Senile Texas Aggie - comic relief for the rest of you

[Ridgetop]

Is it possible that the proximity to the surface of the ground could impact the testing? If the pipes were only 12" below the surface, then any surface water might have confused it. Or maybe these particular "dowsers" did not have the gift. Had they found water for wells before?

I still believe in dowsers. The ones with a true "gift" have located water sources for hundreds of years. Maybe thousands. Since many wells hit water where the dowser told the people to dig, there must have been some truth to them.

Maybe I am stupid, but "there are more things in heaven and earth . . . ."

On the tractor subject - I had DH watch the tractor video At first, he was grumpy at being prevented from paying his on-line bridge game, but he became engrossed in the video. He wants a new tractor but we can't get one until we move. DS1 suggested that we might use a Bobcat more efficiently than a tractor on this property. We can rent those. However, when we move we will definitely look into a Kyoti. The video interested me since Mr. Kapper referred to Farmall tractors. That is the brand of the big blue tractor we gave to DS3 which he used to do all the work on his property until he wore it out and broke it!

We would love to have a good tractor here to do all the jobs we need done like installing fence posts, etc. Of course, we would also like our property to become magically flat! Since it isn't we will just have to pine for STA's new Kyoti!
DS3 has finished building the weight box or whatever he constructed to give DH's little Kubota the rear weight it needs. We need to pick it up. DH says the Kubota tires are already filled with some sort of fluid but the rear end is still light. Possibly because there is no implement attached to the rear end. According to DH the "weight box" will enable him to use the hay forks that DS3 gave him. We will see! Boys and their toys! LOL

If we had flat land I would be driving DH down to the tractor place to get the tractor now! So much work made easy with a good machine. So much work we have to do with shovels and mattocks! Ugh.

 

[Senile_Texas_Aggie]

Miss @Ridgetop,

Thank you for your response and comments to water dowsing and the Kioti tractor. I hope you folks can find a tractor to suit your needs. You mentioned that your DS1 recommended a Bobcat instead of a tractor. Since Bobcats make tractors as well as other equipment, I assume he means a skid steer or perhaps a compact track loader, since Bobcat is well known for those. Those certainly can be useful machines. Maybe you folks should rent one for a week, as well as rent a tractor (although since you already have owned a tractor then that may not be that useful). Then you can decide and feel better that you made the right decision.

All tractor owners (Miss @Baymule, Miss @Ridgetop, Mr. @Mike CHS, Mr. @Bruce, Mr. @MtViking and others),

I just took delivery of my Kioti earlier this morning (pictures later), and was ensuring all of the nuts and bolts were tight (they were), then started to grease the fittings. To my dismay, I was unable to get my Lock-N-Lube coupler over any of the fittings (zerks). The coupler was too small in diameter. (I have yet to try the original coupler that came with the grease gun.) Have any of you run into this problem, and if so, how did you solve it?

Senile Texas Aggie

 

[Ridgetop]

Yes, the Bobcat to which my son referred is the little compact dirt pusher, the little skid steer or whatever it is, is the one that can turn around in an almost complete circle giving it a tiny radius. We have rented them before and they work well for many of our needs where the our little Kubota doesn't have the rear weight to operate well. Hopefully the weight box DS3 made for his dad will alleviate that problem. On the other hand, DH is drooling over your new tractor!

We're looking forward to you new "Adventures with Kyoti" series! We love all your tribulations - it makes us feel better about all our terrible mistakes! Often when reading your adventures we say "Remember when we did that!" LOL We feel your pain at every mishap.

Post pix!!!

 

[Bruce]

Since many wells hit water where the dowser told the people to dig, there must have been some truth to them.

The question is: Would there have been water pretty much anywhere in the area? It isn't like wells are a really well defined and contained quantity of water. The water seeps in from all over underground.

To my dismay, I was unable to get my Lock-N-Lube coupler over any of the fittings (zerks). The coupler was too small in diameter. (I have yet to try the original coupler that came with the grease gun.) Have any of you run into this problem, and if so, how did you solve it?

Timely question since I just ran into this last week! I don't know the difference but my Lock-n-lube won't attach tightly to the zerks on the flail though it will on the ones on the PTO shaft. My GUESS is the flail was made in China and the zerks are a WEE bit smaller and the PTO shaft was made somewhere that uses the same size as we have in the USA. There are only 3 zerks on the flail, one on each end of the roller and one for the shaft that holds the knives. These are all easy to hit with the short straight pipe of my small gun ... the one that was fine for the garden tractor but ran out of grease WAY too fast on the real tractor with a bazillion zerks between the loader and the backhoe. The connector on the short pipe gun fits the flail zerks AND the other ones which confuses me no end. Of course I always had a hard time getting that connector OFF the zerks before I got the Lock-n-lube ... the primary reason I got it in fact.

Maybe ask your dealer? There might be another connector they can sell you.

 

[farmerjan]

@Ridgetop , not to sound like a smart a$$, but Farmall tractors, are red not blue. Started as IH and some of the earlier ones had some silver or grey on them and maybe some white. We just always called them Internationals up in Ct where they were popular. As far as I am aware they were never blue .... even if produced in other countries as the Olivers were one color here(dark green with red), and another color produced elsewhere (red in canada called cockshutt tractors) Blue was the color that was identified with fords, after the fordsons that were originally gray as was the ford 9n, but then they were blue. We have a ford 4600 and a 6600. They merged with New Holland and are now called ford-new holland. Our Allis Chalmers are an orange, JD is green , and some yellow, of course. I believe that the Minneapolis Moline was a brighter orange.

 

[Baymule]

I haven't had any problem with the grease fitting not fitting on the grease zerks. My husband thinks I'm some sort of mechanical genius because i can grease the tractor.

 

[Bruce]

Bay, WE all know you are a genius! Just finding all the zerks and figuring out how to access them takes some brain cells

 

[Senile_Texas_Aggie]

We're looking forward to you new "Adventures with Kyoti" series! We love all your tribulations - it makes us feel better about all our terrible mistakes! Often when reading your adventures we say "Remember when we did that!" LOL We feel your pain at every mishap.

Thank you, Miss @Ridgetop! I certainly don't mind posting about my mistakes, even stupid or costly ones like my burning up my engine in my old tractor! I figure that others can learn from my mistakes, or at least get a laugh at them. After all, if I cannot laugh at my own mistakes, then I need to do something else. I will admit, though, that so far I have not been able to laugh about burning up my old tractor -- that one hurt too much!

Of course I always had a hard time getting that connector OFF the zerks before I got the Lock-n-lube ... the primary reason I got it in fact.

That was how I was able to grease the tractor. I replaced the Lock-N-Lube with my old coupler and it fit just fine. But I had trouble removing the coupler on a couple of fittings once I finished.

The question is: Would there have been water pretty much anywhere in the area? It isn't like wells are a really well defined and contained quantity of water. The water seeps in from all over underground.

I happen to think that Mr. @Bruce is right. But family has arrived, so I will be off the forum for awhile. In the mean time, Miss @Ridgetop and Miss @farmerjan, how could the hypothesis that dowsers are able to locate water where other methods are not be tested? In your thinking about it, imagine that cost is not an object. (I know that is not the case -- drilling wells can be quite expensive.) I will check back in later and offer my thoughts and read what yours are.

Senile Texas Aggie

 

[Ridgetop]

DH says that our big tractor was definitely a Farmall. It was certainly bright blue. However, since we bought it used and the previous owner (our neighbor) also bought it used, we don't know where it was originally sold. We are in California and to order any parts for repairs you have to send back east so . . . . ?

 

[rachels.haven]

You never know, someone may have painted it or put used mixed parts. Stranger things have been known to happen.