[near horse]

After heat/oil/heat and being sure the pin isn’t threaded in, how about trying a demo hammer to try and drive the pin out or break it loose? I’ve driven plenty of ground rods in hard packed rocky soil with them so they have some oomph. Most tool rental stores carry them.

• This reply was modified 7 years, 7 months ago by near horse.

[near horse]

Just wanted to note that I saw Stephen Leslie on TV tonight (PBS – Victory Garden edible Feast). Well done!

[near horse]

Leave the apocalyptic preaching for your FB page please. The OP IS in the appropriate place for his/her query. Add to the discussion or leave it be.

• This reply was modified 9 years, 9 months ago by near horse.

[near horse]

I would just like to add that sometimes when we look at draft animals only as an alternative power source we want to “plug them in” where we used to use a tractor (or whatever their “replacing”). But, as I felt Carl was pointing out, they’re more than just the “replacements” and as such require a broader perspective on the overall system (your farm). Feeding, whether it’s hay or grazing/moving fences is more than just a chore taking up time that could/should be spent on other work. It really is harvesting the fuel and refueling the power source that makes your operation work and that’s not considering the added interaction/contact time spent with your animals.

If you read any of the grazing lit, especially the MIG stuff, moving fences IS the farming AND getting best use out of that forage is paramount. We need to think along those lines when we’re putting our teams out to graze ……. we’re still farming then.

Hope this didn’t sound like a preachy rant because I didn’t mean it that way. Now to go move some fence!

[near horse]

Although it’s no longer being produced, the CBC radio program “Deconstructing Dinner” is pretty interesting to listen to. Archives here:

http://deconstructingdinner.ichannel.ca/radio-archive/

BTW – the site has some newer webisode stuff but it looks to be timely stuff (I haven’t had a chance to watch any yet).

• This reply was modified 9 years, 10 months ago by near horse.

[near horse]

Thanks – I’ll need to go back and look at the outer shoe. I don’t recall any slot just the 2 holes but I’m often blind when I’m getting ready to mow.

I too used the higher setting on the inside shoe but our regrowth is minimal and not worth a second cutting.

On a different note – when you do happen to plug up, what do you do to clear it? I usually back up a few strides (horse strides) and then go forward and we’re good – most of the time. Occasionally I’ll need to raise the cutter and do a 360 degree turnabout to clear things and then drop into where I left off.

[near horse]

Carl – I would argue that steel does have memory – it’s just not good memory!

After hooking and unhooking my steel tongued mower today – NOT a good option. Maybe better on implements with lower tongue weights or foreecarts. It is brutally heavy when hooking up a mower.

[near horse]

I’m using one today (still on my #9 mower). I’d guess it’s 2.5 inch OD square pipe …. not sure of thickness (3/16 ?) …. but it’s too heavy, especially on the end of a mower. I would go with wood and a neck yoke on each one.

[near horse]

Sometimes heavy wet grass will lodge (lay over) so sometimes your knife is cutting into the tops of grass that’s not growing directly in front of your cutter bar. That is a recipe for plugging even with a swather. When we fought that years back we tried to get “under” the lodged grass by angling our bar down …… mixed results. Just damn tough cutting like that.

Wire grass in our area is also known as ventenata but others also call some bluegrass “wire grass” as well. Not much leaf and a pretty thin stem (smaller than a pencil lead) but not so easy to cut.

Donn – I’ve seen the drawing of the rolling grass board. It looked to me like a simple wheel with height adjustment bolted on to the outer shoe assembly.

I think the outer shoe point acts to separate the grass or crop to be cut from that left behind. You usually have something similar on combines and swathers.

[near horse]

Farming used to require us to be the jack of all trades – including mechanic and weatherman. Modern farming tends to sub out the various jobs now but some of us can’t afford that and wouldn’t want to.

At present, I mow, ted and rake w/ my horses and use a hay slip/sled behind my baler and then pickup packs of 8 w/ a grapple on my tractor. The only sentient beings involved are me, Ranger and Red.

I’m trying to get to bale onto a wagon but most square balers here came w/ side drop chutes to allow use of bale wagons. Wagon hitches and chute extensions are pretty rare.

[near horse]

Hi Mitch,

We’re not really the high plains but are on the eastern edge of the Palouse. Rainfall here is USUALLY 2″ to 4″ per month in April, May and some of June then it’s done. July, August and part of Sept are dry <1″ of rain in each month and sometimes the sum total of all 3 months barely breaks an inch. The weather pattern here is why/how the Palouse farmers make a living farming dryland wheat. Wet quits about when they need it to so the grain can dry down for harvest.

Irrigation (wheel line) is only seen along the river where they can pump out of there.

Winter snowpack is what recharges our aquifer as well as our river flows.

I’ll see if I can post any pics of my hay from this year (pre and post harvest).

[near horse]

I hate to be a spoil sport but our weather has been okay for haying but we too have the 10 day forecast for dry and 75 to 85 and wake the following AM to the sound of a passing shower! Even I can predict the current weather as it happens.

We cut a 5 acre piece that gave ~ 375 bales of good hay and an 8 acre that gave about 500 with at least 30-40 bales of junk. We have a weed called ventanata or wind/wire grass that’s a winter annual and spreads pretty vigorously. Not a leaf on it just a thin wiry stem and some nasty tiny seed heads and nothing will eat it. Baler had its moments but overall made bales.

While we do have some good haying weather, don’t forget that we’re a one trick pony, getting a single cutting each year. Best to you all.

[near horse]

Hey Mitch.

Sorry to hear you’re also in the rainy pattern. I agree about the nut/bolt assortment just haven’t gotten around to replacing the some stuff from the fire and bolts/storage are just one of the “projects”. It’s 26 miles (one way) to the closest town with any hardware and 40 to one that would carry hay hardware (sections, rake teeth etc). Those trips just kill your day.

But just to add insult —- I woke around 4 this AM to the sound of thunder. We started the day with a nice T-storm. Remember the saying “rain follows the plow”? Modern version is “rain follows Geoff’s hay being down”.

[near horse]

Sometimes it’s the other non-weather “shit” that can mess things up. Friday all as mowing well until I broke a pitman stick. No biggie as I’ve got a few BUT I was shy a few of the 8 bolts used on the pitman so rushed to town and got some by 8PM. Installed Sat AM and promptly broke one of the 3 carriage bolts used on the flywheel bearing (from MacNairs) and I was going to drop in one of my new sharp knives to finish the field. So I had to drive to town and get said bolts plus some higher clearance clips since my hew knife has bolts. By the time I arrived home it was Sat PM and when I went to look in the bag for the bolts, they were not there. No sign on the receipt so they’re still on the checkout counter some where. Too late to go to town again so I wait until Sun AM to make another trip then after adding one of my knifeheads to the new knife and trying to install it, it becomes obvious that these heads are “close” to mine but not the same and will not work. Pull the knife and the new clips, replace my old knife after a quick sharpening with my grinder ….. Get harnessed and hooked by 2PM and finally get to finish (about 4-5 acres)

[near horse]

Anyone ever salt their hay? Some guys who put it up a little too green will salt between layers in the barn. The stuff I saw looked god but it felt strange. It was limp like wilted grass but w/o the moisture. Not stiff like dried hay.

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