Above 1200 Sq/FT Out on Quaker Road

[jblnut]

Checking in on the farm as I just got back from a farm in DeKalb, Illinois to buy some Myria Sweet corn.

I paid .75 cents USD for each one...so sweet, you could eat them uncooked!
Well it got me thinking of being out on Quaker road and here I am.
Now that you got the Manure Mansion up, the cow are sure going to complain when they go into the city.....

Hope you have a wonderful Labor Day...I will be saluting you for the bounty you work so hard to provide.

I've been trying to get my hand on some Yellow Mirai seed for a few seasons now and it always seems to be sold out on their site (www.twingardensinc.com) I haven't had it but have heard it is AMAZING !! Sorry to say you've misspelled it on all your bags though

Boy oh boy if I could only figure out how to sell my corn for $0.75/ear I'd be one wealthy dude. I shoot for 20,000 seeds per acre when doing sweet corn so that'd be $15,000/acre revenue. Not bad !!!

The joke is a good one !!! We won't be doing much this weekend but intend to at least go to a park with the kiddos and let them run around and have fun.

 

[jblnut]

Monday morning early I left for good ol' Lisbon, ND for a few days again. I got to Gwinner early enough to have a good solid breakfast at a little gas station. The guy that usually tags along with me had other things to do this week so I drew a face on a napkin so he was here in spirit


The fish eye mode sure makes the rotary look small. It is WAY larger than it looks in the picture !!


This is a cable scraper power unit. It has a Stainless 5/8" cable that spools on a drum that pulls and pushes 4 12' wide manure scrapers. There is a scraper between each set of stalls and one by each feed lane to keep the pooooooop off the floor and keep the cows clean and dry. The control panels are quite hi-tech and monitor things such as scraper position down to the inch, amp draw on all legs (480v 3ph stuff), total run time, total Kw used per run, the number of times the power head reverses due to too high an amp draw and tons more stuff. The panels can be hooked into a central management system that is powered by a RaspberryPi and the dairyman can receive alarms and make changes from his smartphone. I hooked them up to the RaspberryPi and got them programmed on Monday/Tuesday.


This is the brain box that runs each scraper (there are four total in the barn). There is a lot going on here just to scrap poop around


Since this was an afterthought the electricians did not have 120v 1ph run to the control panels so they put an a box with a 480v 3ph down to 120v 1ph transformer in each of the four boxes so I can power the Ubiquiti AirGateway LR's. There is one AirGateway LR in each box for each scraper ....


They all connect to a NanoStation Loco. When I was setting up the software I needed a bit of help so I called the companies tech support line and it took literally 10 minutes to get the guy to understand they were communicating wireless and how that was all set up. He kept saying they were not wireless and he had no idea how it was working without wires. I finally took some pictures and emailed him. When he got the emails I heard a loud "Huh, that's neat"


The FRone feed pusher has the ability to be online as well. They've named it Ricky Bobby because all it wants to do is race around the barn


This install was a lot easier as there is 240v 1ph right in the box. These little Ubiquiti POE bricks accept 100-240v so that was a nice win


I decided to use a Ubiquiti UAP-Mesh to get it online as there was a bit of a dead spot in the WiFi over here and they said they plug a laptop into the feed pusher once in a while. Makes sense, accomplish two things at once.


This afternoon when I got home I started moving more dirt. There ended up being around 2' of nice black dirt right where I wanted the driveway to go towards the **** Shack so out it came and in went a nice clay from behind the chicken coop.

 

[Bob Heine]

Mike, I love all the farm automation so please keep posting about it.

I spent time when I was 6 or 7 (1951-2) in my aunt's dairy barn on Long Island and a neighbor's barn in Vermont. Watched a calf birth in the dark of night and was allowed to do some manure scraping. Back then they had wireless scrapers that I still use today.

My aunt's dairy barn was very up-to-date and had a cart for the manure bin that traveled down a track in the trough behind the cows. I still have the cart but it now stores my ****, not the cows'.

 

[njhoudini]

Isn't it rewarding when you can prove that some theories will work practically like using wireless in place of wired networks? I just wish there was an inexpensive way to get gigabit ethernet between the floors of my 100 year old house without breaking the budget. I'm lucky that my UniFi AP-AC-PRO can penetrate most of the plaster on lath walls, but I can only get 45Mbit using my current Powerline Ethernet between my switch and office. Yeah yeah, I can throw some money at the issue, but I am really trying to not spend money when it doesn't need to be spent. I am not very motivated to install a new line in the wall either. Sorry if this is technically a hijack.

 

[oldironfarmer]

Super cool stuff. An automated laborer. Do the manure scrapers get smoke breaks? I see you let them use their cell phones on the job

It's a shame you had to pull 120v off the three phase. Does that kill your communications when you have a power failure or do you have UPS?

I didn't understand the feed pusher. What does he do between smoke breaks?

 

[jblnut]

Mike, I love all the farm automation so please keep posting about it.

I spent time when I was 6 or 7 (1951-2) in my aunt's dairy barn on Long Island and a neighbor's barn in Vermont. Watched a calf birth in the dark of night and was allowed to do some manure scraping. Back then they had wireless scrapers that I still use today.

My aunt's dairy barn was very up-to-date and had a cart for the manure bin that traveled down a track in the trough behind the cows. I still have the cart but it now stores my ****, not the cows'.

Hi Bob.

Farming in general is becoming more and more automated every day and it's exciting to be a part of it. Everything from programmable automated buttons in tractors (push button #1 at the end of the field and the 4WD and Diff lock turn off, the implement lifts up, PTO shuts off, and the engine idles down. Push button #2 once you're turned around and it all reverses itself in whatever order you program) to robotic feeders, milkers, poop scrapers and bedding machines. It's a neat world to be a part of

Very neat to have such a memorable piece of your childhood !! Too bad it's got such crappy memories tied to it .....

Isn't it rewarding when you can prove that some theories will work practically like using wireless in place of wired networks? I just wish there was an inexpensive way to get gigabit ethernet between the floors of my 100 year old house without breaking the budget. I'm lucky that my UniFi AP-AC-PRO can penetrate most of the plaster on lath walls, but I can only get 45Mbit using my current Powerline Ethernet between my switch and office. Yeah yeah, I can throw some money at the issue, but I am really trying to not spend money when it doesn't need to be spent. I am not very motivated to install a new line in the wall either. Sorry if this is technically a hijack.

It took longer to explain how it was all communicating than it did to answer the initial questions I called in for

Hijack's are ok in here. It's interesting to hear about others stuff in a way it relates to stuff in my world. PM sent with a few ideas/questions.

Super cool stuff. An automated laborer. Do the manure scrapers get smoke breaks? I see you let them use their cell phones on the job

It's a shame you had to pull 120v off the three phase. Does that kill your communications when you have a power failure or do you have UPS?

I didn't understand the feed pusher. What does he do between smoke breaks?

The manure scrapers don't get smoke breaks but they do get lubed up for more fun once in a while

I asked the owners about putting a small UPS in each box but they weren't too concerned about it .... that is until the power flutters and the AirGateways reset themselves back to default settings. Not sure why but they do that sometimes when a brownout occurs. I relay'd that info and they still didn't seem too bothered.

The feed pusher runs up and down the feed alley every two hours and pushes the feed closer to the headlocks. The pusher gets closer to the bunk with each pass until the feed is almost gone. It keeps the feed within reach at all times for the cattle. In the morning when the cattle get fed it starts it's path back at route 1 and proceeds to work closer with each pass. The feed pusher doesn't get smoke breaks but when he's sitting idle he's getting jacked up on some good ol' DC power. A few pixies from the wall to charge him up and he's off and running again !!

 

[jblnut]

Dirt work is getting serious now ... the Montgomery Wards transit is out !!!


Cameras **** at capturing stuff sometimes. Well most times but really right now. The lumps and dips and all the stuff that makes moving dirt fun are not really visible here




We broke out the ol' Glencoe Cultipacker to break up the clods and level the seedbed in prep for planting grass tomorrow.


We hauled home 49 bales of the nicest upland hay we've baled in a long time today. It was faster to drive the skiddy to and from the field than load it up and haul it. I got passed by a tractor. Not often that happens

 

[jeepxj]

On the marker front - give revmark a try esp for writing on cables. the cap makes way more sense if you're constantly pulling it out to mark all those little things:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07B4HW3P7/?tag=atomicindus08-20

 

[jblnut]

On the marker front - give revmark a try esp for writing on cables. the cap makes way more sense if you're constantly pulling it out to mark all those little things:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07B4HW3P7/?tag=atomicindus08-20

What a neat looking marker. I ordered a set. We'll see how well they work!

 

[jeepxj]

What a neat looking marker. I ordered a set. We'll see how well they work!

Leaving the cap in your pocket or shirt and being able to pull it out, mark, and put it back in one handed is game changing when you're up in the air.

The multi pack has different tips on each color. find out which one works for you and then order up. I think ultra fine would work great for LV cable marking

 

[jblnut]

Started off yesterday by picking the rocks we dug up leveling the black dirt out. There were quite a few but that is to be expected out here.


We decided to empty the bin I'd been taking corn out of to feed the steers. This requires the use of a portable auger that gets put inside the bin to help bring the corn to the center easier than using a shovel. It just so happens that the plug came apart and needed to be replaced. Crazy how a very inexpensive item can destroy even the best made plans. At least we had a "new" one to fix it with.


You can see part of the bin sweep sticking out. It's a 4" auger with a backer that brings the corn to the center of the bin.


Even though it was only 9am and it was cloudy outside it was still miserable in the bin. The corn chaff and fine dust get into nooks and cranny's you didn't even know you had.


Out of the bin and into a gravity box. What was left in the bin filled up about a box and a half. We put it in the hopper bin which is MUCH easier to use.


Once that was done it was back over to my place to seed around the stacking slab. We put a mix of winter wheat, smooth brome and perennial rye. I used the spreader we use in the barn to spread the chicken stuff.


It swayed and wobbled like crazy so I put a ratchet strap in place to criss-cross brace it from warbling. It worked quite well.


Oil on the ground is never a good thing


It is not visible but the right side of the steering cylinder is broken off of the yoke. It is a rather neat design but at the moment it is a stupid design because it failed.


I don't know if the 886 will have enough power to get it done


We spread some straw around the edges of the building to help stop it from washing.


I spread it out better with a 4' harrow behind the 4wheeler. It looks MUCH better and there are no thick clumpy spots now


Whilst working Mama Bear and the little people made an appearance and we stopped to say hi.

 

[Finallygotit]

I can hear Leo thinking in his head, "There's too much estrogen in here Dad!"

 

[njhoudini]

Whilst working Mama Bear and the little people made an appearance and we stopped to say hi.

Seriously the best wheel upgrades ever! Makes you wonder how small a tractor you can get. Here's one from Walmart.

 

[jblnut]

I can hear Leo thinking in his head, "There's too much estrogen in here Dad!"

Poor kid has two older sisters ... he's gonna be spending a lot of time outside with Dad in the future

Seriously the best wheel upgrades ever! Makes you wonder how small a tractor you can get.

He has to sit in the middle of the wagon or he reaches out and tries to grab the big wheels and that doesn't end well

I have a JD LX165 lawn tractor .... that's about the smallest "tractor" allowed around here. The girls have a Frozen themed Hot Wheels Jeep that they take EVERYWHERE but it only seats two. I may have to watch for a little JD tractor like the one pictured for Leo.. Either that or he can have my skid loader and I can get a newer, larger one !!!

 

[welder57]

Great looking kids in that wagon. Love farm fun when it fun as kids, not so much when we got older!!!

 

[jblnut]

Great looking kids in that wagon. Love farm fun when it fun as kids, not so much when we got older!!!

I used to say that I had a blast as a kid growing up on a farm but I'm still growing up on a farm so I guess I'm still having a blast

 

[jblnut]

Well the quickdraw markers have arrived. I must say that initial impressions are good. They sure are nice markers and are easy to use !!


Somewhere between the last post and this one it was my birthday. The family got me an ice cream cake that my 5yr old said "looked like me". Gee thanks


My brother-in-law wanted to borrow my landscape rake and I told him only if I could borrow his brush mower. Wow this thing is nice !!


It will mow 5' tall grass like it's not even there and does a really nice job.


As amazing as it is it doesn't make your skid loader float through mud. I still sank like a rock in a spot I didn't expect to be wet. Oh well.


This mower is built by a local fab shop. They use weld on cutting edges for blades which is a really good idea. A new pair of blades if ever needed is only $80 so not bad.


I used the brother-in-laws for a few hours and had to have one so off we went to bring my very own mower home. I'd priced out a few other skid loader brush mowers over the years and they were all over $7k. This one was $3,800 out the door and is built like a tank

 

[C_F]

Yay for the new mower, and happy Birfday!

 

[Bob Heine]

Happy Birthday Mike!

 

[njhoudini]

Happy birthday!

Sent from my LG-H918 using The Garage Journal mobile app

 

[jeepxj]

I wonder why revmark hasn't trademarked the quickdraw slogan for themselves. thats a solid one.

 

[Finallygotit]

Happy belated birthday Mike!

 

[jblnut]

Thanks for the birthday wishes. I went to work and did chores like any other day. As a kid birthdays were in the top three days of the year. Last day of school and Christmas were the other two. As an adult birthdays kind of ****. Another year gone. It's always a good time to look back on what's happened in the last year, both good and bad, and try to guess what the next year will bring.

The QuickDraw slogan for those markers would be an accurate tagline. They work great and are easy to use.

 

[jblnut]

It's neat seeing the difference in emergence where the straw was spread to where it wasn't. It was all seeded the same time with the same stuff. Where the straw is the wheat and grasses are showing through way better.

A fellow and his family from way down South came up for the weekend and he helped me with a few things around the yard. He was rather excited to drive the ol' skiddy.

The purpose of the visit was that we decided it was time to make this silo a little bit shorter.

Knocked out a good many staves on the side I wanted it to fall ....

It fell a little and stopped. Great. I tried pushing it a bit with the skiddy and that didn't work at all so we hooked a long chain onto a couple of the steel hoops and pulled it over with the tractor.

It fell over the driveway so now I have to clean it up sooner than later

Being as this was a once in a lifetime deal, at least on this property, we invited some people over to watch/help/drink beer. We had a bonfire after and sat around and talked stupid until way too late. There was quite the mess to clean up this morning ...

Once that was cleaned up I set my sights on the silo. I was making pretty good progress and it started raining. The raindrops were as big as softballs and came down faster than Sea Biscuit.

I got probably 1/3 of it cleaned up this afternoon.

I'm saving the good staves and putting them on plastic pallets so they can sit in the dirt forever and I can still move them without having wooden ones rot away. 5 layers high with 7 staves per layer and the skiddy has all it can do to move them. That puts them right at 50lbs each. I think there was around 500 in the entire silo if I remember correctly so 25,000lbs of concrete staves total. Gonna move the bulk of them by hand too .... gross.

 

[Farmall450]

Happy Birthday, congrats on the present!

 

[ABSTIFFGS]

Thanks again for hosting us and feeding us and letting us drink way too many beers way too late and letting us crash on your couch and letting me drive the skidder. Us city folks don't get that kind of excitement very often. The kids talked about the falling of the silo all the way home. Sorry we couldn't stay and help clean up.

 

[jblnut]

Happy Birthday, congrats on the present!

It's been used a little already and I like it more each time !!

Thanks again for hosting us and feeding us and letting us drink way too many beers way too late and letting us crash on your couch and letting me drive the skidder. Us city folks don't get that kind of excitement very often. The kids talked about the falling of the silo all the way home. Sorry we couldn't stay and help clean up.

You're welcome to come hang out whenever and don't think for a minute I'm going to believe you're sorry you couldn't (wouldn't) stay to help clean up.

 

[C_F]

^^^ Haha!

Regarding your old silo, are the concrete staves cemented to each other when it is first built? Or is it merely the cables (I assume they are cables) wrapped around the outer perimeter that held it together?

 

[jeepxj]

^^^ Haha!

Regarding your old silo, are the concrete staves cemented to each other when it is first built? Or is it merely the cables (I assume they are cables) wrapped around the outer perimeter that held it together?

 

[jblnut]

^^^ Haha!

Regarding your old silo, are the concrete staves cemented to each other when it is first built? Or is it merely the cables (I assume they are cables) wrapped around the outer perimeter that held it together?

The Youtube video below is one of very few out there of a silo being built. It shows the labor it takes to make it happen and some of the parts and pieces used to build them.

The rings are around 1/2" diameter steel rods that are threaded on both ends to allow them to be tightened once installed. The larger the silo, the more rings and the closer they are together. Think of them like external rebar. The staves are very weak on their own and the rings hold them all together.

This is about half the rings that were on my silo.

Here are a few videos of the silo coming down. Looking back I should have left more rings intact .....

The final tipping make the ol' 7400 snort pretty good ....

 

[jblnut]

This afternoon we got a little over 1" of rain in about 20 minutes. There was quite the river going by my pump house !!

The newly widened and deepened ditch by the chicken coop worked great. I need to fill in a few holes up on the gravel pad and there should be very few puddles.

 

[C_F]

The Youtube video below is one of very few out there of a silo being built. It shows the labor it takes to make it happen and some of the parts and pieces used to build them.

The rings are around 1/2" diameter steel rods that are threaded on both ends to allow them to be tightened once installed. The larger the silo, the more rings and the closer they are together. Think of them like external rebar. The staves are very weak on their own and the rings hold them all together.

This is about half the rings that were on my silo.



Here are a few videos of the silo coming down. Looking back I should have left more rings intact .....

The final tipping make the ol' 7400 snort pretty good ....

Very interesting, thanks guys!

 

[oldironfarmer]

Happy Birthday!! Nice gift!

I assume the silo was not very old. If it was built in the twenties the rings may be wrought iron. If so it grinds and cuts like cast iron, no secondary explosions on the sparks. It would be worth saving.

 

[jblnut]

Happy Birthday!! Nice gift!

I assume the silo was not very old. If it was built in the twenties the rings may be wrought iron. If so it grinds and cuts like cast iron, no secondary explosions on the sparks. It would be worth saving.

Silo was built in the 60's from what I was told. Nothing special other than we knocked it down and I'm not dead, which is good.

 

[MNSam]

Cool progress. I bet that silo coming down makes a heck of a noise.

 

[jblnut]

Cool progress. I bet that silo coming down makes a heck of a noise.

It make a hell of a racket on the way down !! The people watching and cheering were almost just as loud

 

[jblnut]

I had to replace a switch in a milking robot on Friday and none of the communication wires were labeled

I broke out my new RevMark quick draw markers and threw some labels on them quick fast and in a hurry. These things rock !!

The amount of feed dust and chicken fuzz that blows out of the barn makes quite a dusty spot outside

Well I wasn't Johnny on the spot with the camera before I started cleaning up junk so picture three times the **** sitting here and that's about right. I decided it was the best place to put the junk concrete from the silo so the scrap metal junk had to go !! Someday when the rest of the concrete gets torn up this pile will be hauled away to crush along with the rest of it.

Second load of junk going in. All the metal parts of the silo except the top are on this load. There was a little over a ton of iron when it got weighed. A whopping $60 worth

For the most part it is cleaned up. I should change the title to "Cleaning Up My Yard". I'd never be as cool as that "Cleaning Up My Shop" guy but a guy can dream right ?? Watch out, if you click that link you need to allow at least 2 solid months to read through that monster ....

The foundation for the silo put up a bit of a fight using the skiddy so out came the mini-ex. This thing comes in handy so often !!!

Well that clean spot stayed a clean spot for about an hour and got filled back up with junk concrete

I figured I may as well have some fun

SQUISH !!!

By the end of the day yesterday we had the scrap hauled off, junk staves moved, silo foundation dug out, silo top squished, black dirt hauled in and leveled off, black dirt seeded and we even managed to find time to go order a brand new 2019 Subaru Ascent. It was a good, but spendy, day.

 

[oldironfarmer]

Great job on cleaning up the silo!

I could not have done that. I would have kept all the 1/2" rod and never had to ever buy any more. The cupola off the silo looked like a great playhouse for two little princesses...

That's why your place is clean and neat and mine is filled with junk.

Great job, I envy you

P.S. Have you tried the Milwaukee markers? Write over wet and oily surfaces.

 

[jblnut]

Great job on cleaning up the silo!

I could not have done that. I would have kept all the 1/2" rod and never had to ever buy any more. The cupola off the silo looked like a great playhouse for two little princesses...

That's why your place is clean and neat and mine is filled with junk.

Great job, I envy you

P.S. Have you tried the Milwaukee markers? Write over wet and oily surfaces.

Yeah .... I didn't get rid of all of it

The idea for the cupola was to make it into a playhouse but after much deliberation it was decided that it got too hot in there and there were too many sharp things. This winter I'm going to build a playhouse in the little shop for them to use. The plan is to build it so it can be used as a garden shed or something along those lines once the littles are bored with it..

My place is only clean because my lovely wife walks around once in a while and says things like "When was the last time you looked at that item?" or "Do you really need 500 5gal pails?" and "Wouldn't it be nice if all this junk wasn't here??" and my favorite so far is "How much did you pay for THAT ?!" She's a wonderful woman but her level of being okay with stuff sitting around is a "little" different than mine.

P.S. I have a set of Milwaukee Inkzall markers in the van that now get used daily. They are amazing !!

 

[jeepxj]

I know what I prefer; how about if you had to replace all your markers with just one brand? revmark or mke?