Dove Hunting

    In the last exciting adventure of the 50’s Farmer, we returned to the farm from the baseball game.  Still dry, not quite as hot, too hot to plant wheat.

    The seed wheat is on the truck and in the barn ready to go.  Still some work to do on the drills.
      Freeing up the feeding mechanism was covered in a former post.  Still to do, make pins that fasten the press wheels to the “axles”, replace the catwalk, and calibrate the seeders.

 

 

      Above is the remnant of the catwalk from 20 years ago, and below the “new” replacement.  It will hold 200 pounds—me and a bushel of wheat.

 

    To calibrate the seeders, jack up the press wheels, put some seed in the drill, place some catch-cups under the seeding tubes, roll the press wheels 26 and ¾ turns (1/10 of an acre), weigh the result from each cup (about 3.2 ounces per cup is the goal), adjust and start again.  It took a little time, but it’s done.

 

 

                               Note the catch cups on the ground beneath the seeding tubes.

 

 

                               See the handle to turn the press wheels on the left press wheel?

                    A quick trip to Ft. Collins for Jimmy and Beep’s 40^th wedding anniversary.

  

                  Groom and daughter in foreground, daughter-in-law and bride in background.

 

                                   Grandson Luke bestows a little tidbit of charity on Lola.

    Back to the farm.

    

    And then the dove-hunters arrived.  Actually, they arrived before we got home Sunday evening.  Monday morning found them greeting the rising sun among the cedars.

 

 

    The hunt was moderately successful and there were a few birds to clean.  We even had time to roll out the Chuckle Truck and do a photo shoot.  The real model didn’t show up, so you get what you got.

 

           We were such good hosts we provided a mouse or two for the guest dogs to chase.

 

                   We did a mock drill-filling exercise.  The real thing coming soon, we hope.

 

                   We worked in a trip to our neighbors for a look at a real live buffalo ranch.

                                      

     The hunters left Tuesday morning, leaving a hole in our lives for awhile.  Back to the mundane humdrum of everyday life on the farm—to the shop and the “G”.

     When I reworked the crankshaft on the old tractor, somehow I got the thing out of time and it backfired marvelously when it ran.  Back in the shop it went, where I figured I’d have to remove the flywheel to separate the camshaft and crankshaft gears.

      But no.  Flywheel and camshaft are in perfect accord with each other, if not exactly in a state of Nirvana.  Somehow the governor and camshaft lost track of each other, probably while I had the crankshaft out and the cam shaft loose.

 

   Step 1, set tappets.  The tappets are the black greasy things, the tappet cover lying at an angle to the left.  Step 2, remove enough stuff to make room to raise the governor off the crankcase. 

    Stuff to remove includes the starter and the crankcase cover, because an oil line has to be unfastened to allow the governor to rise.

      Step 3  raise governor enough so its gear no longer meshes witht the camshaft gear. Then turn the governor a little so that the magneto drive slot is perfectly horizontal.  That hasn’t been done yet in the photo below.  The slot is in the circular housing in the right of the photo, sitting at about a 2 or 8 o’clock position.

 

    It’s all done now, just have to replace the removed things.  But first, a little trip to Kansas to catch up on things there. 

     Well, it has been quite a week with a lot of variety, something for everyone.  Maybe it will rain while I’m in Kansas.