yoderjac
Well-Known Member
Last weekend when I got to the retirement property, I found the fridge/freezer with all our venison had failed. The meat was thawed, but still cold. We refroze the ground (over half) and took the muscle meat (steaks and loins) over to the neighbors and had a party. We cooked up 17lbs of venison and it all was eaten! So we had an unexpected project of taking the old fridge to the dump. I found another on craigslist, so I took the truck home last weekend so I could pick it up on the way down this week.
I headed south on Thursday. My plan was to stop and pick up the fridge, stop at the coop and pickup 500lbs of WR, drop off the WR at the farm, and use the loader on my partners little John Deere to load my forks into the bed of the truck. I would then drive to our retirement property and use the forks to unload the fridge so I could keep it vertical. I would then spend the rest of the day, Friday, and Saturday planting our fall plots.
The first issue was the fridge. When I arrived, it was sitting outside with the doors off. The guy told me he had to remove the doors to get it out of the house. So now, instead of having just a fridge standing upright in the bed of my truck, I would have to remove all of the shelves and drawers and stuff and put the doors in the bed as well. That completely eliminated picking up the seed and dropping it off at the farm on the way.
So, my work around was to drive to my retirement property, grab my old F150, drive to the coop, pick up seed, drop it off at the farm and pick up the forks. When I got to the coop, I did something stupid. I jumped off the loading dock and jammed my left knee. This is my bad need with a torn meniscus that needs replaced. Well, that pickup has a cap, so loading the forks with the little John Deere loader was a challenge, but eventually I got it done. I then headed back to the retirement property and put the forks on the Kioti and got the fridge unloaded.
I then did some light disking of a field at the retirement property, hooked up the trailer to the Silverado, and loaded the Kioti and disk. I reinstalled the doors on the fridge that evening.
At this point, I thought things were going pretty well except for my knee. Friday morning, I got up early and headed to the farm. I did some light disking of the fields there and replaced the disk with the sprayer. I loaded the 3pt broadcast seeder into the loader of the the kioti and loaded it back on the trailer. I also loaded the seed for the retirement property as well as the herbicide. I drove back to the retirement property and sprayed and seeded. I have cultipackers at both locations, so I was able to cultipack there as well.
The next morning, my knee was swollen and I could not bend it beyond 90 degrees. I sucked it up and got moving. I drove to the farm, unloaded the seeder and filled the sprayer. I headed out to spray. When I started, I found my homemade foamer was not working. I checked it out and the plastic coiled hose between the compressor and jug was cracked and leaking. I decided to just do my best to get good coverage without the foamer. I finished spraying that field and headed to the next one when the Kioti overheated.
I stopped immediately. The loader was down, so I could only pull the radiator screen out part way. The was some debris in it and I scraped it off, but it was not badly clogged. I thought maybe fine stuff went thru and clogged the radiator. After it cooled down, I started it back up and headed to the barn. I got half way back when it overheated again. This time I raised the loader before shutting it down. I was able to pull the screen out all the way and the radiator looked fine. I then noticed the fan belts were shredded. I did not want to run it like this, so I spent the next hour walking back to the barn, getting the Silverado and trailer and driving out to the tractor, loading it and heading back to the barn.
Of course nothing is simple. The sprayer, about 2/3 full of fluid, was still on the 3pt hitch. I did not want to dump the herbicide, so I ended up putting wooden loading ramps up to the back of the trailer and using the John Deere to drag the sprayer down the ramps and off the trailer.
The tractor shop used to close at noon on Saturday, but the recently changed hands and were open till 2pm. So, I spent the next hour and a half taking the Kioti into the shop. When I got back, the 2/3 full sprayer was sitting in front of the barn. We have a cement floor in the barn and keep all our equipment on dollies so one guy can move the implement to the tractor rather than trying to back up the tractor to the implement. It took me quite a while but I finally got it hooked up. I finished the spraying using the John Deere, but since the herbicide was mixed for the Kioti and the foamer was not working, my coverage will be spotty, but hopefully good enough.
By the time I was done with that I did not have the energy to seed and cultipack. That will need to wait until next time I'm down.
So, instead of sitting in my easy chair with the satisfaction of a completed fall plant, I'm sitting in my easy chair with my knee elevated and wrapped in ice on Valium hoping I can avoid a knee replacement until after retirement and rambling on in my frustration.
I headed south on Thursday. My plan was to stop and pick up the fridge, stop at the coop and pickup 500lbs of WR, drop off the WR at the farm, and use the loader on my partners little John Deere to load my forks into the bed of the truck. I would then drive to our retirement property and use the forks to unload the fridge so I could keep it vertical. I would then spend the rest of the day, Friday, and Saturday planting our fall plots.
The first issue was the fridge. When I arrived, it was sitting outside with the doors off. The guy told me he had to remove the doors to get it out of the house. So now, instead of having just a fridge standing upright in the bed of my truck, I would have to remove all of the shelves and drawers and stuff and put the doors in the bed as well. That completely eliminated picking up the seed and dropping it off at the farm on the way.
So, my work around was to drive to my retirement property, grab my old F150, drive to the coop, pick up seed, drop it off at the farm and pick up the forks. When I got to the coop, I did something stupid. I jumped off the loading dock and jammed my left knee. This is my bad need with a torn meniscus that needs replaced. Well, that pickup has a cap, so loading the forks with the little John Deere loader was a challenge, but eventually I got it done. I then headed back to the retirement property and put the forks on the Kioti and got the fridge unloaded.
I then did some light disking of a field at the retirement property, hooked up the trailer to the Silverado, and loaded the Kioti and disk. I reinstalled the doors on the fridge that evening.
At this point, I thought things were going pretty well except for my knee. Friday morning, I got up early and headed to the farm. I did some light disking of the fields there and replaced the disk with the sprayer. I loaded the 3pt broadcast seeder into the loader of the the kioti and loaded it back on the trailer. I also loaded the seed for the retirement property as well as the herbicide. I drove back to the retirement property and sprayed and seeded. I have cultipackers at both locations, so I was able to cultipack there as well.
The next morning, my knee was swollen and I could not bend it beyond 90 degrees. I sucked it up and got moving. I drove to the farm, unloaded the seeder and filled the sprayer. I headed out to spray. When I started, I found my homemade foamer was not working. I checked it out and the plastic coiled hose between the compressor and jug was cracked and leaking. I decided to just do my best to get good coverage without the foamer. I finished spraying that field and headed to the next one when the Kioti overheated.
I stopped immediately. The loader was down, so I could only pull the radiator screen out part way. The was some debris in it and I scraped it off, but it was not badly clogged. I thought maybe fine stuff went thru and clogged the radiator. After it cooled down, I started it back up and headed to the barn. I got half way back when it overheated again. This time I raised the loader before shutting it down. I was able to pull the screen out all the way and the radiator looked fine. I then noticed the fan belts were shredded. I did not want to run it like this, so I spent the next hour walking back to the barn, getting the Silverado and trailer and driving out to the tractor, loading it and heading back to the barn.
Of course nothing is simple. The sprayer, about 2/3 full of fluid, was still on the 3pt hitch. I did not want to dump the herbicide, so I ended up putting wooden loading ramps up to the back of the trailer and using the John Deere to drag the sprayer down the ramps and off the trailer.
The tractor shop used to close at noon on Saturday, but the recently changed hands and were open till 2pm. So, I spent the next hour and a half taking the Kioti into the shop. When I got back, the 2/3 full sprayer was sitting in front of the barn. We have a cement floor in the barn and keep all our equipment on dollies so one guy can move the implement to the tractor rather than trying to back up the tractor to the implement. It took me quite a while but I finally got it hooked up. I finished the spraying using the John Deere, but since the herbicide was mixed for the Kioti and the foamer was not working, my coverage will be spotty, but hopefully good enough.
By the time I was done with that I did not have the energy to seed and cultipack. That will need to wait until next time I'm down.
So, instead of sitting in my easy chair with the satisfaction of a completed fall plant, I'm sitting in my easy chair with my knee elevated and wrapped in ice on Valium hoping I can avoid a knee replacement until after retirement and rambling on in my frustration.
