Goodbye Deere friend

 WE DID IT! I took a deep breath and traded off the old 8630 today.  That's the tractor Zack was disking with in an earlier entry.  We traded the old green thing for a pretty red one.

It wasn't exactly what I wanted, but there are about 193,000 reasons we didn't get exactly what I wanted ... and they ARE all green.  This one I think I can cash flow without borrowing any money.  And if I do have to borrow a little it won't be nearly as much or as long.  At the same time we traded the old 4800 field cultivator we hadn't used in 3 years for a 24 ft 496 disk. (this is a stock photo of a 28 ft 496, but it will be similar)

I know, we just bought a Sunflower a couple years ago.  We still have it and will use it ... a lot.  But the Sunflower is too heavy and too valuable for disking in ruts.  And we have a couple hundred acres of ruts.  We discussed buying a cheaper disk, even found a some.  One old Krause we could probably have bought for $2000, put $3000 of blades and bearings in and still had a $2000 disk.  Another one was a Deutz Allis disk we found along the road for sale.  Imagine this disk painted orange ... not factory orange but painted orange by a machinery jockey. With a little lime green showing through in spots. 

For some strange reason the front center blades were new.  None of the other blades had been replaced, but those 2 sections had.  It might have been OK ... it was a lot closer to my plans than the $2000 Krause I looked at.  We talked it over and decided if we were going to buy a disk, buy one that when we got done using we could probably sell.  And if we decided to keep it, get one that would amount to something.  The orange painted DA would have been here until Vern cut it up for scrap.

I really had not planned on trading tractors. But the old 8630 turned over 7000 hours shortly before we finished this year.  And every time we would discuss it with someone knowledgeable of Deere's they would say something like "It still has the original engine in it?" We ran it for several years with very little cash put into it, but  our feeling is we were running on borrowed time.

One downside to this tractor is no PTO to run a grain cart.  We will either need to get a hydraulic drive for it or use the 7120 to pull the cart.  But that is a future decision. I've made enough decisions for one day.

Fall tillage may be done

Well, we did get most of our fall tillage done.

Zack finished up the corn stalks at Walnut Prairie

Now if I could just figure out what blogspot did with some of the photos...

We have gone to disking all the corn stalks going into beans next year.  Running the Sunflower disk and pulling the J&M rolling harrow behind it does a fantastic job.

We've got about 50 acres of irrigated ground to rip, but after the rain today and the forecast for the rest of the week it may not get done this year .

And the ruts out west are full of water.

I think it's time to pull the tractors inside and close the doors.

Harvest is over ... finally

We Did It! Harvest is FINALLY over!

We survived trucks breaking down 

We survived Stirator repairs

(Well, maybe.  One to work on in the morning)

 We survived weird dryer problems

Repaired the combine

 

Made a few ruts

Even took out a couple test plots

Yields were not record breaking, but considering everything quite respectable.

Plot results

While I was having a fun afternoon updating wiring on a Stirator in a bin full of dry corn, Aman took out the test plot in front of the house.  I'm not including experimental's in this list, but might modify it later if they become part of the line up. Yields are shrunk to dry bushels.

Beck's 5676XR 23.8%  56#    213.1
Beck's 5716A3 23.8%  53.5# 223.1
Dekalb 63-42   24.4%  53#    226.4
Beck's 5779V3 23.8%  54#    231.9
Beck's 5784RR 23.4%  54#    207.9
Beck's 5684V3 21.4%  53.5#  226.3
Beck's 5454XR 21.2%  54.5#  213.4
Beck's 5608V3 23.8%   53.5#  213.1
Beck's 5608RR 22.4%   56#    221.2
Pioneer 33F88  24.0%   56#    203.7
Beck's 6733XR 24.8%   56.5# 206.9

Dad always said this little field in front of the house was the best dirt on the farm.

What's that bright thing in the sky?

We had a day of mostly sunshine, some wind, overall a pretty nice day.  But beans still tested 18% when I tried them at 3:00

Oh! If you get to wandering the internet you will find there is also a http://www.bumpusfarms.com/ site.  That's not us, that is Bill & Doug in Ohio. Nice looking cattle by the way:

.  Don't know Doug.  Exchanged and email or two but have never spoken.

There is also a web site for for Bumpus Harley Davidson

(http://www.bumpusharleydavidson.com/)  That's not us either.

If it weren't for bad luck ...

Remember the ditty on Hee-Haw? If it weren't for bad luck I'd have no luck at all? That's how the fall is beginning to feel. We're about a third done with soybeans. Milo is done except for 10 acres of dry corners. Corn is barely started ... as in we have shelled about 800 bushels and quit because it was a lot wetter than we expected. Visit my blog at http://walnutprairie.blogspot.com for the fun I have been having with drying that corn.

And we learned something not to do to a 366 Chevy truck engine. Everyone said we should replace the points and coil distributor with an HEI pointless distributor. The red truck needed a tune up, and we thought rather than replace old with new of the same we'd take the opportunity to to upgrade the ignition.

Aman went to O'Reilly's and told them what we wanted. "This is just the thing" What they didn't know, and it seems most Chevy gear heads don't know, is that a 366 is a "tall deck" engine. That means the Big Block distributor looks like it will drop in ... but it won't drive the oil pump. We found this out about 100 yards down the road when the engine quit running.

O'Reilly's says the part worked correctly, we should have made sure it was the right part for the application. They did allow us to return the distributor and ignition wires. I need to frame that receipt, as it will be the last one I ever get from O'Reilly's.

We have found it doesn't matter how you do it, rebuild what we have, buy a rebuilt, buy a used one and put it in, etc and etc it is going to cost $4000. When you get all done it is going to take at least $4000 to do it. Rather than put $4000 in a 35 year old truck we are exploring other options. So here is a photo of the 75 Chevy truck in action, never again to be duplicated.

Our plan is to put the bed and hoist on a different chassis this winter. We have one spoken for. That will be a whole 'nother story once we get it going. I'll just say Wabash Valley is involved.
(I can hear Jim groaning.)

And it has rained or drizzled and not dried any for most of the week.

Oh well, if it were easy anyone could do it.

How has the fall been going? When you are unloading beans at the elevator and see a huge sun dog like this you get this gnawing feeling in your stomach.

That was followed by 3.6 inches of rain over the next few days.

We did find something out this weekend. If you wish to replace the old points and coil distributor on a Chevy 366 truck engine with a high output pointless HEI distributor be sure and drop the oil pan and replace the oil pump. Because the oil pump rive shaft will not work with the new distributor. We found this out after the truck ran 100 yards down the road and quit.

Fortunately we were able to pull it back to the shop, reinstall the old distributor, and get everything going. So far it runs good and maybe .. just maybe .. there is no damage.

We got back in the field on Columbus Day ... to find the hand shelled sample of under 22% corn was 26% from the combine. Notice how nicely it peaks in the truck...
After a load and a half of that we put the bean head back on and put the combine away.

I fired up the dryer fan with no problem. Went to hook up the thermostat for the burner and discovered the !@#$!! mice had gotten inside the control box on the fan. There was so much bare wire I was afraid to touch anything and turned it off at the breaker box. So tomorrow I get to do some rewiring. Oh, and the Stirator won't work either. I fear this is going to require 20 ft ladders inside a grain bin to repair.

Now if we could just figure out how to get the bucket truck inside the grain bin ...