Lifting Stuff

On 08/01/2015 10:27 PM, Martin Eastburn wrote: ...

Sorry to hear that...while but a blink in comparison to some of the areas further east, we reached the "Century Farm" mark last year; my grandfather with is brother bought the home quarter in 1914. There were at that time no improvements on the place and only 20 A had even been broken out of native sod. The original purchaser never planted a crop. Was fortunate to have arrived in that time frame; it was in a moist cycle (by W KS standards, anyway :) ) and in the '20s economic conditions were mostly favorable so by the Depression and Dust Bowl by dint of being both a good farmer and a capable business manager they had managed to have sufficient resources to hang on thru the 30's and Dust Bowl. We had another severe drought in the early 50's that I clearly recall that was a mini-dust bowl but as dry as though two periods were, the lowest annual accumulation we've recorded at the house since grandpa started keeping track in '15 was just two years ago in this current cycle of just barely over 7"; the lowest previous was about 10" in 1951. The lowest during the 30s was actually close to 14"; that it was so severe a result is a reflection on how much farming technique for this region has advanced since as developed equipment and methods more suited to the sandy soil and limited moisture. When broke this ground out, all they knew and had equipment for was what worked farther east in heavier soils and more rainfall.

My grandfather used mules but other than one favorite that was a essentially a pet when I was very young, none were still around by the time I had any activity. Granddad had a registered milking shorthorn breeding cowherd as a secondary sideline but also by the time I reached teens they had fallen out of favor. He passed in '57 and Dad converted over to running stocker heifers on winter wheat and milo stubble over the winter and selling them off to the feeders in the spring while we farmed the summertime. We also built the small (500 head) feedlot at that point and would feed out some, numbers varying from year to year based on what guesstimated markets would be like and feed availabilty; it's still dryland W KS, after all! :)

On 08/02/2015 8:55 AM, dpb wrote: ...

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That was a typo; the 14" was more nearly 12" but the other key missing ingredient that they weren't familiar with when they began farming out here was _THE WIND_!!! It just does _not_ blow like it does here back east, even the middle/eastern part of KS is nothing like the western third and the other areas of the high plains north and south along the eastern Rockies. It's a unique environment owing to the rain shield and the large expanse of flat unbroken ground devoid of any trees or other disrupting surface features...

My Granddad died in 21. His Dad, and his two brothers farms became the estate. One farm in the 20's was loaned to Purdue as a test farm. Step 'granddad' lost all three farms in a hand of poker in Chicago, so it was said.

My Great Uncle, a Doctor with a farm, lived in town passed the farm in a legal way to my Great Aunt in the 30's. (back then women and ownership was tricky). He had tenant farmers and now the young girl who used to come to visit Great Aunt Joyce owns the farm. At least one of the brothers places still exist.

And the colors of tractors - Uncle Art had a large dairy farm co-op (had 13 kids that lived) and each married with a farm - They all worked and helped each other. As time would take their toll, each sold out to the large corp that took over the region.

Dad and his two older sons were big into electronics not farming.

Mart> > ...

On 08/02/2015 9:07 PM, Martin Eastburn wrote: ...

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KS is one of the places that has laws against corporate farm ownership (other than closely-held family corp's) so that hasn't (at least yet) happened here...at some point I expect there will be court challenges and they'll have a difficult time keeping it in place, unfortunately. While there are quite large operations, they are all family-owned/operated still, and all the ones in the county and that I know in neighboring counties are continuing entities of the original homesteaders. It simply takes a larger operation to manage given current economics than years ago--if I weren't retired from a previous career before came back after Dad passed, it would be a marginal living on our acreage now that was (at least in good years) comfortable for folks. I've scaled back as the years pass as had Dad and run no cattle (which given current markets is great on the selling side but not so great on an operation such as ours which was a "buy and sell" annual one with the primary farming operation and no permanent pasture so that's just as well at the moment.

There are quite a number of dairies in the area now that didn't used to be--they have moved out here from CA, AZ, etc., where they've been forced out by either city expansion or more often the extremely onerous environmental limitations placed on them by state or counties or even municipalities. Of course, the home county here in KS passed an ordinance some 30 yr ago now that prevented Seaboard from bringing in their hog operations; they instead are 40 mi away down in OK panhandle. We do have a large beef packing operation and a number of feeding operations plus one of which (27000 head capacity) a few miles east of us was sold last year and converted into "Heifer Source" a raising operation for milkers--it's Minnesota-owned and I understand most of them end up up in that neck of the woods after they're finished here...

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Just a note (and particularly if you are having trouble munging up the sleeves so have to replace them)...

If I had that type of gear and the only tractor on which I used it was Cat 1, I'd just replace the Cat 0 lift pins with Cat 1 and ditch the adapter sleeves entirely...

Just a thought...

I think it's somewhere between Cat 0 and Cat 1; something Kubota dreamed up . The square tubing is 1-1/4 in. square and it's all 1/8" wall. The jib is

30 in from root to tip. The tee piece that supports the whole thing on the lower arms of the 3-point hitch is 2 in. square tube, also 1/8 in. wall.

Good Idea, but after towing the mower around the place and into and over places that might have been not in the way - bumps and limbs - I don't see any wear on the sleeves. They are dry and if sand flies through it keeps going. So far so good.

Guess My job of Tera-plane the back yard is about to start. After building a 28x70 foot building on three times the area raised (7' in the back of the yard and normal height near the house - the number of sand trucks and cement trucks did a number on the back field. The Rotary will be used instead of a Dozer with laser. A little more work here and there. The front end loader will be in high use as well.

Mart> >

PS I did a few measurements on the 3-point hitch: the lower arms can pass a 1 in. bolt. The upper fixed point uses a 5/8 in. pin. Not sure of whethe r that makes it class 0 or class 1. I can mount a 48 in. mower but to do so I have to position the lower arms inside, rather than outside the mower at tachment points so I have to reverse the mounting pins. No problem lifting it with the hydraulics tho and the PTO has run the mower just fine for a de cade.

That is a non-standard rig as you surmised, per the ISO Standard (730-1,

1994) which contains the definitive definition for consistency, Cat 0 is 5/8" for both lift and link pins while Class 1 is 7/8" lift and 3/4" link pin. The 1" lift point opening doesn't match anything precisely; Cat 2 is 1-1/8" for the lift pin.

The midpoint spacing for the lift arms is 20, 26, and 32", for Cat 0, 1,

2, respectively.

--Update: used the jib crane this past weekend and it worked just fine. As someone pointed out it could probably withstand more than the tractor's wim py hydraulics could deliver. When lifting the boiler out of my boat I was a ble to get it to juuuust shy of the deck, so on a whim I had my pal push up on the boom and that made the difference: muscle power alone let the hydra ulics complete the lift and get the boiler clear of the deck! Photos of the whole operation here:

157646738530236

s someone pointed out it could probably withstand more than the tractor's w impy hydraulics could deliver. When lifting the boiler out of my boat I was able to get it to juuuust shy of the deck, so on a whim I had my pal push up on the boom and that made the difference: muscle power alone let the hyd raulics complete the lift and get the boiler clear of the deck! Photos of t he whole operation here:

72157646738530236

Thanks for the photos of the steam engine, very much enjoyed that. Is that a Stuart?

G'luck PaulS

--Yes it's the Stuart Swan, a double 5-A: 2-1/4 in. bore, 2 in. stroke, double acting, no compounding.

I have a Case 580CK backhoe and I love it. But before I got it I rented a small tracked excavator, only about 4 feet wide. It had the joystick control and a thumb. That little machine was a blast to run and could dig surprisingly well. It could lift over three hundred pounds with the thumb. Eric

I've used one of these several times. If you have rocks, say, smaller than your head, no problem or, at worst, slow going. Much bigger rocks you'll have to detour around or excavate all around and winch out.

Trench for underground 200 amp power supply to my shop has a zig in it, a detour around a rock ca. the size of a 20" CRT monitor.

Simple and effective, but not fast:

The modified shop crane trailer I mentioned can hoist and haul away a boulder weighing at least 1/2 ton, limited by the capacity of the added wheels.

-jsw

I would imagine the cure to hard ground is a smaller bucket. I've busted and removed caliche with a pick and a shovel. At my best I used to only be average strong, so I am sure those hydraulics could handle a man sized ground breaker of some kind.

30+ years ago while supervising an airport grading/drainage project, I ran into granular material ranging from fine white blow sand to a boulder 13 x 7 x 5 feet; after paying to have it hauled to a designated disposal area, middle management suggested that it would have been cheaper to just dig a deep hole and bury it where it was found and my answer was "yeah and leave it as a surprise for someone else!

The soil here isn't hard like caliche, it's glacial till, a poorly sorted mix of sand, gravel and rocks of all sizes. The rocks make shoveling very slow and difficult.

My immediate goal is to excavate into the hillside close behind my house to make flat space for a new storage shed. I probably should rent a small excavator to trench in on both ends to see if I encounter ledge, what we call solid rock.

-jsw

There's a housing development around here where the builder buried the boulders under the road. Later when the town extended water and sewer out there the pipeline crews were NOT happy.