Above 1200 Sq/FT Out on Quaker Road

[jblnut]

This year I am going to take a more proactive approach to deter raccoons from messing with my sweet corn. An electric fence should help. Hopefully ....

The steers kept chewing the wire off the one garage door eyeball dealio so I moved it so they can't reach it

The little room in the hayshed is ready for rebar and concrete !!

The guys came today to put crushed concrete on the new chicken barn driveway. Fabric and all, doing it right I guess. There will be a loaded semi coming in and out every two days on average with 9 semis of chicken going out at the end of the flock. This driveway needs to be built to take the abuse.

33 loads so far and they're only up to the barn with a little done on the north side of the barn.

 

[Lunker]

Great thread. Really enjoy reading.

What's the business model on the chicken farm? They pay you to lease the land and they put up all the infrastructure?

 

[jblnut]

Great thread. Really enjoy reading.

What's the business model on the chicken farm? They pay you to lease the land and they put up all the infrastructure?

Thanks for following along !! I enjoy posting it so I'm glad someone enjoys reading it

I own the barn and all the equipment in it. Gold'n'Plump supplies the chickens, feed, bedding and pays the utilities related to each flock. It is a contract barn so I provide the labor, site and building. It's not a bad deal really. Which is why I'm doing it I guess

 

[C_F]

The new driveway is looking good! Regarding the fabric, is that used so the crushed concrete stays on top & doesn't get pushed into the dirt over time? As you may surmise, I don't know diddly about building roadways (or driveways at farms).

 

[jblnut]

Well it's time to start getting the equipment ready to spray the corn and beans. The duals need to come off the 7630 so as to follow down the rows better.


Gotta break the lug bolts free. 1.25" heads. Gonna use the big stuff. If you're wondering, this is a Craftsman endorsed pipe extension


Pops getting the bolts the rest of the way out with the old trusty C'Man 1/2" electric impact.


Since each tire/rim is quite heavy both of us are needed to move them around so no snappy snappy of the pictures whilst that was happening.


3/4" Craftsman breaker bar, Center? branded 18" extension, 1 1/4" Wright socket and the officially endorsed pipe all played a part in today's activities.


I went through the socket box and found that there were 12 different brands of sockets making up the 3/4" set dad has. Left to right:Blue Point, Cornwall, International, Snap On, Craftsman, Klutch, TrueCraft, Proto, O.T.C., PowerCraft, Wright, and Northern.

 

[jblnut]

The new driveway is looking good! Regarding the fabric, is that used so the crushed concrete stays on top & doesn't get pushed into the dirt over time? As you may surmise, I don't know diddly about building roadways (or driveways at farms).

Thanks for the good word on the driveway !! The trucks just kept coming and coming. They've got around 400yds on the driveway and figure they'll need about that again to finish the rest around the barn.

They put the fabric down because the clay below it was a bit wet and they didn't want the layers mixing. It works very well.

 

[moon_tanner]

I read through your posts and I learned quite a bit. Thank you so much for sharing your experiences with us.

I am very thankful for grocery stores!

 

[jblnut]

I read through your posts and I learned quite a bit. Thank you so much for sharing your experiences with us.

I am very thankful for grocery stores!

Thanks for stopping by and I'm glad I could learn you something

 

[1949 caddyman]

Thanks to farmers we are able to eat each day!

 

[sgfarm]

I was thinking about you and your farm as I finally finished planting my 17 acres of corn using an old White 4 row planter. Thinking your equipment would probably not even fit in my little 6.5 acre fields. But I got it done, late but a very wet spring up here.

Anyway, thanks for posting what you do and why it is good reading.

Thanks

Mike

 

[jblnut]

Thanks to farmers we are able to eat each day!

You're welcome. I have encountered far too many people that take their food sources for granted and know not where it actually comes from or how much work it is. I enjoy sharing our little piece of the food chain supply with y'alls.

 

[jblnut]

I was thinking about you and your farm as I finally finished planting my 17 acres of corn using an old White 4 row planter. Thinking your equipment would probably not even fit in my little 6.5 acre fields. But I got it done, late but a very wet spring up here.

Anyway, thanks for posting what you do and why it is good reading.

Thanks

Mike

We have multiple fields under 10 acres with the smallest being 1.9 acres. Our equipment is about as big as it can be to still work those small patches !!

White has made one of the best overall planters for a long time. We went green because there are no White dealers near us. After all, a product is only as good as the service behind it and we didn't want to be left with no way to get parts.

What do you have for a tractor and other machinery ??

 

[jblnut]

I moved the Chicken Barn cams to a more permanent location. I put one looking North and one looking South. It is WET out there with just under 2" of rain needing to dry out !!!



I plan to put another camera looking East as well but I have only got the West one up for now. This is going to be very handy so I can see when they run out of feed each day so I don't over or under feed. Ideally they should clean it up each day but I don't want them to be out of feed for more than an hour.

 

[sgfarm]

What do you have for a tractor and other machinery ??

Tractor is an old Massey 180 with a loader. Ford 230 10' disc and a Kongsklide 9' s tine cultivator. Borrowed corn planter this year. Just bought an old Massey 540 combine with 12' reel and 4 row narrow head. This summer will be fixing up the combine and getting it field ready again. a few other small things like snow blower and scraper blade for the laneway. A manure spreader than needs a new floor chain. and a Mustang 342 skid steer that needs a new engine. But that one will have to wait for a while.

But no shop everything is done outside, the old dairy hip roof barn just is not big enough to get anything bigger than the tractor inside right now. New shop on the wish list but have to finish the house upgrades first.

Thanks again for the info and details. It is appreciated.

Mike

 

[Dividing Creek]

Those are the cleanest holstein's I've ever seen.

 

[ABSTIFFGS]

Those are the cleanest holstein's I've ever seen.

He goes out there every evening just when they are about to fall asleep with a sponge and a bucket and cleans the up

 

[jblnut]

Tractor is an old Massey 180 with a loader. Ford 230 10' disc and a Kongsklide 9' s tine cultivator. Borrowed corn planter this year. Just bought an old Massey 540 combine with 12' reel and 4 row narrow head. This summer will be fixing up the combine and getting it field ready again. a few other small things like snow blower and scraper blade for the laneway. A manure spreader than needs a new floor chain. and a Mustang 342 skid steer that needs a new engine. But that one will have to wait for a while.

But no shop everything is done outside, the old dairy hip roof barn just is not big enough to get anything bigger than the tractor inside right now. New shop on the wish list but have to finish the house upgrades first.

Thanks again for the info and details. It is appreciated.

Mike

We used to have an old OMC 320 back in the day. Dad swears about it when I bring it up

That 342 is a tad bigger and newer than what we had. They are sweet machines for the size they are.

 

[jblnut]

Those are the cleanest holstein's I've ever seen.

Happy clean beef tastes better than sad ****** beef

He goes out there every evening just when they are about to fall asleep with a sponge and a bucket and cleans them up

I laughed, then I twitched a bit because something was WRONG. I fixed your spelling error and I feel better now

 

[jblnut]

Well a relative of mine delivered an 18"x 24' culvert today to fill in a void we've been bumbling through for almost 2 years now. It will be nice when it's in place with a proper driveway over it !!

Also, the corn is up !!!!!!! (Actually has been for about a week, I'm just slow with stuff ...)

Beans are on their way out of the ground too !!!!

 

[C_F]

With all that rain you got, I'm surprised the corn isn't two feet tall by now!

 

[jblnut]

With all that rain you got, I'm surprised the corn isn't two feet tall by now!

It is all out of the ground but has been so cloudlyish lately that it's all a nasty shade of yellow !! We need some sunny days !!

 

[jblnut]

Dear ABSTIFFGS: I also have rented a skid loader to move some dirt by my place. One rather large rental payment and the guy let me take it home and said keep is as long as I want

Pops in his little digger getting ready to place the culvert.

18"x24' spiral steel culvert. I hope it's large enough, there is a lot of water that comes through here when it downpours ...

Most of the dirt is in place. I need to haul a couple more loads, I ran out of dirt from by the barn so I need to dig some sand out to haul over here yet.

Miss Lily conquered this little pile of crushed concrete and was jumping up and down yelling "Good job daddy, look at all that dirt" over and over again.

 

[jblnut]

The two posts on the end have broken free due to a couple wild moments in the skid loader so it's time to fix them.

This one holds up two gates and it is rather inconvenient that it is broken. The plan is to fill the hole with concrete to prevent it from moving. If it wants to move after that I suppose it deserves to be set free.

After we got sick of digging holes we got the little shed ready to pour. 50% tie should be enough for what it is. Gotta put some rocks under the rebar because I'm way to tight to buy those silly little plastic rebar holder-uppers when I have lots of free rocks I can use.

We ordered the concrete for 1:00 delivery and the truck backed into the shed at 1:02. Not bad.

I asked for a float to be brought along and the driver only threw on 12' of handles, the pad is 16' deep so dad improvised to be able to reach all the way.

Doesn't look to bad after just the big float.

As stated before, if it wants to move now I guess I'll have to let it !!

Here it the other post that was busted out. It is much better now You can sort of see the string holding the post level ...

We decided it was a good idea to beef them all up so we did. T'was a lot of digging with a shovel but they should last longer than I'll need them now.

While we were waiting the appropriate amount of time for the concrete to set up the next project showed up so we started setting them in place.

Needs some serious straightening but they're all there.

Troweled and smooth. Looks nice !!

Whilst washing concrete off of everything my mother took it upon herself to put rock around the hydrant. It is quite functional and kept her busy for a while

On the way to the house for supper I walked past the garden and I noticed the green beans were starting to poke out. My phone can hardly figure out how to make phone calls but it will focus this far in without issue.

 

[jblnut]

We went to Menards today to get a few things for the little shed-in-a-shed.

We bought 10' lumber for the walls and trimmed them down to exactly 10' with a little jig I made for my "jobsite trailer" so I didn't have to measure each of them one at a time.

The little people even got in on the action. Miss Lily was sweeping all the styrofoam off the floor and Alyssa was picking up rocks and placing them all over. I'm sure I'll be finding them for years to come in places I didn't know existed.

This is where we finished for the day. Not bad for working 1:30 - 8:00. Tomorrow we should get the floor joists on and the headers framed in for the man door and garage door.

 

[Lunker]

What's the shed for? Office

 

[jblnut]

What's the shed for? Office

It will be used as an office/skid loader garage/vet room. When the skid loader is parked in the little shop by my house I cannot do anything in it as the skid loader takes up the whole space. It'll free up my shop to be used as a shop, not a garage. It'll also keep the skid loader closer to the barns. Plus, we were looking for something to do

 

[ajohno]

You certainly have been busy. Great work all round.

 

[jblnut]

You certainly have been busy. Great work all round.

Thank you !!! I wouldn't have it any other way. I dislike sitting around doing nothing. It gives me too much time to think about all the stuff I need to get done.

 

[jblnut]

Last night I decided it was time to fire up the old Arens push mower and do some trimming. The old POS didn't want to stay running and I am sick of cleaning the damn carb EVERY spring so it's getting pushed into a corner somewhere. I went to the local Fleet Supply store and purchased a new Husquavarna with a 7.25hp Briggs. Never heard of Husquavarna but I am a Briggs fan and motor stuff is 99% of what goes wrong on a push mower so I'm gonna stick with what I like. It's a decent mower, nothing special. Don't hate it, I rather like it.


We managed to get all the floor joists up this morning so it was off to Menards to get some more stuffs.


My skid loader didn't want to lift high enough to put the pallet of flooring on top so we improvised. It worked pretty good for being as sketchy as it looks ....


It's been raining on and off for the last few days but the next couple look decent so we decided to cut hay. This reminds me of the default desktop background on Windows XP Pro ... but it's better because there's a tractor and discbine in it as well

 

[C_F]

My skid loader didn't want to lift high enough to put the pallet of flooring on top so we improvised. It worked pretty good for being as sketchy as it looks ....

That TOTALLY looks like something I would do. Hey, whatever works, right?

 

[Terrick down Under]

Hey, I am trying to clean up around the computer because I was eating my breakfast while catching up here.
When I was about to put the mesh sheets up on the roof of our house I had to stop in at a friends workshop and give him a bottle of JB as thanks for help on a job. HE asked what we are up to, so I told him. I had stacked two piles of pallets, on a beam, on the forks of the skidsteer, and was going to lift 25 full size sheet of F92 mesh up 3.6m (12'). HE said if I waited till 2pm that they would drop by on there way home from a quick job. SO I thought why not. We stopped and did 2 more jobs on the way home. Had a late lunch and was just walking out the garage door to start when my son yelled out " he's here but you better look at this! crawling up our driveway was a 120 ton crane with the fly jib attached. It took longer to set up the blocking for the out riggers than it took to pickup and place every sheet. I know I have some really good mates. Last week we lifted the 2 smaller beams for the veranda with our skid steer. best tool a bloke can have!!

 

[jblnut]

That TOTALLY looks like something I would do. Hey, whatever works, right?

You do what you must to get the job done

crawling up our driveway was a 120 ton crane with the fly jib attached.

I think I would get into trouble if I had access to something like that !!!!!

 

[jblnut]

I got the permanent Chicken Barn cams mounted and fired up finally. The area is so large I had to put one looking North and one looking South.

South one is pretty boring today ....

This is the curbing machine that will pour the footings tomorrow for the 624' lengths on the sidewalls.

They dig a 14' or so wide trench for the curbing machine to drive in while pouring the footings.

It really seems like a lot of dirt is getting moved around multiple times but what do I know

 

[Terrick down Under]

That curbing machine looks really interesting. Will you be able to get pics of it in action?

 

[jblnut]

That curbing machine looks really interesting. Will you be able to get pics of it in action?

I wasn't sure if I'd be home in time to catch them using it but I ducked out early to come be nosy !!

They are pouring the last 100' or so of the west wall.


Here is the form/mold. There are a couple large vibrators in the mold and in the hopper. The entire machine is guided by sensors that follow a string that is held up by large stakes. The string deal looked pretty hokey to me but it obviously works.


Three pieces of rebar go in the front of the mold.


The trucks dump into this hopper and the concrete is augered up to the main hopper.


It sure does a nice job !!!


They put rubber down to protect the footing. 6" will be exposed inside and 3" will be exposed outside. They are going to backfill and level the floor for concrete tomorrow.


After I was done being nosy we got some blurry hay baled. The dirtwork guy is going to mine sand out of this hill to be used under the floor so we had to get the hay baled or it would be dug up.

 

[Terrick down Under]

Glad that i wasnt there, cause i would have had my head inside every part of it. Thanks heaps for the pics.

 

[ajohno]

Im with you Terrick. I would of been all over it. Thanks for the pictures.

 

[C_F]

The entire machine is guided by sensors that follow a string that is held up by large stakes. The string deal looked pretty hokey to me but it obviously works.

That's similar to what they use here, to put curbs & gutters in a new subdivision. About 15 years ago, my oldest Son (he was 14 at the time) got in big time trouble when he & a couple friends went out one day and cut all the string in a new subdivision! I almost had to pay the contractors for the time to re-string the place.
The boy was grounded for quite a while over that little stunt.

Anyway, this is the first I've seen one of those machines set up to pour short walls, that's pretty cool! Thanks for posting the cool photos.

 

[Nolift911]

Great thread - really appreciate the detailed description of everything on the farm - I have seen all that stuff and always wondered what it is for???

Farming is cool...and going hi-tech!

No farms...no beer...bless you!

Keep up the good work and am looking forward to the chicken operation. Great cams to keep an eye on the construction!

Look forward to logging in and checking progress. Makes me feel like a lazy SOB sitting in an office all day watching you and your family work all day.

Thanks again!

 

[jblnut]

Glad that i wasnt there, cause i would have had my head inside every part of it. Thanks heaps for the pics.

I examined it closely the night before but they were getting a little jumpy when I was getting close to the string so I stayed sort of back

Im with you Terrick. I would of been all over it. Thanks for the pictures.

You're welcome !!!!!

That's similar to what they use here, to put curbs & gutters in a new subdivision. About 15 years ago, my oldest Son (he was 14 at the time) got in big time trouble when he & a couple friends went out one day and cut all the string in a new subdivision! I almost had to pay the contractors for the time to re-string the place.
The boy was grounded for quite a while over that little stunt.

Anyway, this is the first I've seen one of those machines set up to pour short walls, that's pretty cool! Thanks for posting the cool photos.

Sounds like you're lucky they didn't make you pay !! These guys spent a lot of time setting up that string. This one was straight and level, I can't imagine the work to do curb and gutter !!

Great thread - really appreciate the detailed description of everything on the farm - I have seen all that stuff and always wondered what it is for???

Farming is cool...and going hi-tech!

No farms...no beer...bless you!

Keep up the good work and am looking forward to the chicken operation. Great cams to keep an eye on the construction!

Look forward to logging in and checking progress. Makes me feel like a lazy SOB sitting in an office all day watching you and your family work all day.

Thanks again!

Farming is going more hi-tech all the time and I love being a part of it. I install these cameras at work so it's logical that I have a few at home too

No farms, no beer. I'm gonna use that saying often I thinks