Well, this was a very interesting weekend. Not many pictures, because Loretta was too busy working her ass off.

This was also a weekend of 'what else can go wrong?'

Remember the culvert that got clogged during the storms, and Rob had to use the backhoe to dig out all the dirt that filled the hole? Well, we decided we'd try to clear out the culvert ourselves. Now, mind you, there are no pictures of this, because Loretta was busy working. First, she took her ATV sprayer, a hoe and a shovel down to the culvert and tried to clear the culvert by using the spray nozzle to try to flush the dirt out, and using the shovel and hoe to dig it out. She spent over two hours doing that, and was able to clear out about 12 feet (as far as she could reach) at either end.

Then, we were able to push a (very long) PVC pipe through the middle, fasten a chain on the end, and pull the chain through. Rob bolted a left-over metal bracket onto the middle of the chain, brought the tractor over and pulled the chain through. So far, so good.

We wanted to 'saw' it back and forth, so Rob brought the Blazer over to pull it the other way. Rob managed the chain, and Loretta got in the Blazer and pulled. Suddenly, oil was gushing out from under the Blazer! We thought we had blown up the Blazer. However, what actually happened is that pulling in reverse caused the front "U" joint to knick the oil filter. Luckily several months back Rob had brought an oil filter that fits his Harley Davidson, thinking it might fit the tractor (it didn't) but it did fit the Blazer and we had extra oil so we weren't stranded after all.

Then, Rob decided to clear the Homesite Circle. He got the tractor stuck on a huge rock and nearly stalled it. Just in time, he shoved the clutch in and heard it 'chug' back to life. But suddenly all kinds of dust and smoke were blowing from under the hood!. Oh no, a blown oil line! He left the tractor running and took a look under the hood. No leaks. Odd, why all the dust and smoke?

He tried to lift the box blade, but it didn't respond. Was it the hydraulics? He decided to move forward to a clearing so he could look at it better. But when he let the clutch out, the tractor started moving backwards! Well, to make a long story short, when he almost stalled it, somehow the tractor engine had started running backwards. He stopped it, let it cool off, and it started right up - normally.

Finally, we took the tractor back to the culvert to see if we could do more work with it. Rob took the tractor and backhoe to the 'down side' of the culvert to dig out a larger drainage area. It, too, was filled with silt and mud, and probably contributed to clogging the culvert, because the water couldn't flow through quickly enough. After digging out a huge area, he tried to get back up the bank. But the backhoe kept getting hung up on the steep embankment, and he couldn't come up the way he went down.

He drove around the area looking for a better place to get back up on the road. As he drove over a 'rotten' log, oil started spurting out all over, and suddenly, the hydraulics wouldn't work. The 'rotten' log had a sharp 'not-so-rotten' branch sticking up and it ripped the main hydraulic hose (which was hanging down and obviously not routed 'correctly'). Well, now the loader sank down, and wouldn't come up. The tractor was sideways on a relatively steep hill, so no matter what Rob tried, the tractor just kept slipping more and more downhill - sideways, dragged down by the inoperably loader. We had no spare hoses, no spare hydraulic fluid. We had no choice but to leave our poor disabled tractor sitting in the middle of the field until next time.

(As always, click on the picture to get a larger picture that you can see better)

This is the 'sediment bowl' on the tractor that catches any 'gunk' in the gasoline. You can tell it was time to clean it out.	Rob used to have a magnetic level that he put on the loader, but it kept falling off. See that rod with red tape on it? It's sort of in the top middle of the picture. The rod moves up and down as the loader moves, so Rob put the red tape on it so he could tell approximately the loader position.	Rob made a few more adjustments to the box blade attachment. Now that we have the Top 'N Tilt, we don't need those extra bracket extensions he made a few weeks ago.
With all that road work that Rob has been doing, the factory rippers bent and broke. So he ordered new rippers. You can see which ones are new - they're the clean ones.	The new rippers are fastened on differently. Instead of having a notch in the back, they have several holes. Here, you can see how Rob fastened them on.	Rob drags a fallen tree out of the homesite circle. While he was clearing the circle, he accidently ran over a beautiful king snake (they eat rattlesnakes), and found an iridescent lizard. Meanwhile, Loretta cleared the areas immediately around the rocks and trees, with her hoe. (Hmm, Rob gets to sit in the tractor, and Loretta manually hoes.....???)
Here you can see how long the tree is. But the tractor had no problem with it.	Rob gathered smaller logs with the loader and started the beginnings of a firewood pile.

Links to other photo pages:

2006
Camp Repairs5    Grading the Road    Finish the Road    Clear Homesite Circle    Start Hydraulic Ripper Installation    Waterfalls & Rainbows    Chain Saw Loretta    Easter 2006   

2005
New ATV-New Year2005    Home Layout     Kyle Comes to Camp     Loretta Kills Road Weeds     Ryan Visits     Starting Counter Top     Finishing Cabinet     Easter 2005     Wesley's Spring Break     We meet the Architect     Finishing the Tree House     Our First Fire     Memorial Day 2005     Water Witching     Preparing the Well Site     Grading the Well Site     Digging the well     Our New Tractor     Labor Day 2005     Rusty comes to Camp     Smoothing the Road     Our own Water     Fire and Rain     Tractor Maintenance     Customize Tractor     New Backhoe     Thanksgiving 2005    Changing Oils     Solar Chargers & Toothbar    Rainy New Year Weekend   

2004
Three Rivers Home Page     Animal Friends     Then and Now     First Pictures     Rattlesnake Campout     Easter 2004     Building the Road     South Camp Construction     Building Decks     Finishing Decks     The Stair Master     Done at South Camp     Labor Day 2004     Leapin' Lizards     Tracking Bear and Deer     Securing the Camp     Our First Rain     Loretta's Family visits     Coco and the Boardwalk         Start the Treehouse     Frame the Treehouse