53 Tons
The 6000 has gotten an unusual workout this week. In the winter about all I regularly use it for is to feed hay for myself and neighbors. Not this week though. I have been working almost everyday on the drive to the double-wide. The last couple days I moved 53 tons of #2 gravel onto the drive. I believe I will need one more load to have everything covered good on the drive and to have enough to put a few around the entrances to the barns. It gets really muddy anywhere the animals gather up in the winter. At the ends of the barns is a soupy mess. Mud doesn’t bother the cows, but it is a breeding ground for worms. Goats are very succeptable to parasites so they don’t do well in moist places. It’s also hard on the horses’ shoes. It seems to suck them right off. Not to mention I hate walking in it.
Monday I noticed someone had used my tractor while I was at work. Turns out BJ had to feed hay to Mamaw and Papaw Staley’s cattle. Papaw said she did it like she had been doing it all her life. I told him it was just that she had a good teacher. Today I went and set out some rolls of hay to the same cattle. Same story where he has their cattle. Pretty much a soupy mess. They have rented my great uncle Fred’s old place and have about 25 head running on it. A few weeks back someone shot two of his cows. They must have done it in the night and just left them to die. There is enough loss in farming without such senseless things as that. The Staley’s have two fairly new John Deere tractors, but neither is 4wd so Papaw wants me to skid some logs for him in a week or two. I couldn’t understand why a fellow with two tractors of his own wasn’t moving his own hay so I asked. He said the one with a FEL had a hole in a hose and the other has a bad starter. I might add he has been waiting for parts on that starter for a week now. I kidded him that it was okay, my red tractor feeds a lot of green tractor owner’s animals. He said yeah - and the wheels are all good on yours. I couldn’t let that one go so I asked what he meant. He said when he bought his new Deere he hooked up his roller and headed to the field, and on the way one of the rear wheels came off. Couldn’t believe it. He also said that the dealer told him it was his fault, that the owner was supposed to check the tightness of the wheels. It bent the fender on his new tractor and everything. He said the dealer finally caved in and fixed everything, but the whole experience was certainly unpleasant.
I finally got around to replacing the light that was broken on the 6000 4WD. I really like how easy these tractors are to work on. Kind of a back to basics style. Not a lot of flash, just stuff that works. I noticed the replacement light is a sealed type. The old one wasn’t. That should help keep mud and water out. Sometime before summer I have got to do an oil and hydraulic fluid and filter change.
The progress on the house continues. I’ve put some more pics on here. We’ve got walls and windows now. They got all the new roof on too. I think it’s gonna be awesome when it’s done. We have found a deal on rough lumber too. I’m gonna try to pick up 2000 board feet of hemlock and 1000 board feet of cedar to use on the barn and the log house. I’ve got to pick up 140 ft of direct burial wire to run electricity to the barn. As a matter of fact I have a whole list of things to pick up at Lowes when I get the time to go. The electric company came and approved our permit for electricity. So we have power at the double-wide now. If I can get the septic hooked up, the heat and air unit put in, decks built, and the underpinning we’ll be ready to move in. Then we can start clearing land. That’s what I’m really excited about.
Well I better scoot ………..I have tons to do!
