Above 1200 Sq/FT Out on Quaker Road

[82355]

That happens frequently here, especially during a wet harvest. Trucks will park on the side of the road to not get stuck and the cart will come out to fill them.

We load most trucks from the road, wet or not.



We don’t haul corn long distances down a county road in a grain cart. There is a bridge on the south side of one of our fields, that we would not run a tractor across, so we stay off of it.

Martin

 

[ambenz]

If you ever get tired of cutting firewood, you can always get the tiny adults to make dung bricks to burn! Found this on a FB post and thought about your winter BTU situation....

 

[drivesitfar]

Ambenz that's too funny, but it probably works and that's a heckuva chip making tool. didn't the indians burn Buffalo chips? of course manure is probably too valuable to burn cause it fertilizes everything too?

I saw on another thread you were just about done prepping your fields. have you planted all the seed and sitting back with a big ice tea that looks like a Busch lite?

hope all is well in the midwest today (and always).

 

[jblnut]

If you ever get tired of cutting firewood, you can always get the tiny adults to make dung bricks to burn! Found this on a FB post and thought about your winter BTU situation....

The neighbors - “Boy that **** stinks when it burns! What is it ?!”
Flip flops and socks guy in the video - “Yes.”

Ambenz that's too funny, but it probably works and that's a heckuva chip making tool. didn't the indians burn Buffalo chips? of course manure is probably too valuable to burn cause it fertilizes everything too?

I saw on another thread you were just about done prepping your fields. have you planted all the seed and sitting back with a big ice tea that looks like a Busch lite?

hope all is well in the midwest today (and always).

When dried I bet manure burns great but what a waste of a resource. Manure isn’t terribly valuable in a monetary sense as ************ is worth around $25/ton and the bed pack from the steers costs more to haul than it’s “worth” but the really value comes in the micronutrients that reside in it. Manure is very hard to replace with any form of commercial fertilizer.

We’ve been done planting for almost 3.5 weeks now. 1st pass spraying is done as well. A little sooner than I’d have liked but it’s done. Today I worked on a bunch of odd things and got the hay cutting tractor ready to go and tomorrow I hope to get the discbine out and maybe cut some hay.

This is my view right now sans-Busch Latte. I gotta put some updates on here as all kinds of things have changed since my last update !!

 

[jblnut]

While Pops planted I got to play tender truck driver guy.


No fancy tender with a box this time, nope we’re pitching bags !!


Lots of in season seed deliveries happened. Larger ones happened with Walter of course. I think we moved close to 300 units of corn and beans in season which is quite a bit.


The new van got put into seed delivery duty a few times as it has AC and the white one does not. I don’t need to sweat while I sit anymore. I’m too old for that ****.


Mama Bear says “Oh hunny oh dearest I have a few things at work to bring home that I can’t fit in my car. Do you think you could sneak down here and bring them home with Walter ?” Well sure dear. So I got to haul some rocks that I’m sure I’ll “get” to install sometime soon.

 

[moab11]

Mama Bear says “Oh hunny oh dearest I have a few things at work to bring home that I can’t fit in my car. Do you think you could sneak down here and bring them home with Walter ?” Well sure dear. So I got to haul some rocks that I’m sure I’ll “get” to install sometime soon.

Hahaha, talk about an understatement!
Just a few thousand pounds of stone, I'm sure they would fit in the car, but the car wouldn't be going anywhere lol

 

[jblnut]

Hahaha, talk about an understatement!
Just a few thousand pounds of stone, I'm sure they would fit in the car, but the car wouldn't be going anywhere lol

She started by asking how much she can carry in her Ascent and I said “people and groceries only, why”. Then she sent a picture of the pallets lol.

Going off the pressure in the air bags it was around 9,000lbs of stone

Thanks for stopping by !

 

[jollygreengiant]

What's Walter's legal payload?

I ran the newer generation of that truck a bit in my last job and IIRC we were legal for 8mt payload. With a 18' bed we could get over that sometimes with skids of bagged fertilizer.

 

[jblnut]

What's Walter's legal payload?

I ran the newer generation of that truck a bit in my last job and IIRC we were legal for 8mt payload. With a 18' bed we could get over that sometimes with skids of bagged fertilizer.

Walter is licensed for 26,000lbs to get under the need for a Class B for non farm use but at the next renewal I plan to bump up to the 33,000lbs on the door tag. The truck with full fuel tanks and my fat *** weighs almost exactly 15,000lbs. Big heavy flatbed and steel wheels don't help but it's still plenty for what I'm doing.

 

[jblnut]

Putting the Blackstone to work !!


We figure we’d better use the patio for the two weeks in the spring where there are no bugs yet. Mama Bear has big plans for the rest of the landscaping around the house so we’ll see how much we can get done this year.


We had a few onions in a giant bag that were sort of mushy so the kids planted them so they’d grow back into an onion


Gots myself a new John Deere iPad to run the section control on the sprayer. I gotta take a few of the unused ones out of here so I can actually see out the side window !!


All sections work and all nozzles are doing their thing !!


90’ at a time really gets stuff done in a hurry !!

 

[jblnut]

We had a cold soggy rainy day so I watched it rain for a few moments and darted up to the shop between the raindrops.


One of the hoses on the extendohoe had an extra hole so it was time to tear into it being it was soggy outside.


It’s out and what a gross mess !!


I debated on cleaning it so up it looked new again but decided to scrape off what I can and leave a good thick layer of goo on it. I sure don’t want to clean it all up and have it rust lol


Next up was to sharpen the blades on the lawnmower.


Gotta balance them like the pros so I can hit rocks and brush like an amateur

 

[jollygreengiant]

We had a cold soggy rainy day so I watched it rain for a few moments and darted up to the shop between the raindrops.

That's a great use for old IBC totes, though I'm surprised the boss didn't object based on their lack of curb appeal lol.

 

[jblnut]

That's a great use for old IBC totes, though I'm surprised the boss didn't object based on their lack of curb appeal lol.

Her need for curb appeal seems to have a wide range. She wants a nice shiny vehicle with lots of curb appeal but keeps me around and I’m nothing much to look at so

The totes are great because I can pick them up and bring them into the shop when there is a frost chance. Nice little mobile gardens.

 

[jblnut]

A buddy asked if I wanted some wood for the boiler as it’s sort of cruddy stuff. So he grabbed my trailer and hauled it on over. Can’t say no to that !


I wanted to know how much was on the trailer so I bucked it all up into totes. Three full totes, a partial with small chunks and a small load of splitters. If I’d have to give an educated guess I’d say around 1.5 cord on the trailer load. So I need 15-16 trailer loads a season. Doesn’t seem too bad !!


Once the trailer wood was bucked up I filled the cutting table up with some wiggly white oak.


We hauled a bunch of already cut stuff up to the stove. The idea is to use totes to form walls and pile inside them.


I stacked in between the totes to keep the pile from falling in front of the stove. I’ll use this stuff first and move into the pile.


Lots on the pad already. If I had to guess I’d say it’s around half full. I have enough stuff cut up already scattered around to likely fill the center. Gotta get to work and buck more up to put into totes. And get more totes lol

 

[madison069]

You would of had a field day during the last big storm we had. Basically a microburst wind storm with 70mph wind hit this area. It's unusual to see that high of a wind gust here, so the trees were snapping and uprooting all around here. Currently my neighbor is still waiting for the tree company to show up and take down part of a huge maple tree in his back yard and it's been a month I think since it broke.

I'm almost positive that you would have a full pad after collecting all of the wood around here.

 

[jblnut]

You would of had a field day during the last big storm we had. Basically a microburst wind storm with 70mph wind hit this area. It's unusual to see that high of a wind gust here, so the trees were snapping and uprooting all around here. Currently my neighbor is still waiting for the tree company to show up and take down part of a huge maple tree in his back yard and it's been a month I think since it broke.

I'm almost positive that you would have a full pad after collecting all of the wood around here.

Blown down stuff is nasty to deal with. Everything you think you know about tree felling gets tossed out the window and I gotta look things over so much closer.

Pad holds 27ish cord when full and it really doesn’t take than many big trees to get there. Honestly there are some decent size white oaks here that I bet have 5-7 cord in each tree. So 5-6 trees and the pad is full lol. Sadly those are the trees we leave as they’re too amazing to cut down.

 

[madison069]

Blown down stuff is nasty to deal with. Everything you think you know about tree felling gets tossed out the window and I gotta look things over so much closer.

Pad holds 27ish cord when full and it really doesn’t take than many big trees to get there. Honestly there are some decent size white oaks here that I bet have 5-7 cord in each tree. So 5-6 trees and the pad is full lol. Sadly those are the trees we leave as they’re too amazing to cut down.

I agree with you regarding trees that's still in a bind. But a lot of these fallen trees and limbs were just dead weight. Heck, a lot of it was cut up on the side of the road waiting for the municipal to come by and haul it away for the residents. You would just have to drive down the street and grab the big pieces and leave the smaller stuff behind for the municipality mulcher setup!

My neighbor's limb is in a bind so that's why I haven't offered to cut it up for him. If it had fallen down to the ground, I would buck it all up for him and keep the wood myself. But it's still suspended by a small limb roughly 20-30ft in the air.

 

[Boostingaz]

I agree with you regarding trees that's still in a bind. But a lot of these fallen trees and limbs were just dead weight. Heck, a lot of it was cut up on the side of the road waiting for the municipal to come by and haul it away for the residents. You would just have to drive down the street and grab the big pieces and leave the smaller stuff behind for the municipality mulcher setup!

My neighbor's limb is in a bind so that's why I haven't offered to cut it up for him. If it had fallen down to the ground, I would buck it all up for him and keep the wood myself. But it's still suspended by a small limb roughly 20-30ft in the air.

There may be an opportunity there. I was told a story about a farmer (I think he has lambs) that used leaves as an ingredient in a fertilizer mix that he makes. He's got a deal with a nearby city where that pay him to pick up leaf piles that the landscapers create. So the landscapers clean up all the leaves (in neighborhoods or parks I'm not sure) and leave them in piles and he comes and collects them. He gets paid and gets all the material for his mix. I don't know how he got this deal or even the details, like I said it was just a story I was told by a local hay farmer. So win win for him, he gets paid and gets free resources that he needs anyways.

Maybe you can do the same thing with the trees. See if you can get paid to remove them and then you have free firewood on top of the payment.

 

[XJSuperman]

Along those lines ^, are you able to burn mulch or chips in there decently? At work there are local tree companies that come and dump wood chips in a pile on site. They get disposal, and we get free chips/mulch. There's got to be a similar situation up there, maybe you can get into that, assuming they're worth the burn. Then you just dump a narrow skidloader bucket-full in and go.

 

[OutlawDrifter]

Along those lines ^, are you able to burn mulch or chips in there decently? At work there are local tree companies that come and dump wood chips in a pile on site. They get disposal, and we get free chips/mulch. There's got to be a similar situation up there, maybe you can get into that, assuming they're worth the burn. Then you just dump a narrow skidloader bucket-full in and go.

Chadron State College, my alma mater, used woodchips for the boilers that heated the entire campus...1 big payloader bucket at a time.

 

[drivesitfar]

With all these great ideas and your gift for gab and making deals maybe those big oak trees will live another 100+ years and your furnace will have plenty to eat.

How much seat time in the big machines has Leo had this year or are you waiting for the girls to teach him the ropes?

 

[Bob Heine]

Mama Bear says “Oh hunny oh dearest I have a few things at work to bring home that I can’t fit in my car. Do you think you could sneak down here and bring them home with Walter ?” Well sure dear. So I got to haul some rocks that I’m sure I’ll “get” to install sometime soon.

Mike, every time we drive past a huge rock near the road Liane suggests it would be nice in our yard. Much as I would love a little lowered dually in the driveway, those comments remind me why it's not a great idea.

Father's Day the family gathered at our son's home as usual. I was relaxing and having a great time. At some point Liane found a piece of granite countertop in the yard and asked if she could have it. Our son and his oldest son do high-end renovation work and end up with some neat stuff we could never afford. Turns out a 47" x 18" slab of granite won't fit in the trunk of the Cadillac and when it was suggested the slab would fit in the back leaning against the leather seat, our son said he'd bring it to us on Monday on his way to a renovation followup in Boca Raton. Our son is 61 and his A-hole father now has a garden slab that needs something better than a pair of sawhorses to hold it up. I see my pile of scrap wood shrinking in the near future. Alas, I already have all the necessary tools so it will just be another item on the to-do scroll.

 

[jblnut]

With all these great ideas and your gift for gab and making deals maybe those big oak trees will live another 100+ years and your furnace will have plenty to eat.

I think I have at least 2 years of wood on the property if not 3 so the longer the rest of those big oaks the better !!

How much seat time in the big machines has Leo had this year or are you waiting for the girls to teach him the ropes?

Little Man is really hard on stuff so I’ve been going easy on letting him running too much stuff larger than the lawnmower and golf cart. I can see his in the skid loader thinking “I wonder how hard I can push on this before it moves” and pretty soon I have a crooked shop wall or something else gets destroyed for no good reason. We’ve been working on channeling his curiosity of the physical world and he’s getting better but I’m not ready to turn him loose in anything large yet. He’ll get there.

Mike, every time we drive past a huge rock near the road Liane suggests it would be nice in our yard. Much as I would love a little lowered dually in the driveway, those comments remind me why it's not a great idea.

With that dually you would have to get another machine to load and unload the heavy stuff. You’d get to acquire all kinds of neat new toys !!

Father's Day the family gathered at our son's home as usual. I was relaxing and having a great time. At some point Liane found a piece of granite countertop in the yard and asked if she could have it. Our son and his oldest son do high-end renovation work and end up with some neat stuff we could never afford. Turns out a 47" x 18" slab of granite won't fit in the trunk of the Cadillac and when it was suggested the slab would fit in the back leaning against the leather seat, our son said he'd bring it to us on Monday on his way to a renovation followup in Boca Raton. Our son is 61 and his A-hole father now has a garden slab that needs something better than a pair of sawhorses to hold it up. I see my pile of scrap wood shrinking in the near future future. Alas, I already have all the necessary tools so it will just be another item on the to-do scroll.

The granite bug has bitten you. Pretty soon there will be granite all over the place. In the house on all things flat that are bellybutton height, all over the yard so you can set things off the ground and you’ll even put some on the ground itself to keep the weeds down. It’s only a matter of time now Bob. Brace yourself for some heavy lifting !!

 

[jblnut]

The kiddos wanted to raise a few bottle calves so we’ve wandered down another farming avenue.


We leveled off a spot by the barn with some sand and set them in place.


How does one transport a baby cow ? Well in a luxurious calf tote of course. Miss Lily washed it out after we opened a doorway in it.


Hey look it works !!



Meet Annie. She’s a spunky little crossbred heifer calf. Although she has been named the kids insist she’s not a pet. Yeah okay lol.


Lily got right in there and did the first feeding like a champ.


Got a finger to clean ? Annie is super helpful with things like that and is always willing to jump in and lend a tongue.

 

[Prospecter]

Mike, every time we drive past a huge rock near the road Liane suggests it would be nice in our yard. Much as I would love a little lowered dually in the driveway, those comments remind me why it's not a great idea.

Father's Day the family gathered at our son's home as usual. I was relaxing and having a great time. At some point Liane found a piece of granite countertop in the yard and asked if she could have it. Our son and his oldest son do high-end renovation work and end up with some neat stuff we could never afford. Turns out a 47" x 18" slab of granite won't fit in the trunk of the Cadillac and when it was suggested the slab would fit in the back leaning against the leather seat, our son said he'd bring it to us on Monday on his way to a renovation followup in Boca Raton. Our son is 61 and his A-hole father now has a garden slab that needs something better than a pair of sawhorses to hold it up. I see my pile of scrap wood shrinking in the near future future. Alas, I already have all the necessary tools so it will just be another item on the to-do scroll.

We have a few of those about. They do make nice outdoor tables resistant to the elements.

 

[jblnut]

We have a few of those about. They do make nice outdoor tables resistant to the elements.

Be careful, soon you'll have 11,000lbs of outdoor element resistant tables like this guy does. I found this picture on the internet. Looks neat. I can't show Mama Bear or she'll want one just like it at our place

 

[Prospecter]

Be careful, soon you'll have 11,000lbs of outdoor element resistant tables like this guy does. I found this picture on the internet. Looks neat. I can't show Mama Bear or she'll want one just like it at our place

I follow and enjoy your thread.

 

[Bob Heine]

Meet Annie. She’s a spunky little crossbred heifer calf. Although she has been named the kids insist she’s not a pet. Yeah okay lol.

Mike, my father and uncle named my pet steer Tuffy. When bits of him showed up on the dinner table I was devastated. At first it was a little saltier than I was used to but by the second bite I was happy he didn't linger with irreversible lead poisoning or a broken leg.

If I were going to name my pet a steer, I would go with Sir Loin. For a cow meant to provide milk, Butter, Vanilla or Chocolate come to mind but if meant for the dinner plate, Miss Filet or Madame Mignon might help with the Blackstone surprise event. If it's going to go to the farm upstate after weaning, Scallopini would be appropriate.

 

[jblnut]

Mike, my father and uncle named my pet steer Tuffy. When bits of him showed up on the dinner table I was devastated. At first it was a little saltier than I was used to but by the second bite I was happy he didn't linger with irreversible lead poisoning or a broken leg.

If I were going to name my pet a steer, I would go with Sir Loin. For a cow meant to provide milk, Butter, Vanilla or Chocolate come to mind but if meant for the dinner plate, Miss Filet or Madame Mignon might help with the Blackstone surprise event.

Agreed on how to name them but the kiddos wanted to start with an A name and move to a B name and so on. I keep suggesting Brisket for the B name and keep getting turned down. Chuck (Roast) would be good for a C name. Nope on that as well lol.

 

[Bob Heine]

My bad. The alphabet approach means they understand the outcome for their not-a-pet.

 

[jblnut]

My bad. The alphabet approach means they understand the outcome for their not-a-pet.

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

 

[Boostingaz]

Agreed on how to name them but the kiddos wanted to start with an A name and move to a B name and so on. I keep suggesting Brisket for the B name and keep getting turned down. Chuck (Roast) would be good for a C name. Nope on that as well lol.

Haha.

We have had chickens named:

Pot pie, Colonel Sanders, Noodles, Enchilada and all sorts of others lol.

We had one batch that we got that was almost perfectly 50/50 blacks and grays. My daughter said the black one is Anna and the Gray one is Elsa. I said which black one? All of them. Ok. Which gray one? All of them. Ok. So all the black ones were Anna and all the gray ones were Elsa.

 

[jblnut]

Mama Bear convinced me to uproot and go 2 long miles away to go camping in the backyard of some friends of ours. We do this from time to time and I don’t argue against it as I can tolerate these people and they likely do the same for me plus it’s literally minutes from home so it’s hard to say no.


As usual I brought my camping chair and it was a hit. The gorgeous gal in the green is sitting in it. It’s handy for when I have too many Busch Lattes and need a wheeling back to the camper.


We try real hard to leave devices alone when we camp so I don’t have a ton of pictures but I had to sneak one of the breakfast I made. Er’ma’gawsh this was delicious …..


Randy (property owner) says “I really wish that stupid tree wasn’t there.” His wife echoed that wish so I went to the truck and pulled out a chainsaw and we proceeded to make their dreams come true. “You carry a chainsaw in the truck !?” A few asked. “No, I carry four chainsaws in the truck, duh”.


Saturday AM I snuck out and spent some time in the JD cockpit spraying a few tankfuls.


Load and go !! Turn em’ and burn em’ Ricky Bobby !!


It was calm and hot and things laid down perfectly. I got a couple tank fulls in before it got windy so I wandered back to the party.

 

[drivesitfar]

Did you get to keep the wood from the tree and leave them the branches to burn?

Looks like a good way to hang with friends.

 

[jblnut]

Did you get to keep the wood from the tree and leave them the branches to burn?

Looks like a good way to hang with friends.

It was a skinny little spruce tree and no. We cut it down and drug it into the woods to leave dry so he could cut it up and use it for campfire wood. It wasn’t worth bringing home really. A days worth of wood in there at best lol.

 

[drivesitfar]

It’s good to be handy and have good tools but monitor the Busch lattes before you fire up the saws.

Hope you had a great weekend

 

[bugnut]

I sense a new trend,live edge stone furniture! And breakfast does look outstanding!

 

[jblnut]

It’s good to be handy and have good tools but monitor the Busch lattes before you fire up the saws.

Hope you had a great weekend

Booze and productivity of any kind do not work for me. Well, other than a few tractor beers while dragging the driveways to level things out that is. Not a lot of thinking required there. Alcohol makes me a big worthless puddle in short order and being a cheap date I don’t usually go after it that hard. Certainly not anymore.

I sense a new trend,live edge stone furniture! And breakfast does look outstanding!

Live edge stone furniture does sound quite trendy

 

[jblnut]

I follow and enjoy your thread.

Thank you for the kind words and for following along !!

 

[jblnut]

I noticed there was some leakage coming from my sprayer pump and that’s in no way a good thing so it needed some attention paid to it.


$830 for a pump rebuild kit. No bearings or races as they seemed fine. Just the diaphragms (<-that can’t be spelled correctly it looks funny).


One head had a cracked diaphragm. It’s always good to find and actual problem and not just rebuild it all having it look good when you tear it down.


Tossed enough water in it to be able to prime and it worked great !!


Being a borderline hoarder has its advantages. I needed to build a thing to hold the calf bottles so I went to the local treasure pile and found just the things.


Looks promising !!


Works great !! Way better than having all the bottles and ******* laying in the sink.