Another weekend, and lots achieved

Well, theres another two days down, this weekend was really good. First of all, on Friday evening I started trying to repair the exhaust on the tractor, I was putting a rubber hose between the two pieces, but whilst doing that, the join onto the manfold got really weak, and I decided that it was time to try and weld the exhaust up there too. Minor problem being it was inches from the fuel tank..This didn't cause many problems because it wasn't attached! It had bolts, just no nuts! After whipping that off and putting it aside, the tractor looked kind of naked, but I still couldn't easily get to the manifold to weld, the FEL was in the way. I had been thinking about removing the FEL for a while, but hadn't got around to it. So I started removing the nails (yes nails) and very small split pins that were holding it all together. I got stuck on two parts, the hydraulics and one pin (about 1cm diameter) that had bent. I ended up removing the hydaulics at the FEL end, and sealing the connectors with tape, and tieing the pipes to the tractor frame. The bolt, a few minutes with the grinder and handsaw dealt to that (along with a bit of effort with a pry bar).

On Saturday morning, I realised it was all well and good having disconnected the FEL, but the tractor was backed into the barn, and the FEL comes off the front and it's quite a large bit of metal..So the next problem was how to move it. Steph wasn't quite strong enough to lift it, so we put the bike under one arm, and I lifted the other whilst Steph controlled the bike. The bucket was on a dolly and we managed to wheel it away from the tractor and twist it and then back it back into the barn...I'll drag it outside next weekend.

So now I still had no tractor and things I needed to do (as last weekend I sprayed out the paddock). I cleaned up the exhaust and put it all together (and held it all in place with the single most usefull thing on the farm, bailing twine!) After a few false starts with the welder, I got it all holding, and seemed reasonable strong (all relavant to it's initial condition of course, and the fact that I can only weld around the front). A few minutes later, the fuel tank was back on (with bolts and nuts this time), and I fired it up...and it all worked, and there were only a few spare pieces.... I'm sure they weren't needed.

With the tractor up and running, I put on the rotavator and started preparing the top paddock (it was in a real mess from winter, ruts about 30cm deep!)

Also somewhere in there Paul came around and we got the 3 ewes shorn, and the goats, whilst we had them all in we docked the lambs.

Just as the light was fading and the temperature dropping, I decided to call it a night, and headed back to the barn. I had the great idea of going over a few ruts to make it easier on Sunday, unfortunalty the exhaust fell off...guess my welding wasn't that strong.

Then this morning, I once more removed the fuel tank etc, and stuck a few more tack welds on the exhaust and finished up rotavating the paddock (it looks really good now).

After a cup of tea etc, we went into town to get rid of some rubbish and do the weekly shopping, and pick up some vege seedlings and the remaining hay for the year.

After a few hours trundling from Masterton to Featherston and home, I spent the afternoon harrowing the paddock, I was quite impressed, Strider learn't how to ride on the back of the bike, he spent the entire paddock on the bike, kept my back nice and warm.
Then whilst I was putting everything away (mower included), I figured I might aswell mow the front and back lawn with the tractor! Much easy then using the push mower.

Apart from that and planting the veges (after Steph prepped the beds) and cleaning out the rabbits, not a great deal was done. But it was a good weekend.

Till next weekend, hopefully I'll be sowing the top paddock and spraying out the middle paddock.

Here are some assorted photos of the naked tractor and the goat during shearing.