# Beating the Mosquitoes



## robin416

This is what I was doing this morning. Right after I took that pic I redid the whole thing. I didn't like the way the 4X4 was sitting on the jack.










What this is about, this shed where the birds live was built with undersized lumber so the ten foot spans are sagging. The whole thing needs to be rebuilt but unless I had a team of people here to redo it, it can't be done in a single day.

Where the paver is sitting is where the new post is now in place. One more to go.

And just as I was collecting all of my tools mosquitoes were after me. Tomorrow is a cold front so they should be less of a problem.


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## Poultry Judge

I have some lean-tos that were built that way and I had to add posts. Please take care of yourself while working. As you know, any farm project is generally more time consuming than it looks.


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## Poultry Judge

My next projects today are to fix an electric box, the horses knocked off the wall and to go retrieve the neighbor's manure spreader which got stuck along a woods line. I wanted to go to town to pick up some groceries and to the library.


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## robin416

I've thought about sistering the long 2X4's but that just isn't a job to take on by myself. The thing needs a roof too but that has to wait until I can shore the building up so I don't fall through. 

Never ends, does it? How did they knock it off the wall? Was it mounted on the surface? And to qualify my question, it horse did it. That's really all we need to know.


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## Poultry Judge

It's just a box with light switches for the lower right bay of the barn and it's two feet outside of the stall. They scratch themselves along that wall, it's rough sawn wood and probably reached over with one of their heads and knocked it off.


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## robin416

LOL 

But I do have to ask, who thought putting a surface mounted switch where a horse can get at it was a good idea?


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## Poultry Judge

So you're assuming automatically that it was me who put the switch box there a dozen years ago. And...it was!


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## Poultry Judge

And since I was in a big hurry to go get some tractors stuck in the woods, I just repaired it and put it back.


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## robin416

Actually, no I didn't. I thought it was existing when you bought the place. You put it right back where it was? Are you a glutton for punishment or what?

So, is the tractor still stuck in the woods?


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## Poultry Judge

Maybe the electrical box will last another dozen years. Currently, the manure spreader is almost out of the mud. I dragged my Ford out with the backhoe. So currently, there are zero tractors stuck. I need my crawler which still needs repaired.


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## robin416

If one of them discovered what it can do don't bet on it lasting. One thing horses are really good at is learning things we don't want them to learn.

How the heck did he get it that stuck? Have you all had a lot of rain or was he trying to spread fertilizer in a swamp?


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## Poultry Judge

robin416 said:


> If one of them discovered what it can do don't bet on it lasting. One thing horses are really good at is learning things we don't want them to learn.
> 
> How the heck did he get it that stuck? Have you all had a lot of rain or was he trying to spread fertilizer in a swamp?


No, the frame broke on the left side, so I am stuck dragging it or picking it up with a bigger piece of machinery. This is about the driest time of the year, but the edge of the woods is still soft.


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## robin416

Not a good time is being had by all in that case.


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## Poultry Judge

I will wait a few days and see if it dries out any more.


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## robin416

Wait a few more days and it'll be frozen in. It's 47 here this morning so I can only imagine what your temps are.


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## Poultry Judge

It was 30 here this morning. The low was supposed to be 34. Time to bring in a few plants. I covered them last night.


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## robin416

Ouch. At least you more than likely saved the tender plants by covering them.


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## Poultry Judge

Only open pasture areas had frost. Most of my plants are around the horse arena and have some decent tree cover.


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## robin416

I've had some that are not supposed to survive winter here just because they are closer to the house. 

Of course we haven't had a winter here in about six years.


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## Poultry Judge

Ohio has had very mild winters also. What I don't like is the severity of the storms when they do come. The farm takes a beating from the wind sometimes.


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## robin416

Having lived in MI not far from Lake Erie we would have the high winds in the Fall. High enough to knock boats out their cradles. Have they gotten that much worse since I lived there many many years ago?


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## Poultry Judge

I don't know. My area of Trumbull County gets occasional tornadoes and those seem to have increased in recent years. They take pretty large trees, especially big pines and twist them apart before knocking them down.


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## robin416

Tornado Alley has been moving steadily East for years now. It's one of the reasons I got out of TN. 

Now we have a Dixie Alley. Guess what area that covers.

OK, this stinks. I have to take the post out that I put in yesterday. It has settled far too much overnight. I should have put the paving stone in the hole to help minimize that happening.


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## Slippy

Ms Robin,

You are an awesome woman!


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## robin416

Stubborn is more like it. I know enough to get myself in trouble if I'm not careful. 

I can't afford to be hiring people for stuff like this so I attempt to take care of it myself. And sometimes I have oops like the post that I have to redo. At least the hole digging won't be as bad as yesterday.


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## Poultry Judge

Just go easy and don't do stupid stuff like me!


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## robin416

It's done. My body says enough already. 

I had two blowouts. One I had my hand on the 4X4 so I could direct it away from me, the second I wasn't near it.

At one point I went into the garage to drop my coat off, walking back it looked like the 4X4 was out of plumb. Went back and retrieved my level, should have had it in the first place. Checked and sure enough my eyes were not deceiving me. Got it all nice and plumb, stepped back to get my shovel to keep digging and poof! 

I was eyeballing if the jack contraption was under the 2X4 I was wanting to lift, that seemed to not be the best thought pattern so I made a plumb bob out of paracord and a cat's paw. And put a straight brace on the top of the 4X4 to keep it from kicking back. 

That got it. I got the roof high enough, the hole deep enough and set the new support post. If it settles too much this time, tough.

I just had a thought for the third post. I could put L braces at the top of the 4X4 and screw it to the roof 2X4. Kick back shouldn't end up being that much of concern with the 4X4 hanging from the roof.


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## Poultry Judge

Yes, absolutely, I always screw brackets, braces, or strap iron at the top. You know how much that roof is going to move around in a windstorm!


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## Poultry Judge

At least you didn't injure yourself. I would average one injury per about every three posts!


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## Poultry Judge

Poultry Judge said:


> My next projects today are to fix an electric box, the horses knocked off the wall and to go retrieve the neighbor's manure spreader which got stuck along a woods line. I wanted to go to town to pick up some groceries and to the library.


A very very broken manure spreader...


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## robin416

Is that it hanging off the front of the tractor? That looks more like scrap metal.


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## Poultry Judge

Yes. It does look like scrap metal doesn't it?


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## Poultry Judge

My friend and I moved an Amish sawmill, we usually take payment in lumber. This time I got a load of Poplar for Fossil Ledges.


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## robin416

I wouldn't mind taking that truck down the road a piece.


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## Poultry Judge

That is my 53 Ford 1 ton. It used to be a dually, I painted it last year and put the rough sawn Cherry bed on it. It has a very stiff ride and no power steering or air conditioning. It's just a farm truck but people seem to like it.


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## robin416

Trust me, it wouldn't have been the first time I drove something like that. And I would be proud to be seen tooling around in it. 

There was this one couple I knew when I was 18. The hubs had a 40 something Dodge car. I was drooling over it, he said if you can start it you can take it for a ride. He didn't know I knew my way around vehicles, I started it, backed it out of the garage and off I went.

A couple months later the wife decided she was going to take it for a drive. Got it started, tried to back it out and hit the center support for the garage. Oops.


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## robin416

My turn to rant. There is not a square, plumb or level surface in this shed I'm working in. I know my stuff is plumb and level and as square as I can make it. Now I'm beginning to think I should have put everything up cattywonkers just so I can hang the flippin' door in the Guinea pen. 

I'm pretty much over it now. Although I think I'm going to change the hinge side of the door, maybe. I have to think on that for a bit. 

On that note, the Guineas are not very happy. Yesterday right away they were upset about the changes I was making so I left them in. They have 100 extra square feet of inside pen, they should be overjoyed. Ah no. I took the door down so they had access to the new area that isn't really new, it's just wired in. They were having none of it. 

I took the wire wall down this morning, freedom! At least that's what they thought with that wire gone. They still won't come out. I even left the door open, it was even not hung and they refuse to leave their inside digs.


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## Poultry Judge

Yup, that's Guineas.


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## Poultry Judge

They won't go past the mystery force field, they say it's a trap and you are disturbing the Guinea world peace and balance!


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## robin416

Yeah, now I'm worried about letting them out because I may not get them back in.

The door is coming off today. That bugger will go back up and it will work as I need it too. Or something.


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## Poultry Judge

The Guineas told me they blame it on 2020!


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## robin416

At least they're not blaming me. That could be a problem.

I got the door hung and it works. I'm not the best at installing hinges but for some reason they worked just fine, no binding. Shocked! I'm really shocked. 

BTW, what's the status on the dozer and the scrap metal?


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## Poultry Judge

Well that's good!


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## Poultry Judge

Speak of the dozer...


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## Poultry Judge

And also...


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## Poultry Judge

It was hydrolockled, I have the head off, waiting on injectors.


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## Poultry Judge

And then I have to do a clutch on this tractor...


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## Poultry Judge

The farm fun never stops, the manure spreader is sitting on top of one of the hay wagons until Spring. Too much to fix and heading into colder weather.


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## robin416

Pistons and pushrods? A couple of rockers? So, what is the DX?

And the scrap metal fertilizer spreader?


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## robin416

I see I was quizzing you at the same time you were posting.


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## Poultry Judge

No pistons, pushrods or rockers, just two diesel injectors and a bunch of gaskets. Still, 300 dollars in parts.


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## robin416

Diesel engines are quite the foreign entity compared to gas engines. Although I shouldn't have asked about pistons, more like valves. I'm rusty when it comes to the internal combustion engine. 

Is it a good thing stuff is needing fixed at the end of the season? Can you get away with not having them at the flick of a switch right now?


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## Poultry Judge

I need the dozer and will get that fixed as soon as I get the parts. The Ford tractor can be a winter project in the barn because I have to split the tractor and take the loader off to do the clutch.


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## robin416

So, what caused it to lock up? Especially since you just got it up and running again. 

Split the tractor? I don't think I've ever heard that before.


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## Poultry Judge

Injector failure most likely, it was getting seriously over fueled. Maybe head gasket, butafter I got the head off I couldn't find any failure there. Plus there was a ton of antifreeze in the exhaust.
On the Ford tractor, the whole machine is split at the clutch, then you replace the clutch and put the two halves of the tractor back together again. I have a ten thousand pound vehicle lift so that will take care of the front half and I will use hydraulic jacks for the back half. The loader has to come off and I will use the backhoe for that.


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## robin416

Is the head cracked or warped? I'm trying to dredge up way old knowledge here so I could be way off base. I'm struggling to understand how an bad injector plays into finding antifreeze in the exhaust.

That is about the wildest thing I think I've ever heard. Now I need to go digging on the net so I can see what that looks like. Or are you yanking my chain?


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## Poultry Judge

Robin, I would not yank your chain about a broken dozer. I hate having to repair this stuff! There are lots of things I would rather do than work on this in the cold. The antifreeze is a mystery at the moment. The head is still flat and the head bolts were properly torqued. The head was milled and rebuilt last year. The other mystery at the moment is the blower, (supercharger), is full of engine oil. The current injectors are two sizes too large, which is a common way to get more horsepower. That is probably the source of all my problems which is my fault and a three hundred dollar mistake. When I was an undergraduate I worked as a diesel mechanic on large mobile cranes. I used to like it and it paid fairly well. Now I hate it and all of my farm's equipment is fairly old. The dozer is a 1959, the backhoe 1968, and three Ford tractors, 1972, 1939 and 1942. The portable sawmill is from the 1930s and the feed mixer is from Sears and probably 1940s. I had a 1917 Fordson tractor which I sold two years ago because it is hand crank start. I sold my 1951 Harley because it was kick start only. I just feel old.


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## robin416

Not about the doser, about the tractor splitting.

Diesels are a mystery to me. Other than the comment about the head being warped the rest is way past me. If engine oil in the supercharger has you mystified you can imagine how far out of my old knowledge base that is. 

I'm surprised no one is haunting you to pay you big bucks for that old equipment. Then you could go buy something a little more updated.


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## Poultry Judge

I live in a very economically depressed area. Tractor prices have been way down for a couple of years, like by a third to half. Since the Pandemic, things have been worse. I could replace all my equipment with one good skid steer. The problem is all my equipment together is not worth what a good skid steer would cost.


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## robin416

Branch out away from your area. It's amazing how far people will go to buy an antique tractor.


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## danathome

Poultry Judge said:


> It was 30 here this morning. The low was supposed to be 34. Time to bring in a few plants. I covered them last night.


I'm already missing the mosquitos. Another chill, cool, and cloudy day. I'm trying to build a new fire pit, but with everything covered in mud (clay mud), I'm waiting for the sun to shine and a little less mud.


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## robin416

Not me. I need them gone, buzzing my head when I'm trying to work is getting old.


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## robin416

So, this was pretty pitiful yesterday. You guys will have fun with this one. I was reconfiguring the door on the new Guinea pen so it would work.

I could take it totally apart to cut it down on the chop saw or I could break out the circular saw and just cut the two ends shorter. That should have been easy. Zip zip and the ends were shorter along a nice straight line. Problem is, I don't remember the last time I used the saw. 

I hit that first cut and the saw doesn't want to move forward. I'm like what the heck? Why isn't this thing moving? I finally got through it and can see burn spots on the wood. Oh, I wasn't letting the saw travel and it was binding up. The second cut went smoothly once I remembered how to use it and let the saw do the work. But both cuts were right on the line I had drawn, so there was that bit of good news.


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## Poultry Judge

Good point. I am driving to Akron tomorrow to a diesel shop, they are building a new set of injectors and should be ready by the afternoon.


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## Poultry Judge

robin416 said:


> So, this was pretty pitiful yesterday. You guys will have fun with this one. I was reconfiguring the door on the new Guinea pen so it would work.
> 
> I could take it totally apart to cut it down on the chop saw or I could break out the circular saw and just cut the two ends shorter. That should have been easy. Zip zip and the ends were shorter along a nice straight line. Problem is, I don't remember the last time I used the saw.
> 
> I hit that first cut and the saw doesn't want to move forward. I'm like what the heck? Why isn't this thing moving? I finally got through it and can see burn spots on the wood. Oh, I wasn't letting the saw travel and it was binding up. The second cut went smoothly once I remembered how to use it and let the saw do the work. But both cuts were right on the line I had drawn, so there was that bit of good news.


At least you cut a straight line! Some of my carpentry is questionable around here!


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