I've been sitting in this chair for 25 minutes... I gotta go...
Last night I baked a log with the NH BC5070 small baler. Broke shear pins I didn't know it had.
The center knotter quit on the hessto 4690. It needs new knife arm, bill hook, bill hook pinion, twine disk, twine disk pinion. That's gotta be a couple hundred or more.
Of course my neighbor has also been baling steady with two balers and I have to get him caught up.
Not feeling the energy this morning, crappy hay that won't sell, antique farm equipment.
My daughter and nephews are taking a tractor safety class at the high school.
The instructor was roll over protection requirements on tractors post 1983.
She said her cousins looked at her and they just started laughing... Nothing on this farm is post 1983!
I'm going to have her as about hand clutches today.
I knew yesterday would be wonderful and so it was!
I rebuilt the a/c blower in the stacker after it failed in 91 degree weather instead of 94 degree weather!
I tested it twice...
When I installed it it sucked instead of blowing.
This was good! I removed the cover on the other side of the blower, (now called the sucker) and I had REVERSE circulation! Like reverse osmosis only with air! Yea!
And then Teddy called me that the rear tire on the baler/raker/mower tractor (only tractor we have left with 1000 rpm PTO) had deflated.
This was a good thing!
It did not deflate on HWY 99W in the middle of Amity!
It deflated right next the the highway so perhaps all these people with 2.5 acre fields that want me to do their hay will figure out why I don't return their calls.
Those almost new GoodYear Titans were junk anyway and would have failed. Might as well get it over with now.
Plus, this will give time for my daughter's sunburn to heal. No more raking for a week!
It's a great life!
Edit: More reasons to be happy! If that tire wouldn't have blown I be just a hay-cuttin fool. Zipping up and down 99w cutting half acre patches and putting the really little guys to shame!
AND...
When I took the a/c out of the stacker I found my missing snickers bar!
I lost it only five years ago. It has been just out of reach ever since. Bet it will go good with one of those random cups of coffe I see setting around!
Update #3
Should not have eaten that snickers. Or was it the coffee?
The temperature is going to drop but no rain!
I am so fortunate as last night, just as the temperature dropped, the air conditioning fan on the stacker filled the cab with aromatic smoke. This also was a benefit as the smoke should have killed all the funny moths that are hatching in the cab filter!
It was also good fortune that we found out why the power take off on the MM G1355 failed and the mower plugged up. After my brother worked very hard rebuilding the PTO in one day, I hooked the mower to the tractor (actually I hooked the tractor to the mower) and gave it a try.
Horrible grinding noises ensued.
This was good because it frightened away the annoying doves and caused the coyotes to hide.
It is also fortunate that it is the bearing on the bottom roll with the pulley and gearbox in the way because we needed to learn how to take the mower apart.
Now I am going to go stack perfect hay for my neighbor who was able to cut his hay early. This is good because if I had good hay I would get all "high and mighty" and snub my neighbors. Cause that is just the way I am...
I think that later, I will improve my outlook by calling the guy who saves money by not fertilizing his hay field and who can't find anyone else to do his precious hay and tell him I am now another couple days behind.
Perhaps I'll also call MuddyValley and encourage him to smoke a cigar in what is now probably his field of straw.
Yup, I saw a TV special on having a positive attitude and I'm gonna have one!
Yea!
Cut the price by $70 per ton. It went to Canada! Who would have thunk...
Started at 4:50 am to beat the heat and so driver could beat the traffic in "stupid town." (Seattle)
A regular truck hauls eight blocks made up of 56 bales per block. Somehow this fellow squeezed in 11 bocks. Not quite sure how. Those Canadians are resourceful folks, eh Ralph?
Over the weekend I've formulated a plan. It wasn't much of a plan but a plans is helpful...
I'm going plant the Sudan grass this morning.
Finish the little corner of the hay field that is left with the swather we left in the field for a year.
Put Teddy to work on the baler.
Hope my brother has time to rebuild the extra PTO for the MM G1355.
Put the stacker back together.
Ask the fellow I'm supposed to plant for to reschedule.
Move the two silage choppers that I purchased six months ago and left at the person's farm until they were so tired of looking at them that they delivered to our farm themselves.
The two silage choppers and the totally worn out pickup I just purchased because it has A/C and good tires that will fit my four-wheel drive farm truck. Not one of my better ideas.
Go to my daughter's eight grade graduation.
Worry about tomorrow, tomorrow...
Church was good on Sunday. Daughter and I went. The pastor took on a delicate subject, and gave it a little different perspective. I'm not going into it here...
After Church I watched father-in-law while wife and daughter went to town. Mostly FIL went to sleep in front of TV.
I debated about going to visit my father but then decided to take daughter to the river instead.
I was too cheap to buy the second kayak so we took turns between kayak and inner tube.
My inner tube sank. (of course)
We attempted to paddle the kayak upstream through rapids and discovered that was impossible.
We attempted to roll the kayak and recover from tipping it over. This was a failure. I don't know how the Eskimos do it cause I would drown.
We decided that both of us could fit into the one kayak and went down river. I hit my daughter in the head with the paddle and tipped they kayak over, again...
She took the paddle away from me.
Getting back upstream was a bit of a problem.
I fell out again and so it was decided that she would paddle and I would push.
I did intend to go visit my father but suddenly we realized it was 8:30 p.m. and the afternoon had turned to evening.
So we went home and watched house hunters in Florida on FIL's direct TV.
Thought one: I grew up reading stories from the past.
I liked the USA much better in those stories.
It is easy to dismiss the people who now run this country as I-dots, but sometimes it is helpful to understand why things happen and the philosophy that influences our lives.
If is very difficult to relate education to real events. I never understood algebra but yet I am now using it. I still don't understand it but I do appreciate the need to understand it.
Likewise you don't see the point of philosophy class because it doesn't relate to everyday life, but once you see how ideas can influence your daily life then an understanding of philosophy can put a name to your frustration. If also helps you predict the ruin that is to come...
(Click Here to read Selfevidenttruths)
Thought number two: (probably a crappy idea) This man would be shot and arrested but in the days when American's had character, he became a national hero. (Click Here To read about my favorite Emperor)
Thought number four: I don't want to attend church today. The new chairs hurt my back. I want to sing hymns out of a hymnal. I do not want to see fellow farmers. They will ask me how things are going and I will have to lie. I would much rather lay under a tractor, or make a caustic comment (get it? "lye") However, I should attend church. I'm a little uptight.
I am now down to one working useful tractor. Two dead Whites, the 2-155 and the 2-135 (which has had a new engine sitting beside it for a year) and Saturday evening Teddy hit something with the mower and took the PTO out of the MM G1355.
I spent all day attempting to plant six acres of Teff with the No-till drill and the remaining 2-155. It was a failure. I planted two pounds instead of six pounds per acre. Teff is a tiny seed, sort of like sand. The difference between two and six pounds is hard to measure.
The Teff seed needs to be planted into a firm seed bed. The no-till drill made furrows with the seed pressed into the bottom of the furrow. I can't replant the field without repacking it because it will be too loose. So I must roll the field again.
I have one last grass seed planting job Monday.
But also need to repair two balers, put a PTO in a tractor, work on the stacker, plant six acres of Sudan grass which should have been done Saturday.
I also need to go visit my father in the old folks home which I also don't feel like doing.
My father-in-law has moved in with us.
The first two weeks he was fine. The last couple days something has gone off-kilter. (An actual term used to discuss dementia this is not) He has been spending a lot of time sleeping and using his spoon to play Phillip Glass tunes on his water glass and plate.
I miss my old church which I could attend and then visit my father. But attending my old church adds to the stress by reminding me of the low-level corruption and nepotism that is the rule of my denomination.
Which brings me to the other source of frustration. I took my daughter to her old school to see her friends graduate. I kept thinking of "I accuse," but should have thought of the parable of the guy who owed a debt and had it forgiven and then went after the guy that owed him ten cents.
This could be a whole post...
(Since I get hits every day from people looking through multiple google pages for references to Western M. School and I'm tired of deleting references I might as well embrace my discontent....)
I was listening to the Principal speaking and couldn't help but think. They fired the Bible teacher for leaving his door open and ruined his ability to get another job by officially labeling it Insubordination. But, the man who is now Principal gave a personal recommendation for the teacher who attended his church and who he knew had issues with young girls (I don't remember the details, the teacher in question is a really nice guy and was probably a juvenile when that happened), then after taking on that responsibility by recommending him, failed to supervise him in a known fault, which resulted in a sex abuse issue. So now the teacher is in jail, the school has a million dollar lawsuit and the man who should have known (or perhaps I should have said, took responsibility by being a reference/helping the person get a job and thus assuming responsibility) is now Principal.
Kind of interesting. There were people on the WMS school board who potentially/probably knew about the past issues as well. (which is not to say I don't think people should have second chances, I had heard about the past issues but did not tell anyone who I knew would have to report this as I like the teacher in question and believe that what you do as a kid does not absolutely set your course for the rest of your life...)
Of course everyone will deny everything and then jump on the victim or the whistleblower. Modern Christianity is only as deep as ones wallet...
Edit: you can pretty much pick out the point I go off the rails in this blog post.
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 ?!
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