The Useful Duck!

Contribute to my Vacation, please...

Friday, February 4, 2011

I have a frustrating day and then end up with cookies

I got a new customer. I don't think he is one for me to keep as he was referred to me by my no-till neighbor. We trade clients back and forth a bit. This guy has a reputation for being a bit picky and uptight.
My other farmer neighbor (farmer "B") decided he didn't want to wait for me and so hired another person to plant for him. That fellow's drill broke right away but the farmer "B" had already bought dry fertilizer and I plant liquid.
So, I had a day to work on my drill. I changed eight press wheel bearings, any loose v-opener bearings, fixed the broken fertilizer tubes, plumbed the hydraulics, checked the wiring and greased the drill. At last I was ready to test it.
I put the flow meter on "cal" and punched in 5 gallons per acre and set the speed manually to 6 mph. Everything worked. There were a few plugged tubes but they started flowing. The hydraulic flow controller for the fertilizer pump didn't seem to be quite right but then it started working.
Yesterday my new "Client" called and said he was going to put 5 gallons per acre of a special fertilizer that stimulated the microzial soil fungi and stepped up the intake of P and K. I hate using the stuff as at 5 gpa there is barely enough pressure to insure even flow.  Plus I had to change all the orifice plates to smaller holes for the low rate and it is a pain to do when it is 37 degrees outside. You have to wash out each one of them and the plastic gets hard to take apart.
Then I moved the drill to a client's house near my new job. I was supposed to start at 4 p.m. but I wanted to unload 50 gallons of $4/gallon fertilizer which I owed him from some previous job.
The pump blew out.
Actually the automatic rate controller that controls the flow to the hydraulic power fertilizer pump went to wide open and stuck because I had the manual boom valve shut off to pump out the fertilizer and the computer increased power to the pump to compensate for the lack of flow and I forgot to put a flow restricter in to protect the pump and it put full 2200lbs though a little Ace 204 sprayer pump and it blew out the seals. I made quite the puddle of hydraulic oil, it is only $37 for five gallons.
The hydraulic flow control then stuck in the wide open position and I had to take it apart and wiggle stuff to get it to work again. By then it was dark and I had to explain that I would not make it that evening.
Back at the shop my uncle was working on my spare pump. He put new seal in it for me and made me new hydraulic lines. They turned out to be only one inch too short. He is not as young as he once was and said he didn't think he could handle rebuilding a pump. I told him I thought he could do it.
This morning I got up early and got all my stuff together. Extra v-openers, extra flow controller, extra pump, extra fertilizer lines, extra tools.
The new pump didn't work and I had to take it apart. The fertilizer lines kept plugging. The stainless fertilizer tubes are bent where they bolt to the back of the v-openers. I have to get new ones made.
I finally got going at 10:30 a.m.
I filled the drill with seed, fertilizer and expensive slugbait.
I almost got stuck.
It was so close I was sweating.
Then I discovered the GPS computer was having a serial port conflict between the Micro-Trak spraymate and the GPS antenna. This was a problem because the Micro-Trak automatic rate controller needs to turn off the GPS when I'm not planting so I can see exactly where I stopped seeding. This is important because the fellow got me exactly enough seed to plant 85 acres. I can't get more if I run out, so everything has to work right.
It works this way because the clever fellow who wrote FarmerGPS was thoughtful enough to write the code to accept info from Micro-Trak controllers. This is good because my fancy Raven GPS is hardwired into the 2-155 and I'm stuck using a cheapo Garmin 18 hocky puck receiver I bought on ebay and it has no provision for a shutoff when the drill is raised.
Then the slugbait kept plugging up. Then the population alarm started going off. Row 2 and 12 kept plugging up.
Finally I discovered that row 2 had a bearing out on the v-opener. I had a extra set of disks so I installed them.
Then there was a problem of picking up the daughter from school. Then there was a misunderstanding.
Then I didn't have a pickup. Then it started raining. Then I found out the daughter was supposed to just go home with her cousins like normal. Then I discovered the teacher had stayed later to wait for me to pick up daughter. Then I discovered the person that was going to bring me my pickup was 20 miles away.
His daughter came and got me and I got my daughter and met my wife to deliver the daughter. Of course by then it was pouring and my wife was on her way to the doctor so I just brought the daughter back to the field where she  drove the pickup and followed me to put the drill in the farmer's shed.
Then I took her to see the chinchilla owned by the daughter of the fellow who was going to pick me up but was 20 miles away but sent this very same daughter to pick me up. In thanks for her help I assisted her in installing her alternator and my daughter played with her puppy and had cookies. And the wife of the fellow who was 20 miles away invited my daughter into to the house and gave her a dinosaur egg thing that is a junior archeology kit where you did bones out of an egg shaped piece of dirt.
In short, it was a confusing and frustrating day but I ended up with cookies.
Mmmmm cookies....
I'm going to try collieguy's lovely wife's sore throat  concoction and go to bed.
Good night...

5 comments:

  1. Do you ever yearn for forty acres and a mule?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Gorges, sometimes I yearn for 40 acres and a winning lotto ticket, but never a mule.
    Muddy, yawn...

    ReplyDelete
  3. I grew up on a farm. We had mules.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Cookies are good. Chocolate chip are best. Homemade beats any store bought cookies. Served by an attractive young woman. Sounds very good.

    ReplyDelete

Tell me what you think

Please leave comments! It is really easy!

You just type your comment in the text box below the post. You can be anyone you want.
And...Would the joker who keeps clicking "offensive" please leave an explanation ?!