Still busy...

Hello again!

I am still here, although the wind nearly blew me away today... ;-) Seeing as the weather wasn't very nice today, we spent most of the day in the shop working on the simi. There are quite a few things that need to be fixed on there again, and it needs to be put in tip-top shape before sunflower harvest comes around... Today we took apart the rear wheel-hub-brake assemblies, as we need to install new oil seals and brakes, and I worked on a couple of air valves that weren't working correctly... One of them I was able to fix, but the other one needs to be replaced.

Tomorrow we are planning on going to a farm auction about 15 miles from here. We know the lady whose sale it is, and knew her husband before he passed away... So we are going for support as well as to see what kind of "junk" we can bring home! :-) I am sure there will be some pictures comming up over on Cora's blog, and maybe even some here...

Best get to bed.
Andrew B.

Another busy week.

We had another very busy week around here, but I guess that's rather normal. :-) Yesterday was one of those really annoying days were everything seems to go wrong… I went out to the fields right after chores, and swathed down the one remaining field of Oats around the farm. Swathing went surprisingly well, and I got finished just in time for lunch.
After lunch, I was supposed to load our swather onto our swather transport, but I found that I had a flat tire on the transport trailer... After digging around for quite awhile, I finally found some tires which I thought would work. But after a couple of hours of screwing around, I came to the conclusion that NONE of them would hold air! I finally took a tire that I knew was good (from off of a spare tire for one of our old pickups,) and put it on the trailer... After loading the swather, and chaining it down, I thought I was ready to go. I made about 5 miles down the road, when the back tire on the swather blew out! So then I had to take that tire off, take it into town, get a new one put on, put the tire back on the swather… By the time and made it over to the field where I was supposed to be, it was already 7:00! Grrrrrrrrr.....
After unloading the swather, and doing a few other things, and drove down to the other field to pick up dad who was bailing. When Dad shut off his tractor, we heard something that sounded like air leaking, only to find that the front tire on the tractor was going flat! Needless to say, it was a bad tire day!

And that's one thing about farm life, you never get bored!

More fixing than expected...

We didn't quite get to combining today, although we got really close... We ended up having to fix more things on the combines than we thought, and had a little trouble getting the concaves adjusted, so it was supper time till we had the combines ready to try in the field... It was really windy and hot here today, and would have been REALLY hot in the combine cabs -- neither of which have air conditioning -- so we weren't too disappointed. ;-)

Thanks for the comments on my last post, it's always fun to hear from my readers! Jonathan; yes, that is a picture Jacob took while on their flight back from Georgia. Here are a couple more cool "Above-The-Cloud" pictures:

And "Anonymous," sorry I couldn't make it to the jam, would have been fun! I will stop by next time I get to town... :-)

Post number 90...

I am finally getting close to having one hundred posts, but if I keep posting at the rate I have been, it will probably be 2011 till I get there!
We have been busy with haying once again, although we will have a short break soon as our next field isn't quite ready yet...
Tomorrow we will be getting our combines ready to go, and trying them out on one of our wheat fields that we swathed a couple of days ago... Hopefully the old machines won't complain too much! We had them both running a couple of days ago, but still need to get the headers ready and all of the adjustments made... It usually takes a couple of hours just to get the combines set!
We did finally get the "White Truck" back in operation; we ended up changing out the camshaft for a good used one that we bought from a neighbor who had one laying around, and also swapping the intake manifold and carburetor for a different one we had from an old engine... Now she runs like a top!
~ How do you like my new layout? Leave me a comment!
Andrew B.

Back home, and back to work!

I'm back!
I got home Monday at noon, after a very fun weekend with the Bartlett family. While there, I helped with the chores, played a couple of games, had a good time jamming with "The Bartlett Boys", and even found time to help them get their old three-wheeler running! I didn't take along a camera though, so I don't have any pictures to share... Andrew Bartlett posted some on his blog though, so check it out Here.
We are now hard at work with the second cutting of alfalfa; Dad and I spent all afternoon in the tractors cutting down hay... Life shure never is dull around here!
Thats all for now,

Andrew B.

Gone for a short vacation.

Hi all! Just a short note to say I am gone for the weekend visiting some friends, so won't be posting much here...
Andrew B.

Working in the shop...

Hello all,

Another weekend has gone by without me posting to my blog, so I will have to make a quick post this morning... :-)
As most of you probably know, Mom and Jacob are currently in Georgia for a class they are taking, so the house is a little quieter for a couple of days. They had a good flight down there, and seem to be enjoying themselves... :-) We would appreciate prayers for a safe trip home as well.

Dad and I have been working in the shop the past couple of days, as the weather has been quite wet, which isn't very conducive to making hay... Our latest project? Tear apart the old Chevy pickup known around here as "Rusty"! More specifically, tear apart the motor and use some of the parts to repair the motor from our "White Truck" -- an old Chevy 2-ton truck with the same model of engine... The "White Truck" hasn't been running very well lately, and after some diagnostics we have come to the conclusion that the problem is either the camshaft, or the lifters, -- both of which mean almost a complete tear down! But, seeing as we have the motor from "Rusty", which used to run very good (before it started pumping oil in the wrong places...), we have decided to attempt to swap the good parts into the motor from the "White Truck"... A big job! I will try to get some pictures of the whole project, but when you're laying on your back under a vehicle, and your hands are covered in grease, one of the last things you want to do is grab that nice clean camera and start taking pictures, so I can't guarantee anything! ;-)

A picture of the"White Truck":

"Rusty" with the motor taken out:

Another view:

"The" motor, hanging from the cherry picker:

The other side:

My other project, which I am finished with for the time being:

Look familiar? Now I just need some snow, but not for a couple of months!

Got to go do chores and get back to work...

Andrew B.