Above 1200 Sq/FT Out on Quaker Road

[Bob Heine]

Oh they definitely know where the cattle go and what they become. We’ve been 100% open about everything in the farming world and the why and how’s of raising animals for food has brought some great conversations about.

The calves can be pets of sorts to a point. Heck, this morning I climbed in the hutch and wrestled with the calf for a bit. Scratching behind her head made her statue still with her tongue hanging out. It was entertaining

Mike, the best part is the littles treat living creatures with the respect and care they deserve. The fresh straw in the cattle pens and fresh bedding in the coop and water heaters in the brutal winters help set the example. It's a lot like raising children, a clean diaper even if the one you just put on is instantly refilled. Feed them even if they don't like what you serve. We had a two item menu: Take It and Leave It. Leave it only meant the meal was saved for the next day. We did avoid serving the meal they didn't like ever again. Weird part is they eat those things, like liver and onions and linguini with white clam sauce now. I have no clue how our children survived our abuse.

 

[jblnut]

Mike, the best part is the littles treat living creatures with the respect and care they deserve.

From day one I've been preaching that we need to treat the animals as good or better than people. The animals can't tell us what they need so we need to be there for them and pay attention to the signs they give us. We spend time in the steer barn every day just watching the cattle and making sure we look at every animal and every ear tag. Is anyone looking thin or mopey ? Slow to get up or limping ? Boogers on their nose or ears drooping ? Some minor attention paid can prevent major health issues. We don't often treat right away as drugs are to be used sparingly but there are times I'll stop what I'm doing and get some medicine in them if the signs are right for it. The animals around here get treated well for a number of reasons with the largest being because we should and I think I've done a decent job of hammering that home with the little people.

The fresh straw in the cattle pens and fresh bedding in the coop and water heaters in the brutal winters help set the example.

When people come to see our cattle they often comment how clean they are. I laugh and say "I like baling straw and hauling **** so I keep them clean". In reality I keep them clean because I wouldn't like to be covered in poop all the time or struggle to find a dry place to lie down so I sure don't want the cattle to struggle with those things.

The chicken barn is a whole other deal. I don't pay for the bedding that gets brought into that thing so I tend to keep it much cleaner than I maybe need to. We get bonused on overall cost of production and I'm usually low on the list as I have a lot of bedding, electricity and fuel dollars against my barn. I run fans and heaters as needed to keep it dry in the barn so the chickens are happy and the barn doesn't deteriorate. If I get a bonus that's great, if not I know my barn isn't going to rot apart.

It's a lot like raising children, a clean diaper even if the one you just put on is instantly refilled. Feed them even if they don't like what you serve. We had a two item menu: Take It and Leave It. Leave it only meant the meal was saved for the next day. We did avoid serving the meal they didn't like ever again. Weird part is they eat those things, like liver and onions and linguini with white clam sauce now. I have no clue how our children survived our abuse.

I have the same thoughts on food in our house. Eat it or be hungry. We work hard to prepare meals that are good and healthy at the same time. You can try something new and it'll be okay !!! They've learned to eat it all and tell us after that they didn't care for it. If we get 2/3 vote against the meal we won't make it again. Being flexible is an okay thing. They eat it and mostly don't complain so we respect the respect they've given us and don't make it again.

I don't remember ever turning down food in my childhood. I'm not a big olives guy but I'll eat them. Not a big pineapple fan either but I'll eat it. It's food. The taste will be gone before you know it so just eat it and move on.


I always enjoy your posts @Bob Heine so thanks for stopping by !!! You are like a relative from down South for so many of us on here and I enjoy your thread and your comments. Thanks again !!

 

[drivesitfar]

So when are you going to run for governor cause omg we need some good ones to replace the chemical induced ones soon? Awesijj my e thinking about your critters even if you name them hamburger and prime rib.

I hear you on eating what’s out in front of you and even though I shouldn’t but I usually get a clean plate award after most of the ok or not so ok meals. Thankfully most of my meals since I found my dream ******* in the better side of the good. Now if I could only get you to drink a quality beer?

Nice repair on the sprayer and omg I’d hate to see the bills on your farm equipment even with your so called free labor but you can’t mow your fields with a push mower.

Here’s to another good day above dirt.

 

[jblnut]

So when are you going to run for governor cause omg we need some good ones to replace the chemical induced ones soon? Awesijj my e thinking about your critters even if you name them hamburger and prime rib.

No governor run anytime soon. I’m on the local school board and that’s enough fun for now.

I hear you on eating what’s out in front of you and even though I shouldn’t but I usually get a clean plate award after most of the ok or not so ok meals. Thankfully most of my meals since I found my dream ******* in the better side of the good. Now if I could only get you to drink a quality beer?

If I can’t see through the beer I likely won’t like it. I don’t like to have to chew my beer lol

Nice repair on the sprayer and omg I’d hate to see the bills on your farm equipment even with your so called free labor but you can’t mow your fields with a push mower.

Sprayer repair was around $830 so not bad really. I spent close to $11k on a tractor likely worth $10k this spring lol. It would take 5x that or more to get something newer to replace it so it made some sense at least. Repairs are part of the deal I guess. If we ran all new stuff with a warranty it’d likely be more expensive than doing it the way we do it so there are trade offs.

Here’s to another good day above dirt.

Agreed !! Every day can be a good day if you focus in the right areas and keep a smile on your face !!

Thanks for stopping by !!

 

[jblnut]

The little dude and I took a short road trip to pick up some heavy things. He woke up and said “Dad you gotta get a truck with a sleeper so I can take better truck naps”. Words of wisdom from Mini Me


We got to the local CNH dealership and it was raining like crazy. I got a bit moist strapping the blades down.


Miss Lily is such a trooper. Feeding calves in the rain and just standing there watching them drink.


Who is that !? That’s Pat !! He stopped by to mill up some logs.


We started off with a little white oak.


Once we had things dialed in I loaded up a larger red oak.


Wow. Some really nice lumber coming out of these logs !!


We gave the ol’ WoodMizer a workout with a few of these !!


Nice little lumber pile so far.

 

[82355]

Do you use that or sell it?

Martin

 

[jblnut]

Do you use that or sell it?

Martin

That’s about 1/4 of what we got total. More pics to come !! We’ll use it. Nothing for sale.

 

[Jayman17]

That'll be a nice supply of oak to use around your place.

 

[jblnut]

The lumber pile is growing !


We milled a few thicker white oak slabs for who knows what.


White oak log 34” diameter and 16’4” long. T'was the largest log he’s had on the mill in a while he said.


That big ol' girl was shedding some awful heavy slabs as 2" thick and 16' long so we used the lawn mower to hold them until we resawed them. It worked pretty well !!


We had several black walnut logs milled up and this is the only one I pictured for some reason. Just a little guy. The largest was close to 30" diameter and 9' long. All in all I think we milled close to 1,200bf/ft of black walnut.


It's really gorgeous stuff !!


A buddy brought a few logs over to mill and took his stuff home with him on my trailer. He has a very wide variety of species.


When was all said and done I had 6 totes of slab wood and around 3,000bd/ft of lumber. Not bad for a few days of milling !!

 

[drivesitfar]

Wow that’s nice wood and looks like you’ve got it stickered nicely. Are you adding any weight on top so boards have a better chance of staying straight or does walnut do ok just out in the air?

How’s the plants and critters doing while you’re woodworking or did you put your girls in charge?

 

[jblnut]

Wow that’s nice wood and looks like you’ve got it stickered nicely.

Yeah it’s stickered a little excessively but stickers are cheap and I don’t want it to get funky.

Are you adding any weight on top so boards have a better chance of staying straight or does walnut do ok just out in the air?

Yup. I cut up a few 32” diameter logs into firewood pieces, places a few pieces on pallets and set them on top. They should hold them nicely. Plus we stacked some less valuable stuff on top so if there is any warping it won’t be on valuable stuff.

How’s the plants and critters doing while you’re woodworking or did you put your girls in charge?

The kiddos have been doing calf chores by themselves with supervision for a while now so that’s nice. The lumber was all cut up in the stacking slab shed behind the chicken barn so it was all close to home.

Here’s a current aerial view taken with a reeeeeeaaaaallllllly long selfie stick.


And from the other direction …..

 

[Boostingaz]

Beautiful place you got there!. Do you have your bins at another site or do you guys just not use them / need them ?

 

[jblnut]

Beautiful place you got there!.

Thank you !!

Do you have your bins at another site or do you guys just not use them / need them ?

I have an 8,500bu bin here and the rest are by Dads place. I picked up 100ish acres for next year and we’ll be short on bin space so we’ll be exploring some options there. I’ll see if I can get a drone shot by Dad sometime as there are 6 grain bins over there from 4200bu to 24000bu.

 

[Finallygotit]

Nice well kept property!

 

[jblnut]

Nice well kept property!

It looks quite nice from the air

 

[XJSuperman]

Lookin great buddy. Now you gotta frame one of those and hang it in the house

 

[Mr.zippy]

Big *** pile of wood in the middle too! Lots of chords there!

 

[jblnut]

Big *** pile of wood in the middle too! Lots of cords there!

This one

 

[jblnut]

Om nom nom mowing some hay down !!


Let it dry for a day and hit it with my new Tedder. We’ve named it Teddadore Roosevelt


This is what it looks like once it’s all tedded. Looks like a huge mess but that’s the point !! Should speed drying time up by more than a day.


I went to check the hay two days after tedding and I couldn’t believe it. It was crunchy dry !!


Hook up and go roll some hay up !! These are reallllly nice bales !!

 

[Jim_No_Garage]

So let me see if I understand this . . .

1 - You mow the grass - and it makes sort of a pile in the middle of the cut
2 - You Ted the pile of grass to flip it and spread it out for further drying
3 - You harrow the spread out grass into it into little neat rows
4 - You bale the little neat rows
5 - You stack the bales in the barn

Did I miss anything?

 

[jblnut]

So let me see if I understand this . . .

1 - You mow the grass - and it makes sort of a pile in the middle of the cut
2 - You Ted the pile of grass to flip it and spread it out for further drying
3 - You harrow the spread out grass into it into little neat rows
4 - You bale the little neat rows
5 - You stack the bales in the barn

Did I miss anything?

There is a little waiting in between but yeah, you got the jist of it !!

Thanks for stopping by!!

 

[Boostingaz]

We had some really nice stuff this year as well. I think it's from all the rain/sun/rain/sun/rain/rain/rain/rain/sun lol.

 

[XJSuperman]

Just completed a trip from central Iowa up and across North Dakota down and back across South Dakota. Everything was green and looked fantastic. The weather is really pushing out bumper crops this year everywhere. (We did find a couple fields that had been hail-damaged and were a loss). Beans, corn, wheat, canola, lentils, sunflowers, and hay are all doing amazing. Pretty wild to see such consistency across those distances and regions.

 

[Boostingaz]

Just completed a trip from central Iowa up and across North Dakota down and back across South Dakota. Everything was green and looked fantastic. The weather is really pushing out bumper crops this year everywhere. (We did find a couple fields that had been hail-damaged and were a loss). Beans, corn, wheat, canola, lentils, sunflowers, and hay are all doing amazing. Pretty wild to see such consistency across those distances and regions.

We've had so much rain this year that there were sooo many fields just completely underwater. There are bare patches in a lot of the fields where things just didn't survive the water.

 

[82355]

We watered the crop out of the ground, and have not irrigated since.

Martin

 

[jblnut]

We watered the crop out of the ground, and have not irrigated since.

Martin

We have not started the pump yet. Likely will soon as it’s supposed to be drier up here the next week and I want to put some N on asap.

 

[jollygreengiant]

We've had so much rain this year that there were sooo many fields just completely underwater. There are bare patches in a lot of the fields where things just didn't survive the water.

That was us last year. This year things are dry. Corn is rolling up, soys wilting, double crop soys are just sitting still.

But it's worse to the east of here. They've had less than an inch of rain since the first of May, likely looking at a crop failure in corn and soys for them.

 

[jblnut]

After a bit of a debate on buying more IBC totes to use as firewood tubs I bit the bullet and bought 75 more. Here are the first 50 to show up.


I had a pair of sweat savers installed in the shop. A 24k in the main shop and a 9k upstairs that is “ducted” down to the office so it can get both rooms at once.


We took a weekend off and went glamping with some friends. This was what we call “adults weekend” where there are no little people here so we can “relax” and drink beer and play silly games like beer darts. I have a new hole in my left foot because of this silly games. Who knew people under the influence weren’t the best of aimers


The hosts have a beautiful yard !!

 

[jollygreengiant]

75 more IBC totes

Will that be enough for your firewood needs or no?

 

[jblnut]

75 more IBC totes

Will that be enough for your firewood needs or no?

Each tote holds just shy of 1/3 cord. I have been going through 22-25 cord a year. So I need 66-75+ totes full a year. I had around 30 totes already so the additional 75 should be enough if they’re all full.

I’m excited to cut the wood up and be able to not have to touch the wood again until it goes into the inferno. I don’t intend to put every piece that will be burnt into totes but likely will put most of it in them. Being able to take a few with when cutting on a field edge or somewhere I won’t have a dump trailer load of logs is gonna be nice. I’ll get to test that out this week as we have a few fields that are harvested already and have some trees to cut down and trim up around them. I’ll bring some totes with and plan to fill them out in the field. One touch wood is the goal.

 

[drivesitfar]

Great to see your totes will hold enough firewood to make it a bit easier to move around. When are you going to build either a carport or building to keep you and the wood dry?

 

[jblnut]

Great to see your totes will hold enough firewood to make it a bit easier to move around. When are you going to build either a carport or building to keep you and the wood dry?

I don’t know when or if a building will happen. We’ll see how this winter goes with the setup like it is. I can’t stomach spending what it’d take to build that thing.

I’m gonna build a large shed next summer hopefully so I gotta save my penny’s for that !! Gonna be around that 60x64 plus a 32x40 attached to it type structure.

 

[82355]

How much do you have to pay for a tote? I know guys that give them away, just to get rid of them. I have started seeing people make stuff with them, and sell their projects.

Martin

 

[82355]

Martin

 

[jblnut]

How much do you have to pay for a tote? I know guys that give them away, just to get rid of them. I have started seeing people make stuff with them, and sell their projects.

Martin

I paid $20 for the big load of totes that had mulch colorant in them and $40 for the ones that had new motor oil in them.

Martin

Our beans are turning quickly the last week or so. It won’t be long and we’ll be munching acres off !!

How are they yielding so far ? Better or worse than expected ?

 

[jblnut]

I’ve been spending a fair bit of time on another forum that more centers around chainsaws and other outdoor stuff and the level of drama there has gotten to the point that I don’t think I’m gonna go back anytime soon. The entire atmosphere here at Garage Journal is so much better. Not near the arguing or drama. People post stuff and things just click here. I like that. So a big thank you to the entire staff team here for keeping it that way. Without them this place would also most likely be a drama filled swamp.

Anyway …… Pops and I got a bunch of dirt hauled for the latest endeavor on the farm.


There is a bit of a timeline gap here as we got a TON of stuff cleaned up to put this little dirt patch here.


Hey look it’s Mike in his shed hauling truck !!


The calves were outgrowing their hutches so “we” decided a little shed was in order to put them in.


It is a very well built little thing. Next up, build some pens inside it !!

 

[Boostingaz]

I’ve been spending a fair bit of time on another forum that more centers around chainsaws and other outdoor stuff and the level of drama there has gotten to the point that I don’t think I’m gonna go back anytime soon. The entire atmosphere here at Garage Journal is so much better. Not near the arguing or drama. People post stuff and things just click here. I like that. So a big thank you to the entire staff team here for keeping it that way. Without them this place would also most likely be a drama filled swamp.

Anyway …… Pops and I got a bunch of dirt hauled for the latest endeavor on the farm.


There is a bit of a timeline gap here as we got a TON of stuff cleaned up to put this little dirt patch here.


Hey look it’s Mike in his shed hauling truck !!


The calves were outgrowing their hutches so “we” decided a little shed was in order to put them in.


It is a very well built little thing. Next up, build some pens inside it !!

. That's look like a solid little shed. I need one of those for the big horse field!

 

[jblnut]

. That's look like a solid little shed. I need one of those for the big horse field!

I’m not sure how far they deliver

The little people and I went on a shed tour before ordering that one. All the others we found had a 4x4 on the ground with posts going up vertically in the front and this one was a clear open span. This one was $6500 and the most expensive one we looked at by almost $2k but it’s built like an actual shed. Golden torx screws everywhere and not a nail in the entire thing. 2’ overhang with soffit and the rear vent doors are an amazing touch for a cattle shed.

It is 14x24 and tall enough to drive the skid loader in to clean it out. So far the calves have been happy inside it !!

 

[jblnut]

I priced some basic gates out and they were between $700-1000 and I said oh hell no and headed to my local iron rack.


We found a selection of pipes and set out to build some gates.


I don’t use the metal bandsaw often but when I do I seem to really use it. Quite a valued tool in the shop.


We decided to make this a “design then build” project vs a “build and figure it out” project. Something’s you gotta try different things


The first and most fun panel is done-ish.


Look at those fancy little gravity return hinges someone spent waaaaaay too much time building


Since I know yall are impatient like me let’s skip to the end !! One side is installed and ready for critters. Feed through gate on the left, entry door and little headlock on the right.


I wanted them to fold flat for cleaning out the pen as well as being able to use the shed for firewood storage over winter.


We put all three calves in the pen at first but little Miss Annie the heifer calf was getting picked on by the boys so we stuck her back in her hutch until we got the other sides gates finished.

 

[Boostingaz]

Those are awesome. Nice work