Lazy Blogging

Maybe its a little lazy blogging just to post a link to my latest youtube video. But some days I don't have much to say.
I posted this "how to" video yesterday for the flathead guys who might find it handy when needing to do a compression test on their engine and nobody handy to push the starter button. Not likely a lot of people will find that too interesting. Maybe I need to start a whole new blog devoted to the 52 Mercury.
I got a lot of hits on the "Cutting Bulrushes in January" vid from a few days before. No critical comments yet.
I did manage to upset the safety police on one forum when they watched my hammer mill video from November. In which I purposely stepped over the moving drive belt several times, just couldn't resist annoying people I guess. It looks dangerous but trust me, its safe. So safe you wouldn't believe it.

One Thing About Autumn

It has some fantastic scenery. The leaves are really colorful. It won't last for long so enjoy while it does. Wild winds will soon tear them down leaving only skeleton-like branches.
We have had cold, cloudy days lately with poor drying conditions. So harvest is at a standstill at present as I have finished canola. It was the only crop that had dried to the point I could safely bin it.. Oats at 15.9 percent moisture and wheat at 18.1 will not safely store in the bin for long without spoiling so we wait for sunshine and wind to dry the crop down. Short days now in October even if the weather does improve. No problems keeping busy as I had potatoes to dig, bales to haul. A hopper of tough oats on the combine to put through the hammer mill. And hopefully they will not heat in the feed bin. I guess I will have to keep a close check on them for a few days. This job gave the old Cockshutt 50 a good two and half hour workout on the belt drive hammer mill. With the late start I finished up in almost darkness. Wishing I had got around to connecting up the headlights on the tractor.
When the sun did come out earlier in the day it made for some nice scenery.

This old GMC has not hauled any grain in probably 20 years. It sits rusting away on the farm.
Take a look at the constantly changing skies over my yard in these time lapse photos from October 1.

Cockshutt 50 Running The IH Mill

If today was the first of March we would have to say that March came in like the proverbial lamb. Sure was a nice day in Sask. today. As usual, the lack of wind makes all the difference between a mediocre day and a really nice one. Today's quiet and sunshine might just be the calm before the storm if the forecast is right. Winter storm warnings for us tomorrow. I'd like to say that I picked the best day of the week for this job but it really just happened by luck. A few "not so nice" days this week and then I spent most of yesterday moving snow, digging wagons and grain augers out of the snowbanks in preparation for putting this load of oats through the old International hammer mill for cattle feed. It all worked amazingly well. The old Cockshutt 50 fired right up after a six month rest in the shed and ran pretty well. I got lucky with drive belt alignment and was able to run at capacity without the belt slipping off the pulley or needing frequent applications of belt dressing. There is still a rather serious oil leak at the front of the engine but it still had oil pressure at the end of the day . I guess I will find out just how bad the leak is next time I check the oil and decide if I need to pull the front cover and install a new gasket.