25/01/2013, What have you done today?

[The Swanndri Guy]

Just wondering what people on the forum were doing today, and what weather they had, considering its a bit cooler on the other side of the equator Among other things to do today, I had to go up the road and bale some hay with the 4000 and the IH 440 for the AB technician ( Thats Bruce in the background, not me!)The temperature was about 27 c and overcast, still a bit warmer than I like.The hay was cut on Tuesday so it was very dry and dusty End result 176 bales in 35 minutes (300 bales /hour), and one happy AB technician

PS the picture dosen't show all the dust from the baler either...

[Kiwi Kev]

Paul
Apart from my non-tractor related work, I did buy a grease cartridge for the grease gun. As I put the cartridge in the gun, thought I should grease the 5000 and flail mower while I had greasy hands. Glad I did. While greaseing the front steering spindles, I noticed that my axle A frame rear pivot pin had almost come out. The locking bolt had about 2 threads holding it there and the pin was about half way out. Have already lost 1x pin, so dont want to lose another. Might have to loctite the retaining bolt in place, aswell as the current spring washer. Is'nt it funny how you werent planning on doing something, but something/someone tells you to do it, and thats how I found the pivot pin.

Also finished repairing the inner tube on the slasher driveshaft, but must order another one from the boys at Ruakura Tractor parts.
Kiwi Kev

[Broadspeed]

Repaired Dexta steering wheel. It's -20 celsius outside, so it's nice to do something at workshop

Surface was damaged until to metal:


Sand blasting and ceramic metal to damaged areas (so that the water won't go between the cover and metal and rip off the cover in minus degrees):


Little bit sanding and black industrial paint:

[Dandy Dave]

It is colder than a whores heart here today chaps. Average temp around -17 C not counting the wind chill factor. Too cold to even think about starting and using my old Fordson for much of anything. Dandy Dave!

[Bensdexta]

Didn't touch the Fordson today but did get our ewes scanned, by a young man just a couple of years out of college.

He designed and built this scanning trailer. Sheep go up ramp on right, he sits in cabin on left darkened so he can see his ultrasound display, whilst he manipulates the scanner head under the ewe with his right arm. It has its own battery so can operate anywhere. His cabin, reminiscent of a stealth bomber cockpit, has 'rudder' pedals to operate the gates and neck clamp to keep the sheep where he wants her.

Since leaving home this morning and getting back tonight after finishing with us in the dark and pouring rain, he will have visited 6 farms and scanned 1200 sheep. He's doing the same tomorrow, as he has done for the past month with another two weeks of the scanning season to go.

And our scanning %, 1.75 lambs/ewe. Last year he missed some triplets, so could turn out a bit higher.

In March he will be going to Northumberland for a month to lamb 16,000 sheep.

[chriss]

"rusty" started ok this morning glad its above freezing brought another box of logs round then finished rabbit hutch for grandson

[Dandy Dave]

I've been hooking up a wood boiler to my baseboard heating system in my house. I'm tired of giving my money to the big oil companys. I'm almost ready to put some wood in it. Dandy Dave!

[henk]

My week a rather busy.
It was freezing and snowing and we wanted to prepare the ice-skate track. Monday afternoon some voluntaries cleaned up 5 cm of snow with hand on about 500 meters. In the evening we could setup the lights across this length. The next evening we placed a tent were we sold hot Chocó milk and soup. We call this koek en zopie. The whole week we've been busy repairing and improving the ice-skate track and selling the koek en zopie. It was a wonderful week. In the meantime we had three days of presentations for our school. Had to work extra hours and could not help to remove the lights because I had to work Saturday morning.
In the afternoon we had a meeting of our local old-timer tractor club with some typical Dutch foot. Stampot. That's vegetables and potatoes and meat all in one. After that we had some nice chats whit our fellow club mates.
The week was busy but a lot of fun.