Odds and ends

'Tis the season for farm repairs. I've got a number of parts for the Baler (NH 283) and my uncle is going to weld up one part they don't make any more (twine finger bar). I'll either be welding up the plunger shield or buying a new one. I think it's fixable. The fun part is I need a grinder to get the broken mounts off of the plunger and I need to make new ones. The shield was being held on by a single bolt. Nice. Also have remedied the hydro pressure reservoir leak, busted hay dog springs (why my knotter quit working) and have some new teeth. Oh, and I'll be replacing the bearing in the PTO shaft. In any event I should have one rock-em-sock-em baler in the spring.

I also finished replacing all the tires on the rake and it's ready to party as well.

Also resolved and issue with my draw bar hitch. My tractor (Kubota M6030 DTN) is an old orchard tractor, so the drag is to low for many draw attached implements. I had to put a draw bar on the 3 point. Problem is it kept the implement so far back that most of the PTO's didn't reach and required and extender. Hence the mangled bearing on my Baler.

Dave at Hard Rock Machine in Walla Walla made me a new draw bar hitch with a 4" rise that was the same thickness of metal and (other than the rise) dimensions as the factory draw bar. Now stuff attaches to the draw bar, PTO's reach and it's heavy enough to still drag the Harrow Bed around when it's loaded (10,000-12,000 lbs).

Ahhh the harrow bed. Some modifications will be made to that as well. I need to be able to manually activate a return valve (the spring is worn). Once every thing was greased, it runs like a champ. Not bad of an implement form 1965. Now if I could figure out how to use it without making "Hay piles." Practice makes perfect.

A passle of Goats will be heading to the freezer, new farrowing pens will be going in the shop (for winter farrowings) and I will be heading up to Deer Park in the not too distant future to grab 4 tons of feed (should get us to June or July).