A year or so ago I was considering using Slime, since I kept getting thorns in the tires on my little utility trailer and on the front wheels of the tractors.   Also thought about having the tires filled with foam rubber.  Never really followed through on either idea, just had the tires fixed and put them back on.   Only had one more thorn since then, just a week or two ago on the trailer, and likewise had it fixed and put it back on.  Probably continue doing that unless the flats really start being a problem again.

I spent a good while today doing chores with the Super M.   Cut two trailer-loads of branches from trees along the driveway and hauled them to a burn pile (one of many I'm accumulating in various locations).   And also hauled a load of rocks to a curvy place in the little creek that cuts through my pasture, since it's eroding pretty badly in one spot near the fence.  There was a big rockpile at the other end of my property, next to the neighbor's soybean field, obviously accumulated over many years of picking them from the field and tossing them to the side, and it made a handy quarry for my erosion-control efforts.  We'll see how it works.  Felt good to get those chores done but by mid-afternoon I was ready to come in.

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Dean Vinson
Saint Paris, Ohio

Dean. that SM just seems to improve with age.  You must be feeding it the right stuff.  I think I see all new red on the outbuilding roofs.  Your work is really starting to show on your property.

I can't tell from here if Gene is out working on the new shop, but maybe???

I have pretty well been hiding from the 91 degree heat.  

Charlie

Hi Charlie, Dean has always had a good eye for the great pictures.

Actually, no I am not working on the shop right now. Supposed to be attending to the campground at Portland to prepare for the show next week. I had to play hooky on Monday for a hospital visit yesterday morning and let the doctor poke a large needle into my liver to take a biopsy of a spot I have growing there. Won't know the results for at least a week. Just have to rest a couple days then can go back to Portland tomorrow. Left my motor home there and will drive the car over with the tow dolly to bring it home after the show.

Went back to the woods and took a couple pictures of one of my rock piles. It is about 5 feet high and 12 feet across. Have been been picking them up from the fields and many from cleaning up the woods. Other piles are too grown up to get a good picture.

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Gene

Very sorry about the liver spot, Gene.  Hope all turns out well with that.  I hope your liver invasion was not like the direct liver injection I had one time.  I  had a golf ball size cholesterol stone in my common duct for two years but no one could find it. I sure was a sick puppy. Ate a lot of jam sandwiches because I could not eat much else.  Being cholesterol it was no show to x ray.  Finally with a direct liver injection to get the effervescent or whatever it is called (dye) to the stone a half moon image was seen on x ray.  That proved I did not have the ulcer that some said was there but it could not be found either.  One Dr. even said I had nothing wrong but nerves.  I wished I could have fed that guy that stone with a 12 gauge.  Back to the subject, the liver injection was not a good time at all.

Get recovered quick and get back to the show.

Charlie

Gene, I'll join Charlie in wishing you a peaceful rest and a quick recovery from whatever's up with your liver.

That's a big rock pile in your woods, long time accumulating it (I hope).  The one I used as a quarry last week wasn't that big, and I didn't move 100% of it, only the stuff that was loose and accessible, left the lower dirt-covered stuff for some other time.  I'm not sure I have enough to really shore up the eroding curve in the little creek through my pasture--the part I'm worried about is where it goes under my fence and out to the road, since the big old fenceposts on both sides of the creek have been eroded around to the point where the posts are leaning and no longer really stable.  I'm off work today so might go over to the local soil/water conservation district office and see if they can recommend anything.

I need to run into town anyway, come to think of it, since I got reminded last night about the Slime issue.  Went out to brush hog a little and noticed the right rear tire on the 620 was a little low, and then while filling it up I noticed a thorn sticking out of one of the front tires.   Pulled the thorn out and immediately heard a hiss of air.  The rear tire is just a slow leak but now the front one is unusable, goes flat in just a few minutes, so I took it off the tractor and will drop it off at the Heritage co-op to get fixed.   Maybe stop by Tractor Supply and look at some Slime.  #*&! osage orange thorns anyway.

Charlie, thanks for the kind comments about my place.  I didn't replace the actual roofs on all the barns--the previous owners did that about a dozen years ago--but they only did the main roofing and left the old wood fascia boards around all the edges.  Many of them had rotted and started to fall off by now, so a few months ago I had them all replaced with new lumber covered with red aluminum to match the roofs.   The barns all need some repairs here and there to the wood siding and the big sliding doors, and they all need paint, but I ought to be done worrying about the roofs for a long time.

I have great memories of the summer, 1977 or 78, when I worked for a dairy farmer and in addition to normal barn chores had to paint his big old classic bank barn and two or three smaller outbuildings.  Me and a brush and a long extension ladder, classic barn red for the siding, white for the trim (and there was a lot of trim, lot of old-craftsman pride evident in the construction).  Took some creativity (and risk) to get up to the peak on each end of the main barn, and took the whole summer to finish everything, but finish it I did and the place looked terrific.  Had a lot of different jobs and responsibilities since then but few have involved the same sense of tangible accomplishment.   I think about that sometimes when I look at my barns now, but I figure my high-ladder days are behind me.

Tracy and I hope to make it over to Portland at least briefly on Friday the 28th.  Got some family activities going on also so will need to see how things work out.

Dean

Ralph, your Chevy 2 looks real happy sitting in line by that rat rod pickup.  Nice line  up.

No, did not try slime.  I have not tested this tire in water but the sidewall is pretty seriously age cracked.  I suspect that is where it leaks.  From what I read on the Slime label it is not effective for sidewall leaks.  The sealant has to come in contact with the leak as the tire rotates so that pretty much limits it's use to the tread area. Have you used slime??  I will most likely buy a new tire on the net for twenty some dollars.  Those small tires can be a bear to change buy hand, but I have done it on others. I am tempted by a solid rubber tire all mounted on wheel but that is 80 some dollars. Will I ever get that much use on a now 12 year old machine???  But then, just install the new wheel.  No tire changing.  Decisions, decisions.  I spend the money like it was my own.  Well,actually it is.  Bah Humbug.

Charlie

Hi Guys.

Bringing this conversation back up for an update.  Had been doing some reading on the net and watched a u tube or two on filling tires with foam.  Ordered some cans of silicone foam on the net in case I decided to go that way.  Silicone is a closed cell foam that will not absorb water.  Great Stuff is open cell.  Long story shorter, took the nasty tire off the mower yesterday and ran water on it .  Could not fine the leak so got a pan and dunked the tire.  Still no leak.  Something wrong here because it goes flat fast enough.  Then I found the tire had already lost it's air, so no leak.  Pumped it up again.  Still no leak showing.  Well dang. Out of air again.  Leaking fast enough to go flat between the garage (air hose) and side of the house (water pan).  Pumped it up again  a little extra hard and hustled to the water.  As I expected, air was blowing right out an age crack in the sidewall.  

Now that I know this tire is a dead duck, nothing to loose by trying the foam so that I did.  Nothing hard about that except knowing how much foam to put in.  The brand I have expands 200 to 300% from what is applied.  I took the approach of putting in some, then waiting a couple minutes before squirting in more.  Put in a whole can that way and waited a little.  Nothing expanding out the valve stem so put in some of a second can.  The stuff started expanding out the valve stem (core removed) pretty fluently so I put the valve cap on.  When I pulled the tube from the fill hole I had drilled, foam started gushing from there.  I put my thumb over the hole and pondered what next.  There laid a stick of wood (small branch) about 15 inches long that looked about the correct diameter. Broke the end of the stick off clean (one handed) and stick it in the hole in the tire.  Perfect.  Just enough interference to hold it in.  Nothing like being prepared for a job........................and a little lucky.  What now???  Will that stuff expand enough to blow the tire?  Well, I let out a little more foam then re-plugged the hole with my lucky stick.  From there on I just moved the tire out of the hot sun and waited it out.

The whole deal was a bit of an adventure but the foam seemed to set ok and I have a nice hard tire as it should be.  Is it set to the core? or will it set to the core of the contents?  I do not know.  Not sure if contact with air is needed to trigger setting or if the expansion is the trigger.  Anyhow, I put the wheel back on the mower last night but left it on the jack.  I will give it a few days extra setting time before letting weight on the tire.  Do not want it to develop a flat spot.  Mower rides bad enough now.  

It has been an interesting project and a learning experience.  If it works out, I will have a reclaimed tire for not much over five bucks.  A little less if I hadn't overfilled the thing.  Will keep the forum posted.

Charlie V.

Hi Guys.

Bringing this conversation back up for an update.  Had been doing some reading on the net and watched a u tube or two on filling tires with foam.  Ordered some cans of silicone foam on the net in case I decided to go that way.  Silicone is a closed cell foam that will not absorb water.  Great Stuff is open cell.  Long story shorter, took the nasty tire off the mower yesterday and ran water on it .  Could not fine the leak so got a pan and dunked the tire.  Still no leak.  Something wrong here because it goes flat fast enough.  Then I found the tire had already lost it's air, so no leak.  Pumped it up again.  Still no leak showing.  Well dang. Out of air again.  Leaking fast enough to go flat between the garage (air hose) and side of the house (water pan).  Pumped it up again  a little extra hard and hustled to the water.  As I expected, air was blowing right out an age crack in the sidewall.  

Now that I know this tire is a dead duck, nothing to loose by trying the foam so that I did.  Nothing hard about that except knowing how much foam to put in.  The brand I have expands 200 to 300% from what is applied.  I took the approach of putting in some, then waiting a couple minutes before squirting in more.  Put in a whole can that way and waited a little.  Nothing expanding out the valve stem so put in some of a second can.  The stuff started expanding out the valve stem (core removed) pretty fluently so I put the valve cap on.  When I pulled the tube from the fill hole I had drilled, foam started gushing from there.  I put my thumb over the hole and pondered what next.  There laid a stick of wood (small branch) about 15 inches long that looked about the correct diameter. Broke the end of the stick off clean (one handed) and stick it in the hole in the tire.  Perfect.  Just enough interference to hold it in.  Nothing like being prepared for a job........................and a little lucky.  What now???  Will that stuff expand enough to blow the tire?  Well, I let out a little more foam then re-plugged the hole with my lucky stick.  From there on I just moved the tire out of the hot sun and waited it out.

The whole deal was a bit of an adventure but the foam seemed to set ok and I have a nice hard tire as it should be.  Is it set to the core? or will it set to the core of the contents?  I do not know.  Not sure if contact with air is needed to trigger setting or if the expansion is the trigger.  Anyhow, I put the wheel back on the mower last night but left it on the jack.  I will give it a few days extra setting time before letting weight on the tire.  Do not want it to develop a flat spot.  Mower rides bad enough now.  

It has been an interesting project and a learning experience.  If it works out, I will have a reclaimed tire for not much over five bucks.  A little less if I hadn't overfilled the thing.  Will keep the forum posted.

Charlie V.

Not sure if anyone is out there or not, but just in case, more follow up.

The tire fix worked, sort of.  After letting it cure for a time, I mowed the lawn.  The tire stayed hard and all was well.  Then a few days later, after sitting in HOT sun,  it was soft.  Not flat, but soft.  Checked it out to find quite a bit of empty space inside the tire.  Opened up the valve stem with a small drill bit and refilled it with the remainder of the partially used can of foam that was left over.  That was enough to again expand out the stem and my drilled fill hole in the sidewall.  Let the thing cure again for a day or three before mowing.  Have now mowed once or twice and the tire is still like a rock.  Is this the end of the story or will there be more episodes??  Only time will tell.

Charlie

Sounds like the tire slime is working for you Charlie. I have not tried mine yet as the swather tire seems to be holding it's pressure lately. I've been giving it a good workout getting stuck in the mud the past couple of days. Ridiculous mud conditions for harvest again. I miss the days when you could drive anywhere in the field  and leave a cloud of dust. Now I leave a trail of ruts.
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Wow, guess I am way behind on the list. Been over a month since I posted.

Dry weather has been favorable for local harvest of corn and soybeans. I started some of my soybeans last Friday and Saturday, but still have a lot of green stalks and pods so decided I better wait. Hope to do some more this weekend. Broke the stabilizer bar under the cutter bar of the combine. Broke both rod end bearings on the stabilizer. Nobody local has them, so ordered the parts on ebay. Got one yesterday and should get the other today.

Been hauling corn and soybeans for the Amish neighbors. Will finish the soybeans and ear corn today. Guess I will be starting hauling shelled corn next week. Have to take the last half of the week off for the Portland swap meet from Thursday to Saturday.

Another doctors appointment yesterday in Columbus. Have appointment in 2 weeks to do the procedure on my bile duct issue. Liver is healthy and no cancer indications, so that is good news.

Weather has turned to fall with cooler temperatures and strong winds. About 46 this morning and 30 MPH winds.

Gene

Gene, glad to hear you are doing ok and keeping busy. I'm on the way to being the last guy combining in this part of Sask I think. I left the wheat stand to ripen and finally gave up and swathed it about a week ago. Now I need a few more days for the last field to lay in the swath before it is dry enough. Still 120 acres of flax to swath but there is rain forecast for the next few days and I think I will leave it stand. Maybe I will harvest more potatoes today as I wait for the wheat.

Seems everybody must be working hard and keeping quiet.  I hope by now Ralph has all of his wheat in the bins and the flax too for that matter.  But then again if the rain hasn't let up, well....maybe not.  Between hauling produce for the neighbors and finishing the new shop, no telling where Gene is at.  

We had 2 1/2 inches of rain about a week ago. The ground seemed to take that pretty well.  Most of the ponding went away fairly soon.  Then yesterday, starting in the early morning hours rain moved in and dropped nearly 1 1/2 inches more.  We are still not flooded but it seems to me the soil has about all of the water it wants to hold.

In years of normal rainfall I expect to see cattails growing out back in my water hole / marsh area.  With all the rain this year the darn things have even showed up in my flower bed.

Picture below!

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There you have it.

Charlie

Seems everybody must be working hard and keeping quiet.  I hope by now Ralph has all of his wheat in the bins and the flax too for that matter.  But then again if the rain hasn't let up, well....maybe not.  Between hauling produce for the neighbors and finishing the new shop, no telling where Gene is at.  


In years of normal rainfall I expect to see cattails growing out back in my water hole / marsh area.  With all the rain this year the darn things have even showed up in my flower bed.

Charlie

I've got far too many of the other cat tails around here Charlie. The slow torture and frustration of this harvest drags on. A few drying days gets the crop nearly ready to harvest and then rain or damp weather hits and we sit again. In some ways winter setting in will be a relief as we will know its all over no matter if the crop is in the bin or in the field. Still, Thanksgiving day coming up tomorrow so I will try to be thankful that things are not worse.

Charlie, those cattails seem to crop up where least expected.

Ralph, wish I could send you some of our harvest weather. Been dry and moderate temperatures and combines are running everywhere in the corn and soybeans. Some even have black beans that are being harvested. I finished my soybeans on Oct. 5. yield was decent at 52 bu/ac, considering the water damage. Price was low but the money is mine now. I put new twisted shovels on the chisel plow this evening and started working the bean stubble. The twisted shovels worked real good and never plugged with straw all evening.

Attended the Tri-State Portland swap meet. Found a few things I need for the new shop and and tools and hardware I needed. Weather was nice on Thursday, then turned windy and cold for Friday and Saturday, but at least no rain.  

Planning to put the concrete in the new shop this week. Looking forward to getting that done. Have the plastic and reinforcing wire down so ready to pour.

Will be going to Ohio State hospital tomorrow morning for my bile duct procedure. Plans call for a 2 to 3 hour procedure including recovery. My Daughter Lori works in Columbus so she will take me to the hospital and take off work to bring me back home. All sounds pretty encouraging.

Been hauling shelled corn for the Amish this week. Finished with one farm today and expect to finish with the other one on Friday. Corn is not yielding very good but test weight is high and moisture is low. Seems to be pretty much the same for all our area. So much for that record corn crop report.

Gene

Ralph, I'm sorry to hear of that awful harvesting weather.  Wish I could ship you some of what we've been having around here--aside from a couple of unseasonably cold and rainy days in a row in early October, it's been warm and dry, and seems like every bit of soybeans and darn near all the corn is in, everywhere I go.

Not being a farmer I don't have any harvesting stories of my own, but I've been busy.  Still working on figuring out what to do with some increasingly bad erosion in the little creek that flows through my north pasture.  It's doing the typical meandering thing that streams do, leaving bigger and bigger under-cut "cliffs" three or four feet high that I don't dare get near with the tractor (but which are hard to tell exactly where they are, from the tractor seat).   It's also undercutting my fence that parallels the road, where the creek goes under the fence and into a culvert.   The county soil/water conservation guy came and gave me some advice and I've talked with one contractor about some work, but haven't really hit on the right plan yet.

The other big project has been tearing down what's left of the little shed that once connected the old silo with the bank barn.   The walls are long gone but the roof remains, attached pretty securely on one end to the barn, attached by a few sheet metal screws to the silo unloader chute on one corner, and completely unsupported and hanging down on the fourth corner.   Been that way for years, near as I can tell.  A few months ago I started removing it but decided to leave a little bit of it as an overhang for the barn door below it.  Easy to imagine, hard to figure out exactly how to do.  And of course the project expanded to include rebuilding the door and door frame below the little roof, since the old stuff wasn't solid enough to use as part of the new roof supports.   Here's a "before" photo and some progress photos.

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Still lots to do but I'm hoping the rest goes more quickly, now that all the behind-the-scenes infrastructure is in place.  I'm doing my best to make this repair worthy of the barn and those who came before me.

Dean

October 15th update:

Tonight after work I only had a little bit of daylight left, not enough time to work on that little roof project, but I used the Super M and my little utility trailer to haul the trash can out to the street for tomorrow morning's pickup.  Not much of a workout for the tractor but it was a heck of a nice evening (good weather, as I'd mentioned above), so I unhooked the trailer, grabbed the camera, and posed the Super M for a few photos just as the sun was setting.  

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Dean
Saint Paris, Ohio