[mitchmaine]

hi silvio, good idea. the best hay i ever made was cut on a horse mower, raked once and put up with a hay loader. i have a baler now and do alot of work quick, but there is always a trade-off.

mitch

[mitchmaine]

good news with your horse. its great following this thread, too. glad you did it.
sometimes its just outlasting them. your persistance must be paying off.

mitch

[mitchmaine]

hi erik, i never saw a collar sore that proud. maybe the picture. you don’t think he might had a fly bite early that got agravated by the collar? we use the felt pads. they seem to dry out quick. not today tho. good luck with your horse, mitch

[mitchmaine]

hi donn,
wish i had a picture of that mower/ forecart in operation. not cause its such a great thing, which i think it is, but because of the potential risk involved.
all of the old horse drawn equipment put the operator behind the work. mowers, plows, cultivators, etc. in case of a runaway you could fall off over the back and be somewhat safe. but now we have to pull some kind of tractor run implement behind us and a forecart. we all do it. but that tedder can be scary sometimes. my horses are kind to me most of the time. i broke a mower pole the other day and they froze and wouldn’t move till i freed them. but that won’t happen every time, and maybe i worry too much about everyone, so stay safe out there. god bless you all.

mitch

[mitchmaine]

hey guys, it’s a hard job digging a seal out of that mower, i can’t imagine digging two out one behind the other, but it sure would seal wouldn’t it.
i counted pitman speed once and a high gear mower pitman turns 28 rev. per one turn of the wheel. the regular gear and the number 7 both turn 26. like al says, not a lot of difference. mitch

[mitchmaine]

hey mark, joshua ‘s right about that spring in the bale case holding the haydog. that should just shear pins. but if your needles were up in there, that also means your brake pads holding your needles “home” aren’t working. they might just need tightning, but they are cheap insurance.

mitch

[mitchmaine]

hi al,

bummer. bad feelin’ ain’t it? try not to mention horse drawn mower at the auto parts store. things go down hill instantly. the seal is 1.125″ (shaft) x 1.825 (ish) or 1 13/16 strong on the housing. it was a car quest number A10145-476838. good luck.

mitch

[mitchmaine]

Hey, been waiting for today for a month. Haying weather. Hooked the horses, put in my knife and pitman, topped off the oil…..oil leak. Pitman shaft seal. Darn, oh well, later…three laps around the field and snapped off the mower toungue. Darn. Busted it up so bad I couldn’t use it for a pattern. Darn. The good news? Two nights ago al asked for the measurements on the pole and I went out , taped them, and posted the measurements. Logged in, read my own post and fixed my pole. Without that I’d have been stuck. This website rules! Cut a piece of green red (??????) oak and replaced the pole and have the seal out. The replacement seal is about half the thickness. Darn. Anyway, good luck haying, thanks al, and carry on…..

mitch

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[mitchmaine]

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hope these pictures help.

mitch

[mitchmaine]

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hi al, if there is a photo of your mower here, look and see if it makes sense. the 1/2 ” rod that connects the mower heel to the bracket on the pole is 28″ long and should be straight. the bracket itself that houses the evener measures 29.5″ from the front of the cast housing over the pole. hope that is helpful.

mitch

[mitchmaine]

andy, the spring harrow was set to walk on its points, and scratch at the bottom of the pan. so it was at its greatest load probably. it seems that the harrow itself might be a buffer when it works like this. the two springs might be working and giving to the same resistance at the same time, one giving before the other. creating the noise. i think it was the buffer spring making the racket by compressing and slamming back against itself many times per second. just a guess. later.

[mitchmaine]

another field observation for you guys. i have a peice of fallow ground to rotate to buckwheat so i thought i might scratch it up a little last night. my spring harrows still have that spring on from earlier use in this thread, i think. anyway, in spite of our rains, the ground is pretty hard down bottom, and the harrow got going pretty hard and it started to sing. the load and the give of the harrow springs and the load spring all started vibrating and giving off this sound something like the horns at the world cup soccer games. very strange. what do ya make of that?

field agent mitch

[mitchmaine]

right john, everyone likes the milk that comes from the store! what does that mean? anyway, i totally think the day IS coming. people can’t be that crazy.

mitch

[mitchmaine]

john,
they are trying to devalue real food. instead of an egg and a bottle of soda, now its 500 gr. of egg and 500 ml soda, somehow putting the two items on the same line. and making them equal food items. we know better but how about our grandkids?????? a poor deal for them, i think.

mitch

[mitchmaine]

hi john, lots of fun going to those big ag shows. the maine versions are full of all levels of logging equipment, with splitters and processers and forwarders down to tractor winches and so on. big farm equipment in maine is a far cry from what your talking about. but its big enough. i have to stop and remember sometimes that big or small, we are still all farmers and in this together. up against the same villains. bankers. dealers. monsanto. blah, blah, blah. you know what i mean. we have to unite against the common enemy. cheap food. we need to be talking good, quality food. real food. unprocessed. anyway, good to hear you. good farmin’

mitch

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