, but maybe that happens sometimes. I trust Tim as being an honest fellow, but he will be on vacation next week, so I wonder just what all they are going to find that will need repair or replacement. I guess I will find out next week. Meanwhile, I will continue my little boy whimpering/bawling while my favorite toy is getting fixed...
Senile Texas Aggie
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Senile_Texas_Aggie
Herd Master
Well, our nieces and grandnieces were unable to come visit us, as the father/step father was sick and unable to care the 2 year old and 3 month old while the mother and her daughter and the mother's sister went to Fayetteville for a campus visit. We found out they weren't coming after buying groceries for them, expecting to cook a large breakfast for them. So my Beautiful Gal and I had a wonderful breakfast by ourselves, with scrambled eggs, pan fried potatoes, country biscuits, and some sausage/flour milk gravy to ladle over them all. Sure was good eatin'!
Well, I'm sure the folks on this forum will be as glad for me to get my tractor back as I will be. The reason? So I will be doing something interesting out in the pastures and along the woods, instead of posting boring book reviews like the one I am about to do. But with my tractor busted and it supposedly getting to 98º F today, with little to no wind or cloud cover, I am currently sitting on my rear end in the air conditioning! I have a feeling the only persons to read this post might be Miss @AmberLops or Miss @farmerjan, mostly out of compassion!
Now on to the boring book reviews.
Three Men in a Boat (To Say Nothing of the Dog) by Jerome K. Jerome
This is one of the few books of fiction we have read recently. It is a book of humor about 3 men who decide to take a trip in a row boat up the Thames river from London to Oxford. My Beautiful Gal first heard or read about it somewhere and suggested we consider reading it. We were a bit surprised that it was originally published in 1886! The humor is at the level of bringing a smile and a chuckle but not crazy funny. But it was a nice diversion for us.
Unthinkable - An Extraordinary Journey Through the World's Strangest Brains by Helen Thomson
I love reading books on science, but especially on psychology, neurology, neurobiology, etc. I think that is why I enjoyed the writings of Dr. Oliver Sacks so much. We formerly subscribed for many years to a magazine called Scientific American Mind which I loved reading. It broke my heart when they decided to go to digital format only, as I don't particularly like reading in-depth journalism online. I like to be able to read at my leisure, pick up where I left off (such as when I am using the restroom), underline and mark on it, etc., and then save the copies for later reference. But whenever we find an interesting sounding book on one of our favorite topics, we will try to read it.
In the book, the author discusses 9 different people who have quite strange mental characteristics. (I guess the author had not heard of me or there might have been 10!) The people and their strange mental characteristics were (1) Bob, who could remember just about every day of his life all the way back to very early childhood, (2) Sharon, who was permanently lost, (3) Ruben, who could see color auras around people, words, numbers, etc. (synesthesia), (4) Tommy, who had switched personalities from when he was young to becoming a older adult, (5) Sylvia, who suffered a continuous hallucination, (6) Matar, who imagined himself turning into a tiger, (7) Louise, who became unreal, like she was a disembodied spirit and the world wasn't real, (8) Graham, who for several months thought he was dead, and (9) Joel, who had such a strong empathic element that he could literally feel the physical pain that others were feeling. It made for fascinating reading.
Gender and Our Brains - How Neuroscience Explodes the Myths of the Male and Female Minds by Gina Rippon
We had not expected to read back-to-back 2 books on neuroscience, but this book is one we preordered from Amazon back in May, so that we would receive it when finally published it. We forgot we had preordered this by the time we read the previous book, and then received it just as we finished the previous book.
This book challenged so many ideas we (especially I) had regarding the effect that biology (genetics, in utero development, etc.) had on the brain and whether it exhibited male or female characteristics. The book argued that many of the ideas we consider as biologically fixed between men and women (nature) are really learned through our surroundings (nurture). While she was not saying there are NO differences between men's brains and women's brains as determined by biology, she was saying that the differences present that are attributable to biology is small in number. This certainly flies in the face of my previous ideas, and I do wonder whether my previous ideas were correct or not, or maybe she is wrong about some things. (I am reminded of an observation by Mark Twain regarding scientists: "Scientists are an ornery lot, until you prop up their theory, then you can borrow money of them.") For example, I think I recall reading in studies of twins separated at birth and reared apart, that on average, identical twins shared about half the same characteristics, with some examples:
All in all, I am glad we read this book. If a person only reads or listens to things that already confirms their world view, then they are not learning anything. Instead, it is good to sometimes read things that challenge these ideas.
Senile Texas Aggie
Well, I'm sure the folks on this forum will be as glad for me to get my tractor back as I will be. The reason? So I will be doing something interesting out in the pastures and along the woods, instead of posting boring book reviews like the one I am about to do. But with my tractor busted and it supposedly getting to 98º F today, with little to no wind or cloud cover, I am currently sitting on my rear end in the air conditioning! I have a feeling the only persons to read this post might be Miss @AmberLops or Miss @farmerjan, mostly out of compassion!
Now on to the boring book reviews.Three Men in a Boat (To Say Nothing of the Dog) by Jerome K. Jerome
This is one of the few books of fiction we have read recently. It is a book of humor about 3 men who decide to take a trip in a row boat up the Thames river from London to Oxford. My Beautiful Gal first heard or read about it somewhere and suggested we consider reading it. We were a bit surprised that it was originally published in 1886! The humor is at the level of bringing a smile and a chuckle but not crazy funny. But it was a nice diversion for us.
Unthinkable - An Extraordinary Journey Through the World's Strangest Brains by Helen Thomson
I love reading books on science, but especially on psychology, neurology, neurobiology, etc. I think that is why I enjoyed the writings of Dr. Oliver Sacks so much. We formerly subscribed for many years to a magazine called Scientific American Mind which I loved reading. It broke my heart when they decided to go to digital format only, as I don't particularly like reading in-depth journalism online. I like to be able to read at my leisure, pick up where I left off (such as when I am using the restroom), underline and mark on it, etc., and then save the copies for later reference. But whenever we find an interesting sounding book on one of our favorite topics, we will try to read it.
In the book, the author discusses 9 different people who have quite strange mental characteristics. (I guess the author had not heard of me or there might have been 10!) The people and their strange mental characteristics were (1) Bob, who could remember just about every day of his life all the way back to very early childhood, (2) Sharon, who was permanently lost, (3) Ruben, who could see color auras around people, words, numbers, etc. (synesthesia), (4) Tommy, who had switched personalities from when he was young to becoming a older adult, (5) Sylvia, who suffered a continuous hallucination, (6) Matar, who imagined himself turning into a tiger, (7) Louise, who became unreal, like she was a disembodied spirit and the world wasn't real, (8) Graham, who for several months thought he was dead, and (9) Joel, who had such a strong empathic element that he could literally feel the physical pain that others were feeling. It made for fascinating reading.
Gender and Our Brains - How Neuroscience Explodes the Myths of the Male and Female Minds by Gina Rippon
We had not expected to read back-to-back 2 books on neuroscience, but this book is one we preordered from Amazon back in May, so that we would receive it when finally published it. We forgot we had preordered this by the time we read the previous book, and then received it just as we finished the previous book.
This book challenged so many ideas we (especially I) had regarding the effect that biology (genetics, in utero development, etc.) had on the brain and whether it exhibited male or female characteristics. The book argued that many of the ideas we consider as biologically fixed between men and women (nature) are really learned through our surroundings (nurture). While she was not saying there are NO differences between men's brains and women's brains as determined by biology, she was saying that the differences present that are attributable to biology is small in number. This certainly flies in the face of my previous ideas, and I do wonder whether my previous ideas were correct or not, or maybe she is wrong about some things. (I am reminded of an observation by Mark Twain regarding scientists: "Scientists are an ornery lot, until you prop up their theory, then you can borrow money of them.") For example, I think I recall reading in studies of twins separated at birth and reared apart, that on average, identical twins shared about half the same characteristics, with some examples:
- if one twin was homosexual, the chances of the other twin being homosexual was around 30%, well above chance (around 1.5%) but certainly below 100%, showing that sexual orientation is not strictly an individual choice or determined by environment.
- bipolar disorder is around 70% determined by genetics or in utero conditions.
- religiosity is around 90% controlled by genetic or in utero conditions. The individual religious beliefs are, of course, determined by environment, but the intensity of those beliefs are 90% biologically determined.
- women are naturally bad at math, reading maps, etc.
- women are naturally good at empathy, while men are terrible at it
All in all, I am glad we read this book. If a person only reads or listens to things that already confirms their world view, then they are not learning anything. Instead, it is good to sometimes read things that challenge these ideas.
Senile Texas Aggie
