Prickle Chain Repairs

Actually there were a few other jobs I got stuck into before the prickle chain repairs, come to think of it the prickle chain repairs where more of an after thought.

First up I fed our four mobs of ewes. Then spent a few minutes cleaning up a few stones from and old wall that collapsed a few months back. Next up refuel the John Deere 4440 and a quick trip to town with it to unload a boom spray for the rural shop. It was supposed to be quick, but the truck was a few hours later that it was supposed to be, so not such a quick trip after all.

It was after all that that I thought I'd shorten the chains on the prickle chain.. they were a bit loose ya see. So there it is in the yard behind the 4440. The chains can be seen (this is in the folded position - usually they sit flat on the ground) and it easy to see why it's called a prickle chain. The chain does wear over time so it gets looser and looser. The solution is to cut out a few links, join it up and you're all set to go.

Disconnecting the chain was the hardest bit. Those bolts hadn't been undone for a while, and they get pretty rough treatment running so close to the ground. The whole chain rolls as it is dragged over the ground, and the "prickles" do their job. So the bolts were quite tough to get undone, but once I undid it (there is one for each section of chain) I could just unhook the chain and cut out a couple of links with the angle grinder.

I'm still trying to undo the front section (the left side - the right side is visible too. Cutting the links. I took two off each section of chain.

John Deere 4440 and Cunningham prickle chain (in folded position)

Cloud Making

Yes that's, yesterday I was actually making clouds.. more on that later (including photographic evidence).

This post is for yesterdays activities which started out early in the morning to prepare for burning off again. I ran the prickle chain over a couple of paddocks, one I burnt yesterday - that was to stimulate any weed seeds that may have survived the burn so they might germinate and be sprayed out later. The second paddock chained was one I planned to burn, and that was to "fluff" up the grass on there so it would burn better. I used the John Deere 4440 with the prickle chain, and here's a couple of photos taken out the back window of the tractor while I was going along.

The afternoons task was to make clouds.. oh sorry I mean burn off the two paddocks I needed to. To avoid burning the trees to the ground I needed to backburn up to and then around the tree carefully first. Here's one of the boys working hard at backburning.

He's dragging a rake with burning grass. The paddock is completely on fire. This is the view from behind the fire. I laid one row of fire with the fire stick behind the ute and the wind carries it across the rest of the paddock.

Now for the cloud making. As the smoke rises up into the air you start to notice clouds forming. I guess the conditions have to be right, and I'm sure there's a complex scientific explanation for it all, but it's just interesting to watch. Here's a few pictures of my cloud (petty I couldn't work out how to make that cloud rain as well).