Senile Texas Aggie - comic relief for the rest of you

[farmerjan]

Don't know anything about the Geo Cell.... looks pretty interesting. It would sure help hold any gravel when the water is running, it won't be able to run down in little rivulets to cause eroding and becoming bigger "rivers" down the driveway. Here we can get something called crusher run.... it has the gravel and the "dust" in it. The dust does pack, it actually becomes more like a solid hard base, that holds the larger gravels and becomes more like "concrete. " One thing, they have pretty good side "ditches" so the water does not travel across the driveway. That is the biggest thing, you have to have ditches.... they don't have to be deep like a drop off, but they need to be deep enough, and if deep then should be fairly wide, so that the water will be able to run down them. And the road should not be flat.... the center has to have a bit of a crown so that the water will run towards the sides, and towards the ditches, rather than down the "driveway part", which causes the erosion also. Too flat and if nothing else, water lays and then you get pot holes. The shoulders/sides of the driveway should be lower than the center "crown" .
The trick to grading is to pull the sides up into the center, then go down the center and just level off the very center part. Here they actually will dig a couple inches off the shoulders when they do the gravel/dirt roads. There will be some dirt clumps in the road because of the angle of the grader blade slicing off some of the shoulder to get the angle right from the center of the road to the side. When grass starts to grow, then they mow, the organic matter builds up along the sides, and before you know it the shoulders are higher than the actual roadway.... then the water runs DOWN the road along the side and not OFF the road into the side ditch.

The first video of the rake/baler/accumulator was interesting. The rakes were actually the same basic roller bar or side delivery rakes as we use, but they were run on the PTO because they were still turning when she said she thought she had a broken bale in the earlier part.... ours are ground driven, they turn only when the tractor is in motion. You can get a left or a right hand side delivery rake and a friend has a frame that goes over top so he can use one on each side to feed the middle much like hers was. But those were made to do that and not 2 separate ones hooked together in tandem.

Our hay is seldom ever dry enough to just rake and sq. bale at the same time. We like to rake and get it rolled up so the bottom gets exposed to the sun and hopefully a breeze. And we have few fields where there is enough room to run that "long" of a piece of equipment.... with all 3 attached like that. Their hay was thinner too than most of ours is, although that might have been from tedding it out as well. It is proven that tedding several times will get it to dry better, more thoroughly.... but you have to weigh the costs of running a piece of equipment over the field that many times too.
Our one tractor that we bought from the friend who passed away, is equiped to have the propionic acid tank to put on the hay if the moisture is high to preserve it like the 2nd video showed. You have to be careful of it though.... have had 2 people that have llamas that say you can't feed them hay with it. We seldom use it, maybe twice when we first got the tractor.... I am not sure that the system is functional without some serious going over and probably repair.... we just are more likely to n ot cut until we have a good window, and if the forecast changes, we will roll if need be. We kick ours into wagons so can get them to the barn quicker than picking up the "pods" as they call them, and loading them on a trailer....but then they have to get handled there and stacked in a hay mow. 6 of one half a dozen of another. Unless someone is coming with a flat bed trailer that you can just load them onto.... right out of the field, then that accumulator is real nice....
There is another accumulator that now puts them into small stacks of 21 or 27 or something and "bales and ties that stack" into what we call a cube in this area. 2 different guys invested in them, and they do some custom work for others to help pay for them to use for their own hay.

 

[Bruce]

Raking, baling, and accumulating at the same time:

Seems like one would need a pretty big and flat field to use that first "3 machine" setup but it sure would save a lot of time and fuel doing everything in a single pass.

 

[Senile_Texas_Aggie]

All,

I haven't posted in awhile, so I thought I'd let everyone know what's been happening here. I think I mentioned in an earlier post that I decided to get rid of a row of dirt, grass, and buried logs that one of the earlier owners left behind. That row of dirt, etc., was causing water to puddle in a small field. It is east of the driveway immediately north of the creek, right at the edge of the woods. Here are pictures of the area I am talking about before I started working on it:

North end of row:

South end of row:

I used the regular bucket (6 ft wide), the stump bucket, the grapple, pallet forks, and a box blade to loosen up the dirt and get the logs out that were buried there and managed to get rid of almost all of the dirt on the northern half of the row. Here is what the north end looked like before I was forced to stop by all the rain we started getting: . I have yet to start back on the south end of that row of dirt, etc. I did try one day for about 30 minutes but started bogging down and decided to let the ground dry out more before resuming.

While I waited for the ground to dry out, I decided to mow in an overgrown area with my new mower. I had tried mowing over there before using my old mower but I kept breaking shear pins. This time I didn't break any shear pins, but because the ground is so uneven I managed to contact the ground with the mower solidly enough that the tractor died from the resistance before I could raise the 3-pt hitch. I started the tractor back up and engaged the PTO again and felt the tractor and mower shuddering. I looked at the PTO shaft and it was definitely bent. I quit for the day, as it was getting late.

Bent PTO shaft (protect cover removed). Crowbar beside it to provide contrast:

The next morning I tried to remove the PTO shaft. I finally got the shear pin out but could not remove the yoke off of the end of the gear box. It turned out that a snap ring / retaining clip was holding it on. I could not get the snap ring off using needle nose pliers, screw drivers, and anything else I could think of. I decided to go buy a set of snap ring pliers and tips. Sadly, once I got back home, I was unable to maneuver the pliers into position due to the PTO U-joint yoke being in the way, and the plastic protective shroud guarding the slip clutch preventing much movement. I was tempted to get out my sawzall and cut the protective shroud off so I could better maneuver the pliers, but my Beautiful Gal, who at the time came to check on me, advised against it. Finally, I decided to take the mower back to the place where I bought it and have them replace the PTO shaft.

Miss @farmerjan, I was thinking of you when I was trying to get this snap ring off. I was thinking, "STA, Miss Farmerjan would get this off somehow. She has earned her name of Farmerjan, but me, I just play at being a farmer." So, Miss Farmerjan, I am sorry that I could not live up to your standard of fixing your own equipment. Maybe if I live to be 150 I might learn to fix my equipment, but this time, I wimped out.

Senile Texas Aggie

 

[farmerjan]

You are not a failure at fixing your own equipment. I am not so great at it some times either. And the newer the equipment the more complicated the attachments are.... another reason I prefer the older equipment.... I can understand and figure them out easier.
I hope that you spent a little time at the dealer's and found out how the best way is to get it off.... If not, make sure you get them to SHOW you when you go pick it up????? Sometimes it is just a different angle, or a simple twist of a wrist to perform the miracle....
Sometimes it is also smarter to wimp out and not get hurt... or to NOT break of bend something else.... and to learn from the experience.

 

[Bruce]

That was some hard hit to be able to bend the shaft! Sounds like the shear pin is a bit TOO strong. But hey, this time you figured something must be wrong BEFORE more damage could be done

 

[farmerjan]

I have to agree. The shear "pin" or bolt is too "hard". It did not snap as it should have to prevent the damage to the PTO shaft. Breaking shear pins is a pain.... like on the baler.... but bending a PTO shaft is one he// of a bigger expense. Sadly you found that out. Make sure that the shear pins are not "hardened bolts".... they need to break.

 

[Senile_Texas_Aggie]

Regarding the shear pin, because the mower has a slip clutch, the shear pin is made of harder steel. I don't understand why the slip clutch didn't slip. The very first time I used the mower, mowing along side the driveway, I did not have the mower level, as I had failed to check to see if I had set the hydraulic top link correctly. (I frequently shorten the top link in order to raise the rear end of the mower to make it easier to inspect the blades, etc., and had forgotten to level the mower back.) When I lowered the mower to mow, with the rear still raised up, I caused the front blades to hit the ground. They started mowing up dirt! Fortunately the slip clutch worked and started slipping, causing the clutch to start smoking. When I heard the blades hitting the ground and felt the tractor starting to shudder, I looked back and saw the smoke. I raised up the 3-pt hitch before much harm was done to the mower. Then I noticed I still had the top link too short, so I lengthened it to make the mower level and then was able to mow just fine.

The time when I bent the PTO shaft, this time I had the mower level and the 3-pt position low enough to cut the grass but high enough to avoid scalping the ground, or so I thought. The area where I was mowing was uneven, and while I thought I was being careful, I did manage to bottom the mower so that the entire mower was scalping the ground. It happened so fast that the tractor's engine bogged down and then died before I could raise the 3-pt hitch. When I started the tractor back up, that is when I noticed the PTO shaft looked a little bent. But the mower seemed to be fine, so I didn't think too much about it. It was only later that I noticed just how bent the PTO shaft was, and so I decided to try to remove it, being defeated by a snap ring on the end of the gear box shaft.

I don't know why the slip clutch didn't slip before the PTO shaft got bent. I plan to talk to the dealer when I go get the mower after they have repaired it and find out why the clutch didn't slip. If they can't provide a good explanation, then I will replace the hardened pin with a more easily sheared pin, as I don't want to bend another PTO shaft or ruin the mower's gear box or the tractor's PTO drive line.

Senile Texas Aggie

 

[Bruce]

I don't think it is easy to mow non flat ground. If the front of the tractor goes down over a ridge the mower tends to lift and when the front goes back up the mower drops onto the ridge. I've got some places where the grass/weeds don't get cut well due to rock ridges I have to go over. And when the mower gets to to the rock part I lift it so it doesn't get ripped up on the rock.

 

[Senile_Texas_Aggie]

All,

Just thought I would let everyone know what we have been up to lately. For the time being I am caught up on my mowing, and so my Beautiful Gal suggested that I/we finish what we started some time last year but stopped working on for reasons I don't remember now. The area where we have started working again is shown below, zoomed out on the left and zoomed in on the right.



We started on this area when we thought it would be nice to have that part thinned out. There are a lot of tall pine trees in that part of the woods, along with other trees, such as cedar, oak, etc., and plenty of undergrowth, such as GREEN BRIARS (<= Miss @Baymule, your favorite). We have been cutting down almost all of the cedar trees, and most of the smaller trees that are not pines, hoping to turn that area into a park-like setting. My Beautiful Gal worked on the briars while I worked on cutting down and dragging out the trees. I cut down a dead pine tree that was about 30 feet tall. It got hung up in the other trees and so did not fall until I hooked a chain around the base and dragged it out using the tractor. Dummy me didn't get any pictures!

I have about decided that I need to get some of the equipment that Mike Morgan has for retrieving fallen trees from the woods. I doubt I will buy a winch -- I can't see spending $5,000 for a PTO powered winch -- but I could certainly use a bunch of ropes, cables, and snatch blocks, both ordinary and self-releasing. Do any of you have anything you'd recommend?

I will try to take more pictures next time we go out.

Senile Texas Aggie

 

[Bruce]

Dummy me didn't get any pictures!

I have a mess of things to pull limbed trees out. A real hodgepodge. I have a logging chain, a couple of 40' (?) pulling straps and 50' of low stretch line.

I think I've posted some pictures. I bought a "tree saver" strap but haven't cut any trees since it arrived. I have a couple of LARGE pulleys that I used on my sailboat (therefore they are properly referred to as sheet blocks). I chain those to trees along the route such that the trees can be pulled out. But unlike Mike's EXPENSIVE self releasing block, I have to watch behind to see when the chain on the log reaches the pulley. Then I have to get off the tractor and disconnect the block from the tree then back to the tractor to pull some more. Obviously not nearly as convenient as leaving the tractor in place and pulling the tree to it.

I was thinking about getting an ATV/UTV winch but some research suggested one would just about die of old age waiting for that type winch to pull in a log from any distance. Apparently their rate of retrieval is REALLY SLOW unlike a logging winch. I pull with the rope attached to the draw bar on the tractor and when the log gets out to the "road" I disconnect the rope, move the tractor back to the log then connect the log to the Quick Hitch in the "down" position. Raising the QH lifts the end of the log off the ground, then chug, chug, chug to the field where I drop them off for later transport up to the blocking/splitting area with the forks. Of course you have a grapple so that part is easier.