Packer/drill/seeder

I am borrowing Chris's old packer/drill/seeder implement.  I went over to get it last night and pulled it out of the tall grass where his old machinery is located.  One tire was flat and Chris had me pull the packer a short distance to where his air compressor is located.  When moving it, the bead 'broke' off the rim and the inner tube moved slightly.  We couldn't get the valve stem back through the rim hole by hand.  Chris used a plier and accidentally pulled the valve stem off the tube.

Oopps.

This morning I took the wheel to Les Schwab tire center for a fix.  The guy said he could sell me a tube but would not install it because the tire was old and he was worried about liability if the tire blew up when pressurizing the tire after installing the tube.  He offered to sell me a new, or even a used tire if he had one.  No.  The tire is only used to move the packer from field to field.  When planting seed and packing it in the ground one takes the tires off.

I asked if I could install the tire as it looked like a bigger version of a bicycle tire.  He said he thought I could.  So I bought the inner tube.  I asked if he could remove the tire enough so I could install the tube and then put the tire back on.  He said ok and that I could get the tire in an hour and ended up charging me $5 to do.

I went for a bicycle ride for an hour.  A guy in a pickup passed and cut in sharply in front of me and flipped me off even though the oncoming traffic was a half mile away.  Seriously... some people's attitude.

A few days ago I sold an item on Craigslist for $50.  This morning when I went to use my money I found I only had $30.  I glanced at the money when she paid me and hadn't counted the bills.  My mistake as she shorted me a twenty.

My neighbor Jan filled her little trailer up with branches and brush and pine cones.  As I have the hayfield left to disc again I had this small window where I can reach my pasture and tree stumps burn pile.  Otherwise I would have to wait until June when I let the cattle out of their temporary corral.  So I hauled the brush.  When I got back I found Jan hadn't gone to her daughter-in-laws college graduation ceremony as her daughter's cat unexpectedly died.  Jan had more brush she hadn't put in her trailer yet.  So I had to make a second trip.  This time when backing up I was distracted and the trailer jackknifed against the side of my pickup making a large dent.



So I had to use a sledgehammer and crawl under the pickup to (mostly) pound the dent out.  I also removed several other dents on the other side where I had driven too close to the cattle's feeder this past Winter.


Putting on a vehicle tire with just large screwdrivers and flat crowbars was not working.  Both tire beads had been 'broken' though I only needed one 'broken' in order to put the inner tube into the tire.  I couldn't even get one bead seated before installing the tube.

I then thought of Big Sky tires where I had bought tires before.  They installed the tire and tube using their machine. No problem with this being an "old" tire.  But then he said the tire had a leak.   What?!   He said he made sure it was from the tube and not just extra air between the tire and tube.  I had him take the tube out to find the leak.  But he couldn't find one.  He didn't charge for his effort.

I have replaced/patched many bicycle tires.  While very rare, I have encountered leaks where the tube leaks in the tire but not outside of the tire when one inflates the tube and puts it under water.

The Big Sky guy also noted that I didn't have a plastic/rubber "ring" for the valve stem hole.  The hole was a little large for the tube's valve stem and without a "ring" there was a chance of the tube shifting over time and the stem getting cut.  I had taken the rim in to Les Schwab but they didn't give me a "ring".

So I took the tire back to Les Schwab where I was informed that Les Schwab doesn't sell tubes that leak and they had given me a brand new tube.  I explained that Big Sky said the tube leaked when inside the tire.  I was told again that Les Schwab doesn't sell tubes that leak, and if it leaked that Big Sky damaged the tube.  I told him my experience with bicycle tubes.  I held the still inflated tube.   He took the inflated tube and using a machine put the entire tube under water.  No air leak.

I again explained my bicycle tube experiences.  He gave me the tube and told me this tube doesn't leak and Les Schwab doesn't sell tubes that leak.

Ya, right.  Like no tube is ever defective.

Les Schwab lost me as a customer. I was upset he was not taking me seriously.  I have used them for years to fix flat tires, as the guy noted in the morning from my id in his computer when he took my order for an inner tube.  The impression I got when he mentioned that was: you only use us to fix flats and don't buy any tires from us.

I went to Big O tires.  It was no problem to work on an "old" tire.  They noted the tire was a tubeless tire.  (Probably why the rim's valve stem hole is a little large.)   Before looking for a tube they tried to seat the tire and inflate it.  They tried four or five times without success.  The rim had a dent in it.  I was fine with a tube, and maybe the rim dent was why the tire had a tube for a tubeless tire.  Big O didn't have a tube for my size.  14 inch.  Old machinery and now-a-days an odd sized tire.

I went across town to M&C Tire.  They were nice.  They also noted it was a tubeless tire (unlike Les Schwab who made no mention of it).  I explained the dent and how Big O failed to get the seal to hold air.   He looked and they didn't have a tube that would fit my tire.  But he offered to try and pound the dent out of the rim and seat the tire.

Go for it.  I have nothing to lose.

I could hear him banging away on my rim.  And he was successful!  M&C Tires are my new hero and place of business.  And he only charged me $15.

After enduring traffic to get home (it was a Friday and rush hour), I fed the cattle and then drove over to get the packer after 7 pm.

The  packer is 10 to 12 feet wide.  As it was old and awkward I could not drive more than 8 to 10 mph.  Otherwise the packer would start to sway and wobble.  I had three miles of back roads.  Each lane was 10 to 11 feet wide.  When I met vehicles I tried to go to one side if the ditch was not deep.  Even then the packer bar would quickly reach and drag on the ground.  After a few vehicles I only stopped if they did not stop.  I couldn't pull off to the side and if I had to stop they had to squeeze around me.  Most people had common sense and pulled over on driveways and let me pass.

So the packer is in my backyard.  I had expected to have finished the discing by today, but haven't even started.  Tomorrow.   Time flies by when things don't go smoothly.


The tires are removed when one is ready to pack/plant.  Hence the short axle - which I had to remove before Big Sky could use their tire installation machine.  Behind the tire is the tube that leaks/doesn't leak.

One puts the seed in the red box.  The place I bought the seed from offered to blend the alfalfa and grass seed - which I accepted.  The red box had two compartments, one for alfalfa and one for grass.  So, I may end up only using one compartment.   Chris was vague on the setting to dispense the seed.  He has other newer, more efficient machinery for planting.  So it will be some trial and error to find the right setting so that I don't run out of seed during planting.

Stump 1 in 2018

For a change of pace, and because I am tired of going around so many trees and tree stumps when dragging a harrow in the pastures, I started to dig around one of the stumps in the middle pasture.  This stump appeared a few years ago as it is slowly being squeezed up out of the soil.  I've had enough experience to realize that often a small nub of a stump is only 1% of the entire size.  So I put off doing anything with the stump until now.

I planned on digging down only a little bit, enough to burn the top down a few inches then cover the stump up.  Of course I ended up digging deeper.   After two to three hours total of digging between last night and this afternoon I dug the stump out.  No burning needed.

I found the stump to be mainly a large side root, and the rest the remnants of a prior burning (as I dug up fire burned tops of the rest of the stump just underground.  I found parts still had minor amounts of sap after all these decades as a stump.  I believe the stump to be from a Tamarack (Western Larch) tree.

The blue circle shows the part (in sun bleached white) of the stump that was above the ground.

Then I had to refill the hole.

Since stump one went so quickly I moved on to another stump.   This stump is tall enough for the cattle to use as a scratching post.  So I will keep the main part.  The dug holes show the rest of the stump I removed.  These areas of the stump barely came above ground; anywhere from an inch to three or four inches.  Tall enough to be a nuisance when stepping on them unknowingly, or when dragging a harrow.

I actually dug a little more than shown in the photo.  After I took the photo I found another part of the stump barely above the ground and hidden by the short grass.  This is the narrow undug area to the left of the stump.

This partial removal was minor so I am not counting it.

I then started on yet another stump in this same area. (Can be seen in the upper right of photo #2)  I have more to dig on that stump to remove it.  Tomorrow's work.  Then I will get back to planting my hayfield.

April bicycle miles

Now that the snow is gone (in the Valley - the mountains are still loaded with snow!), and I spent time discing and harrowing my fields, that meant less time to bicycle.  I rode less miles in April.  Last month (March) = 1025 miles.   April miles = 800 miles.   For the year I have ridden 2850 miles.

In the morning the two cows in heat were still in heat.  Along with pregnant cow #80 the three were going around and around and around in the corral sniffing and mounting one another.  So I left the heifer in the loading corral.   In the afternoon all had settled down as they were coming out of peak time in heat.  So I let the heifer out to be with the rest of the cows.

In heat

A few cows and heifers seem to be in heat.  And got it bad!  Tonight I had to put the heifer, Diamond, into the loading corral.   Different cows were mounting the heifer and she would collapse to the ground under their weight.  Sometimes one cow would stand in front of the heifer so she couldn't move forward while another cow mounted her.  One of the cows hassling the heifer was #80, the large pregnant cow.  I was afraid the heifer would get hurt as she couldn't stand and support the large cow's weight.

I got the heifer into the corral and closed the gate on #80 and the other cows hassling the heifer.  As I tried to open the gate to the loading corral, cow #90 now started to mount the heifer.  I had to chase cow #90 away several times.  Then as I worked the loading corral gate the heifer started to sniff the rear of cow #90.

I finally got the heifer into the loading corral.  In there she has green grass to graze on.  A few hours later she was mooing and complaining.  I didn't let her out and won't until morning.  Hopefully she will be over the worst part of being in heat.

These horny females!   No access to a bull and they go full-on lesbian.

Tractor ran out of diesel

Now that I finished the harrow work, on Sunday I decided to drive my John Deere 5420 tractor to the gas station to refuel.  I thought I had enough fuel left. (My fuel gauge quit working last year.)   I forgot all I did since I last fueled up the tractor.  The bad news is that I ran out of diesel.  The good news in that is that I ran out while in my pole shed, and not out on the road.  I had just warmed up my tractor for a minute and was raising the loader to get ready to drive when the tractor ran out of diesel.

What?!!!

I drove my pickup to the gas station and got 6 gallons of diesel.  When I tried to restart the tractor it ran briefly then stopped.  I followed all the manual's instructions on bleeding the air out of the fuel line.  http://manuals.deere.com/omview/OMRE199128_19/OUO1043_0000243_19_28FEB02_1.htm

The book also said to completely fill the fuel tank before trying to bleed the air and restart the tractor.  So two more trips to the gas station with the extra two gas cans I found. The extra cans enabled me to transport 16 gallons at a time.  I found my fuel tank holds about 26 to 27 gallons.  So I have extra diesel for another day.

I tried bleeding the air again and restarting the tractor.  No go.  The bleeding didn't seem to work.  Off to YouTube and Google to look for ideas.  While I was bleeding the air correctly, the priming pump didn't seem to be drawing diesel.  My arms got tired from pushing the primer.   The YouTube videos had fuel primed in 10 to 12 pumps.

This tractor model doesn't have a fuel pump.  A web site mentioned a check valve between the fuel tank and the fuel filter. This check valve is meant to provide a one way directional flow of fuel from the tank to the filter.  I couldn't find it.  I even checked with Wyatt who had replaced an old fuel hose for me last year.  He didn't remember seeing a check valve.

A web site mentioned possible debris blocking either the check valve or the priming pump.  I took the cover off the priming pump.  No debris.  With the top off I added diesel and filled the priming pump and the fuel filter.   No go.

This morning I had Curtis help me.  He used my air compressor to add pressure to my fuel tank and I went through the various bleeding steps again without using the priming pump.  This time I had fuel come out the filter base bleed screw and the injection pump bleed screw.   Then I was able to start my tractor after turning it over a few times.  15 minutes after shutting the tractor off I was able to easily restart it.

I don't know if the priming pump quit working, or if there was debris in the fuel line blocking the flow until I pressurized the fuel tank.

Lessons learned:

1. Fix the fuel gauge.
2. If I run out of fuel, don't try to restart the tractor until I completely refill the fuel tank.
3. Don't run out of diesel.

Leaning feeder

The cows have been hard on the long wooden feeder.  They push hard against it while eating.  It was starting to lean badly again.  So I pounded a metal t-post next to the feeder to help hold it upright.  Because of the forecast of rain over these next three days I gave the cows an entire big hay bale in the metal feeder and turned them loose on it this morning.

The bigger cows push Sugar and the heifers around when eating hay.  Lately I've taken to splitting the hay I feed twice a day into the large metal feeder and the wooden feeder.  The cows all go to the metal feeder to eat.  Then I put the rest of the hay into the wooden feeder.  The heifers and Sugar see I do this as they were pushed away from the metal feeder.  Once they are at the wooden feeder I close the corral gate so they can eat without hassle.

This morning they came into the corral to the wooden feeder.  But since I put a large bale out and didn't use the pickup, I had no extra hay for them.  I think they had to wait until the big bully cows finished eating so they could eat. They were sad.

No extra hay for us?

Harrowing

Today I finished dragging my harrows across all my pastures.  Usually I am done by the first week of April, but not after this cold and snowy Winter.  I worked to finish today as tonight the rain came.  It is suppose to be colder and rainy the next few days.

Under some of the large trees, where the cattle like to lay a lot, the manure was thick.  Too much manure will eventually kill the trees.

Seed

Today I got the seed for my hayfield.  I got an alfalfa and orchard grass mix.  The mix is 80% alfalfa and 20% orchard grass.   The orchard grass is suppose to grow again after the first cutting.  Previously the grass in my hayfield was broome grass and that grass never really grew much after the first cutting.  So the second cutting of the field was mostly alfalfa.

I bought the seed from a seed supplier in Ronan, Montana.  They were $120+ cheaper than the feed supplier in Kalispell.  So today - a very nice day - I went on a road trip to Ronan.  140 miles roundtrip.   A benefit was I was able to stop and have lunch at the excellent Thai restaurant in Polson, MT.    For my 15 acre hayfield the cost for 300 pounds of seed custom mixed was $1,220.   Yeh... not cheap.

I am waiting for the ground to warm up more.  The past few days have been in the 60s and the next two days are supposed to be in the 70s.  That should do it.  The plan was then to plant early next week.  Except the weather forecast has lots of rain Sunday through Tuesday and much colder temperatures.  So I'll see what the conditions are next week.

Once the seed is planted and growing I'll be happier.  I am storing the seed in my garage.  I told Daisy to watch for mice.  When I unloaded the bags I found a dead mouse on the garage floor that Daisy had caught earlier.

300 pounds of seed.   6 bags.  50 pounds each.

Tractor tire fixed

Today I got my repaired tractor tire back.  I had called Les Schwab tire center Monday morning and was told a person wouldn't be out until Tuesday morning as they were busy and one of the people who does service calls was off work that Monday.

So I rode my bicycle to the new Harbor Freight store and bought a breaker bar as I didn't have one.

Then I jacked up my tractor and began to remove the tire's lug nuts.  Between the bar's leverage and my strength I immediately broke in two the 13/16 socket.  And this was an old SK socket, not some cheap Chinese junk steel.  With a different socket I carefully removed the lug nuts and took the tire off.

It takes two people to lift the tire into the pickup.  My neighbor Curtis helped me get the tire into my pickup.  The tire was too big to close the tailgate.

The tire has an inner tube.  When I bought the tractor, John, the salesman, thought the tires had calcium chloride in them as ballast.  (https://countrysidenetwork.com/daily/homesteading/tractors-farm-equipment/ballast-the-tractor-tire-fluids-rundown/)   Apparently not.  The tire was plenty heavy without liquid inside it.

As you can see below the tire had two punctures from two harrow spikes.  Les Schwab patched the tube and $48 later I am back in business.

This evening I started harrowing the south pasture.

Temporary corral

This morning I put up the green temporary corral panels to make the corral a little larger for the cattle.    The grass is finally starting to grow so I don't want the cattle out in the pasture so as to give the grass a head start.  With the temporary corral I hope to keep the cattle in one or the other part of the coral so I can restock their hay feeder without them getting in the way.

I had stored the green corral panels in the NE pasture, and when I finished building the temporary corral I forgot to close the gate to the NE pasture.  Four cows and four calves made it into the NE pasture before I noticed the gate was open.   I had my neighbor Curtis man the gate while I rounded up the cattle and herded them back through the gate.

A correction to my earlier post about Donna not liking Mama cow.  Mama cow doesn't like Donna.  When Donna was visiting, Mama came to the corral fence.  When Donna walked over to the fence to talk to and maybe pet Mama, Mama put her head through the fence to try to chase Donna away.  Mama then brought her head back into the corral and shook her head at Donna.  So, no, Mama cow doesn't like Donna.  I think I am the only person Mama cow likes (or at least tolerates).

Freak tractor accident

This afternoon I started to drag a harrow across the pastures.  I finished doing the NE pasture and began to work on the north pasture east end where I plan to set up temporary corral panels as a large corral to keep the cattle until the grass grows out.

The harrow is five sections and I pull them using a long metal cable. I used this setup with my tractor last year around all the pasture with no problems.  Today somehow the cable got wrapped around the left side tractor axle.  Then the left rear tractor tire ran over the cable on another turn.  With no slack left the cable wrapped around the tractor tire itself and pulled up the harrows to the tire.  I turned around at the sound of the commotion and saw the harrows coming up in the air towards the tractor.  I immediately stopped. By then the left front harrow had been pulled up under the tractor's tire fender and against the left rear tire.  One of the harrow's spikes went through the tire and I heard air escaping.

I had to remove the railroad tie I had placed on the front two harrow sections for weight, then unchain the other harrow sections from the one section in the tire.  Then I had to untie the cable from the harrow section and then unwrap the cable from the tire.  My neighbor Curtis helped me remove the harrow section from the tire.  I was able to drive the tractor to the backyard before all the air escaped from the tire.

Monday I'll have to get the tire fixed.  That'll be a big job.   In the meantime I put the five harrow sections back together and used my pickup to drag the harrow around the area I plan to setup my temporary corral panels tomorrow.

I had partially disassembled the harrow sections when I took this photo.

Cutting logs, and Mama cow

A few days ago Jan had a number of trees on her property trimmed or cut.  Even though most of the trees were Aspen, I took the tree trunks for firewood.  I got a large pickup load of tree trunks.  Today I fired up my chainsaw and cut the tree trunks into smaller pieces suitable for splitting and then for my wood stove.

I then, until I ran out of chainsaw bar oil, spent a few more hours cutting up fallen trees in the middle pasture.  I gathered up a pickup load and a half of logs and stacked them for later splitting.  I also stacked half of  "Jan's" logs I cut earlier.

That, and riding 30 miles on my bicycle, has left this guy feeling his age tonight.

In the afternoon I found Mama cow drinking by herself at the water trough.  I opened the gate and let her into the south corral to be with Tobey.  Panda saw what I was doing and came running from across the corral but I got the gate closed before she reached me.  Mama and cow #80 are the last two cows left to have calves.  Mama is usually very protective of her newborn calves and maybe by being in the south corral it would be easier to ear tag, and if a boy, band her calf.  Donna will be happy I put Mama in the south corral as she doesn't like Mama.

Mama is happy as she now has an "all-you-eat" hay bale.  She immediately stuck her head into the bale and ate and ate.  The photo is when she took a break from eating.

Discing: Round 1

Tuesday I made the first pass discing my hayfield.  Since I had worked the field up well last year before planting my oat, barely, and pea crop, I don't need to do much discing before planting my alfalfa and grass crop this Spring.  One more pass should be enough.

I did one pass now to set back the weeds and grass that started to appear in the field this past week with the warmer weather.  Also turning over the soil and burying the residual vegetation from last year crop will 'darken' the soil.  I am counting on this to help warm up the ground quicker before I plant later.  New alfalfa shoots can freeze.

More 'Silver' photos

I think Beulah's calf is so pretty. I think I am going to name her: "Silver".  Here are a few more photos of her from Monday morning.  The calf does a bit of bawling when she is not next to her mother.  But I see milk around her mouth so she is drinking.

I saw Chris plowing his rented field this afternoon and I talked with him about the beaver dam, and about borrowing his packer so I can plant my hayfield this Spring.  The beavers didn't repair the dam I had partially removed a few days ago.  They did work on the culvert dam.  The replaced the north wing/dam from the culvert that I had removed.  They made the new addition even bigger.  I removed the addition.

Patrick, Buddette, and cow 40

It was a busy Sunday.  In addition to the birth of Beulah's calf, and Tobey getting a new hay bale, I had to herd cow #40 and her calf into the NE pasture to be with cow #20 in the temporary corral.  Cow #40 had a slight limp the past few days but this afternoon her limp got much worse.  The muddy corral may not be good for her leg, or another cow may have pushed or rammed her.

I was mainly trying to herd cow #40 and expected her calf to follow. But her calf took off like a rocket and ran way out in the pasture.  Cow #40 then hobbled as fast as she could after her calf.  After a few more 'calf rockets' I finally got the both of them to walk to the gate and into the NE pasture.  Then down to where cow 20 and cow 120 were eating in their temporary corral.

Cow 120 is the cow with the swollen jaw.  Today her jaw was less swollen.  It looks as if she had an infection and the infection has drained somewhat.  Surprisingly cow 120 shows no ill effects and eats well.  So, since I added cow #40 I decided to let cow 120 and her calf (Buddette) out and have them rejoin the rest of the cows.   Herding cow 120 and Buddette across the NE pasture to the north pasture was a small chore as Buddette rocketed around checking stuff out.

Sunday afternoon most of the calves were bursting with energy.  Must have been because of the nice day.

While Buddette was still in the temporary corral she caught ahold of her tail and licked and licked it.  She must have played with her tail for three minutes.  A long time for a calf to play with its tail.

And since I have cute photos of Buddette, I am including one of Patrick.

New hay bale for Tobey

On Sunday Tobey had about a day's worth of hay left to eat in his feeder.  But I had to start the tractor to get a couple of hay bales down from the top of the stack so I decided to give Tobey a new hay bale.  I took his old hay and gave it to the cows.  They were less than pleased as the older hay was from Calvin's field.  Tobey got a new bale of the grain hay.  He was happy.  I put part of a small hay bale in the barn's wooden feeder to distract Tobey as I lifted the metal feeder up onto its side and prepared the new hay bale.  Later Tobey buried his head into the new bale and ate and ate.

Calf 11 - Beulah's

Beulah had her calf this afternoon between 4 pm and 5 pm.  From her behavior just before 4 pm I suspected she would give birth later in the day.  Just like last year Beulah quickly gave birth.  When I next saw Beulah at 5 pm her calf was all clean and was standing and drinking milk.  That was fast!

The calf is a heifer.  Another heifer!   But that is ok.  The calf is a beautiful silver grey. A gorgeous color.  The photos don't do the calf's color justice.  I am already thinking of keeping the calf as a replacement heifer for next year.