Rain

It rained last night early this morning.  We received almost a quarter inch of rain.   

Everything is wet.   Today was a cool drying day. We'll see how the weather goes.  A chance of rain each day for the next number of days.

Baler disaster

My day of baling ended in disaster early.  I got an early start at 10 am.  The first bale that is wrapped after the baler has set for a while can be a probem as the netwrap may stick to the roller.  Before the first bale is netwrapped I work the roller to loose the netwrap.  After the netwrap cycle ends I look to see if I can see netwrap on the bale.  Kind of...   So I didn't trust the bale was completely netwrapped.  I ran the netwrap cycle two more times before unloading the bale.

The bale was netwrapped.

The second bale was not completely netwrapped.  I trusted the netwrap cycle had worked.  I will have to re-do that bale.  But later as I wanted to bale the rest of the windrows before our predicted rain started later today.

I upped the netwrap 'count' from 2.6 to 3.  Bales 3 through 8 were netwrapped fine.

Bale 9.  When the console was in the netwrap mode it stopped with a "stop" sign indicating a problem.  The bale didn't look netwrapped.  I manually initiated the netwrap.  It stopped again.  I tried a few more time.  Each was a failure.   No idea why.

The baler has an actuator.  When the netwrap starts the actuator extends.  This tightens the V belt which causes a second roller to turn.  This roller then feeds netwrap into the large belt cycle and then wraps the bale.  Is the actuator not working?

By now it was noon and the RDO John Deere service department was on their lunch break.  I called RDO service department headquarters in North Dakota as it was after 1 pm there.  He also thought it could be an actuator problem.  He told me how to check the actuator but I don't have electrical knowledge.  But my neighbor Curtis does.

I talked with Curtis.   I convinced him to come over.  He also had welded the temporary corral panel with a small gate for me and wanted to bring it back to my place with his pickup as this panel was heavy and awkward to carry.   But then we discovered that his pickup's battery was dead.  I had to wait a while for him to charge his pickup.  We then brought my panel over and then he checked the actuator as I operated it from inside the tractor.

The actuator had power.  When I tried to extend or retract the actuator it didn't move.  We tried this or that.  Then I tried to manually start the netwrap.  The actuator moved.  I tried the manual start again so Curtis could go to the other side of the baler to see if the V belt tightened.  It did.  But the rollers didn't turn.

I then checked the roller with netwrap around it and I could turn it by hand.  So the problem was with the other roller. The roller inside the baler.  Why wouldn't that roller turn?   I then went out to the hayfield and unloaded the bale.  Later I will have to unroll the bale and then re-bale it after I get the baler fixed.

Now we could open the baler and look inside.  Initially I thought the roller's bearings were bad and they froze or locked the roller.  But no.  When I looked at the roller I seen the roller had broken in two pieces.  This is a large metal roller.  How could it have broken into two pieces?  Who knows.

I called the RDO John Deere parts department to ask if they had a roller in stock.  Which roller?  So I took photos of the baler and roller and drove to the parts department so I could show them and see their diagram on their computer.

They are ordering a new roller for me and it should be here Friday morning.  $820 for the roller and extra for quick shipping.

Rather than relying on John Deere to fix the baler - who knows when they could - Curtis said he would help me take the roller off and install a new roller.  We'll see how that goes.

The actuator.

The arrow shows where the roller is.  The belt is the V belt the actuator tightens.

The arrow shows the break in the metal roller.

I have to take this extra stuff apart in order to take the roller off the baler.

9 bales were made. Nowhere close to what I need to bale.  I only got a few windrows baled.  So far the rain predicted for today/Wednesday did not happen other than a few very brief sprinkles.  I'll see what tomorrow brings.  Hopefully that rain forecast doesn't happen.

More annoyance

Still working on my hay.  Today I finally finished cleaning the MoCo.  I always had to use an air hose to clean the grass from my old New Holland haybine.  I figured that MoCo, since it doesn't have a sickle bar, would be easier to clean.  No....    The MoCo cuts the grass with blades like a lawn mower.   A lawn mower doesn't have grass to clean, but it can have hard grass crud that one has to scrape off occasionally. The MoCo... yup, it had hard grass cruds I had to scrape off so the future hay cutting will be easy.  I had a lot to scrape.

Then it was time to park the MoCo.  Where I wanted to park it in the NE pasture had some taller grass and weeds the cows didn't eat down.  I thought I would use my lawn mower to mow that grass down.  On my way there I mowed around the baler and the rake and stock trailer.  When I got to where I planned to park the MoCo my lawn mower quit running.   What?!   I tried and tried to get the lawn mower started but it wouldn't run.  I eventually quit and got my hand scythe and used that to cut the grass down. What a pain.

Unhooking the MoCo from the tractor took a little time but I got it done.  I decided not to rake my hayfield's windrows.  The windrows are dry enough and with rain in the forecast by Thursday I wanted to start baling the hay tonight.  The MoCo runs on 1000 PTO speed.  The baler runs on 540 PTO speed.  When Kyle showed me how to run the tractor and the MoCo he also showed me how to switch between 540 and 1000.  One unclips the PTO shaft, pull it out, reverse it and reclip the shaft into place.   Unclipping when well.  Pulling it out and reversing it went well.  Reclipping it did not go easy.   Over and over I tried.   Eventually I got the clip in place.   But... when I pulled the PTO shaft it came back out and the clip came off.  Over and over I tried.   Eventually I thought it maybe works this way.  I then tested running the PTO.  No turning and then I got a warning sign and a code.   What the code meant... who knows.   Over and over I tried.  A code.   Finally the PTO would run.   The display was odd, but ok, maybe this is how the 540 PTO looks, which is different than how the 1000 PTO display looked.

I went to hook up the baler.  The baler's driveshaft is very heavy and it was hard to align it with the tractor's PTO to get it in place.  When I pulled on the driveshaft to see if it was in place the PTO clip came off and the PTO came out of the tractor.  What?

Over and over I tried.  I finally got the driveshaft on the PTO.  I didn't pull to test it.  I ran the PTO.  Nothing.  It wouldn't turn and eventually I saw the code again.  I looked in the tractor manual.  No mention of a code.  How to switch the PTO shaft, unclip and clip it, was quickly explained.  It appeared I was doing everything right.

I kept trying and failing.  It was going to be dark soon.   Finally after a break I decided I would call Kyle in the morning to see if he could explain or show how to switch the PTO shaft.  Before leaving I pulled on the PTO shaft one more time.  This time it stayed in the tractor.  What?  I ran the PTO.  It ran and the display looked good.   I hooked up the baler and ran the PTO.  The PTO turned the baler.   Why the PTO now worked after several hours of me trying to make it work is a mystery.

It was now too late to bale any hay.  First thing in the morning I will try.

It looks like I should have enough netwrap, but who knows if that is the case.  The last time I ran out of netwrap I found the tube holding the netwrap is larger than I expected and there was less netwrap than I thought.  I don't want to run out of netwrap after hours when the John Deere place is closed.  This afternoon I bought another roll of netwrap.  $297 for a roll.  I also saw the John Deere place is expanding.  They are building 5 more repair places.  They currently have three repair places.

Since I was uptown I also bought some more diesel.   This time I thought I would remove the tool box before trying to pour the diesel into the tractor.  I then discovered that to remove the tool box it was easy.  Instead of unbolting the box, all I had to do was remove a pin.  No tool box - much easier to pour diesel into the tank.  Then it was easy to put the tool box back on the tractor.  At least something went right today.

Cattle back into the south pasture

This evening I let the cattle back into the south pasture.   The grass was eaten down pretty well at the neighbor's place.

Of course, Panda is in the lead.

Waiting for me to open the gate.

When the cattle pushed to get back to the south pasture, they pushed against the railroad tie for the gate to the neighbor's field.  (The tie is located just left in the previous photo.)  The tie was rotted at ground level and got moved.  Another thing for my to-do list to fix.

Heading back to the south pasture.

Two calves were elsewhere in the neighbor's field.  So they had to play catchup to join the cows.   Looking at me and looking at the cows in the south pasture.

In the south pasture with its all grass.

I also did some cleanup grass cutting.  The MoCo doesn't fit in these two corners so I got the hand scythe and cut the grass.

Today the rear tire on my bicycle got a flat.  Yesterday's flats were on the front tire.  I hope this is the end of flats for now.

An unusual and annoying day

This day did not go as planned.  I can't wait until tomorrow even though tomorrow I have a dental visit to replace a crown.

Lately I've been leaving the back door open a little bit when I go to bed.  Rascal sleeps all day.  At sundown he likes to be outside much of the night.  But he also wants to come in the house to get a bite to eat every so often.   He wakes me up to let him inside.  5 minutes or so later he wakes me up to go back outside.  Several times a night.  So I leave the door partially open.   Late night / early morning he is done being outside and will come and lay on my bed next to me.

This morning when I got up to use the bathroom I found a dead headless mouse in the hall outside my bedroom.  Okay... maybe leaving the door open is not a good idea.   I tossed the mouse out the back door.   Later when I woke up to start the day I saw the mouse was gone.  Earlier I had heard a bird out my window.

Then I go and check on the water trough for the cattle.  They are still at my neighbor's place.  I then do a short bicycle ride of 5 to 7 miles.  Today I got a flat tire and had to ride home a half mile on a flat front tire.  What caused the flat?  Those darn steel belted tires.  They fleck little bits of metal wires.  And they will go through my bicycle tire.  I seem to get a flat from these wires a time or two a year.

I fixed the flat.  Later in the afternoon I went and checked on the water trough again.  Then when I went on another short bicycle ride I got another flat!   No wire this time.  Not sure what caused the flat.  Maybe when I hit a small rock when riding?  This hole was harder to find, and I had to put my inner tube in the water trough to see where the air was leaking,  I fixed this flat.   But then when I put a little air in the tire the inner tube popped and went flat.  The tube had a cut in it now.  Why?  No idea.

So I needed a new inner tube.  And I didn't have one.  A trip to Walmart.  They had a 700 mm tube but the width was a little larger than my tire.  No other options.  I bought it.   Later, at the end of the day, when I installed the tube it did fit.  I went and rode to fill the water trough again.  A very short ride and this time no flats.  Finally.

From my hay cutting yesterday I used some diesel.  I had enough diesel for today, but the DEF one must add to the diesel was low.  The fuel gage for the DEF was in the red area.  Off to buy some DEF.  Walmart - who carried DEF as I seen it some weeks ago - was out.  I went to my Town Pump gas station.  I had seen in the past they carried DEF.  They were out.  What is going on?  All diesel engines are required to use DEF since 2010.  So it should be sold and available at places where diesel is sold.

I had to drive to another gas station.  Another Town Pump.  And I encountered all stoplights as being red.  And when I could drive everyone was driving 5 mph under the speed limit.  What is going on today?

This Town Pump had some DEF.  $14.99 for a 2.5 gallon jug.  More expensive than diesel itself.  I picked up a box.  Then I had to stand in line.  It seems as if everyone was also buying a 6-pack or two or of beer in addition to gas.

I also decided to buy some diesel.  The total came to $3.15 for the diesel.  What?  I had given him more money for the diesel.  He then told me that even though the sign said $14.99 for a 2.5 gallon jug, there were two jugs in the box.  There were no option to buy only 1 jug.  

I have a Town Pump reward card.  But it is a Town Pump Exxon reward card.  This place was a Town Pump Conoco place.  Oh for heaven's sake.

I put the $3.15 diesel into my container.  On the way home I stopped at my normal Town Pump and bought more diesel to fill the container.  This was the Town Pump Exxon place.

This is the first time I added diesel to my tractor.  John Deere put a tool box above the fuel tank.  There is room for a nozzle to add fuel.  But to put diesel into the tank using a container, it is hard to position.  I think I will remove the tool box to give me more room in the future.

The DEF fuel cap is near the diesel fuel cap.  The DEF jug has a plastic hose to help one pour the DEF out of the jug.  Oh wait.  The plastic hose has a screw on - connect ability.  The jug does not.  So I had to get a funnel.   Then I discovered the DEF fuel cap has a small entry.  Maybe so one doesn't mix up the diesel and DEF spots.  The small funnel I got was a touch too large to fit in the DEF opening.  I had to find an even smaller funnel.

Since one can't see inside the DEF tank, when is the tank getting full?  I didn't want overfill the tank and spill DEF all over.  (I already spilled a little diesel when trying to position my container.)   I had to go get the tractor key and turn it so I could see on the fuel gage how full the tank was.

This DEF is a pain.  It is suppose to protect the environment.  I heard they don't have it or require it in Canada.  So if you drive your diesel powered vehicle in Canada you could have a problem.

I didn't have breakfast until 4 pm.  I didn't start cutting hay until after 6 pm.   My tractor's clock was off.  I went in my house to check the clock that will synchronize with the U.S. clock in Colorado to make sure it has the correct time,  I couldn't quite see the time so I moved the clock and dropped it.  The batteries fell out and there went the time.

I was concerned about my hay cutting considering how this day had gone so far.   What is going to happen now?   But, things changed.  I got my hay cut with no problems.   Finally something is going right.  Earlier I just wanted this day to be over.

The few hay cut hiccups were:  one can set the back of the MoCo to determine how wide the windrow would be.  I was almost done and I saw the windrows were a little larger.  So I adjusted the lever in back.  Here the photo shows how wide I want the windrow to be.   The other issue is the tilt of the cutting blades.  I wanted them to be mid-range.  At one point I saw the tilt to be all the way.  I reset that.

I don't like leaving grass around the power line towers.  Before I started cutting hay today I used my hand scythe and cut the grass from around the tower's legs,  With this new tractor I didn't drive through the powers.  I would back the MoCo into the towers from each of the four sides and cut the middle of the towers.  This takes longer to do, but it protects my tractor from a mishap.

Once the field was all cut, this was what I had left under the towers.  I backed the MoCo under the tower and cut most of this grass.  Then I used the hand scythe to get the little left.

What a day.

Started cutting my hayfield

This afternoon at 3 pm I started cutting my hayfield.  Everything went well.   It was after 9 pm when I stopped for the day.  I had cut 80% of the field.  The MoCo cuts faster and I was able to drive faster.   If I had started before noon I would have got it all cut today.   I will finish tomorrow.

Here is a 11 second video of my MoCo in action.   https://youtu.be/DxbPWAoFCqc

Tractor and MoCo ready

This afternoon I hooked up my new tractor to my new MowerConditioner.  Since this was new to me, the John Deere saleperson, Kyle, who sold it to me came out to show and explain how it is done and how to operate the MowerConditioner.   We drove around the NE pasture to test it out.

It all looks and operates good and it looks like it will cut my hayfeld fast.  I plan to start sometime tomorrow afternoon.  No chance of rain until Thursday so I can get the hayfeld cut and baled by then.  I'll see how this all goes.

There is my retirement money sitting.  Good thing I don't plan on retiring.

The MoCo pivots behind the hookup to the tractor.  That way the driveshaft that connects to the tractor's PTO shaft doesn't have to bend where it connects to the tractor when I turn a corner.

The cutting blades.  There are two blades on these spinning devices they call "turtles".  They spin really fast.  I didn't have my camera when we operated the MoCo else I would have videoed them spinning.

Here is my hayfield ready to cut.  I've been waiting for the alfalfa to start to flower.  Not as much this year so far.  It may be because the Spring has been cooler than normal and that set the flowering back.

Sold another haybine

I sold my New Holland haybine about 10 days ago.  Last weekend I put another haybine on Craigslist to sell.   This haybine is an OMC haybine.   I got it 20 years ago before I even had a tractor to operate it.

The haybine ran but needed bearings on one side of the wheel spindle.  I never fixed or used this haybine as I was able to get the New Holland haybine.   So this OMC haybine just sat there. Over the years the tires decayed and were now useless.  It was past time to get rid of this haybine and clean up the pasture.  Initially I planned on having Curtis haul the haybine to the scrap recycling place on his truck.  But then I decided to list it on Craigslist in case anyone may want it and make it easier for me to get rid of the haybine.  I only asked $150 for it.   I was surprised as within one day I had three people interested in buying it. 

The first guy was 86 years old and lived a long distance away.  He was interested in hauling the haybine on a trailer.   But that would be difficult and he had problems getting stuff together.   The second caller lived 5 miles from me.  He was mechanical guy.   He was able to find tires for the haybine.  Not easy to do as the tires were unusual.  He found some tires at a salvage yard.  It took a few days.  He got the haybine today.

I'm glad someone could use the haybine and I didn't have to scrap it.   Now to sell my old tractor.

He took the rims when getting the tires.  The rims were also unusual as they had 5 bolts and not 6 bolts to fasten the rim to the haybine.

Both tires were like this.

Cold days

The past few days have been colder than normal.  At least today it warmed up slightly so that we had temperatures in the mid-60s.   Yesterday our high temperature was a little over 50 degrees.   I even lit a fire in my woodstove in the afternoon as it was chilly.  I ended up sitting in the house as it rained much of the day.  We got .89 inch of moisture.

In the morning it was chilly enough that we got hail.  Or something like hail - frozen rain pellets?

Dead trees

Here are some photos of dead trees in the pastures.

This dead tree fell over September 2013.  This is what was left standing.   I left it be for now. It is starting to rot at the bottom so eventually it will fall over, or I will cut it down.

This is the tree I cut the last branches off earlier this year with my new pole saw.   I see birds decided to carve out holes to live in.   Glad they found this tree because last Winter I cut off the dead part of the box elder tree south of my house.  That dead part had a couple holes where the birds would nest each year.

And they also made a hole at the top of the dead tree trunk.

Old testicle

Yesterday when trimming branches from my large walnut tree I found this in the grass.  It is the remnants of a calf's testicle.   You can see the green rubber band Donna puts on the testicle to later cause it to fall off.

Walnut trees

The young walnut tree is doing fine.

The old tree... not so fine.

Here you can see splits in the bark in a few locations.  Apparently this is due to the very cold temperatures we had this past Winter and last Winter.   I cut a few of these branches off the tree.

Near the base of the trunk, the tree is trying to grow again.  Two shoots - on each side of the tree.   I hope the tree makes a comeback and survives another Winter.

I looked closely at the walnut tree because when I harrowed the corral today my tractor's bucket, raised high to avoid the fence, hit a few of the walnut tree branches.  The branches snapped off as the branches were deader than I thought they would be.

Also when taking the walnut tree photos I also took a photo of my box elder trees by the house.  The light from the setting sun made them look good.

Hawthorn tree cutting this Spring

This Spring I spent a little time cutting the hawthorn trees in the SW corner of the south pasture.  I didn't spend near as much time as I did last year as I had other things to do.  

Before I got carried away cutting on the box elder trees by my house I spent an afternoon with the chainsaw cutting some hawthorn trees and also a downed tree trunk.  The tree had fallen years ago.  I left it be to dry out before cutting it for firewood.  The tree was getting to where I was concerned it would completely fall down. I didn't want it fall on any cattle who would rub against it.  One end of the tree was as high as me.  As you can see, turkeys and other birds liked to sit on the tree trunk.

It then took me two afternoons to stack the logs and also clean up the branches and debris.

After I finally finished cutting on the box elder trees I spent another afternoon cutting more hawthorn trees.  By this time the grass had started growing and was getting tall.  That made the cleanup of the cut branches harder.  Not that the large branch cleanup was harder, but the small branch and debris cleanup was harder as it was hard to find the small stuff in the tall grass and hard to rake it through the tall grass.  This time it took me three afternoons to cleanup stuff.

Last year the hawthorn thorns punctured my wheelbarrow tire. This year I used an old smaller wheelbarrow that has a solid tire, not an air filled tire.  This worked better.  No flats.  I won't go into detail about the thorns like last year, but, yes, they punctured my fingers, clothes and the bottom of my shoes.

It is nice to have a little less hawthorn trees.  Next Spring I will try to do the removal before the grass starts to grow.

A little after I started to chainsaw stuff.

After I cut and cleaned up stuff.

What remains of the tree trunk stump. 

Some hawthorn logs stacked between two remaining hawthorn trees.   The "white" trees behind are a different tree.  Not sure what kind of tree.  At least that tree doesn't have thorns.

This is the stack after my first cutting.  Don't know why but it often was partially knocked over.  Was it due to the crows taking a break from feasting on the dead cow nearby?  Now that the cow is mostly eaten, and the crows left, the stack of logs is completely staying stacked.

Feeder crop circle

Even though the grass is growing you can see where some of the hay feeders were located earlier this Spring.  I have a half dozen of these circles around the pastures when the snow first melted and ground thawed as sometimes the cattle's hooves mashed the ground around the feeder.