What kind of harvesting equipment?

I just got off the phone, from ordering $160.00 worth of hand tools. I needed 3 1/4" ratchets, 3 3/8" rachets, 3 1/2" ratchets, and 2 1/2" flex handles (breaker bars). In the last 3 yr's these tools have either evaporated, or been planted, and I suspect been planted! The wife says I just don't remember where I left them, however It can't be my fault, I have a memory like Etch-a-sketch, just don't bump me. With Spring here, I need to buy a harvestor, to harvest my tool crop, that surely will be a bumper crop! What do you guys use to pick tools with?

Maybe a potato digger with some big magnets.

I've plowed up a lot of old tools in my time.Never plowed up one that was usable.

I've bush-hogged and chopped up a Stihl chainsaw, 1- 250' roll of 3/12 w/ground, bicycle, full propane grill tank (not good). Plus, found two 1975 XJ-6 Jaguars I had forgotten about.

Needless to say, I go through shear pins like crazy!

A few years ago I layed my leatherman on top of a 4" sq beam on my sweep. Made a full round around 160 acres. Thought about the pleirs, and said a few adult words. Got off and the leather was still there. Oh yes I kissed a pair of pliers.

I've not managed to harvest any, but I'm like Maverick. I'm working on it.

I harvested a misplaced logging chain with a Howard Rotovator. Still haven't got the Rotovator fixed yet.

I wrapped an entire 16' cattle panel up in a pull behind shredder once.

Cut it up into 6" pieces with a torch and pulled them out one at a time.

It wasn't a day I'd brag about.

Gyromower and pickmup. Grandson was 'working' on wheels- an old mower. Put tools away in the grass. Gpop trims around hay shed. 1/2" ratchet deposited in pickmup cab via new hole just above hood and below roof. Preacher now refuses to talk to me...

Brought up alot stuff with the tomato harvester. You float the tomatoes up the belted chain with a thin layer of dirt.

A few days ago I was helping friends to air up a stubborn flotation tire. During the struggle I noticed a pair of pliers getting stepped on. When we got done he was looking for the pliers. I pointed out where I saw them go down. He had to dig a couple inches but there they were.

I found my 1 1/4 combination wrench in the snow last winter. It was a good thing it was a harbor frt. cheapie. The snow blower broke it in two and only sheared a pin and stalled my 30 hp. tractor. Now I have two 1 1/4 wrench's and keep one in each tractor to take a trailer ball on and off the draw-bar when needed.

I got out of the habbit of carry'n a pocket knife back when I worked for the chicken factory. I planted them in chicken houses all over western Ky and as far as I know none of them ever came up.

Dave

I remember custom cutting hay for a neighbor 30 years ago. Reed canary grass was hood high on the 4020. Apparently going down an old fence line a few hundred feet, cuz that"s when I gobbled the first oak fence post. Yes, that will plug a NH Haybine, especially with already having several strands of barbed wire on the rolls. I can picture two spots where I "know" about a 3/4 drive extension bar, and a 1/2 inch breaker bar. The best tool for finding a sharp tool is called a "rear tractor tire". Other than that, if you are just curious, and randomly searching, I"d suggest buying the magnetic electrolylizer (2006 edition) for your Essex Tri-Directional prime mover traction combobulator. Auto-Shift version, as opposed to the currently engineered infidelity speed design.

Sorry.....my mind was wondering....I meant the INDEFINITE speed design. I guess I was thinking of Army training, in the woods. Fugarwe Indian battle cry. Midnite, absolute silence, listening for the battle cry of those Indians....."We"re the fugarwe"!

I used to start out the forage choppers for a dealer. When JD had just brought out the "Iron Guard" on the choppers. I kept a bushel basket in the bed of my service truck. At the end of the week it would be full of things we found that would trip the "Iron guard".

I usually had a short piece of metal banding to throw into a windrow to show the farmer how the Iron Guard worked. This one guy was just sure he did not want to pay the extra money for the iron guard. He swore to me that his fields did NOT have any metal in them. I talked him into letting me demo a chopper that had the iron guard on it. When he started out I threw the short piece of banding into the second windrow thinking that he would get a round and then it would trip so he could see how it worked. It took us an hour to get back to that point. HE had the floor of his cab full of metal: wire, electric fence post,old hinges, just about everything but the kitchen sink. We never did find the banding I threw into the windrow. HE would not let that chopper leave the farm. He kept all of the stuff he found that first year in a old watering tank by the barn. He had over six hundred pounds of scrape that fall when he hauled it to town.

Worst tool I ever lost was a 1/2 breaker bar. I had just installed a new set of knives and shear bar in a JD self propelled forage chopper. I had it all back together. I started the cutter head up to sharpen the knives. I had forgotten the breaker bar on the back on the cutter head. It fell into the cutter head behind the Iron guard. Wiped out the new knives and shear bar. I paid the dealer for the parts and clocked out and fixed it on my own time.

Right after that I bought a bigger tool box and made sure every tool I had was in a specific place and was in a case, holder or roll pack. I have always cleaned up and inventoried my tools before starting anything up since then. I have found several thing that I had missed over the years but I never have tore anything else up.

Wish I had metal alert on our 3940.We put new knives and shear bar in and started chopping hay.About the third load found a hitch pin with a rope on that was lost last fall.We completly tore two knives off the drum and damaged eight more and the brackets on the drum were damaged as well.Latter that fall a small pry bar that was carried on the windrower fell of on a steep hill and we found that as well,about five knives that time. I hope to find a used 3950 with metal alert in the next few years.

I've found quite a few things either while plowing or using the feild cultivator. I've also found a hammer and grease gun while chopping, but before they made it into the machine. Just laying there waiting for me to pick 'em up.

Donovan from Wisconsin