So Close But So Far

I guess I should look on the bright side and be thankful I didn't get soaked riding home on the open tractor. It was threatening thunder storms most of the afternoon while I was raking hay but I figured why wait. I've done that before and nothing happened. There were empty grain bins I could go inside if it did start to rain heavy so I kept on til the job was done. And it didn't rain.
I even dared hope I might make it home, hitch up to the baler and come back to bale the hay. It wouldn't take long. Hay looks nice and green having had no rain at all on it.
But I guess not. I had barely parked the Massey in the quonset and I was hearing raindrops on the metal roof. It didn't amount to much but it might not be over yet. And I guess I'm done as far as baling for today. Once again I'm a day late. If it rains much I can use the time to work on repairing a major breakdown on the haybine. Just one big bearing destroyed  but a big job to take apart just to see if the roller shaft is ruined or not. If so, maybe its time to part it out and look for a replacement. This cattle hobby is getting expensive.

More Snow

After a below normal snowfall all winter we are finally getting closer to normal. Last night and today's snowfall was the biggest yet this winter. I'd guess ten inches on top of what we had before. Its heavy walking and almost knee deep some places. Some highways were closed as well as some schools. I didn't move any more than necessary as it hadn't finished yet. Maybe get the blade working tomorrow to make a few trails.
Some video of the old Massey getting around in the snow with a bale of hay. It does surprisingly well for two wheel drive and no tire chains.

Sunset Pics and Getting Stuck

Stuck in the ditch in the snow again. Same truck, same driveway almost a year apart. Last year trying to fly the new drone and drive the truck backwards on a narrow driveway. Big surprise when I slid into the ditch. This time I just mis-judged the edge of the driveway on a slight curve. No drone involved this time. I didn't have to walk a mile this time either. Never did get the sunset pictures so I had to settle for some video shot while driving the tractor.

Big Tree Down

Like losing an old friend or putting a beloved pet to sleep. I hated to cut down this big old spruce tree my dad planted well over 30 years ago. But I'd been thinking for a while now that it needed to go. So close to the house that the branches were nearly touching. Plus the risk that the roots would grow into the cement walls of the cistern and cause it to leak water. And if the high winds were to blow that tree down on the house it would do some serious damage. So I went to work with the Massey as an anchor and the Poulan saw this afternoon and it was surprisingly easy. It came down exactly where I planned it and without damaging anything. A rough measurement I figured 40 feet tall. It was a heavy load but the old Massey pulled it away even across the still wet fields.
I'm not sure why I left a six foot high stump but I can always cut it down to ground level later. Not sure either what I will do with the tree but if nothing else, there is a whole lot of firewood in that trunk.

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.

A Sunny Day to Haul Hay

It was a nice sunny day with not too much wind and "seasonal" temperatures. Since I felt the grain would be not quite ready to combine I decided to get some hay bales hauled. Big plans of two trips soon got trimmed down as complications set in. Installing the bale spear and having to re-set the brackets. A little tire maintenance, tractor needed fuel. Loading took forever as I had to carry the bales up the hill to load on a level spot. Running a tractor with no brakes means level ground is essential for loading bales. Its a ten mile round trip on an open tractor so this job needs to get done before it gets really cold.
It was the first working road trip for the Massey Super 90 this year since the head gasket replacement and it passed the test with no problems.
By the time I was home with the load and emptied the trailer it was close to sundown so that was the end of my road travel for the day. One trip down, Probably five more to go.
Nice scenery and I should have taken more time to set up this photo but didn't have much to spare. Out on the stubble field at Winstanley Grove.

It Might As Well Be Spring

Yes, its the name of  an old tune but the past few days have me believing that spring has arrived. Throw off the parka, toque and winter mitts. For part of the day anyway. Lately the lazy farmer is making me look lazy. Although I made up for it yesterday. The cleaning plant was ready to do my wheat so I had to really hustle with the old Loadstar to keep up with the cleaner. It does 280 bushels per hour and I can only haul , well, less than that. It is a ten mile drive to the plant and hard to get much speed out of the old IH truck when it loaded with heavy wheat. I kept it down to 300 bushels per trip. Time lost moving grain augers, shoveling up the last few bushels out of the bin, moving five miles to another location for the last load. It all adds up to a lot more time than I can believe. At the end of the day with close to 900 bushels of clean wheat in the bin, over 150 miles on the truck, screenings hauled to another bin, engine oil drained from the truck (it was overdue for a change) and a headache, I was glad the day was done. One more small step in getting ready for the busy season.

Loading the Loadstar in the Hundred Acre Woods

At least the weather co-operated with beautiful sunshine and above normal temperatures. Making the snow really disappear. More forecast for tonight though as the descending temperatures turn the slow rain to snow. This too shall pass.
On the Massey tractor continuing saga, no big news. Small steps forward combined with setbacks mean the tractor still sits in the shed where I parked it last October. The engine head is on and running but the fuel tank installation did not go well. A previous owner had damaged the threads on the tank outlet and I made it even worse. I don't know if teflon tape and JB weld are going to be enough to fix this one. Agco parts tell me that a new one is not available anywhere at any price.
Stay tuned, I have not given up on this one yet.

Jack's Barn

 I've probably mentioned it here before. My great uncle Jack had this gambrel roofed barn built in 1924 and it has been an impressive landmark on the countryside ever since. While taking this photo of it yesterday I suddenly realized that the cupola that sat on the roof for the past 90 years was now missing. I guess 90 years of prairie winds finally took their toll. When the snow gets a little shallower I will have to walk over and check it out.

This photo shows the barn from the same angle when it was quite new.

In other news, the Super 90 Massey is finally running. The guys at Canadian Antique Tractor forum had me suspecting the fuel pump was needing replacement and I was about ready to believe it since everything else seemed to be alright yet the engine would not run for more than a few seconds. I discovered there was air still left in the line to the primary filter in spite of all the bleeding process I had done the past two days. Once that was cleared up the engine fired up and ran smooth as ever. Finally , some good news.

A Little Diesel Smoke

Although I was not able to raise as much smoke as BuddeShepherd did with his Minneapolis Moline, I did see a puff or two out of the Super 90 Massey today. Not enough to smoke out even a few rats though. It seems that air is in the fuel injection system and so far has evaded my best efforts to bleed it out. So far I have put more diesel fuel on the floor of the shop than into the combustion chambers of the engine. Even though  I had that engine warm to the touch using the block heater. Yes , it is still winter here even though it is March 29 and this engine has never been a good starter at less than 40 degrees without pre-heating. No luck today though. It ran for a few seconds and that was all.  I suspect I have an air leak in the makeshift fuel line and tank I have rigged up for the inaugural test run.
Having better luck with the cattle though. The latest calf , now 11 days old, is looking good. In this picture from today, he has just come into the barn with the cow for the evening and laid down to relax after a day playing outside with the others.

More On The Massey

As promised, an update on progress (or lack of it) on my old reliable right hand tractor, the Super 90 Massey. After sitting in the workshop all winter,  finally got the head re-machined down to a supposedly perfect level fit with the block last week. Surprisingly enough Agco (now owns Massey) was able to supply most of the gaskets to put the engine back together. With the exception of water pump gaskets so I got out the old carving tools and gasket paper and made a reasonable facsimile that should hopefully serve the purpose when I bolt it back together.
With a little help from my brother (the real mechanic) and nephew, we got the head lowered into place and torqued down. There was a time I would have just done it myself but the recovery time for an injured back makes me think before I try these things nowadays.
A few digital pics have helped refresh my memory while trying to figure out the jigsaw puzzle of parts, fuel and hydraulic lines, etc. Daytime temperatures a little above freezing certainly make it better working conditions.
This fifty year old tractor is one of the more complicated I have worked on. Massey and Perkins liked to pack a lot of parts into a small space. In so many cases you need to remove part #A, B and C to get at part D. Its a good thing I don't pay myself by the hour or this would be quite an expensive repair job. I shot some time lapse photos of the job yesterday with the Gopro but it would not make very interesting viewing as a lot of time lapses and not much change is seen in the project. Heres one.

Sometimes I get a little sidetracked on other jobs such as this windshield wiper circuit board on the Blazer. Funny how I never remember it had a problem until it rains or the windshield needs washing. Suddenly I am reminded I need to fix that problem. A new wiper , multi function switch listed at over $600 . A new wiper motor assembly, about $132. So do I just throw in new parts in hopes one of them will be the fix? The internet came to my rescue after a little searching and apparently this is not an uncommon problem on 90s GM wiper systems. There are even instructional videos on youtube to walk me through the disassembly and repair. A few minutes with the soldering iron and I think (hope) I have it fixed .

Spring Calf

I guess I got lucky with this little guy. If it had happened two weeks earlier he would likely have froze to death.

I wasn't expecting a calf from this cow for another month or so but what do I know. Spotted her standing over a new calf yesterday afternoon. Sunny day with the temp above freezing so figured they'd be ok. Some time later I see the calf laying in mud near the cow with magpies hovering around. Not good. Old "Starvin"  is a very quiet cow but a little slow witted and not doing much of anything to help out plus I think she stepped on the calf. Luckily again it was not a long haul to the barn and I mostly carried this (not so)  little guy there so he was in a warm dry place. The cow was enticed to follow in with a pail of chopped oats as incentive.
Next (this) morning all seemed well in the barn but the calf looked , and sounded, hungry. It was trying to get up but seemed too weak and unsteady to stand so I figured a drink of milk replacer might give it strength.
By the time I got back with the pail ready to feed it, this calf was up and moving around. A little hay to keep the cow occupied and standing still allowed me to steer this little guy in the right direction and get fed with something far better than milk replacer.
In other news, the Massey Super 90 project is back on track with some actual progress made this week. I guess all it took was some warmer weather.  More to come on that.

Weather turns nice, things get busy

Well finally the weather gives us a break. Temperature soared to +20F today so I was able to do a bit of catching up on jobs that were not too attractive at below zero temps. Pumping summer diesel out of tractors , adding thinner and pumping it back in. Installing snow blower and spending hours blowing snow off my yard and driveway.
My old reliable Massey Super 90 has developed a major water pump leak so I can't use it to put hay bales out until I fix it. That looks like a difficult job so I removed the front end loader to at least improve the accessibility to the engine. Now I'll have to find an alternative to handle the big bales til the Massey is back on the job. The first option I think will be to install the bale spear on the 3 point hitch of an even older tractor. The 1953 Cockshutt 40 currently has the snowblower on it so I'll have to make that switch. Hopefully we will not get a major blizzard while I have the snowblower off. Just in case we do get snowed in I think I will install the dozer blade on the "new" tractor, my 1980 model 2090 Case. It will push snow clear into next winter and all in the comfort of a heated cab so I guess things will be under control for the time being.
I cheated a bit with this picture, its not from today, or even yesterday. In fact it was taken in 1990. Same yard and tractor (and driver) though.

Feeding The Herd

I call this picture "Feeding the Herd". I took it over the hood of the Massey on December1
when I put the first hay bale of winter out for the cattle. They were good and ready for it
and followed along all the way to the feeder helping themselves to the hay right off the
front end loader.
Theres many a day that I would gladly get rid of the whole herd of ungrateful animals, especially
when I am busy at another job and the cattle are complaining for water/feed/ needing fences
repaired.
Its also getting more difficult to keep a small herd as the new rules for cattle
identification will soon apply and all cattle sold will require electronic ear tags before
they even leave the farm of origin.
Mine are all home grown, no tags, needles, or antibiotics of any kind. If the day comes that
I have to upgrade my facilities and install electronic tags in all the cattle, that will be
when I get out of the business for good. It will be strange to break a tradition of over a
century of cattle on this farm but I guess it has to end some time.
But on a sunny winter day when the cattle are contentedly eating hay out of the feeders it
is not a bad way to pass the time.