Ketchup

So the big tomato and the little tomato are walking down the sidewalk.  The little tomato keeps falling behind the big one, who has to stop and wait for his smaller cousin.  Finally, the big tomato loses all patience, turns and stomps the little tomato into smithereens on the sidewalk.

      Then the big tomato says, “Now catchup!”

      An inch of rain has allowed me to play a little “ketchup”.  The golf cart, which went down a day or two before harvest began, has been returned to service.  Under stress, a battery post melted down, the threaded connection coming completely out of the battery post. 

      After internet consultation, I drilled a hole a half inch deep into the post and tapped it out for a 5/16’s bolt.  I learned something in this exercise.  A drill bit index tells you what size hole to drill for each bolt tap size.  Most of those hole sizes are in fractions of an inch, but for 5/16”, it calls for an “F” bit.  “F”?

      I called on my local ACE Hardware guy, and for a moment he was stumped.  We searched the racks.  Then he went to a little case on the bottom shelf, and it contained all kinds of odd size bits, including an “F” bit.  I now own an “F” bit and can do 5/16’s threads.

      I tried to solder the brass bolt to the lead post, but that didn’t work.  I couldn’t get the post hot enough without melting the plastic battery top.  Shaky hands and impaired eyesight didn’t help with that project.  So that post is hanging on threads, so to speak, but it works great.

      A good cleansing of all battery straps and posts with a soda rinse have put the old cart into pretty good shape again.  My Fitbit (if I had one) has taken a hit as once again I can use the cart to run between buildings and around the farmyard.

      The Versatile swather that was reluctant to start when I had to get it out of the way of the combine had a temporary fix with an electric fuel pump.  Like a lot of the equipment here on the farm, the swather has a positive ground electrical system.  The only fuel pumps readily available are negative ground. 

       The negative ground fuel pump has to be isolated from the machine frame.  Otherwise, the fuel pump, essentially hooked up backwards, will think it’s a piece of beef and fry itself for dinner.  A piece of PVC pipe works as an insulator.  To get the swather out of the way of the combine, I mounted the pump to the PVC and used a piece of wire to suspend it roughly in place.

      The ground wire of the fuel pump runs to the ignition switch, which is negative on a positive ground system.  I ran the power wire from the fuel pump to the positive battery post.  Temporarily, the wire to the switch was an alligator clip.  With the catch-up time, I ran the negative wire to the ignition coil.  Now, when the switch is on, the fuel pump runs.

      I also mounted the PVC pipe to the swather frame with a quarter inch bolt.  No more dangly bailing-wired fuel pump.  I put in an inline fuel filter, and the old feller is good to go, I think.

      Then, there was the yard, neglected since the first of June.

 

     Much cooler weather made mowing a little more palatable.

        The swather did its part.

     The farmyard has reappeared from under the sea of grass.  Now what to do with the hay?  A bailer does not reside on the farm.

     Therefore, next on the agenda, get the “G” with Farmhand running.