After breaking the front end of the tractor, what should have been a simple fix turned into a multi-day extended repair. The part that broke - a tie rod - comes in 3 parts. There is an inner ball joint, an outer ball joint and the rod that "ties" it all together. Since I only popped the outer ball joint I ordered an outer and it arrived the next day. When I went to get the old outer out, it wouldn't budge. Even after heating and using the biggest wrenches I have available. So I ordered the inner. Unfortunately I assumed that the inner would also come with the rod. My mistake. When the inner came the next day with only the inner I decided to try again to get the ball joints loose from the rod. After several hours of frustrating pounding, heating, and multiple vise acrobatics I had to give up and order the other part. That arrived the next day and I was able to get the part back on and have the tractor running in about 10 minutes. Of course I ended up paying for shipping 3 times. It was a knuckle head tax! Once the tractor was back running I turned the alfalfa hay over yesterday evening to get it to dry down some more. It was a beautiful evening. You may be able to see the rainbow in the background of the picture.
Today is supposed to be sunny so the hay should dry down quite a bit. Won't be dry enough to bale but it will dry enough that I may be able to bale tomorrow afternoon if it doesn't rain.
Today I'll be baling grass hay on a place northwest of here. I've been hauling rake, hay rack, baler and tractor this morning. We'll rake shortly and it should be ready to bale this afternoon.
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