The race is on...

So I'm a little behind...

Back to Friday.
I got up and did chores as usual- nothing exciting there. Then, the fun began. The plan for Merle and i was to go and get the 560 tractor and square baler that he stores in a shed just south of Martin. But first, we had to get Ross ready to go with the farming tractor. Dean headed out to stack bales- so the three of us started in on servicing it. Between filters, tires, grease, windows, fluids, and everythig else- it took quite a while. When Merle went to go fill the hy-tran resivour he noticed that it took way too much conidering that we filled it up a day earlier. After looking around we figured out that the cyllinder on teh chise was leaking a pretty steady stream....so we are analyzing what to do while Ross dissapears into the shed. A coupel minutes later he comes out with this cyllinder. I swear it's like he has a treasure chest in there somewhere.

So...we take the leaky cyllinder off and put the oder one on. We noticed that it had a parts tag on it- which is not the best sign in the world, but we weren't sure if it had been worked on or not so it seemed worth a try. After getting it put on, we sent Ross off to the field out by Irelands (east of Martin). Meanwhile, we got the pickup ready to go for the hayfield and did a few little jobs around the shed. We fed the chicks and cleaned up and then I took off with Ross's pickup to meet him at the field. First, I stopped in town to drop the old cyllinder off at Jay's and grabbed my mail. I still beat Ross to the field and made some phone calls up on a hill while I waited.

By the looks of things, the summer fallow was a bit taller than planned so i didnt' know how the chesel would work anyway. But we got it there and took the pins out- set it the way we thought it should be set. He went up and back and by that time Merle had come back and anylized the situation and decided that the cyllinder stop wasn't working. We had already broken one stop so we tried resetting it and ended up breaking all of them. So then we had a bigger problem.

We all headed back into town to see if Jay could fix the old cyllinder. Since he was super busy we just went back into the shop with him and tore it apart ourselves. He had a new o ring for it and we switched a few things around and had it back into shape. Adrienne was waiting for Merle somewhere in town all this time so he went and got her while Ross and i went back to the field to put the new cylinder on. First, we had to fight getting the old one off...I almost had it off when Merle showed up. He gave it one tap and it came off- I hate that!

We got the new one on and found enought stops to make it work at the right depth. It even looked like it would help with the weeds as long as it get s sweeped soon. I said goodbye to Ross for the week and we headed back into town. Since the next stop was south of town and it was well past noon, we stopped to eat at the sale barn. After trying all the normal places, we found it was the only smokeless one open. We all went in and had a burger and then headed back to the pickup. Rylee was there but she wasn't my usual lunch buddy. See, we usually sit in the backseat and eat lunch together but today it was a little different! hhaha

AFter lunch we headed straight to the shed south of town and go the 560 (cabless) tractor out and hooked it up to the small square baler withno probems (a miracle after this morning). Merle took it for a short spin and we thought he might just take it home but I knew better. He stopped at the end of the driveway and told me i needed the experience of taking it home! lol So, I hopped on and headed towards home in fifth gear. I'm not totally sure how long it took...but quite a while. Merle caught up with me heading down Hisle road and said to just take it to the field (which is further on north of the ranch) so I did. I had to crawl up the trail to the field in 4th gear for fear that I would shake every bolt and pin out of that poor little baler! But, I eventually got there and met up with Merle. I stole some of his water right away because I made the mistake of not taking any with me! We got things set up and only had to fix one broken pin before he took off. It actually worked like a top as far as I know. After he baled a few Adrienne came and picked me up so I could go home and shower and get out of there.

So, I did just that. I finished packing and headed out. I got on the road right at 6. The original plan was to leave at noon but we just didn't get that far, which is just how things go. But, I got on the road, stopped for gas in Kadoka and didn't stop again until I got home to my mom's house just after 11:15 or so. Off to bed I went.

I actually felt really bad leaving and not helping pick up square bales, but I did all that I could in the time we had.

"The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page." -St. Augustine