Swiss Army Knives for Small Farm

 
NoSmoke
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Post by NoSmoke » Thu. Dec. 08, 2016 7:35 am

Oh as long as you have a wife that is your best friend, what more could you want.

Katie was wearing that dress one night when we went out to dinner, and afterwards had to stop at Home Depot for some stuff. I was watching a guy eye her a bit...then walk straight into a cart filled with 2 x 4's that went crashing about. It was kind of funny, but I am not sure his wife was impressed. :shock:


 
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Post by top top » Fri. Dec. 16, 2016 5:16 pm

I see you have a JD 350D, my uncle purchased a brand new 350B loader for logging. The B is a little smaller than yours, but the loader version is heavier, and with the loggers winch it could pull an awesome load, waaayy more than a cord. He rarely cut anything under 20" across the stump, and he could pull several tree length logs at a time after limbing and topping. I used to buy logs for firewood from him, I paid him by hauling his saw logs to the mill. One time I got hung up getting out of the woods. He dug a trench, dropped in a log, parked the loader on the other side, stuck his forks in the ground and started winching. Pulled me right out, then I couldn't get up a hill in the wet field. My highway tires had NO traction. He moved his log, set up and winched again. Did that about three or four times before I could move on my own. The load was junk logs going to a chicken farm. They shred them for bedding, and pay by the ton rather than scaling the logs. I hit the scale and was grossing something like 92,000 lbs! Anyway, keep your eye out for a winch for your Deere. It will be well worth it. The loggers winch will lift the logs just enough to keep them from hanging up on every rock or root.

 
NoSmoke
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Post by NoSmoke » Fri. Aug. 25, 2017 7:12 pm

Rob R. wrote:A Stihl 461 is one heck of a saw. I hope you aren't one of those tough guys that thinks PPE is for sissies.
Son of a gun you cursed me!

On March 27th 2017 I was cutting a twitch of wood...limbing no less, and hit a spring pole. The saw flipped back and cut me right between the eyebrows. I passed out from the impact, came too and saw blood all over the snow. I don't have a cell phone and I cut wood alone, so I started running for the house a half mile away. I crossed a stream, passed out again, then came too and figured I better start running or I was not going to make it. I managed obviously to get to the house, Katie, and eventually an ambulance. I ended up spending 4 days in the hospital for it, got 20 stitches...10 in and 10 over, but lived to tell the tale.

I still have a scar from the event, but they say woman find men with facial scars attractive, so I guess at 43 I still got something to show off to the ladies!

Here is a picture of the spring pole. The two arrows are the ends of the same stick. I did not have enough strength to bend the sapling over so they touched; such was the pressure on it.

Attachments

Spring Pole.JPG
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NoSmoke
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Post by NoSmoke » Fri. Aug. 25, 2017 7:22 pm

I have been working on my log loader however. I managed to build a few more implements for it.

Here is an upside down wood splitter I made for my log loader.

It kind of has two parts. The first problem I thought i might encounter is the small powerpack engine and small hydraulic lines that would make the splitter really slooooooowwwww. So I built a "carrier" as I call it that attaches to the 3 point hitch. This lets me install a pto pump so I can use tractor rpm to have control over the speed of the splitter. On the carrier is where I mounted the hydraulic tank reservoir, a hitch and seat. This came out of a Ford Focus and has all functions, when you are splitting wood all day on your rump you must have lumbar support and adjustability to the controls you know. The seat really helps a person stay comfortable while splitting all day. No sense to stand! And yes I added a cup holder just to round off the amenities. The splitter control valve is on a arm rest to the left.

The picture is a little wrong because instead of bunks I would have my dump body put on that way I could pinch my splitter over the round, lift it over my dump body, then split the wood fully so I never have to lift the wood by hand. I kind of hope you can see how it would work.
DSCN4812.JPG
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NoSmoke
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Post by NoSmoke » Fri. Aug. 25, 2017 7:26 pm

One implement that many people would think would be perfect on a farm...including me until I got one...is a three point hitch grader blade. Oh what could be done with that!! Sadly as it turns out, not much, because attached as it is, when the tractor goes into a dip, the grader blade drives itself into the ground, yet when the tractor goes over a bump, the grader blade lifts off the ground. Constant up and down on the three point hitch control might help, and draft control on tractors so equipped also help, it is not the complete solution. That is because the length from grader blade to rear axle is not long enough. It kind of works good enough in tight areas, but for grading roadways, fields, and animal pens, on my farm at least, it just plain failed.

So out came ye olde welder!

I got a Wallenstein Log Trailer, and I thought if I extended the hitch and mounted my 3 point hitch grader blade exactly between the rear axle or the tractor and trailer, it would give me a super smooth surface. Adding to that, the trailers walking beam suspension would keep the blade flat to the ground since it would walk up and over any rocks that the blade kicked up. Granted I had some steel kicking around, so for $37 in bolts and welding rod, I managed to build a very decent grader that mimics the geometry of a true motor grader. The gooseneck had to be beefed up a bit to keep the I-Beam from twisting, but it was required because I needed the frame to be higher so I could lift my grader blade with the three point hitch alone. In the end it produces a very smooth surface on a nice flat plane. Here are a couple of photos in case anyone wants to mount theirs to a trailer of some sort.

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KLook
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Post by KLook » Fri. Aug. 25, 2017 8:54 pm

You are having to much fun....go spend time with the pretty wife....er, after 4 kids, maybe not..... ;) Winter is coming in Maine...or at least fall. I miss the fall but not the winters.

Kevin

 
NoSmoke
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Post by NoSmoke » Sat. Aug. 26, 2017 9:28 am

Well the "baby" is now four, so starting on Thursday all four daughters will be in school making us "School Nesters" as I call ourselves. That is 8 hours all too ourselves now that I have retired (May 27th 2016). We all know what adults with children do with that kind of time, so we just might end up with another baby. Of course with my luck we would have triplet...and girls of course. I am not allowed to have boys I guess! :-)
(The dog, the sheep, the rabbit are all girls too!)


 
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freetown fred
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Post by freetown fred » Sat. Aug. 26, 2017 4:47 pm

Not to fret NS. My Amish buddy had 8 girls & finally last year had a boy!!!!!!!1 :)

 
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warminmn
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Post by warminmn » Sat. Aug. 26, 2017 7:59 pm

That grader looks really nice. Its similar in looks to ones people had on farms in the 1930's, and counties used on dirt roads that Ive seen pics of in local history books.

 
NoSmoke
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Post by NoSmoke » Sun. Aug. 27, 2017 7:24 am

freetown fred wrote:Not to fret NS. My Amish buddy had 8 girls & finally last year had a boy!!!!!!!1 :)
I was a little upset in that Katie went to her Dr and now uses "the ring" which prevents child birth, all without telling me. I would have loved to have a few more babies; I grew up in an adopted/foster family where my parents adopted 6 after having 3 of their own, so I am used to kids. But she was worried about having babies at such a late age as she is now 38 years old.

Oh well, enjoy being a School Nester I guess and move on. Who knows, with our connection to Moldova, where kids are orphaned in staggering numbers, we might adopt after all.

 
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Post by CapeCoaler » Sun. Aug. 27, 2017 9:30 pm

We had three when my wife was 38... ;) :o
It is always a risk but after 40 is when the real issues start...
45 is just over the top risky...
One of our twins was breech and needed quite a bit of persuading to pop out...
Irish triplets need I say more :yes: ...

 
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Rob R.
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Post by Rob R. » Mon. Aug. 28, 2017 6:23 am

NoSmoke wrote:
Rob R. wrote:A Stihl 461 is one heck of a saw. I hope you aren't one of those tough guys that thinks PPE is for sissies.
Son of a gun you cursed me!

On March 27th 2017 I was cutting a twitch of wood...limbing no less, and hit a spring pole. The saw flipped back and cut me right between the eyebrows. I passed out from the impact, came too and saw blood all over the snow. I don't have a cell phone and I cut wood alone, so I started running for the house a half mile away. I crossed a stream, passed out again, then came too and figured I better start running or I was not going to make it. I managed obviously to get to the house, Katie, and eventually an ambulance. I ended up spending 4 days in the hospital for it, got 20 stitches...10 in and 10 over, but lived to tell the tale.

I still have a scar from the event, but they say woman find men with facial scars attractive, so I guess at 43 I still got something to show off to the ladies!

Here is a picture of the spring pole. The two arrows are the ends of the same stick. I did not have enough strength to bend the sapling over so they touched; such was the pressure on it.
I did not curse you, you did it to yourself. No logging helmet/shield, no phone, and working alone...I would say you are lucky to be alive.

 
NoSmoke
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Post by NoSmoke » Mon. Aug. 28, 2017 3:21 pm

Wait, wait, wait...I had a helmet on! :D

 
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Rob R.
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Post by Rob R. » Mon. Aug. 28, 2017 5:51 pm

Well, that is good. Did it have a face shield?

 
NoSmoke
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Post by NoSmoke » Mon. Aug. 28, 2017 8:51 pm

No, but I doubt that would have helped. The impact knocked my hard hat off and ripped my saw out of my hands after hitting my face. It was moving at a pretty good clip. The chain brake never even kicked on. I had a friend go up and shut my skidder off and he said he found my saw in the brush (along with a lot of blood on the ground) but the chain brake was off.

It happened so fast that I never even knew what hit me, just that when I came too there was a lot of blood on the ground. Of course there was snow so it made it look worse then it was.

Fortunately 20 stitches from a chainsaw accident is pretty good I think, it could have been worse.


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