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Thursday, June 30, 2011

The Long Hiatus....

I realize that it's been a LONG time since my last post - I didn't realize that it had been a MONTH, though. I've been pretty busy lately My lovely wife has also been telling me I need to blog, too.

I never listen to her, though.....

Over the last few weeks, I've been working on my Farmall F-20 a little bit. You might recall what it looked like last August when we brought it home:

1937 Farmall F-20

Well, I'm not DONE with it yet, but a FEW changes have taken place. I'm SOOOO close to being done, I can taste it. Unfortunately, money and time have put a damper on finishing things. About all I have left is a rear inner tube, magneto work, spark plug wires, throttle and spark linkages, a couple of gauges, and paint.

I AM accepting donations.......

F-20 Waiting

In the mean time, I had other tractor troubles. My neighbor actually volunteered to help me cut those NASTY Cedar trees out of my "back 40". He has a fancy Skidsteer mounted tree shear, and made short work of about 80% of what we were after. I had grand designs on getting out and pushing the dead ones out of his way with my tractor.

For the most part, this worked fine. I'd push away, and shoved them around until there are now several huge piles of dead tree bodies laying out there, waiting for a skiff of snow so they can be cremated.

I had known my loader bucket was on it's last legs when I bought it - it was limping pretty good then - now it's dying rapidly. The metal was, basically, "Swiss cheese" to begin with, now it's "Limburger" (what happened to it stinks....).

Holy Hole, Batman!

There I were, shoving along. I got to the pile, and the durn loader bucket wouldn't let go of the tree! I finally had to get the chainsaw, and CUT the tree loose so I could extract the trunk from the bucket. Now, it has a hole I can almost stick my head through. THEN, THIS happens....

Pigeon Toed

While it LOOKS more serious than it was, it slowed me down a couple days - mostly waiting for the good front tires I ordered to arrive. I cannot say enough good about the used aircraft tires from Gensco.
I used to get several flats a week, but now - ZERO. If you have thorns or other "flat tire makers" BUY THESE TIRES!

(I have NO connection with the company, just a VERY satisfied customer)

Anyhoo - the whole mess was a sheared "woodruff key" that cost 50¢, and about 1/2 hour to fix - once I cut all of the brush away from the tractor so I could get to it....

A few weeks back, we got some hay from another friend about 12 miles away. Deb and I went down to help load it, but most of the work (95%) was done by the friend. We got it all stacked and strapped down, when Deb asks him if he guaranteed the stacking would hold. He said "Don't call me if more than five come off".

Well, we got the load home, backed it into the barn, and unstrapped. I knocked 5 onto the floor, then called him to tell him his stack didn't hold, so he'd need to come re-stack them.

Unfortunately, my ploy didn't work. It took a week, but we got it unloaded. As for the SECOND load - it's still on the trailer in the barn. I unload a couple here and there as I can, but it's been two weeks, and I've gotten 10 off....

I'm accepting volunteers, too.....

At least having the loaded trailer in the barn has made for a couple of amusing events. One, the momma cat (Sugar) tried some acrobatics - twice - with similar results. The other day, Deb and I were out feeding the baby boy calf we have (born 18th of June), when Sugar hopped up on one of the wooden gates in the barn. She sat there for awhile, then tried to leap across a 3 foot span and light atop the other 2" wide gate.

Graceful she ain't. Flying fur, hissing, scrambling, and crashing to the ground, then stopping and sitting there like she MEANT to do it. The other time, she did the same thing, except she dove off the hay on the trailer, across about 5', with designs on hitting the top rail of the gate.

Stupid cat....

Her 6 kittens also have fun playing "hide and seek" in and around the hay on the trailer. Even Daisy the cow, joins in. The other evening, I milked her, then let her out the side door of the barn - knowing full well she'd scamper (as best cows can) around the barn, and sneak in the other door, in hopes of "seconds".

Sometimes, I think I have three of her because it seems like she is in several different places at the same time....

On this particular night, I HEARD her come in, and push through the gates into the main part of the barn. Usually, she comes into the milk room, and wants to shove into the stanchion with the other cow. That night she was a no-show, so I though maybe I was hearing things - especially since it was "all quiet on the Bovine front", after I heard her come in.

Little did I know....

I finished with the other cow, got her outside, then turned my attention to closing up the barn. That's when I saw Daisy's nose peeking around the corner of the hay on the trailer. Just as quick as I spotted it, it disappeared behind the stack. A few seconds later, she peeked around the corner again to see if I had noticed her.

I had.

I took a couple steps toward her, and she just stopped moving, held her breath, and stood absolutely STILL.

Cow: "Maybe if I don't even blink, he won't see me...."

Hillbilly Human: "I wonder where that durn cow is..."

Cow: "I think it's working! OH CRUD! I BLINKED!"

Hillbilly Human: "AaHA!

Cow: "RATS..."

She stood there for about 10 seconds, knowing she was busted, then took a couple steps toward the gate. Suddenly, she stopped, turned around, grabbed a BIG mouthful of hay from a bale, then pranced out of the barn, swishing her tail.

This round to the cow - at least in the cow's mind....

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