Colt Case Ingersoll Garden Tractors

Time to clip the big field. I’m going to put the 1941 M and that old mower that was on its way to scrap to work today.

I had broke the rod out on the outer side of the bar the other day. I quickly welded it back together and put it back on and hit the field. I only made two or three passes before I was back at the shop.

That rod really gets a lot of vibration and it broke again! I guess the consolation is my weld held, it broke in a new spot! I guess I’ll be out there with a metal detector to see if I can find it. I’ll have to come up with a better way to make one. I also broke a rock guard but that’s kind of common and luckily I have some spares. The grass is short so I can run without that rod for now. The reason I’m clipping the fields now is because the dry weather we had stunned the grass but not the weeds. I really don’t want to use chemicals if I don’t have to so I’m attempting to mow the weeds out hoping now that we have rain the grass can overtake them.

That was the end of the problems and the rest of the mowing went smoothly. Quite enjoyable time spent on the tractor listening to the sickle do its work.

Jeff is there any reason you can't use these ? They are flexible and high visible . Snow plow blade markers. They are flexible and made to take a beating.

They may work. They have to be rigid enough to move thick material to the back of the mower to leave bit of bare ground for the next pass. The rebar I used certainly won’t hold up. Other old sickle mowers use a steel rod but it better steel for sure. I also thought about making a triangular shaped one so it has 2 point of contact. I guess we’ll see what I can scrounge up!

Two points would for sure be better. I've seen a number over time that used a loop rather than a triangle. Probably just due to it being easier (no welding) and not because it was less likely to impale anyone...

The sickle I sold a couple years ago had a board to do the same thing. No recollection how it was mounted though, or if it looked OEM.

Well it’s been a while. Let’s go up to the shop and see if we can accomplish something. Now that summer has gone the goal is to start putting things to bed before winter rolls around.

You might remember several months ago the seals let go on one of the bucket cylinders of the Case 830. I had rebuilt it and put it back on the tractor but never got to try it out. Let’s see if it works. As a test I went to the sunflower patch I cleared this spring. There was one tree left the I hadn’t taken out. The Case had no problem taking it down but the trunk split before it popped out of the ground. I might have to bring the 648 up later and dig it out. Looks like big brother is working fine. Bucket cylinders aren’t leaking. I did also replace one hose. The rest of them are on borrowed time, but right now there holding. I do still have a leak on one of the lift cylinders but it’s not bad enough to shut me down yet. The clock is ticking though! Well the first problem of the day reared its ugly head. I managed to knock the aftermarket tooth bar off the bucket.
It’s pretty heavy but I was able to get back on with out straining. It’s a really nice add on to the bucket. It’s held on by two pinch bolts. I guess I really should make it more permanent. I just don’t really want to modify the bucket anymore than it already is. It works good you just have to be careful when back dragging or you’ll pull it off.

With that done son came and helped me get the hay wagon hitched to the Super H. It’s still loaded with first cut hay that I had intended to rebale. It’s been covered with a tarp all this time. Let open up the hay burrito and see what it looks like. That’s what I thought I’d find. Hard to believe but, cheap tarps seem to give cheap results! the weather got to it and the outer layer of hay is moldy. It would be a fool’s errand to try and pick through it at this point. Don’t get me wrong 3/4 of what goes on around here could easily be classified as foolish but this is a hay bale too far! besides I haven’t been able to fix the baler yet anyway.
Between the bales that are still on the ground and whats on the wagon I lost quite a bit, but there’s no point in crying about it. I think we just need to get this mess cleaned up and move on! I already have a compost pile started I don’t really need to dump all this on it. But I do have a wash over by the creek I’d like to fill. So this won’t go to waste really. It will be used as the first step in slowing or hopefully stopping the wash out.

I went over and dumped the wagon then used the 830 to start scooping up the stuff on the ground and the wagon became my dump truck for the day. Son would normally be out on my four wheeler but he still has the cast on so he got to have some fun on the mule instead! I hauled a few loads and decided that was enough for today. I don’t want to over do it. Hopefully I can continue cleaning up tomorrow. Thanks for coming along!

@JSinMO Good to see you getting around more .

The weather has been really dry and hot for awhile now. We finally got some rain overnight. I wanted to get rid of more of my brush pile but I think I’d just be making a muddy mess with the bigger tractors today. However I’m suffering from cabin fever so let’s go up to shop and see what kind of trouble we can get into!

Let’s bring the 648 around and check fluids and grease it up. Everything looks good. You know, it would be a dang shame just to park a tractor that all ready to go. And I do have that tree and a stump to dig out….

I dug around the base of the tree and cut the roots all the way around. Didn’t take long and it was done. Tree? What tree? There’s no tree here. That was fun, let’s move on to that stump This one came out pretty fast, I didn’t even have time to take a picture while digging! I’d like to continue on at some point and clear the rest of this out. Hard to believe but the boom and swing controls on the backhoe gave my left arm and hand quite a workout. I guess that enough for today. It still feels good to get something accomplished!

JSinMO wrote: ↑Sun Sep 22, 2024 4:16 pm Hard to believe but the boom and swing controls on the backhoe gave my left arm and hand quite a workout. I guess that enough for today. It still feels good to get something accomplished!

@JSinMO Sounds like a fun form of Occupational Therapy
Just watch out and don't push it too much - I have a bad habit of pushing to hard and not feeling it until it's too late and then I'm aching for ages...

RoamingGnome wrote: ↑Sun Sep 22, 2024 7:05 pm

JSinMO wrote: ↑Sun Sep 22, 2024 4:16 pm Hard to believe but the boom and swing controls on the backhoe gave my left arm and hand quite a workout. I guess that enough for today. It still feels good to get something accomplished!

@JSinMO Sounds like a fun form of Occupational Therapy
Just watch out and don't push it too much - I have a bad habit of pushing to hard and not feeling it until it's too late and then I'm aching for ages...

That exactly what I thought too! I did talk to the physical therapist about it and he said yes. So I can do exercises he showed me or do some fun things! Right now I do watch it. When it really started to feel fatigued I make myself stop.

One thing to watch out for when dealing with injury is overall loss of physical conditioning . When we can't use one part of our body we then to not do anything for a while . With being on the IL for months at a time multiple times over the last few years I lost a lot of overall strength and stamina . This actually led to the last back injury . Lost of muscle mass and trying to do more than I was ready for led to herniating the bottom disk in my back . When down and out with an injury try your best to stay active in ways that non impactful on the injury if you can like walking , swimming ,water walking , stationary bike ect. I should have done more of this after my head injury was healed enough . It would have greatly reduced the chances of me injuring my back the way I did . Hind sight being 20/20
You my keep the change