Between the River Hills & the River Bottom

[Farmall450]

That's why you just have to do it yourself.

 

[Sifan]

I feel your pain ... was time to service two mowers with hydro transmissions. Service manual called for 20w50 synthetic oil. None on O'Really's shelf, no surprise, walk to counter, ask if they can order 20w50 synthetic oil? No need to, we have it on the shelf, unhuh ... well, we have 10/40 basically same only slightly different. Unhuh, just order if from your warehouse. Can't find it on their computer, I pull out my phone, pull up their site and give them their stock number, tell them to order me 4 quarts. Ok, be in tomorrow, do you want to pay for it now? Sure. Okay that will be $200+ What???? That's not right, according to your site, it should be ~$30. No, that's how much it says ... look over their shoulder, ummm you're ordering 4 CASES, not 4 QUARTS! Correct and pay for it. Next day, got a notification that my TWO orderS were ready to pick up. Stop to pick up my order and give them my name, yep, your two orders are here. They didn't change the 4 case order to 4 quarts, they added another order and didn't cancel out the other. Store manager tried telling me I special ordered it, I had to pay for it LOL picked up the 4 quarts I had paid for and said goodbye.

 

[rixtrix1]

I feel your pain ... was time to service two mowers with hydro transmissions. Service manual called for 20w50 synthetic oil. None on O'Really's shelf, no surprise, walk to counter, ask if they can order 20w50 synthetic oil? No need to, we have it on the shelf, unhuh ... well, we have 10/40 basically same only slightly different. Unhuh, just order if from your warehouse. Can't find it on their computer, I pull out my phone, pull up their site and give them their stock number, tell them to order me 4 quarts. Ok, be in tomorrow, do you want to pay for it now? Sure. Okay that will be $200+ What???? That's not right, according to your site, it should be ~$30. No, that's how much it says ... look over their shoulder, ummm you're ordering 4 CASES, not 4 QUARTS! Correct and pay for it. Next day, got a notification that my TWO orderS were ready to pick up. Stop to pick up my order and give them my name, yep, your two orders are here. They didn't change the 4 case order to 4 quarts, they added another order and didn't cancel out the other. Store manager tried telling me I special ordered it, I had to pay for it LOL picked up the 4 quarts I had paid for and said goodbye.

Aarrrrgh!

 

[cliftonbros89]

Well yesterday I started with trying to get the tire for the rake fixed. I went to one of the tire shops in town to drop it off. I was a bit unsure about it as we’ve had problems with them the last couple times we’ve done business with them. I told them I needed it fixed same day, being Saturday they were only open til 1:30. They didn’t say anything when I said I needed it fixed today.

After that I was off to Napa to try and find that wheel stud. Same experience as AutoZone. Two guys that didn’t know SAE from metric. They put zero effort into it too.

I knew it wasn’t likely the tire shop would get the tire fixed so I called a shop down the road from us. They do a bunch random repairs and tire work. Little old shop, dark, dirty, dingy. I couldn’t remember if they were open on Saturday. Turns out they were and they said sure we can fix the tire just bring it down. So I picked the tire back up from the other shop, who weren’t very impressed. I took it straight to the other shop. Guess what they had a wheel stud too. Took them a little bit to find it cuz they just have s bunch of random **** sitting around. But they know what they were looking for.

While I was down there I ran into my mom’s uncle who was picking up his 330 he was having worked on. He has the full JD 30 series of tractors. His 830 is an industrial model too.

I got back to the shop. Put the tire back on the rake.


Checked all the cattle and fed them corn.


My uncle was planning on going to a tractor pull that was today so he was getting a few of the tractors ready.


I did a few other little jobs around the shop. But I also got started on the SCV couplers on the 4010. It’s interesting to see the difference between this style and the once’s they went later.


I started taking it apart.


Despite the chance for rain dad decided to take off and start cutting some more hay.

I helped him get set to do that.

But I took off a little early. It was my birthday. Decided to take it a little easy and have some drinks with some friends.


My girlfriend bought me a Garrett metal detector for my birthday. Made in USA. She knows me well. It’s been something I’ve talked about for awhile. I always thought it’d be interesting to try.

 

[cliftonbros89]

Pretty easy day today. Sure enough since we cut hay it had to rain. From about 3/4” to 1”. Luckily, it was later when he cut most of it so it hadn’t really dried any before dark and the rain.


I tedded all the hay. Hopefully it’ll be dry by tomorrow afternoon to bale. More chances of rain on the way.

Took the metal detector out. No finds. Still figuring it out. Plus the girlfriend grew tired of the gnats and mosquitoes pretty quick.

 

[jblnut]

I go to the local AutoZone for anything and everything. There are 3 retired farmers and a pair of twins that worked as heavy diesel techs for 40+ years that work in there for something to do. I can so much as cough a brief description of what I need and they can find it. "Uh yeah it's that stupid hose that always wears through on a Bobcat 763 under the seat where all the **** builds up and is right on top of that valve block that looks like it belongs in a spaceship" .... they know it and get it built correct the first time. COMPLETELY the opposite of your experience but I've had way too many of those as well !!


Good to see you guys are finally moving down there !!!!!

 

[cliftonbros89]

I go to the local AutoZone for anything and everything. There are 3 retired farmers and a pair of twins that worked as heavy diesel techs for 40+ years that work in there for something to do. I can so much as cough a brief description of what I need and they can find it. "Uh yeah it's that stupid hose that always wears through on a Bobcat 763 under the seat where all the **** builds up and is right on top of that valve block that looks like it belongs in a spaceship" .... they know it and get it built correct the first time. COMPLETELY the opposite of your experience but I've had way too many of those as well !!


Good to see you guys are finally moving down there !!!!!

Our AutoZone and O’Reilly’s are just about worthless. Napa isn’t terrible for the basic stuff. Filters, belts, lights, brakes. But for the most part CarQuest is about the best place in town. Two brothers run the whole place, their dad ran it years and years ago. They can usually get it figured out on cars and trucks. They’re not super knowledgeable on the big rigs but they can usually get it figure out and get something for us.

 

[cliftonbros89]

Not much to report from Monday. Things started as usual. Then since we were waiting on hay to dry we took the time to do some paper work. We needed to be sure we had all of our planting information organized and wrote down.

I did a few things around the shop and picked things up. A ton of stuff had been left out and sitting around from running in and out all the time.

I also cleaned off the baler, greased it, lubed the chains and loaded up another roll of jet wrap.

After lunch I headed out to rake.

I raked up everything and dad started baling about an hour behind me.

We baled everything up. Another 90 something bales. I stated gathering them up to put in the barn at the retirement farm.



We picked up bales from 2 of the 3 farms and stuck them in the barn.

We moved a tractor and the gooseneck down the road to the next farm and called it a night.

 

[cliftonbros89]

This morning started with a quick unexpected rain shower. Lucky we had everything baled because it was a cool and cloudy morning.

We gathered up the last 2 loads of bales and hauled them to the barn at dad’s.

Then we moved most the hay equipment back. I put the mower conditioner away in the shed that it’s usually it. But it was a tight fit since that’s currently the only place we have to store the 4440 and planter.


Since the 7510 was free I hooked it to the brush hog.


I started mowing around some of the fields and going to start along the road ditches too. So that took up my whole evening.

I moved to the next farm and got a ride back to the shop. More rain was on the way. It’s already arrived.

More on the way by tomorrow evening.

 

[cliftonbros89]

Well markets are staying pretty consistent since last week. Crops in the hills are looking fairly good.

The corn all has a really good stand. But the beans are struggling a little.

But the river is still on the rise. Not looking good for the bottom ground this year.

 

[Farmall450]

Happy (belated) birthday!

 

[XJSuperman]

We have been getting the constant rain as well. Unfortunately for you water runs down stream, so our water goes south to you. Its not too bad up here now, but there are plenty of guys still planting and yet I saw corn today that was 10in tall. Mixed bag of field conditions here.

Definitely enjoyed catching up on your thread with all the pics. My last two weeks have consisted of playing in the mud in a test site.

 

[cliftonbros89]

Happy (belated) birthday!

Thanks

 

[cliftonbros89]

We have been getting the constant rain as well. Unfortunately for you water runs down stream, so our water goes south to you. Its not too bad up here now, but there are plenty of guys still planting and yet I saw corn today that was 10in tall. Mixed bag of field conditions here.

Definitely enjoyed catching up on your thread with all the pics. My last two weeks have consisted of playing in the mud in a test site.

Yeah and it sounds like more on the way. From the sky and from the river. It definitely won’t be down anytime soon.

 

[cliftonbros89]

Today wasn’t very active.

Another inch of rain from last night.

With the river rising, then staying steady, more rain on the way. We decided to check things at the shed in the bottom. So we made the trip around.








As you can see our end of the bottom is basically a lake right now. One of the pumps went down last month. So with the rain and the ever rising river, all the seep water has really added up and the one pump obviously can’t keep up at all.


We opened up the shed and we pulled the few pieces of the equipment left up on to the side of the levee...just in case...



Not the highest I’ve seen it at the bridge.

But then it was back to it. Made a few stops in town for some things. But then it was back to mowing since things dried off a bit.


Mowed til just about dark.

Quit just in time too. Despite what the weather showed at noon, the heat and humidity from the day built things up.

And here we are, rain...

 

[cliftonbros89]

Definitely not much to report today. More rain over night last night. Another good inch in the gauge.

We checked all the cattle. Looked things over and ground a batch of feed.

The Pioneer guy came to pick up some seed corn we won’t be able to plant anymore.

But then we had to call it an early day. Dad had a doctors appointment in StL today. Mom insisted I go with him since no one else could. So I went with him. Between traffic there, the appointment, and traffic back, it pretty much took the whole day.

But we’ll be back at it tomorrow. More rain chances on the way. Through the weekend too. But we’ll see how it go. Hopefully I can feel like I’m getting something done.

 

[DynoDave]

The Pioneer guy came to pick up some seed corn we won’t be able to plant anymore.

So what happens to this seed corn? Is it kept and resold next year? At a discount? How old can it be and still be viable? Do you have to check the bags for "date codes" or something?

 

[jeepxj]

that roof joist at dad's hay shed is looking... well its gone.

 

[rixtrix1]

that roof joist at dad's hay shed is looking... well its gone.

Who need rafters? Just fill the shed with hay bales( looks like more than one are in need of a little work)!

 

[welder57]

I hope everything is ok up your way, Just checking. Be Safe and well.

 

[cliftonbros89]

Update coming today. Every thing is good. Just haven’t been very active on the social outlets lately.

Been busy, but on everything but what we’ve wanted to be busy on right now. We keep getting rain. Good news is the river has finally started to drop. For now.

I’ve had my extra help with me the last 2 weeks too. So that’s another reason the phone hasn’t been on hand as much. I’ve been trying to set an example.

 

[cliftonbros89]

So what happens to this seed corn? Is it kept and resold next year? At a discount? How old can it be and still be viable? Do you have to check the bags for "date codes" or something?

To be honest I’m really not sure what they do with the seed. I just know our salesman comes and picks it up and that’s all I know of it after that. I’m really not sure what they’ll do with it this year because there was a lot of corn that didn’t get planted.

 

[cliftonbros89]

Ok. So getting back to things. We’ve been put off on doing some stuff because of the weather. Although for being June the temperatures have been pretty damn nice. I’m not sure I ever remember having this mild of a June.

So few highlights of the last couple weeks.


Had a couple stray dogs show up that hung out for a few days. A guy down the road a little ways claimed they were his so he took them.





Fixed the SCV couplers on the 4010 and made up a few new battery cables for it. Wanted to get it out and finally do some work with it.

Side note: can anyone tell me why systems were ever set up on a positive ground? I’m used to it from all of our old 2 cylinders. Some of them we’ve switched over because some of them we’ve switched to 12 volt systems instead of 6. Positive grounds just annoy me.


Got things ready to go for combing wheat.



In between rains we cut some spots of pasture for hay. The only plus to the rain has been that the pastures have really filled out well this year. But that’s about the only good it seems to have done.



So dad cut the hay, I tedded it with the 4010. I found on one of the steep hills back in the pasture that the 4010 is going to need some break work too.

So we made about another 70 bales.

 

[cliftonbros89]

I’ve been having my girlfriend’s cousins Zack and Noah coming to the farm quite a bit in the past couple weeks. I’ve really been putting them to work too.

I mowed along most of the fence rows and had them trim along all of our electric fences. It took them the better part of a week to get over it all. I helped them on some of it. But they did a pretty decent job. They were getting pretty tired of doing it. I just kept reminding them to be thankful for the unseasonal 70 degree temperature and clouds instead of it being the usual 95 with 95% humidity.


Taught them a thing or two about getting the combine ready and how to grease things.

And replacing hydraulic hoses.




We’ve been having some new calves arriving some I’ve also been keeping the boys checking the cattle regularly as well. Keeping them counted, checking for pink eye, keeping the back rubs loaded up, keeping the mineral feeders full. Also, keeping the feeders full for the calves.

 

[cliftonbros89]

Not this past Thursday but Thursday before we tried to try to the wheat.

We made one quick round on the end of the field and it was just too tough. High moisture. Green spots. It just wasn’t going to work. So we quit. Haven’t been able to try again since.


It rained last weekend.



It rained Friday. It rained yesterday. Guess what. Today it’s raining too.

 

[cliftonbros89]

One project I had the boys help with since we couldn’t do much else is sort all of our tires.

I didn’t fully count but I’m pretty sure there were at least 50+ tires. Off the rim, on the rim. But that wasn’t counting rims that didn’t have tires.

We sorted through them. A bunch of them were the likes of truck tires that won’t even fit the trucks we have anymore. Some old rims that were bent and we junk anyway. Trailer tires that didn’t fit anything. Car tires that I’m not sure how we ended up with them. So we sorted out everything. We keep them all in a small old grain bin I tore the floor out of several years ago. So we cleaned out all the tires. Sweep the floor up, washed the floor up and dried it all out.

The tires that we didn’t need, a lot of them being junk anyway, went to our pile of junk tires (that really needs to be moved or hauled off soon). All the bent or mismatched rims we don’t have a use for went to the scrap metal pile. Then there was a truck bed full of tires I took to get fixed or have better tires swapped on.

There were several tires that weren’t any good that had bad rims or rims we didn’t need. I couldn’t put the rims on the scrap metal pile with the old tires on them. I didn’t want to put the tires on the pile with the rims still on them either.

So I taught the boys how to use the old manual tire changer. I showed them how to do the first one. Then left it up to them to do about 12 more. Now I did have to give them some guidance and at times an extra hand. But I think it was a good lesson.

I think team work is just as well learned in a situation where you have to figure it out in your own and have to really put your minds together to accomplish a task rather than on a school field somewhere.


Another job we did Friday was pressure wash the whole inside of the shop. We moved everything around and covered the work benches up. Then we got part of my uncle’s scaffolding. We wash the ceiling, washed, soaped and scrubbed the walls and really squeegeed the hell out of the floor. It took the majority of the day. By the end of day they were both tired and soaked.

But so far they’ve been doing pretty good. I’ve really been making them work. For being 15 and 16 they both put in quite a few hours this week. Zack (15) had over 30 in just 3 and a half days. Noah (16) had almost 40 for the whole week this week. He has football practice some afternoons so he hasn’t always been able to work a full day.

 

[cliftonbros89]

We have got some spraying done. But that’s about it. With these rains it’s making it hard to get to the wheat.

Soybean prices went back up this week. We need to get the rest of ours sold while the price it up. We’ll have to really get on hauling corn here in a few weeks too for our July contracts.

We could probably make some more hay soon to if the weather cooperates.

It’ll soon be time to ween a few more calves. Fences seem to be something we’re constantly working on. We have quite a bit of fence we want to build this summer too.



In other news we just picked up about 90+ acres to rent. Right by us. It meets up with the neighboring farm the meets up to my uncle’s place. It has several low spots though that are extremely wet. Some large washed ditches that need attention as well. However, I’m not very sure how long it will last. It’s a farm that siblings have recently decided each want their share of money from so it’s listed for sale. The one brother, who contacted us to farm it, has intentions of buying it but hasn’t moved forward with it yet.

So it may only be a one time gig. We’ll see. It’d be a nice handy piece to hold on to though. But one a year we may be missing close to 600 acres of bottom ground crops we’ll take what we can get, even if it is just for this year.

 

[cliftonbros89]

Took my new metal detector out a bit last weekend.

First find was in mom and dad’s back yard. Just a few old shot gun shells. But it was enjoyable.

 

[cvairwerks]

Positive grounds are the devil’s spawn from Lucas Electric and the Brits....

 

[cliftonbros89]

Positive grounds are the devil’s spawn from Lucas Electric and the Brits....

I agree

 

[stillp]

Positive grounds are the devil’s spawn from Lucas Electric and the Brits....

Hey, less of that!
Positive earth was supposed to be less susceptible to corrosion and to have more efficient ignition. If either were true though, the difference was only very slight.
Pete

 

[Sifan]

You've been awful busy considering the weather and "off season" Good job being a mentor! Sometimes, for someone that has grown up on the farm, it is hard to have the patience and ability to full explain what needs to be done and how to do it, to someone that has no farm experience and sometimes, no work ethic. Stick with it!

 

[Sifan]

"we just picked up about 90+ acres to rent ... The one brother, who contacted us to farm it, has intentions of buying it but hasn’t moved forward with it yet." Would suggest you continue to look at it as a year to year rental without long term plans, it may take a while ... I am 1 of 18 third generation cousins that have part interest in central Illinois farm ground. Ownership has passed as "an undivided interest in ___ acres" Only paperwork is original deeds and wills, some want to sell, some never want to sell, and some whatever. The fact that they have it listed may mean they are in agreement, who knows??? As part of farming it, and helping to improve it, might you be able to get first right of refusal if a family member doesn't buy it?

 

[cliftonbros89]

Hey, less of that!

Positive earth was supposed to be less susceptible to corrosion and to have more efficient ignition. If either were true though, the difference was only very slight.

Pete

From my experience I’m not even sure if there’s a slight difference. I’ve seen some 6v positive ground batteries get pretty corroded before.

 

[cliftonbros89]

You've been awful busy considering the weather and "off season" Good job being a mentor! Sometimes, for someone that has grown up on the farm, it is hard to have the patience and ability to full explain what needs to be done and how to do it, to someone that has no farm experience and sometimes, no work ethic. Stick with it!

Well I can’t say it’s quite the off season just yet. It’s just been too wet to further continue with the busy season.

It definitely is hard to have patience sometimes. Especially, with 2 teenagers. They don’t always understand why things should be so thorough or precise. So I’ve been trying to take time and really explain things and why things need to be done or why they should be done they way they are.

 

[cliftonbros89]

Between the River Hills & the River Bottom

Well it ended up raining basically the whole weekend. So nothing was accomplished all weekend.

Monday was nice and wet. So the boys and I checked on all the cattle, fed them all corn, ground a couple batches of feed. Let things dry off a bit.

By the afternoon we decided to load up the trucks with beans. Price went back up over $9, we had some bills to pay, and didn’t have many beans left so we figured we’d get them moved.

I put the boys in the bin to sweep out. One of the ones we rent, that we don’t have a sweep that’s the proper size so it’s about 3.5 feet short. So there’s lots of extra scooping. Add that to a worn out auger in the floor, sunshine, 88 degree temp, humidity way up there and so much dust coming from the beans that you can’t even see across the bin. It made for one hell of an experience for the boys. I’d bought them both brand new respirators to wear. I told them to put them on and get ready to scoop their asses off. They had no idea it wasn’t going to be as much work as it actually was. But they did it. They didn’t do a terrible job for their first time either.

They we relieved that the second bin wasn’t dusty and was much smaller than the first.

Tuesday we hauled off the beans. Two places down south, still on the Missouri side, we haul to weren’t taking beans because they were holding space for wheat. So that meant Illinois. The bridge to Illinois opened back up over the weekend, but the route to the place we go is still flooded. So that meant an alternative route. A route 3 times as long...so dad and I each hauled 2 loads off. Then loaded up the last of the beans on a truck in the evening.

 

[cliftonbros89]

Today things really started to dry up. But there were definitely some spots that we plenty wet. Zack couldn’t work today so I just had Noah with me.

We took our daily trip to check cattle and electric fences. Dad took off the last load of beans. He also had to make a couple stops in town.

Sure enough since things were starting to dry there was a chance of rain for today. Last night it didn’t look like we’d get anything. But I knew better. I kept an eye on it all day long. Caught the local news at lunch time and sure enough it looked the the heat and humidity was going to build something up by the evening.

Dad was aggravated with the forecast and insisted we try to combine some wheat. It didn’t help matters any that he saw 3 other combines out in the fields on his trip to town. The new showed a good chance of rain by about 4. But he still insisted we try. So by 2 we started moving things.

We got the combine to the field and going. Got a truck in the field. Then Noah helped we get the baler ready to go to bale the straw. Majority of the bales are going to go to fill in some holes anyway so we weren’t worried about any moisture.

We started on a 14 acre patch. The clouds starting moving in around 3. But the rain stayed to the north part of the county. We kept going. Then I had an issue with the baler as it tried to wrap a bale, after I’d ejected and bale and had nothing in it. That caused wrap to tangle and wrap around the pick-up causing the clutch to slip. As that happened dad finished with that field. So I helped him move. I took the baler to the shop. Then grabbed the 4440 and grain cart so dad had some extra space to unload the combine if needed.

But the clouds kept setting in. Darker and darker. I called dad to tell him if we wanted to get the combine in the shed before it rained we had to go within the next 5 minutes.



But he always has to push his limit. He unloaded the combine, I tarped the truck, and we headed out. Only less than 2 miles from the shop. Sure enough as we were going in the driveway it started to pour.


We got the truck and the combine in the shed. But the wind was blowing hard and it was coming down like crazy. We had an inch in a half hour.

The rain slowed down but it’s still going. Looks like no wheat cutting tomorrow...

 

[cliftonbros89]

So on top of being rained out...again. Being held up...again. I received a message from my girlfriend.


The winds blew down half of the tree in my front yard. The crappy tree I’ve been wanting to take down because I know this was going to happen. I even said if I didn’t take it down before the end of summer we’d get a storm that would take it down. Sure enough it did. Luckily, this storm system was moving almost straight east which doesn’t happen very often. We usually get things from the northwest that end up coming south east. Had it done that it may have hit the house.

So it looks like I know what most of my day will consist of tomorrow.

 

[Sifan]

"off season" is a little bit of a joke with my cousin, she says her husband buys millions of dollars of equipment so he only has to work 2 weeks planting and 2 weeks of harvesting,so he can chase her the other 48 weeks. Enjoy you off season They are still closing roads of Illinois side across from Cape, what a mess. Are they still running grain barges down the Mississippi?

 

[cliftonbros89]

"off season" is a little bit of a joke with my cousin, she says her husband buys millions of dollars of equipment so he only has to work 2 weeks planting and 2 weeks of harvesting,so he can chase her the other 48 weeks. Enjoy you off season They are still closing roads of Illinois side across from Cape, what a mess. Are they still running grain barges down the Mississippi?

Yeah barges are running. They have slowed them down any.