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#tractor

3 posts3 participants0 posts today
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Donncha Ó Caoimh

Rural Banter in Cork

Tucked away on the serene Sherkin Island in County Cork, I stumbled upon a timeless moment that felt plucked from another era. Two older men, clearly no strangers to the soil beneath them, were deep in conversation.

This photo was taken in 2015 while on a visit to the island. I hope they are still living on the island, chatting away.

inphotos.org/2025/03/26/rural-

Two elderly men converse surrounded by tall grass and greenery on Sherkin Island, Cork, Ireland. One seated on a vintage red tractor, while the other stands beside him gesturing mid-conversation, both dressed in workwear and bathed in warm sunlight.
#cork#ireland#SherkinIsland
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Donncha

Rural Banter in Cork

Tucked away on the serene Sherkin Island in County Cork, I stumbled upon a timeless moment that felt plucked from another era. Two older men, clearly no strangers to the soil beneath them, were deep in conversation.

This photo was taken in 2015 while on a visit to the island. I hope they are still living on the island, chatting away.

Apertureƒ/11CameraCanon EOS 6DFocal length105mmISO100Shutter speed1/50s

#2015 #agriculture #candidMoment #Canon6D #Cork #countryside #elderlyMen #farming #Ireland #Photo #Photography #ruralLife #SherkinIsland #tractor #vintageTractor

Two elderly men converse surrounded by tall grass and greenery on Sherkin Island, Cork, Ireland. One seated on a vintage red tractor, while the other stands beside him gesturing mid-conversation, both dressed in workwear and bathed in warm sunlight.
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Y⃒̸̷̝̜̙ͥͥͥngmar

This contraption has been sitting outside the garage for ages. Finally got around to inspecting it. It's a #DIY chain flail mower, no respect for life edition.

Connects to tractor, PTO gearbox driving a rotating disc below with two short lengths of chain attached.

That is how chain flail mowers are normally built, except they have a steel cage around them because they fling stones and the occasional chain.

Also, it's way too close to the rear wheels.

A mossy green and rusty three point hitch attachment. Half a PTO drive shaft is swung up for storage and it now sits on two bricks to keep it out of the mud. The frame is obviously self welded while the gearbox appears to have come from something else, being factory made and having some extraneous gears on it. Not visible is the disc on the underside with two lengths of 8mm chain attached.
#Tractor#Farm#Homestead
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Y⃒̸̷̝̜̙ͥͥͥngmar

Picked the best of the old roller triplet and filled it with water ballast. I did actually find a cap for them in the garage junk, but it was too rusted and bent to fit, so I just made a wooden bung and banged it in with some inner tube.

Held fine but was quite difficult to pry back out after! The former mud pit is now blended with woodchips, hay and rolled somewhat flat. Could be more level, but oh well. I'll sprinkle some grass seed and see what happens.

An agricultural roller for towing behind a tractor. Actually this is one part of a three-roller but that would be too large and the other wasn't in good shape. A blue hose is stuck into the filler hole, slowly filling the inside of the roller with water ballast to increase its weight to about 250 kg give or take.
A threaded lid held in a gloved hand. The lid has a rusty thread that is somewhat perished and has been cleaned with a drill wire brush. The lid is also deformed, distorting the thread. It has two flanges for turning while the top remains flat.
The roller again, now filled with water, some of which has spilled over it. A wooden bung is hammered into the hole surrounded by some black rubber material bunching up around it. The bung has been cut down to be flush with the roller drum.
A man wearing a knitted hat sitting on a small blue tractor, turned to look backwards over the rear to the roller that is now attached to the tractors draw bar and towed behind through a grassy yard somewhat torn up by tractor tyres.
#Homestead#Tractor#Roller
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Y⃒̸̷̝̜̙ͥͥͥngmar

Wish I could find a manual for this thing. Or service instructions or anything.

Not much out there. It has hypoid gear oil in it, which I determined by sniffing and rubbing (thick fluid with sulfur smell) and there is what is probably a fill level bolt, but it's all guesswork.

There's a few Japanese stickers but they're mostly safety warnings, telling you to not stick your arm into the rotating blades, yo.

A blue Iseki RA 1360 Rototiller from Japan. It's detached from the tractor and parked on a plank. It has two guards on either side, a thick central shaft and on the far side a chain drive to the lower shaft, which isn't in the picture here. Two silvery rods with springs on them hold the rear flap door down.
#Iseki#Tractor#Rototiller
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Y⃒̸̷̝̜̙ͥͥͥngmar

Garden tilled. The rotavator dug up a brick, a few more concrete chunks, some plastic, a pipe and a massive fucking steel beam. Luckily it seems I didn't break any of the tines. The guard door on the right was bent slightly, but it was easy to unbolt and bang straight again, didn't even chip the paint. Japanese steel won over Soviet steel 😁

Figured out what the feedback lever does, too!

Some tricky driving to get in the corners.

A bunch of things the rotavator revealed, including a pipe, a bit of plastic on the left and a big steel C-beam covered in soil. The rear of a blue tractor with rotavator is visible in the freshly tilled field behind.
The tilled garden/field, with neat rows on the right where there was nothing in the way and somewhat less tidy at an angle on the left where there was a fence and a big tree with large roots. The soil looks dark and fertile.
#Homestead#Tractor#Rotavator
Continued thread
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Y⃒̸̷̝̜̙ͥͥͥngmar

My notes for setting the rotavator up, so I don't have to struggle through the Japanese manual every time.

The auto-tilt is so cool. There's a sensor somewhere and a tilt piston on the right 3PH arm. So when the tractor falls with one wheel into a ditch, the piston keeps the rotavator level, resulting in perfectly straight fields from uneven ground. In 1984 this must've been revolutionary.

Still haven't figured out what the feedback lever is for 🤷

Notes for setting up a rotavator on an Iseki tractor, with illustrations copied from the Japanese manual but labeled in English and with my own coloured markings on.
Second page of the same, here explaining the secret controls under the seat and the tilt control panel.
#Japanese#Tractor#Iseki
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Y⃒̸̷̝̜̙ͥͥͥngmar

Short work day because morning shenanigans in town, but then I retrieved the rotavator from the tractor barn. Fixed a few small problems and greased all the things, as it was nicely painted but not a drop of grease anywhere.

Some studying of Japanese manuals (translated) and wrestling the thing on and off the 3PH twice and then... magic!

Turning the concrete field into fluffy garden soil. At sunset, sadly, so just a quick test run.

A blue Iseki RA 1360 rotavator. It's a tractor attachment, here sitting on a plank for maintenance. There's a chain drive on one side, a flap door with large springs and safety guards on either side. It's built very solidly. Under neath, invisible from this angle, is a thick shaft with spinning blades that chew up the soil and aerate it nicely.
A small blue tractor with said rotavator now attached and lowered into the ground for work. It has taken an oval run around the former overgrown and concrete strew garden and where it has been, dark, finely crumbling soil is now leveled out behind it. In the center, for comparison, the overgrown mess with deep grooves from concrete beams remains.
#Rotavator#Tractor#Iseki
Continued thread
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Y⃒̸̷̝̜̙ͥͥͥngmar

After I finally got the beam out of the garden, I hooked up the other end and turned it 90 degrees so it can go thick end first towards the gate behind which I want it to be.

But before I can pull it the rest of the way, I had to tidy up the other beams spread out in the yard. Luckily our tractor fits between fruit trees, sheds and old bee hives and I could pull them all into a pile, one at a time. One shattered!

This took the rest of the day 😓

A crumbled concrete beam exposing several long pieces of rebar. The rest is pulled together next to it.
Small blue tractor standing under some large apple trees next to an old dog house, rear towards a couple concrete beams it has pulled into an orderly array. The sun is shining and some snow covers the mud and moss.
The yard at sunset. Some snowy lines show where the concrete beams used to be, now they're all on the right, packed tightly with the short pieces on top.
#Concrete#Beam#Homestead
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Y⃒̸̷̝̜̙ͥͥͥngmar

I'd not even seen the sled in the forest before, a visitor pointed it out. Slightly overgrown!

After using that (unsuccessfully) on the concrete beams, I used the rest of the twilight to pull these rollers out of the forest, too. Seemed like a good idea to do this before the meadow starts sprouting again.

They have holes for filling with water ballast. Heck knows where the plugs for them are though. Probably disintegrated.

A set of three agricultural rollers connected with chains and a towing hitch that is flipped over backwards to save space. They're dented but functional. Each roller is mounted in a steel frame. They're in a yard next to a bunch of metal junk.
Edge of the forest. Grass is laying flat from winter and small trees are sprouting. A large piece of rusty metal is barely visible under the growth, a towing hitch sticks out near a young tree.
#Farm#Agriculture#Tractor
Continued thread
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Y⃒̸̷̝̜̙ͥͥͥngmar

Final result: Moved it about 3m. Just too bloody heavy.

I tried many things. The wheel lever worked, but was a lot of work to reset (steel wheel very heavy). Shortening up the chain and lifting it with the three point hitch hydraulics worked equally well and a lot faster, but the wheels just dig in and lose traction. Maybe double tyres 😁

Also learnt that a front ballast for the tractor doesn't do anything. At least not a 100kg one (me standing on the front bar hopping up and down).

The end of the beam, leaving a gash in the dirt where it used to be. It's about 3m from this mornings position, which is good but not nearly good enough. Another beam is hidden under grass and moss next to it.
#Tractor
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Y⃒̸̷̝̜̙ͥͥͥngmar

Ok, giving up for now. I'll check how long I need the beam to be for the sawmill foundation and then I'll cut it into parts.

It's just too heavy to pull from the soft soil there. Dug over half the yard with the wheels. Broke off the concrete crown with the chain. Even fetched the stone sled from the forest and winched it onto that (actually winched the sled under the beam, because beam don't move). Even with that it won't budge more than a few mm at a time.

Infernal concrete beam, now with the concrete crown shattered in two pieces, exposing a thick steel pipe, steel plate and four nuts holding the pre-stressed reinforcements together. A piece of thick chain, pickaxe and thick wire rope are laying around.
Pulling the beam sideways out of its groove worked, but did not improve things greatly. Here the tractor is in the garden, pulling at a 90 degree angle and the beam has left its slot in the dirt over the entire length.
The problem. The tractor is hitched to the beam with a thick chain. The tyres are dug deep into the soft and moist soil there. Lifting the three point hitch up and down does sometimes gain a few cms but not enough. It's just not enough traction.
A final attempt, with an old home welded steel sled for dragging behind a tractor while workers toss fieldstones onto the sled for retrieval. Here a hand winch is trying to pull the beam over an old plow share set up as a ramp onto the sled with the chain. This worked, except the winch pulled tractor and sled backwards under the beam, which did not budge.
#Homestead#Farm#Tractor
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Y⃒̸̷̝̜̙ͥͥͥngmar

Giving @davepolaschek's suggestion a try. The T-40 wheel I found in the garage is getting some use as uh, round lever? What do you even call this.

It kinda worked. Well, it didn't budge as I was pulling, but when it fell over while under tension it levered the beam out of the ground sideways and a little forward.

Still refuses to go further, but I'm having a strong coffee and sweets and shall stubbornly continue.

The pesky concrete beam in our garden is now attached with a very beefy chain to a very beefy piece of wire rope. A big tractor steel wheel (sans tyre) is rolled in front of it, with the wire rope leading over the wheel and off to a tractor not depicted here. The ground is churned up from pulling many other concrete beams out of the garden already.
Same arrangement, excep the wheel has fallen over sideways. The wire rope still leads through what used to be its top. The beam however has shifted in the direction of the fallen wheel and left its deep groove for the first time.
The rear end of the beam with a gap that is now about a metric foot longer (we only have metric feet here, sorry, they're about one foot long though). The standard reference foot including boot is next to it. It's a size 44, in case you need to calibrate.
#Farm#Mechanics#Concrete
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Y⃒̸̷̝̜̙ͥͥͥngmar

Paying the price for social life today, got a cold plus headache.

I drag on anyways. Still can't shift the big beam further, even though it moved 10cm. So I'm moving the rest out first, then I have more space to try things.

The rest moves well, I'm almost through, although the end is all small pieces, which are annoying: Too big to lift and lots of work hooking each up individually. I don't have enough chain to connect several at a time.

A garden with two huge steel reinforced concrete beams laying along it. Other empty channels of fresh dark dirt show where more beams have already been removed. A small blue tractor is attached to the far end of a concrete beam with a massive wire rope. The soil is churned up behind the tractor. A car is parked in front of a yellow house.
The rear end of the massive concrete beam. There is a gap between it and the soil of about 10cm, showing it has moved at least a little. Two rubber booted feet are standing next to it.
Many long beams of steel reinforced concrete next to each other, loosely parallel, amongst marks of tractor tires and grass torn up from dragging the beams over it. One has a large chain around it connected with a shackle. This one has also been patched with a lump of poured concrete, leaving it with a kink.
#Homestead#Farm#DIY
Continued thread
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Y⃒̸̷̝̜̙ͥͥͥngmar

Next, dragging concrete power poles out of the garden. Apparently they were used as walkways. They're terrible walkways and theyr'e awful to have in a garden, but they may be a good foundation for something or good to stack logs or firewood on.

They're extremely heavy. I got about half out but the really big two at the end I couldn't shift, despite many attempts, including rolling them sideways first.

Will try again after a few dry days when the soil is harder.

A garden with cut vegetation and tows of concrete pylons. One has been pulled out, leaving a deep groove in the earth. The missing pylon is still at the corner, being dragged around a giant millstone by a small blue tractor.
The steel reinforced concrete power poles, some short, some long, one short and very wide with dirt on it, now next to each other outside the garden in some pointless grass.
The soil in front of the garden, churned up by many attempts at pulling the two biggest concrete poles. The tractor tyres are barely visible at the edge, covered in more earth.
#Homestead#Cleanup#Tractor
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Y⃒̸̷̝̜̙ͥͥͥngmar

It's finally spring*, so garden cleanup can commit!

First, this water carrier contraption needs to get out of the way. The tank is actually just rolling around on top of the trailer frame.

It's been sitting so long, the planks it sat on rotted completely and it sank deep into the ground.

One wheel actually spun, the other got convinced with a pry bar.

Parked it under a big apple tree for now.

* May be a false spring, but we take it

Small blue tractor has an ancient water tank trailer attached. The front has been lifted out of the earth by the three point hitch while the rear with the steel wheels is still sunken in deeply. A ratchted strap secures the tank to the trailer and an old metal bucket covers the filler hole. The weather is fucking brilliant.
Different angle of the same scene, now from behind. The trailer has moved, the left wheel turned, the right wheel is still stuck and leaving a groove in the ground from dragging. A car is parked in front of a yellow house.
#Homestead#Tractor#Cleanup
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