Long move

I plan to stop my irrigation by August 10.  This will give the field time to dry before cutting and for other reasons, such as my electric billing cycle.  For some reason I thought I had 9 valves across the hayfield which would mean about 9 days of irrigating.  This morning I counted and found 11 valves.  Oops... that will make it hard to finish in ten days.  Two sections may have to be on 12 hours shifts instead of 24 hour shifts.

So I had a big move today of pipes from almost half way across the pastures over to the hayfield.  The first line of pipes went fine.  It took an hour to move them.  I had to then adjust the length and add a half length pipe from elsewhere.  I found that the south/middle fence - and therefore the mainline of pipe - are not perpendicular to the outer fences.  As I move down the line I have to add or subtract pipes to the length of sprinkler pipes.

Then I had to replace two old valve 'caps'.  That is, the rubber seals on the risers on the mainline pipe.  I have been replacing the caps as needed.  A few old caps still seal, most don't.  Most old caps seal until they are opened for the first time in a very long time.

Replacing the caps when the pump is pumping water is tricky.  It is best to do this on a hot day.  I have a board to block most of the spray from me getting soaked, but I still get wet.

I anticipated one cap would have to be replaced and already had a new cap with me.  But with two caps I had to go back home and get another cap.

A problem with replacing the caps - other than getting wet - is that cotter pins holding the caps in place are old and the tails often break off when removing them.  Often I still have enough of a tail I can reuse the cotter pins.  On one cap I found the new cap was just thick enough to mostly cover the cotter pin hole.  It took some effort to get the cotter pin back in the hole.

The other cap had both the cotter pin tails and the head break off.  I had to take the unit back to the workshop and drill the remainder of the old pin out.  First I tried to use a nail to drive the pin out of its hold but the nail would bend.  I tried a small drill bit but it broke.  Finally a second larger drill bit got the pin out.

All this took time.  Then I had to move the second and longer sprinkler line.

So what should have taken a little over two hours took almost four hours.   As all I had to eat at this time were two apple fritters Donna dropped off after she attended church, I was hungry.  After eating I slept.  I woke up more tired than when I fell asleep.  Then I went back to working more on the south fence rebuild - until the darkness and mosquitoes made me quit for the day.

It gushes like this even with two sprinkler lines open elsewhere. Makes it hard to screw the cap back on.

The cap with the broken cotter pin.

Earlier in the week I had another leaky problem.  When Donna and I did the last big move I had shut off one sprinkler line to move it but did not also open a third valve to release some water pressure.  The corner (seen below) held in place, though a few slow leaks softened the ground to allow a little movement of the metal rods holding the corner in place.

The next junction is what partially came apart.  As you can see the steel pipe with the half circle catch is made for a regular steel pipe (see in previous photo), not a pipe with a riser.  To compensate I added wire to help hold the pipes together.

Dad added hooks to some steel pipes to allow two pipes to hook together.  But he didn't have enough hooks for all pipes.  I had the misfortune to have placed a hookless pipe near the end of the mainline.

The increased water pressure from shutting down one sprinkler line while the pump ran caused the wire to break and the pipe to come partially apart.  The water didn't gush up but went along the sides of the pipe and down.  The area is also a porous area and the water soaked in the ground and did not form a lake.  So I didn't notice the leak for a few days.

I had to shut the pump off to fix the leak.  Fortunately when I restarted the pump it immediately started to pump water.

I am still working on the south pasture fence rebuild.  The cattle are still happy in the north pasture so I am taking advantage and trying to complete the entire rebuild.   Some days are more productive than others.  Clear and hot 90+ degree days have slowed me down.

Big move

Today I finished the first round of irrigating the hayfield.  The grass looks good and the alfalfa is growing good.  I plan to take a few days off before going over the hayfield once more.   In the meantime I will irrigate some of the pastures.

When I finished the hayfield I ended up on the east side of it so I had to move all the pipes across the hayfield to the pastures.   It was some work.  Donna helped.  It took the both of us over three hours to move all the pipes and replace a gasket.

The last riser on the mainline in the hayfield leaked when I disconnected the valve to move the pipes.  So I replaced the old/bad gasket on the riser.

All the pipe moves and gasket replacement were done while the pump still pumped water.  Replacing the gasket was a wet affair and I got soaked below my knees.  The temperatures was in the 80s so I dried out quickly.  Donna enjoyed getting wet several times in order to cool down.  The water is from the river so it is not cold, but kind of warm.

When taking Donna back to get her fixed car we noticed a sprinkler head wasn't turning.  By the time I went out to fix it I found a second sprinkler head wasn't turning.  Usually they don't turn or spray well because of a clog in the nozzle.  This time the failure was because a piece of tall pasture grass got caught in the striker that turns the sprinkler head.  Once I removed the piece of grass from each sprinkler they started working again.

Later in the evening when checking on the pump I noticed a small stick in the grill of the intake pipe.  I had to skinny-dip in the river to remove the stick.  I also found the grill was covered with weeds which I also removed.  Earlier I had thought the sprinklers weren't tossing water quite as far as they usually do.

A short time later I noticed another sprinkler head not turning.  Instead of pasture grass a small piece of weed somehow came out of the nozzle and got caught on the striker. 


I'm still working on the south fence.  Progress is slower than I'd like.   I got 13 fence posts in and seven strands of barb wire stretched on them.  104 feet.   After taking a shower this afternoon, eating a later lunch and then falling asleep for a few hours (a recent occurrence this week since the afternoons are warm), I worked more on the fence.  I got 15 more posts in the ground.  Tomorrow I will stretch wires on them.

The newer metal t-posts are six feet.  I did have a half dozen six and a half to seven foot t-posts which I used today.  Using a sledge hammer I usually pound the six foot posts while standing on the ground, but I needed a chair to be able to pound the taller t-posts into the ground.

Car, north pasture and fence

Daisy and I were woken up at 8:30 am from a sound sleep when Donna called.  Her car had broken down and she needed it towed home.

After I towed Donna's car home I finished moving irrigation pipes.  I had gone on an all day hike on Saturday and the irrigation pump was shut off once 24 hours of irrigating was done.  Once I had all the pipes moved Donna and I restarted the irrigation pump.  It took a half dozen tries before the pump started to pump water.

Then I noticed cow #7 stretching though the middle fence to get to alfalfa in the hay field.  One wooden post had broken, and since the ground was soft from my earlier irrigation, several nearby metal t-posts had a lean to them.  Of course is cow #7 as she loves to reach through the fences to eat.  She was really stretching against the barb wires but thankfully they held.  I chased her away from the fence even though that hurt her feelings.  I put in a metal t-post to replace the broken wooden post.  I straightened the leaning t-posts.

After making and eating breakfast I fell asleep for several hours.

After 4 pm I heard the cattle making a minor ruckus in the NE part of the middle pasture.  They were looking into the north pasture.  I went and found Buddy entering the corral.  He has broken the top wire of the three strand middle/north pasture fence and then hopped over the fence.  After putting the small hay bales in the barn a few days ago I had left the barn door open to give them air in case they weren't completely dry.  I quickly went out and shut the barn door.  I had a little trouble as one of the door's rollers had earlier come off the track when Wyatt unloaded the bales against the barn and barn door.  Buddy was relaxed as he walked about the corral checking things out.  I was able to get the wheel back on track and the door closed before he wandered over to see what I was doing.

I was thinking about letting the cattle into the north pasture in a couple days but I guess now is as good of a time as any.  I let the rest of the cattle into the north pasture.  Certainly easier than getting Buddy out of the north pasture.

I then went and fixed the fence where Buddy had broken the wire.

What do you mean I'm not suppose to be in the corral?

The herd in the north pasture

Looking at Daisy

Even with all the tender green grass the calves were fascinated by my walnut tree.   Notice how I have wire on the fence to protect the tree leaves.  Even so the leaves that grow through the wire get eaten.  The cattle love this tree's leaves.

Beulah's calf

Clyde (red calf) and the other calves.

Here is a 29 second video of the cattle in the north pasture:  https://youtu.be/ry-Alzi5g7A


While I had planned on starting to spray weeds today, with the cattle in the north pasture, now was a good time to re-do more of the south pasture fence.  While the cattle never have gotten through this four strand fence, it still makes me nervous; especially as Wyatt's field is not fenced and is mostly alfalfa.

I spent the rest of the day working on the fence.  I am pretty sure the cattle will stay n the north pasture for the time being as that pasture has fresh tender grass.  Still... I don't trust the cattle.   So I am simultaneously taking the old fence posts out and putting new fence posts in.  Most of the old wood posts are rotted and useless.  I am also going with a pattern of one wood post, then three metal t-posts.  Of course 99% of the new posts (on an eight feet spacing) do not match the old posts' location.

Old fence.  Notice how the cattle had stretched the fence wires in order to reach through the fence.

Old fence with one last railroad rail as a post.

Railroad rail removed, along with rotted and bad wooden posts.

Notice how much of the railroad rail was in the ground.  Considering this is July - when the ground gets hard - I was surprised I was able to pull the rail out of the ground by hand and did not have to use a shovel to dig it out.  Last year when it was dry I had to use a shovel to get the rails out of the ground.

Blow out

This morning I moved the irrigation pipes.  By the time I finished moving the pipes and checking that the sprinklers all were working (I had replaced one sprinkler while moving the pipes) Wyatt had delivered another load of hay bales.   After I moved the hay bales into the barn I saw a geyser in the hay field.  A sprinkler pipe had come out of the pipe.  I imagine that the vibration from the sprinkler head as it threw water loosened the pipe.

While the geyser gushed, the other sprinklers operated at a lower pressure.

Once I fixed the geyser all the sprinklers went back to full pressure.  And I was then able to eat lunch at 4 pm.  After that I slept for two hours.

Gate ramp and hay

This evening Wyatt brought over one load of small hay bales from his field.  First I had to protect my irrigation pipe from the weight of his tractor and bale wagon.

First I got some old really beat up railroad ties and dug them into the ground next to the pipe and added extra dirt.

Then I nailed some old boards over the top of the pipe.  This is more for the cattle as I seen their hoofs slipped some on the railroad ties when they walked across them.

The railroad ties seems to have worked well in protecting the pipe when Wyatt delivered a load of hay.

I plan on getting only two loads of hay this year.  Wyatt only delivered one load Thursday night as he initially wasn't sure I was still home as he didn't still see me out in the pasture.  I had gone to the house to eat and rest up for the hay moving work.

I was glad I only had one load of hay to move this evening.  Even though the sun had set and the temperature was starting to go down I was still hot when moving the hay.   It took me 55 minutes to move 55 bales.  I'm slower than in previous years. It is hard to imagine that I moved four to six stacks of hay in one day in previous years.

Wyatt didn't wait as long as he usually (over) does before baling his hay so the bales were greener and slightly heavier this year.   (That is some of last year's hay from Wyatt inside the barn).

If no rain I will get the second stack of bales tomorrow.

Cattle jailbreak and pump

This morning when I went out to move my irrigation pipes I found two cows and three calves were in Wyatt's field.  The rest of my cattle were taking their siesta in my south pasture across the fence from the five cattle.  Donna handled the gate while I herded the five cattle down the fence line to the gate.  The cattle in the south pasture realized what was going on and raced the five cattle to the gate.  Donna had to hoop and holler to keep the herd from the gate while I herded the five cattle through it.  The separated cows and calves immediately found one another and the calves began drinking milk from their mothers.

After moving the irrigation pipes I went and looked for where the cattle had made their jailbreak.  I maintain a basic two strand barb wire fence on Wyatt's land south of the island. Tall grass pulls the fence down and deer break posts and wire.  Some of the cattle had found the broken spot in the fence and crossed from the island to Wyatt's land and then made their way through the thick trees up to his field.

I repaired the fence and added some dead tree branches to the fence.

After I fixed the fence where the cattle came through.

Since the cattle made a trail to this point, and the fence is puny, I added dead branches to the fence.

Eventually when I rebuild more of my fence I will free up 5.5 ft steel fence posts and I will build a better fence across Wyatt's property south of the island.


The irrigation pipes now cross my front yard.  Guess I won't be going anywhere soon.

Because I went on an all day hike on Tuesday I had the pump turned off after 24 hours of pumping water.  When it came time to restart the pump Donna came with to watch that I did it like she does.  I did.  The pump wouldn't pump water.  I tried again.  Failure.   Donna tried it doing pretty much what I had just done and the pump started pumping water.   Go figure.

Rain and irrigation third line

It rained several times on Saturday.  Donna had it worse at her place; she had very heavy rain and hail.

I had to delay moving the pipes until almost 6 pm but I was able move them.  Donna helped me.

I was able to move the pipes without turning off the pump.  First I partially opened another valve.  The water shot out of the valve and instantly I was soaked below my knees.  I got a board to block the water and was able to open the valve further.

Since I had 60 pounds of pressure with 29 sprinklers I decided to add a few more sprinklers.  Also with my barn and yard in the way I had to shorten several lines.  So I made three lines.  I have a 11 sprinkler line to the barn; a twelve sprinkler line to the yard, and was able to have a shortened ten sprinkler line in the pasture.  33 sprinklers appears to be my maximum amount to still be able for a sprinkler to throw water 40 ft.

Below you can see I was able to extend the one line to have one sprinkler water the back yard.

Irrigation woes

This morning before I went to move the irrigation pipes a neighbor a few houses to the south came over to tell me that one of my cows was over at his place and bellowing.  A bright red cow.  They had chased her out to Wyatt's field and the cow went to the trees, which is where I imagine she has gotten out of the pasture around the fence at the river.  Must have been Rose as she did this once last year after the deer broke the fence I maintain on Wyatt's property.  When I went out in the pasture all the cattle were in the south pasture - including Rose.  She was laying and chewing her cud.

Donna helped me move the irrigation pipes.  She left before I re-started the pump.  Or I should say... attempted to restart the pump.  The last few days the pump has been hard to restart.  The pump will run but won't pump water.  I retried several times before the pump would start to pump water.  I thought it may be some weeds near the river bottom had gotten sucked across the foot valve grill blocking easy water flow.  Yesterday I cleared the weeds from near the foot valve.

Well, that must not have been the reason.

Because the pump would start and have a pressure of between 20 to 40 pounds depending on my attempt I thought perhaps the pipe had an air leak.  The previous days the restart was successful after I wiggled the intake pipe.  It appears an old connection on the PVC had a slow drip.

I borrowed some PVC cement from Curtis, cleaned the pipe off, and resealed all the connections.  Or tried to.  The one with the leak I couldn't stop long enough to 100% seal that connection.

The foot valve did a great job holding water in the intake pipe.  I was unable to drain the pipe.  I didn't have a union when I assembled the pipe pieces.  I thought I would be able to push through the foot valve's grill the inner flap to release the water.  Nope, that wasn't happening.

I thought now was the time to cut a union into the pipe.  Home Depot sells 3 inch PVC pipes and connections but no unions.  A regular plumbing/pipe store was now closed as it was after 5 pm.

I called Dona for suggestions as she grew up irrigating.  I left a message.  I went over to ask Curtis for suggestions.  Not much more than my union idea.  Since I was out of luck until tomorrow we chatted about a few other things.  I saw his newly poured concrete slab where he plans to house his portable sawmill under a side roof to his building.

When I returned to my ranch I found the sprinklers going.

What??!!!

While I was at Curtis's place Donna rode in on her Mustang.  Not seeing me she thought I was at my irrigation pump.  I wasn't.   She opened both the priming pump valve and the outflow valve and waited for a short while.  When she started the pump it started pumping water.  Apparently there was an air bubble in the intake pipe.  Somehow.

Donna said most people don't shut their pump off when moving their irrigation pipes, often for this reason.  They turn off the valve to the pipes they are moving.  Last year when I shut the valve to one of the two lines the water pressure increased so much that the mainline pipes would come apart.  I do have a third valve and I can open that one to release water pressure while I turn another valve off and move those pipes.  So that is what I will do in the future.

Live and learn.

I will wait until I am done pumping for the season to cut in a union into my pipe.  I guess that is what I get for changing the intake pipe from the old metal pipes to a PVC pipe.

Here is a 47 second video of the pump in action.  I think the video captured the sound as being a little louder than what I hear in person.    https://youtu.be/uBJ2PAsvVpw


While Donna said she wouldn't have done it I ran the one line of pipes through the corral to the NE pasture.  It was extra work to do so as I had to move two feeders and thread the pipes through the corral fences but it was worth it as the NE pasture is the driest part of the pastures.  My wooden feeder needed some work before but now needs even more repair work after I manhandled it with my tractor when trying to move it.

I measured the distance to my hay bales and it was 46 feet.  Far enough away.  Or so I thought.  As you can see in the video, even with 29 sprinklers, the water pressure was 60 lbs and the sprinklers tossed the water over 40 ft.  Then a breeze came up and moved the water a few feet more and it then reached the hay bales.  Hence the redneck fix for protection.

A fix to support the pipe across a short steep dip in the ground.

The grey connector is the old connector that I didn't think of resealing when I put the pipes together.   When the pump pumped water it didn't have a 5 second drip and then I put some PVC cement around the connection.

 

Nothing fancy.  This is how they did it since the 1940s: stick it in the river.

My foot valve.

Irrigating

Tuesday I got my irrigation going.  To my surprise it went pretty smoothly.  I had no serious leaks along my mainline pipes.   The extra effort I put into replacing old gaskets and assembling the mainline paid off.

I left the end cap off the mainline pipe in order flush out the dirt and debris.  Then I had to walk back a third of a mile or more to turn off the pump.  Then walk back to the end of the mainline to insert the end cap.  Then I did the same for the two sprinkler lines.  One line was plugged inside the last pipe.  A tight wad of roots was jammed.  I had to lift and drop the pipe a number of times to rattle the pipe and free the wad.

Then I discovered the second to last pipe was missing its gasket and was leaking badly.  I got another gasket from an unused pipe and stopped the leak.  To insert the sprinkler lines' end caps I did not have to turn off the pump again.  I removed the last pipe, inserted the end cap, then quickly inserted the pipe.  Usually I can insert and hook the pipe in place before the pipe fills with water.

Once both sprinkler lines' end caps were inserted the sprinklers were going full bore.  I walked the mainline back to the irrigation pump checking for leaks.  The pump's pressure gauge was vibrating between 45 and 50 lbs of pressure.  Then I discovered one sprinkler line was spraying water.  The last pipe had come off.  Apparently I hadn't hooked it correctly.  Once I re-hooked the pipe the pressure went up to 60 lbs and the sprinklers really tossed the water out.

I am running 25 sprinklers to cover "one line" of the hay field.  I could run a few more sprinklers and still have good water pressure, but I can't run enough sprinklers to fill another line.

Here is a 1 minute 45 second video showing the sprinklers in action: https://youtu.be/-mUHtY_Ozds

Mainline pipe laid

Tonight I finished laying the mainline irrigation pipe.  What a chore!   Having mostly steel pipe doesn't make it easier.

My mainline pipes consist of:

1. 20 ft steel pipes
2. 21 ft steel pipes with a riser for a valve
3. 40 ft aluminum pipes 

I have about 9 aluminum pipes and over 50 steel pipes.  The 20 ft steel sections definitely weigh more than the 40 ft aluminum sections.

I ended putting together, taking apart, and putting back together several sections of steel pipe.  First I forgot about the slightly bent (in the middle) steel pipe that went where the south/middle pasture gate was located.  Once I put the bent pipe in place a number of other steel pipes wouldn't completely fit inside.  One would think the steel pipes are all the same but apparently not.  I had to take more steel pipes apart before I found one that would fit the pipe at the gate.

Then a pipe with a riser would not fit at the hayfield gate so I had to redo pipes again.

Then there are two types of 20 ft steel pipes: ones with a half circle clamp and ones where the half circle clamps were replaced with hooks to latch two pipes together.  All the aluminum and 21 ft steel pipes have an opening for pipes with a hook.  The half circle clamps could work, but not as well.  Last year to provide extra support to keep the clamp/opening combos together I added wire to the pipes.

So I was trying to put the pipes together in such a way that I would have enough steel pipes with hooks for pipes with openings, mainly when out in the hayfield (as I don't have enough pipes with hooks for all pipes with openings).  Also pipes with hooks would not attach to pipes without risers as the 20 ft steel pipes had nothing to hook to, only a lip that a half circle would hold against.

Confused?   Well, tell that to a guy who is tired from carrying all these pipes and laying them out in a line.

In the end, when transitioning to using aluminum pipes in the mix, I had an extra pipe with a hook.  I ended up taking 14 steel pipes apart to get a pipe with a clamp I could use.  I was tired and missed a pipe I could have used and would have only had to take 3 pipes apart.  Arrggh! 

Then in the end, due to a late decision on placement of a riser pipe, I could have used either a clamp or hook pipe and didn't need to have taken 14 pipes apart.

Also when redoing the 14 pipes - which ran along the barb wire fence - I struggled with one pipe and ended up moving my head against the barb wire.  I wasn't wearing a hat and now have a red "scratch" across the top of my head.

The day grew more frustrating as it went on.

I also decided to space the risers 60 ft apart and not 80 ft.  The sprinkler heads should toss the water 40 ft, but that is at the outside of where two circles meet.  Last year I discovered 60 ft seemed to ensure no dry areas between rows.

In the end I found - I believe - I am 20 ft short.  I'll have to call Karl, my irrigation guy, tomorrow and see about getting a few more pipes.  I have a couple damaged aluminum pipes that has a couple of minor leaks and I may as well replace them when getting another pipe.

Tomorrow I can work on wiring together some of the pipes with iffy connections and then lay the sprinkler lines.

Eventually I'll get to irrigating this year.  Future years of irrigating shouldn't be such a hassle laying the mainline as the line across the pasture will stay in place now that I replaced all the gaskets and the two funky connecting pipes.

Starting to lay mainline irrigation pipe

Now that the hay is cut and baled I need to irrigate to get a second crop.  I thought I would be doing that by now.

First I thought I would have the irrigation pipe that crosses the pasture completed as I planned to laying that pipe while the hay dried.  I needed one steel pipe lengthened by 10 1/2 inches as I didn't want to use the prior method of clamping two shorter pipes together.  Wyatt welded the pipe for me and had it done the day after I finished moving the hay bales.

The next delays were avoiding rainy days and other stuff getting in the way.  Today I found out my flat tire was not fixable.   Because my pickup is 4 wheel drive it is more important for the tire tread depth to match.  I had almost 25,000 miles on those tires.  Also the tires were wimpy 4 ply tires.  Not really strong enough for ranch work, and certainly a risk when hauling cattle 100+ miles to the auction in Missoula.  Tires are expensive but I bought a used set of 10 ply tires.

Also some of the cattle have been crossing the river to go between the middle and south pastures every few days.  The smaller calves don't cross the river and then after a while the cows complain when their udders are full and their calves are in the other pasture.  I gave up and now leave the gate between the pastures open.  Of course sometimes the cows and calves get on both sides of the fence and then get upset.   Tonight I had to listen to several cows complain to me and their calves until the herd eventually worked their way to the gate.

I am removing all the old gaskets on the pipes and putting new ones on.

Also slowing me down are tree roots in the path of the pipe and a tree that blew over this Spring across the pipe's path.

While I usually hand saw or chop trees and tree branches, I decided to use my chainsaw to speed things up.  Or that was the plan.  The chainsaw would not start.  It has been getting harder to start these past few years.  Ethanol carburetor problem?  I'm not sure.  First I wanted to replace the spark plug.  The chainsaw is old and the spark plug - CJ8Y - is not common.  Today I went to NAPA and they had one for me.

Wait, there is another problem with the chainsaw.  In my effort to start the chainsaw the other day I broke the rope used to start it.

So I ended up using a saw and axe to remove the tree and chop down tree roots.  What should have taken a half hour took over four hours.

The tree was a pain to remove as the barb wire fence limited movement and the area to chop was under the tree.

Tree across pipe's path

While I was at it I de-limbed the tree too.

Tonight I decided to remove more tree limbs from a large old fallen tree.  This was to make it easier to work on the pipes.   The tree limbs were long and heavy.  I ended up removing most of the tree limbs from this side of the tree.  The limbs in back blocked working on the pipes; the limbs in front blocked removing the back limbs.

The bark was loose so I removed it at the same time.  To cut the higher limbs I had to sit on the tree to saw.

Then I had to chop the tree roots to make the pipe more level.

So this is as far as I got today.  Halfway across the pasture.  Rain is in the forecast for this weekend.

Commercial hay processing/cubing plant farm auction

Today I attended another farm auction.   This time it was of a commercial hay processing/cubing plant farm.  The bank had foreclosed on the farm operation.  I heard the owner was elderly and had a stroke.  After I noticed that the machinery was mostly heavily used to junk, another person at the auction mentioned to me that the good equipment "left" before the place was foreclosed.

There were a few items of interest to me.  While I have a round baler I was curious what a IH round baler would sell for. The baler appeared to be from the same time period as my baler.  In person I saw the baler was very used.  One tire was flat.  I believe the baler sold for $250.

A hitch mounted 3 wheel hay rake sold for $400.  Much more than I wanted to pay for something I felt wasn't the right fit for my operation.

A fairly decent cattle squeeze chute sold for $900.  I have a self locking head gate and can somewhat restrict the cattle in my loading ramp runway, so a bid of $1000 was more than I would do.  Especially as I didn't see any machinery to lift and load the heavy chute into my pickup bed.  Usually the auctioneer will tout they have a machine to load the item for you, but not this time.

They didn't sell any of the gates.  Apparently the gates go with the property.  Several other people were disappointed too.

In the various rooms the auctioneer would sell various benches with stuff, or walls of stuff in one go.  Often 10 to 20 dollars took it all.  I was slightly interested in a cabinet/cubbyhole with metal pipes and fittings.  I think I have all I need but thought if they sold for $20 or less I would bid.  They sold for $35.

I did buy three harrow sections.  I got them for $70.  A good deal.  A short time later they sold a fourth harrow section.   I needed to bid $40 but decided not to as I had just got 3 sections for $70,  The section sold for $35.  Later I regretted not bidding more.

The IH baler left of center the sign is at sold for $4300.  The large red square baler in the background sold for $2500.

My harrow sections

Another thing I believe I got at the auction is a flat tire on my pickup.   In the evening when I was going to leave to meet Donna for her birthday supper I found my pickup tire was completely flat.  I put the spare tire on the pickup.  Tomorrow I will take the tire in to be hopefully fixed and see what caused the flat.