what a great tractor

We FINALLY got our hay baled. I got 12 large round bales out of 4 acres. Great!! I moved all hay bales into the barn on Friday night. IZZY never skipped a beat. We're also in the middle of building a deck. I had to get some bushes dug up which are in the way I posted an add for free bushes on craigslist...got two emails. Talked to the lady on Friday night and she said she would come and dig them up and take them...she never showed. So Izzy and I decided to pull them out. It was so easy. Hooked a chain around each bush and drove forward. Izzy pulled them out like they weren't even there. I love this tractor.

Awsome Power

Well not much new to report. I spent the evening two days ago. Driving IZZY and moving hay. I loaded and unloaded hay onto the back of my truck for the first time. We were only able to get one round bale on the truck due to the tool box. I put one on the truck, and carried two with my tractor. Took about 20 minutes to drive over there, get the hay and get back. I can do it all without the help of a neighbor. I just needed Andreia to drive the truck. I feel like I am finally in control of my own pastures now. What power this tractor gives me. But it still doesn't compare to the power and freedom that God provides through Jesus Christ. Turn to him for the ultimate power. The power to live eternally.

IZZY - That's my name, don't wear it out.

Well the new name is IZZY. Originally it was introduced by Alan Evans, one of my friends on FaceBook following a day when I complained about the tractor not starting. The question was "IZZY (is he) gonna start today?". Well since that day "HE" has never failed to start. In fact yesterday was a big day for IZZY. We went on a "field" trip around the corner about 1 mile and picked up two (yes 2 at a time) big hay bales which I had purchased from a friend at church. IZZY did great. Today Earl from Mitchell-Bourland Tractors in Terrell is coming out to look at the cable for the foot accelerator. It hasn't worked since I got the tractor. He's going to order the part for me. Have a great day everyone.

Miles and Miles

Well I decided to go into town this morning and buy some things to work on my tractor. It's 20 miles round-trip into Terrell. I drove all the way in, made several stops and came back to get started. Well the pump on the oil can I bought didn't work. The pins I bought for the tractor were too long. So I made the 20 mile trek again. No one sell oil cans anymore!!! My ford f150 turned over 100K miles during the second trip. Hope it doesn't start breaking down on me now.

Not that Bad

Well my uncle came over and we were able to fix the bracket that got bent on my last outing. So tonight...it's more mowing. This weekend I may even start working on the trash heap out beside the hay field that's been growing for 3 years. YAY!!

oops!!

So after a few sessions of moving hay, I decided to remove the bush hog from the tractor and practice using the rear hay fork ( It will come in handy when I'm moving hay from the field to the barn. I will be able to carry two 900 lb. round bales at once) . I had no trouble moving hay....it's really not that hard. So the next thing was to practice with the front-end bucket.

I had some high spots in one of my pastures, so I decided to use the bucket to level off the high spots by moving the dirt to a few holes that are in one corner of the pasture. It took me a couple of tries to figure out exactly how much accelleration to use to dig the dirt. After I figured that out, I used the front end of the bucket to smooth out the piles of dirt I had made at the other end of the pasture.

While I was moving dirt my uncle drove up. He lives one street over from the ranch and had come over to see how I was doing with the tractor. He owns a really big Kubota tractor and is an expert at taking care of heavy equipment. I've never seen anything this man couldn't do.

I asked him to help me put the bush-hog back on the tractor since I had never done that before. It took us both about 15 minutes to get it hooked up correctly, or so I thought.

We finished hooking it up, I started out into the field and began my first mow with the "big red tractor". WOW. I finished mowing those 4 acres in about 1.5 hours. In fact, the picture on this blogsite is the actual first mow. Andreia came down and took the pictures because I told her my facebook friends wanted to see it.

Well at about 9:00pm I finished mowing. By then I was mowing in the dark with the lights on. When I finished I slowly pulled up to the gate and stopped the tractor. I then reached down to the levers to lift up the bush-hog. All at once I heard a loud POP!!! I turned around and realized that the toplink had pulled loose from the bush-hog when I was trying to lift it. Apparently I had forgotten to put the pin on the connection. When the Pop occurred, the bracket that held the shaft for the toplink was bent. Now I can't get the shaft back thru the holes to hook the bush-hog back up!!! So tonight, I'm going down to the ranch and remove the bracket and take it to my uncle's house to see if we can straighten it back up.

I only learn from my mistakes...!!

I'm Learning

So the next morning I called the place where we purchased the tractor. BTW...I have to plug Mitchell-Bourland Tractors of Terrell, TX. They are fantastic to work with.... So anyway, I told them the issue I was having with the tractor not starting. I also told them the issue I had with the bush-hog not raising up all the way and actually raising up crooked. They said they would send someone out that evening to look at it. Well I met the tractor guy at the ranch that evening. I showed him the problem I was having. He was stumpped for a minute. Then he bent down and started looking around the seat of the tractor. He found a loose connection under the seat. Apparently there's an emergency cutoff switch and the connection was loose. He plugged the wire back in and VROOOOOOOOOOOm the tractor started up on the first try. Then I asked him about raising the bush-hog. He showed me on the levers that there is a "stop" built into the lever action. Once the lever reaches that "stop", you have to push the lever to the right and continue to move the lever back. We did that and the bush-hog raised up perfectly....well almost it was still unlevel. But I was so excited that it raised up, I forgot to ask him about the leveling. Oh well another day perhaps. I spent the rest of the evening learning to remove the bucket from the front-end loader and replace it with the hay fork. I actually moved my first two round bales of hay by myself. Just me and my tractor. I was so excited. No more relying on neighbors. Hallelujah!!