Recent content by CliffordK

I haven't ever used one of those, but it sounds like it might help with a bumpy field... hopefully not completely tearing up the turf. A few years ago I picked up some brand new grader blade edges at the county surplus auction. It sounds like a perfect application for them.

When we built my parent's house, it was all nails. The only ones that pulled out were the ones where somebody missed the stud, and left the nail in the wall. Since then, I prefer screwing up the ceiling sheetrock, but will still nail the walls from time to time.

I've run into tractors that are a pain to get the PTO and implement shafts lined up. I always have the tractor turned off when messing with the PTO. What I've found is that most implements have a gear reduction making it hard to turn the shaft. Some implements it is easy enough to turn the...

I've started hunting for solid steel and overbuilt casters, depending on the application. Weight distribution is a problem. Consider the cherry pickers. The center of balance is wherever the hook is, and generally puts much more weight on the front 2 wheels. Apparently not all imports take...

That makes a lot of sense to put a U-Joint near the pivot point, so you aren't relying on a significant amount of telescoping as you turn. I'm seeing notes that the max angle of a single U-Joint is around 45 degrees.

Each place is different. We rarely top 100°. For the next couple of days, we'll have the upper 70's, then a couple of days in the low 80's. And it is generally a dry heat. So my climate control... I splurged and bought a straw hat. Of course, perhaps eventually I'll get tired of the dust.

Over time I have also grown to have more respect to what I once thought were pest species. While Mistletoe is a parasite, it is also a local native species, and largely doesn't seem to be killing the trees as much as establishing a symbiotic relationship with the local oaks. I remember Dad...

A lot of the worst invasive species were introduced about a century or more ago. The Himalayan Blackberries were introduced long ago. Great to eat, but what a mess they make. Somebody had the bright idea to bring over Gorse to the Oregon Coast. It is like a living barbed wire fence, and...

I think a lot of species were over hunted in the past. So wolves, for example, were almost entirely wiped out, and then were reintroduced 10 or 20 years ago. I really haven't seen much of them. Reports seem to indicate the cougar population is slowly rebounding. I've on occasion encountered...

The cheat grass is popping up in an established hay field. But It had seemed that some had popped up when an oak tree fell down in about February 2024 and may have disrupted some of the soil. But then expanded from there.

I tried a spring mowing of the foxtail a couple of years ago, but I don't think it was particularly successful. The main area is being grazed by cattle at the moment. I'm not looking forward to a broad attack under the oaks.

For a general purpose farm tractor, I much prefer a 4x4 tractor. However, I had an emergency need for more power this hay season, so I picked up an ancient International 600 2 wheel drive. It will likely get parked whenever there is mud around. Unfortunately we've had 2 days of rain this...

So far not much of the Foxtail Barley has made it into the hay pastures, but there is quite a bit in various grazing pastures. That will probably be step 2 in trying to reduce or eliminate it. A large patch of the Foxtail Barley is under an oak grove. Some notes indicate it is an annual...

If one is tossing bales from the ground up onto a hay trailer by hand, then it is best to start with the trailer as low as possible. I.E. Axles with fenders. Years ago Dad built a custom hay trailer. Full width in front and behind the fenders. Fenders were square, and I think 14" tall, so...

It depends on how one's feeding and storage feeding is organized. When we had the cows, most of the hay ended up in the loft. So, one would have to take the bale wagon, drop a load near the hay elevator, and then run the bales up the elevator and restack. Ideally one would design the barn...