Above 1200 Sq/FT Out on Quaker Road

[jblnut]

T'was a big day in the world of things on Sunday as I got a "new" 2005 Chrysler Town & Country LX. I drove it around 20 miles home and it averaged 31mpg ?!?!?


The wheat by Dad's place is coming along quite nicely !!!


My neighbor called and asked if he could cut the grass/alfalfa mix around the chicken barn. I said go for it. He helps when the chicks come each time so I told him if he cuts/rakes/bales it he can have it for helping me. It's a pretty good deal for him actually. Last year he got 20 4x5 round bales that were worth $50ish each last year.


I mixed some feed for the steers on Tuesday and thought it looked like rain ....


Oh yeah ... that's rain !!


It was blowing and windy like crazy on the way home. I don't have any pictures of unloading the corn in the storm but it started raining really heavily literally as I got the empty mixer and tractor in the shed !!


I got to use my "Cable Mike's" at work yesterday. They are simple pieces of plastic pipe with a slot cut through them so you can lay wire in them and use them as a guide. This particular one was guiding the wire from the floor 16' up and across the rafters. It saves from needing an extra guy to guide the wires and prevents the wires from damage by dragging around the corner on the rafter. I've got a 5gal pail of 90's, T's and straight pieces of pipe that come in very handy quite often. Our master electrician (also a Mike) borrows them all the time so they must be a good idea


I was using them to run new wires to a pair of cameras looking in the feed area in a barn. The critters and time had their way with the old wires.


The customer asked if I could clean the rest of the cameras while I was there onsite with a lift so I did. This one had a "cobweb" on it

 

[Toothaker]

How many times a year can the grass/alfalfa be cut for bales?

 

[jblnut]

How many times a year can the grass/alfalfa be cut for bales?

This stuff will be cut three times. Some dairies cut up to 5 times a year. The younger the alfalfa is the more nutrients are in it per ton so dairies try to balance quantity vs quality.

 

[jblnut]

It has been a busy couple of days out here !! Thursday Dad and I got a bunch more stuff done in the barn addition and there isn't a lot left anymore. He ducked out to start spraying corn after lunch when the wind finally calmed down and I got a few "one-guy" things done. We put angle irons on all the posts in the old barn so the cattle do not eat the posts so we thought it would be a good idea to do that in the new barn as well. Dad had them cut a while ago and I drilled holes in them.


I also got both the gates welded up that will go in the opening in the feed alley. I think I built them plenty heavy as I can barely lift this 4' wide 42" tall gate up on my cart


Jay the builder guy must have been using a metric tape measure as the center of the opening and the pen divider wall was a full 6" off. Because of this I had to make one gate a bit shorter. I also tried my hand at a bit of welding art on the bottom of the gate


Today after work Dad wanted to fire up the baler to make sure the repairs we did worked.


Look at that !!! Four perfect knots on top !!!


And four more perfect knots on the beginning of the next bale !!! Whoo hoo !!! The repairs/rebuilding Dad and I did ourselves probably saved us well over $1,000 in labor vs bringing it in to have the dealer look at it.


Stubby little bales but I wanted to make sure it worked so I tripped it a little soon each time


This is a 4 row wide corn cultivator. There are literally thousands of them in groves and junk yards all over the country. They all seem to have trees growing in them whenever I spot one on someone else's property. This one is parked on concrete and STILL has trees growing in it. It might only be funny to me but I think it's hilarious.


When I came home tonight I saw my neighbor and another farther off neighbor BS'ing behind my chicken barn. The farther off neighbor got the hay baled for the closer neighbor. I stopped and threw my $0.02 in the mix for a little while until the closer neighbor said he had to do home to milk cows and the farther off neighbor said he better get home before my farther off neighbor's wife gets to wondering where he went off too. Wow. Seems easier to just call them Jason and Steve but I was having fun so ....

 

[Bob Heine]

This is a 4 row wide corn cultivator. There are literally thousands of them in groves and junk yards all over the country. They all seem to have trees growing in them whenever I spot one on someone else's property. This one is parked on concrete and STILL has trees growing in it. It might only be funny to me but I think it's hilarious.

When I came home tonight I saw my neighbor and another farther off neighbor BS'ing behind my chicken barn. The farther off neighbor got the hay baled for the closer neighbor. I stopped and threw my $0.02 in the mix for a little while until the closer neighbor said he had to do home to milk cows and the farther off neighbor said he better get home before my farther off neighbor's wife gets to wondering where he went off too. Wow. Seems easier to just call them Jason and Steve but I was having fun so ....

Jblnut, I appreciate your sharing joy-filled days with us. A fix that works perfectly, a project that makes you smile and the sharing of moments that make you laugh is restorative! Little things and little people are what it's all about. I spent some Leo time playing with a tape measure yesterday.

 

[Sifan]

Wife's BIL was chisel plowing last fall and Steiger tractor had to go in for major surgery. Other tractors not capable of pulling that wide of chisel plow, no problem get the older one out of the weeds. They got it out, repaired, tires aired up and off to work. Made two and a half rounds and previous weld let go and tore up more stuff. Deemed not worth fixing, no problem get the older, older one out of the fence row. After Stihl chainsawing two 6-8" wide trees and putting tires on it, they finished up the last 20 acres

Yes I too find humor in farm places

By the way, he still has the remains of an old Cadillac hearse on blocks behind the silo. He bought it for $50 and drug it to the farm because it had 8 ply tires that would go on a hayrack

 

[jblnut]

Jblnut, I appreciate your sharing joy-filled days with us. A fix that works perfectly, a project that makes you smile and the sharing of moments that make you laugh is restorative! Little things and little people are what it's all about.

I do enjoy what I do on a daily basis ... for the most part anyway. There are days that stink like every job but for the most part any day I can be outside playing with our critters and my tractors I am happy !!!

I spent some Leo time playing with a tape measure yesterday.

When I read that this morning I laughed but after thinking about it for a while it may seem you are a wiser man than us all Mr. Bob. Taking time out of your day to actively enjoy the simplest things in life is something I don't do often enough. When I watch the kids get enjoyment out of simple things it brings a smile to my face because to them it is likely the greatest thing that has ever happened to them. Today I loaded those alfalfa bales up for my neighbor and the smell of the fresh alfalfa brought a smile to my face. It brought back all kinds of memories growing up on the dairy farm. Since I was the youngest I was always stuck using our IH 856 that didn't have the shift lever plate anymore. It was a magic act to shift it and I perfected it over the years. It grew to be a favorite tractor of mine that is long gone now. (Actually, the current owner did a full tear down and restore on it and is part of a nice IH collection but that is neither here nor there and doesn't add to this little story but now you know.) Unloading silage boxes when it was 90F with no wind and trying not to plug the silo blower all the while making sure to go fast enough to keep up with Dad in the chopper. Grandpa would always yell at us to "Check those wagon tires around every corner to make sure they're not flat!!!" He had more flats and wrecked more rims by not paying attention than the rest of us combined

All that from smelling a bale of alfalfa. I need to stop and enjoy the simple things more it seems !!!

Wife's BIL was chisel plowing last fall and Steiger tractor had to go in for major surgery. Other tractors not capable of pulling that wide of chisel plow, no problem get the older one out of the weeds. They got it out, repaired, tires aired up and off to work. Made two and a half rounds and previous weld let go and tore up more stuff. Deemed not worth fixing, no problem get the older, older one out of the fence row. After Stihl chainsawing two 6-8" wide trees and putting tires on it, they finished up the last 20 acres

Yes I too find humor in farm places

By the way, he still has the remains of an old Cadillac hearse on blocks behind the silo. He bought it for $50 and drug it to the farm because it had 8 ply tires that would go on a hayrack

I'd drag a Caddy home in a heartbeat if it had good tires on it !! One day I'll take some pictures of the things I've drug home over the years. It's not quite on the level of the collection that oldironfarmer showed us in his first posts in his thread but I'm well on my way !! He's got 30+ years of collecting more than I do so we'll see what I can gather in the next 30 years

 

[jblnut]

Dad and I were working in the barn today and the little people posse found us so we took a break and checked out the calves. The girls were having a good time trying to touch the calves noses


After lunch I set out to tidy the place up a bit with the brush mower.


If I could okay it with Mama Bear I think I'd let all the grass grow to 2' tall and mow the entire yard with the skiddy and brush mower !!! So much faster than the lawn mower !!


Leo helped me bring in a pack of steak to thaw for supper tomorrow. Come hell or high water I'm going to clean, season and use the Wishek Wok finally !!


Today was Avon Spunktacular days. There are three lakes named lower, middle and upper ***** lake that surround the town of Avon so the tacky name comes from that We took the family and met up with some friends and went to the parade today. The kiddos had tons of fun. This parade is well known for the amount of candy that gets thrown out and it did not disappoint. I think we came home with two ice cream pails of candy. Good grief !!

 

[jblnut]

This morning I was asked what I wanted to do on Father's Day. I said I wanted to cook in a disk blade over a camp fire !!! Away we go !! I got it good and hot and dumped a bunch of water in it to clean it up a bit.


Next step was to oil it heavy and heat it until it smokes. It ended up getting hot enough to burn the oil to the metal and I had to scrub a few nasty chunks of but we were headed in the right direction !!


I've been using these two SS tubes for a long time to hold up cast iron pans and grates but was worried the roundish shape of the Wiskek Wok would cause them to spread and it would all fall in the fire. Simple fix with some 6" bolts and some chain. I decided that I'd cook the kiddos some hot dogs on it's maiden voyage just in case something went awry so my steaks and potatoes wouldn't be ruined.


Speaking of steak and potatoes .... Remember this thing is 26" in diameter. Them's some BIG Porterhouse cuts !!! I can't say enough how well this worked. Nothing even came close to sticking even a little bit the entire time and I made the best steaks and potatoes I've ever made. They turned out AMAZING !!


The potatoes crisped up first and the steaks weren't far behind. Just another minute and they'll be perfect !!


My dad drove by and stopped in to see what was going on. We fed him and he echo'd the food was top notch. I think I'm going to have to get a turkey fryer burner deal so I can use the Wiskek Wok all the time. A campfire as a heat source is a ton of fun but from start to finish it took 3hrs. Not the end of the world but not something I can cook on nightly if I want too.


Hosed off and re-seasoned for next time. It's got the start of a nice seasoning on it already !!


Mama Bear put the kiddos to bed while I did chores and we spent some rare time alone together doing nothing but staring at the fire. Well nothing and talking about what kind of camper to buy/build as we're outgrowing the bus. Purchase a largish 5th wheel with a few slides or build a traveling tiny house ?? We don't know yet but are excited to figure it out.

 

[Bob Heine]

Speaking of steak and potatoes .... Remember this thing is 26" in diameter. Them's some BIG Porterhouse cuts !!! I can't say enough how well this worked. Nothing even came close to sticking even a little bit the entire time and I made the best steaks and potatoes I've ever made. They turned out AMAZING !!

The potatoes crisped up first and the steaks weren't far behind. Just another minute and they'll be perfect !!

My dad drove by and stopped in to see what was going on. We fed him and he echo'd the food was top notch. I think I'm going to have to get a turkey fryer burner deal so I can use the Wiskek Wok all the time. A campfire as a heat source is a ton of fun but from start to finish it took 3hrs. Not the end of the world but not something I can cook on nightly if I want too.

Great job on the Wok! I grew up with a Danish grandfather who taught farmers how to raise and dress livestock in the Yukon Territory and many years in his own butcher shops and the meat packing industry. I ate a lot of beef with just the fur singed off so your steaks look perfect.

OK, how do I get saliva out of the keyboard?

 

[oldironfarmer]

Great job on the Wok! I grew up with a Danish grandfather who taught farmers how to raise and dress livestock in the Yukon Territory and many years in his own butcher shops and the meat packing industry. I ate a lot of beef with just the fur singed off so your steaks look perfect.

OK, how do I get saliva out of the keyboard?

Fortunately I only dribbled on my shirt. Like an old man.

Great stuff

 

[madison069]

Glad your first experience with the discada was a success!!

I was cleaning out a corner of my smoker grill and found two horse shoes tucked in the bottom corner grate! I don't recall them being there but guess it got thrown on there when I got it from my dad in Texas. So I'll be cleaning those shoes up soon and welding them to my disc you sent me. Maybe I can do a season on it this weekend!


Oh and I was digging through my wood stash and I think I'll be getting started on a project when I finish cleaning the wood shop!

 

[jblnut]

Great job on the Wok! I grew up with a Danish grandfather who taught farmers how to raise and dress livestock in the Yukon Territory and many years in his own butcher shops and the meat packing industry. I ate a lot of beef with just the fur singed off so your steaks look perfect.

OK, how do I get saliva out of the keyboard?

It worked better than I could have ever hoped !!

As long as it isn't a fancy wireless keyboard you can run it through the dishwasher. No joke.

Fortunately I only dribbled on my shirt. Like an old man.

Great stuff

I dribbled all over myself while it was cooking and I was totally ok with it so that's fair.

Glad your first experience with the discada was a success!!

I was cleaning out a corner of my smoker grill and found two horse shoes tucked in the bottom corner grate! I don't recall them being there but guess it got thrown on there when I got it from my dad in Texas. So I'll be cleaning those shoes up soon and welding them to my disc you sent me. Maybe I can do a season on it this weekend!


Oh and I was digging through my wood stash and I think I'll be getting started on a project when I finish cleaning the wood shop!

I was hoping to use horseshoes but couldn't find any around here so I used the ties that hold a bundle of rebar together. They worked out very well but I think I need to put those springy looking deals around them to help them not be so hot !!

I am excited to see what you come up with !!!!

 

[jblnut]

So back when we were talking about sloping the floor in the steer barn addition to the middle to keep the water out of the feed we somehow totally overlooked the fact that it'd puddle in the middle then. This is the start of what was a major oversight turned into the solution that should have been from the start. This piece of oil well pipe is going to be a drain. Another chunk, probably 35-40' total, will connect to it at an angle to get it across the driveway and into the grass. The garden hose should flush the dirt and rocks out and the auger bit deal should loosen the dirt to allow the pipe to go in easier.


Well there was nothing easy about that !!! Dad and I took turns swinging a 20lb maul and our hands are numb. I could hardly get the twist top off a long neck MGD when we were done. Good grief. I need to rent a concrete saw to make a drain hole now. Man I wish I wasn't so scatter-brained and had Jay the concrete guy put this in right away.

 

[Grumblebum]

Luckily I have a breakfast meeting this morning, I'm drooling.

GB

 

[jblnut]

Luckily I have a breakfast meeting this morning, I'm drooling.

GB

I read that and thought WTF a breakfast meeting at 3:42PM and realized Australian time and right here time are WAY off

 

[jblnut]

First pile of lumber to construct the bins in the feed room. Just a tad over $1,100



This is a tool that I figured I needed to name so I can yell at it properly while I was using it. I named it Rhonda. Rhonda is going to help me cut a drain hole in the feed alley because I was too dumb to do it when the feed alley was initially poured.


I'm not sure who has all used this type of saw but it is an awesome piece of equipment. It cuts a pair of grooves around 1" apart and roughly 2" deep. You use a pry bar to break the concrete piece in the middle and cut more out once it's cleaned out.


Well it was a good thing I named the saw. Rhonda is a workhorse but my back took a beating bending over to cut and then break the concrete pieces out. There was a bit of swearing as well because Rhonda popped the breaker a couple times. Oh well. The chunk came out nicely and I was able to get the corners nice and square.


Well I was off an inch or so on where I thought the pipe came in. Argh. Oh well. I'll do better next time. OR NOT. Next time we'll do it before the concrete is poured !!!!!


A bag or two of cement to put on the bottom and I'll be all set. I have three loads of crushed concrete coming tomorrow to tidy up outside so hopefully I can get it all done and buttoned up tomorrow !!!

 

[STClurker]

just gonna leave this here

 

[oldironfarmer]

just gonna leave this here

My thoughts precisely.

I think you were lucky. Even in that short distance a pushed pipe can wander, even down. Did it wind up with good fall?

 

[jblnut]

just gonna leave this here

I was singing that in my head after I named it

The last time I used this saw was for the off the farm job. We cut a long trench in the conference room floor to add floor boxes for power and data and the gal that wanted it done is named Rhonda. I swore at her then and I got to do it again last night. This is 100% the tool for the job but still sucked because I should have done it right away !!

My thoughts precisely.

I think you were lucky. Even in that short distance a pushed pipe can wander, even down. Did it wind up with good fall?

It's 3-1/2" oil well pipe. I gave it the ol' eyeball, measured in to the end of the pipe and drew a box. It has plenty of slope as we dug down outside and could very much feel it scraping along the concrete while pounding it in. I had fingers crossed we wouldn't crack the concrete while pounding and it all worked out so far.

 

[cvairwerks]

Could have used the bobcat to push it....way less effort.

 

[jblnut]

Could have used the bobcat to push it....way less effort.

I thought about that but I don't think it would have got it done. I'd have been pushing it up a hill in the mud and I don't think I'd have had the traction. Besides, I needed the exercise

 

[jeepxj]

I thought about that but I don't think it would have got it done. I'd have been pushing it up a hill in the mud and I don't think I'd have had the traction. Besides, I needed the exercise

 

[jblnut]

 

[jblnut]

Friday afternoon we went golfing with Mama Bear's work people. Every year they do a company tournament and I went with this year. Oh what fun.


We drove around in a SUPER nice rental cart. Haha. It went a little faster than we could walk and rode like a 1-ton truck


I thought I lost the ball from my first drive of the day but it buried itself in the mud. I hit this one out of here with a sand shovel


I'm not sure what sort of force of nature has the power to pull golf balls into water but this particular ball seemed to be more comfortable in the water than on the fairway. Good thing I was barefoot and could just walk in and get it back


Everyone was just a bit too serious for me so I pulled out my sign and took off my sandals. Golfing works better barefoot. You get connected to the earth and can really get a handle on what's going on. Plus, my clubs are too short for me so it gets me closer to the ball


Saturday we got a bunch of misc stuff done. I cleaned up the junk concrete around the steer barn as well as some rocks. It's nice having a pile of junk to throw more junk on. Eventually this will disappear when we have the old cattle yard concrete torn out and replaced with a new house.


While I was working on stuff in the morning Dad was out cutting hay. There is a crazy amount of hay out there !!! Seems the excessive rain this spring really made it grow !!!


And now the "picky farmer" waiting games begins. We need a few nice hot days with no rain and sunshine to get the hay dried and baled but we also need a nice shower or two to keep the corn and soybeans on track. If it could rain, but not rain, that'd be great


Once the hay was cut we got to work in the steer barn again. Dad is tightening the concrete anchors I put in to hold the walls in place.


I got the bottom of the floor drain finished with some concrete in a sack. It should work pretty good.


Time to put together the mobile welding rig.


The oil well pipe drain pipe needs to be welded together. We talked about making a elbow that would fit in and a few other things but this seemed the best idea of all. Welding it together should prevent me from ever seeing this elbow again.


It worked very well !!!


We needed around 40' and the first pipe was only around 31' so we added a piece at the end.


Pops is spreading some crushed concrete in place.


That all looks WAY better !!!


While I was welding a HUGE moth landed on my welding glove. I've never seen anything this big up here !! It's sitting on a 2x6 .....


Not long ago I replaced the hoses for the lift cylinder on the other side of the skiddy. Now this side is leaking


I had to take a few things apart to get in there but it wasn't all that bad actually. Took less time than the other side.


I wasn't quite quick enough getting Leo his hotdog and he decided he should eat the ketchup with his finger. He then dunked a piece of watermelon in the ketchup, ate it, and said "MMMMMMMM" and did it again. Gross.

 

[cvairwerks]

My youngest's was Cheerios and salsa....preferably medium to hot on pepper levels.

 

[drivesitfar]

JBL: you'd make a good marshal at a golf tournament and you could double as a bouncer cause you are a BIG DUDE.

glad you got to have a little fun at the links and yep they should have serious and non serious golf courses. there are days when I'd like to do one or the other myself and I was a Pro at one time in my life.

not putting in the drain or forgetting to when you framed up the floor isn't surprising as much stuff as you have going on and now i think I need to find that tool you used to cut cement and get me one.

cheers and keep on keeping on at the farm.

PS: yep Leo knows that everything on his plate goes to the same place so why not try a few at the same time to see how it tastes.

 

[njhoudini]

Glad to see the excessive rain wasn't too hard on the vegetation. Getting that perfect mix of rain/no rain is never easy, but the meteorologists 60% of the time are right all the time. Steaks looked great. Turkey fryer burner will probably get you the BTUs you need when you need them. Plus, you could also fry turkeys!

 

[jblnut]

My youngest's was Cheerios and salsa....preferably medium to hot on pepper levels.

Cheerios and salsa ?? Eeek.

JBL: you'd make a good marshal at a golf tournament and you could double as a bouncer cause you are a BIG DUDE.

glad you got to have a little fun at the links and yep they should have serious and non serious golf courses. there are days when I'd like to do one or the other myself and I was a Pro at one time in my life.

not putting in the drain or forgetting to when you framed up the floor isn't surprising as much stuff as you have going on and now i think I need to find that tool you used to cut cement and get me one.

cheers and keep on keeping on at the farm.

PS: yep Leo knows that everything on his plate goes to the same place so why not try a few at the same time to see how it tastes.

Yeah we had fun golfing

Forgetting the drain ate up the better part of a whole day when all was said and done but that's how it goes sometimes. We're busy with so many things that overlooking something sometimes happens.

Glad to see the excessive rain wasn't too hard on the vegetation. Getting that perfect mix of rain/no rain is never easy, but the meteorologists 60% of the time are right all the time. Steaks looked great. Turkey fryer burner will probably get you the BTUs you need when you need them. Plus, you could also fry turkeys!

A turkey fryer burner/cooker is on the short list to buy. It'd make using the Wishek Wok a lot more convenient !!

 

[jblnut]

Well it's been a week since my last update and I feel like I'm going through withdrawals

LOTS of stuff happened both at work and on the farm. I had the opportunity to do a software update on the first Lely Calm calf feeder we installed over 10 years ago. I updated the processor board (what holds the operating system and runs the feeder) to the new style that comes on the brand new feeders so this old feeder can be online and checked with a smartphone !!


Somewhere in this thread on a page long ago I showed some pictures of these antenna being installed. A few needed new batteries and two needed new antennas. I set up the 4-wheeler and trailer into a mobile fix-it wagon to save time. It worked very well and saved me a ton of time !!


I got my Mom a Ryobi Brushless chainsaw for Mothers day so she wouldn't have to mess with Dads Sthil when she needed to cut a few twigs. I decided to give it a hot lunch and cut this stump off.


So. I know I may come across as a Ryobi fanboy but I continue to be impressed. For the money ($179) this little chainsaw really exceeded my expectations. I'm not going to go out and cut cords of wood with it but I think I could. This entire stump project took 10-15 minutes and I used 2 bars on a 9ah battery. I had to try harder than I thought I would have to to get it to stall. And it's nice to throw a battery in, pull the trigger and start cutting.


Miss Lily and I played the "dot game" and had a ton of fun one evening. We filled a few pages and she started to catch on really fast


The 5510 I purchased this spring seems to have a plugged hydraulic filter again. I drained the oil and we are going to strain it through a pillowcase to see what's in it. Hopefully no metal shavings


A lot of black dirty looking pieces but no obvious metal flakes or chunks. I'm going to use it hard again on the 4th cleaning out the barn so we'll see what happens.


I'm going to slice the filter open one of these days and see what it has inside. Hopefully just a bunch of sludge.


Just as I got the tractor in the shed it started to rain. We watched it for a bit and decided to work on some more gates for the new barn.


We finished and installed two man-pass gates. This will really be nice to get in and out of the pen without climbing over stuff !!


I had a local welding/fab shop make up some brackets for the curtain system on the new barn and I cold galvanized them. They've held up well on the other barn so I took a pair of them off and had them copied.


Dad and I continued to work on the feed room in the new barn. It's coming right along !!


Dad cut a bunch of hay on Monday and we baled it up on Saturday finally. I got it raked with the ******* 884


I decided to mix a load of feed after raking hay before we could bale ......


Hottest day of the year so far and the bin ran empty and we had to put the sweep in. This thing sure beats a shovel but is still a PITA in it's own right.


Away he goes !! The baler worked great for all 75+ bales it baled


The camera makes this field look relatively flat. This is the steepest field we farm so it stays in hay all the time.


Mom helped pick up bales and there were two too many to go on the wagons so I roaded them home on the skiddy !!


We got them all unloaded before it rained again. The rain was needed !!

 

[Toothaker]

Questions... I have so many questions.

Explain about the feed room. At first I was wondering why the feed room needed a roof indoors. But then, maybe that's not a roof, but a floor? Does the angle facilitate emptying it when it goes low?

 

[Farmall450]

Gotta love when the baler works!

 

[jblnut]

Questions... I have so many questions.

Explain about the feed room. At first I was wondering why the feed room needed a roof indoors. But then, maybe that's not a roof, but a floor? Does the angle facilitate emptying it when it goes low?

That is indeed a floor you're looking at in the pictures. We are building an indoor gravity box that will be divided into two compartments. One for each feed type we feed the steers. I intend to put a poly sheet of sorts on the floor to make it nice and slippery but haven't been able to source any yet .....

Gotta love when the baler works!

Tied all the bales the other day without a hitch. At least that knotter did. The other three are getting fussy and will need to be rebuilt as well soon.

 

[jeepxj]

How is the chicken barn holding up with the heat?

 

[jblnut]

Quite well actually. There is a 40' swamp cooler over the intakes on the end of the barn that really helps when it's hot. The 12x54" fans draw 300,000 cfm through the barn and it actually feels really nice in there when it's hot outside !!

 

[jblnut]

After I drained/refilled the gas tank on the bus it ran GREAT for the 6ish mile test drive. After sitting for a few weeks I tried to start it again and it flat out would not start. I had fuel to the carb but nothing was getting through.

I decided to embark on a carb cleaning/rebuilding journey. I know very little about carbs so hopefully all goes well. It sure is dirty !!!

Well. Although I know little about carbs I do know this is no good. I'm pretty sure this is the first time this thing has been opened since the mid 70's.

I blew it "clean" with an air hose and it already looks way better !!!

I've had this bucket of carb cleaning juice for a long time and it's time to put it to use. I'm soaking the top of the carb in it first.

The bottom of the carb didn't fit in the pail so I had to improvise

It looks amazingly better. Wow. I hit it with a wire brush and scrubbed it with some water.

These butterflies were absolutely coated in a nasty carmel substance and are almost clean just by soaking it in that bucket of slop. Crazy stuff !!!

I failed to take pictures of it back on the bus but long story short is that once reinstalled I fired it up and it ran like a champ. I've got to mess with the adjustment screws a bit more yet to get it dialed in but it has never run this smooth before. It has a slight hesitation when I hit the gas so I think the seal on the little pumper deal is shot but it isn't the end of the world.

Mama Bear will be pleased that we can go camping again this weekend. I told her the bus didn't want to start the other day and all she said was "Go figure" so HAHA to her it runs again !!

Here's a crappy snapchat video of it running. Be warned I was a few victory swigs of Fireball in so I'm a little extra goofy .....

 

[Finallygotit]

...........Be warned I was a few victory swigs of Fireball in so I'm a little extra goofy .....

Ya think?!?


I would surmise that the accelerator pump is in need of replacement given the nasty *** gunk that was affixed to said carburetor.


It might be a REALLY good idea to buy a rebuild kit.


YMMV

 

[DynoDave]

Nice work on the carb for sure. I agree with Finallygotit...get a kit, new float, etc. Does this have a filter in the carb, like a Quadrajet? If so, I'd keep an eye on that...you may have similar junk in the fuel pump, lines, and tank.

 

[Finallygotit]

.......Does this have a filter in the carb, like a Quadrajet? If so, I'd keep an eye on that...you may have similar junk in the fuel pump, lines, and tank.

 

[oldironfarmer]

Of course, since it is running great the incentive to put a kit in it is way down. But the kit would have the accelerator pump.

Great work!

I've searched your thread and can't find how to order Ryobi tools.