Cutting Bulrushes With the 730 Case

Finally got some editing done of the huge file of Gopro video I have featuring the old 730 Case and me cutting down bulrushes. It was a sunny warm day, just what I need for riding my uncle's old tractor on the land he used to farm. Bulrush fuzz was in the air and plugging up the grille and radiator on the tractor. It required occasionally stopping to clean it off. Made quite a clearing but now I have to see if I can burn it.

Saw the first snow flakes of the season today. Not anything to accumulate but a sign of whats to come. I think we will get a few more good days yet.

Long Hours Fencing

I've spent more hours fixing fence the last three days than I have in a year. I had neglected the fence this year so was "inspecting" it from the cab of the swather as I cut the field of oats. Shocked to discover that one stretch was pretty much gone. Being submerged in water for years will do that to a fence and this dry summer has taken away the water leaving no barrier except for the beaver trenches. Which the cattle could have easily walked through if they had tried.
Finished the field and figured I"d still have enough daylight to at least get one wire up. Turned out to be a major task. Jumping over the beaver trenches carrying a roll of barbed wire and various other fencing tools, stringing out wire through mud and over broken water killed trees, tangled and rusty "re-cycled barb wire" was a real test of patience but I got a couple of wires in place. Finished the job up next day and decided to inspect the rest of that field border. Again I was shocked to find places where dead fallen trees had put the wires down to near ground level and it was just pure luck the cattle had not found it. So, more picket pounding with the big heavy old hammer. Most locations were inaccessible to use the tractor and front end loader to drive the posts in so I got more than my share of exercise. Posts are hard driving when the ground has dried but that has not been a problem for years. Luckily we are past the wood tick season and there are very few mosquitos.
Had to fight my way through a veritable forest of bulrushes in some of the dried up sloughs. I literally used the chain saw to cut them down in one spot. These in the picture tower above the fenders of the Massey as I drove through.

A Hard Way To Gain Ground

Thats my dad standing beside the water flowing from the floating slough pump we just set up on the slough in the background. It may be relaxing to watch the flowing water but it involved some hard labour getting everything set up . It was the spring of 1979 and likely a couple of weeks before spring planting judging by the remaining snowbanks.
That big flat slough in the background covered some pretty productive soil that would only grow bulrushes if we could not get it dry enough to seed a crop. I don't recall how successful it was but it was always a gamble pumping out these sloughs. Hours of setting up and pumping could all be literally washed away by a heavy rain storm that would flood the land again.
The floating pump was one heavy unit to carry out into the water. Wearing hip waders and sinking in the mud at every step. On a windy day you needed to get that long length of light plastic collapsible hose anchored down or filled with water before the wind took it and twisted it up in a tangle. Every few hours (or less) you needed to walk out into the water with fuel for the engine.
Nowadays that slough is probably about twice the size it was in 79. I just drive around it, plant what I can and hope for a return to normal moisture conditions one of these days.

Lazy Blogging

Maybe its a little lazy blogging just to post a link to my latest youtube video. But some days I don't have much to say.
I posted this "how to" video yesterday for the flathead guys who might find it handy when needing to do a compression test on their engine and nobody handy to push the starter button. Not likely a lot of people will find that too interesting. Maybe I need to start a whole new blog devoted to the 52 Mercury.
I got a lot of hits on the "Cutting Bulrushes in January" vid from a few days before. No critical comments yet.
I did manage to upset the safety police on one forum when they watched my hammer mill video from November. In which I purposely stepped over the moving drive belt several times, just couldn't resist annoying people I guess. It looks dangerous but trust me, its safe. So safe you wouldn't believe it.