I adjust New Holland 1085 clutch, complain about heat, lack of directed rainfall, and just be slightly negative

 The last two days it has been hot. Heat and high humidity is the worst week of an Oregon summer. You are not used to it and there it is. Hopefully it left with the thunderstorm yesterday. Rosco also left yesterday. 

Rosco is not a fan of thunder. Apparently, he decided to go to the Dairy Queen which is like ten miles away and across the river. Over near where the farmer saw the UFO in the 1960's. There may be a connection.

But I digress...

The thunderstorm dumped rain on the outside hay stack, the annual ryegrass that needed to be combined. The slightly dead Massey 750 that has half a tank of seed, and the annual straw that needs to be baled.

It did not rain on the alfalfa that needs irrigation, or the Teff field that is languishing.

It did rain on the straw that I bale on the test plot farm. This goes into 2-tie. It is only 5 acres or so but it is is in little plots. Rain messes everything up as I can't really run a tedder to fluff it up and raking it drags straw into the bare dirt which is a bad thing. (Doesn't pick up well and somehow messes up the test plot.)

Yesterday I had to get my blood pressure checked. It always spikes when I go to the doctor. 

It also spikes when I get my turn off to Salem and find it closed and I didn't see it in town because I turned before seeing the detour sign.  I am sure my wife warned me about this and I forgot. So I had to do a little creative driving, but I was there on time.

The nice nurse who took my blood pressure and heart rate got a high reading right away. Then she started talking to me. Turns out she grew up between Muddy and Gopher Valley and was obviously a local of aforementioned valleys. When she was a kid her driveway was so muddy her dad would wait at the end of the driveway with a bulldozer to give her a ride up the muddy driveway.

All of a sudden she exclaims that she got a good reading, 126/85! I asked her how she did it. She laughed and said she was good at her job. I really agree. Wish she was doing my CDL test.

Her are some photos from my day and my walks. 

This is alfalfa and teff. I planted the two together because I thought the teff would grow faster than the alfalfa and I would get hay, but mostly because it puts down roots to hold the soil and this field goes underwater. Plus it should winter kill so I don't have to worry about it becoming a weed.  This gun run looks awesome. (See next picture)

This is why we really should not be growing Teff or trying to establish grass with irrigation. Our hard hose guns are crap. There is always a problem with the hydraulic drive on the one. Plus it doesn't automatically slow down as the hose reel gets bigger so it always going the wrong speed. This was probably the turbine gun which doesn't reverse reliably and gets stuck shooting out to the side. The Teff and Alfalfa came up fine but the Teff is dead. The Alfalfa will survive but there will be no hay this year. Also, the thundershower very pointedly missed this field and the clover field. The two fields in 600 acres that actually really needed a half inch of rain in 10 minutes.

The Red Clover is getting ready and actually looks pretty good. Last year it was pretty sad. I suspect fertilizer and hay cutting timing as reasons for success. I wish we could irrigate it. That would boost seed yield.

Yesterday I spent a lot of time laying under the stacker adjusting the clutch. The parts under the inspection plate do not agree with the part diagram and instructions in the New Holland manual.

You have to knock the set collar loose and then rotate the sleeve by using a chisel and hammer to hit the notches on the right side next to the throwout bearing and clutch actuator. Of course I went the wrong way to start out. You are shortening the sleeve which doesn't really make sense to me. I set clutch adjustment  by jacking the wheels up and then putting it in drive and standing on the brakes with the transmission in gear. Apparently the brakes also need work as I third was the only gear that would kill the engine. 

 

Disappearing Comments and Invoice frustration

I am supposed to be either taking the truck to the seed plant, combining, or selling feed.

Feed buyers seem to be ghosting me. 

Went after the hay squeeze to load the customer who buys cheap hay. He is coming Monday...

Needed to send an invoice to feed customer who pays via PayPal. It won't send with InvoiceASAP... Trying to sign in to Square. It doesn't recognize my password. (like Baptists don't recognize each other in the liquor store) 

While waiting for a download I checked this blog. I had comments waiting moderation. They were great comments but of course I can't remember what they were.

I clicked on "approve" and the comments disappeared. 

This has happened before with Blogger. Of course it is a dead platform and basically a dead app.

But thanks for the comments. I do live for comments. Somewhat desperate for approval in my small little world.

Annual ryegrass that I combined yesterday and the annual ryegrass I am supposed to be combining today. It has been 15-20 years since I ran a combine and that was a White 8900. I don't think I ever ran the Case/IH 1480. I kind of understood the noises in the White. I think this 1480 doesn't sound right. The White was more comfortable and had a better monitor but was more prone to catastrophic fires.

 

 

 

I walk, make feed, do apparant vandalism, usual mucking about

My exercise program is cutting into my blogging time. I realize that somewhere in China there is a bot farm that misses my updates and I do apologize. 

I am sure that all five of my regular readers and dying for an update on my feed mixing obsession.

 

 

My neighbors are out of the 1/3 alfalfa and 2/3 oats mix so I gave making alfalfa pellets a try. We had some very nice first cutting alfalfa. Actually better than second cutting. I have a ton of pig feed that should be sold(oats/barley/peas/corn/clover and alfalfa hay) but the lady never brings her barrels. This holds up the works as I need to fill her containers and then I can put the leftovers into 50lb bags. I made a 6,000lb batch so I do have plenty.   

My neighbor who goes by Radiant Pony on Facebook marketplace and because of that I will never be able to remember her real name, likes my Weed&Feed mix. After an initial slight over dosage why resulted in her horses craving doritos and Peter Tosh music we have a solid plan. It pelletizes very nicely. My Mexican customers love the fact that it makes the next feed batch reek of chronic. That has boosted sales in the past.

 

I see interesting things on my walks. 

 

I get a little distracted on my walks. I have been pulling annual ryegrass out of the new alfalfa field. Then I started walking down to the river to see if I could shoot a nutria. But I get distracted there as well. No nutria were harmed in this walk.

 

 

Someone was tapping trees for Maple Syrup and forgot about it for a year or two. Aunt Jemimiah would never forget... Uncle Ben would remind her...

 

This target is dead. Looks like three different caliber. Upper right is a nice group of large holes. Someone was pretty accurate on the head. Maybe a little aggression there. Pretty sure the dude did not survive...

 

 

I load my bags of feed on an old truck and park it in my neighbor's barn. I rent his field and his barn. Sort of. He borrows my tractor and stuff and I attempt to pay him rent. Sometimes I forget. Sometimes he won't take money. This really annoys his uncle who apparently is a part owner in the property. Periodically he interrogates my brother on the rental agreement and what happened to the choker cables his dad left in the barn 70 years ago that have been missing for 35 years. Sometimes he corners me. I like to be vague about it. If he really annoys me I ask him if I need to just pay him directly and then he does the whole passive aggressive, "I don't want any money just want to make sure my nephew has money." Then I tell him I think I saw those cables last year and give some vague location. He thinks I stole them. I think he stole our logging tongs.

Part of his passive manipulating bullshite is to have some sort of anchor vehicle in the barn. He had a IH dozer in there for years but his nephew kept using it and so he took it to his house. Now he has this POS GMC Astro Van. It is white, perhaps his plan is to give out candy, I don't know. He says he is going to restore it. Astro Vans are hot collector items I know that for a fact.

I set up wood blocks so when I back into the barn with one dirty mirror in the dark I don't hit his pristine van. Apparently the wood blocks moved... The first time it happened I knew it. I was idling back in low low reverse and I hit it. So I set up the wood blocks. Apologized and all that. However, I have been hitting it on a regular basis. I honestly don't see how I did it. I am so confused I wonder if someone is going into the barn when I am not around and hitting the van. I really did not do this on purpose. This is actually embarrassing. I would rather be a vandal than a bad driver but I suppose I will just have to embrace the latter.

 

I'm walkin...

 I've got twenty pounds in a backpack and I am doing 3.5 miles a day... Cuts into my sitting in my chair looking at blogs time in a big way. Not my favorite thing to do. Have not lost any weight. I just walk 45 minutes one way and turn around and go back. Ends up being three to three and a half miles. 

Kind of boring.

Speaking of walking...

 

Trying to get a sponsorship from Mt. Olive Pickles so I thought I would do my own virtue signalling in honor of the 4th of July

 

I would like to do a change.org petition to encourage the Mt. Olive Pickle company to bring back their flagship brands! Even Poseur Twats (official term with civilized spelling) deserve acknowledgment for past accomplishment.

I think it is pretty funny that the political wing that elected a dude with a Nazi tattoo in Maine is afraid of a flash of the old red and blue. 

In honor of the great heritage of Mt. Olive pickles and their love for the workers. (see previous link) I thought I would post the Frederick Douglass Fourth of July Speech from 1852 as read by Richard Pryor

 

 

Oops! Sorry! wrong comedian. I mean as read by James Earl Jones... So you have to check out the intro by PBS. Sometimes you need to go back to PBS just to see what a total bunch of boomer commie idiots they all are. Oh my, did I string together to many synonym for "Douche Canoe..." 

 

If you really want to put yourself to sleep this fourth of July, here is a link to the printed text. Just think, this lead to the invention of Rap music. (CLICK HERE) I didn't really mean to be disrespectful. He makes so really good points, there are great quotes.

“Fellow-citizens, pardon me, allow me to ask, why am I called upon to speak here to-day? What have I, or those I represent, to do with your national independence? Are the great principles of political freedom and of natural justice, embodied in that Declaration of Independence, extended to us? and am I, therefore, called upon to bring our humble offering to the national altar, and to confess the benefits and express devout gratitude for the blessings resulting from your independence to us?” 

Happy illegal fireworks day! 

 

Just walk it off... I walk three miles, I make feed, I complain about White tractors, I find a rock, I live a life of excitement and thrills, I should be a self-help book

I feel exercise is pretty much overrated. I have been walking 3 miles a day. It takes me an hour and 15 minutes. If I stop and pull weeds out of the new alfalfa field it takes me an extra half hour. 

Today I skipped. I had no motivation. I got another lecture on the beauty of the Dolomite mountains and I kept thinking, "4,000 feet up to see another tree..." I do like trees. I look at them every day. Rocks are nice as well. Sometimes I find interesting rocks on my walk. I should fly 15 hours and climb 8,000 feet and see different rocks, AND trees!

Pushing oneself to take another step is also great. A personal triumph every time. Yesterday I made my three miles in record time. The last mile I did in 18 minutes. But I really had to poop. That was a wonderful reward to the last mile, however, I could have had the same reward by having an extra cup of coffee and not getting out of my easy chair until I was in danger of going blind.

Not to be negative. Just saying...

The weather has stopped hay making. We are done with grass and starting on alfalfa again. Also have oats that are losing a race between reaching proper height and dogfennel. Dogfennel hay doesn't sell well even if  call it Camomile hay and say it is medicinal. The cows will eat it as I just up the rate of molasses I apply with my gatorsprayer. I have 1000 gallons of molasses, might as well use it.

I made 10,000lbs of feed. Sold 6,000lbs. I had 7,000lbs in orders. None of those people actually bought pellets when I notified them as promised. However, another fellow bought 3,000lbs of ground mix and I sold 40 small bags of Super Chick N. 

Now I am out of oats. 

Working on the POS White 2-105. POS should be an official White model. Maybe it is just a generic term for White Tractor. I hope they do not have White tractors in Italy. Probably lots of the POS Fiat that is the POS White 2-60. Perhaps I will meet an Italian farmer and we can talk about how much we hate AGCO. That would be nice.

The POS 2-105, has an internal hydraulic leak. I figured when hydraulic oil ran out of the gearshift  it was time to pull the PTO. But then I looked at a book. This is always a mistake. It could be the charge pump. In fact it probably should be the charge pump because I just rebuilt the POS PTO.

Apparently I forgot an O-ring. 

I pulled the top drain plug. I put a gauge on the pressure line to the PTO. It has 200lbs and oil runs out the drain hole when I run the PTO. It continues when PTO is in neutral. It stops when PTO is in brake. 

This was an important test. Not sure what it means exactly. But, we couldn't do it on the tractor because the lever seems to go into the brake position, but because this tractor is the POS model and someone stuck the PTO lever though the 3-point lift lever hole, it will never actually go into Brake when you are running the tractor.

Maybe I can get a nephew to work on the PTO. They are better mechanics.

I found rocks on my walk. AI says the bottom one is a sharpening stone. I don't know. Top one has quartz in it. I returned them to the field.

The POS 2-155 has a flat front tire. We had Superior Tire Service come out to fix a different tractor tire. I over filled the tire so I could move the tractor near their truck. They couldn't figure out where the leak was because the tire was not flat. Meanwhile air is hissing from the valve stem and around the bead. I would not say they are complete idiots. I mean, they found the farm...

This was Tuesday's walk I think. Yesterday I did about the same but walked a little faster. Pulling annual ryegrass out of the new alfalfa cuts my speed per hour. 

 

What I need to do is find a sponsor for my trip. I have read about the high principles of the Mount Olive Pickle company. Perhaps they would sponsor me! I am partial to the Little Rebel dill variety. 

Apparently the Little Rebel label was dropped after the Southern Poverty Law Center had to drop its support for the label. Too much Turmeric I suppose...

 

I decide to do excercise for the first time in my life...

Today I walked 3 miles in an hour. I forgot to shut off the tracking so it shows the half hour it took me to make breakfast. Probably did 3 miles in an hour and 15 minutes.

 

Two miles was not a big deal. But I can feel the extra mile. 

The main problem is that it takes an hour and I have a pretty hard time dragging my lazy arse out of bed in the morning anyway, not to mention dragging it out to go walk for an hour. I should pack a gun and then I would be a "hunter." 

I saw a coyote this morning. He was catching mice in the ryegrass field. This is an excellent use for coyotes. They don't wake me up now that I have that idiotic sleep apnea machine. Don't hear anything but the plastic lung hissing all night.

It rained last night. The hay is inside and now I have to make feed. Customers have been calling. I need a hobby that doesn't involve noise and dust, or if it does, fun enough to make it worthwhile.

I checked out my instagram while walking. First time in a month. I was going to post alfalfa pictures or look for more Minneapolis-Moline tractor videos.

To my great surprise and somewhat embarrassment my feed was filled with busty girls in leather swimsuits splitting wood. I sincerely would like to know what algorithm produced this result. (Mostly so I could continue it) 

The outfits do seem impractical but they seriously put effort into the swing so I would give a thumbs up!

I don't really understand Instagram.

I generally post pictures of the Moline G1355 cutting hay or driving the Gator into large mud puddles. One would think this would result in similar suggested content. But no...

For a while I got videos of Scandinavian women pushing hay forks on steep hillsides. That was nice as well. Before that were cute girls who were daring each other to touch electric fences, (ok I might have searched for that one)

These seem to be pretty specific niche markets which I have not been searching for. In fact I did not even know they existed. 

I wonder if I talk in my sleep and my phone is listening...? 

But I digress... 

 

Alfalfa bloom when I first started walking and rain was predicted ten days out.

Alfalfa Bloom yesterday morning. It is pretty much 100 percent bloom. The oat field I was going to take for hay is short and in milk stage. We have two-three days of showers.

 

This morning's view of the alfalfa bloom. Looks like deer have discovered the blooms. Some of it is going down from the rain. I wish it would actually rain more than .10 inches. Perhaps do some good.

 

 

 

I am agreeable for five minutes and it bites me in the arse... More adventures

What a week...or two

The hay went from top quality to over ripe essentially in two days. Now it is crap and the last hundred acres seems to be a record yield...

I am waiting for my doctor appointment. Getting my hip looked at as it still hurts from the break two years ago.

I was optimistic for one week and that got me in a lot of trouble. Every morning I need to wake up and say to myself. "Today I will say no..." Just a good way of living my life.

My friend from high school has been bugging me for a year to go on a "walk," though the Dolomite Mountains in Italy, in September.

I said no...

Because, while it may be the trip of a lifetime it is not the trip of my life time. 

September is when I do all my straw baling. We have at least 300 acres of ground to work and plant. I want to get a new dog and don't want to leave it a month, I don't like Italian food, if I wanted to go somewhere I don't speak the language I would got to Mexico, I do not care about pushing myself to hike ten #$%^&*ing miles a day, I do not know anyone from Yale or the Yale crew team, and if I want to look at where my lime comes from I would just drive by the @#$%^&*ing lime shed outside of McMinnville.

I would love to go to Ireland (might even hike there), go to England and see the guy with the little farm that makes berry scoops, go to Canada and see if Ralph would take me for a ride in his Mercury, go visit my friends in Florida and see the Christmas program at the Chicken Church, go to fishing with my friend Tim, go to Christmas Valley and fix a tractor, go to California and buy another Landcruiser with my friend Mark.

If I wanted to work out every day I would do I so I could go motorcycle riding in the woods with my brother. In fact, I need to fix three motor cycles so I could go riding, which is a thing that does bring me actual pleasure.

But no...

I went all Rick Steves on myself and said yes... Chance of a life time. My friend said he would pay... 

Then I got the itinerary, I am back on the group chat. I realize that this is some sort of push yourself to succeed BULLSHITE and I really don't want to walk a fecking eight miles a day in the mountains, dress like a fecking tourist, bond with people, spend money, be in new uncomfortable situations with little return on emotional investment. 

Everyone I tell is laughing about it. 

I am just sort of low level angry.

Started walking. Did two miles a day with no problem. 

My daughter says I have a bad attitude... 

Walking to the river and back in the morning is great. But I have bales on the ground I should be stacking or I should be making feed. I don't have time for exercise for exercise sake. I stacked bales yesterday, that was exercise, I walked a mile to my pickup Tuesday, that was exercise, I pushed in the clutch on the stacker 5 million times yesterday, that was exercise, I saw a tree yesterday, it was scenic...

 UPDATE: Orthopedic doctor says I have arthritis. Says it is a crime against humanity for me not want to go hiking the Dolomites and she won't remove my pins because then I couldn't go... I have to wait. Got a mini lecture from my doctor... 

Her: "You are a farmer, you can do 8 miles a day..."

Me: "But I am lazy..."

Her: "Right...." 

The best addition I made to my Great Plains drill (other than a Loupe Seed Monitor)

The Great Plains 1500 grain drill has one very frustrating short coming. The small seed cups are unprotected and if it rains they get wet. This is especially frustrating if you are planting clay coated seed. The coating melts and makes a sludge in the bottom of the seed cup which plugs up the plastic fluted feed and you have to pressure wash the inside of the small seeds bin to actually get it clean. Super frustrating when using the small seeds to drop slug bait when no-tilling. 

A couple years ago I got a local tent and awning company to make me a fitted grain drill cover. It was expensive but it is essential when it rains and you have seed in the drill. It is made so it folds down over the front and back and has cutouts for the flashers. It folds back up into a compact square and I have a place to store it on the drill.

It rained last night. Not really enough to do much good. But the threat of rain was enough to speed up the hay baling operation significantly.

Unfortunately we still have another 140 acres to go and everything is turning color. It is supposed to be 90 degrees by the end of the week so that will be the end of nice pretty grass hay.

I am trying to plant alfalfa. We had to wait on lime and I didn't get it planted early like I wanted to do. I also decided to water the ground before planting. The plan was to plant into the moisture rather than plant into dry dirt and then irrigate. This was a solid plan but then I needed to do hay and then I started seeing a broad leaf sprout so I decided to harrow it all again. I should have waited till the rain was past and then I really would have had a sprout to work up but I got in a rush because I thought I could plant yesterday.

But then there was a flat tire, and apparently there is something in the fuel tank because the tractor kept dying when I turned right, then it completely quit and it took me an hour to bleed the lines and get it started again.

I planted 10 acres of Teff but didn't start on the alfalfa as I didn't want to plant the alfalfa in the dark. 

This morning I got to the field just in time to tarp the grain drill. Spent the rest of the morning working on hay equipment in the rain.

 

It is going to be a great day I can feel it in my bones

The week loomed but failed to inspire me into great production levels. So far I have not accomplished what I should have but more than I would have. It sounds better on paper than it looks in real life...

I finished working 25 acres for alfalfa. While the neighbors endlessly flogged 200 acres. I got tired of moving clods the size of small pebbles around and got the Nephew to put out irrigation. Of course it turned out there was considerably less hose on the irrigator than we thought so that kind of went south...

Yesterday I cut 20 more acres of alfalfa. Some of it was getting very rank and had annual ryegrass choking it. The alfalfa in the picture is short and light green with yellow tinged leaves. Might have a little bit of a deficiency. I of course can't remember the blend I used in the spring. 0-0-50-18? Should probably add more, also write things down and not lose the tablet. Of course the Weather forecast on the TV this morning says possible showers Wednesday. Maybe I should cut the 30 acres of red clover also. If you are going down people enjoy the show more if you add flames.

Big Old Jetliner, was circling the farm yesterday. Probably signal jamming my GPS so my field lines are crooked as some sort of a nefarious plot to disrupt my sanity. I showed them as my sanity was already disrupted and I can't drive straight regardless of GPS. If I had autosteer I would probably still auto wander...

 

 

The week looms ahead of me

I need a service truck. An air compressor mounted on a Chevy Luv trailer is not the ideal setup. 

Over the years I worked off the farm all my farm equipment suffered. Especially my service truck, a 1989 Ford F250 with a 460. (Lack of exhaust plumbing under the engine seems to have confused the O2 sensor and my helper put the front wheel drive assembly together wrong. And something is wrong with the electrics so it doesn't start reliably and shuts off randomly while driving)

I left the grain drill next to the field I need to plant. It had two flat tires. On the same side. The two tires I just had repaired.

If only I was not lazy and would get more work done...

This week, need to spray weed patches with Gator Sprayer, Plant alfalfa, make cow feed, cut hay, fix brakes on Moline 1355, fix rain spout so my wife can steal water from the state of Oregon for her garden, fix the tire on my LN8000, and clean my shop.

If I do one thing on the list it will be a success...

 

I observe how to farm in the modern way

I have been watching the megafarmer's helper work ground next to my hay making misadventure. It is amazing and depressing at the same time.

This is probably 300 acres of river bottom ground and they are flogging it hard. I think it is going in to corn again.

They started with one of those huge John Deere articulated tracked machines and like a 20 foot disk ripper. Ripped it at least twice and now using second one with a heavy harrow and roller set up to smooth and break clods.

Earlier in the week I watched the tractor operator dig mud out of the rolling baskets behind the ripper at one end of the field, while raising dust at the other end and could see where this was all going. 

The ground is in the dreaded golf ball round clod stage and has no moisture, but I don't think it is going to matter, with that much weight and horsepower, it will break down.

If it doesn't, they will just plant the corn into dry soil and apply so much water that the ground melts together. The cost and time do not really matter. 

My neighbor that owned the place was one of the really good old school farmers. He has been gone a good ten years and the ground is rented out for a lot of money.

I remember him out at my Uncle's farm store at coffee time talking about working ground. Talking about the different soil types on his farm. The good Chehalis soil by the river and how to work the heavy clay Wapato on the wet ground. 

Back when a really big tractor was 110hp, and irrigation was hand lines or a big awkward Vermeer, knowing how to work your ground was incredibly important.  

You didn't work up more ground then you could get packed back down before it dried out. If you were under a dust cloud when spring farming, you were in trouble.

I actually bought his 16 foot equipment and have been using it to work up 20 acres to plant alfalfa. I thought I was doing it wrong when I plowed 30 acres and let it get a little too dry on top. In fact I am fighting that problem with the alfalfa ground.

But the newer and better farmer is doing 300 acres at once and that is modern efficiency. I keep thinking of my farming advocate neighbor who likes to quote USDA stats about how one modern farmer produces more that 20 old time farmers. 

I think it is more like one modern farmer has displaced 50 farmers who knew their land and lived their local farm existence. 

Progress... 

I am watching out the window of my ancient New Holland 1085 stacker as my neighbor works ground the right way. I have a friend that keeps sending me Tristan Swartz videos where he talks about his small scale dairy farming. The old ways are never coming back.

 

 

 

I fertilize oats but have adventures along the way. Probably more of a quest for fertilizer rather than a trip for fertilizer

Some years ago I purchased a 1972 Ford LN8000 with a 6-71 Detroit diesel, 13 speed, tandem axles, 24ft bed. It is loud, rough rough riding, and it is getting long in the tooth. I can't remember when I acquired it. Probably 15 years ago. (The earliest reference I found on this blog for  Detroit 6-71 was in 2011.)  I bought it off of Craigslist. Got a good deal because the car battery the guy was using, wouldn't spin the engine fast enough to start, and there was an air leak in the shifter so it was stuck in low range.

It is bad enough that the nephew quit using it to haul hay. Kept falling through the holes in the bed I suspect. I have been using it haul fertilizer. I got stuck when we had the thunderstorm and got 2” rain in 15 minutes.
The front tires sank to the axles in the hay field so I just left it until I could get help to get it out.
A month later, someone got it unstuck and drove it out to the field road.

Only problem was the left front tire was flat came off the bead.
I had to get fertilizer so I ended up fixing it.
I couldn’t get a jack under the axle with the tire flat. I was a little worried about taking the forklift down the hill with no brakes.  Then I had a grand idea! 

The Crane Truck.. 

 

I lifted the left side off the ground, found a can of starting fluid and a lighter and popped the tire right back on. Only a small amount of flames. Pretty slick concept really.

The next day I topped off the air and set off to get fertilizer. 

Our formerly local cooperative, which is now owned by some company from Idaho, has decided to rebuild the local fertilizer plant. Apparently the new thing is to close all the small plants and move to one big location so as to be less convenient for 80 percent of your customers. Great idea! 

Since I had to drive a half hour to the other soon to be closed location, I just continued on another ten minutes to the competition who are slightly cheaper. 

On the way a wasp nest dropped off the sun visor on me.  

I killed it. 

Then my neighbor called me and somehow I ended up driving right past the dealer whose box I was using and driving 2 miles out of the way to get one bag of of Orchardgrass seed that turned out to be $200 for 50lbs. Of course they only take cash or check…but I have cash from chicken feed so no worries. Maybe I will get a planting job.

I had to pickup 6,000lbs dry 40-0-0-6 (urea based) and 400 gallons liquid two different types in 350 gallon tanks. 
The guy at the fertilizer plant had a tic. He would suddenly, and with no provocation, jerk his head to the right and go “uurrrrp!”
Scared the heck out of me the first time it happened. Of course I jumped and turned to see what he was looking at.
Freaked me out. After that I pretty much managed not to react. Nice guy I didn't mean to be a jerk.

But I digress... 

Now, you need to keep in mind, It was a good half hour drive to the fertilizer plant in a 1972 Ford LN8000 with a loud under powered Detroit 6-71 engine and a 13 spd transmission that you have to shift for every little hill to maintain 54 mph.

Right out of the yard the shuttle tanks I was using to hold fertilizer started sloshing so bad I thought I was going to lose one off the side. 10-34 fertilizer is like 13lbs to the gallon, so 200 gallons sloshing is a big deal.
I stopped and added straps. Not a big deal but the winches did not line up with the tanks. I finally found some clamp on winches in the bottom of the tool box. Now I am one my way.
So, I took off down 99W and about 2/3 of the way home the accelerator goes to the floor and won't return. Later I was to discover that the alternator broke off and fell on the throttle causing the diesel engine to run wide open. Not a big deal as it is an old Detroit 6-71 and you pretty much run it up against the governor anyway. BUT To shift I had to reach down and pull up on the accelerator pedal. 

A bit dicey in downtown Amity… 

When I got home I popped the hood. 

A few minutes with the welder and I am back in business. Of course the tire went flat again so there is that... 

Spreading fertilizer on oats for hay. I should have spread fertilizer and then planted through the fertilizer but wasn't able to coordinate getting a spreader. We really need a working fertilizer spreader. Hopefully we have enough days left for good growth on the oats.

 

 

Adventures in oil changing

Well, that went badly...

I think this picture speaks for itself...

 

 

Election day and attempting to make hay

Two things that are depressing in life...

Watching the election cycle and making hay when you know it is going to probably rain in five days...

The election is predictable doom and so is rain at hay season.

I cut 25 acres of meadow foxtail and timothy hay yesterday. Some of it was so heavy I cut at 3.5 mph with a 150hp tractor. CaseIH DC103 mower which is 10 foot cut.

I added up the acres left and realized we have over 200 acres of grass hay to do. I probably should say "I" as the nephew has other things to do. Like welding stuff in the shop and combining and driving truck and delivering hay.  Its not like I can just send him off to cut and then fart around the shop anymore. 

I can't do 20 acres and then wait a week for a good weather forecast, I need to cut 20 acres every day so  there is always material to bale. 

The elections always go badly. I voted for Trump because I despised the alternatives. I voted for local candidates not because I liked their ideas or claimed policies but because I despised the alternatives.

So you just get further behind in politics and the hay will be crappy.

I have been listing to the radio. This is a mistake. I started "Dune," on Audible and I should stick with that. I was also listening to a Carl Jung book about repressed memories and how the mind manipulates itself to cover trauma. That was too depressing... I do not want to remember my alien abduction. (Or do I???)

But, I digress...

I find the Trump/Conservative Police State attack on Thomas Massie and their promotion of Ed Gallrein pretty depressing. They are lying about Massie who has consistently voted for conservative issues but has stood against big bills with sketchy things hidden in them, and Trump's troubling promotion of spending, surveillance/secrecy and bone headed foreign policy moves.

Honesty, Donald Trump campaigned on opposition to the CIA and the "deepstate," and the CIA and the "DeepState" got him into an unwinnable war with the most insane people on the planet. Of course it could be true that Iran almost had the bomb and "was weeks away..." But looking at the totally fabricated reasons we got into nearly every conflict since World War Eleven, I am going to be a bit skeptical. 

It is interesting to see Gun Owners of America and the NRA are not supporting Gallrein. Gallrein is establishment security state Republican, typical big farmer douche, and he will tow the line for the donations.

Interesting that Massie is getting a lot of support from young conservatives. But the Republican party has never known what to do with young conservatives and that goes all the way back to the Rush Limbaugh on talk radio days and the royal screwing the Bush clan gave us. 

Now I will say this is all open for debate. What really angers me is the character assassination directed at Massie. It is fine to attack if you are pro Big Government, tax and spend, War Hawk, Security State, and so on. But, don't say he is the worst guy ever or make up crap about his girlfriends or lie about his voting record which according to the scorecard put out by the Heritage Action center for this session, he is at a 92 percent while the average House Republican is at 85. They have his lifetime score at 83 percent but I have to go work on hay so no more commentary.

Looking forward to local elections, will two more lunatics join the Yamhill County board of Commissioners or will it just one crazy vs two sort of conservative people with big ideas that will never fly?

Either way we are getting a bicycle trail... 

I am applying hay preservative. I should have done it when I cut as the stems have probably closed by now and I am only getting it on top of the windrow. But it makes me feel better. I am using a preservative that is lactobacillus in a molasses base so I just dumped in a lot more molasses and declared my program a success. Perception is reality!

 

I rant about politics and I apply hydrated lime and don't know what to do with all the paper bags it came in

Yesterday I posted a bit of frustration with the local elections. I worked ground all day and started out listening to the radio. I tried to listen to Lars but gave up. I wish he would ask good questions and get people to talk. I already know all of the Lars opinions. He gets great interviews and then fails to get the information. Just lectures the poor person on the most obvious. 

But I digress...

I was looking online and one of the posts on the Oregon discussion group was reporting low returns for Republican ballots. Of course I asked AI as it was easier than going to the Secretary of State website myself.

AI said that Republicans in Oregon usually wait till the last minute to vote and then frequently never get around to mailing in their ballots. I thought this was pretty interesting. AI also backed up the claim that Republicans were turning out in lower numbers.

This morning I asked AI again and got the reply that Republicans actually had a higher return rate so far as compared to Democrats, but Democrats had higher registration. I asked AI if they were lying and it started rambling about how AI works and voter rolls and blah, blah, blah.

SO clever man that I am. I looked up the Secretary of State Website and found out that Republicans are slightly ahead of Democrats returning ballots in my county.

Surprisingly ballot return in Multnomah County (Portland) are only 8.5% while most other counties are 10 to 14%. Basically a little higher than average turnout.

What I did discover was very interesting with yesterday's post was that my keywords brought instant results. This one of the things that is so irritating with the Republican party. Their research and propaganda abilities are pathetic. 

I got instant hits from google searches for the proper name for the trail. Also for the country and commissioner race. I also suspect someone has some sort of trackback activated for links to their pages. I did not get the idea the traffic was coming from "conservative sources."

In fact, this is one of the reasons the commissioner races is important. The "progressives," I guess you would say, seem to have a well funded cooperative network for funding and cross promotion. The "trail" is a great example of this. Media savvy people have gotten news coverage in a number of liberal/conservation outdoors and recreation pages. (Also, editorials like this one.) I suspect they have pretty serious funding. 

I know the TrailsPac has gotten enough signatures to put at least one ballot measure on an upcoming election and they have a pretty slick promotional campaign.

The opposition are farmers with limited fundraising abilities and the local crazy Republican cranks who probably do more harm than good.

But, the 6 people who regularly read this blog really don't care...

Yesterday I worked in lime.

Working in lime is a generally satisfying job. Until the transmission cooler line blew out showing the windshield with hydraulic oil. I worked it two directions before the rain showed up last night. It was nice to just sit in a tractor for a day.

 

We got this deal on Hydrated lime that was used for storing apples. Apparently apples continue to respire after picking and the Hydrated lime absorbs the CO2.

The lime is in 55lb bags and on pallets. It seems to be somewhat solid like it has absorbed water but breaks up easily.

This is pretty potent stuff. I wonder if I were to do it again, I wounder if you could just put two/three pallets per acre on unworked ground, dump the pallets, push the bags around with a front end loader and then hit them with the cover crop disk and drag harrow a few times, chisel it maybe, or vibrashank with a spring harrow, and then moldboard plow it to get rid of the paper bags. If it is cheap enough just use more lime to get coverage. Probably do it in the fall and then rework the ground in the spring. Take a soil test, and if it required lime in the top three inches put down a ton of ag lime.

 

My neighbor modified a litter spreader to apply the lime. He just dumped bags and all in the spreader and it chopped it and spread it so we got a lot of paper in the field.

The lime has a higher score than regular ag lime so you use less. It was kind of a pain in the butt and the stuff is seriously nasty to handle but hopefully the price difference will make it all worthwhile. Hopefully it could be a no-till trade that doesn't involve me transporting my drill 50 miles across a narrow bridge or though downtown Salem... 

I rant about the bad ideas proposed by candidates for Yamhill County Comissioners (past and present) and express dissatisfation in general

There are only a few days left to vote in a very important state wide election in Oregon. 

The genius of the Democrat Supermajority in Oregon is supporting a massive increase of licensing fees and a gas tax increase of a few cents. The few cents is not the big deal. What is a huge deal is the tripling of licensing fees. This will make it cost prohibitive to license old farm trucks that you use two months out of the year. (We talking like from $350 per truck per year, to $700 plus.)

But, I admit to putting off voting. I have been avoiding this upcoming election because I just don’t see a lot of good choices in representation locally or state wide.

I am going to vote because I think the fee increases associated with the new gas tax will be devastating if I actually paid them which I probably won’t do because I never drive my ancient trucks more than two miles from home anymore.
I am antigrowth, anti tax, anti progress, and just an all around grumpy old (oldish) fart. Emphasis on the fart. 

I do not like the choices for Judges, most of them are running unopposed. I don't have a favorite for Governor, wanted to write in Tom McCall, but seeing as he is dead, probably not much of an option, although a dead Tom McCall is probably better than a live Tina Kotax or Christine Drazen.  I have been watching the county commissioner race a little bit, but I figured there was no real choice. There are two candidates on one side who promoted by the shrill people who protest weekly out side the McMinnville Public Library. And they are two short pants wearing overly enthusiastic semi-entrepreneurs promoted by the other side. 
The “farmer” candidate made a lot of money growing and selling Weed but is the clean cut country club Republican sort (I think). Of course he also raises hazelnuts, as they all do.
The other candidate is quite interesting and very driven. He has a business making parts for VW micro busses and has invented some sort of logging equipment that he also manufacturers and he also plays country western music at rest homes. He has a lowered rat/rod/surfer style van as his mascot.
Not super thrilled about filberts and pot growers or people running for office with mascots but I suppose weed and round-a-bouts are the wave of the future and I should get on board.
As the election winds down I started getting more and more BoomerBook advertisements for actual campaign goals for the candidates.
So it came as a bit of a surprise to see that the two plans to revitalize Yamhill County were either a bicycle trail, by the love = love crowd vs a new fairgrounds and amphitheater (which will have to be on EFU land of course.) 
Now, I appreciate grand ideas somewhat in the abstract. But they always go sideways and off track and in the end you wish you would have just worked a little harder on what you had, or spent the money on lime instead of growing hemp. 
However, with this grand scheme by “Republicans,” the thing that really irritates me is the suspicion that I will have to eat my own words.
I have been anti trail and anti parks for years and now I am getting all my anti trail excuses thrown right back at me. 
In fact I was part of a neighborhood group formed to fight a proposed park at the old Whiteson landfill. An effort that really soured me on Yamhill County government and a few neighbors. Like the guy who started the neighborhood group and then used leverage from the group to sell his farm to the county for the proposed park. Or the official that just flat lied to us about the park plans. 
I was against the plan for a 17 mile trail on an abandoned rail road grade between Gaston, Yamhill, Carlton and McMinnville for several reasons most of which are not politically acceptable.

I live across a filbert field from a railroad track and I just keep thinking what a pain in the butt it would be to have bicyclists in my front yard.
I hate bicyclists. They are the most entitled arseholes on the planet, them (and flyfishermen) put the K in karen. No one wants bicyclists in their back yard. No one wants to farm with spandex clad bitches reporting every farm operation as if it were another “Silent Spring,” a book none of them have read but have seen referenced somewhere.
Secondly, I think the land should be given to the landowners as it was taken from private landowners and given to the railroads to create transportation routes. That time has past. Turn the page.
Third issue is the trail will not be maintained and possibility of it degenerating into a zombie corridor of drug addicted homeless and the needles, trash, and stolen children’s bicycles that come with them.
Fourth, the trail is supported by the culture in Yamhill County I don’t like which may be reason number one but no one reads my blog anyway so sue me…
Fifth reason, which is related to the fourth, is that the trail was the brainchild of Kasey Kulla. I voted for Kulla because ran on a platform stressing smart planning and what I thought was innovation. This means he was a progressive and having a pot farm before it was completely legal doesn’t mean you are clever, it just means you are a liberal douche. Except for my neighbor, he is a pothead and I respect that.
And finally, it is going to cost money, not really bring in money, and if it is successful, will bring more people into Yamhill County.
Now we get to the point of this long ramble…
The candidates I feel forced into voting for have mostly quashed the trail. This is good…
BUT…
Now they are promoting a scheme to build an Amphitheater and a new County Fairgrounds and all the so-called “Conservative,” leadership are doubling down on it. 
Now I have seen boondogles before, and I heard stories when I worked at a newspaper, and this one will go down in the recordbooks…
If it doesn’t result in a landslide defeat for these I dots… 
An Amphitheater will cost a lot more than a trail. If you read up on concert venue projects by cities and counties, they cost a lot of money, they take ten years to bring in money. They require infrastructure and a lot of open land. 
They require maintenance. 
The reason we need a new fairgrounds is due to this very issue. 
The maintenance budget is where the County trims the budget. That fairgrounds has been falling apart since it was built. 
Who is going to maintain, promote, manage, and fund a massive capital project for a county that can’t even fix their existing structures???
Now, I have to go to work as I have to balance my own budget and maintain my own freaking infrastructure and I can’t do it by floating a bond or putting on a show or finding getting the Rural Organizing project or cutting a deal with some developer. 
I live on chickenfeed and resentment and I suspect I am not alone...

Why can't someone run for office with the slogan, "I won't spend money and I won't do stupid shit stuff..." 

Here is my example of an idea that seemed good but in practice was not. Imagine this on a countywide scale. Perhaps picture the ancient forklift as an proposed concert venue and the ancient crane truck as Yamhill County Government and the surrounding scrap metal as the rest of Yamhill County. See how the one will NOT LIFT THE OTHER and note how both should be retired...

Edit: After realizing people were actually reading this post I thought I better clarify. The candidate with the grand plans came out and talked to me after hearing I was irritated. He is a great guy and I appreciate his vision and drive. I voted for him and his pot growing counterpart as I support party over common sense. Maybe I am secretly a democrat.

I am afraid hay is the heyday of my life or hay day? Farming with the oldies part IX

I tend to operate on the principle of setting potentially catastrophic events into action and then wasting a lot of time in a salvage operation. I think it might be a form of self motivation.

So I cut hay in April. I almost succeeded. Probably succeeded in stunting the alfalfa field for the duration of the season by cutting before first bloom. But, I got rid of the annual ryegrass for one cycle at least.

I have raked and tedded this crap every day for ten days and every day is the same. Overcast in the morning and two hours of sun at 4 p.m.

Yesterday I baled the alfalfa. (I got a whopping yield of 150 bales on 15 acres.)

I raked a few rounds and then baled to see what it looked like. I picked up a moisture tester with a bad battery. The moisture tester in the cab had a bad connection so I did not entirely believe the reading of 14 percent.

So I got my brother to bring me another tester and I raked the rest of the alfalfa. Put four windrows together so I could keep the header full. It seemed to be ok. 

I feel our future is not in farming but in a foundation for the preservation of 1970's farming techniques. People would pay good money to see how their grandparents suffered before the advent of the Corporate Family MegaFarm!

 

I baled another 80 bales of meadow foxtail grass hay. It was pretty heavy but tends to dry quickly.

I have four acres of Timothy and five acres of clover left. It looks like rain but the weather service says no.

Since I have been making chicken feed all winter and not working on equipment it was a quite fun. I was counting on the M670 Super for the baler but I killed the M670 on the pellet mill. I thought I could use the 656 Hydro but when I started it I remember that the hydro is making noise, it doesn't like reverse, and the wheel hits the PTO shield on the baler when I turn.

I hooked up the Minneapolis-Moline G1355. The 1355 has the PTO out of a G955 which drops the PTO/Engine speed setting to 1500 rpm for 540. The tractor is quiet, turns good, and who would have thunk, the AC still was charged and blew cold air. Didn't really need it but it was comforting knowing that if the sun ever came out I was prepared.

Of course the rear window was so dirty I couldn't actually see the baler so I just assume everything worked until I could see the previous row. Small things are important.

 

Minneapolis-Moline G1000 Vista tedding hay, best tractor ever made

 

Making hay in May is a bit sketchy. I am running the tedder to fluff up the windrows and hopefully get it up off the damp ground to dry out. The old G1000 Vista works really well on the tedder. Gets you out of the dust and handles it really well.

The Nephews Buy A truck and I cut hay. Over achievers are we...

The Nephews have been jonesing for a truck since they got their first Tonka Toy.

Finally, through the wonders of online auctioneering and possibly the poor judgement that accompanies that aforementioned anonymous pleasure that is the downfall of so many farmers, they are now the proud owners of a Ford LN9000 crane truck.

The new truck devours my nephew... It was a little tight getting to the battery!

 

Its a beauty!

We went and looked at it before bidding. The batteries were completely dead and the auction yard was unable to start the truck. Without starting it was impossible to lift the hood so you could only kick the tires.

Nephew crawled under the hood and was able to check the oil with was perfectly clean. The auction company claimed it was an 8 spd but it was a Fuller with a blue knob and a red flipper so that means 13 spd. It also had a fifth wheel plate mounted and a frame long enough for a dump bed.

I did look up the vin and other information and discovered that it was a special order heavy truck and most likely had a big cam Cummins 400 and a 9 or 13 speed Fuller. Crane trucks and Low Boy trucks often have lower miles and are on a regular service schedule with a big company and often are good buys. Or so we rationalized. 

We set a price and someone went just a we bit more. As will happen...

So yesterday we went after it. Took a generator and a battery charger and just let it charge for a while. I knew it was going to be a good day when the generator hit the tailgate, knocked the tail gate open, dumped charger and generator onto Highway 18. While there are a few scratches, now the electric start feature works on the generator! I am very happy with that development as I did not spend the extra $50 for the Harbor Freight extended warranty and the electric start failed after one year and three days. Aside from a wee bit of embarrassment, I would classify this a pennies from heaven, but then I am an optimist.

But I digress...

We got it started. Fired right up with minimal smoke and then cleaned up pretty fast. Might have a ticking fan blade. Pretty sure it is not in the engine. After moving the crane out of the way we discovered that the truck had been setting so long the hood hinges had corroded stuck. (Aluminum with steel pins.) 

It is not quite Minneapolis-Moline Energy Yellow. I feel the color will grow on us. The crane is cool, it is a shame to sell it.

 

No turn signals but the brake lights worked. So we drove it home.  

Truck ran great! Blinkers actually worked twice on the way home so I feel more success is in our future. 

Major Bonus! The turn signals may not actually work but deer will not cross in front of this truck. I have always wanted one of these devices but never actually have seen one in the wild

 

After playing with the crane briefly...

I hooked the mower to the Vista and cut hay. Have not run the Vista in 20 years. Nephew fixed the brakes and hydraulic pump issues. I think the mechanic nephew also worked on setting the oil pump pressure last summer.  

We have ten days of warm weather but it is April 30. This is not the time of the year when you cut hay in western Oregon.

I cut five acres of Clover that was getting a lot of radish blooming and a field of Timothy that was full of annual ryegrass and wild carrot. Hopefully the Timothy will get serious about growing and I will get a crop of hay in a month when it will probably be raining...

I really just want to keep cutting but I have not even attempted to start the stacker yet this years so I don't know.