Farm and Garden

[Curious Hound]

My wife wanted me to plant a rose the other day, so I started digging where I was told to with the spade. Hit steel. Weird like 45* angle iron parallel with the surface but very attached. So I worked to one end of it and found where it quit. Went the other way and after about a foot found the end there. One web was broken and it went straight down. Look around for clues as to what the heck this could be and note we are coming straight off the corner of our well. If it isn't the leg to a windmill it is probably some sort of a stake to tie down a windmill.

Great.

So I ease into removing this with the handyman jack. Did not work and I got it stuck in the ground too. Making great progress now...



So I start thinking about how to pull the jack out of the ground, the only tractor I have with 3pt at the moment is the WD with a heavy solid steel toolbar ripper thing. Kinda light in the front but it should at least get the jack out. It didn't flinch.



Ok we got it here, lets tie onto whatever this is and give it a tug too. Picked the front of the tractor up and there was a pop and that was the end of that.



So we scooted the rose a little over to the side...

Meanwhile, somewhere in China...

 

[Eddo Rogue]

Maybe its buried treasure.

 

[Uncle Gump]

I usually try to have the garden going on mother's day weekend. I'm a little late this year and I just didn't get it planted (my goal for the weekend) before dark. But I did finally get all the organics and 8 bags of manure compost tilled in and got it laid out and fenced. Ended up at 15 x 15.

I'm trying these fabric pots for the first time ever for herbs... will see how it goes.

 

[rumblecloud]

Plus one on the fabric pots. Used them last year and getting ready to use them again later this week.

 

[Uncle Gump]

These are the 3 gallon size. If they work good Iight have some if various sizes next year.

I pas this house a few times a week that has their deck covered in these pots. You woul think it would rot the deck boards pretty quick.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

Mostly got ours planted too.

My wife was wanting me to put rows in the garden. The WD-45 is still on the disk, WD is on the springtooth, B is has a cultivator so it steers hard and the Oliver is still a lawn ornament. So I hops on the C and latch it onto my old lister. I set it shallow so it wouldn't dipe in too deep and get to work. I knew I should probably grease it but for a pass or two in a little garden it should be fine. A lister is kind of a weird plow/planter combo, mine is rope trip that uses the ground wheels to raise itself out of the ground.



So drops it in and the lever for the trip rope stuck so it would come up and retrip, drop and come up. It did that twice and then stayed down. Ok whatever she should be able to get the gist of lines out of it. I get to the end and trip it to come up as I am slowing down and turning uphill to avoid the trees in my windbreak. And the stupid thing drops again in the sod of my yard. The jolt of the lister biting into sod catches me just off idle it doesn't have enough umpf to keep going and stalls hard.

Well that is awesome, Clutch it and go to restart it wondering what I am going to do with a lister sunk in my lawn as I am not sure the little C is going to be able to get it out. Tractor just spins and spins, I let off the starter and it does a loud backfire which is extremely uncharacteristic. Usually it starts very easy.. Try it again and it does the same thing, and again... we is dead in the water.

There are fiber gears in the magneto, I think one either broke or jumped time.

So I call dad. We waddle the WD over with a chain and it drags the C out of the tree row with a big storm coming tonight. I take the springtooth and three point off the WD and put the drawbar on. Thanks to the wet clutch it didn't flinch at the lister's antics and pulled it out of the way too. I shoulda just used the WD to start with.

The search for a distributor begins now, I am tired of this stupid mag. Its the third time it has screwed me up and when it lays down it totally bricks the tractor.

 

[racsan]

The point distributor on my C works well, hops right off, no choke required when its over 50 degrees out. Need to expand my garden some from what Ive done already. Ive thought about making the whole east yard a cornfield.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

The point distributor on my C works well, hops right off, no choke required when its over 50 degrees out. Need to expand my garden some from what Ive done already. Ive thought about making the whole east yard a cornfield.

When it works it works great.

The coil went out in the mag a couple years ago in the middle of a parade... that was nice.

The neat thing about a mag, when something goes bad you are DRT. Nobody stocks anything for them.

 

[Roert42]

Thought I had an issue with the charger coil on my Honda yesterday. After some messing around I think it may just be the battery.

Starts right up with the jump pack, but will die if I pull it off. If I leave it run for 10/15 minutes I call pull the pack off and be fine.

Maybe 11volts when running, but as soon as you kill the ignition it will drop down to 7volts. Drops to 2v over night.

 

[racsan]

Picked up a 5’ bush hog for the ford 2000 today at a auction. Was only a few miles down the road from me so just drove the tractor there to pick it up. Needs some attention, been sitting awhile. The deck body is solid so thats a very good thing. Tail wheel doesnt pivot and wont take grease at the fitting. Its a actual “bush hog” brand.

 

[Blmpkn]

Traded my rototiller for a 26 horse Craftsman dys4500 mower that came with a 42" snowblower, tire chains, wheel weights, counter weight.. full set.

The mower has what I feel like is quite a bit of hours.. 1600.. but it doesn't smoke or make any funny noises so good enough for me! Gonna cut the time spent on mowing/snowblowing in half.. at least.

 

[Uncle Gump]

So the garden is in full swing. Been picking some herbs and also some rainbow chard. I should have some zucchini, cukes and cherry tomatoes in about a week or two.

I also did a couple buckets on the deck with salad greens. These grow quick and already been eating on them...

 

[racsan]

My garden is coming along, tomatoes doing real well, had to replant the beans, corn is coming up decent and the cucumber vines are going crazy!
Today I worked on the chicken enclosure. We had a 10’x16’x 4’ high kennel around the coop but the chickens could easily get on top the coop then on to the sides of the kennel. First I tried putting a truck cap over the coop area but then had to put a couple of 10’x6’ panels over the rest as they could go from the ground to the kennel top rail. So today I put together a 10’x10’ 6’ high kennel, coop is on the outside with a hole in the fence lined up with the upper door of the coop. Need to get a roof on for shade reasons, its a lot easier to get in and out not being half bent over. Some fresh yard for the birds as well.
Heres the old setup pictures then the current setup. Id like to get more 10x10 panels and expand it.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

And they say nothing runs like a Deere...



Just to plug the hole while I fix the mag, I found it in a box of stuff I got from my grandfather's garage. Kinda weird a 2 banger Wico fits in a 4cyl Fairbanks-Morse hole but whatever.

Also have some progress on the Oliver front.





Valvetrain is loose, all ready to put hydraulic pressure to the a cylinder or two and pop it loose.



Kinda sad, I almost don't want to change the filter now. The date the when my grandpa changed the oil last and his initials are scratched in the filter.



Couldn't find the radiator cap anywhere, figured someone must have wondered around the barnyard and swiped it for some reason. Faith in humanity restored, radiator cap has been located. After I bought a new one of course.



Looking at it every wire is either bare or has bare spots, it is going to need totally rewired... not like we are rewiring the pentagon though.

So:
Break engine loose
Rebuild carb
Ign tune up
Change oil
Rewire/new gauges
Fix brakes, left is weird and locks on, right is just weird
Replace one rear tire so it will at least roll
Other rear tire is on borrowed time, it holds air but is falling apart and is probably older than the tractor.

Dad has a diesel 77 with a bad motor, I am going to rob the perfect steering/dash support out of it since mine is a little crispy.

 

[Uncle Gump]

There is only one thing to do when you check the garden and find this... make pickles.

Yes... that is one big cucumber...