Here’s a few things that help us on the farm at harvest. I hope they can be of some use to you as well. WINDOW CLEANING MADE EASY When your wife isn’t looking borrow one of her small appliances and keep those combine windows clean. Last fall we were combining peas and were blessed with […] Read more
Five Handy Harvest Tips – for Jul. 23, 2010
How To Patch An Auger Tube – for Jul. 23, 2010
Harvest is going well. You’re unloading grain and you notice a small pile on the ground under the auger. You look up and find that the flighting is worn through in one spot about 15 feet up right next to a bracket. What do you do? Once you’re unloaded, you rush out to the field […] Read more
Five Things Every Farmer Should Know Or Have
Here’s a few random things that you might find useful to know someday. Of course, you might know all this already but read on anyway — just in case. HOW TO ENGAGE YOUR PTO WITHOUT GRINDING One of our trucks has a PTO that likes to grind even when the clutch is pushed in. This […] Read more
Growing Durum In The Desert
We wandered down to Arizona for a few days in February. I heard a rumour that they grow durum in Arizona — lots of it. I found this very intriguing as most years I have a hard time growing durum in Saskatchewan, let alone trying to grow it in the desert. This gave me something […] Read more
Are 3 Old Better Than 1 New?
Total cost for the trio including repairs less taxes was $16,000. For this we get three nice running vehicles. Licenses and basic insurance in Saskatchewan are $2,410 per year for all three. Let me qualify this headline a bit. “New” for us means newer — under 100,000 km and in the $10,000 to $15,000 range. […] Read more
Tale Of The $1,300 Combine
You didn’t want to touch it or lean against it in certain places. It had what Ben calls the “factory-installed leaky hydraulic system” that all of our 750s have, except this one was much worse. There it sat in the hot summer sun. It was a Massey Ferguson 750 with a silver cab. Our son […] Read more
How To Patch An Auger Tube – for Oct. 19, 2009
Harvest is going well. You’re unloading grain and you notice a small pile on the ground under the auger. You look up and find that the flighting is worn through in one spot about 15 feet up right next to a bracket. What do you do? Once you’re unloaded, you rush out to the field […] Read more
7 Steps To Rust-Proof Your Trailer
You’ve seen them. Those rusty holes and spots that grow over time in grain trailers. “Rust is inevitable.” “You can’t stop it.” This is what you hear. If you read Benjamin Franklin’s quote “Nothing in this world is certain except death and taxes,” you will note that rust is not mentioned. Rust happens because we […] Read more
How To Machine A Concave
The grinding and measuring was time consuming, but if you figure that spending six or eight hours grinding the concave saved $1,000 for a new one, you’re being paid over $100 an hour. Our son Ben’s Massey Ferguson 750 combine needed a new concave. The old one had been rebuilt once and was now totally […] Read more
$10 To Keep Supplies Handy
t’s cheap” he said “15 bucks.” No. says I, I’ve got too many toolboxes already. “OK, 10 bucks.” he says. So I bought a toolbox and lugged it all the way back to the car. It resided in my junky farm shop for a year or so when a plan emerged from my foggy mind. […] Read more
Cyber-Savvy Farmer
