Another year older!

The week was very busy. Farm work. I had recently made a deal with a young man to help me get caught up on the farm. I put him on a tractor shredding cotton stalks while I assess his abilities.

I have been on the section plowing terraces up. It has been a few years since the terraces there had been reworked, so this has been a slow process. It has also been an opportunity to get reacquainted with the GPS guidance system on the tractor as well as expand into the contour capabilities. It has taken the week of running the tractor and mouldboard to get it all dialed in, but it seems that every day I learn something.

It has been a crazy week. On Monday I had told my helper to run until noon and then fuel and service the tractor and shredder. He ran until 12:30 and ran out of fuel. Then he had an issue with the fuel transfer pump and I had to get off my tractor and go to assist him. Turns out the pump I had purchased in July of last year had gone to pieces internally and locked down. We removed the pump, stopped by the barn and picked up the box it had come in. When we returned it to the farm store we invested a good hour in exchanging it. Luckily, I had purchased a three year warranty.

A fueling that should have taken ten or fifteen minutes took almost four hours. Yuk!

My week was plagued with flats. My plow has three tires on it, two of which were brand new. Tuesday morning I found one of the new tires flat. The tire shop told me it was full of thorns. They did two patches and filled it with stop leak. Later that afternoon I had the gauge wheel tire come apart. A trip to the barn and Jason and I replaced it with one from our tire rack. Wednesday I was able to stay on the tractor all day with no problems for me or the helper. Thursday the flat gremlin attacked again. Gauge wheel flat again!

I was on my way to the barn with the flat when I received a call from my helper with an issue. He had a metal hydraulic line crack on his tractor. I detoured and drove into the field where he was at. We removed the hood and took the line off. We went to the barn and mounted another tire for my plow and began looking for brazing rod to repair his hydraulic line. After a half hour search we had found no brazing rod. About that time my helper's ride arrived at the shop. Turned out this friend worked at Sweetwater Machine and he offered to take the line and have it repaired Friday morning.

We picked up the line, stopped by my plow and installed the tire and drove to my helper's tractor. In short order we had the tractor back together and he was back at work.

I had been on my tractor maybe an hour when my helper called and informed me the line was leaking again. I drove to him again and we dis-assembled the tractor and retrieved the line. While we were coming out of the field I called the shop that had fixed the line. I was informed that the man who had fixed the line was gone until Monday and they encouraged me to go to John Deere and buy a new line if I couldn't wait.

Needless to say, their response infuriated me. This business often laments about decreased business. If they treat all the customers like they treated me it is no wonder.

Memama had prepared a birthday lunch for me, so I went to lunch and on my way back I bought brazing rod. I fixed the line myself. By last night it had run almost three hours with no issue.

Probably the highlite of my day was Erica and Drew driving to Salido and they stopped by. Drew and I made a deal with his Mom for him to ride one round on the tractor with his Dandy. A close second would be that Ollie made it to Memama's house at lunch.

Pepa has been having some health issues this week. We suspect it is his Poly cystic Disease again. It has been a year tomorrow since it had been a problem. (If you remember, last year he had a cyst on a kidney that was as large as the kidney). Pepa's doctor gave him some patches for pain relief and Lortab for break through pain management. Pepa had been sleeping excessively, but yesterday he was very confused and disoriented. By days end he had slipped off the side of his bed and ended up in the floor.

Pat had come out and removed his pain patch earlier in the day hoping he would be more lucid.

I got home last evening, received a birthday call from my sister in Indianapolis, talked with the little wildman truck driver, waited for supper (but gave up) and went to bed.

I didn't go out with the group last night, a large contingency of the group went to San Antonio for the weekend.

I am trying to decide what I am going to do today. I am seriously considering going to the farm and trying to finish the terraces on the section.

Have a day!

FATHER, rest and renew me!