Between the River Hills & the River Bottom

[cliftonbros89]

To start off I've been a member here on GJ for a few years. I've read a lot of threads, got a lot of ideas, shared a few of my own, and found a lot of information on a lot of tools I never knew about before.

I've read several other members galleries of their shops, garages, jobs and what not so I thought maybe I'd share my own. I got the idea after following along with jblnut's Out on Quaker Road.

To give a brief history, I live on a farm in Missouri right along the Mississippi. Fourth generation raised on the home place farm. Third generation to live in the house where my parents still live.

It's just me, my father and my uncle that still farm. Although the last 2 years my uncle has been semi-retired. Up until the last few years, including doing custom work we covered right at 3,000 acres. But due to a few rental farms being sold, a landlord taking over the farming of a few places, dropping some custom jobs and dropping a rent farm that we were going in the hole on we're currently just under 1,500 acres with just under 200 head of cattle.

As I said we dropped a farm we were going in the red on, plus we cut back a bit since my uncle is getting in to retirement mode. Plus, 2017 has been a bit of a rough year. In January my father was diagnosed with cancer. It was a rough road for him. But he's slowly working his way back now. We luckily had him to help out a bit this fall.

We farm a bit in the river bottom along side the river. Then we also farm some hill ground. The lay of the land varies a lot just with in miles of farms. It makes thing a bit challenging at times.

So, that as I said is just a brief history. I started this thread later than I intended to. I also realized I'm starting this at more of an uneventful time of year for anyone who may follow along.

Here's the start of some of the daily life between the river bottom and the river hills.

 

[cliftonbros89]

We're wrapping up fall activities right now. It's been a busy fall but isn't turning out a very prosperous one.



We hit the corn pretty hard but yields weren't the greatest for the most part. It was an excessively wet spring, then the end of summer/beginning of fall we ran into a drought making it rough for the corn and soybeans.




The last few years one of my main jobs this time of year has been running the trucks. Constantly rushing to unload trucks and keep up with the combine. Also, getting stuck moving augers from one bin to the other.



Day and night it's got to be done. But since we don't have quite as much ground to cover as we used to we don't hit it quite as hard as we used to either.



Occasionally I'll have to haul off a load to a port or place where barges get loaded to haul off grain of our own or a landlords part. This is one of the places I haul to. It's a pretty big place straight across the river from us. I can actually see it from my dad's


We have one Deere combine with a grain cart that we run for corn. This was a picture my sister took just before we got rained out one day at the beginning of the season.


For soybeans we run the big combine we use for corn and we have another older and smaller Deere we also use. Having 2 machines was really nice when we were covering more ground and were still doing custom work. It made things move quite a bit faster. We also use the smaller one to harvest wheat in the summer.



Just a few things to get us started.

 

[cliftonbros89]

This time of year we also plant wheat to harvest for the summer and we've been planting a cover crop of rye on a few farms to help the ground out a bit between crops. We also cut some of the rye for silage hay for the cattle.

We get most of our wheat, rye and soybean seed in bulk and usually put it on one of these auger wagons to load the drill and the planter. Works a bit easier that way.

I can't seem to find a picture of our drill at the moment.

 

[cliftonbros89]

Despite the fact we still have a few beans out yet and a lot of fall ground work to do it's been a bit damp due to a few rains so I've started in on what takes up a lot of my winter time. Shop time. I bring in each tractor service it, do the regular maintenance, do a bit of an inspection and check for any potential problems. I don't consider myself a mechanic by any means but I some how fell in charge of a lot of this type of thing.


Today and yesterday I worked on our 4020. Just regular oil change, check out all the fluids, inspection for any major leaks or any other issues.

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It also got a bath and a wax job on the sheet metal. I try to get every tractor a good coat of wax each winter, even if it may not hold up long. At least the look nice and clean for a little while.

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I've also been working on our 2520 in between everything else lately too. It was due for an oil change, needed all filters replaced and batteries serviced. It's also due for a good radiator flush. It was pretty well checked over already. Just didn't have a thermostat gasket on hand. Something I'll have to add to my parts list to get for inventory (another winter job of mine).

I've learned to keep repair and maintenance records for all of our tractors, trucks and equipment. It makes keeping track of things a lot easier. Each piece of equipment has (or will soon have) its own sheet for specifics for inspection, list of parts replaced with part numbers, dates and hours. Also pages of notes for special repairs made or things to look after for potential repairs in the future.

I guess a lot of this is my own fault after being tired and aggravated of break downs during busy seasons. A lot of those can be avoided if you just take the time to fix things ahead of time. Although the occasional flat tire, blown hydraulic hose, or faulty sensor can't be an unsuspecting surprise that always keep things interesting.

 

[jblnut]

It's about time you put some pics of those beautiful green machines up here !!!

If you ever get tired of taking care of that 4020 I'll gladly come get it and give it a new home

I wouldn't mind seeing some more pictures of the shop and grain setup when you get a chance. Give me something to drool over

 

[Growlertdi]

After following JBL for so long, I have to join this one. what you guys do is facinating to follow. Thanks!

 

[cliftonbros89]

It's about time you put some pics of those beautiful green machines up here !!!



If you ever get tired of taking care of that 4020 I'll gladly come get it and give it a new home



I wouldn't mind seeing some more pictures of the shop and grain setup when you get a chance. Give me something to drool over

I'm not sure we could ever part with that 4020. It's been to hell and back. That and our 3020 are two tractors we still have and use that my grandpa bought brand new. With that 158 loader and the 4430 front end on it there's not much it can't do.

There will for sure be more pictures to come. I have quite a few from the past few years. I'd have to dig around from some older ones. Especially ones showing how much the shop has changed from when I was a kid to now.

 

[cliftonbros89]

This time of year is always busy with feeding cattle too. Constantly checking on them, feeding mineral, protein tubs, putting out hay, grinding feed.

A few weeks ago we weened about 43 calves. We have them divided in 2 groups right now.


Right now I bucket feed them every morning. I try to get to them before the sun comes up but that doesn't always happen either.

I'll also bucket feed the cows maybe twice a week to look them over good. We also have a lot of heifers the I feed several times a week as some of them just recently had their first calves and a few more are due to have them soon.


We'll be running the weened calves through the chute today for shots, worming, and to cut the bull calves. It can make for a long and sometimes aggravating morning. The calves don't always cooperate.

I will defiantly have plenty of cattle job pics soon.

 

[DynoDave]

Look forward to following along.

 

[1949 caddyman]

When I see the clean waxed green Deers I hear the country song “she thinks my tractors ****”

 

[cliftonbros89]

There's a small farm about 10 miles away from ours that we rent. It has about 30 acres of crop ground and it has some pasture ground we run a small herd on.

This summer we had yet another big down pour in just under an hour. It was several inches in about 45 minutes.

This farm has a creek on the edge of it. The cattle like to venture down to a spring that runs to the creek in the summer. The creek was already high from rain before this day. Unfortunately when this rain came through our bull was down near that creek. The rain made the creek rise at an outrageous rate. Quick enough and high enough it caught our bull and washed him down the creek.



I checked on the cows that afternoon and couldn't locate the bull anywhere. I'd received a phone call from another farmer in area that said someone found a bull up the road and they weren't sure who's it was.

The above picture was taken by the woman who's house the bull ended up at. I didn't see it until after the story was over. He's trip down stream ended up being at least 2 miles. It broke one of his back legs pretty bad.

Luckily I was able to recruit my brother-in-law and the guy who called me to help load him. So with help from them, some gates I brought along, a heavy rope and the bull willing to be somewhat cooperative we got him loaded on the trailer.


This is him laying in the same spot as the picture above after the water receded that afternoon. You could tell he had a rough day to say the least.

 

[cliftonbros89]

When I see the clean waxed green Deers I hear the country song “she thinks my tractors ****”

I can't say the same as I listened to Led Zeppelin I and Led Zeppelin II all day yesterday working on both of those tractors

 

[Lunker]

Love Farm Threads! Subscribed!

 

[Hugo L.]

Did you save the bull?

 

[cliftonbros89]

Did you save the bull?

No, unfortunately we did not. His leg was really messed up. I even talked to a guy I know who's a vet up north and he even said it wouldn't have been worth it to try to save him. Especially since there was no guarantee when and if he'd be able to breed again. So, a local butcher shop bought him.

Really was a shame. He was a great bull. Only about 6 years old too.

 

[cliftonbros89]

Today wasn't very eventful. Finally got all the calves their shots and all the bulls cut. Now we have all of them in one lot. Well probably keep them until after the first of the year when they're a little bigger.

I managed to only have my foot stomped on once while holding down a bull calf. So all in all it didn't go too bad. Just a few wild ones.


I ground a batch of feed for them this evening. They have the ground feed to eat and hay. I used the 4020 I serviced and cleaned yesterday to grind the feed



Luckily despite the mud and dust from grinding the fresh wax job on the 4020 still looked good.

Yeah, I know the front tire is bald. It's going to be replaced soon. I have a few other jobs to do to the 4020 later on. Just waiting to order parts. Our local John Deere dealer always has a parts and filter sale in December. So unless it's a rush, this time of year I just wait to order everything all at once during the sale. Helps out when I inventory parts.

This evening I started the radiator flush on the 2520. I noticed some oily looking stuff in the radiator. Didn't look too good. I'm not sure where it's coming from. I drained it last night. Then flushed the system after I ran some cleaner through it.


I flushed things out and there was a bit of oil still in the water. So I ended up putting some more cleaner in it again and ran it some more. I let it run a little longer this time. There was some more oil came out when I drained everything.

I would pressure test the system but my pressure tester doesn't fit the neck of these older JD radiators. They're a bit smaller than the regular old metal neck on your older cars and trucks. So this may take a little while. Especially since I'm working on it in between everything else.

I was also joined this evening by some company

This cat showed up about 3 years ago, close to this time of year. I don't mind her being around. She's good at catching mice and moles. Plus she's not afraid to stand her ground against a **** or a opossum. She doesn't stick around much in the summer but she hangs out quite a bit in the winter. She likes to sneak in the shop to catch a nap out of the cold.


I also managed the culprit who's been throwing my feed buckets around over the night. He knocks them all over every night in hopes he'll find a kernel or two of corn. For some reason they never seem to be interested in the ground up corn. They'll dig through a pile of the ground stuff just to find a full or half kernel that made it through the grinder. They can make a mess doing this sometimes.

 

[omrkr]

That is a sharp side console 2520. How do you like the newer green JD toolboxes? I have a top and bottom set of the older black and gray jd boxes. I would have rather had the green but they were not around. The black shows too much dust and fingerprints.

 

[cliftonbros89]

That is a sharp side console 2520. How do you like the newer green JD toolboxes? I have a top and bottom set of the older black and gray jd boxes. I would have rather had the green but they were not around. The black shows too much dust and fingerprints.

The 2520 isn't bad. It's a diesel. Not a lot of those around. It usually get 125-150 hours on it each year.

I'm very happy with the toolboxes. After doing some digging I found they're made by QCI, the same company that manufactures the boxes for Menards, Extreme Tools, Montezuma, and Tool Vault. They're not Snap On quality but much better than the "stainless" Craftsman box I had before.

I have the 72" with hutch and last year about this time of year I bought the 56" box too. They're not fully loaded by any means. But it's nice to stick things in the 56" box that I don't use as much, like tap and die sets, pipe thread sets, certain power tools, pipe wrenches, things like that. They're built pretty well. They don't show dirt to bad. They do show oily and greasy smudges, especially on the chrome handles. But I am definitely satisfied with them. I don't think I'll be getting rid of them any time soon. Plus I have plenty of room to grow my collection.

 

[cliftonbros89]

Another routine service check this week was on our Kubota RTV 900. It usually gets full service this time of year as it usually get at about 100-120 hours, right about at exactly a year. About 100 hours is a main service interval for it and I don't care much for running oil in something like it much over a year.

All metric fasteners except the lugs on the wheels. Which doesn't bother me. What annoys me is it's all different sizes from what I'm used to on all the newer Deere stuff. But at least there was nothing wrong with it. Just an engine oil and filter change. I also replaced the hydraulic, transmission and fuel filters. Topped everything off and gave everything a good lube job.

We've had the Kubota since we bought it new 12 years ago. It's stating to show some wear but still runs great. We had a cracked head end of last year. But we learned that can be quite a common issue with these motors. Although, the local dealer claims they've never had any cracked head issues. Other than that I'd flat out take it any day for doing actual work over the likes of a Polaris Ranger. Being a diesel it's doesn't have the rpms to have the speed. But it can go just about anywhere and haul almost anything. This little rig gets used for a lot of stuff.

 

[jblnut]

I've been thinking a Gator would be nice around the farm but I've seen ALOT of those Kubota RTV's out on farms lately. I'd have one or the other in the shed already but I can't get over the idea that either is still more of a want/toy than a need/tool.

 

[cliftonbros89]

I've been thinking a Gator would be nice around the farm but I've seen ALOT of those Kubota RTV's out on farms lately. I'd have one or the other in the shed already but I can't get over the idea that either is still more of a want/toy than a need/tool.

Back when we first got it dad wanted an upgrade from a fourwheeler. Honestly, it was well worth it! It's great to use for checking/fixing on fences. We have a lot of fences that still follow the property lines so they're down the hills and through the woods. It'll hold all our fencing supplies and tools no problem.

Plus I use it all the time to feed cattle. It works good for chasing some down or herding them in too. We also use it quite a bit for little jobs like spraying weeds on fences rows and in the pasture. It gets used almost everyday. Even handy to go around to check a few close fields. Or hell its nice to even go out the road and get the mail.

I have to say though another reason for dad making the decision on it is we're fairly avid hunters. Him and my uncle a little more so than me (I'm left to pick up their slack while their out hunting most the time). So it works great for retrieving deer and what not.

It does pretty good in the winter. You can turn the key to let the glow plugs get warmed up. But I think I'm going to get the kit for the block heater to put on it this winter. I just feel better letting the engine be warmed up then running it cold. Kind of hard on things.

 

[Dividing Creek]

Cool to see all the green iron.
We farm 600 acres here in Va. Just a small cow/calf and hay operation. We have all old John Deere's; 1973 JD 301a commercial with loader "Beastie", a 1978 2040 "Little John" , and an early 90's 6300 with loader "Big John".
We usually target calves to be born late Feb early March as winter breaks. I saw you have heifers dropping their first calves now. Have you suffered any winter losses with young calves ?

 

[walt111]

cliftonbros89 I have a john deer gator 850D. Four wheel drive on demand and a locking differential. Bought new in 2010 one great machine. I don't have a big farm or cows or anything like that, but it sure is handy to tow my trailer, get the mail, etc. I will be watching this thread.
walt

 

[cliftonbros89]

Cool to see all the green iron.
We farm 600 acres here in Va. Just a small cow/calf and hay operation. We have all old John Deere's; 1973 JD 301a commercial with loader "Beastie", a 1978 2040 "Little John" , and an early 90's 6300 with loader "Big John".
We usually target calves to be born late Feb early March as winter breaks. I saw you have heifers dropping their first calves now. Have you suffered any winter losses with young calves ?

Don't worry. There's plenty more green to see that I haven't posted yet.

The one heifer that we're waiting on to have a calf is one that we bought back in January already bred. Wasn't much we could do with that. But we have a bull in with each lot of cows we have year round. Winter can come with a casualty or two. But for the most part we get along pretty well.

Last winter was fairly mild here and we didn't loose one calf all winter. Of corse we always keep an eye on them to make sure they aren't getting sick. But of corse sometimes it's not always winter that does them in. Of corse there can always be complications with the cow having it. Then every once in awhile a cow doesn't always want to claim the calf. We usually have more trouble with calves getting sick after we ween them than when their small.

Like I said for the most part we hardly ever loose one. We have lost a few cows the last few years. Mainly just from the herd getting up in age. Being the reason for the new heifers.

 

[cliftonbros89]

There may be a delay or two. Deer season started. It's a little rainy. So off to the woods with no cell service is where I stay.


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[jblnut]

There may be a delay or two. Deer season started. It's a little rainy. So off to the woods with no cell service is where I stay.

Deer hunting cracks me up. We plant a "deer plot" for a neighbor that is literally 15' from our field. I don't know why the deer would prefer to go in his 60x100 patch of corn instead of the 50 acres next to it but they must. A guy I work with pays someone very good money to till, fertilize and plant his 1 acre deer plot (which I guess is HUGE for a deer plot). He told me he had almost $1,000 invested in it SO FAR this year. I think I need to start custom planting deer plots ......

Good luck out there, kill them all.

 

[cliftonbros89]

Deer hunting cracks me up. We plant a "deer plot" for a neighbor that is literally 15' from our field. I don't know why the deer would prefer to go in his 60x100 patch of corn instead of the 50 acres next to it but they must. A guy I work with pays someone very good money to till, fertilize and plant his 1 acre deer plot (which I guess is HUGE for a deer plot). He told me he had almost $1,000 invested in it SO FAR this year. I think I need to start custom planting deer plots ......



Good luck out there, kill them all.

Oh believe I know! I know a lot of guys that do the same. I go to a patch of woods my grandpa (my mom's father) owns that's on the opposite side of our farm. I let everyone else spend the money on the food plots and hiring "deer management specialist". I'm in it for the meat! Doe, buck, big, little, doesn't matter. It's like I always say, if it's brown it's down!

Between my dad and I we get meat for ourselves. Some for my grandpa if we doesn't get one. Then I usually get one for an uncle of mine. I usually trade him deer meat for whiskey!

 

[cliftonbros89]

Back from the woods...for now. Had to get hay to all the cattle. Loaded them up on Friday. Didn't take them long to eat it all up.

Friday morning started off slow as we put out hay to all the cattle, as I already mentioned. Found a coyote scoping out some calves. So I put an end to that pretty quick. Took a picture, but I decided not to post it.

Friday afternoon we finally got the last of the beans cut. We had a strip of about 15-20 acres left in a field that was in a low wet spot and got planted pretty late. They were just dry enough to cut finally. Dad wanted them out before deer season started anyway.


We used the bigger combine, the 9770. It has a 35 foot header on it. Nice for in the bottom ground. But it's a pain in the *** sometimes for hill ground (my uncle insisted we need a 35 foot header last time we traded combines, he's discovered it wasn't the best decision).


That's it as it heads to the barn as it's finally finished for the season.

Unfortunately, it was a bit wet on the field road. The trailer truck got hung up in a wet spot.

Luckily, a chain and a tug with my pick-up was enough to give it a little bit of traction to get out.

Since then it's just been hunting. I've been trying to make sure dad gets to enjoy it. We weren't sure he'd be able to this year with all the trouble he's had. Luckily, it's been pretty good for him so far.

As far as tomorrow goes, I need to try to get some work done. More rain chances this week.

 

[cliftonbros89]

Got a little ground work in yesterday before another shower moved in.

Had the 8760 hooked to the ripper already. I spent 13 hours straight in this thing yesterday. We wanted to get a lot done yesterday since we knew we’d get rain today and chances at the end of the week.



We never sink the ripper down to far. Just enough to bring some new soil on top. It’s 7 shank so it’s not super wide. But it’s enough to pull that 8760 down in black dirt.


Hard to see, but dad got started in different field with the 8400 and chisel plow.


We rolled til 10:30 last night til we’d finished the field we were at. Still have another 50 acre field that down the road a few miles.

 

[sublime68charger]

awesome pics and will be following along.

did that 4430 front end just bolt up to the 4020?

how many times did you break the 4020 front end before changing it over?

 

[cliftonbros89]

awesome pics and will be following along.



did that 4430 front end just bolt up to the 4020?



how many times did you break the 4020 front end before changing it over?

Front end was switched over when I was a kid so I didn’t get to take part in actually doing it. But I think they had to make a plate to bolt to the 4020 with bolt holes for the 4430 front end.

I think the standard front end broke a few times. Due to the loader I believe. Same with our 3020. It has a 148 loader on and it ended up with a 4430 front end as well. No problems since then.


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[cliftonbros89]

Last Few days haven’t been very productive. Just feeding cattle and running some errands.

Flushed out the radiator on the 2520 again. I’m still searching to see if I can find some sort of adaptor for those older Deere radiators to fit on my pressure tester. My Matco guy is looking and my former Snap On guy, who now works at Napa is working on it too.

Speaking of Napa and radiators I picked up this at Napa

I saw them online a few weeks ago. I’ve read a lot of good reviews about them. Plus Napa had them at half of what Amazon has them for. Ones to shoot air through radiators, the other is for shoot water. I didn’t use them on anything yet. I just hooked them up and tried them. The seem to have some pretty good power behind them.



I got a little bit of time in to do a little bit of hunting too. Although with no success. I’m just never in the right place at the right time.

Pops managed to have a bit of luck though. Managed to save the heart. One of my favorite parts to eat!!

 

[Riley]

Pretty good sized deer. Beautiful country! Looking forward to following along.

 

[dchance]

Glad you started the thread, looking forward to more posts.

Have a good Thanksgiving

Dwight

 

[cliftonbros89]

Not a very busy week this week for once. Decided to take it slow to allow dad some time to finish our rifle season. I went with him a few times as he wasn’t stuck on his own. He still isn’t 100% yet.

I’ve been helping him rearrange him & moms house a bit this week. When he was first diagnosed this year he was in pretty bad shape. For awhile he was just wheel chair bound. So we had to allow space for a chair, walker, shower stool, commode (which was on thing he didn’t have to use), and a hospital style bed that occupied the living room.

He’s in much better shape now so I helped him move all that out and we moved the regular living room furniture back in. So it’s been hunting, errand running and picking things up around the house for dad.



The cattle are still pleased to see me in the mornings. Deer season got them a bit out of routine.


Had an incident with the big calves the other day. They got a little excited while we were checking on a sick steer. They piled up in the corner of a lot by the waterer and feeder we had made for mineral. The mineral feeder took a good hit. Two them decided they couldn’t go under it, they couldn’t go over it. So they went straight through it.


In the plus side my Matco guy got in a few more Martin flare nut wrenches I ordered. 11/16”, 3/4”, and 13/16”. He usually keeps a 1 1/8” on the truck all the time. He said a few guys at a New Holland dealership like them for hydraulic couplers on hoses. I said the hell with it and have almost a full set of them now. They are awesome for hydraulic line and hose fittings. I use them all the time now.


As you can see they take up a bit of space in my SAE wrench drawer which is just about full. But there’s a few Craftsman things in there that’ll be gradually swapped out for other things.


I added a small set of drawers on top of one of my tool boxes. If you haven’t seen my toolboxes show up in any other post, they’re both John Deere green. I’ll have to do a post of my work area in the shop. I’ve been tired of going all over to grab things while I’m working on stuff so I’m making my own areas where I can keep majority of what I need on hand in one areas. So since the frame for the boxes was grey, naturally it didn’t fit in. So it got a quick paint job.


I’ve never liked how all those styles of drawers never have a back. It always lets things fall out, or dirt and bugs in. So I found a scrap piece of sheet metal. Cut it and sprayed a bit of paint on it to match then bolted it to the box. I’m pretty pleased with it.

I plan to keep things in there I’ll use pretty often that I don’t want taking up room in my tool box. Example, I like having studs made up to swap tires in which the hubs use bolts and don’t have studs on them. Studs like that can come in handy for several things. I also found I like having things like spare made up gaskets like for use on thermostats. I can take out the thermostat and clean the old gasket off. Then stick a premade gasket from that cheap thin gasket material to use to flush out a cooling system. Then when everything is clear I can put the thermostat back and put a proper gasket back in. That way a new one isn’t damaged from taking the housing apart a time or two.

 

[jblnut]

We never sink the ripper down to far. Just enough to bring some new soil on top. It’s 7 shank so it’s not super wide. But it’s enough to pull that 8760 down in black dirt.

3pt on a 8760 ?? That's all kinds of neat. There's a guy up here that puts an 11 shank V ripper on a 620 Quad with a 3pt. It is quite the sight to see !! They also have a 3pt concrete filled roller made from a 1,000gal propane tank they use on the silage pile in the fall.

Looks like you have more SAE wrenches than I do .... I can't have that. No one wants to be last in the race to have all the tools !!

 

[cliftonbros89]

3pt on a 8760 ?? That's all kinds of neat. There's a guy up here that puts an 11 shank V ripper on a 620 Quad with a 3pt. It is quite the sight to see !! They also have a 3pt concrete filled roller made from a 1,000gal propane tank they use on the silage pile in the fall.



Looks like you have more SAE wrenches than I do .... I can't have that. No one wants to be last in the race to have all the tools !!

8760 with 3pt and pto. No ******** around here. I’ve seen several 8760’s with 3pt at least. It works great for that ripper!

As far as the SAE wrenches go. That’s not counting the sets in the trucks. Or the 1 5/16”+ wrenches either.

 

[cliftonbros89]

Well started off thanksgiving splitting wood for dad. He heats the house on an outside wood stove. He’s still not quite in the shape to be throwing around blocks off wood so my brother-in-law helped.

Hooked the 60 to the splitter. We usually have the 420 hooked to it. But it didn’t want to start that morning. Had the old 1980 GMC 2 ton loaded with blocks. Didn’t take too long to split.



Used our “whatever you want to call it” hitch push the 420 in the shop with the 7230.


Looks like I’ll have more to work on next week. I’m hoping to get both the 420 and 2520 out of there next week. But there’s a lot on the schedule next week.

We split some more wood yesterday. Still probably have to have some more to get through winter.


There’s a little better shot of the splitter. Dad built it back in 2003. It’s a splitting sob. Two way blade on it makes things move a heck of a lot faster than the old 3pt splitter we used to have

 

[cliftonbros89]

End of the week wasn’t crazy busy. Just feeding the cattle, putting out hay and mineral.

A few weeks ago I order a 1/2” drive 12pt SAE crowfoot set from Snap On. It’s on back order. I emailed them to see if they had an idea when I’d get it in. They estimate I should have it by next week. We’ll see. But it’s a pretty expensive set. I no longer have a Snap On guy so I have to order things direct. Makes it hard to get deals on stuff. So when I emailed them to check the ETA I asked if they could throw in a hat or a T-shirt since it’s such an expensive set. They said they’d check with the promotions department.

Yesterday evening I was at the shop and the UPS guy rolled in. He handed me a box from Snap On. I cut it open. What a surprise!

They sent me a hoodie, t-shirt, hat and cup. I was by no means expecting that. I was happy to say the least.


Dropped by my Matco guys house last night. He gave me a set of Ajax roll pin punches for the air hammer that I ordered. He said they’re made really well. I think it was right around $50 for set. A lot cheaper than some other brands. He also gave me a set of socks too. It was a good day for promotional items yesterday!

 

[MacTexas]

I have a friend who farms in South Dakota, he is also a pioneer seed corn dealer. He is always ready to give away promotional items to his customers.
I am going to enjoy following this thread, keep up the good work. If you don't mind me asking, how old are you?