ray..
The happy Nada Farmer,
Keep coming back, page Fifty follows......soon.
So Summers off with a BANG! or a BUZZZZZZZ
As I was finishing off a trip walking Oscar I saw the fellah next door notice me and about break his neck shooting his truck across the ravine at the edge of the road in front of my garage, (That ditch is another story altogether). As he jumped out of his truck he was holding something in his outstretched hand and asking, "HEY you want some BEES?" What he held was a cell phone with a picture of a "ball of bees" on a fence post. A farm about a 1/2 mile away had a swarm, nesting outside the rear door of a fellows house. " If you don't wanna come get em, he's gonna gasoline them..." Well why not? A free swarm of bees? Just for coming and getting them, and it was cold rainy weather besides, the best for bee snatching' according to the books I read. So I said sure and hopped in my truck, with my gear and headed out to attempt to collect my first wild swarm...
It was interesting! First, bees don't fly when they are wet, they clump together and wait till they dry out, so raining was good, Second, bees are warm blooded, but they generate heat by flapping their wings and take turns doing it. So they were really busy keeping warm so it should have been really easy to brush them off the post and into the large Tupperware box I stole borrowed from Chris's office...
Small Issue number one, it was raining on me as well, which meant the protective suit I was wearing was sticking to me, rather form fitting, and defeating the purpose of keeping the bees off me. Small Issue number two, I was in sort of a hurry and didn't imagine the problem the bees crawling in to my pant legs and up my legs might present. So eleven stings, and a couple fancy dances later, I had a tupperware tub full of really unhappy bees and a serious need to have a prepared hive for them. So I zoomed home and dumped out a previously croaked hive and threw them in for the night. With a container of sugar water to keep them interested and a warm place to spend the night guaranteed, because I set the hive up in the truck bed so they would be off the ground and protected from the wind....
The next night I went back, to check to make sure I had gotten most of them, and there were just as many as I had gotten the first trip, if not more! But, it wasn't raining this time, it was about 40 degrees, and they were so huddled up that they weren't bothering anybody. Plus I had a better container to collect them in , due to a special trip to the store, for just that purpose. And I had large rubber bands holding my pants shut just in case they were feeling adventurous. This time it went really smoothly, and I added them to the hive with the other bees and seem to have gotten at least one queen, as they are still there. The hive was eventually moved out of the back of the Ford and into the woods, where I expect to keep all my bees in the future and I intend to be able to protect them through the winter as well. So that went pretty well. But wait there's more!
I had gotten up at 5:15, Yes don't faint, that is like really early! As it was trash day, and I have to make sure to get the bags loaded. I was a little early they usually come between 7:30 and 8:00. So I weeded my garden, and fixed a mower that I had catastrostopped on a piece of steel in the yard, and bent the blade driving shaft. Here I have a picture of the truck coming up the road. I had forgotten to turn off the flash, and they were very interested to know," why I was taking their picture?" I explained, that they were the high point of my day , actually the week, and they replied that they were really sorry my life had deteriorated into that level of decay that our visit was the highlight of anything. We usually discuss, our plans for the rest of the weekend, which usually incorporate visits to and from family, and other items of similarity between us. I also usually learn about some recent events or coming road issues, that turn out to be pretty darn nice to know.
After I visited with my trash buddies I went up to the house and changed, well I intended to change, out of my bibs and into my shorts to have breakfast. And the neighbor called, and laughed about getting me out of bed. But he had an emergency breakdown," his round baler had blown a bearing and tried to catch fire and he had 30 acres to roll and, well it was a real "gotta do" issue". So, I put my wet shoes back on, and met him at the garage.
He showed me what he needed, and said he was heading out to get the new bearings, and would I be able to have it ready ASAP. I told him stop back when he had his new bearings. I had it ready by about 11:00 when he returned. I went to the house and Chris was calling around trying to find some dirt for her garden, which I ended up having to go get. As I was passing the neighbor's shop building, one of his hired men came "RUNNING" out waving his hands over his head. As happy as we are to see each other normally this was still a little out of the ordinary. So I stopped, they needed a hand getting a 'weird screw' started which had a couple damaged threads, and they were about to grenade the ^*##&@$*#@ bailer.. It took a couple minutes, but we were successful, and I left them feeling much better about their chances of baling those other acres..... Oh yeah, while I was waiting for Chris to find dirt, (I am buying 27 acres of it, but that is not good enough apparently!) The same neighbor showed up with another guy, who was holding a handful of steel. I went out and found he had a bevel gear in a bearing that drove a round plate through a square shaft, and the square hole was getting rather, well, worn, more resembling a star shape. His major concern was that, as he could not find or buy a replacement now, what would he do when it finally "rounded out"? A total failure, and its lack of availability, would end the usefulness of his mower, or whatever it was from. Well he had been driving around all day trying to find someway to fix it, from dealer to dealer and machine shop to machine shop and nobody would touch it.
SO, glutton for punishment that I am, I said I'd give it a try, when did he want it? "Yesterday of course" but he did smile when he said it. So I said leave it, and I'd get on it in about an hour. Then I left for the dirt run, and fix the bolt, and well, when I returned I found it had hardened to an amazing rockwell from my welding of the square back to a circle. (See before I left on the dirt run, I did weld it, so it could cool slowly, but I guess not slow enough.)
So for the next 6 hours I filed and ground, and filed and ground, and filed and ground, to create a 1.1inch square that exactly matched the square drive shaft. NO SLOP, and today (Sunday) after church I returned to the garage for two more hours of the same. Finally, I was able to call the fellow and tell him we would meet at Riesbeck's (Local Grocery) and he could have his part, and Chris and I did some grocery shopping, came home, and I took a nap.
I really needed that nap! But wait there's more!
I seem to keep getting sent to Columbus, for some kind of retraining? Anyway they have this little guy who is trying to teach me to speak his language. It seems to have something to do with Buzz BuZZ BUZZ. But I am mystified as to the meaning. However it seems I will keep getting sent there until I get it right. I really think the best way to do it, would be, get the little fellow out to the farm and let him run until he can't go anymore. And then we can discuss whatever he collapses near. Maybe it will be something I understand...
Russell had found a truck for Ryan, nice shape little 4 WD chevy S10, only driven on Sundays to church (and Baja Races the other 6 days a week). Actually a couple 80 plus year olds had a camper that it carried, and when it quit running, one dark and stormy night, they decided to remove the entire interior dash area and wiring and the steering column, and half the top of the engine, all of which they very carefully spread all over the interior of the truck, and then they parked it under a sap dripping, pine cone dropping, tree of some sort. So of course it ended up here, on the farm of lost toys...... 
Now we all know I like puzzles, so this was a no brainer, all the parts came off it, and they would all go back, right? And I have every tool known to man at this point, and can find most of them and use quite a few. And I wanted to wait for Ryan to come and help, so he could learn about the truck and know how to do the simple things, like Oil and filter change, and tranny fluid and filter change, and air filter and fill the tires, check the battery, change the brakes, little things everyone does at home. And of course I thought it would be good to clean it up and have a nice vehicle to learn on. So we spent a day and a half, with me under the truck cussing, and him handing tools and learning all sorts of useless information along the way. YOU know, filler info. Like why the morons who become engineers should spend a year building and servicing the items they are going to design. ((( to remove the transmission, jack the body off the frame until a 2x4 fits between the frame and the body, so you can remove the two bolts at the top of the transmission! What jack ass came up with that as a reasonable requirement????))) Move the bolts, punch a couple holes in the floor, don't be a moron! Why do they let people like that design things? The owners idiot nephew, Edsel came up with that plan... Oh wait, that's Ford's idiot nephew, they all have them..
Anyway the second day we had a small breakthrough, it started, and after choking down the half gallon of Carburetor Cleaner we used to remove the 1/4 inch coating of grease and grime in the throttle body injection area, it actually began to sound pretty good, and quit smoking! After that, we made pretty good headway on getting things back together, and in fact, had it drivable the next day, before he had to leave for other commitments.. It still has a couple quirks, but we used it to roam around the yard a little, and even used it to tow the Ford tractor I washed to death, but that's another paragraph altogether..
This picture is after I spent a couple days re-installing the steering column, and re-connecting the speedometer and gauges assembly, (which I later had to remove again, to re-install the vacuum lines for the heater and air conditioning controls, and bolted the seat, back in place.
I have the time and few things to add, as this page is taking forever to get published, The little truck drives great! Until the fuel injectors shut off, has happened twice. And according to the info I have the Fuel injectors are directly controlled by the computer. There is no intermediate part, the injector activating wires go directly to the computer. And when the injectors stop, there is no power in the wires from the computer. This happened one evening in the farthest, south east corner, of the hay field, while Ryan was taking Chris for a ride in his "new truck". The little monster just quit running, this was the second time it got hot and just quit. Again the fuel injectors are not working. However I made a small tactical error when I went the next day to recover it, we took the Ford 4x4 to pull it to the garage, and I told Ryan, "just let it coast down into the corner of the field" and I'd pull him out on the track they had been driving. So as not to screw up the hay field which the neighbors were about to come and cut. I wanted to stay off the grass, so to speak.
BIG MISTAKE! When I came back with the truck and a chain, I found myself slipping under the truck, I could hardly stand up, because the whole area was a mud slip, really slick, and therefore, not at all conducive to the traction about to be required to get the truck out of the corner, and as we messed around it was slipping further into the woods. SO after Baja-ing the big truck out of the mud pit, I had to go get about all the chain I owned, that was bigger than dog chain, and the big Case tractor. Now, I drove very confidently back to get the little truck. Remember the slippery mud, remember the little truck was down in a hole at the edge of the woods? And consider that the Case tractor has basically huge bald tires.... If it weren't for independent rear brakes and a great deal of luck, the little truck would have had a HUGE Case tractor shaped hood ornament! I missed ramming it by less than an inch! In fact, I was more than relieved when the tractor managed to pull itself to the top of the hill! I stretched out the chains, and with about 80 feet of chain between me and the truck, with Ryan driving the truck, I attempted to pull it out of the hole. The tractor moved very slowly forward, it was in the lowest gear I could find... it has eight gears and I can usually find about three.. anyway, it pulled away so smoothly, I stopped, and was climbing off to rehook the chain, when I saw Ryan waving me forward! It was working slicker than snot on a doorknob! Really! I thought it had come unhooked, but the truck just rolled right up the hill and into the field of hay... Which I decided, was going to have to recover from a good tromping, cause I was going to head straight to the garage. After I pulled him to the driveway, I reconsidered. We changed to one section of chain and the Ford pickup. Ryan drove the lead truck and I drove the towed S10. I figured the power assist brakes on the little truck, not running, could be quite a challenge for an inexperienced driver, and as we were pulling down a pretty good sized hill, toward the road, with a chain, well the deck was stacked for disaster to start with, so if there was going to be a mistake made, it was going to be more likely mine, and I wouldn't be scarred for life by my ranting, if it did occur.. the disaster I mean, the ranting was inevitable. After we got the trucks to the garage, it was time to take Ryan to Akron for a band practice. And, as he hasn't been back since, well that project is on hold..
So I went on Craig's list and started checking for a couple items I would really like to have , I actually need them, but I'm told "YOU need air, water, and a little food, and to keep your wife happy", "anything else is a want.... and therefore, optional !" Of course she's right, she's always right, so I look, but I don't expect much to happen from it. I'm looking for a small tractor about 30 hp ,diesel would be nice, with a backhoe and a loader and a belly mower, all removable. Also a zero turn mower with a 60 + inch cut. That's all, two pieces of equipment that would make everything here possible, and would clean up the yard full of machines, that are used to approximate the processes I need to accomplish. The unfortunate thing is, that they would actually cost around $20,000.00 to buy new and over $10,000.00 to buy used and they aren't that available. Probably due to guys who "actually need them," buying them, and getting things done and being happy, about it. BUTTT THAT's just an unfounded supposition, on my part. Anyway, I have been in the Fire Service, the Army and worked at Goodyear Tire and Rubber in the days of "making money, no matter what !", so I am fully versed in making do and finding ways to work around problems and as long as my back holds out, I can still get things done the" back" wards way that the world requires of those with limited incomes.. So when a Backhoe attachment that I thought would work on the tractor I have, was only about ten miles down the road I had to go look. Oddly enough, it would work on my tractor, with a few adjustments. It was fairly kludged together and had been repaired and "fixed" a couple times before, and could use a little tightening up, but it was all there, and all worked, "after a fashion" and was at a price I felt was achievable. As long as I'm willing to sell some of the machines I currently have and intended to trade or sell off anyway.
So the little Ford tractor I was so happy to get was to go on the auction block, and I felt it was pretty well set to run and perform, and worked just great for me, and I even had some new parts for it. So after we had pressure washed Ryan's truck so effectively, I decided to run the little tractor down to the "degrease rack" and give it a good bath, well it wasn't such a good idea, in a way, I expected it to take a while to dry out, but then to start as it always had, first touch of the key and run just fine. Well that wasn't the ultimate result, it turned out.
The little Fords, 2-8-9-N, had various ways of providing the spark for
the cylinders. Of course, the one I have has the distributor and the coil on the front of the engine block, behind/under the water pump and nestled behind the freaking radiator. Which had, at one point, contacted the fan blade and it turns out been broken from its frame for the entire time I've owned it. So while I was trying to get the engine to start again, I removed the radiator repaired it, reconnected the overflow pipe, and Russ straightened the bent frame piece that had allowed it to get in contact with the fan blade, I also replaced the ingenius12 Volt Coil installation with an actual 12 volt coil and cleaned and set the points, cleaned the cap and rotor, and rewired some of the ignition system. As this required removing the hood, tomorrow I will remove the fuel tank, and fix the hood and paint it, and repair the small cracks in the side shields and the rusted areas, so it will be even better looking than its Craig list pictures, and I will later re list it for more money, as so much more of it is going to be in perfect condition.. instead of just very dependable and trustworthy.. it's also gonna be pretty. Oh yeah I'm adding paint, my obvious strong suit.
SOOO back to the Backhoe attachment. I'm hoping to find enough pictures to correct a couple issues, caused by repairs done with bailing 
wire and old bed rails, (not that I'm in anyway above working that way myself ! ) I would just like to see what isn't quite right and what the original design was, though I suspect it wasn't that great, or there wouldn't be such repairs having to be made! Turns out the original units had their own pump, which ran off the PTO, This is why the frame of the unit included a couple weird fittings and an appearance that it had a tank designed into it, The PTO pump had been removed and the unit was to be run off the hydraulics of the tractor. I have been trying to join a couple old tractor groups on the internet that have "expert" members in the makes and models of the old tractors but apparently the "moderators " have enough friends at this point, or are on vacation for the last couple weeks. All I really need is confirmation that my tractor is a model 800 Case and then I can get a book for it. Which should confirm the existence of the pump on the rear of the main transmission housing and remove it to see if it can be improved or if it is going to turn out to be a lost cause, however I did stumble across a picture of a pump I have in the garage, in my " Hoarder's Stash" that might turn out to be a hydraulic pump, I had actually forgotten about it until I saw the picture which would be really amazing that I could use it as a PTO unit and power the Backhoe with any engine I can find...
After some extensive research, I joined a Case tractor specific Forum online and posted pictures of the big tractor I found that it is a......
Wait for it.... drum rollllllllllllllllll.
....Actually you have 8130693 for a serial number which would make it a fairly rare 1958 CASE 700, more specifically a 701, 700 being the series, 701 being a diesel row crop, 711 would be the gas row crop. 700's were only made 2 years, and are fairly rare because they were trying to push the CASE-O-MATIC converter drives which were only available in the 800 tractors at the time. Being it is a "low tin" tractor and there is no C-O-M it is most likely the original engine so the serial number would be correct. Halfway through the 730/830 they raised the hood and grill up when they put in a bigger fuel tank which made them "high tin" tractors. Below is a picture of a low tin and high tin. the last phase of these tractors was the C/K series with higher seats and large flat top fenders. Your 700 should have an A267D engine and parts for them are easy to find. Clutch is the same up into the 970's, many other parts are plentiful as well.
Thanks a ton Jim! Of course he assured me the "fairly rare" statement wasn't going to turn into any kind of big money deal, and that the tractor was worth about what I paid for it, in its current condition. And that it wasn't going to power the backhoe from its "inboard hydraulics". OF COURSE, I need something else to make it work. You know, there is a point that I think the old computer trick of sell you a machine, then a monitor, then a printer, then a program, then a cable, then a, on and on, and on, ad infinitum, might have been developed in another venue altogether! Probably everything I ever got involved in, the initial purchase is the hook and all the rest is the anchor that is going to drown you in little extras, pricey little extras, that are going to fill your house and empty your pockets. Capitalism at its finest.
Remarkably! It turns out, Jim is in possession of an appropriate pump that is functional and available at a reasonable price! So I am hopeful that my backhoe system may still be salvageable! See all the !!!!! I'm using? That means I am pretty happy! And the pump I had was not suitable for this application, and I still haven't found it, though I think I know where to start looking now.... We'll see how it all turns out on page 50. Cause I gotta get to work, if I'm going to get anything done around here this Summer....
