Between the River Hills & the River Bottom

[Farmall450]

I don’t know where the week went. Another whole week gone and I didn’t keep up again. A whole lot going on and I still feel like I didn’t accomplish anything.

Can't win them all man. Keep grinding!

 

[cliftonbros89]

Ok here we go. I’m going to get some what caught up a bit.

So last Monday started off as always.

Checking on the cattle.

Taking care of Ben. All the cattle are doing good since they’ve been out on the pasture. We’ve even had 2 new arrivals since last week too.


I’d finally had the shop cleaned out, with the exception of the 4010.

Dad finally finished up his bucket project.


I got a new JIC cap & plug set to keep in the truck for hydraulic repairs.

Tuesday morning I did the regular jobs. Since it’s getting close to time to cut rye for hay I wanted to get a start on looking over the hay equipment so it’s ready to go. I thought making a trip over to the farm where the hay equipment is would be a good time to run the 4010 a bit again.

So I headed out. I was about halfway there when I heard a pop and suddenly hydraulic oil started pouring out from underneath the dash.

I was barely able to steer or brake but I managed to guide it in to a driveway with a trail of oil behind me.

I shut it off, got the crescent wrench out of my pocket and took the cover off the dash. I immediately saw the problem. You can see in the middle of the picture that and oil line broke. It broke right at the flare.

So I called dad and he brought the trailer. We loaded it up and back to the shop it went.

Luckily, the little cover below the steering wheel made it easy to access the line. It was even easier to get out with the crowfoot.

So I took off again, this time with the 4020 to retrieve the rake.


Then with the 7510 to get the mower conditioner.

 

[lis2323]

Between the River Hills & the River Bottom

Your dad did a nice job on the new bucket bottom. Is that cutting edge going to be a weld-on?


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[Farmall450]

Re: Between the River Hills & the River Bottom

Your dad did a nice job on the new bucket bottom. Is that cutting edge going to be a weld-on?


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Yes he did, it looks great.

 

[cliftonbros89]

So by Wednesday due to the weather dad decided it was likely best we swap wheels on the sprayer


So the sprayer was back in the shop, narrow wheels were off, wide wheels were on.

I was trying to make sure the 4440 and planter were ready to roll.
But there was suddenly a leak on the repaired couplers on the SCV’s


In the meantime I backed the mower conditioner in the shop to repair dad’s mishap from last summer.


Dad and I fixed things up and got the new parts on and I looked the rest of it over.

I got the new line for the 4010 and shot a bit of paint on it too.

I fixed the line and got it backed back in the shop. I backed the 4440 in too.

I got started on it and replaced part of the seal kit hoping it would fix it. But I didn’t. So it was back apart for a third time.

Part of the reason for the rake being brought out was to put the middle rake wheels back on it. Dad bought new teeth for it and put them on too.


We had some more rain again so I also pulled my truck in the shop for a service.

In addition to an oil change I also finally replaced my busted radio.

I also had to replace my door handle too.

If only I had a dime for every one of these GM for handles I’ve ever had to replace.

 

[Farmall450]

What would you have, 40 cents?

 

[cliftonbros89]

So by Friday we had to wait for things to dry.

So dad and I ran the last of the calves through to chute to give shots, worm and castrate.

So I went back to the 4440.

I also got the 7510 in the shop too. It seemed to be having some idle issues.

Friday evening dad went to a cattle sale.


He bought 9 bred heifers to add to the herd.

I took care of the cattle Saturday morning and finally fixed up the 4440 couplers.

So it was finally ready to go.


I color coded the couplers like I did on the 8400 and 7510 too.


After that I adjusted the throttle cable a bit on the 7510 to adjust the idle speeds a bit. Wide open wasn’t quite wide open.

I finished my day a bit early in the evening checking on the cattle at the retirement farm.

 

[cliftonbros89]

Took the day off on Sunday for family stuff for Easter. But was right back to it on Monday.

Monday was the regular chores and hauling water for dad and helping him move from farm to farm with the sprayer.


Yesterday was more of the same.

It was dry enough to start doing stuff but it didn’t last long.

I stated spreading fertilizer on some of the ground we’re going to be planting beans on.

Dad started burn down on the some of those fields too.

But some rain rolled in by the evening.


So getting field work done didn’t last long.

 

[cliftonbros89]

So we ended up with more overnight and more rain today. With more on the way tomorrow.

So I did a cattle check and did a few other odd jobs. I also put things in the sheds so they wouldn’t be out in the rain more.

I also went down the road to get the baler out of the shed too.


I forgot to mention Monday I got the middle wheels back on the rake and got it all ready to go too.


I backed the baler and the 7230 in the shop to look things over.


Dad had a doctors appointment today and also stopped off to buy a printer.

I had to spend a portion of my afternoon making it capable of printing things from his iPad.

But it was back to the baler. I needed to drain the oil out of the gearbox since it’s never been done. I wanted to do it without taking off the PTO shaft and clutch since the plug is in a tight spot on the bottom of the gearbox.

But with a little configuring of tools I managed to get it loose and out. It was a little tight but it worked really well. The only thing is some jerk at Deere decided to use a British standard gas pipe plug for this plug on this gearbox.

As you can some what see it’s definitely not the same as a regular npt fitting’s threads. Not only that but the hex head is a stupid size. Don’t bother with a 3/8” or 7/16”. Ones as big as the other is small. A 10mm is the closest thing and it rounded the corners a bit for me. Damn engineers!

So I spend my evening getting started going pretty deep on inspecting things.


So then we go. All caught up. I’ve been doing stuff but still feeling like I’m not getting anywhere. This rain is really starting to get us behind on things. I have a feeling it’s only going to get worse. But at least the river has started to gradually go down.

 

[cliftonbros89]

I can relate. I have been working on a truck project that has taken longer than I wanted it to. I have to put electric steering in our racecar that will be dropped off in about a week. The sun has finally showed itself out here in Oregon so now its building burn piles and try to get the wet crud that came down over the winter to burn "before burn seasons closes, got a bunch of Johnson grass trying to take over one of my fields but its too wet to get the tractor into. Our hop beds were being overran by clover and we needed to deal with that before we can run twine for the bines to climb up. Were going to pull about 400 old arborvitaes shrubs that ring part of the property while the ground is wet and the sky is blue. "narrow window"
These and many more projects will get done.......in due time............not overwhelmed just riding the wave.

I'm sure you got more accomplished than you feel you did. From what you have shared, you get way more done in a day than the typical peep.

You sound busier than me. Glad to know someone else has a lot going on!

I definitely don’t feel like I always do that’s for sure!

 

[cliftonbros89]

Re: Between the River Hills & the River Bottom

Your dad did a nice job on the new bucket bottom. Is that cutting edge going to be a weld-on?


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He did do a good job. Yeah he welded the cutting edge on top with some support underneath. I didn’t get a shot of it in the shop when he finished it. I’ve been meaning to but keep forgetting.

 

[cliftonbros89]

What would you have, 40 cents?

I think I’d have at least a dollar by now! I’ve changed several in my uncle’s ‘00 truck, my previous service truck, and my ‘91 Chevy before that which had the older style but still the same concept. It always seems that once on goes out it’s not long and the other follows.

 

[cliftonbros89]

Between the River Hills & the River Bottom

Yes he did, it looks great.

I’ll have let him know. Hopefully we can put it to use soon.

 

[Farmall450]

Re: Between the River Hills & the River Bottom

I’ll have let him know. Hopefully we can put it to use soon.

Hopefully! Good luck dodging rain.

 

[lis2323]

Re: Between the River Hills & the River Bottom

I’ll have let him know. Hopefully we can put it to use soon.

Is he using that new welder? Liking it?


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[cliftonbros89]

Re: Between the River Hills & the River Bottom

Is he using that new welder? Liking it?


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He used it on a few things and likes it so far. But he’s still getting used to it. It’s a pretty big change for him. I think he used it a little on the loader bucket but then switched back to the Lincoln for the heavier pieces.

I think he’s somewhat hoping I take over on the new welder and figure it out so he doesn’t have to. He just hasn’t said it yet.

 

[lis2323]

Then get with it. Not like you’re busy or anything .....lol

Sorry. Couldn’t resist. Keep the great posts!


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[welder57]

Two thump up on what you and your Dad are doing!!!

 

[cliftonbros89]

Then get with it. Not like you’re busy or anything .....lol

Sorry. Couldn’t resist. Keep the great posts!


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I know. I think I’m going to have to actually find the time. He got a little frustrated with it yesterday. I think this is the first new thing I haven’t seen him just take to right away.

 

[cliftonbros89]

Two thump up on what you and your Dad are doing!!!

Thanks!

 

[cliftonbros89]

So we had rain late Wednesday.

That amounted to another almost inch and a half. Thursday was damp and foggy to start.

I started at the retirement farm. I noticed one of the cows didn’t come up. So I looked and found her down out on the other side of the barn.

Head was down hill, back was down hill, she wasn’t looking good. Still there and moving, breathing well, but she must’ve been laying like that for some time. I immediately took off walking to the hay shed to get the tractor so I could pull her *** end down hill and maybe get her rolled on her stomach. But as soon as I arrived with the tractor, a whole 2-3 minutes later, she died right then and there. Why she was laid like that I don’t know. What they always do that in the very early morning hours for me to find them first thing in the morning when it’s too late I don’t know. So I pulled her out of the pasture to be buried. Wasn’t the greatest way to start the day.

I checked on all the other cattle after that.

Luckily, they were all doing good. Some of them were pretty excited for corn.

Dad went turkey hunting. I went back to looking over the hay baler. I looked things over and checked bearings and what not.
I replaced all the belt pins.

Put a fire extinguisher on it once, hopefully we’ll never need it.

So I think it should be pretty much ready to go. It’s bales just over 5,000 bales now. According to the monitor we baled 1,507 bales last year.

Rain continued through the day.

This was the gauge by lunch Thursday

This is the gauge this morning

Another chance tomorrow, and good chances for Monday and Tuesday for right now.

Looks like it’ll be every bit of a few days until we can get back in the field. I was a little aggravated we didn’t get any corn in the ground Tuesday and Wednesday. But I’m not sure I would’ve wanted it to be with the couple pour downs we’ve had the last couple days.

 

[jblnut]

Good grief you guys are wet down there !!!

It's finally drying out here but we have one pesky snow pile that is still lingering around

***** about the cow. I don't know why they wait until you show up to die but I've had a few steers do that over the years as well. They're looking tough laying all stupid and before you get them rolled over they die. Doesn't make sense.

 

[captain14]

How old was the cow that died?

I see you mounted an extinguisher on the hay baker. What are you using it for to extinguish? Did you add anything besides the 2 1/2 gallons of water. You may consider adding some dish soap. That will help the water “cling” to the hay instead of running off.
Just a thought.

 

[cliftonbros89]

Good grief you guys are wet down there !!!



It's finally drying out here but we have one pesky snow pile that is still lingering around



***** about the cow. I don't know why they wait until you show up to die but I've had a few steers do that over the years as well. They're looking tough laying all stupid and before you get them rolled over they die. Doesn't make sense.

I checked my Climate FieldView app last night and on average so far for the year we’ve about 6-7” over average rainfall already for the year. I have a feeling we won’t end up with anything in the middle for the rest of the year. It’ll either continue to be wet or it’ll dry off and then stay dry. I don’t want either.

I don’t know why they have to lay down to get themselves in a position with their head or their back down hill. We’ve had several over time that didn’t make it even after getting them turned over. That really seems to mess them up.

 

[cliftonbros89]

How old was the cow that died?

I see you mounted an extinguisher on the hay baker. What are you using it for to extinguish? Did you add anything besides the 2 1/2 gallons of water. You may consider adding some dish soap. That will help the water “cling” to the hay instead of running off.
Just a thought.

I can’t say for sure how old she was. But I know she was old. She’s one I’ve been trying to talk dad in to culling for about 3 years now. All those charleigh cows out at that farm have a lot of age on them, with the exception of 2 and the bull.

We decided to be safe absent mount one of there. We’ve never had it happen but you always hear stories of balers and bales catching fire. I haven’t filled it yet but I was thinking of trying to add something else to the water to help it out a bit. I hadn’t thought of soap. Thanks for the suggestion.

 

[captain14]

Some of the engine companies dump some dish soap in the container.

Think about when you wash dishes and the soap clings to your hand after you pull out the dish to rinse? Same idea.

 

[Flatland Dave]

I'd think soap or some kind of sprayer surfactant would work. I think it would be great for the intended use.

 

[Sifan]

Always tough to loose a cow, bummer.

Not many are able to put out a baler fire once they see it, concentrate on saving the tractor, better to lose baler than lose both.

 

[Farmall450]

Sorry about the cow.

Soap is a surfactant, so it makes sense.

 

[cliftonbros89]

I think I will add some soap to the extinguisher. I did fill and charge it yet. But I will before we get started on hay.

 

[cliftonbros89]

Between the River Hills & the River Bottom

Friday majority of the day was spent with the cattle.


I gave all of them some corn and checked them all over.
Since we bought the 9 heifers a few weeks ago we put them with the cattle at dad’s. Since we had them there it was a little more than we’d like to have on the pasture at dad’s. So I got all of the cattle in the lot and we picked out 9 of the older cows to move to different lots.

We moved 4 over to our other farm where we had some room. Then the other 5 we took out to the retirement farm.

They’re working on getting along.

Since it’s been wet and more rain on the way and the river is finally going down we decided to move some of the equipment back to the shed in the bottom.



That made room for the hay equipment in the shed. I also got the brush hog moved from the shed in the bottom. It’s going to need some work.


Dad worked on his 3 point trailer hitch for the tractors.

The old one is about to break so dad made a new one. It works good to move the gooseneck around the field to load hay and also works well to move the cattle trailer.

I backed the 7230 in the shop to get things ready to replace the tierods on the axle.

 

[cliftonbros89]

Saturday I didn’t get much done. I had yet more weekend events to attend. With it already being wet plus getting a little more rain that morning I didn’t have much of an excuse to get out of it.

I checked over all the cattle and did a few things to the 7230. I was at least able to get a start on the tierods, which allowed me to see how much of a pain of a job it was going to be.

Those tapered tieroad ends were in there so tight the pressure about bent our old Indestro puller.

So I had to head out early from the shop.

 

[cliftonbros89]

Also got a new gadget for dad over the weekend.

I picked up a wind anemometer from Amazon. Things get pretty particular with spraying these days. This will let him know the wind direction, wind speed and air temperature for his records when he’s spraying in the fields.

The other is a regulator for the 4630 sprayer. It’s for the foam marker which dad never actually uses. But the drain on the regulator leaks. Which causes a leak to the whole air system on the sprayer. Not to mention just the noise of it is annoying.

I had checked Deere but quickly declined that option as the price was going to be over $300. It was completely outrageous.

So I noticed it was made my Parker and had a Parker part number on it. So after doing some searching and comparing prices I found it for $17 on Amazon. Maybe it’ll be a piece of ****. But I don’t care. It’s $17.

 

[cliftonbros89]

I took Sunday off again, even though I could’ve worked in the shop.

But I was back to it Monday.

Dad had finished his 3-point hitch Saturday afternoon and gave it a coat of paint.

I checked the cattle and fed some corn.

Dad and I finished replacing the tierods on the 7230.



Those things are on there good. The ball joint end which screws into the cylinder are threadlocked in. Whoever puts the threadlock on these things at the factory must be overly excited to do so because they were loaded with threadlock.

The ball joint itself takes a large wrench and the only place to keep the cylinder from spinning to break the ball joints loose is a slim spot for an open end 34mm wrench. It’s made for the likes of a slim service wrench. It’s really kind of a pain in the ***. We broke the open end of dad’s ATD 34mm...

Sprung the end of my John Deere 34mm wrench (on its first ever use too). But the only way we could get the ball joints broke loose was with about a 6 foot pipe attached to the wrench.

But we finally managed to get the old worn tierods/ball joints off and the new ones on.

For the afternoon dad and I finished working on some fences.

There are a few pastures we rotate the cattle on and we hadn’t got around those fences yet. So we fixed them up, got everything going and turned the cattle out on them.

I finished my evening stopping and checking on the cattle at the retirement farm.

Some of the older ones are still pretty pushy with the new arrivals, but they’re getting better.

After that it was a stop to pick up a part for the sprayer at the parts box and then a swing by the Matco guy’s house before I finally called it a day.

 

[cliftonbros89]

Back at it yesterday. I checked the cattle and then the Pioneer guy showed up with some seed.

So we stacked in the bin with the rest of the seed corn.

This was our “free” stuff he left.

Since I had the 7230 done and the tie rods came with plenty of packaging I thought I should put a little paint on the new parts.

Not the most professional but better than nothing.

By yesterday it was at least dry enough to get in the fields to spray. Dad was trying to get a lot done yesterday so I stayed with him to move from farm to farm, open gates, haul water and help him fill up each time.

Before we started I put that new regulator on the sprayer.

We also had to replace the ring on top of the solution tank that the lid screw on to. It’s bolted to the tank with some no.10 screws...that are also stainless...that make it difficult to remove when dropped in the tank. But we did manage to get it out.

The black piece is the ring we replaced, the tubing is a tube we replaced on the side of the tank that shows that water level and the stick was left in dad’s truck from sorting cattle. We taped a water bottle from dad’s truck in half and that’s what I used to scoop out the screws I dropped in the bottom of the tank. Worked great!


Dad kept spraying.

He managed to get over most of the corn ground before the evening was over.

We also narrowly missed a rain that wasn’t supposed to show up but did. I predicted it’d corse better than the radar on any of the 6 weather apps I have on my phone.

 

[cliftonbros89]

Today did not get off to a productive start. We ended up with another 1.2-1.6 inches everywhere in the early hours of the morning.

So I started like every other day.

Dad had pulled his truck in the shop last night to avoid the weather. So I serviced it for the first time since he’s had it and he cleaned out the cab. It’s been pretty cluttered since he’s been running around turkey hunting.
After we finished with that I backed the brush hog in the shop.

I was going to finally get started on the gearbox.


So before lunch I at least had the gearbox off.

At lunch I checked the new river stages report and due to a lot of rain north and northwest of us the river is rising again. With more rain on the way their predicting it to go higher than last time.

So that meant a trip to the bottom shed. We retrieved the 8400, drill, 8760, field cultivator, and the harrow, at least for now.




So at least for now if the water gets across the road again we’ll have stuff to work in the fields and won’t have to go all the way around for things.

This evening I started taking apart the brush hog gear box. My b-i-l came by and didn’t have anything to do so he helped me get everything apart. He recently started changing positions at work and is going to be a mechanic. But in addition to working on trucks and cars for the city department he’ll also be working on their heavy equipment so he had questions on several things with working with the dealership on things and finding parts and what not.

More rain predicted for tomorrow, Friday, and Saturday. So it sounds like more water. We’ll see what the river does. Hopefully, they’re not right.

But regardless of rain it sounds like tomorrow may be a little busy.

 

[cliftonbros89]

So I may have mentioned the gearbox plug on the 569 baler, as I discovered, is British standard pipe instead of a regular good ole NPT. It has a hex head on it. But I couldn’t find a socket to fit. 3/8” too small, 7/16” too big, 10mm was close but wanted to slip. Which I did end up using a 10mm with those extensions I’d posted. But I knew it wasn’t right.

I did so looking around and thought maybe a 13/32” would work. But where the hell could I get a 13/32” socket? I asked my Matco guy. He said he could probably find one, but he did know where. He was sure there could be another solution.

But I found a Gedore one online from KC Tool. I tried it. I think it’s the fit. But I’m not to fond of it being 12 point.

The Matco guy said he would be that the Matco sockets that are supposed to be a “non-slip” would work since they’re supposed to grab on the sides of the hex more rather than toward or on the point like other sockets. He had me pick one up in a 10mm to try on it. He only had a short one in 1/2” drive. But it was good enough to at least slip on there to see how it would fit. I was surprised to seemed like it would work.

So we’ll see. I don’t plan to keep the plug as tight as it was from the factory cuz that was just unnecessary. So I suppose that either may work. But I think I’m going to get a replacement plug to keep on hand. Just in case next time one of the sockets doesn’t round off the plug further.

 

[cvairwerks]

While you have that plug out, measure it with a caliper. Could be a 0BA, 1BA or a 7/32BS. BA would be Whitworth sizes and the BS would be British Standard. All three of the sizes I listed are within half a millimeter of 10mm.

 

[cliftonbros89]

While you have that plug out, measure it with a caliper. Could be a 0BA, 1BA or a 7/32BS. BA would be Whitworth sizes and the BS would be British Standard. All three of the sizes I listed are within half a millimeter of 10mm.

I had a feeling it might be one of those. I tried a caliper on it but it wasn’t accurate. I think I’m going to have to use my better caliper to check it. When I order a replacement plug I plan on measuring it since it won’t be rounded any.

I know Whitworth and BS wrenches are easy enough to find. But what about sockets?

 

[cvairwerks]

Shouldn't be too hard. A quick buzz on amazon showed sets available. Unless you mess with other things that are goofy Brit sizes, I'd just rummage around on the net for the specific one you need. I like having tools, but it's extremely difficult to justify buying a set to get a single tool, unless it's not available anywhere else.

BTW...I do have Whitworth, and BS stuff since I used to do some Merlin engine work.