Early Winter

Since winter has set in early this year I had to start feeding hay bales November first. Last year November was warmer than normal with no snow and I didn't start feeding til the last week in November. A layer of snow several inches deep makes it harder to find the frozen and dry grass that remains after the dry summer. So the cattle are appreciating the hay bales I put out. At least I hope so. If nothing else it is good exercise I guess.
I mixed up a tank of winter diesel for the old Massey so it won't gel up at super cold temps. (I hope). Shot some video of a typical day here this week.

Diesel Leaks

Man, I reek of diesel fuel after working on the Massey. As good a tractor as it is, there is not much room to work on certain places. This has been a bad year for leaks on machinery and this one has bothered me since late winter. Thought I had it soldered up last spring but no, it was leaking diesel again. Tried the old stand by JBWeld but even that failed. So today I got a different piece of steel line and with a little custom bending I got it in place. Accompanied by the steady dripping of diesel fuel on my hands at 32 degrees (that is 0C for you metric converts) my fingers pretty much lost feeling by the time I was done. Hopefully when I check it tomorrow there will not be fuel dripping on the ground.

Sunshine on the weekend inspired me to try baling some of the flax straw I had combined. Even that was difficult. After many broken shear pins on the baler , crawling along in first gear, I think I had around 200 bales done by the time darkness took over. The final shear pin broke and that was the end of the day for me.
I'm getting a sore finger from the stubborn "r" key on this laptop. Sometimes it takes intense pressure to get the letter. I'm attempting to chose words that dont' contain many "r" s but that is not always possible. I've pried the r key off and cleaned out anything that looked like it should not be there. So far I have resisted the urge to take a ball pein hammer to the "r" key but for how much longer I can't say.
Today in history, I can remember only a little about where I was on that day when JFK was assassinated. This was an interesting interview with Abe Zapruder's grand daughter

Rock Spreading With The Super 90

Trying to repair a mudhole in the prairie trail earlier this spring. Not sure if I made it better or worse.

Raking Hay, New potatoes

I've posted most of the other views of haying here so I guess it is only right to include the raking operation.

 I used the old Super 90 Massey and the six wheel Pollard hay rake to turn two swaths into one on the weekend. It saves wear and tear on the round baler. Makes a better bale I think too. Not so much need to weave side to side on the swath to get the bale even. When it is one big swath coming in slowly it just rolls up nice and even. Plus I  don't need to drive so fast and shake the baler (and myself) up. Hayfields are notoriously rough here. I broke a hitch pin on the haybine yesterday after bouncing through a deep hole.
The old Perkins diesel works as good as it ever did before the head gasket failure but the mosquitos and grass pollen take the fun out of open air tractor driving. It was good to get back in the 2090 cab to bale.
The wheat is looking great as this photo from this morning will show. There are no great canola crops around but I am reasonably satisfied with mine (in the background of the photos) considering the year it has been.

First new potatoes out of the ground today. A little later than some years but welcome whenever. Now I need to clean out the bin . Planted way too many last year it seems.

Winter Project Complete

At least I hope it is done . I think I have set a record for the longest elapsed time to replace a head gasket on a Massey Super 90 Perkins diesel engine. I drove it into the shed late last October with half the cylinders mis-firing through a burnt head gasket. It was a learning process and there were a good many times I wanted to drag it outside and put a for sale sign "as is" on it. Many days were just too cold to work in the un heated shed and the ever increasing cost of heating oil made me reluctant to start the furnace. Had my doubts if it would ever run again but in late April the Perkins cranked over and surged into life, smooth as a brand new tractor. History tells me that these engines have a weakness for burning head gaskets so I guess I was lucky to get nearly 20 years use out of it before it failed. If it last another 20, well maybe it won't matter to me.

When Will I Learn?

When will I learn, not to believe the weather forecasters ?. I don't usually consider myself a big gambler but this weekend I did. The weather man said nice weather for the next three days so I decided to wait and let the last patch of flax stand and dry out a little more before combining it. The flax I did harvest Saturday afternoon tested a bit high moisture so a little natural drying would be a good thing. As long as the sun shines and the wind blows. Monday morning woke up to clouds, cold and light snow fall. Wrong again! No harvesting today.

Well the sun did come out in the afternoon and it is looking hopeful for tomorrow except for the below normal temperature. It is getting down near 10F degrees tonight and those diesels will not be easy starters sitting out in the field with no access to plugging in block heaters. Guess I will go armed with booster cables and ether and hope for the best.
I got in a partial day of flax straw burning yesterday on the field that is finished. The heat of the burning straw piles felt good out in the cold wind. Still lots to burn when time permits.

We got the head off the little Super 90 Massey today to find that indeed the head gasket had burned through between #3 and #4 cylinders. Working on this tractor is like a jigsaw puzzle in reverse. Part A is connected to parts C and D which have to be unbolted so you can get part B removed. I will be lucky if I can remember how to put it all back together. Until then, no front end loader to handle bales.

 

Out In The Woods On A Snowy Evening.

Ok, I sort of was inspired by the Robert Frost poem, Stopping by woods on a snowy evening" the other day when I shot some of this video. It looks nice but means lots of shoveling, staggering through deep snow and spinning wheels on tractors trying to carry hay bales out to the cattle feeders. I may yet have to install the snow blower this winter.
I can't believe my luck getting 3 semis loads of grain hauled out on Tuesday, just 24 hours before this new snow fell. There wasn't a lot of snow around that day but being mild it was very slippery and the big truck needed a pull at one point to get going. That farm is pretty much cleaned up now so I should not have to push any more snow there. But never say never.
Highways are reported to be a combination of frozen rain, packed snow and dangerous driving. My old 2 wheel drive pickup has summer tread tires and likely won't get past the doors of the garage before getting stuck. My 4 WD has developed a gas tank leak and I don't want to push my luck too far driving it but may have to at some point. At least I am not dealing with mud and flooding like Budde Shepherd so I will be thankful for that.