Dead Wood

 Some nice weather for this time of year inspired me to get the old 730 Case and dozer blade going and clear up some of the dead, water killed trees on the farm. No, not joining the club of land clearing, progressive farmers that seem to be everywhere else. I like my trees but all this dead wood looks bad and will eventually fall into the field around the edges causing problems. 

The old Case is the tractor my uncle bought in 1964. I first got to drive it in the summer of 1970 and I guess I was pretty hard on it. A learning driver usually is. But it survived and now has a special parking spot in the shed out of the weather. Still up for any job I have for it. Clearing trees is dangerous for both man and machine but so far we are both ok. Second gear at idle speed. Slow and steady wins the race they say. I don't need to win, or even finish. I enjoy the work and thats all that matters. Steering is extremely heavy on the Case but it helps keep me warm later in the day when the temperatures drop..

A panoramic shot of the old Case parked for a rest. Hard to believe that is a creek bottom that is normally too wet to drive in. Its that dry this year. 

Cutting Bulrushes With the 730 Case

Finally got some editing done of the huge file of Gopro video I have featuring the old 730 Case and me cutting down bulrushes. It was a sunny warm day, just what I need for riding my uncle's old tractor on the land he used to farm. Bulrush fuzz was in the air and plugging up the grille and radiator on the tractor. It required occasionally stopping to clean it off. Made quite a clearing but now I have to see if I can burn it.

Saw the first snow flakes of the season today. Not anything to accumulate but a sign of whats to come. I think we will get a few more good days yet.

Heat

I know its nothing compared to what they get in India or Australia but today felt way too hot at 90F. That is about 34C for those that speak metric only. Not so bad if you can work in an air conditioned cab but this morning I was out in the open air on the 730 Case. Leveling some of last year's combine ruts left in the field. Pushing a beaver dam off the edge of the field and doing a little road grading where the municipality left it way too rough for my liking.
If provincial crop reports are right, we are officially in a drought now. The media do love to make a good story better but there are some areas that are truly suffering. This heat won't help.
Spent part of the afternoon in the relative comfort of 80 degrees in the workshop adapting the new seat to the Merc. Got it set in place but not bolted down. Maybe it was just the result of a long hot work day but that seat sure felt comfortable when I gave it a test before shutting down for the day.

Rain Delay

Yes, 10 mm or just under a half inch rain this morning has given me a break from tractor driving. The past week has been kind of a blur of activity with a lot of seeding progress. Trees turning greener by the hour. Grass shooting up out of the ground like magic. Things change quickly this time of year.
Canola all planted and hopefully germinating as I type. The last of the wheat went in last night. Just a day past the traditional 24th of May target we used to go by to finish planting wheat. Not bad considering the late start. Cold days turned hot with a couple of 30C days that had me complaining about the unusual heat.
According to the file info I took this picture on May 22 while filling the air seeder tank. Water levels being higher than ever this year on that particular farm meant I could not drive far off the highway with the loaded truck. Makes for extra driving back and forth to fill the air seeder but better than getting stuck.

Just have to brag a little about Case-IH batteries. The "Magna-start" batteries in that Magnum tractor just turned 16 years old on May 16 recently. I would not believe it if I did not have the service record and date in my own hand writing. That is about double the normal life of a battery in farm equipment. 

Interstate makes a good battery too. The "Workaholics" in my CIH 1660 combine will be 15 years old later this summer and were still working fine last harvest. 

Seems like no particular brand can claim to be the best though. I've had some poor service from Co-op batteries but I also have some old six volt Co-ops that are setting records for longevity too. The one on the Cockshutt 40 I installed in 99. Still going strong all year round. The pair in the 730 Case I don't know for sure as my uncle installed them. Considering he died in 2002 I know the batteries are at least 12 years old, maybe more. 

Now I will probably go out tomorrow, turn the key and find the batteries have suddenly died. :-(

On The Road With The 730

Yes, another boring old tractor video. This old 730 Case and I have a history dating back to the mid 1960s when my uncle bought it "almost new" for his main field tractor. It was a big diesel tractor in those days and quite a step up from the Farmall M.
 I got to know it better in the summer of 1970 when I was hired to work my uncles's summerfallow fields. Health problems had kept him from doing any work on these fields that spring. Good summerfallow needs to be started on by mid June at least. By July it becomes a challenge with the big weeds that are taking over. By the time I got to it in August it was almost like breaking new prairie sod, except with much more weed growth that constantly plugged the John Deere cultivator I was using to work it. That 16 footer was a good load under normal conditions but in these extreme conditions it was a hard workout for the old 730 and there were more than a few times I saw the front wheels lifting off the ground as it struggled for traction as the cultivator spikes were tearing up the thick twitch grass sod. I don't recall how many fields or acres I did but no doubt by the time I finished the last one it was time to start all over again.
As a novice tractor operator I learned a lot that summer. We both survived although the tractor has a few dents in the lower fenders from the many times I jack-knifed the hitch backing up trying to unplug the weeds from the cultivator shanks.
 My uncles are gone now and the 730 is "semi-retired". A reminder of times past every time I drive it.

No April Fooling

If anyone else told me they had worked their garden on April first I'd have never believed it, until this year. We are nearly a month ahead of normal conditions with no snow left, ground drying up and buds on the trees. The garden was dry enough to work so I roto tilled part of it to help warm up the soil and might just plant some potatos in a day or so. I normally put a few early ones in the ground the last week of April but even that is pushing it as a late spring frost can destroy the plants once they are out of the ground.
I think I will risk a few although I have no doubt we will see snow again before summer is truly here.
The earliest I can recall working in the field was April 13 in 1973. As the proud driver of a "new to us" 730 Case diesel tractor I could not wait to get out and try it in the field. And that was considered pretty early to be in the field at the time.

Moving Canola July 11.

Heres a little video of what I did yesterday. Known in the industry as "turning grain", I moved some of last years canola from several smaller bins into a bigger hopper bin. It was a good day for it although I made some mistakes with the camera taking interesting pictures of the ground as I walked instead of what I intended. The canola dust bothered me a little but not nearly as much as the grass pollen did today as I sat out in the mosquito-ridden hell that is Saskatchewan outdoors this summer.
The open station IH swather offers no protection from the weather , bugs or grass pollen. I used to laugh at people who talked about "hay fever" until the past few years when I have become much more intolerant of grass pollen.
Its like a bad head cold. Between the sneezing , runny nose, itching eyes and wrists (that could have been mosquito bites) I was about at the limit of my endurance.
This swather does not do well in certain types of grass. The knife builds up with material and begins to hammer out a warning that , if not heeded, could lead to expensive destruction of the knife drive gearbox. Slow down! Although at times I was hardly moving at all. A sitting duck for the hungry mosquitos. It was a good windy day that would normally keep the mosquitos and pollen dispersed and offer some relief. Unfortunately there is so much bush on Nevardland where I was cutting that a lot of the time I hardly knew the wind was blowing.
By 7:30 I had enough and drove up onto the transporter to enter the welcome confines of the cab of the Case tractor and drive home in relative comfort.
There is quite a bit more hay I could cut there but I've already cut more than enough to keep my small herd fed for the winter so I will not be in a hurry to go back and cut the rest.
Easterly winds blowing and clouds in the west hint at rain in the near future. Not a good thing for drying hay but I can't control the weather.