Above 1200 Sq/FT Out on Quaker Road

[jblnut]

I always thought the old hayshed was a little more wobbly than it should have been and here's why. The builder used 4' 2x4's between the rafters. Not a lot of structural stuff going on there.


All the steel is off !!!


All the bracing is off and it should fall over nicely !!


It is down


Pops and I felt ambitious so we cut it all up into burnable sized chunks. There are still a few longish pieces in this picture, we were "on break" and I didn't take one when it was all done because it was dark.

 

[XJSuperman]

Better get a big *** magnet for Pop's furnace this winter. He is going to have a couple hundred pounds of nails mixed in with the ashes.

 

[Sifan]

Looks like someone has been playing Jenga and lost!

 

[jblnut]

Better get a big *** magnet for Pop's furnace this winter. He is going to have a couple hundred pounds of nails mixed in with the ashes.

Pops has a rather HUGE magnet already for that exact purpose. He usually fills up a small pail each winter with nails and stuff but I have a feeling the 22 totes full of old lumber will generate "a few" buckets of misc metal junk.

Looks like someone has been playing Jenga and lost!

It really does !!!

 

[jblnut]

When I met with the guy who was going to remove the concrete he said he'd bring "an excavator" to dig it up and load the trucks. Good grief I'd say he certainly did that !!!


I used some of those rare earth magnets to make a pair of tile fittings holders so they'd be handy. They seem to work very well !!


We were tiling away minding our own business and BAAAM I hit a rock that was literally the size of a Ford Ranger. Dad ended up digging a hole next to it and rolled it into it to bury it deeper. I honestly do not think the dozer would have pushed it out of the hole either !!!


Back to business !!!


More rocks


When we purchased the tile plow we were told that when the leading point wears down past the heel (bottom of plow) that it was worn to the point of being unusable. We have installed around 50,000' of tile with this one. The dealer said they have people that are able to install 1,000,000' with one point. When he said that I told him to send them our way and we'll show them what abrasive soil looks like !!!


Late evening parts run for new points !! I told him I wanted two so I'd have a spare. He chuckled and said they'd never sold two of the same size to anyone with one plow. I said we need a spare on hand if the damn things wear down this fast


The new point is on and we're back at it


There were a couple of runs in some pretty soggy areas so we hooked the 7630 on for an extra little bit of tugging power.


I got a little bit carried away with the amount of pipe I rolled out on this run


The next one I ran a little too tight. However, I did pull the plow through that muddy wet puddle without an assist tractor


There are some things you've always wanted to do ... one of mine is to push over a tree with a dozer ......





We're done with this field so the dozer owner is taking it back home


The tile support wagon worked VERY well !! We threw the cores on to haul them home.


We wanted to get the field tiled and worked up shortly after so we can plant some cover crops.


All kinds of neat toys are showing up at my place


Looks like the first of a LOT of loads of gravel to hopefully level things out by the chicken barn.


They got a bunch of it hauled away and most of it tore up ready to be hauled. I love progress

 

[Finallygotit]

I really like the toys you work with!

 

[jblnut]

I really like the toys you work with!

Me too !!! It's like being a kid in a sandbox with diesel powered toys

 

[jblnut]

They got all the old cow yard concrete hauled off. Well, most of it. All the stuff that giant excavator could reasonably get in it's bucket. There is a fair few small pieces left but that's okay. We can take care of that !!!


Time too make the chicken barn driveway look and drain nice again. I think something like 380yds of nice gravel got dumped here


They graded it off and packed the snot out of it. It is hard as a rock !!!


Squish it goes. This thing is full of water and was making that little 885 bark before it got packed the first time


The little people and I sat and watched them grade and pack for quite some time. They were happy to watch and so was I !!!


Look at that happy little dude. We both climbed all over this thing. He loved it !!!


More tiling




Look at that fantastic looking dirt




After all the pulls through the front bracket this is the only wear that it is showing. Fantastic.


The upstairs room in the shop is a lot larger that I thought it would be. It's almost 14' by a little over 24'.


The construction guys got done at a different site early and came and put some tin on the office/bathroom/upstairs area. They did the easy stuff and will be back early next week to finish up.

 

[XJSuperman]

Hot damn, looks like you're ready to host a tractor pull next to the chicken barn with that roller and grader setup there. Almost too bad its gravel and not clay. Haha!

That shop office will be awesome. To have a little clean space (or quiet) to work in is great, but having room to use it without feeling claustrophobic is even better.

Yeah the "toys" farmers and construction guys get to play with are pretty fun. I spent most of this week in a JD 8370R with a 42.5' cultivator with Truset while I watched my coworkers in the new 8RX and 8R models running a mix of new planters. Definitely some **** equipment.

 

[jblnut]

Hot damn, looks like you're ready to host a tractor pull next to the chicken barn with that roller and grader setup there. Almost too bad it's gravel and not clay. Haha!

That shop office will be awesome. To have a little clean space (or quiet) to work in is great, but having room to use it without feeling claustrophobic is even better.

Yeah the "toys" farmers and construction guys get to play with are pretty fun. I spent most of this week in a JD 8370R with a 42.5' cultivator with Truset while I watched my coworkers in the new 8RX and 8R models running a mix of new planters. Definitely some **** equipment.

You wouldn't have to dig into the gravel too far to hit nice tractor pull track rated clay

I plan to use the shoffice (dubbed that by the little people because it's a Shop OFFICE so shoffice I guess) as my actual office for all the farm stuff and whatever computer setup/repair that I continue to do for Leedstone that I currently do in my basement in the house. So both a quiet and clean space is going to be really nice to have. I think Dad is already planning a TV of some kind in there as he's already staked claim to a spot to put a recliner.

If the cards play out we'll have another "toy" around this fall yet. We shall see

 

[jblnut]

Mama Bear mentioned it'd be nice to do some sort of family activity so we went to Hemker's Park and Zoo near Freeport, MN. The whole fam-damily had a good time. We all enjoyed the bird area in quite different ways. Lily was happy to have them calmly sit on her stick with seed on it, Leo let a few gather on his stick and would shout "Hey!!!" and shake it and they'd fly off. Alyssa wanted to watch them from a distance and had a good time doing that. We all had fun

That evening we had a combined B-Day "party" for three of us that went to HS together. Someone knew I liked Fireball and brought a few of these. There is no better way to describe myself as someone that finds Arbys sauce spicy some days. This stuff .... er'ma'gawsh ..... I about died.

The construction guys are done with their part. I paid the guy and shook his hand and he said, "Well I suppose I'll see you next year" lol. I told him to plan on it. He won't be doing the house but I'm sure we'll have something else going on by then.

A neighbor is selling his house/land to his kids and they are going to build a new house in the same spot the old one is currently. Long story short ... I asked him if I could ransack the house and pillage through it when they were moved out before it got torn down He said "Yes" and I started looking .....

Happy Birthday to me

Gonna have my very own pre-heat and powder coat oven in the shop !! The patio doors are going to be used to make a solar heater for the skid loader shed ... sometime ... when I have a few extra moments to monkey with it

All the kitchen cabinets you could possibly want in an office. PLUS a 12k BTU windows A/C that is only a couple years old

It is a mess right now and will probably stay exactly like this until there is snow on the ground. Lots of warm weather things to do before the office will be worked on again.

 

[Bob Heine]

Mike, belated happy birthday and that looks like a great memory for the kids!

It doesn't get much hotter than Ghost Peppers. Trader Joe's sells a ghost pepper grinder with a lifetime supply of flakes in it. Their Ghost Pepper Potato Chips are my favorite and a teaspoon of their Extra Hot Habanero/Ghost Pepper salsa turns a cup of mild salsa into hot salsa. I don't recommend eating that salsa straight up.

Great to see you saving those kitchen cabinets. I cringe every time I watch a renovation show on TV where they take down the cabinets with a sledge hammer. They still have to unscrew the remnants so it's not like they are saving time. They never show the garage as anything but a dumping ground or maybe staging area.

 

[BORING HOP YARD]

Score!
Thank you neighbor.

 

[jblnut]

Mike, belated happy birthday and that looks like a great memory for the kids!

It doesn't get much hotter than Ghost Peppers. Trader Joe's sells a ghost pepper grinder with a lifetime supply of flakes in it. Their Ghost Pepper Potato Chips are my favorite and a teaspoon of their Extra Hot Habanero/Ghost Pepper salsa turns a cup of mild salsa into hot salsa. I don't recommend eating that salsa straight up.

Great to see you saving those kitchen cabinets. I cringe every time I watch a renovation show on TV where they take down the cabinets with a sledge hammer. They still have to unscrew the remnants so it's not like they are saving time. They never show the garage as anything but a dumping ground or maybe staging area.

The kids love going to the local Zoo and I think they'll remember something from it at least. We try to go a few times a year.

The "Spicy Nacho" Doritos are too much for me .... I think those Ghost Pepper chips would do bad things to my insides in a short period of time .... Can you imagine taking a chip full of that salsa without knowing what it was ?!?! Thinking about it is making me sweat !!!

There were lots of other things in that house I thought I could use but time and the heat/humidity got the best of me. I have also watched those remodeling shows and wonder why they go through all the work of smashing things up so badly when it ultimately is more work than just taking it down properly. Must be just BS for ratings

Thanks for stopping by Bob !!! Always nice to have you around

Score!
Thank you neighbor.

This guy is way more than a neighbor so it is quite appreciated. He is the sole reason this thread exists. At the time we were trying to buy this place he was the Chair of the Board of Directors with the bank we financed with. The "regular Joe" loan officer said no and we talked to this neighbor and he said "I'll see what I can do." The next day he said he had a loan package for us take it or leave it and we needed to decide in the next few days. We went in that same day and got the ball rolling. Without him we may have been "Dial 911 On Shamrock Ln" or "Going in circles on 360th Street" or something else silly like "Don't Judge Me on 72nd Court E". Who knows but we certainly are glad to be "Out on Quaker Road" !!!!

 

[jblnut]

This evening Grandpa and the little people posse went crop scouting. Miss Lily hung back and had to grab another ear to check out. She's going to be my little agronomist I think


We had a few loads of gravel dropped off to put up close to the chicken barn so Mr. Leo and I got the dirt spread. We finished it off with a rake and shovel when done. Lots of sweating and bug bites later and we had it all good to go !!


Oh **** ... tank ... to be installed ASAP so we can stop the LOOOOOOONG runs back to the house to go to the bathroom.

 

[rixtrix1]

So much neat stuff going on. It's nice to see things working out smoothly.

Sent from my SM-A115U using Tapatalk

 

[jblnut]

So much neat stuff going on. It's nice to see things working out smoothly.

For the most part things are going smoothly, slowly it seems, but smoothly. The HVAC guys come back Thursday to get all their **** wrapped up with the heating system. The electrician is coming out Wednesday evening so we can go over what I think I want and listen to him tell me what I need (which I am 100% okay with, I really like/trust/respect this electrician).

The big doors are still 3 weeks out .... the supplier/installer said they have been struggling to get things the last few months. The manufacture of the door panels cannot keep up with all the doors they've been selling and have a 8 week lead time. It's usually 1-1.5 weeks max I guess. Oh well.

 

[jblnut]

Wire pull day !! LOTS of cameras going in to watch the cattle eat as part of a study this dairy is involved with.


My fancy wire pulling/hat rack cart is proving to be handy again


If you have never heard of or used this stuff it is incredible. No mess and it works VERY VERY well !!!


Looks like the excavator that tore up my concrete is going to do some Hulk Smashing on the house I got the cabinets out of. I think that'd be a fun deal to partake in


Dad and I got part of the test plot signed tonight. The rest of the signs will be here tomorrow. I think we have 8 or so more to put up.

 

[BORING HOP YARD]

Greetings, I have a question about the corn signs, what is the purpose of the signs?
Who are the aimed at?
Corn supplier comparing other suppliers product or the different product they sell.
Thank you!

 

[jeepxj]

how do you guys bid on those dairy barn jobs? each pull on its own or a per run cost avged?

 

[jblnut]

Greetings, I have a question about the corn signs, what is the purpose of the signs?
Who are the aimed at?
Corn supplier comparing other suppliers product or the different product they sell.
Thank you!

The purpose is to show what particular variety of corn is planted where in the test plot. The signs are aimed at other farmers who can stop out and look at the corn to see how it is doing. More importantly, we will record the exact yield this fall by measuring a certain length of rows, combining it and weighing it. The soil type, growing degree units and a bunch of other data about that exact field will get recorded with Golden Harvest to see how each variety stacks up against each other.

How do you guys bid on those dairy barn jobs? Each pull on its own or a per run cost averaged?

I do a combination of both actually. I try to figure out the average length of cable used for each run as that will "for the most part" take about the same time if it's 50' or 200'. The termination and testing takes the same amount of time for each cable and the hanging of hardware takes about the same per piece. I leave it a little open ended with the programming/commissioning as sometimes it goes really well and sometimes it's a major PITA. This particular project I estimated around 4hrs per device total so conduit, wire pulling, termination, programming/commissioning and documentation. I think it'll be a little strong but that's okay. At the end of the day all I ever give out is an estimate that is as close as possible with a LARGE line item on the quote that the project is 100% time and materials. If we go over you pay more, if we're under you pay less. So far so good and everyone is happy.

 

[jeepxj]

Oh nice no flat rate. T&M is always fairest.

you guys managing the network after instal too?

 

[jblnut]

Oh nice no flat rate. T&M is always fairest.

you guys managing the network after install too?

We have an hourly rate for us as Techs but setting a rate per drop or run would be damn near impossible to do as every barn and every farm is very different from each other. Even brand new barns are still different from each other enough that a boilerplate bid would be quite off.

I think T&M is fairest as well and our customers agree. They trust us to not **** the dog and drag things out longer than needed as well as to not rush through just to get it done. I do things like I'd want them done at my place, there is no other way to be able to honestly stand behind something as a quality job.

We take care of the equipment and manage 100% of the network after install.

 

[jblnut]

Shop electrical feed is in ... mostly ... I still need to finish where it goes into the panel by the power pole.

 

[jblnut]

I got the shop electrical feed done and fed into the panel the electrician is going to pull power from.

There is a bit of an underground spiderweb here already so I did my best not to clutter it up too much and add too many sweeps and other BS for them to pull through but I had to add a few things to make it all work .....

All buried back up and ready to go !!!

In preparation for the sewer tank install we did a little dirtwork to keep the water out of the lean to. I hope to pour concrete in here soon so I want to get it all ready to go ASAP.

The electrician dropped off the gutter for the mechanical room and said "If I had time" I could drill the holes in it. Lol. Okay.

That really didn't take all that long since I had the template from before. I also had some notes on where it all went so it literally took about 15 minutes.

The HVAC guys showed up this afternoon around 2pm and left around 5:30pm. Not too bad for only a few hours !!!

My little sister is getting married tomorrow so I thought I'd shine the Jeep and trailer up a little bit.

It does look nice all clean and shiny !!!

The house I took the cabinets out of came came down yesterday/today.

After a few loads of old house and a few more concrete and junk it was all gone. They have dirt hauled in and leveled off already.

 

[jblnut]

We had so much fun getting the power conduit ran and buried that we decided to push the water line in this morning. Dad is hiding by my place and I am not allowed in the house until 10am. My little sister is getting married today and we were both told to "follow directions" so I guess we are.


In the sleeve it goes !!!


It went in pretty easily. A pop bottle taped to the end of the water line always helps to keep it from snagging on the bumps in the sleeve.


One step closer to the finish line. The other 4" sleeve will be for a couple pipes for fiber/Cat6 lines and the BIG 8" is for a future outdoor wood boiler pipe inlet

 

[buzzboy]

Nice to see the ZJ getting some love!

 

[lis2323]

@jnlnut I know it’s been said over and over before but thank you for your well presented and interesting posts.

Having been on the farm my entire life I really enjoy seeing all these aspects that were not a part of my experiences. I’m certain even NON AG members find this thread enjoyable.

And congrats to your little sister on her wedding!

 

[jeepxj]

found you one for the honey do list

 

[jblnut]

Nice to see the ZJ getting some love!

It sure does deserve some time in the shop this winter !!! I have a boat load of goodies to go under the hood whenever I find a free moment

@jblnut I know it’s been said over and over before but thank you for your well presented and interesting posts.

Having been on the farm my entire life I really enjoy seeing all these aspects that were not a part of my experiences. I’m certain even NON AG members find this thread enjoyable.

And congrats to your little sister on her wedding!

Oh gosh ... well presented AND interesting .... gee stop ... you're too much

Thank you for following along for so long !! I am still amused that people think what we do out here is interesting. It's daily life to me so it seems normal I guess. I'll continue to post things in here as long as it's still fun to do so and I don't see that stopping any time soon.

found you one for the honey do list

Dude ..... that is pretty sweet !! I have a gravity box that would be perfect for that .....

 

[jblnut]

A couple flower girls and the ring "bear" sitting "nicely" during my sisters wedding. I snuck a picture of them while Leo was paying extra good attention. Because of that silly COVID the mass was outside. The weather was amazing and there was a slight breeze all afternoon. It was quite pleasant. Fun fact: the tree behind the piano was the cause of a chipped front tooth for myself roughly 23yrs ago. The elementary school I went to (and the littles are going to) is up that hill. We used to sled down it in the winter at recess and got a little too close one day.

Sunday morning I got the gutter put in. Good grief. Good thing there wasn't a swear jar in the utility room .... I think I'd have easily filled a quart jar with pennies whilst getting all those stupid pipes in there !!!

There were a pair of bales that were all busted up so we decided to load them right onto the trailer and dump them into the pen.

Scroll fast through these and it'll be like one of those flip books !!!

Dad cleaned out the four big pens today and I helped clean out the last two when I got home. The one the littlest calves were in wasn't too bad at all but it was time for it to go. Out it went !!!

The removal of the concrete in the old cattle yard left some nice puddle sized holes so I did my best to drain them. I think it helped at least a little

The electricians came today and were busy little bees all day. They got quite a bit done

The unused pipes will be trimmed 4-5" from the ground and capped off for sometime in the future if ever needed. This is the only area in the shop we had them wire a bunch of stuff as it's the welding corner. We'll have them come back sometime this winter or next spring when we figure out where everything else will go.

They also got the boiler wired up and the thermostats in.

 

[madison069]

Some nice works going on in the barn!

What kind of boiler is that? I've got baseboard heat in my house and the boiler needs to be upgraded as it's an old thing.

 

[BORING HOP YARD]

Nice work in the utility room, it looks very well laid out.
Your family looked very well represented at the wedding, good job Mom and Dad.
Its always interesting to see kids grow up at the different stages they go through.
Leo is growing from a toddler into a young boy.

 

[jeepxj]

Dude ..... that is pretty sweet !! I have a gravity box that would be perfect for that .....

i'd assume 99% of farm yards have that gravity box waiting for its 65th life.

 

[jeepxj]

Some nice works going on in the barn!

What kind of boiler is that? I've got baseboard heat in my house and the boiler needs to be upgraded as it's an old thing.

get a combi if its going in your house
https://www.navieninc.com/residential/combi-boilers

 

[Jayman17]

That's a pretty slick looking gutter for your electrical work. That will be a real clean look when finished. Nice job! 2049 shop is looking good!

Jay

 

[madison069]

get a combi if its going in your house
https://www.navieninc.com/residential/combi-boilers

That might be the ticket. My water heater is roughly 10 years old so it would be a bad idea to replace it soon.

Any experience with the combi?

 

[jeepxj]

That might be the ticket. My water heater is roughly 10 years old so it would be a bad idea to replace it soon.

Any experience with the combi?

only their regular instant units. been great. a combi isnt that much different. this assumes you have enough gas meter/pipe size to supply it.

 

[madison069]

only their regular instant units. been great. a combi isnt that much different. this assumes you have enough gas meter/pipe size to supply it.

Claims it only needs a 1/2" but I have a 3/4" gas line in that room that feeds both the boiler and hot water tank. So I would suspect I have a big enough size for the unit.

 

[jeepxj]

Claims it only needs a 1/2" but I have a 3/4" gas line in that room that feeds both the boiler and hot water tank. So I would suspect I have a big enough size for the unit.

lets not plug up the quaker road thread. make a post in the general area. the gas line is only part of the equation. your meter needs to allow enough CFM for all appliances.