Between the River Hills & the River Bottom

[cliftonbros89]

Sunday wasn’t very exciting either. After giving all the calves their daily corn, and loading some of them up on hay again, I did a few jobs in the shop. One being servicing my uncle’s truck. It was a little over due for an oil change.

Dad and I also went to the bottom to get the 8760 and disk out.

We had some problems with the blower again for the a/c. This time it was the connector for the blower to the harness. After fixing that problem dad set out to disk up the corn stalks. We use to use the 7510 and brush hog to chop up all the stalks. That made things work up a bit better when we rip the ground later. But the last few years we’ve just been disking them. It breaks the stalks up just as well, pull us breaks the ground up some. Not to mention it’s a lot quicker than mowing them all down with that 15 foot brush hog.

So after dad go started I headed back to the shop. My 5 year old nephew assisted me some with the oil change. He was pretty excited that he got to pour the new oil in the engine. Plus, he thought the rubber gloves I let him wear were really cool, although they were a few times to big for him. But, he learned what an oil filter wrench is, that GM oil pan plugs are usually a 15mm, and he learned how to read a dipstick. So it was a pretty successful day.

After cleaning some things up at the shop I decided to quit a little early. It’s kind of nice to be at home in the daylight. One thing I dislike about this time of year is the lack of daylight. I leave when it’s dark and I get home when it’s dark.

 

[cliftonbros89]

Today things picked up a little bit. Fed the calves as usual. Then went to the shop to do a few jobs. First thing was fixing the windshield wiper switch in the 7230.

I guess some how in the process of assembly from the steering valve the knob came off the switch. But it was a quick fix.

Second I had to adjust the wing on the brush hog.

The right side had been hanging down a bit and wanted to drag on the end.

I also had to adjust the brakes a bit on the combine. I’m hoping that problem is solved.

Things were slightly delayed this morning. Dad had his monthly doctors appointment.

Things really changed this morning when we heard the river was going up. Going up a lot. Enough it would likely go over almost, if not all the beans on the outside of the levee. Which of corse wouldn’t be good.

So my uncle and I set out to try them out. They have a bit more moisture than we’d like. But drying them in the bin is better than letting the river go over them.

You can sort of see in this picture some of the beans that were caught by the river last go round. That not counting the ones that were drowned out in the summer time in a lower spot.

So we got to work on getting them out.

They were some really dirty, dusty beans. The bean platform is 35 foot, a lot wider than the corn head. That, plus all the dust made unloading on the go a little difficult. But we did it.
We had one slight problem with the small electric motor that adjust the pulley for the fan drive.

But with a little extra motivation on the shaft we persuaded it to work.

Since all the bins at dads are full we took the 2520 and auger to the farm where we’ve always rented a few bins for the last several years.

The beans were still super dirty unloading them too.

But we managed to get a few loads cut this evening. Just after the sun went down the stems toughened up again and made them a little difficult to cut. So we had to call it quits on that.

After we quit that I took over on disking.

I ran on that this evening until I finished our field. A little after 10. But we still have to do another field down there. It’s another job, along with the beans that we need to get finished up before the rain arrives and the river rises come Wednesday. So it’ll be another busy day tomorrow.

 

[jblnut]

Good to see you're getting some beans out !! We've been soaking wet the last dew weeks and I'm getting concerned that once they do dry out they'll have swelled up enough that the pods will burst and they'll fall out.

Seems odd to me that the beans are that dirty. It's been a while since I remember any up here that dirty during harvest. Must be a John Deere combine thing

 

[cliftonbros89]

Good to see you're getting some beans out !! We've been soaking wet the last dew weeks and I'm getting concerned that once they do dry out they'll have swelled up enough that the pods will burst and they'll fall out.



Seems odd to me that the beans are that dirty. It's been a while since I remember any up here that dirty during harvest. Must be a John Deere combine thing

Some of our beans seem like they’re trying to liven back up since it’s been so warm lately. But we’re supposed to cool down in the next few days for a little bit. It has the beans all messed up. Some are dry and the beans are popping out of the pods, others still have green pods with few leaves hanging on. Those are beans standing right beside each other in the same field.

I’ve seen the dirt happen several times before like that. But it seems it especially happens in beans that the nasty river water have been standing in. I’m not sure what it is about it but it makes them filthy. I think that’s part of the reason we had an issue with the electric motor to adjust the fan. My uncle was constantly adjusting it because the low end of the field was the worst. He was trying to adjust it to blow a bunch of the dirt out because it wanted choke everything else up. The constant adjustment started making the little electric motor overheat.

 

[clmeredith]

The beans need a good rain to even them up

 

[cliftonbros89]

Well today was a bit productive. After doing the feeding early dad and I got things set for the day.

First we moved the 9500 to the bottom so we could run both combines today. Then while dad unloaded a load of beans from yesterday I hooked up the 8400 to the grain cart. We had the 4440 on it yesterday since the 8400 was still hooked to the drill. But we had intentions to get things done today and that 4440 can’t handle the grain cart full.

My uncle and I made sure the combines were fuel and greased, windows cleaned and ready to roll. I’d also ran by the shop and picked up several things should be have a little header trouble.

So we got on the move. Both combines rolling and I was running the grain cart.





I kept them both unloading on the go so they wouldn’t have to stop.

There was another field beside ours that some one else farms that also had beans. About 40 acres. They contacted us yesterday to see if we could combine their beans for them. They run a little bit bigger operation than we do and they were trying to get some beans out of a few low fields on the whole other end of the bottom before the rain and river rise. So we told them we’d do it. Luckily, they were at least able to bring trucks down to us.


So we managed to knock that out pretty quick.

So we managed to finish getting all the beans out outside of the levee in a pretty timely manner.

We moved our last truck loads that we had. It’s looking like a for sure shot at rain in the morning. So there wasn’t really time to move to another field for this evening. Especially considering the next bean fields that are closing to being ready have no shed to offer if it does rain. So we moved everything back to the sheds for now.

After I got everything put away I had a few more stops to make. I had to go out to the rented bin and close it up and cover the hopper on the auger so things stay dry if it rains.

I then ran by the retirement farm to check on the cattle and give them some corn. I guess with night fall, the slightly cooler air and breeze front the cool front on the way had them extra excited to see me bringing them buckets of corn. So much so I was nearly knocked down about 3 times due them jumping and running around and pushing one another. Other than that they were all good.

I then ran by the Matco guy’s house. He ordered me a Martin 3/8” drive 24mm 12 point flarenut crowfoot. A couple of the fittings on that 7230 steering pump were 24mm. It seems likes once I run across one such fitting once I end up running across it again the the near future. I didn’t have a 24mm flarenut of any kind so I had him get me one for just in case. Flare nut wrenches and crowfoot wrenches are the best. Martin makes some really good stuff.

After a stop by there I had to run into town for a few parts I’d ordered for Deere. Just little stuff for some rainy day fixes that have been put off. Also a re-stock on the o-ring sizes I had to use for that new steering pump for the 7230.

Other than that I called it a day. I’ll see what’s in store for tomorrow. We’ll see how much rain we get.

 

[cliftonbros89]

Seems as though the weatherman got it wrong again. We had a bit of rain but not enough to actually amount to anything liked they were calling for.

But we did have a bit this morning that slowed things down a bit. So after doing the feeding this morning before the rain I did some things in the shop I’d been meaning to get done.

First I started with labeling my flat face o-ring cap and plug set that I’ve been keeping in the truck for quick identification.
Next I finally got my truck set of o-rings together.


They’re all sorted and labeled. Some may recognize this as a HF storage box. If you’ve seen some of my post you may have seen I’m not a HF fan. But I’ve been trying to find a decent box to keep in the truck that I can keep the individually bagged o-ring labeled and sorted. This was one of the best options I’d found. Plus for $4 it was easy. Also, for $4 it seems half way ok as far as durability.

Since I now needed to fit it in the truck I had to rearrange some things a bit.

I also stuck any wiring/electrical supplies (that I need to better stock in the future) in one of the DeWalt t-stak boxes I recently picked up.


I’ve been keeping my test light and meter in this box lately since I’m more likely to possibly end up needing it in the field rather than in the shop.

After organizing those couple things I finished another project I started awhile back. You may remember those part containers I’d picked up with some stuff from the airport awhile back. I also bought a few of the alike “View Tainers” from Menards as well.

I made a few holders for them. 15 in all. I made 3 sets to hold 5 containers each. I figured I can use them for large jobs requiring several parts. Especially for jobs that may be delayed a bit between the taking part and putting back together. I figured it’d make it easier to label and know what’s in each container.

I made them from some pine boards and used a 3-1/4” hole saw for the holes, screwed them together, and painted them. Then I used a few sets of magnetic paper towel horders, also from Menards, to hang them.

I didn’t really have much room for them in my area of the shop so I hung 2 of them sideways on the side of my cabinet for now.

I managed to get my work area cleaned up and bit and reorganized so I can work a little easier.

It feels good to not have **** sitting around everywhere.

 

[cliftonbros89]

So later today, we had a guy stop by wanting us to book some seed (the same one who took us to lunch a few weeks ago). So he stuck around for a little while.

Not long after he left the truck came in from Deere to fill our bulk oil tanks.

We weren’t out, but we were starting to run a little low on both engine and hydraulic oil. The truck usually comes by once a year to top off the tanks for us.

These evening I ran to the bottom to do a few quick jobs. Just check a few things over on the tractors. One being replacing a few light bulbs on the post panel on the 8400.

It made it a little tricky one evening after dark to follow dad unloading on the go with the grain cart after dark when I couldn’t tell what gear I was in or how fast I was going. So that was a quick fix.

Then just like it was the lights on the dash of the 8760. No one has ever replaced these as long as we’ve had this thing. That’s been quite awhile. All it took was taking the panel out and taking 4 screws out to take it apart.

Two tiny light bulbs later and it was good to go.

That’s the first time I’ve ever seen that lit up. Now I won’t have to get out my flashlight at night to check the temp or fuel gauge. It’s crazy how one little tiny fix can be put off so long.

While in the bottom I drove up on the levee to see how much the river came up. Needless to say it’s a good thing the bean are out. The water was already over the sand bar we were crossing yesterday and already to the edge of where the beans were.

There’s a lot more water than yesterday.

So although we didn’t end up with much rain today they recently raised the chances for Friday-Sunday. So we may get back in the field tomorrow. But we’ll have to see how the rest of the week plays out.

 

[cliftonbros89]

So I also had came across come magnets a few weeks ago.


They were in one of the cabinets we picked up at the airport. I thought they’d be great to use to label some things. I’m just not sure what yet. They’re are several in green, blue, yellow, and red. I figured I could use the label maker for them to label whatever I may use them for.

Might I had that the Dymo label maker is one of the best $20 investments I think I’ve ever made. As you maybe have noticed it came in handy today for the cap and plug kit and the o-ring kit for the truck.

 

[cliftonbros89]

So some of the changes I made to the truck set up are mainly just DeWalt boxes.

I added a box for the impacts, batteries & charger. Not pictured is another box for the drill, 1/4” hex impact, bits and drill bits. Another for the test lights/multimeter I posted in the previous post.

I also used a larger one for both grease guns, tubes of grease, a few funnels, and more chain lube.

I have to say I like the boxes, they’re durable and keep the power tools clean and dry.

I have all the boxes, except for the box with the grease guns, under the drawers with the hand tools. I had to take out the four foot ladder, but still have my shovels, high lift jack, and cheater pipes there for now.

In there I also stuck in there this craftsman box I forgot I had.

It works perfect for my 3/4” sockets that’d I’d been keeping in the top box.

It takes up a bit more space. But frees up space in the top box for other stuff. It fits well under the hand tool drawer too.

So I have a few more ideas I plan to do to rearrange things. I’ve just yet to find time to do those. But I’m still looking for ideas on how to rearrange and fit the most I can. Also, for ideas on things I should keep with me on hand and the like.

 

[1949 caddyman]

I love my lable maker!

 

[cliftonbros89]

Well unfortunately, today there was not as much accomplished as the last few days.

Fed the calves corn this morning. They were all due for some hay as well. The one group of bigger calves was in need of a batch of feed too.

It was a cloudy, damp morning so we weren’t in a rush to start on beans. A few of the calves that had been sick still aren’t looking the greatest. So we took in a **** sample to the vet to test.

Vet said there really wasn’t any evidence of anything that could be causing them to be sick. But she ordered us a probiotic that we should have next week to mix with their feed to try.

Around noon we moved the 9770 down the road to one of the hill farms to try some more beans. The only problem was the contour on the head wasn’t working properly. I messed with it for awhile and tried to recalibrate it several times and it wouldn’t work properly yet. I was out of ideas and checked a few things one of the Deere mechanics told me to check. Still nothing. By this time we’d already wasted a few hours. So I told dad to just call and have a Deere guy check it out so we could actually get something done.

So we moved down the road and we got the 9500 combine ready to cut the beans at dad’s house. We also moved the grain cart and the tandem truck there so he was able to unload the combine somewhere.

One of the trailer trucks still had a load of beans from outside the levee that belonged to a landlord. So I took that load to their place to unload it.


I unloaded the truck and headed back to the farm where my uncle was with the 9770. The Deere mechanic still wasn’t there. As they are usually pretty busy this time of year. Finally around 6 or so he showed up. Just as I was starting to suspect, 2 of the 3 sensors for the height and contour control were out of whack and basically bad.

So we’re getting 2 of these $100 sensors to hopefully fix the problem for tomorrow. However, it’s supposed to be a cloudy morning and a good chance of rain now for the afternoon. So who knows if we’ll even be able to run tomorrow at all. Really eats at you when we could’ve cut 50 acres or so of beans only to be stuck because of a dumb electrical issue.

But in the mean time dad was able to roll this evening. He cut the beans on the small patches at his house and at my uncles.

We were able to keep going after dark so he was able to get at least a little over 30 acres done with the 9500 today. So at least that’s something.

For tomorrow we have to get the beans dad cut this evening in a bin. Then hopefully we can get some rye drilled in those couple small fields before rain may arrive. It’s also be nice to get the 9770 up and ready too. But it’s a **** shoot on the weather in the morning. Plus lows for a few evenings in the upper 30’s. About a 40 degree difference just in lows in about 48 hours. I wasn’t ready for this.

 

[XJSuperman]

Now you're feeling the weather we've had in Iowa. This up and down 40 degrees is crazy. The only good thing is it changes so fast I don't have to swap between air conditioning and heat. It all just evens itself out. Woke up to 35 degrees here this morning. They are talking about snow?

 

[cliftonbros89]

Now you're feeling the weather we've had in Iowa. This up and down 40 degrees is crazy. The only good thing is it changes so fast I don't have to swap between air conditioning and heat. It all just evens itself out. Woke up to 35 degrees here this morning. They are talking about snow?

I don’t enjoy this type of weather. Just do one of the other.

 

[cliftonbros89]

Well today was another not so productive day. Fed as usual. Then I had to clean up a mess from yesterday. I ran the fans on the corn bins. I guess he one larger bin had dried down quite a bit and the fan running caused the peak of the corn in the bin to slide.
And out the top it went. Right on to the ground.

So 20 five gallon buckets and 3 tubs later

I pretty much had majority of it picked up that I could

After cleaning that mess I helped dad set up an auger at the small bin at my uncles. He needed to unload the beans he cut yesterday with the 9500 in to it.



There was a truck load and over a tandem truck load on the grain cart. This bin we can only fit the smaller auger. So we can only fill it with the tandem truck.

While dad was unloading I started mowing around the fields.

We wanted to mow the edges right away because dad planned to drill rye in those 2 fields today.

I mowed for a bit then the Deere mechanic was coming over to resolve the issues with the 9770

After a bit of solving the issue my uncle and I decided to try cutting some more beans. Despite the cool, damp, dewy, cloudy, misty morning we were having.

Due to all those factors the beans were still too tough. So we decided to just finish loading the truck we started loading yesterday and then quit. However just as we were stopping we suddenly lost all power to the feeder house, header and unloading auger. Why? Because a hydraulic hose decided to blow.

It hard to see but oil went everywhere. A hose going to the hydraulic pump blew. It also shot out a lot of oil with it.

Luckily I was prepared with my tools, o-ring kit, and cap & plug kit. Then made a quick trip to town for a new hose. By the time I finished putting the new hose on the rain that was supposed to arrive started coming in. So to the nearest shed we went.

I went down the road to the shop and dad was just finishing drilling the rye. So we put everything else in the shed.

By that time there wasn’t much more we could do. I made a trip on the Kubota and called it a day by 4:30. But it was still a long day.

We had more rain late this evening. So it’s not looking good for accomplishing much tomorrow. Then more chances of rain Sunday and Monday. Plus more cool temps. So it won’t by drying up very quick. Sounds like it may end up being a bit of a delayed and possibly wet and muddy process getting beans out of the field this fall. Not to mention the river is still rising.

 

[cliftonbros89]

The weather man had the part about no rain correct today. But the part about sunshine was wrong. It’s been cloudy all day long. Due to the couple tenths of rain we had last night, no breeze, chilly temps, and no sun there was no field activity today.


I didn’t get up as early as I have all week. Got about an hour extra of sleep. But I headed to the farm to get the calves fed.

I had my latest SK socket of the month arrive yesterday. Also surprisingly it came with a hat too.

Glad to see they’re throwing in extra stuff for the SK club. If only they could add some more.

I washed the Kubota up good once. With the way the weather is sounding the next few days I’ll probably service it since I likely won’t be able to do much else.

It’s due for a good oil change and what not. Plus with deer season on the way we want to make sure it’s good to go.

Since there wasn’t much else that was major to try to accomplish today I did a few little dumb things in the shop I’ve been meaning to do.

First was make a punch that would work for the rivets for the poly pieces on the 635 platform for the 9770 combine. Sometimes they come loose or a rivet bust and you have to put a new one it.

I cut down a Wilde punch I got just got this reason. I really like Wilde stuff and it was cheap.

Then I drilled a hole in the center (although very off center) to essentially make a bit of a guide for the rivet.

It helps hold them in place better when trying to hammer them in. I think I’m going to get another to make so I have one for the shop and for the truck.

Then I started on another thing.

I don’t even know what this is from. Maybe someone might know? I don’t even remember where I found it. But I found it in something we bought or in a box of junk somewhere, something like that. But I had the idea to keep it from an idea I saw awhile back on GJ.

With the help of my St. Louis Pneumatic tools I cut some slots in it. Why?

I thought it’d come in handy for bottle jacks. I plan to keep it in the truck. I wish I knew what the hell it was so I could find another one. It isn’t the prettiest job. But it’ll work good enough for the truck.

I figured it should be painted if it’ll be on the ground somewhere so it’s not lost. I was out of fluorescent orange so I settled for JD construction yellow.

After I did that I drove around to check a few bean fields. The beans sure could use some wind and sunshine to dry out. But that won’t happen for a few days. Plus a field on a creek bottom is likely to get some water in it from the river rising yet.

We’ll see how things go. More rain scheduled for tomorrow.

 

[jon72vega]

What you are asking about is a drill bushing.
They are used in a machining drilling fixture to guide the drill so that the hole is made in the correct location.

 

[1Garageman]

Quick question, off the subject kind of.... Do you guys have 3 phase electric power, or standard going into your farm? I always wondered if farmers run 3 phase on all of their machines, like that big fan you have.
Thanks!

 

[jdw8320]

I use the same orangizer for my section bolts and nuts. Like the o ring kit. They make a tool for the skid plate rivets. Google skid plate rivet tool I have the one with the red rubber grip.

 

[cliftonbros89]

Quick question, off the subject kind of.... Do you guys have 3 phase electric power, or standard going into your farm? I always wondered if farmers run 3 phase on all of their machines, like that big fan you have.
Thanks!

Honestly, I couldn’t say for sure. But I know everything is set up separate.

What you are asking about is a drill bushing.

They are used in a machining drilling fixture to guide the drill so that the hole is made in the correct location.

Interesting, that makes sense. Thanks.

 

[cliftonbros89]

Well the last few days haven’t been terribly interesting. We had a few rain showers Saturday night late. So since I had some things to do on the house I took off on Sunday.

But I did make a trip to a Menards for some things. I was glad to see they’re finally firing the Masterforce hand tools back up. Although I was a bit disappointed to see it’s all made in China now. Since they have a whole new line they put all their leftover U.S. Masterforce, Gearwrench and Crescent hand tools all on clearance. There wasn’t a lot left.

But I picked up a few things. Grabbed some things to have an extra on hand. Never know when you might have to make a tool.

Monday started as always. But we’d had yet another light shower in the early morning hours. Plus it was cloudy the entire day.

So the biggest part of the day was that I’d got around to servicing the Kubota finally. I also used the first of the oil change stickers I recently picked up on Amazon.

Not sure how well it’ll work on the Kubota. But I’m hoping they stick to the cab tractors and the trucks well.

I also reorganized some things in the shop. Plus, broke out and painted my new magnetic glove box holder.


The glove holder is only 1 of 4 things I’ve ever purchased at a HF. The ugly red it was originally defiantly wasn’t going to work with the color combo of JD green and flat black. So I took care of that.

That was mainly it for Monday. But we did haul off the better half of the big calves to an auction on Tuesday. We also spent the morning running the smaller calves through the chute. Gave them their shots and cut the bulls. It went a little better than usual. Only have my foot stomped once. Plus they all seem to be doing really well.

Tuesday brought more clouds. The whole day again for the most part. It’s really been a pain in the *** since we need the beans to dry.

But since we couldn’t work in the fields dad decided he wanted to go out to my grandpa’s to clear the roads in the woods. Plus he wanted to check on all his deer stands.

So we loaded up the Kubota and out we went. The trip ended up taking most of the day. We had a lot of trees and tree tops to clear. The soil is really rocky out on the end of the county. The trees can grow tall but they never seem to be to healthy. It seems like a few decent summer storms can really take a toll out there.

Now today we finally had some sun. We were hoping we could get back on beans by the afternoon.

I unloaded the truck we filled last week. My uncle got started where we left off. But the beans were just too tough. Those showers and cloudy days really hurt as far as moisture goes. So we didnt get any beans cut.

This morning I’d helped dad move the 9500, 4440 and grain cart to another field. But it was the same case there. Just too much moisture. We don’t want to put them in the bin with as much moisture as they have. Plus we want to haul a few loads off to sell straight out of the field for ourselves. We also have some land lords that want to sell their parts right out of the field. So we’re going to keep waiting.

Since the combines couldn’t run I started getting some mowing done around one of the farms.


I found someone’s metal grill in one of the road ditches, left over from hitting a deer. Luckily I saw it before I ran over it.

So things are sitting still until hopefully tomorrow. Already a chance for another round of rain come Friday. That’ll really start to back us up.

We’re hoping we can possibly get a frost soon. Maybe it’ll kill out some of that greenness left in the beans and help them dry a bit quicker. We’ll see.

Lots to do. Just need some clear days to do it. In the mean time I also have several things going on at the house. More painting, finally finishing my basement trim, considering doing some things to both bathrooms, the list goes on.

 

[cliftonbros89]

Oh I also picked up another Martin wrench.

A 13/16” flare nut to keep in the truck. They’ve been handy enough I’d like to further my set in the truck. Some might say it’s over kill. But they sure as hell are nice when you need them.

I don’t have a picture but my Matco guy is letting me borrow his Power Probe 3 for a few weeks. I was asking him about some testers and things. He suggested I look into a Power Probe. He said he’d never used one before we started his Matco route. But he said he’s sold a lot and decided to try it out too. He said he really likes his and he has a lot of customers who really like theirs.

So I picked it up last night. I haven’t tried it out yet but I’m looking forward to finding something to test it out on. I’m sure there’s bound to be something go wrong I can try it on.

 

[cliftonbros89]

No frost this morning. But, we did get something done for a change.

After feeding all the calves this morning dad and I split a wagon load of wood.

A wagon load that’s been sitting since spring. That time of the year again. Dad fired up his stove last week. So we broke out the 420 and the splitter this morning.


It was a very dewy morning again. So it took all morning for things to dry off. But this afternoon we were able to finally start back on beans.

My uncle and I were at one farm. I mowed water ways in the field in between unloading trucks. Dad was also able to run with the 9500 at the farm we moved him to yesterday.


The afternoon and early evening had enough sunshine and a slight breeze to dry the beans down decently.

We were able to run awhile after dark. But it doesn’t take long after the sun goes down for those bean stems to toughen back up and make things difficult.

Still talking about rain by tomorrow afternoon sometime. Hopefully, we can finish up at that farm and get things moved to a shed before the rain sets in again.

 

[clmeredith]

Boy I sure miss bean harvest season when the sunsets, it cools down and the dust hangs in a air.

 

[jblnut]

Are your Dad and Uncle cutting close to each other ??

Glad to see you're back moving. How much did the river come up ??

 

[cliftonbros89]

Are your Dad and Uncle cutting close to each other ??

Glad to see you're back moving. How much did the river come up ??

Dad is at a farm that’s just a mile from the shop. It has several small patches here and there and really hilly in places. It’s definitely not a place where the 9770 with that 35’ head can maneuver around well. So while dad is there with the tandem truck and grain cart for storage my uncle and I are up the road about 10 miles from the shop working in a open flatter field with both trailer trucks.

If you look back at some of those pictures from the last time we had water outside the levee the river was at about 29.5 foot. They were calling for it to go to 36.4. Luckily it only went to 33.4. But that still a lot of water outside the levee. Not to mention it’s going to take awhile for it to fall below 30 foot. At 30 foot water starts coming in the seep wells along the side of the levee. That makes things wet on the inside of the levee too.

Boy I sure miss bean harvest season when the sunsets, it cools down and the dust hangs in a air.

It was definitely hanging yesterday, and hanging heavy. It was drifting down the road about a mile to a main highway. I’m sure people thought something was burning.

 

[cliftonbros89]

Sure enough Friday didn’t work out for us. Start of the day was dewy and cloudy. I hauled off a load of beans to Illinois.

I had to take a detour due to the river being up and having a road closed.

I arrived back just in time to get things covered up and moved.

Sure enough we ended up with some more rain. It rained steady all afternoon. So we decided to pretty much take the rest of the day off and rest up a bit.

Saturday was wet, but the sun popped out and brought a lot of wind with it. So we loaded things up to set out to my grandpa’s to move the deer blind that dad built awhile back.



Between, my dad, my brothers-in-law and myself we moved the Kubota, the blind and my brothers-in-law’s tractor hooked to our 7’ mower. We mowed the roads to the stands, moved the new blind to a spot and cut a road to it too. So that took majority of the day.

As far as other new goes. My brother-in-law is getting our old four wheeler going again

We haven’t used it in a few years so dad wants to it ready for deer season.

Also some bad news. My service truck had a low coolant light show up this week. I checked it. It was low. So I added some. Little over a quart. Which I didn’t think seemed like a good sign. But it was fine. For a day. The light came back on again. I check it and it was low again.

So Friday when it rained I pulled it in the shop and put the tester on it. It had also started blowing some white smoke. Sure enough I couldn’t find any major leak on it with tester pressurizing the system. The gauge showed it slowing loosing pressure. It’s not looking good. Plus I have a power steering hose leaking. Looks like it will have to be looked at next week. It definitely won’t be a good week to not have to truck on hand.

 

[cliftonbros89]

Didn’t find much out at Grandpa’s. Saw a few deer run through the woods. They have a ton of acorns to eat this year.

I did find this little shed though. It’s been a few years since I’ve found one out there. I’ve always enjoyed trying to do a little shed hunting in the winter

I decided to let the cats check it out. Maybe I can train them to find them. They’re more interested than my girlfriend’s dog.

 

[NKlamerus]

Cracked head or head gasket on the truck?

I've been driving a 2005 Silverado with 2 cracked Castech 706 heads for over 50,000 miles now. Added AC Delco coolant sealing tabs and haven't added coolant since.

This was before the "quick fix", about 10k miles worth of buildup.

 

[Sifan]

FS Evansville? 50 miles round trip? Surprised nothing closer on your side of the river.

 

[cliftonbros89]

Cracked head or head gasket on the truck?

I've been driving a 2005 Silverado with 2 cracked Castech 706 heads for over 50,000 miles now. Added AC Delco coolant sealing tabs and haven't added coolant since.

This was before the "quick fix", about 10k miles worth of buildup.

I’m assuming head or gasket. We’re going to take it to a shop to look at it since we don’t exactly have the time to tear in to it right now. But it may be the end of the week before they can check it out.

 

[cliftonbros89]

Cracked head or head gasket on the truck?

I've been driving a 2005 Silverado with 2 cracked Castech 706 heads for over 50,000 miles now. Added AC Delco coolant sealing tabs and haven't added coolant since.

This was before the "quick fix", about 10k miles worth of buildup.

I’m assuming head or gasket. We’re going to take it to a shop to look at it since we don’t exactly have the time to tear in to it right now. But it may be the end of the week before they can check it out.

 

[cliftonbros89]

FS Evansville? 50 miles round trip? Surprised nothing closer on your side of the river.

There’s only one place around us that’s under a 50 mile round trip. But they’re a much smaller place. Not just by how much grain they take but also by how big their place is. They just compete with the larger companies on price either. So it’s worth it to go a little further. Not to mention it’s a pain in the *** to get around with a trailer truck there. They’re more set up for smaller tandem trucks and gravity wagons.

 

[Sifan]

Yeah, lot of farms here run to the river terminals because of the price difference and river terminals are set up to handle a lot of grain in a short time period.

State likes it too, portable scales, overweight and fines.

 

[cliftonbros89]

Yeah, lot of farms here run to the river terminals because of the price difference and river terminals are set up to handle a lot of grain in a short time period.

State likes it too, portable scales, overweight and fines.

Yes they do!

 

[cliftonbros89]

Well Sunday I took the day off. Got some things done around the house. Got some new tools too.


Best part was the nailer was on sale.

Since the service truck is having some issues I had to improvise a bit.

So this morning I piled a bunch of stuff in the bed of my Silverado. It’s not ideal but it’ll have to do for now.

Late this morning we were yet again having problems with the header on the 9770. After some investigating we found an issue causing the header to hang up.

On the outside edge underneath we have a piece that’s broken. Guess the best part...it cost over $1,000! Who would’ve guessed.

It’s causing the end to bend up which is making things worse. The part should be here in the morning. So that’ll be another job to add to the already full list. But that still may not solve another issue we’re having with the header. We’ll see.

Even though the 9770 wasn’t going dad was going in the 9500. He finished up where he was at before it rained last week.

Then we moved to another field. I took a load to the bin with the tandem truck.

This evening we moved back to an old pasture field to cut some more beans.

We ran a little after dark and have the truck and the grain cart full to empty in the morning.

I had a few additions from eBay arrive today.

A Martin 1-7/16” service wrench. It was pretty cheap and brand new. It should work good for hydraulic stuff. I also picked up a cheap 3/8” Allen ratchet. I got it to convert to a 1/2” drive. I found a thread a few months back on GJ about it. Danaher 3/8” 36 tooth ratchets that you can drop a Danaher 1/2” rebuild kit in. I believe from an Armstrong Torque wrench (don’t quote me on that, it’s in that thread somewhere). It just slips right in. I bought the kit awhile back. I put it together tonight. I’ll have to take a picture tomorrow. It’ll be interesting to compare it in size to another 3/8” ratchet and my short 1/2” Wright ratchet.

 

[cliftonbros89]

Well it has for sure been a busy week. But I’ll start with a post on that Allen 3/8” ratchet that dropped a 1/2” drive kit it.

Completely necessary? No. Does it look cool? Yeah.


Here it is compared to my 3/8” Snap On FL80 and my 1/2” Wright (I forget the part number). It’s a short length and would have lots of clearance if needed. Not entirely sure what I might need to use it for but I’m sure I’ll find something. I’m liking it.

 

[captain14]

Sometimes you buy a tool and it will be in standby in the toolbox until it’s needed. Then it pays for itself just once. Then it’s all bonus afterwards each time you use it.

 

[cliftonbros89]

So Tuesday we separated some more of the calves.

It seems like they’ve finally all turned around and are doing much better than they had been. Although we held 7 back from the rest that we hauled off to sell. We’re hoping to put a little more weight on them.

We fixed up the 635 head on the 9770

The end (left bottom corner) of this piece broke off. This didn’t allow the platform to “float” across the top of the ground as it should. It would bind that end up and would cause the sensors on that end of the head to act up. Not to mention it wasn’t easy on everything else.

So we were back in business. That evening I helped dad move from the old pasture field to one of the other farms neighboring ours.

While in the process of that my uncle called to say the sickle bar on the 9770 had broke so it was a rush down the road to fix that issue.

It’s been a little annoying working out of the back of my Silverado. No organization, and I always end up needing something at the front of the bed. It also doesn’t help that my tailgate is deciding to not latch (as is so common on the early 00’s GM tailgates), to make matter better yet both knobs on the back glass of the camper shell broke off as well this week so it doesn’t stay shut properly either!

But we got things rolling again and I helped my uncle finish the field up after dark. He cut about 65 acres that day so it was a good day.

I’ve been unloading trucks like crazy too

We filled up the biggest of the rented bins.

So i moved the auger up to the other bin we’re renting from the same guy. The other 2 in this picture are being used by his son.


I got my uncle moved down to the bottom. Which would be able to get a lot knocked out quick down there if it weren’t for the water.

There’s still quite a bit of water outside of the levee. Lucky we have those beans out. As wet as it is out there now we would’ve probably had to wait until it froze in January to cut those beans.

Luckily, the river level has slowly dropped and by now the seep wells in the bottom shouldn’t have water pouring out of them anymore. But it’s definitely not weather for ground to dry. So for now we’re going around the wet spots.

So we cut what we could. So I’ve been hauling beans to our bins, a landlords bin, and sold a few loads on spot across the river.

Dad finished up with the last of the full season beans in the hills.

So no we’re waiting for the water in the bottom to be pumped out and/or dry up and waiting on the 200+ acres of second crop/wheat stubble beans to dry up some more.
Things were rolling along pretty good until this showed up in the 9770 monitor.

Since we’ve cut as many beans as we could, plus we got just enough of a little rain to hold things up for a day or so I’m having Deere come check it out. I didn’t even know where to start since I didn’t know what the code specifically referred to (the diagnostic manual for the 9770 is almost $1,100). So they should be by today.

Then yesterday evening just when I thought I was about done for the day I heard a calf bawling and a cow going crazy. So I went to check it out and found this.

Not only did this guy have his head stuck but he wasn’t even supposed to be on that side of the fence. He had a friend with him too. But I managed to get him out pretty quick and got him and his buddy back on the right side of the fence. His mom was glad to see him.

 

[cliftonbros89]

Sometimes you buy a tool and it will be in standby in the toolbox until it’s needed. Then it pays for itself just once. Then it’s all bonus afterwards each time you use it.

That’s true. I’ve had that situation happen several times. I’m sure it’ll be handy for some low torque and tight situations that require 1/2” sockets. I know one that would be handy would be removing the fastner for ignition switches on these tractors. 1-1/8” 12 point socket with take it off and on properly. It’d be good for that. Even if I could still use one of my other 1/2” ratchets or just put an adaptor on a 3/8”.