More baler blues

The "fun" doesn't end...

Today I baled my barley hay, oat hay and pea crop.  I figured I could get it all baled today.  Easily.  Then I thought it would take me until dark.   Then... I got only less than half the field baled.

I didn't start baling until 12:30 pm.  First Wyatt planned on coming over in the morning with my rebuilt carburetor but he didn't show.   Then it took a little time to re-hook up my baler to my tractor.  The color coding the hydraulic hoses and quick-connects worked great.  But in the day since I parked the baler in order to use my rake, the bale hitch sank a few inches lower to the ground and I had to readjust the height before hooking it to the tractor.  Also the PTO hookup to the tractor was a major pain as usual.

Initially the baling went fine.  The crop was dry after the recent rain.  Actually a little too dry.  It was so dry it was brittle as it would break into smaller pieces easily.  And slippery as these are grain crops.  So I had to drive at a lower speed that usual else some of the crop was ground into chaff and ended up getting in the way of making a bale.  Most of my bales looked fine.  Some didn't.  I also had to twine the bales more than usual as the hay pieces tended to be smaller than when baling grass and alfalfa.

Then a little after 4 pm I heard a loud squeal.  It sounded like metal on metal.  I stopped the PTO.  After a short investigation I found one of the baler's smaller belts was twisted.  How it got twisted is a mystery as it doesn't seem possible it could happen.  And why did rubber sound like metal on metal?

One view.

Another view that shows the belt twisted on both sides of a roller.

I had about a 2/3 size bale in the baler and I had to dump the bale without a chance of wrapping twine around it first as I didn't want to chance the twisted belt breaking.  Then I had to figure out how to release tension on the belts so I could work on this belt.  I have a manual and that explained how it could be done.

The twist was in the front of the baler so I could reach it.  But it was impossible to flip the belt back to the correct position.  The manual told me how to take a belt apart.  The belt ends have small hooks and a wire runs through the hooks to hold the belt ends together.  Kind of a like a zipper but with a wire instead of a zipper handle to hold the two sides together.

I unhooked the belt and then I was able to pull part of the belt out of a couple of the baler's rollers, twist the belt back into normal shape, thread the belt back through the rollers, hold the ends together and reinsert the wire through the 'hooks'.

Success.  And I was able to continue baling.

Here is the bale I had to dump when the belt twisted.

After I successfully made a bale from a windrow I turned my attention to the dumped bale.  I tried to unroll the bale but I found the hay to be short and slippery. The hay was shorter than normal due to having gone through the baler once where the dry brittle crop broke even shorter.  I half unrolled the bale and the rest was just clumps of hay.

The mess made it difficult to feed back into the baler.  I had to make many passes and spread the hay out even more so it would feed back into the baler.   I got it all back in the baler, but even with 'good' hay from the windrows at the beginning and at the end, the end bale looked sad.

After moving my irrigation pipes I baled some more.  The fourth bale was a problem.  The setting sun made it hard to see the baler in certain areas of the hayfield, especially though dusty windows.  I thought the bale was about full but the "STOP" sign wouldn't quite finish.  As the sign rides on the bale at the end to the point where all the letters are seen above the marker, sometimes the hay will flake off under the sign's bottom as the bale rotates and a small amount of hay comes into the baler.  And I couldn't see due to the sun.  When I did see the full "STOP" word the bale may have been a little larger than normal.  I don't know.  There was a fair amount of hay flaked off and in the baler outside of the belted bale itself.

Something seemed off.  I was able to twine the bale.  But when I tried to release the bale from the baler it wouldn't come out.  I checked and found the left wide end belt under the baler when all the other belts were - and should have been - on top of the bale.  The belt was holding the bale in the baler.  Then I saw the belt was twisted.

Not again!!!

No metal on metal sound this time. I pulled and wiggled and pulled and finally I got the belt out from under the bale and to the side.  Then I could dump the bale out of the baler.

Then I had to fix the belt.

One of three spots where the belt was twisted.

Again the belt should not have twisted.  I don't know how it happened but the slipperiness of the hay must have contributed to the twisting.

Again I had to unhook the belt as it was impossible to twist it back to normal.  This time the hooked ends were inside the baler.  The method to release the belt tension was to open the baler and then put two metal stops in; one against a roller and one against the hydraulic arm.  Still, considering how my luck had been bad lately, I didn't want to go inside the baler to unhook the belt.  But I did have to.  So I called Donna to be a watchout in case stops failed and the baler closed when I was in there.

This belt was much wider and the hooks and wire weren't in the best shape.  The wire was bent which made getting it out harder.  And the wire was broke into two pieces.  When I put the belt back together I used a 'new' wire from my tool shed 'treasure' pile.

Because the belt was twisted in three spots I had to pretty much take belt entirely off to untwist, then rethread the belt back through all the rollers and metal cage.  I had to use a ladder in back, crawl inside the baler, and balance on top in the front.  But I got it.  And I got the belt re-hooked.  All before it got dark.  Releasing the baler's stops was a problem as the hydraulic stop moved to a spot where it was difficult to release the stop.  A hammer fixed that, but it shouldn't have happened in the first place.

I was able to make one bale before dark and the baler seems to be working again.

This was the bale made the second time the belt twisted.  A very sloppy bale but I believe it will hold together long enough for me to store it and then feed to the cattle this Winter.  The right side of the bale is where the twisted belt was located.

So... I am not sure of the complete count, but I believe I made a little over 20 bales today.  So I got some things done.  But I think I have only baled a little under half the field.  Saturday the weather forecast predicts a 20% chance of an isolated rain shower.  Let's hope I am able to finish my baling tomorrow as if I don't, it will rain on my remaining hay.

My bad streak of luck has got to end soon!

Tractor blues

One would think my run of bad luck would run its course by now.  Wrong!!!

I almost made it through the day with no problems.  My main activity was to rake the hay to turn the rows over to ensure the bottoms would dry.  Since I had to turn over the entire field the problem was how to turn over the hay when the rows go to fence to fence.  I started in the middle of the field.

First I raked one row over to another row.  Then I raked these two rows back to the first row.  Then I raked a third row to these two rows.  This made a thick row but it also gave me room to then rake the other rows over to the open space occupied by the previous row.  And starting in the middle with its short row made the thickest row a short row.

The hayfield is not quite square  I had a row or two more on the ends than the sides.  And I didn't pick the exact center row as one side had a few more rows than the other side.  But this was not  a big problem.  When I was done two corners had a few really short rows left to rake. My raking had made new corners which didn't quite square with the old corners so that is why two corners had a short amount of old corner rows left to turn over.  I used a hay fork to flip the hay over and then on top of the last raked row.

It took me 4 1/2 hours to rake the field and a little longer to use the hay fork.

Before

After

So the raking went well.  The move of the irrigation pipes went well.  While I was raking Mama and cow #60 walked the river and crossed over from the middle to the south pasture.  The other cattle didn't notice initially, but when they did they stood at the gate and mooed at Mama and #60.  I let them be and continued raking.  When Mama's and #60's udders were full they would want to be back to their calves.  Sure enough when I went out to move irrigation pipes at 7 pm both cows were standing at the gate eager to go through and be reunited with their calves.

So that wasn't my problem.  It was with my tractor.  The fuel gage sometimes works and sometimes doesn't.  In the past it would always work once the fuel got down to a little less than a quarter tank of diesel. On this tank of fuel I had cut Donna's field, John's field and my field.  I also had raked and baled John's field.  Today as I raked my field I watched the fuel gage closely.  Any time now...

But I finished raking and the gage was still at Full.  I like to drive to the local gas station off hours when there is less traffic.  Usually that means after 7 pm.  After I moved the irrigation pipes I drove to the gas station two miles down the road.  I watched the fuel gage and held my breath.  Donna said to never run out of diesel as these engines are hard to restart after they ran out of fuel.

I made it to the gas station.  The off-road diesel pump is that the far end.  I was a little over 15 feet from the pump when I ran out of diesel.  I tried starting the engine.  It started and I was able to move a foot or two before the tractor ran out of diesel for good.

You have got to be kidding me!!!!   15 feet away!   Soooo close!  But not close enough for the pump's hose to reach my tractor.  And my tractor is too heavy to push it those last few feet to the pump.

*Augh!!!*

Fortunately at a nearby pump was a neighbor who lives a mile down the road, who I hadn't met yet.  He had a truck and a chain and he pulled my tractor to the pump.  I filled the tractor's fuel tank.  Now to start the tractor...   My engine does have a priming pump on a fuel filter.  I primed the pump.  I tried starting the tractor.  And it started up!!!!

Hurray!!

So another day.  Another bout of bad luck... though it was better to run out of fuel at the gas station than a mile down the road.

Tomorrow task.... baling my crop.  I'll see if I can get through tomorrow without any problems.

A few more blues

In my recounting of yesterday's trial and tribulations, I forgot a few.

1. My tractor wouldn't turn off.   After I baled John's field I parked my tractor and baler in my pasture so I could go and move my irrigation pipes.  When I turned my tractor off the engine kept running.  The instrument panel turned off but the motor didn't.  I turned the key back on and the instrument panel came back on.  I turned the key off and the same, the motor kept running.  I waited.  The motor kept running.  I turned the key on, then further on as if to start the engine.  The 'grrr' sound occurred when one turns the key too far when the motor is running.
   
   I then ran the motor faster then slowed it back down to idle speed.  Then when I turned the key off the motor stopped.   Strange.
   
   Today when I used my tractor it started and quit normally.
   
   
2. The cattle stole a short chain.  I have a short chain I use to secure the double gates in the corral.  The gates have a slide rod to hold them closed but the cattle figured out that if you move the rod you can open the gates.  So I added a short chain and wrapped it around the two gates, and no more breakouts.  The cattle don't like the chain.
   
   The other day when I let the cattle in the NE pasture for 36 hours I left the chain hanging on one of the gates.  Yesterday when I moved the cattle to the middle pasture I discovered the chain was missing from the gate.
   
   Today I searched for the chain.  I looked around the corral and the part of the NE pasture near the gates but could not find the chain. I even shoveled several nearby larger manure piles in case the cattle tried to hide the chain in one of them.
   
   This is not a small chain.  The calves must have really ran off with the chain (when not pulling the haybine pin, pulling the twine or chewing on the haybine's rope).  I don't need the chain right now so I will look again later.  But it is really annoying that the chain is missing.

Today I discovered another thing from the cattle's 36 hour stay in the NE pasture. Before letting the cattle into the pasture I noticed three smallish evergreen trees had grown their top through the metal 'cages' I build around the trees to protect them from the cattle. The trees were a few inches to a half foot above the 'cages'.   So I placed small rolls of chicken wire on top of the 'cages' to protect the tree tops.
Today I discovered the cattle moved all three rolls and bit off the tops of the trees. 

The cattle also pushed hard on a wire fence protecting some of the caragana trees.  The wire fence was bent in but the trees were saved.

It is amazing in 36 hours the cattle ate the grass down considering all the other mischief they were up to when in the NE pasture.

This evening when I moved my irrigation pipes most of the calves followed me along as I moved each pipe and watched how I connected them together.  A few times they started to push on the risers and caused them to lean.  The calves got quite comfortable with me and sometimes I had to lift the pipes over their heads as I moved the pipes since the calves just stood there.   At times I think of the calves as 'my little mosquitos' buzzing around and being annoying.


Today I went and retrieved my hay bales from John's field.   Last year I discovered that I didn't need to use so much twine to wrap each bale and most bales held together fairly well without hardly any twine.  Well.. that works for hay that sticks or interlocks together more than this year's hay from John's fields.  When moving the hay bales I found several bales could have used a little more twine wrapped around them.

After I was done moving the bales I went back with my pickup to gather the loose hay that fell from several bales when I lifted them into the air.  I also checked some of John's fields for rocks and pieces of wood or old tree roots.  There were more than even what I had seen from the tractor.  Most looked like the haybine and baler just passed over them.  But to be safe in future cuttings I picked them up and tossed them in my pickup to haul away.

Hard for my old baler to tightly wrap the short dry hay.

Before disconnecting the tractor from the baler, I painted the quick-connects and the hydraulic hoses with matching colors.  This way in the future I will know which hose goes where.  Donna had some old small bottles of paint used to paint model kits.

Today was cooler with a high temperature barely in the 80s.  And no wind.  A few raindrops.  Nice weather - if one is not drying wet hay.  While in the morning the hay smelled wet; I think my windrows dried on top by the evening.  I'll check tomorrow.

Baler blues

My bad luck continues.  If I didn't have bad luck, I would have no luck at all.

My goals for today:

1. Bale John's field
2. Get my universal joint parts
3. Bale a good portion of my field
4. Move my irrigation pipes
5. Ride a few miles on my bicycle

What I got done:

1. Baled John's field
2. Moved my irrigation pipes

The baling work took much longer than expected.  First I realized I should grease and lubricate my baler.  I didn't want my baler to catch on fire like the neighbor's baler did.  Not a lot to grease.  But the zerks on the PTO shaft were hard to reach.  This PTO shaft has safety shields on each end that make finding zerks harder.  But with the new grease gun I got for my birthday from Donna I got the job done.

Note the hydraulic hoses. Their story comes up later.

The chains needed lubrication.  They were all dry.

Lastly I needed to check the gear box oil level.  This was harder.  The reason: John Deere designed a metal covering over the gear box.  Six bolts, some which were hard to reach.  A several minute job took a half hour.  The result: the gear oil level was fine.

Then I needed to hook the tractor up.  Over the past year the jack holding the baler tongue up sank into the ground a little bit.  I could no longer jack the baler to the height needed to hook it to my tractor.  I had to get a short tree stump to hold the tongue up while I lowered the jack, place a block under the jack, then re-jack the baler tongue to the height needed.

Due to the safety shields, hooking the baler's PTO bar to the tractor's PTO is much harder than normal and takes longer.  But I eventually got it done.

When hooking up the baler's hydraulic lines to the tractor's quick-connects, one hydraulic line's connector wouldn't go into the tractor's quick-connect.  I had to pound on the quick-connect before it would accept the hydraulic connector.  Never had a problem with this before.

I have four hydraulic lines.  Open and close on each hydraulic cylinder.  One to open and close the bale's back door to release the bale; the other hydraulic cylinder runs a tube across the bale to release twine.

I prefer the open/close door lines to go to one handle inside the tractor and the twine tube to another.  That is because last year I made the mistake twice of grabbing the wrong handle and then opening the back door when I meant to twine the bale.  Once the door is opened it is no longer possible to twine the bale.  I put different colored bread wire wrappers on the hydraulic lines and wrote the color/line scheme on a small piece of paper and left it in the tractor's cab.

The problem: when it needed it I could not find the paper.  I looked everywhere.  So I followed the hydraulic lines and hooked them to the tractor.  (See first photo.)

Then I tested the lines.  The twine tube moved a little, then quit.  The open/close door didn't work and on top of that, the hydraulic line popped out of the touchy quick-connect.  I tried again.  Same result.  I tried something else.  Same result.  I re-looked at the lines and where they were hooked up.  Looked fine.  And no leaks anywhere.  Still no idea why the one line pops out of its quick-connect.

So I called Wyatt once again.   When he came he found I had mixed the hydraulic lines.  One open/close door and one twine line to a lever.  The lines pass though a short shield and I apparently lost track when the lines shifted position.

The twine tube now worked.

The open/close door did not.  The bad line kept popping out.  So we checked the baler in case something was impeding the door.  Nothing.

To test the quick-connect I suggested switching the lines to use the opposite levers.  The open/close door now worked.  And the twine tube worked without popping out of the quick-connect.  I had bought the two new connectors and one of the new connectors just didn't like that particular quick-connect.  Why?  Who knows.  But I wanted the functions to work with different levers.  So I switch connectors between the two hoses so I could connect the lines to the levers I wanted.

To avoid missing pieces of papers in the future I plan to get spray paint and mark each quick-connect and its line with a particular color.

In between time of greasing and lubricating the balers, the cattle were eating grass in the NE pasture.  Once I was done with the baler I planned to move the cattle to the middle pasture.  But cow number 7 (or Maria [from the Sound of Music as Donna's daughter now named cow number 7... "How do you solve a problem like Maria? How do you catch a cloud and pin it down? How do you find the word that means Maria?") had different ideas.  I looked over and saw her trying to force her way through my chain link gates between the pasture and the fruit tree/garden area.  She had her head and neck through the opening she made in the gate and was trying to force her body through the gate.

Change of plans.  Time to move the cattle now.  First I herded Maria from the gate and towards the north pasture gate.  As I opened the north pasture gate Maria headed back to the chain link gate.  Eventually I got the cattle over to the middle pasture and their salt blocks moved to be with them.

By now it was 3 pm.  I planned to have John's field baled no later than 1 pm.

When I cut the twine on the first bale the twine remaining on the baler slide down the tube.  With the design it is hard to reach and thread the twine back in the tube.  I had to crawl under the baler and use a long wire to push the twine back down the tube.

Then I had a rope problem.  The twine cutter is old and dull and doesn't work automatically.  I had a long rope that reaches into the tractor's cab that I use to cut the twine.  The rope fell out of the cab so I had to get out and put it back in.  I tied the end of the rope to a wrench I had.  A little later the rope somehow snagged on a tractor's wheel and pulled the rope and wrench out of the cab.  Fortunately it did not break the cab's window.  I had to unwrap the rope from around the wheel's axle.  After this I had no problems with the rope.

The hay is fine and short to medium length.  So the windrows were not always an interlocking sheet drawn into the baler.  For slightly wider windrows the baler didn't always suck in all the hay - especially on corners - and I had to go over part of the windrows a second time.

I was working on my fourth bale when I saw that not all of the hay was being picked up.  Earlier I had adjusted the baler's pickup level up as on uneven ground the tines occasionally would dig into the ground.  I readjusted the pickup lower.  Still left hay. I put the pickup even lower.  Still left hay.  I tried this and that and still had left hay.  Then I reached a thick windrow and hay was being pushed by the baler.  I got out and looked.  The pickup tines were still turning.

Inside the baler was a bale about 1/5 a full size.  Plus lots of loose hay.  So I dumped the bale.  After a half dozen attempt as the open/close door didn't want to open until it finally did.  This has happened in the past when I had a partial bale to unload.  With the partial bale out of the baler I worked to remove the loose hay still inside and on the baler's belt.  Not the quickest or easiest thing to do when I didn't want to get inside the baler and instead had to go here and there on the outside to reach what hay I could and also push against the belts to wiggle them to release and drop hay.

I went on to finish the field making a few more bales successfully.  Then I went back and unrolled that 1/5 bale.  The bale unrolls only one way and naturally that way was in a direction that made picking the hay up again more difficult.

But I did.

I had about a third of a bale in the baler when I finished John's field.  Three hours later!

It was now 6:15 pm.   The weather forecast earlier had a 20% of scattered rain showers.  Some clouds were in the sky, but no rain clouds.  I decided to move my irrigation lines now and then continue to bale my field.

I was changing shoes to boots when Donna came to see if I was having a better day than yesterday.  Minutes after she arrived a few rain drops fell.  No blue rain clouds so I wasn't concerned.  Then it began to rain harder.  Then it poured down water.  From where?  No rain clouds, just some white clouds.

It rained hard for 10 to 15 minutes.  Donna went home to close her house windows.  She later said she didn't get any rain.  The line of rain quit a half mile from her house. I went uptown a little later and noticed the area that got rain was about 5 miles wide.  Naturally with my field cut it rained over me when normally I am the area that doesn't get rain when everyone else does.

I checked my field.  The rain soaked all the water through the windrows. They were soaked.  That means tomorrow is a drying day (unless more rain suddenly happens).  Then the next day I will have to rake my entire field (a long day of work) to turn over my windrows so the bottom gets dried out.  Then after another day of drying I can bale.

So much for finishing my haying today or tomorrow.

My luck has got to change.

Calf blues, more haybine blues, raking and bad drivers

After getting groceries this morning, and two more hydraulic hose connectors so I don't have to swap connectors between my baler and haybine, I went to move the haybine.  Wyatt recommended I check the haybine's float as my tractor's hitch may be at a different height than the previous owner's tractor.  Now as I type this I remember that the previous owner had the same model tractor as I do.

Anyway.... to test the haybine's float I needed to have the haybine on level ground.  I went to move the haybine.  As I drove I heard a loud crash.  The haybine's tongue had dropped to the ground.  The hydraulic hoses pulled loose from the tractor.  Unlike the disc last Fall, the hydraulic hoses on the haybine weren't damaged as clamps hold the hoses to the end of the haybine's tongue.

Why did the haybine come off the tractor?  Yesterday I let the cattle into the NE pasture for a day or two to eat the grass before I put my new hay bales there.  The cattle, or more likely the calves, pulled the pin holding the haybine's tongue to the tractor's hitch.

As you can see in the photo the pin has a handle - which the cattle can grasp.  Apparently there was no pressure on the pin as the tractor and haybine sat in the NE pasture overnight.

But you say... I see a clip as the bottom of the pin.  After this accident I added the clip to prevent the cattle from doing this again.  I had pulled the haybine over 100 miles with my pickup, cut three fields with no problems.  The pin is long enough that a clip is not necessary - unless one has cattle.

With the tongue on the ground I had to lift it up.  Far too heavy to lift by hand.  I used my tractor's bale spear.  The problem is that I can't see the spear when it is all the way down on the ground.  I lifted the haybine but then saw that I was lifting it by the PTO rod.  *Aughh!!!* 

I set the haybine down.  The collar sleeve over the rod now has a dent.  It looks to still work.  I will find out once I fix the universal joint this week.

I got my tractor's forks and lifted the haybine's tongue up so I can use the haybine's jack to hold it up.

I hooked the haybine to the tractor.  I hooked up the hydraulic hoses.  When I went to raise and lower the haybine one hose kept popping out.  It took four tries before the hose would stay attached to the tractor.

Then, since the one end of the universal joint is not currently attached to the haybine, the haybine's PTO rod slipped out of its holder on one end.  I got my neighbor Curtis to hold the rod in the right spot as I lowered the haybine.

Once I moved the haybine to level ground I tested its float.  It seemed to be about 70 pounds of pressure to lift the haybine by hand.  Curtis agreed it felt like lifting 70s pounds when one lifted the one end of the haybine.

That done, Curtis told me he saw a round baler like mine on fire in the field a few miles down the road.  Fire trucks were putting the fire out in the baler and surrounding field.  Don't know why the baler caught fire.  Maybe a bad/overheated bearing caught the hay on fire?   The temperature this past week has been in the mid to upper 90s every day.

Another thing to worry about.


Then I went over and raked John's field.  The hay was dry already (no surprise with mid 90s temperatures!).  I raked rows together.  Some times two rows into one, or three rows into one depending how much hay was in the rows.  I could drive faster than yesterday and got the raking done in a little under two hours.  I plan to bale John's hay tomorrow.

I don't plan to rake my field.  The rows are thick enough that raking two rows into one row may be too thick. Yesterday the tops of the windrows were already dry.  I imagine with this heat the bottoms will be dry by tomorrow afternoon.  I just have beat the forecast of scattered showers tomorrow.

The raking done, I moved my two irrigation sprinkler lines. I am still irrigating the pastures.  This hot and dry weather is drying eveything out.  Over the past weekend we had a number of small (for now) forest fires pop up.  Smoke from one or two fires to our West could be seen over the Valley today.

Once I moved the irrigation pipes I seen the cattle were no longer laying by all the gates and I could move my rake back into the NE pasture.  That done I noticed the calves hanging around the baler.  Then I saw baling twine on the ground by the calves.  Did I missed some leftover twine from when I had bales last Winter?

No.... the twine was from my baler!  The calves played around with the twine that was threaded from the box through the stays to the tube.  I had the end coming out of the tube tied to the baler.  But the calves grabbed and pulled the twine coming out of the box.  I had twine everywhere!   Among the calves legs so that when they moved more twine was pulled out of the box.  Twine all around the baler and its tires.

I gathered the loose twine up and threaded it back into the box.  It is no longer in the roll of twine but I hope it won't snag when I tie a bale tomorrow.

In the following photo... the calves grabbed the twine between the white stay outside the box and the top white stay.  Then they pulled and pulled.

Earlier I had wrapped some twine around the baler's hydraulic hoses so the cattle wouldn't molest the hoses.  As you can see the calves started to unwrap the twine from around the hoses.

Once I put the twine back in the baler's box several calves came back to the scene of the crime to see what I was doing.

Then I looked over to the haybine.  Since she could no longer pull the haybine's pin out, this heifer was now chewing on the rope I use to switch the haybine open or closed.  Once I got the rope back from her the last foot or so was wet.

Tomorrow the cattle will be moved to another pasture.

The chores done, I went for a bicycle ride in the evening.  Not much traffic drives on this route I ride.  After a while I looked up at the sound of an approaching car.  I saw two approaching cars.  Some local Yahoo, one hand on the car's wheel and the other arm hanging out the cars open window was passing another vehicle on the narrow road.  I had to use my bicycle's brakes to slow down and we all made it.

Then four miles later on another road I looked and saw an approaching car.  The car was driving in my lane.   For no reason.  What is up with the Flathead County drivers tonight?!!!   The full moon hadn't risen yet but the drivers were acting crazier than they usually do.  The car went back into his proper lane once he saw me coming on the road.

What a crazy day.

Haybine blues

Today I cut the grass in my neighbor John's field.  He has part of his field east of his house and the larger part west of his house.

Last year I saw some yarrow weeds in the east field so earlier this week I sprayed herbicide on the yarrow.  I also found a number of Canada Thistle weeds there, unlike last year.  I sprayed those too.  All but a handful of weeds were dead when I cut the field today.   Last year there were very few weeds in the west field so due to lack of extra time I didn't check this year and spray.  When I cut the west field today I saw some scattered Canada Thistle.  So I'll have to spray them next year if I cut his field again.

The grass in the east field is fine and on the shorter side and I found the haybine had problems cutting it.   The cut grass often would lay on the cutting teeth below where the tines could sweep it up into the conditioning rollers and out the back.  This then would impede the teeth and I would get scattered grass not cut.  It doesn't provide a "clean look" when the field is done.

Near the beginning of cutting, the grass clogged the teeth and the wobble cutting bar quit moving and then the belt began to smoke.  I stopped and cleaned the grass from the haybine and teeth.  I had the haybine a bit low to the ground.  So I continued with the haybine a little off the ground.  But the grass was only getting partially cut.  So I lowered the haybine closer to the ground and ended up driving in a lower gear.  A lower and slower gear than I drove when I cut my heavy field.

So cutting the east field took much longer than expected.

The grass in the west field, while still on the fine side, was taller and the tines tended to move it to the roller and out the back better.  So I could drive in slighter faster gear.  For most of the field.  One lower corner had really tall and heavy grass so I drove in a lower gear.

The west field also took longer than expected.

I had started cutting shortly after 10 am and expected to be done between 2 and 3 pm.  After the main west field was cut I decided to cut a small area off the lower end of the field that had no bushes and tall and thick grass.  It was around 3:30 pm and I had about 15-20 minutes of cutting left when the haybine's tines quit turning as I was circling around to make another pass.

The haybine's universal joint had come off.  I turned off the tractor's PTO.  The haybine's PTO universal joint is made up of two parts.  One end attaches to the rod with splines on the haybine.  The other end attaches to the tractor's PTO splines.  Of the two pieces one slips inside the other.  This allows the flexibility of when the tractor turns right and left when the tractor's PTO is operating.

When the haybine's universal joint came off it dropped to the ground.  The part attached to the tractor kept spinning until I turned off the PTO.  But the damage was done.   The "cross" that holds the rod's knuckle to the tractor's knuckle was broken.

The following photo shows the part of the universal joint that attaches to the tractor.  For the photo I inserted the "cross" back into the knuckle.  It is not 'held' as the "crosses'" caps are broken.   (A good cap is seen below in one of the other two parts of the 'cross').

So, on Monday I have to go to a local machine shop that sells U joints.  I will have to buy a new "cross", take the bad 'cross" out of the knuckle with the rod, and then insert the new 'cross" into both ends of the knuckle.

But that not all.   In case you are wondering... why did the other half of the U joint come off the haybine?  The other end was attached to the haybine's spline by three bolts, that when screwed in, pressure against the spine in order to hold it in place.   According to my neighbor and friend Wyatt who came over and looked at the pieces, this is not normal.  Usually the knuckle's spine has a 'button' that holds it on to the other spline connection.  This is how it works when I attach the other end to the tractor's PTO splines.  Someone had modified the knuckle to have the three bolts.  One bolt loosened and the knuckle came off the haybine's spline.

The U joint's spline at the haybine end is worn and needs replacing - not a fix of three bolts using pressure to keep it on.  The haybine's spline is also worn but Wyatt thinks we can make it work with a new knuckle spline and using the existing worn haybine spline.  I hope so as the haybine spline is attached to a long shaft that goes all the way to the haybine itself.

This is what one gets when they buy used equipment.

I don't plan on going back to cut the little remaining grass once the haybine is fixed.  There is not much left, and getting down a one lane driveway to John's house and through a sharp turn through a gate without hitting anything (like his vehicles sitting there, or the gate) takes care.  This something I prefer to only do once a year.

Lastly I have to replace a cutting tooth on the haybine's sickle bar as one tooth is partially broken.  To cut the fine grass I had the haybine lower than I wanted in another person's field.  I came across two rocks.  The first seemed to have been a bump for one haybine tire.  The second rock I seen picked up by the rock guards into the haybine where the tines flipped it up and back out.  I then quickly stopped the PTO and got out and got the rock and put it off to the side of the field.  This rock may have broken the end of the tooth.  Though to be fair, when cutting my and John's field I sometimes hears a clanking sound that may have been a smaller rock kicked up and rolled around by the haybine.

Cutting the hayfield crop

Friday I cut the barley, oat, and pea crop planted this Spring.  The barley was heading out, the oats was getting seeds and some peas had flowers.

To keep the nitrogen level down in the cut crop, a guy at CHS recommended cutting the crop at noon before the photosynthesis during the day raised the nitrogen level.  I started cutting a little after 10 am once the dew was dry.

I had to get my tractor and haybine from the NE pasture to the hayfield.  That meant passing through the north pasture where the cattle were.  All the cattle but two cows had gone into the corral.  The two cows were far enough away and the cattle usually don't rush an open gate.  Big Red was one of the cows.  Once I drove the tractor and haybine through the gate she ran for the open gate and squeezed behind the haybine and through the gate and got into the NE pasture before I could stop her.

*sigh*

She wouldn't hurt anything in the NE pasture but of course the cattle would notice her there and then make a ruckus.  I locked all the other cattle into the corral and then herded Red back into the north pasture and then reopened the corral.  Then I could start cutting hay.

At the end of the day when I was done cutting the field I was able to get the tractor and haybine into the north pasture.  But when I parked outside the NE pasture gate too many cattle were nearby and most had an eye on me.  So I waited a while until they lost interest after checking the tractor and haybine out, and wandered off.  Then I was able to get the tractor and haybine into the NE pasture.

For some reason I thought I would get the field cut in five hours or so.  It took me almost 8 hours.  The crop was so tall and thick I had to cut while driving in a lower and slower gear than I usually do.  So while I started cutting when the plant's nitrogen level was lower, I am sure it was higher by the time I quit just before 6 pm.

The temperature was in the 90s this afternoon.  When I ended the first windows were already starting to dry.  As thick as the windrows are they probably will take longer to dry.

The weather forecast was for hot and dry over the next week.  But.... late afternoon I watched blue clouds form to the south/SW and coming my way.

Really?      Really?!!! 

Since I was cutting my hay the weather forecast changed to now include a chance of isolated thunderstorms.  While normally in the Summer the rain goes around me, this time I got a few raindrops.  Thankfully the drops were few.  I also saw a lightning bolt in the distance and heard thunder nearby.  But I avoided a serious rain.

I had to be careful when going around the S curve near the house.  The windrows were so thick that if I swung out a little too far on some S curves my haybine's hitch would catch and drag the previous windrow.  The windrow was heavy to pull out from under the hitch even after I backed up the haybine a little bit.

The first cut along the fence is in the opposite direction so the haybine is along the fence.  Now when I am going in the "right" direction you can see the tracks from the tractor when I was driving the other way.  The haybine did a pretty good job in picking up the smashed flat crops.

Late in the afternoon a flock of geese ran across the cut field.  I doubt they were hiding in the tall grass.  I think they flew in while I was at the far end of the field.

No geese or other animals were harmed in cutting of this field.

Here is a 21 second video of my New Holland 488 haybine cutting my crop:  https://youtu.be/JxCtVhO_4t4

Earthquake and irrigation

Yes.  I felt the earthquake at 12:31 am this morning.  I was awake when the initial earthquake happened but went to sleep shortly thereafter and "missed" the aftershocks that happened the rest of the night.

At first I didn't know what was going on.  I was sitting along the south wall of the house and noticed sounds coming from the north wall.  (The earthquake's epicenter was well south of Kalispell in southern Montana.)  At first I thought a large truck was just outside my house causing sound and vibration on the north wall.  But I hadn't seen a truck drive down my driveway.

Then the sound vibration passed through the house from the north side to the south side.  Then the whole house began to feel like it was rolling on top of a wave, again passing from north to south.  That is when I realized it was an earthquake.  The rolling seemed to build and I wondered where this was going to lead and whether it would continue to increase, then it dissipated.

So I went to bed.


Irrigation....  more headaches and work.  The 4th of July night I saw Chris (who planted my field) while I was out riding my bicycle. I told him that over the past few days the barley had begun to head and now a majority of the barley had headed.  My question was 'how long until I cut my field?'   The answer was 'now'.   I had expected to wait a certain number of days after the barley headed out.  Nope.

So on Wednesday I removed the irrigation pipe from the hayfield.  The previous day I had finished irrigating the hayfield and now had the main sprinkler line pipes in the pastures.  But I had to remove the mainline pipe from the hayfield.  Yup.  The mixture of steel and aluminum pipes.  Not something I was looking forward to.  I must admit that removing the pipes seemed easier than putting the pipes in the field initially.  Maybe it was because I started at the far end, and after each pipe was removed, I had less of a distance to carry the next pipe. It still was a workout.

I also had a secondary sprinkler line in the hayfield, which I also removed.  I also had to do the daily move of the two sprinkler lines in the pasture.

A lot of pipe was moved on Wednesday.

Because I removed the mainline pipe from the hayfield I had to turn the irrigation pump off while I did so.  With the pump off I also fixed a leaky mainline pipe in the pasture and removed the grass stuck to the outside of the check valve in the river.   At the end of the day it came time to restart the pump.  I spent over an hour trying every which way to get the pump to start pumping water.  I then even had Donna come over and act as a 'good luck charm'.  All failed.

Wednesday was a tough day.  In addition I was able to ride only 17 miles on my bicycle.

This morning I started fresh.   After trying a few things and failing, Donna noticed the pump would leak occasionally.  It wasn't water from spillover when I primed the pump as by now I had taken the priming pump off and poured water directly into the pump.  Donna remembered as a child the family irrigation pump occasionally had to have its packing tightened.

The two bolts near the leak were loose.  I tightened the bolts a little bit - not too much as I didn't want to cause excessive wear.   The water leak stopped.  I started the pump and the pump began to pump water.

With the pipe removal, leak fixes and check valve clearing, the water pressure is now better than before.  The sprinklers are really throwing the water now.

2510 miles

It is the halfway point for the year.  So far I have ridden 2510 miles on my bicycle.  700 miles in June alone.   No wonder I am tired.

Other side of hayshed fence

A few days ago I posted a few photos of recent fence partial rebuild.  Here are photos of the front side of the fence.

Some of the rocks I dug up when I dug a hole for the railroad tie post.

Cutting hay and irrigation

I cut hay today with my haybine for the first time.  I didn't cut my field; I cut Donna's.  She has 20 acres.  Everything worked well.  I cut her field in 4 hours.  To ensure the grass's sugar count was low I cut as soon as the morning dew had dried.  I cut from a little before 10 am to a little before 2 pm.

The biggest challenge was driving the three miles from my place to hers.  I drove the tractor and haybine yesterday late afternoon and returned this afternoon.  Yesterday there were a number of cars on the road.  Because I take up more than one lane I would manoeuver the haybine into a driveway approach when meeting cars or when I wanted to let someone following me pass by.

I have been moving the irrigation pipes about every 20 hours, give or take.  Moving them every 12 hours, or twice a day is too much work right now, and every 24 hours is a bit long for a new field.   This morning I got up and opened and closed the valves at 7 am.  The dew was very heavy on the plants and my pants were soaked just from walking out and back from the valve openers.

I moved the pipes this evening after waiting for a light rain shower to pass by.  At 10:30 pm I closed and opened the valves to the moved pipes.  15 1/2 hours.  That works as I don't want to open and close valves in the dark.

Irrigation, spraying, rain, Daisy

Today's irrigation switch went smooth.  Only one sprinkler was not working.  The sprinkler was not level.  I straightened it and started the striker and the sprinkler worked fine after that.

I started spraying weeds.  I went through one backpack tankful.  The NE pasture used to be bad with yarrow until I got rid of most of it.  There was a little more yarrow than usual this year.  I think it may be old dormant seeds that were activated from all the irrigation water last year.

We had a thundershower around midnight last night.  It came up quick in the weather forecast as it didn't seem to have been predicted until less than 24 hours before it rained.  The rain caught a number of fields with their hay cut, or fields with small bales not picked up.

Daisy spent the night outside as it rained before she could get back home from her nightly patrol.  At 5 am she was at the door.  Also on the front step was a dead bat.  Good thing I keep Daisy current on her rabies vaccination.

Irrigation, grease and Daisy

The irrigation switchover went smooth and quick today just like it should be doing now.

Today's annoyance was my grease gun.  I am greasing the haybine and the tractor.  I ran out of grease and put a new tube into the grease gun.  To make this short: it then wouldn't work.  It shouldn't be complicated but still it wouldn't work.

Even Donna couldn't get it to work.   I am sure she rolled her eyes when I first told her I couldn't get the new tube to work.

I have a second grease gun and that worked when a new tube was put inside it.  Both grease guns were Dad's and are old.  The second gun has a bad hose.  Instead of the joint starting to leak when it gets full, the grease gun's hose starts to leak.

Still, I was able to grease the haybine and tractor.


Daisy came walking to the front step this morning.  When she got here she spit out a small live mouse she had been carrying inside her mouth.  She then laid down and in a bored and distracted manner occasionally 'played' with the mouse.  If the mouse got too far away Daisy would go over and pick it up in her mouth and drop it again near the step.  I was afraid the mouse would get away by getting into a crack between the house foundation and the flower bed.  One time I ended up moving some rocks on the front porch as the mouse was hiding under them.  After a short visit to a neighbor I found Daisy ready to come inside the house.  Whether she finished off the mouse, or it got away, I don't know.

More irrigation woes

What should have taken 5 minutes took 2 1/2 hours.  Earlier in the day I finished moving all the pipes for the next area to irrigate.  At 7 pm I went to open the valves to the next lines and close the valve to the old line.  Then I removed the old line's valve and carried it to the location for tomorrow's line.

I then saw the gusher.  The riser pipe for a sprinkler in the newer Wade Rain line had come out.  I walked back and reinstalled the valve for the original line and reopened it, then closed the line with the gusher.  I need a certain amount of sprinklers active else the water pressure can get too great and loosen the weaker connections.

I walked home and got a pipe wrench. At the riser I discovered the pipe's threads were shot.

I walked home to get another riser.  I had no 'free' risers, that is a riser without a sprinkler on it or a riser not in a connector.  I did have two risers with no sprinklers on them.  I wanted to use the sprinkler from the bad riser as I knew that sprinkler worked.

The first riser would not unscrew out of the Wade Rain connector.  The second riser unscrewed out of it's connector but I then discovered the riser's end was for a different type of sprinkler.

I found four risers with sprinklers on them and went back out to the irrigation line.  I put the first riser/sprinkler in the pipe.  Opened the valve and saw water come out of the sprinkler.  I then closed the original valve and removed it.  When I got to the sprinkler line I saw the 'new' sprinkler was not turning.

I went back and put the valve back on and reopened the line.  The second sprinkler I used was also bad.  This time I hadn't removed the original valve opener.  The third sprinkler worked.

Then I noticed the first sprinkler in the line wasn't throwing the water as far as the other sprinklers.  It may have been partially clogged.  I didn't have a wire to clean the opening.  But, hey, these are Wade Rain connectors.  One can switch connectors without switching pipes.  So after closing and opening the valves I did.  With the 'shorter' sprinkler in the middle of the line the adjacent sprinklers would cover for it.

But then now the third sprinkler I had just replaced, then moved, quit working.

I tried the fourth sprinkler to discover the riser pipe was bad and would not screw into the connector.

I went home and got another connector with a riser and sprinkler.  I was leery about using it as the connector's gaskets appeared dry.  Yup.  They were.  The pipe leaked bad at the connector.

I went home and switched risers and sprinklers to the original connector that had new gaskets.

The connector now worked and the sprinkler now worked.  But remember when I switched connectors because the one sprinkler didn't throw the water as far?  That connector was now leaking bad.  I went home and got some wrenches and tried adjusting the pipe position into the connector.  Didn't help much.  Tomorrow when I switch irrigation lines I will take the time to replace those connector's gaskets with my last two new gaskets.

And remember all the closing and opening of the valves?  Last year I replaced most, but not all, of the valve gaskets.  I only replaced them when they leaked.  Well... all this opening and closing over and over caused one of the old gaskets to start leaking.

So I had to replace that gasket.  Not an easy job when the water is flowing.  I walked home and got a board to block the water when I removed the valve without the valve opener.  The water gushed four feet high.   I quickly stood in lake.   Once I switched gaskets - and thankfully did not lose the cotter pin - I had to reach into the geyser to screw the valve back into the pipe.


All the above took over two hours to complete.


Then I walked the rest of the line. The previous time I used this line I had everything working.  Now one other sprinkler wouldn't work correctly.  The sprinkler would have a spot where it would get stuck each time after I helped the sprinkler past the spot.   The sprinkler worked the last time I irrigated with it but now the sprinkler location was on a slope and not on level ground.  The unlevel ground was enough to make a bad sprinkler worse.

So back home to get the sprinkler from the bad riser that started this entire mess.  I knew that sprinkler worked.  It did once I removed the sticky sprinkler.

One other sprinkler seemed suspicious but I decided it worked enough for me to wait until tomorrow to recheck it.

Why all the bad sprinklers and risers?  I had bought all of them used.  The previous owner didn't have the decency to toss their bad sprinklers and mixed them up with their good sprinklers.


By the time I was done I was soaked from head to foot.  While working on the sprinkler I was getting really annoyed and was swearing up a storm after a while.  What should have taken 5 minutes....