Above 1200 Sq/FT Out on Quaker Road

[davo727]

Did the Red combine cooperate this fall?

 

[mmavet]

Yes it is cheaper to build up rather then build out to achive the same square ft.....

i like it and she's in the process of putting all the many changes suggested on here so far.

thank you for the story bob !! I was hoping you'd gift us with a memory and you did not disappoint

i'm not sure what the "regular" thread around here really is anymore

fixed it for you

Yup we do.

I have a few extra pounds hanging around so a flight of steps a time or two or ten a day probably isn't a bad thing

We've explored a patio home and the footprint would be fairly massive for what we're hoping to build. The two story slab on grade seems to make the most sense. It's a large cube that will be efficient to heat and build and it'll look nice when it's done. Part of a house should be taller than the garage and a two story house is an easy way to do that. I guess it's a personal taste sort of thing we both have about the height thing

 

[jblnut]

I like the hydraulic wrench!

Seeing the mess it takes to get tile in makes me kinda glad we farm where tiling isn't necessary....only kinda because we would trade needing to tile in exchange for the 15 or 20" of additional moisture you get a year! Instead we artificially make it rain in some fields....tradeoffs everywhere.

Tiling this fall has been "fun" because it snowed, froze, thawed, rained, snowed, froze, rained, thawed, DRIED OUT, snowed, rained, thawed, thawed more, rained and so on. The top 6" is a total mess but down below it's as nice as ever.

Did the Red combine cooperate this fall?

Aside from a few very minor issues it ran like a champ. We rebuilt a bunch of stuff over summer to prevent issues and I think that helped a lot. New clean grain elevator chain and sprockets, new unloading sprockets and chains and a bunch more little things that got adjusted or replaced.

Yes it is cheaper to build up rather then build out to achieve the same square ft.....

That is what we have been told so that is that route we're taking I guess. We had a patio home plan we liked but it had a MASSIVE footprint and we didn't want to eat up that much space on the lot. We tried to put all the kiddos rooms and stuff upstairs so long term we don't have to go up there if we can't.

 

[BORING HOP YARD]

Just wondering how the fields look after you installed drain tile?
I know you will know better when in the spring when you break ground. Should be earlier than in the past in the areas that used to collected water.

I have big spring that runs off of my neighbor's property on to mine, the spring is about 6 to 18 inch's down under the soil. My wife and I installed a drain curtain down the side of our field to fix it and it looks like it fixed it.
It was running at 500 gallons an hour back in the summer, no way to see what its running today. Mine is all covered up, does yours have the ability see how much water is coming off the fields?


Thanks for sharing

 

[jblnut]

Just wondering how the fields look after you installed drain tile?
I know you will know better when in the spring when you break ground. Should be earlier than in the past in the areas that used to collected water.

I have a big spring that runs off of my neighbor's property onto mine, the spring is about 6 to 18 inch's down under the soil. My wife and I installed a drain curtain down the side of our field to fix it and it looks like it fixed it.
It was running at 500 gallons an hour back in the summer, no way to see what it's running today. Mine is all covered up, does yours have the ability see how much water is coming off the fields?


Thanks for sharing

The fields look the same after the tile is installed, just dryer I guess. The tile doesn't remove all the water from the soil, just the excess water. When the soil isn't saturated it acts more like a sponge so the rain soaks in right away instead of running across the top or pooling in low spots and drowning the crop out.

We can see how much water is running out of the discharge at the end of the tile run as soon as that is installed. The "main line" or "discharge line" is the first one that gets installed and the rest tie into it.

We'll have the same sort of drain curtain under the new house pad once it's all done. It's all nice sandy fill and we will fill the trench I dug in with sand as well to create a giant french drain for the water to run through to escape out from under the house.

Thanks for following along !!!

 

[jblnut]

Now that I have a hopper bin full of corn at my place it's time to move the pellet bin over to my place as well. This is the best idea we had to move it over there

I went a modest 10mph down the road and it stayed in the bucket very nicely

Made it !!!

The auger is back on and it's set in place for the next 40yrs

Gosh I like the welding table/vise setup !! Pops busted the top off a chisel plow shank so I clamped it in place and started the repair.

I ground halfway into the cracks and put a big booger weld over the whole works. He used it for a few acres after the repair and it held on like a champ !!

The hydraulic wrench is back at it tightening the nut this time. It needs to be tight enough that when enough pressure is applied the wrench jumps and clicks as the nut spins tighter

 

[Jayman17]

Mike, I wanted to wish you and your family a Happy Thanksgiving.

Jay

 

[Bob Heine]

Mike, thanks for keeping us coming back for more adventures. Also thank you for not showing us what a real Thanksgiving meal looks like.

 

[jblnut]

Mike, I wanted to wish you and your family a Happy Thanksgiving.

Jay

Thank you very much Jay !!! There has been a lot of silly stuff so far in 2020 that makes it seem as there is not much to thankful for but it is just the opposite .... There is always so much more to be thankful for than it seems !! We have a roof over our heads and enough to eat, we both have jobs that are keeping us more than too busy, our kids are getting bigger every day and are as healthy as ever, my beautiful spouse is still putting up with me, our neighbors are as nice as one could ask for, and soooooo much more. The crappy things in our lives don't stand a chance at dragging down even one of the things I can think of to be thankful of ........

Mike, thanks for keeping us coming back for more adventures. Also thank you for not showing us what a real Thanksgiving meal looks like.

Thanks for stopping by Bob

Another thing to be thankful for would have to be GJ and the great community that exists here. Without it I'd never know about the great Bob Heine

 

[jblnut]

One day they can help me drop a Supercharged GM 6l LS6 in the Jeep with that hoist


Time to give the tire changer a new home.


Miss Lily is holding the 1-1/8" wrench while I loosened the bolt with a super nice 1/2" flex handle SK ratchet I got from Andres26tnt


Just for funsies I had the little people squad all draw whatever they wanted, sigh and date it, and put it in a zip loc. We put it under the tire changer to be found whenever it is that it's removed in who knows how long. Seemed like a neat idea


In its new home for the new 100yrs lol.


It was in the upper 40's F on Saturday so I decided to get the cameras going in the steer barn again


So. I'm a bit of a packrat. I used a Smartbow server enclosure from a farm that we updated for the enclosure for my switch and UPS. It looks all fancy hanging up there now


Behold the power of the sun. The ground is hard as a frozen rock in the shade and there is an easy inch of mud in the sun


The float in the far East waterer decided to come apart so it was flooding for a while


We took it apart and put some new parts in it and it's all good now. I put the cover back on so you can't actually see it but it's under the cover all shiny and fixed up


The plywood is up in the office !!! Time for some paneling and stuff and then electrical


I finally got the box that will go around the fan painted. I spray painted it a few times and it looked like nothing was happening so I slobbered a half a quart of white oil based Rustoleum all over it and it looks WAY nicer now


The next shop project will be to put a hydraulic drive and an undercarriage on this auger. It'll be used to load corn out of the new orange bin for the steers.

 

[jeepxj]

ooo I know that game.

https://i.imgur.com/NufH2GJ.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/AWFr38i.jpg

 

[jblnut]

ooo I know that game.

That looks sweeeeeet !!!!!

 

[rixtrix1]

Wow, lots going on. A master suite without a full bath with his and her lavatories, toilet and tub or shower is really old school. The basement bathroom is what the master bath should look like! Your wife will love it in the years ahead! The upstairs plan just doesn't flow well at all!

 

[jeepxj]

That looks sweeeeeet !!!!!

 

[DennisK]

You need to bang those gang bolt heads with a big sledge, won't need a hyd. wrench. about 4/5 times retightening them.

 

[jblnut]

Wow, lots going on. A master suite without a full bath with his and her lavatories, toilet and tub or shower is really old school. The basement bathroom is what the master bath should look like! Your wife will love it in the years ahead! The upstairs plan just doesn't flow well at all!

We're rather old school types I guess. No need for a separate bathroom just for us to use on the main level. The upstairs will be split apart because of having two girls and a boy sharing it. If needed one of them can run downstairs and use the main floor pot

We're going to do a little redesign to allow me to enter the bathroom from the garage but I don't see having two (or three) toilets on the main level when there are only two of us that will primarily use it (them). Lots of things on the "might be nice" list and we've got to pick what makes it and what doesn't or this place will end up being 10,000sq/ft and will have an attached bowling alley

You need to bang those gang bolt heads with a big sledge, won't need a hyd. wrench. about 4/5 times retightening them.

A good BONK seems like a quicker deal than dragging out the hydraulic wrench and it's entire ensemble. We'll give that a shot next time !!!

 

[jblnut]

We hooked up a Ubiquiti ViewPort in the house and can easily watch the chickens and cattle on the TV now

This past week has been a busy one !! The girls were on "distance learning" this week so we did some of it in the shop so Mama Bear could continue to work in the house. Lily had a couple Zoom calls with her whole class that were rather fun to sit in on. A bunch of giggly 2nd graders all yelling at each other was entertaining to watch lol.

Mid morning the feed guy brought some steer pellets and put them in the bin in it's new spot. I think I need to flip the cover around to make his life easier one of these days

The girls were getting squirrely so we mixed a load of feed while on "recess".

Pulling out of the hopper bin is going to be sooooooo nice compared to running up and down the road to Dads place all the time !!!

After the feed was mixed we all needed a snack. Pickles it is

While snacks were happening I hung up a couple test plot signs. I think I'm going to plaster the walls with these and see if I can't get at least the North wall covered in the next 20yrs or so lol.

The girls have been "distance learning" in the barn again

They saved me a ton of time by turning up all the feed drop tubes for me !! It always seems like I let it go just a tad too long and they make a mess out of a few of the feed trays :mad

Alyssa wanted to wear her backpack to the shop so it felt like she was going to school and not just to the shop. When it was time to go back to the house she wanted nothing to do with it but she put it back on after a little coaxing lol.

I spent all of Wednesday bent over this stupid hammerdrill poking holes in concrete for work and thought "THERE HAS TO BE A BETTER WAY!!!" so I built that better way and put it to work all day Thursday.

I thought it'd work pretty good and it worked FANTASTIC !! Not much of a looker but that's fine. I didn't count but a rough guesstimate puts the hole count well over 500. Best part was my back was MUCH happier at the end of the day !!!

We do it for the cows. These spoiled ladies are getting brand new waterbeds to hang out on. They are a fantastic product for both the cows and the farmers. VERY low maintenance for the farmer and super comfortable for the cow.

 

[jblnut]

I skipped the first three pieces of "progress" that led to the grinder slot in what is left of this alum pully .....


Hey look it's off .... finally


Now to make a mount for the hyd motor. After drilling a few holes the littles needed to investigate what was going on.


Opening for the hub and rubber bushing dealio and mounting holes for the hydraulic motor are drilled. "Mostly" in the right places


The first attempt at freehand cutting it to size was a flop so I set up a little crude jig that worked quite well to get it about perfect.


Out we go to do chores Sunday morning. They were quite excited to hang with the critters


We needed to trigger all the water ******* on the North half of the barn and the kiddos were all over helping out. They did the entire North side of the barn while I did other things. It was fantastic !!!


Look at them go !!


Once that was done we picked up all the little feed trays. Alyssa did one entire row (around 130) and sang and danced the whole time she was working. She's a wonderful little person and is a blast to watch work when she's being all goofy .


We got them all loaded up on the Poultry Hawk to be taken out of the barn. This thing is quite the labor saver !!!


We wandered around the yard for a while after chores dancing and skipping our way back to the house ..... well the three of them did at least. I just mostly followed and laughed.

 

[Farmall450]

No toilet in the master bath proper?

I’d strongly suggest you include one. Using the powder room off the kitchen will get old real quick.

A full 2.5 bath is far more functional (with two daughters....)

I see this has been addressed but that's my first thought, too.

 

[1949 caddyman]

Water bed for cows? We need more info please, found this https://www.dccwaterbeds.com/cow-comfort

 

[woodfor1]

Thank you for sharing your day and the little ones day with us, I like seeing how you all work together Its nice to see a close family. When you clean out the old feeder trays from the baby chicken do they get composted?

 

[jblnut]

I see this has been addressed but that's my first thought, too.

Ultimately I'm going to leave the toilet deal up to the Mrs. It doesn't bother me to only have one bathroom on the main level I guess. It was her idea when we began designing the floorplan awhile back but maybe it's changed. It's still a major step up as we have one toilet total now

Water bed for cows? We need more info please, found this https://www.dccwaterbeds.com/cow-comfort

Leedstone is the distributor for DCC Waterbeds for a VERY large territory. They sell well because they are easy to maintain and have a 10yr pro-rated warranty. Most other types of cow mattresses have 1-3yr warranties and don't last much past 10yrs. The cattle love them for obvious reasons. Just for funsies they usually run around $375/stall installed. They're not an inexpensive investment but they help create a comfortable and stress-free environment for the cattle.

Thank you for sharing your day and the little ones day with us, I like seeing how you all work together It's nice to see a close family. When you clean out the old feeder trays from the baby chicken do they get composted?

Thanks for following along and finding what we do out here interesting

I cannot express how much joy it brings me that the little people want to help with chores and just about beg to do so on the weekends. Miss Lily seems to have an eye for cattle and has helped identify a few steers that need some attention a few times. I try to explain what I'm doing and why so their little sponge brains can absorb it all and maybe some of it sinks in. It is every farmers hope that their children will want to carry on their footsteps and I hope one or all our kiddos want to farm here together

 

[jeepxj]

just watched a guy taking water beds out.

 

[loganb]

As someone who grew up in the hog business and shunned other livestock cause cow and sheep folks are crazy(and no chickens in our state), I do enjoy seeing the inner workings of the other livestock businesses. Keep it up!

I will admit.. chicken farmers are smarter about cleaning up buildings between groups of animals then piggy people. Cleaning up buildings from a tractor or skid loader seat looks better than the power washer handle I have thousands of hours behind. But it did help pay for college so not all bad

Sent from The Garage Journal mobile app

 

[jblnut]

just watched a guy taking water beds out.

Even the best of products get swapped out sometimes. If you watch the whole video he says they really like them a lot and then gives a few weak reasons why they're tearing them out. Seems like they simply want to try something else and no one can fault them for that. You don't know if you don't try

As someone who grew up in the hog business and shunned other livestock cause cow and sheep folks are crazy(and no chickens in our state), I do enjoy seeing the inner workings of the other livestock businesses. Keep it up!

I will admit.. chicken farmers are smarter about cleaning up buildings between groups of animals then piggy people. Cleaning up buildings from a tractor or skid loader seat looks better than the power washer handle I have thousands of hours behind. But it did help pay for college so not all bad

I am honestly a little surprised at the way they have us clean the barns and how "dirty" they can remain for the little chicks to come back in. When I asked some questions about it I was told that they do not want a totally clean sterile environment for the chicks to come back into as a bit of decaked/reused bedding is a good immune booster. After that there are minimum levels to keep things clean to but we try to exceed that in every way. I like clean things but there is simply too much stuff to wash in the time we have to wash it all so I pick and choose each flock what to do extra. The water lines are all due to get pressure washed this next flock when they all leave. That'll be a big project !!!

 

[jblnut]

Pops got part of the half wall built in the upstairs room in the shop. We plan to run the electrical through this wall. It'll also break up the huge flat wall so it should look nicer when it all comes together

The skid loader man lift saw some use putting the box up around the exhaust fan. I have a piece of uni-strut painted white that needs to go on the ceiling to hold a few pulleys so I can run a piece of cable down to the ground to open it.

Not a lot else has really been going on out here. I've been working too much off the farm to do anything fun in the shop

 

[jeepxj]

curious if he likes them new ones vs the waterbeds.

 

[jblnut]

curious if he likes them new ones vs the waterbeds.

We had a customer swap one row of waterbeds out for the same stalls and beds that guy did a few years back. He added onto the barn this past summer and we put waterbeds in it. I asked him how he liked the other beds and he had nothing but good things to say .... but he didn't buy more so

The other beds look pretty nice but I hate those flimsy plastic stalls. Maybe it's the old stubborn German in me but stalls should be steel, not plastic .....

 

[jeepxj]

Yea he dont get as cold as you guys. curious on the longevity of them either way. plastics have come a long long ways. wonder what the warranty is like.

 

[jblnut]

We decided to try tarping the stack of bales to keep them nicer longer. We shall see if these cheap blue tarps hold up


I decided it was time to get rid of this table because it was just a flat surface that is gathering junk. Since I got the other welding table this one hasn't really been used. The plan is to build something like what is below .....


This looks like it'd be soooooo nice


The exhaust fan shroud is complete finally !!


Pull down on the cable on the left and it opens. The "counter weight" goes up with the door.


Almost can't even see that nice Hilti uni-strut painted white up there



I cut a slot into a piece of angle iron for a cable clamp to grab onto to hold the door open. I used the inner part of a disk bearing as a handle/weight for the pull cable.


When Jay the builder put the fan in he marked the outside of the hole with some screws. What a nice thing to do


The plan is to put an actual shutter out here one day but for now a piece of an orange traffic barrel is a fine thing to have in there. It fit perfect and will work well for now.


Little man helped with chores on Sunday morning. He kept running up to the chickens and yelling "Hey Drink water !!!" and he'd show them how to drink by pushing the drinker ******* with his fingers. Of course they all ran away so he'd keep running ahead and doing the same thing. It was quite entertaining to watch


It was in the 15F area so we bundled up to do steer chores. That determined little dude swept the entire feed alley while I hauled corn around.

 

[Jayman17]

Your Little Man is growing bigger each time you post a photo of him!
Must be all that beef and chicken he eats.
That wooden workbench does look like a nice place to work

Jay

 

[cvairwerks]

Wish I had the space for it. I'd trade some steaks for that table in a heartbeat.

 

[jblnut]

Your Little Man is growing bigger each time you post a photo of him!
Must be all that beef and chicken he eats.
That wooden workbench does look like a nice place to work

Jay

The entire little people squad is getting larger and I don't know if I like it !! Sure they are getting more useful each day BUT when they jump on you while you're zonked out on the couch it seems to hurt quite a bit more

I'm not sure what will go there ... I'd like something like that but it's going to be a TON of work to build and will likely carry a heavy price tag. I'd put nice full extension drawers under it and a nice hardwood top to POUND stuff into and that all sounds a tad pricy. For now it'll get something quick and easy to use as a flat surface.

Wish I had the space for it. I'd trade some steaks for that table in a heartbeat.

I traded it for a stack of C-Notes and off it went. The buyer drove 5hrs to come get it !!!

 

[jblnut]

I left Miss Alyssa alone in the shop for what seemed like a looooooong time and I come back in and she's 3' from where I left her with a couple murals drawn in chalk !!! She is definitely the most artsy kid in the herd


I got the whole Ryobi crew assembled for the end of the year party I'm going to throw for them. Well, it'll be more of a meet and greet. They may find some new friends to play with soon


The never ending chore of mixing up some fresh steak food

 

[jblnut]

Looks like the toy tractor collection got some nice additions this Christmas season

The shelf of Big Buds is almost full ..... The two on the bottom are different versions of the Rite 750 Earthquake tractor

Soybeans are here already !!

Pops purchased two of these rims at an auction to use one of them as a firepit. Anyone need the other one ??

There is a silver lining in everything .... "pre-covid" I struggled to find face masks that fit the little people and now we have more than we know what to do with. They like doing chores but it gets too dusty after the chickens are 18-20 days old for them to be in there without a dust mask on. I wear one starting about then as well to keep the chicken "dust" out

It is snowing and blowing and nasty cold outside right now so we decided to work on stuff in that wonderful shop space. Time for the skiddy to get some new shoes. The old ones are all leaking and have multiple plugs in each one and are just plain ol' worn down to the point of not being useful anymore. Especially with the 9" of snow that is on the way !!

Lots of "stuff" on the tires to work around. At least it's dried

The first tire on the tire changer in the new shop. I let Pops do the honors

Camso SKS732's. They were in that $180/ea area and were more than $30/ea less than the Bobcat Heavy Duty tires we've been running as long as I can remember. May as well give these a shot !!

Next project is to put a new seat in the ol' girl. This one is beyond shot and I'd like to spruce it up a bit because I'm planning on selling it to purchase a larger skid loader as soon as the right one comes along.

What a mess !! I found gloves, wrenches and a garage door opener under the seat

I'd say that's as squeaky clean as it needs to be

I'm quite excited to have that black truck here. That is the local electrical inspector's truck and if all goes well he'll put a nice green sticker in my new shop panel

Everything passed with flying colors. He said he likes doing inspections for projects that my electrician does because he rarely finds things that need to be corrected. I think he was in and out in a half hour tops. Nice guy and I got my sticker so we can finish off the office and upstairs room

After a bit of back and forth about details and what not Mr. Colt Zantop delivered an absolutely stunning rendition of my sisters prized saxophone. She was astounded at how nice it looked and I was very pleased with the entire process. If you're looking to have something neat and artsy made from license plates I'd highly recommend it !!! Link to his Classified page here

 

[jollygreengiant]

I must say, that's probably the first time I've seen tires replaced on a farm skid steer before they got to be racing slicks.

 

[Jim_No_Garage]

I must say, that's probably the first time I've seen tires replaced on a farm skid steer before they got to be racing slicks.

A long time ago I worked at a rental store and was delivering a Bobcat to a homeowner. The lady of the house comes out to sign for the machine (her husband was at work). She looks the machine over, mentions "Those are brand new tires - might be the nicest skid steer tires she's ever seen". I guess I looked at her a little surprised because she then enlightened me - "I grew up on a farm - I know what new tires look like". Then she laughed . . .

Farm girls . . .

Cheers

Jim

 

[68400BIRD]

I think I might have something to trade for the extra rim. I’ll send pics next week.

 

[jblnut]

I must say, that's probably the first time I've seen tires replaced on a farm skid steer before they got to be racing slicks.

When the dairy farm was still around we'd put tires with that much tread left on the skid loader that loaded the TMR and did all the feeding. That skiddy didn't need much tread since it was always on a hard surface. The other two skiddys kept nice tires on them as they were used in the fields and for loading out of the ag bags in the mud.

It pains me to toss tires with tread left but when they get worn much past where they are I cannot drive in the bedpack the steers lay on. It's slippery **** and I just sit and spin. Plus this particular set has a combined 22 tire plugs and one has/had a tube so they were shot anyway. The three without the tube leaked a little and I was always pumping them up. I knew it'd be time come winter to replace them. They were the tires I had on when I did all the building cleanup this summer so they really took a beating

A long time ago I worked at a rental store and was delivering a Bobcat to a homeowner. The lady of the house comes out to sign for the machine (her husband was at work). She looks the machine over, mentions "Those are brand new tires - might be the nicest skid steer tires she's ever seen". I guess I looked at her a little surprised because she then enlightened me - "I grew up on a farm - I know what new tires look like". Then she laughed . . .

Farm girls . . .

Cheers

Jim

The first time using the skiddy with it's new shoes is always a time to smile. It's an every 4yr deal or so and one forgets how much difference a little tread actually makes !!!

I think I might have something to trade for the extra rim. I’ll send pics next week.

I'm game for pictures but I think it's already spoken for lol. Another member beat you to the punch but I'm all for the two of you coming over and having a full contact game of paper-rock-scissors to figure it out

EDIT: If you're in need of a rim for a fire pit I'm quite sure I can find another !!

 

[jblnut]

The new skid loader seat is in !! I need to get it a bit dusty so it doesn't look so out of place

All that mess came out of the areas below the foot control pedals. Good grief !!! I need to do this more often

I decided the lean-to on the shop would be a great area to keep things dry and out of the elements. Bahahahahahahahahahahahaha says Mother Nature !!!

Looks like some or all of the South wall will be getting enclosed next summer !!!!

It was stupid windy and the steer barn got fairly snowy as well. Going to have to bed the steers again today to keep them dry and warm.