{"id":3051,"date":"2013-03-07T03:00:57","date_gmt":"2013-03-07T08:00:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/JackieClay\/?p=3051"},"modified":"2013-03-07T03:00:57","modified_gmt":"2013-03-07T08:00:57","slug":"homesteading-is-all-about-thinking-outside-the-box","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/JackieClay\/2013\/03\/07\/homesteading-is-all-about-thinking-outside-the-box\/","title":{"rendered":"Homesteading is all about thinking outside the box"},"content":{"rendered":"

We love our new Oliver tractor we lovingly dubbed “The Hulk” (big, green, and VERY strong). But the first day Will used it to move a round bale of hay, he got stuck. Not in deep snow — it was on plowed yard. But it was pointed downhill and it wouldn’t back up. I had to pull him out with our truck! How humbling was that?<\/p>\n

Will knew immediately he needed tire chains or continue repeating that event. Our friend and neighbor, Jerry, had a set he’d sell, but Will quickly found out (after digging them out of the snow and ice that they were buried under) that they were way too narrow, although plenty long enough. Okay, that was $150. It was a good buy but they were useless. Unless\u2026<\/p>\n

\u2026Will set about figuring a way to make them the right size. First, he picked up a bucket of old truck tire chains from a 2\u00bd ton truck cheap at Do-Bid.com. Then he went down to his “junk” pile and brought two big, heavy-duty springs home. Using the torch, he cut down one side of the spring, separating the spring into a bucket full of rings, cut open on one side.<\/p>\n

\"Rings\"<\/a><\/p>\n

He cut lengths of chain out of the old truck tire chains, five links each. Then we set about making the old chains wider. First, he heated and opened each double-side hook so he could slip the new chain pieces onto them. Then he heated and bent the rings so he could slip them over both the big links and smaller, short lengths of chain.<\/p>\n

When that was done, I used the torch and heated each ring red hot in one spot and Will quickly grabbed it with lockjaws and slid a piece of steel under the union. With a 3-pound hand sledge, he quickly beat the ring closed. This took a while as there were a lot of rings down each long side of each tire chain! After this was finished, he used his wire-feed welder to weld each ring closed. He also had to manufacture an extra cross-length so there wouldn’t be a gap where the two ends of the chain met.<\/p>\n

\"Heating-ring\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Will-chains\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Today, the tractor is proudly wearing two sets of not-so-pricey tire chains and we’re wearing smiles. The Hulk won’t be stuck on slippery ground again, making our tractor much more useful around the homestead!<\/p>\n

Will priced a set of tractor chains last night on Craigslist for $400, used, that would have fit. But for less than half, we’re happy. Making things work is one of the most valuable homestead skills! — Jackie<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We love our new Oliver tractor we lovingly dubbed “The Hulk” (big, green, and VERY strong). But the first day Will used it to move a round bale of hay, he got stuck. Not in deep snow — it was on plowed yard. But it was pointed downhill and it wouldn’t back up. I had […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,18],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/JackieClay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3051"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/JackieClay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/JackieClay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/JackieClay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/JackieClay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3051"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/JackieClay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3051\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/JackieClay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3051"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/JackieClay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3051"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/JackieClay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3051"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}