


Colonel's Blog, Earthdate 12 Feb 2023...
Hey Y'all!!
Good morning and happy Super Bowl Sunday from the farm! Shelley and I posed for our happy-snap with the beef cows in the background this morning--top pic. Yesterday turned out to be a very frustrating day. After publishing the blog, we got right to work on the tractor. We were able to get the broken cable off without much trouble. We then ran the new cable through the floorboard and things were looking very promising that the fix was going to be complete in less than an hour! Then it got to be time to put the threaded area of the cable into the bracket that holds it onto the tractor frame and allows for adjusting the tension between the lever and the transmission. The threaded area would-not-fit. It didn't matter what we did, no go. Of course it is under the tractor in a tight space that you can barely reach with one hand. We debated and decided the best course of action would be to use a file and make the bracket bigger...the whole time cussing the replacement part being too big in that threaded area. So I filed and filed and filed for over an hour until I had removed enough metal that the threads finally fit. Now, on to hooking up both ends so we can complete this project. We got the top hooked up, no big problems but then the bottom wouldn't go on. So, we took off the top and got the bottom hooked up but then the top wouldn't fit. After some period of maintenance minutes worth of time, I commented "It's almost like this cable is for a bigger tractor." To which Shelley replied..."We should check the part numbers." The new part is bla-bla-395. The original part is bla-bla-390. We took the new part all the way out, compared it to the original part, and the new part is about 6 inches longer; although on cursory glance, they look the same. There is absolutely no way it would ever work. So, not only are we still tractor-less, we wasted the afternoon filing away metal from a bracket that didn't need to be filed to find out we need a different part. Thus my comment that yesterday turned out to be frustrating. I'll call tomorrow and order another part, specifying that I actually want the part for the correct tractor this time. We also made about 2 1/2 pounds of butter and some cheese yesterday.
The animals are all looking good this morning. We only have one item of significance to report. Check out the middle and bottom pics. There are 2 chicken eggs in the mix and the rest are duck eggs. Can you pick out the chicken eggs? Now to the significant happening... We have multiple different breeds of ducks, to include Cayuga. The Cayuga is black with an iridescent green/blue/purple sheen in the sunlight. One of the cool things about the Cayuga is that when they first start laying eggs, they are black! Throughout the laying season, they slowly get less and less black until by fall, they are white. The next spring they lay black eggs again that slowly get less and less black. Can you pick out the Cayuga egg? Unlike colored chicken eggs, the dark color can be washed off leaving an egg that has gray smears. It resembles all other eggs on the inside. In the bottom picture, the 2 chicken eggs are on the outside in the 5:30 and 6:00 clock position. The Cayuga egg is, well... the black one! Enjoy the big game, that's our major project for the day.
Shelley's YouTube Short today: Sheep move with besties, summer 2022. Check it out and subscribe!
Local Farm Report for 11 Feb 2023:
Harvest:
29 Chicken eggs
4 Duck eggs
4 1/2 Gallons of milk
Sales:
N/A
Cheers!
Rich & Shelley
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