Senile Texas Aggie - comic relief for the rest of you

[farmerjan]

Hey, @Senile_Texas_Aggie , I make absolutely "no fun" of anyone who works an hour or all day.... especially one who is in the "older generation" like me. Realize, I don't work like that near as much as I did just a couple of years ago. But I do have some days, that I do crazy hours and then other days I don't. I did the big farm, 550 cows Monday eve, then turned around and did a 130 cow herd this morning, and my ankle and knees hurt so much tonight I have done very little the rest of the day. I stopped and got my "barn glasses" fixed at the opticians' ; found another that can do welding after my tried and true favorite retired. This one is a friend of Michael's, I know them but he is closer to them. I didn't realize she was able to do that. My glasses are getting older, and the spot she built up so it isn't a perfect weld, but you can't really tell unless you look close. They are my older pair, and have some scratches, but they are fine for working in the barn. I have my newer ones, for good, and I like to try to not wear them in the barn because they tend to hold the iodine smell and the cow manure from the dairy cows. And I did go vote, Va had some state seats up and with DC, we are getting invaded with too many liberal idiots. Our Gov says it is okay to "abort" a full term fetus. Whether you agree with abortion up to 20 weeks or whatever it was, or not, I don't feel that it should be decided in the courts as to whether it is legal...... BUT, a full term fetus is not an ABORTION, it is outright murder. Even in cows, we don't call losing a calf at what is considered full term, an abortion. And most farmers do their D@#mndest to save a calf, There are alot of things at play, and again, I cannot pass judgement on a woman who has an abortion, it is between her and her supreme maker/God/ or whatever she believes in. It is just that a full term pregnancy is not an abortion. It is murder. The fetus is capacle of being able to survive outside the womans body, so it is not aborted. He is just too way out there and is not very supportive of farmers. He was not up for re-elction yet, but some others were. We more conservative folks, are getting out numbered buy the idiots in the DC beltway area.

Working smarter, not harder, is the way to go. I applaud the progress and amount of work you do.

 

[Baymule]

STA, sometimes a half day is all we can do also, especially in the heat. Good for you that you got equipment that will help you and your Beautiful Girl.

@farmerjan I agree with you, abortion of a full term baby is MURDER plain and simple. That requires a sick mind and dark soul.

 

[Senile_Texas_Aggie]

All,

The rain held off long enough for us to try out the tree shear. It certainly makes quick work of limbs and small trees. Less often will we need to bend over to cut trees. I was a bit disappointed to see that it had problems with trees over about 3" in diameter. It is rated to cut trees 5" in diameter, but I had trouble cutting trees over about 3". Similarly with stumps. Anything over about 3" in diameter it would not cut. Still, I am glad we bought it. This will make cutting small trees and limbs so much easier. But it also means that I will need to buy a stump bucket to get up the larger stumps. Oh well, another toy for the tractor!

Senile Texas Aggie

 

[Bruce]

Can you contact the manufacturer? Seems like if they claim 5" that could maybe be the "has to work at it" diameter but anything less should cut well. Looks like a giant lopper? I think I'd be concerned that a tree could fall back on the tractor at times. Does that seem unlikely?

 

[Baymule]

Congrats on the new toy!

 

[Senile_Texas_Aggie]

Looks like a giant lopper? I think I'd be concerned that a tree could fall back on the tractor at times. Does that seem unlikely?

It is a giant lopper. A tree could fall towards the tractor. Although the tool has a bar that diverts the tree away from the operator, it's not foolproof. I had one tree start falling toward me, but the bar diverted the tree away from me. But that is something I will need to be aware of.

Senile Texas Aggie

 

[Senile_Texas_Aggie]

All,

Well, I thought I would let everyone know how working with the lopper/tree shear has gone. Before I do, I need to tell this Texas Aggie joke, as it will illustrate what happened when I tried using the tree shear.

A man decided to start selling firewood. Since he worked a lot of hours at his regular job, he hired a Texas Aggie to do the actual labor. Because money was a bit tight, initially he only purchased the minimum of tools, namely an ax and a large hand saw, for the Aggie to use. The Aggie agreed to do the work using only those tools. After a month or so, he was able to sell the wood for a profit, but he could not meet the demand, because cutting the wood took such a long time. Since money wasn't so tight by that time, he decided to buy the Aggie a chainsaw. After another month or so, the Aggie wasn't producing any more wood than before. He asked the Aggie what the trouble was. The Aggie replied that he just couldn't get the chainsaw to work, and so he went back to using the ax and hand saw. So the man decided to see what was wrong with the chainsaw. When the man fired up the chainsaw, the Aggie jumped back and said, "What's that racket ?!?"

The Aggie joke above illustrates what I experienced with the tree shear. In the time I used the tree shear before, I had not charged up the battery for the controller that controlled the positioning (vertical / diagonal / horizontal) of the shear. So the day after it finished raining, I charged up the battery, got the remote to register with the receiver, and then powered up the tractor and activated the 3rd function valve and the remote. The shear pivoted to the vertical position. "Great!" I thought. When I went to use the shear along the edge of the woods, I was able to lop off limbs just fine. But when I activated the remote to pivot the head to the horizontal, it wouldn't move. It would only stay in the vertical position. I could hear the solenoid work that was letting hydraulic fluid flow, so that was working. I thought, though, that the controller was failing to recognize it was at the end of the rotation and was not reversing.

So I contacted the company and explained the problem to the service rep. After some discussion, he happened to mention that it is not the controller that decides which way the head rotates. All the controller does is to open the hydraulic valves. It is the 3rd function valve controller that determines the direction of rotation. So I went to the shop, fired up the tractor, pressed the remote to open the pivot valves, and pressed the other direction on the 3rd function valve. It rotated to the horizontal just fine! Dummy me had been pressing the "open" button on the 3rd function valve the whole time. Had I pressed the "close" button on the 3rd function valve, it would have rotated to the horizontal. But because I was a dummy and thought the pivot controller was the one that decided the direction, I had never tried the "close" button on the 3rd function valve! STUPID SHOULD HURT! (Of course, if it did, I would be in pain all the time!)

Senile Texas Aggie

 

[frustratedearthmother]

lol - that's a funny story. But, I'm not laughing at you - I'm laughing with you!

 

[Bruce]

I'm glad stupid didn't hurt this time! That could be one dangerous machine.

 

[Senile_Texas_Aggie]

All,

More fun with the lopper/tree shear. I wish Mr. @greybeard was still on the forum. He would give me a Zinger™ award for sure. Since he is not, then I expect you, Mr. @Bruce, or you, Miss @Baymule, to award it to me. I have definitely earned it. Here is why:

After trying out the tree shear briefly, when I brought it back into the shop, I connected the battery charger to an electrical chord to charge the battery up, so when I was ready to use it next time it would be ready. Then when I tried using it the next time and had trouble getting the head to rotate, I went back to the shop and read the owners manual trouble shooting. One thing it said was to reset the receiver, I needed to use a powerful magnet. Somehow during this troubleshooting, I think I removed the battery charger from the inside housing to be able to get to the receiver better. I thought I put the charger back into the housing. But when I finished using the lopper/tree shear (after learning how it really works) and tried plugging in the charger to an electrical cord, there was no charger in the housing! I have searched everywhere I can think of in the shop and still have not found it. I hope it is not in the pasture somewhere. Now how much talent does it take to lose a battery charger that is stored in a protective housing?

Senile Texas Aggie