Sunday, June 11, 2006

Sorry, no photos

It has been an interesting weekend. Between TC and myself, we've managed to break three balers in two days, one of them (mine) multiple times. Two Gehl 1400s and a JD 435. We finally called it quits after mine (which was the last one working) lost a bearing. It almost caught on fire, but I smelled the smoke before that happened.

The 435 is another story. Lost a bearing in it. Had the roll that TC had just ejected catch on fire. If Ken hadn't had a fire extinguisher in his truck we'd have been in a pit o' shit. As it was the field was so dry they had to call the Fire Department. They couldn't get the bale to quit burning even after soaking it, so they ended up tearing it apart and wetting down what was left.

The pickup on the square baler is tore all to hell. Apparently it has leprosy up inside of it somewhere and it pretty much fell apart. Ended up rolling everything and ended up with 49 and a half 4x4's. I rolled several for TC before the bearing when out and rolled some for Tony before that, so all told I think the little baler rolled nearly 60 rolls in the past two weeks. Now that I've got a handle on how it bales I think I can live with it now. Yesterday morning though, I was just about ready to haul it back to Potts Auction and let it be someone else's problem.

Which brings me to something funny. Well, I think its funny anyway.

Poor Bigger Brother is one of those rare people who can literally do anything mechanical, whether its welding, fabricating, operating heavy equipment, machinist work, just about anything you can name. Myself on the other hand, am probably the worst mechanic and equipment operator on the face of the earth.

But.

There is one thing I can do that he can't and it drives him absolutely crazy (although he would never admit it) He can't run a round baler. It frustrates hell out of him because I can take this old worn out piece of junk and make a fairly decent looking roll and he can't. I almost feel sorry for him. The secret is that TC (who has the same baler) rode in the cab with me and taught me how to roll hay. Bigger Brother has had no such training. Things like that usually come naturally to him, but in this case it didn't. It think it really galls him because I can do something he can't, because it is almost always the other way around.