Above 1200 Sq/FT Out on Quaker Road

[woodfor1]

Thank you for all the updates on your farm.I check in with you every morning and hope to see something new.Keep your family safe and we will all make it through this.

 

[Jayman17]

Mike, thanks for the update. I'm glad everyone there is ok and surviving the stay home order. Are you going to build the shop first then your house?
I appreciate seeing a slice of farm life.
My GF has participated in one of those virtual Zoom cocktail parties as well.
Take care

Jay

 

[davo727]

Hows the combine fix?

 

[jblnut]

As a grownup farm boy, no equipment has ever been bought that WASN"T on sale and a hat thrown in

Nephew in central Illinois is out running disk 3" deep to scratch out weeds where they spread manure last fall.

You bring up a good point .... we didn't even get hats or jackets or a free meal or nothing yet !!! I'm gonna have to politely remind the sales guy that I can't joke about buying an $80k hat and getting a tile plow setup for free if I don't actually get the hat !!!

Have quietly been following your adventures and sometimes smiled.

For now I say stay safe and don't fall off any roofs

Thank you for following along from afar !!

I've been able to stay fairly planted on the roofs so far

Jbl: yep keep those daily farm reports coming. Even with my poor imitation of Dan Akroyd my wife was laughing almost harder than I was.

Greater words might not have been spoken about our current situation so keep on keeping on and don’t forget to give us those daily reports.

Cheers!!

I'll try on the updates but I can not do the daily sort of funny stuff. I'm a pretty boring dude and that took some serious creativity juices flowing to get that last one come alive

MAN-OH-MAN! Am I ever loving the barren (mostly) roadways, during what was once my hellish commute! It ***** that it took something like a virus scare fueled by a biased media which breathlessly perpetuates their agenda in our faces, and...oh wait, I'm going off on a tangent. Sorry!
Anyway, the past couple weeks commuting to work have been amazing! It's like it's 1993 all over again on the roadways. Seriously, it's cut off 45 minutes of my morning & evening commute, I LOVE it!

Because of this whole "work from home" thing that many have had to do, I wonder if many of the companies who have had employees working from cubicles in large buildings will suddenly realize that they don't need those cubicles...in those large buildings (that cost many $), and that their workforce can simply work from home? Today's tech is great! A win-win, right?
Annnd the BEST win-win for me, is that all those employees will no longer have to commute, so there's that many fewer idiots clogging the roadways, slowing my stinkin' commute to my job that sadly can't be done from my computer room at home, where I'm typing this marvelous marvel, fueled by what is now 5 snorts of a certain fine Canadian whiskey. Now where was I...oh yeah, fewer idiots on the road, I like that idea!

Tangents are always welcome here. You never know when you veer off into new unexplored territory and end up somewhere neat !!

Seems like the 20% of "non-essential" workers are causing 95% of the traffic problems

Thanks for the update!
Stay safe!

Thanks for following along !! We're as safe as can be out here. Still haven't heard of anyone we know that has actually gotten this thing .....

Thank you for all the updates on your farm.I check in with you every morning and hope to see something new. Keep your family safe and we will all make it through this.

Ok gee no pressure to keep it updated now is there lol. Things should pick up here soon as we get into the fields again. Thanks for following along

Mike, thanks for the update. I'm glad everyone there is ok and surviving the stay home order. Are you going to build the shop first then your house?
I appreciate seeing a slice of farm life.
My GF has participated in one of those virtual Zoom cocktail parties as well.
Take care

Jay

The house would have been built and 10yrs old already if Mama Bear had here way and she's going to have to wait another year to (hopefully) be able to built that dream house of hers. We've got A LOT of stuff to get rid of in the spot where they house will be going. Getting dirtwork done this fall to build next year is the goal though.

And yes, the shop is going up as soon as the builder guy heals up a little bit. I guess he busted his foot up pretty bad a few weeks back. He's a scrappy fellow though so I think he'll be back at it long before rafters show up in a few weeks.

Hows the combine fix?

The combine is 93% back together. A local welding shop put some pretty serious metal on that broken axle and from the looks of it I think it'll last forever now !!

 

[jblnut]

I skipped a few steps before this picture but this is the POOP pipe and floor drain pipe that comes out of our house and goes to the septic tank. The left one is the POOP pipe and there is a 3" gap between it and the next pipe under the house !!! I noticed dirt disappearing in this area and decided to investigate. Seems the previous owners did one heck of a botched patch job and even used shingles to cover the other clay pipe that was all cracked and broken.


My solution .... may as well stay with the botched patch job and use a few layers of alum flashing to bridge the gap


The shed dismantle continues ....




We've been filling totes with the scraps we've been cutting up. Dad will run them through his wood stove next winter to heat the house. Win Win.


The treated stuff and other misc junk that is not burnable we put in the totes insides to be tossed into the dumpster one at a time. Should work out well.


Dad tried to go home and his Exploader wouldn't start. It just clicked and clunked and wouldn't turn over.


They always cram stuff SOOO Far in there that it's crazy hard to get to. Plus the concrete floor was quite cold. To say I'm excited to have a warm floor to lay on this coming winter is quite the understatement !!!


Nasty dirty broken POS. At least it's out. Ordered a new one on Rockauto before I washed up. The internet is a neat thing


On Sunday it was back to tearing stuff down.


Dad started on one side, and I started on the other. Time to take the roof off !!!


Roof is off !!!


Anyone need some "vintage" steel ???


In an effort to clean stuff up I sold my 95' E350 Cube Van. I purchased it for the 7.3l Turbo, non I/C 2wd drivetrain and a guy at work was looking for the exact same thing. I figured I can find another one when I get around to putting the drivetrain into my 84' Merc Grand Marquis. Anyway ..... this is the tow bar he showed up with. We hooked it up and he drug it home 25 miles with no problems. Lol. Seemed a bit sketchy to me and I do some pretty sketchy stuff


Sunday evening I decided to bring out the wok and cook some steak and potatoes. It was a little rusty from sitting all winter .....


A little bacon grease and some elbow grease and it was looking quite nice in a short amount of time !!!


Yeah ..... it could have taken an hour to clean it up and would have still been time well spent. Don't worry, even though there are 8 steaks there were only 7 people so we are well under the mandated 10 people or less

 

[C_F]

Tangents are always welcome here. You never know when you veer off into new unexplored territory and end up somewhere neat !!

Seems like the 20% of "non-essential" workers are causing 95% of the traffic problems

I try to not touch the keyboard after I've had a few in me, but I guess I couldn't help myself. Thanks for not getting mad at me.

Yes, it does appear that the 20% really does seem to be the root cause of the crazy congestion around here. I wouldn't have guessed there would be such a difference!

BTW, after finally caving in to much begging from SWMBO, a couple weeks ago we brought home 5 little chicken babies. They are currently in a large Tupperware container in the living room. Gonna have to start building them a coop soon! I also need to figure out how to suspend the water & food trays a bit off the floor, they keep kicking wood chips in there!

Also, apparently this COVID scare has also created some "chicken hoarding" around my area. The week prior, we tried to buy some chicks, and the IFA store was completely sold out. We had to be there the following Thursday by around 10:00am, or we might miss out again! By then, the store had put a "maximum of 10" cap on how many chicks people could buy. Just nuts!

 

[XJSuperman]

Well you either know what you're doing or you're braver than I...dismantling a shed with a tractor and things still inside. First thing I'd do would be drop something right on top of it.

 

[jblnut]

I try to not touch the keyboard after I've had a few in me, but I guess I couldn't help myself. Thanks for not getting mad at me.

Yes, it does appear that the 20% really does seem to be the root cause of the crazy congestion around here. I wouldn't have guessed there would be such a difference!

BTW, after finally caving in to much begging from SWMBO, a couple weeks ago we brought home 5 little chicken babies. They are currently in a large Tupperware container in the living room. Gonna have to start building them a coop soon! I also need to figure out how to suspend the water & food trays a bit off the floor, they keep kicking wood chips in there!

Also, apparently this COVID scare has also created some "chicken hoarding" around my area. The week prior, we tried to buy some chicks, and the IFA store was completely sold out. We had to be there the following Thursday by around 10:00am, or we might miss out again! By then, the store had put a "maximum of 10" cap on how many chicks people could buy. Just nuts!

No worries. Like I said, tangents are welcome. I'm not some thread nazi that will get grumpy if someone deviates off the thread path. Actually, that is sort of the thread path. This summer once the shop starts getting built will put an end to a 5 year tease about a shop project

Drinking and posting on the internet is always a good idea. Lol.

If'fin you're in need of a few chicks I'm sure I could find a few for ya

Well you either know what you're doing or you're braver than I...dismantling a shed with a tractor and things still inside. First thing I'd do would be drop something right on top of it.

Bah. It's just a Farmall M. You could drop a house on it and it'll still start right up !!!

 

[C_F]

If'fin you're in need of a few chicks I'm sure I could find a few for ya

Yeah, I told my lady that if we can't find any chicks right now, I think I know a guy...

As always, I'm looking (well, me & a bunch of us) forward to your continued updates out on Quaker Road.

 

[jblnut]

Yeah, I told my lady that if we can't find any chicks right now, I think I know a guy...

As always, I'm looking (well, me & a bunch of us) forward to your continued updates out on Quaker Road.

Not sure how long it'd take them to walk to Utah but it might work out lol.

I look forward to them as well because it means things settled down enough for long enough to post them

 

[jblnut]

Good ol' trusty mini van is going to be used as the farm truck for a few days ....


We got tile and fittings delivered to start on a patch of grass for the FIL of the guy I bought the plow with. The minivan has all the fittings in it and it's FULL


The rolls of tile were delivered right to the field.


It took a little bit to get the plow and all the GPS stuff calibrated ....


Might be a little muddy


Dad started off by digging out the bottom of a ditch a little ways so the tile can have a clear path to discharge the water out the end of the tile.


The tile is in the plow and Paul is off and running !!!


That 8" tile is taking some major snort to pull in !!


Pipe is going in


There is an old fenceline in between the two fields and we thought we might have issues getting though it


Deere 9300 on the tile plow, Deere 8430 on the first chain, Case 4690 in front of that. Hopefully it'll pull the plow over the hump !!


Well after a few grumpy words Dad is smiling again for a bit after losing a boot in the mud. He walked out of the mud with only one boot on. Lots of naughty words were said before this point


Well. The mud continues. I grabbed the mini-hoe to dig in front of the plow to try to make it easier to pull. The 9300 and other two tractors didn't want to pull the plow trough the mud very well at all .....


OK this is getting silly. Time to call it quits and pull the plow out and be done for a bit ....


Annnnnd now the 9300 is stuck with the plow barely in the ground


Ok well to get the whole works out of the mud I jumped in a Case IH Puma 165 and between the all of them we got the whole works out of the mud !!!


We decided to dig the rest of the main 8" line in with the mini-hoe to get it in so the hole didn't fill with water.

 

[Growlertdi]

wow what a mess. keep up the hard work.

 

[drivesitfar]

JBL: WOW that's some serious WORK and MUD. i bet your dad didn't have many good words to say cause I bet it's still cold in your part of the world too.

keep up the updates and i'm still smiling and almost laughing at the "SOMEBODY SWALLOWED A BAT" line in your recent "FARM REPORT"

I would have thought you'd do all that work on the wet areas in the middle of summer, but you and your dad are so busy all year long I'm guessing this is the only time to do the work AND maybe the ground is wet there all year long. are you planting on top of the new drain too so you get more crop?

carry on !!


BTW: I'm running out of Corona for my daily 1 beer to keep my immune system in good shape.

 

[XJSuperman]

I would've quit after chaining the first tractor up to help lol. Better wait for drier weather.

 

[davo727]

Wow, yeah quite a day you guys had.

 

[jblnut]

wow what a mess. keep up the hard work.

No kidding. It was a 50/50 split on "should we go into the mud or not?" and I lost the coin toss so in we went ......

JBL: WOW that's some serious WORK and MUD. i bet your dad didn't have many good words to say cause I bet it's still cold in your part of the world too.

keep up the updates and i'm still smiling and almost laughing at the "SOMEBODY SWALLOWED A BAT" line in your recent "FARM REPORT"

I would have thought you'd do all that work on the wet areas in the middle of summer, but you and your dad are so busy all year long I'm guessing this is the only time to do the work AND maybe the ground is wet there all year long. are you planting on top of the new drain too so you get more crop?

carry on !!


BTW: I'm running out of Corona for my daily 1 beer to keep my immune system in good shape.

I like the work as much as Dad disliked losing a boot. He yelled loud enough that we all looked to make sure he was okay and not having some sort of "actual" problem lol.

If I get creative again I'll post more "Farm Updates"

That's good logic to play in the fields when they're dry BUT once they're planted we do not want to smash the crop down to put tile in. Which means we'll wait until after harvest to tile and then there is only so much time before it freezes up and we are done for the year. PLUS we want to do some of our own ground this fall after oats/soybeans are off so we can focus on tillage once corn is off.

This is a main line that needs to go in before all the other lines. They all feed into this one and it ends up draining the entire field. The idea is that by taking the water out down below that when it rains the field acts as a giant sponge and the water soaks in instead of running over the surface. If it dries up enough and firms up again there will be no evidence that the tile is there other than it's dryer all around it

One Corona a day to keep the virus away. That could be their new sales pitch line

I would've quit after chaining the first tractor up to help lol. Better wait for drier weather.

Me too but I lost the coin toss again so away (or not really I guess) we went !!!

It's going to be drier this weekend and should even freeze a little into next week so things should be much more betterer

Wow, yeah quite a day you guys had.

Lol. After the mud we dealt with last fall it didn't seem that bad actually. It was a mess and we should have quit a long time before we did but last fall made us a little more tolerable of mud. PLUS there was a nice dry high spot "only" a few hundred feet away we were tying to get to so we kept at it longer than we should have.

 

[jblnut]

Since it was too muddy to tile and I already told work I wasn't coming in we decided to tear on the building some more. Miss Lily decided to keep us in line and took the highest vantage point she could find.


"Dad look at this neat hat thing !!!"


Lol. I made that A LOOOONG time ago to wear as a Halloween costume and didn't even remember it was still around.


Just need to pull the poles out and this one is done !!!


Shiiiiiiiny new starter on Dads Exploader was the right fix. It turned over better than it has in a while. Good deal.


Lily and Grandpa filling out the daily chicken barn paperwork. Lily is talking a million miles a minute and Grandpa is trying to keep up with what she is saying and writing down. It was entertaining !!


Annnnnd it's snowing again


It makes for a neat picture but we are certainly ready to be done with this fluffy white B/S !!!!!


Dad started hauling manure today and will continue today and see how much is left. I think whatever of the steer pack manure is left I'll haul in the fields here at home so save some road time on the equipment.

 

[Higgins]

OK guys, I'm no longer have any ties to friends with farms anymore, so I haven't been able to add anything of substance to this group!

You guys just have it to easy installing your field tiles !!! LOL. Back in the 50's, as kids we would help a family friend hand dig the the trenches, and install clay tiles. Progress was slow, had a lot of fun working with the other kids. Mrs Blacks lemonade was wonderful as were her hand made sandwiches. I think we paid by how many tiles we installed that day..... Will never forget the experience !!!

Now I'm 73 and retired living on a mountaintop somewhere in TN. I've traded in my professional tools and truck for a little 443 Bobcat to do yard work! - Cheers !!!

AL

 

[drivesitfar]

JB: thanks for the update and sorry to hear the cold and snow just won't stop, but I know you and the family just keep on rolling. feeding and caring for animals, moving their **** to the fields so your dirt is probably better than you can buy and also tearing down stuff and building and making plans for the future.

I'm guessing you are leasing the machine that is digging the trenches and laying the pipe or did you say you bought it cause you have a lot of this work to do?

carry on and I think warm weather is coming your way cause it finally reached 60's for more than a few days here and we are actually seeing the sun again.

my little yard I hand mow, trim and torch weeds would make you laugh that it takes me so long to maintain it, but I never was really a YARD GUY.

cheers and yep had my corona with quesadillas and homemade guacamole last night and it was pretty tasty.

 

[C_F]

OK guys, I'm no longer have any ties to friends with farms anymore, so I haven't been able to add anything of substance to this group!

You guys just have it to easy installing your field tiles !!! LOL. Back in the 50's, as kids we would help a family friend hand dig the the trenches, and install clay tiles. Progress was slow, had a lot of fun working with the other kids. Mrs Blacks lemonade was wonderful as were her hand made sandwiches. I think we paid by how many tiles we installed that day..... Will never forget the experience !!!

Now I'm 73 and retired living on a mountaintop somewhere in TN. I've traded in my professional tools and truck for a little 443 Bobcat to do yard work! - Cheers !!!

AL

I don't know if I will ever be able to retire at this point, but I'm glad you have made it. Looking back, there was two opportunities where I was given choices to take one road over another. I'm pretty sure I should have taken the other one in both instances. Damn.

 

[jblnut]

OK guys, I'm no longer have any ties to friends with farms anymore, so I haven't been able to add anything of substance to this group!

You guys just have it to easy installing your field tiles !!! LOL. Back in the 50's, as kids we would help a family friend hand dig the the trenches, and install clay tiles. Progress was slow, had a lot of fun working with the other kids. Mrs Blacks lemonade was wonderful as were her hand made sandwiches. I think we paid by how many tiles we installed that day..... Will never forget the experience !!!

Now I'm 73 and retired living on a mountaintop somewhere in TN. I've traded in my professional tools and truck for a little 443 Bobcat to do yard work! - Cheers !!!

AL

Reading it and following along is quietly adding substance to this thread. Thank you for doing that !!

I cannot imagine hand digging tile in. Good grief

I remember growing up picking rock and being paid by the full trailers of rock. Long days but we made what seemed like a TON of money back when we were younger. Boy I think about how easy it really was growing up when we thought it was so tough. Looking back things look pretty good !! Looking ahead they look pretty good as well so ahead we go !!!!!

JB: thanks for the update and sorry to hear the cold and snow just won't stop, but I know you and the family just keep on rolling. feeding and caring for animals, moving their **** to the fields so your dirt is probably better than you can buy and also tearing down stuff and building and making plans for the future.

I'm guessing you are leasing the machine that is digging the trenches and laying the pipe or did you say you bought it cause you have a lot of this work to do?

carry on and I think warm weather is coming your way cause it finally reached 60's for more than a few days here and we are actually seeing the sun again.

my little yard I hand mow, trim and torch weeds would make you laugh that it takes me so long to maintain it, but I never was really a YARD GUY.

cheers and yep had my corona with quesadillas and homemade guacamole last night and it was pretty tasty.

We keep on keeping on because that's what we know !!! Moving **** around is what we're good at lol. We buy commercial fertilizer to supplement what we can't get from the manure but manure saves us buckets of money each year. Plus it adds micro-nutrients and organic matter into the soil that you could never get from commercial fertilizer.

You can guess and you'd be wrong about us leasing it. I bought the tiling equipment with a neighbor who is a couple years younger than myself. We both have been talking about buying a setup but couldn't justify the $80k price tag by ourselves so we teamed up and bought it together. That seems like a lot but putting the pencil to it we only have to put in 266,666' of tile to have it "paid for". That sounds like A LOT of pipe but it really won't take long to do it. We'll have 35,000' in when we finish the job we're working on right now.

I'm ready for warm weather !!! Folks just 2hrs South of us are expecting 12" of snow and we may see a few sprinkles. I'm find with that !!! I'd imagine a foot of snow would slow us down for a while .....

I hate yard work. I spend all day making the yard look nice and a week later it looks like **** again. I'd rather spend a day making 100 acres look nice and it still looks nice months later typically on the farm !!! Yardwork ***** .....

Not gonna lie ... even though upon a 7th look it looks tasty my first thought was that if CoronaVirus would be made into a food dish it'd look like that !!! Not a big guacamole guy. It looks good now though !!!

I don't know if I will ever be able to retire at this point, but I'm glad you have made it. Looking back, there was two opportunities where I was given choices to take one road over another. I'm pretty sure I should have taken the other one in both instances. Damn.

There are a few turning points in all our lives and I think I'm close to another one. The first was when I decided I wanted to peruse a career as a history/economics teacher. I went quite a ways through that program in college until a few things happened and I changed paths to going to a vocational school to hone my computer/networking skills. I held a job as a Network Administrator right out of college for a nationwide trucking company and hated it. Too much fancy cloths wearing keeping up with the Jones for my liking. I had a HIGHLY modded Grand Prix at the time and people thought it was silly and told me that the "typical" IT Guy ride was a Kia Soul. I knew then and there that I needed to get out !!!!! Lol. I worked at a junk yard for a while and ended up applying at Leedstone for nothing in particular and ended up landing what would turn out to be the best job in the company. I did that for a few years very successfully and the Service Team Manager kept poking and prodding at me to come over to the Service Team to do computer junk and I finally caved in. I thought it'd be easier and more flexible than what I was doing so I jumped in heads first. No looking back so far but that was a MAJOR change in my life. I think I'm headed for another major change but who knows until it actually happens .....


/RANT. Thanks for reading along. "And now you know THE REST OF THE STORY"

 

[jblnut]

56k Beware. Lol. Anyone else remember having to post that before a picture laden post ???

Miss Lily was bound and determined to make friends with the steers so she started by talking to them .....


Then she finally made some headway by trying to hand feed them some hay.


Since Lily is home I took her with me all day so Mama Bear can get some work done from home inside the house. Lily and I mixed a load of feed for the steers.


Total tangent but it'll explain any tangents or poor grammar in this post ... I decided to put an "extra couple glugs" of the tastiest elixir known to Man called "Captain Morgan Silver" in a "beverage" tonight so this post it taking longer than normal. If you've had the opportunity to comsume some spirits with me (I know a few of you reading this have) you will know I am a TOTAL lightweight ... which I think it fine but whatever .... Ok back to regular scheduled programming .....

The tear down of the old falling down useless in the way sheds continues ....


The 5510 was needed to get the "Distance Learning Center" pulled into place. It was muddy in the old hayshed where it spent the winter and the skid loader would never have moved it out of there. I plan to take Miss Lily for a few days a week and "homeschool" her in our camper. It's a removed from the house place and should work well.


Well go figure. The 5510 decided that today we the day to have yet ANOTHER hydraulic leak.


Lily had to show Grandpa how to hook up the disk. Look at all those future Wishek Wok's on that thing


Time to haul some pooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo !!!!!


Never. Ever. See a sunset without at least a little appreciation. So much stuff in this world is messed up but this is a constant. Just beautiful !!!


This is the field we started tiling earlier in the week. It looks MUCH drier. Hopefully it is !!!


The RTK GPS Base Station is setup. It's worth an estimated 12,000,000 times more than the minivan in the background.


"Let's put more weight on the 8430 so it bites in better !!" "Good idea" Any of you out there that have ever put suitcase weights on a tractor know that it is indeed a good idea but a tremendous amount of work ....


The guy I bought the tile stuff with has a Deere 750 dozer and we thought it'd be smart to bring it out to help out where it could. Although it pulls a wild amount it still wasn't enough to get us though a really wet spot pulling in a main line .....


Tug and tug and dig and dig and still not quite there .....


Gotta throw a Red Tractor on the front of the caravan .... It went right through then


Yikes what a mess but it's in !!!


That right there is our first ever connection. A 6" main T'd into another 6" main. Oh my gosh it was exciting !!!


Time for lunch. A little dirt on a sandwich never hurt anyone


Not a proud moment but a learning moment. Long story short ..... the tile bound up on the cart and stretched and pulled apart underground and we had to dig it up and fix it. We know what went wrong and didn't do it again all day so I guess we learned the first time !!!


Back down in the mud so the dozer went on right away ....


That dozer was a good thing to have on site today !!!


This is one of the 4" tile's that will connect to the 8" main. It's got well over an inch of water in it already !!!


Main lines and less than 2,000' of laterals connected and there is already this much water flowing out !!! Simply amazing !!!

 

[jeepxj]

you ever seen these for inlets?

https://www.agridrain.com/shop/c66/...diameter-18-tall--yellow-water-quality-inlet/

 

[Andy8430]

Tile runs 24/7/365. Seems hard to justify up front cost, but it pays for itself so many times over.

Most of our farm is pattern tiled and it makes so much difference that we take for granted. Used to spend most of our time fighting mud holes spring and fall only to get poor yields, now we rarely raise the cultivator.




Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

 

[cvairwerks]

I see why you guys are having so much trouble in the mud....you're running slicks on that tractor...

 

[patlun]

...

Never. Ever. See a sunset without at least a little appreciation. So much stuff in this world is messed up but this is a constant. Just beautiful !!!

So true! Don't forget to stay and smell the roses you see! There is to much gloom out there to not appreciate the small beautiful things in life. Thanks for sharing this moment!

...

Not a proud moment but a learning moment. Long story short ..... the tile bound up on the cart and stretched and pulled apart underground and we had to dig it up and fix it. We know what went wrong and didn't do it again all day so I guess we learned the first time !!!

That is the way to truly learn things, make the mistake, correct it and learn to avoid it.

...

Farmers always have big and fun toys : All this work now will make life easier in the future, that is a good investment.

 

[C_F]

Great update!

I had no idea that the tile would work that well, that's really impressive! That's going to be so nice to not have to deal with mud bogs in your fields, once you're finished.

 

[jblnut]

you ever seen these for inlets?

https://www.agridrain.com/shop/c66/...diameter-18-tall--yellow-water-quality-inlet/

They look MUCH nicer to use than the silly orange ones with hole in them. Sadly, our county REALLY frowns on above surface inlets so we just space the tiles 10' apart in the REALLY low spots where water gathers to help them drain faster. Once that ground has dried out from the tile below the water holding capacity of that low spot is substantially higher so it actually works very well.

Tile runs 24/7/365. Seems hard to justify up front cost, but it pays for itself so many times over.

Most of our farm is pattern tiled and it makes so much difference that we take for granted. Used to spend most of our time fighting mud holes spring and fall only to get poor yields, now we rarely raise the cultivator.

Up front cost of the tile is about $0.33/ft after tax for 4" tile plus fittings and everything that goes along with getting it in the ground. That doesn't sound like much but once you add the cost of the tile plow and other machinery and fuel we're in the $1.00/ft range pretty quick. It's still an AMAZING investment though !!!

I see why you guys are having so much trouble in the mud....you're running slicks on that tractor...

Lol. Those Trelleborg's on there are kind of bald and are REALLY bad at cleaning themselves off. The Deere 8430 in front of the dozer has Firestone 23 Degree Radials and they come out of the mud almost clean with each revolution. It goes to show what tires work well in mud I guess !!

...


So true! Don't forget to stay and smell the roses you see! There is to much gloom out there to not appreciate the small beautiful things in life. Thanks for sharing this moment!

That is the way to truly learn things, make the mistake, correct it and learn to avoid it.

Farmers always have big and fun toys : All this work now will make life easier in the future, that is a good investment.

Lol in this case if I had gotten out to "smell the roses" it would have smelled like steer manure but your point is well taken. We pass so many wonderful things by because we're in a hurry or grumpy about something that doesn't really matter. Be happy, smile more, stop and smell the roses and listen to the birds chirp. Nature has a way of bringing you back to reality !!

I agree, we have a lot of fun toys !!! They almost always come with a hefty price tag though

Great update!

I had no idea that the tile would work that well, that's really impressive! That's going to be so nice to not have to deal with mud bogs in your fields, once you're finished.

There was water running in the tile minutes after it went in the ground. Water has a way of finding the easiest path and tile just helps that along. Once we're done messing around hooking up new lines and such the water that comes out of that tile will be cleaner than the water coming out of your faucet. I wouldn't hesitate for a minute to fill a glass and have a drink !!

 

[jblnut]

As an aid to find the tile while digging a connection point I built a nice little locator tool. 3/8" diamater 316SS rod should do the trick !!! Poke it into the ground when you think you're close to the tile and once it's located leave it on the side closest to the excavator so you can follow it into the ground in front of the tile and not damage it. We used a shovel yesterday and it was quite clumsy. This should work better !!


Look at all those pretty corn straw bales lined up in a wind brake !!!


Oh no !!! Where'd they go ?!?!?!?!


It's okay. I moved some and then Dad moved the rest off the field and closer to the steer barn. We need the ground to thaw out and warm up under them so we can get that ground tilled and planted soon.

 

[jeepxj]

really no surface inlets? got them all over in rock county area.


also in finding those i stumbled upon this. makes a lotta sense:

 

[davo727]

How many tractors and dozers chained together before one of the tractors becomes a 2 piece?

 

[madison069]

Just a wild thought, but does the water that's drained through the tiles get captured and reused for watering of the crop?

I figured you'd never look at a plowing disk the same after making one into a cooking utensil! LOL

 

[drivesitfar]

JBL: I think I knew you bought that big machine that is laying tile and sounds like you and your friend will have another side business for LEO and your friend's son to take over when they are old enough. another step in the right direction for you being a FULL TIME FARMER is my guess.

looks like maybe you have some sun now if the heat could show up so you can get some dirt work started you'll be golden.

just checking in for our daily FARM REPORT from MINN E SODA.

cheers!!

 

[Bob Heine]

Mike, I assume the drainage systems will be wonderful until you have an extended dry spell. Farming is like a giant casino game. Put your money down and hope the dice go your way!

 

[Andy8430]

Mike, I assume the drainage systems will be wonderful until you have an extended dry spell. Farming is like a giant casino game. Put your money down and hope the dice go your way!

Even during a dry spell, the tile is advantageous because the crop has deeper roots which can search for more moisture.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

 

[Jayman17]

Mike, just curious if that GPS base station is used when locating that drain tile. Amazing how much water is coming out of the newly installed tile. Where do you drain that to? Will those tile eventually fill with silt? I always have heard that they need some type of fabric filter around them.
Great job though, looks like it will really dry out your fields.

Jay

 

[1949 caddyman]

I know it must work ok but how does the drain pipe not fill with dirt over time?

 

[XJSuperman]

Ag Leader tech, from right here in Ames, Iowa. Lots of ISU students intern there. I did not. But Im at Deere and prefer our gps tech to theirs. Got to play with the kits that will fit your Case equipment last week.

The dozer was a good idea, you can backfill and clean up some of the ruts as you go

 

[C_F]

There was water running in the tile minutes after it went in the ground. Water has a way of finding the easiest path and tile just helps that along. Once we're done messing around hooking up new lines and such the water that comes out of that tile will be cleaner than the water coming out of your faucet. I wouldn't hesitate for a minute to fill a glass and have a drink !!

I will definitely let you have the first few glasses...then stand back & see if you turn green or not.

 

[jeepxj]

Mike, I assume the drainage systems will be wonderful until you have an extended dry spell. Farming is like a giant casino game. Put your money down and hope the dice go your way!

really interesting approach in this video.