Harvesting in Spring

It finally happened today. Ran out of ground to anhydrous, so had to hitch onto the combine and pick up the flax swaths that got left out last fall. Got a good start anyway. Ground mostly firm, flax so dry it won't even register on the tester. Kind of an ugly sample though. Laying out all winter did not do it any favours. Hopefully someone will want to buy it.

It was a long day but went by quickly as tractor work so often does when I"m totally immersed in the job. Watching out for mud, straw wrapping on shafts, pickup stalling and rolling up swath like a snowball. Flax straw hitting the cylinder with a might thump but the John Deere posi torque drive pushing it through. Watching for deer antlers laying in the swath (found one). To be continued..

Spring Update

Just a quick update as I stop to eat dinner before heading back to work. This picture shows the nice scenic sky and surroundings where I was working in the "hundred acre woods" last Friday. I was not appreciating it fully as I was busy under the hood of the tractor attaching a (hopefully) repaired fuel line. I was in the process of loading up rocks from a pile my grandfather and uncles made many years ago. Using them to dump in a mudhole on the prairie trail which has become our only access due to flooding.

It still needs a lot of work but I ran out of time and its time to hook onto the anhydrous rig. Of course another holdup there. Nothing that $200 worth of hydraulic hose can't fix and hopefully I will get started later today.
I have a few thoughts on the beaver derby vs: tree huggers debate here but I better not start on that now.

April 17, 1952

Today, April 17, back in 1952 my dad and Uncle Sandy were harvesting wheat swaths that had laid in the swath all winter. . The wheat was dry and still reasonably good quality considering it laid out under the snow all winter. The field was still muddy in places and required a little help from an extra tractor at times. As seen in the photo, Dad's John Deere D standing by to help. Sandy's LA Case on the combine. No trucking here, they just unloaded the combine hopper straight into the grain bin in the background.

I wondered if I might re-live history and combine the flax I have left in the field from last fall on the same date. Not too likely for a few more days though. The fields are still too soft to stand the weight of heavy equipment. Getting stuck in the mud and breaking things is a way to ruin my day. 

Odds and Ends Of Progress

This one is mostly for my own future reference so to those that are quite sick of reading more about my escapades with rusty old iron I make no apologies.
Have to admit that facebook and the internet has been a huge help in this and other projects over the years. Some more experienced Ford fixers on facebook were able to post pictures of the elusive clips I needed to remove to get the inner door handles off the 52 Mercury (without breaking them). Today I was finally successful at finding and removing them. There is a special tool for the job but as usual I improvised with a small hook and a hack saw blade.  And then the door panel. This allowed me to remove the outer door handle (the screws are inside the door) and see why the push button on that handle had never worked for years. I guess somebody figured if the door would not open we just need to push harder on the button or maybe tap it with a hammer. It was obvious the little white metal backing plate for the push spring had broken and was flexing far enough that it would not push the button back out. JB Weld to the rescue again and I think that should hold it just fine for my purposes. White metal is pretty unforgiving when it comes to bending or straightening so I'll just glue it up and call it good.
There must have been nearly half a shovel full of dry, rusty dust and dirt in the bottom of the door. Just imagine sitting outside with rain running down the glass settling in that dirt to rust out the metal. The benefits of indoor parking are obvious.
Now if I can get the window crank to open the window, un-stick the lock button, maybe make a new inner door panel?
I'm trying to post a picture of it but blogger is really fighting me on it today. Probably end up with a duplicate.

Ice On The Window

And snow on the way. The light rain overnight froze to the window and is predicted to turn into several inches of snow as the day progresses. Pretty ugly weather but it is nothing unusual for Sask. in spring.  Good thing I took advantage of the record high temps of the past weekend and went for a short drive.

I Have Brakes (And I Have Rats)

So its a good news/bad news kind of post today. All those new brake parts on the 52 Mercury are gradually falling into place. Not finished but yesterday was such a nice day I had to take it out for a test drive. Sure enough, by pumping the brake pedal I could build up pressure enough to slow down and stop the car. Only the front wheels. The line to the rear axle was blocked and refused to let brake fluid through. It did finally break through after I re-parked in the shed. So, thats one more small step forwards.

On the down side, I thought I had squirrels in the chop bin all winter. In fact I did see one several times. But their revolting cousins, the rats, were the real culprits. Setting up a trail cam in the bin for a night showed up numerous pictures of rats in their nocturnal antics running up and down the walls. I should have known. I don't know if the 3 lazy tom cats living in the barn have caught any.
Poison bait blue blocks are out for them. As well as three Victor weasel traps. Yes you can catch a rat in a weasel trap. Also got a conibear muskrat trap set which, although it was sprung several times, failed to catch anything. The Victors remain untouched for several nights. I'm looking forward to regaining my rat-free status but its going to take a while.