Above 1200 Sq/FT Out on Quaker Road

[jblnut]

Oh no the trailer is empty


Big chunky buggers. They'll burn


House moving crew is coming for the old house in a few weeks so the bin had to get moved AGAIN. This makes 4 times so far


Got the ol' Bobcat crane out again


Tire to lift from the inside. Win.


I started by moving a few pieces out of the way and 2hrs later ended up with the whole pile stacked

 

[RickP]

House moving crew is coming for the old house in a few weeks so the bin had to get moved AGAIN.

That sounds interesting -- were you able to sell the house?

Very nice tractor! Will the tiling work be enough to cover the payments?

Keeping up with the firewood for that boiler sounds like a full-time job!

 

[jblnut]

That sounds interesting -- were you able to sell the house?

Very nice tractor! Will the tiling work be enough to cover the payments?

Keeping up with the firewood for that boiler sounds like a full-time job!

We aren't paying to get rid of it so sort of I guess lol. Estimates put it around $7k to get rid of it so I'm quite happy they'll take it for nothing.

I told Mama Bear I wanted to put a pole shed over it when the house part was gone. I got "the look" as a response. So. We'll likely make the rest of it gone next year.

The STX325 could pull the tile plow around 50" deep without pre-ripping and I'm excited to see what this one will be able to do !! Plus, the red tractor hydraulics didn't seem to be able to hold the plow at grade as well as the 9300 that's been on there a few times. All in all, yes, it'll be a faster, more efficient mule on front of the plow as well as the rest of tillage tools so it'll pay for itself in short order in time savings alone.

We have a 1360' ditch that was cleaned out and was full of trees so that's why we're hitting the wood cutting deal so hard lately. I've been burning wet, not seasoned, boxelder and rubbish wood and the boiler has really been chewing through it because of it. Rough math puts good seasoned oak around 3x the energy available over what I'm burning now lol

 

[Sifan]

My arms, legs and back hurt just looking at the wood pictures!

 

[ambenz]

The idea of a wood pile on flatcars and rails is looking like a better idea the more stacks of wood you get.
Rolling up a pile to the furnace door instead of walking to the end pile will get old.
What is your idea for feeding the beast and keeping logs next to the furnace door?
Child labor???

 

[jblnut]

My arms, legs and back hurt just looking at the wood pictures!

Mine too. I keep telling myself "shut up you out of shape pansy!!"

The idea of a wood pile on flatcars and rails is looking like a better idea the more stacks of wood you get.
Rolling up a pile to the furnace door instead of walking to the end pile will get old.
What is your idea for feeding the beast and keeping logs next to the furnace door?
Child labor???

I'm thinking of enlisting the services of a wheelbarrow to move wood around the pad for now. Also exploring the idea of burning coal and my mind has been wandering with ways to store it. So far I'm thinking a hopper bottom bin with a regular grain auger to bring it into the shed and drop it into a bucket I can scoop out of. Supplement the ****** wood with some coal on the real cold nights. Lignite is around the same BTU's/ton as dry boxelder but it occupies 1/3 the space so it is way more energy dense. Able to fit more energy into the stove with each loading.

I can get lignite from Western ND dropped off fairly cheap. I know a few people that haul edible beans out that way and they have hauled coal back in their hopper bottoms in the past. The coal is cheap so basically just pay their backhaul cost and it's mine. Neat.

I never intended to have all the wood in the shed stacked but wanted to see how much less space it took up when it was stacked up nice. It honestly doesn't take that much less space stacked so I'll likely just pile it in the future.

 

[woodfor1]

Thank you for sharing all that goes on around the farm.My brother uses on old gravaty feed wagon for coal he said it works great and the truck can reach it to dump in.

 

[Finallygotit]

I'm thinking that with your automation prowess that you could work up an auto feed system for that boiler much like a pellet fired BBQ. A nice conveyor, an automatic door opener and closer, etc. Then you can sit back and relax with some Fireball tainted adult beverage and watch the whole mousetrap run. Who wants to be chucking logs in the middle of winter when it's -30°F with a howling wind??

 

[jblnut]

Thank you for sharing all that goes on around the farm. My brother uses on old gravity feed wagon for coal he said it works great and the truck can reach it to dump in.

Thank you for following along !! That's a great idea. I have one wagon not on a running gear and another that has a running gear but is kind of rotten and not roadworthy anymore that'd work great for that. Might have to look into using them if the coal thing works out. Next week I'm going to go get a ton in a big bag for myself and a buddy so we can try it out. If it works well I think we'll have a semi load dropped off and fill a few wagons with it. I need a building by the boiler now worse than ever to keep it all dry.

I'm thinking that with your automation prowess that you could work up an auto feed system for that boiler much like a pellet fired BBQ. A nice conveyor, an automatic door opener and closer, etc. Then you can sit back and relax with some Fireball tainted adult beverage and watch the whole mousetrap run. Who wants to be chucking logs in the middle of winter when it's -30°F with a howling wind??

Not sure if you've experienced -30°F with a howling wind but it's quite a bit better than -35°F with a howling wind

I couldn't drink Fireball when it's -30°F outside ..... It freezes solid around -20°F so it'd have to be Windsor as I left a bottle of that out when it was -37°F last winter and it was still the consistency of 80-90w oil

It's not near as bad as the temps you see during winter though. Not sure how y'all survive down there. I can leave a box of doughnuts in my van and they'll freeze before they dry out. They'd be dry hard rocks if you did that in the winter

 

[WinonaRail]

dumb. Yes they are cottonwood. Not sure why my fat fingers typed poplar .... Twice

Cottonwood often is rotten before it dries ..... I'm hopping it'll freeze hard now that it's cut up so I can smack it with the maul a few times and get it small enough to fit in the stove.

Cottonwood stays wet forever until you split. Firewood size splits (smaller than yours) are often well below 20% MC in 2 months after I split and stack. Might be worth at least quartering those chunks to dry them out.

 

[jblnut]

Cottonwood stays wet forever until you split. Firewood size splits (smaller than yours) are often well below 20% MC in 2 months after I split and stack. Might be worth at least quartering those chunks to dry them out.

They'll need to be moved soon so I'll chunk them then I think. The house mover guys are finally coming and they're in the way. 60 acres out here and it doesn't matter where I put stuff, it's always in the way !!!

 

[XJSuperman]

Now I just gotta go back through the whole thread and find wok cooking ideas.

If I used JD parts, is it worth more than the average wok?
I still need a really big one to do next. Thanks for the motivation bud!

 

[madison069]

They'll need to be moved soon so I'll chunk them then I think. The house mover guys are finally coming and they're in the way. 60 acres out here and it doesn't matter where I put stuff, it's always in the way !!!

House moving was a common thing in West Texas. When the locations are wide open fields, roadway is wide, and houses are built on cement slabs it was usually cheaper for a crew with their own 18-wheeler and flatbed trailer to move a house instead of building new. But I rarely see it here in PA and I can understand too, cause PA don't have the 3 things that west Texas had.

How was the kids feeling about their old house leaving on a trailer?

 

[jblnut]

House moving was a common thing in West Texas. When the locations are wide open fields, roadway is wide, and houses are built on cement slabs it was usually cheaper for a crew with their own 18-wheeler and flatbed trailer to move a house instead of building new. But I rarely see it here in PA and I can understand too, cause PA don't have the 3 things that west Texas had.

How was the kids feeling about their old house leaving on a trailer?

Everything is bigger in Texas

Kiddos don't seem to care one way or the other about the old house. Mama Bear is happy that it's leaving and so am I. We got estimates around $7k to make it go away in roll offs so this is great !!

 

[jblnut]

Damn birds keep sneaking into the vent in the shop .....


Not sure if this is going to work or not but now that the wood stove is up and rocking the boiler hasn't even been turned on yet.


F#$k you birds !!!

 

[racer-john]

Damn birds keep sneaking into the vent in the shop .....


Not sure if this is going to work or not but now that the wood stove is up and rocking the boiler hasn't even been turned on yet.


F#$k you birds !!!

Better put a lock on that or the little peckers will find a way to 'flip' it. Lol.

 

[jblnut]

Time to set the chicken barn up for baby chicks again !!


They're here !!!


Miss Lily found an eggshell and was super stoked to show it off


Snow is in the forecast. Better get ready. Or not.


Better get the barn cleaned out before the -10F weather hits. It was 32F outside when this was taken. Much nicer than the -5F it is right now.


They hang out outside for a while while we clean the pens. They're usually all jumpy and run all over with excitement of being somewhere new.


Hey look !! New calves and some fresh snow.


A buddy wanted some hay before the storm hit it's second wave so I brought him a few bales.


He had a pile of black walnut he wanted gone so he loaded it up and I took it home to run through the stove.


She's a thirsty girl


One of the guys we rent land from brought over a couple dump wagons of wood so I stacked it up. People have been happy to get rid of stuff so far once they found out I have an outdoor wood stove


Black walnut home and ready to unload.


A neighbor to our other farm called and asked if we needed some wood as they had cleared out a bunch of trees. Poplar, ash and boxelder. Not great quality wood but cut up and ready to haul are my favorite kinds !!


Pops and I each made four trips like this ....


Not sure how many cord of wood are on the pile but I'd estimate 15+. Pretty pumped about that !!!


Looks like a bigger pile from this angle


8" of snow so far ....


-5F outside and Miss Lily and I mixing feed before it gets cold.


Happy little grain bin


Gotta fill up the tractor with No2 before I park it inside so it's got warm fuel when I need it when it gets cold again.


Successful Farming magazine had some neat shop ideas this issue.


This is quite an old concept but I think an A-Frame tool cart would be a fantastic thing in the shop. I like my tool chests but being able to see everything I need at a glance will be nice. I'll put my most used tools on the outside and other things like bottle jacks and wood blocking under the inside.

 

[welder57]

Black Walnut, Is used for Gun Stocks, It's Worth a lot of money to the right buyer!!!

 

[jblnut]

Black Walnut, Is used for Gun Stocks, It's Worth a lot of money to the right buyer!!!

It's mostly stuff he found laying on the ground while trying to clean up his woods so I don't know how much value there is to it. I snagged a similar sized load this fall and there were a couple really nice logs in there that I plan to keep and make into lumber.

If you know of someone in Central MN that wants Black Walnut it's all theirs !!! I don't plan to burn it this year unless things get really cold I guess. Free wood is free wood, it all burns

 

[82355]

I started reading this a week ago or so, just now finished. Interesting to see how people do things from other parts of the country,

I was a little disappointed you didn't build the shop house, but at least you got both.

I wanted to comment on stuff as I was going, but was seven years behind. I remember at one point thinking, this guy should make a disk blade wok. Wasn't many posts later, someone else recommended it. That recommendation really panned out! Got a real kick out of the picture of it by the Wishek sign.

I was also curious about the chicken barn. Costco put up hundreds of them here in Nebraska. Boone County has very restrictive agricultural zoning rules, so we can't put them up, but just East of us in Platte County, I know several people with them, and there are a LOT owned by people I don't know. They are required to put up a minimum of four barns, and can do multiples of four (some have eight, or twelve). I was really hoping you were going to do the chick stencil painted on the wall in the control room. How are the bio security rules? Are you allowed to have laying hens on your farm?

I had never seen a 2144 before. I honestly didn't realize they even existed! That was a cute little machine. They build the Case IH combines an hour Southwest of where I live. They have had hundreds of them sitting outside the past couple years waiting for parts. It's funny seeing the service trucks driving around adding the missing parts so they can load them out when they finally show up. The metal snoots cracked me up too. Hadn't seen those for a long time, except for stuff the equipment jockeys send to Mexico. Saying the big equipment won't work on your terrain made me chuckle to. The small fields are more of a hindrance than your light rolling hills.

Why do you run your corn through a grinder mixer, but not grind it? Also, why dry corn for cattle feed? Why not just combine high moisture corn, and pile it?

I use to work as a John Deere mechanic, and I can remember thinking "you have to be one lazy a-hole to have to have the tractor steer itself"! A decade later, the old man finally moved up to a used 8430 (not articulated) and GPS. I love it! A couple years ago, a sensor was going out, and I had to steer while field cultivating, IT WAS AWFUL!!! The thing that surprised me the most, was how much less tired you were after a day of field work. You wouldn't think it would be physically taxing to drive a tractor, but apparently it is to a point. You do a MUCH better job with autosteer as well. The most annoying part is trying to find the gap between planter splits during harvest. Until this year, now the GPS puts the combine into the correct row, so you can't eff that up either.

Did you like that Crary air reel. The old man owns his combine 50/50 with a neighbor, and we put one on the platform head in 2012 due to the drought conditions. When they traded that platform head, we swapped it onto the next one, but the last time they traded in the head, they upgraded to a 35' draper. I NEVER get to drive the combine,so I didn't understand why they liked the draper so much better. This fall I rode a few rounds with the old man while starting on a field. I get it now. Feeds much more evenly.

There was a bunch more, but that is after reading 123 pages. Maybe I will remember later.

Martin

 

[jblnut]

I started reading this a week ago or so, just now finished. Interesting to see how people do things from other parts of the country,

I was a little disappointed you didn't build the shop house, but at least you got both.

I wanted to comment on stuff as I was going, but was seven years behind. I remember at one point thinking, this guy should make a disk blade wok. Wasn't many posts later, someone else recommended it. That recommendation really panned out! Got a real kick out of the picture of it by the Wishek sign.

I was also curious about the chicken barn. Costco put up hundreds of them here in Nebraska. Boone County has very restrictive agricultural zoning rules, so we can't put them up, but just East of us in Platte County, I know several people with them, and there are a LOT owned by people I don't know. They are required to put up a minimum of four barns, and can do multiples of four (some have eight, or twelve). I was really hoping you were going to do the chick stencil painted on the wall in the control room. How are the bio security rules? Are you allowed to have laying hens on your farm?

I had never seen a 2144 before. I honestly didn't realize they even existed! That was a cute little machine. They build the Case IH combines an hour Southwest of where I live. They have had hundreds of them sitting outside the past couple years waiting for parts. It's funny seeing the service trucks driving around adding the missing parts so they can load them out when they finally show up. The metal snoots cracked me up too. Hadn't seen those for a long time, except for stuff the equipment jockeys send to Mexico. Saying the big equipment won't work on your terrain made me chuckle to. The small fields are more of a hindrance than your light rolling hills.

Why do you run your corn through a grinder mixer, but not grind it? Also, why dry corn for cattle feed? Why not just combine high moisture corn, and pile it?

I use to work as a John Deere mechanic, and I can remember thinking "you have to be one lazy a-hole to have to have the tractor steer itself"! A decade later, the old man finally moved up to a used 8430 (not articulated) and GPS. I love it! A couple years ago, a sensor was going out, and I had to steer while field cultivating, IT WAS AWFUL!!! The thing that surprised me the most, was how much less tired you were after a day of field work. You wouldn't think it would be physically taxing to drive a tractor, but apparently it is to a point. You do a MUCH better job with autosteer as well. The most annoying part is trying to find the gap between planter splits during harvest. Until this year, now the GPS puts the combine into the correct row, so you can't eff that up either.

Did you like that Crary air reel. The old man owns his combine 50/50 with a neighbor, and we put one on the platform head in 2012 due to the drought conditions. When they traded that platform head, we swapped it onto the next one, but the last time they traded in the head, they upgraded to a 35' draper. I NEVER get to drive the combine,so I didn't understand why they liked the draper so much better. This fall I rode a few rounds with the old man while starting on a field. I get it now. Feeds much more evenly.

There was a bunch more, but that is after reading 123 pages. Maybe I will remember later.

Martin

Hello Martin !!

I figured someone was reading through it all and maybe even enjoying themselves as I'd log in and see a ton of notifications



First of all thank you for reading it all and for replying !! If you have other questions from things back a while don't hesitate to ask. As I'd notice notifications I went and read what you liked and had a good time scoring through it all again as well so thank you for that !!

I am also a little disappointed we didn't build a shouse but I think it's for the best. Keep the farm stuff in the shop and the house stuff in the house. We'd have saved basically the entire price of the shop if we'd have done the shouse but Mama Bear is happier this way I do believe. Shouse was estimated at around $350,000 at the time and we spent that on the house last year. So yeah. It's all good though.

Oh yeah the Wishek Wok is amazing !! You need one !!

I've worked with a few guys from NE with Costco barns. I sold 8 Poultry Hawks to one farm and a giant composter to another. Both were amazing to work with and have been telling their neighbors because I've had a few calls from down in that area lately. Our biosecurity stuff is pretty strick as we have to change footwear coming into the control room as well as changing clothes before we go into the barn itself. Boots get dunked into some sticky slippery goo before we enter the barn. Taking culls out of the barn has become challenging as we cannot bring pails back in once they leave. I'd be up to 32 chicks on the wall ..... I may need to do the stencil after all. Thank you for that reminder !! No laying hens or other "owned" foul on the farm.

The 2144 served us well for quite a while !! Cute little combine that we finally outgrew. Fun stuff is the guy we purchased the 2144 from replaced it with a 2344. Bet you've never seen one of those either. They didn't make many !! All these shortages and other BS is starting to get old. Whomever is making this **** all happen needs to knock it off. Enough already !! You are probably correct with the small fields being the issue, not hills and such.

We use the grinder mixer as just a mixer. We haven't found that grinding the corn makes a major difference in much of anything with the steers. Keeping some crappy hay in front of them to keep the ruman mat floating helps a ton with their heavy corn diet. Also, when I started feeding steers I had a Farmall M and an ancient Artsway mixer so grinding corn for almost 200 critters at the time would have taken forever lol. By feeding dry corn I don't have to mix feed daily and start stuff in the cold. I can mix enough dry corn for a week and keep it in the barn and use a wheelbarrow to feed all week long. Nothing really to go wrong or freeze up in the winter.

We purchased some Ag Leader GPS stuff for the 7630 that will be installed soon to make planting and spraying easier. Rather stoked to get it all working !!

The Air Bar is fantastic !! I am quite sure we gained some yield from it whooshing the soybeans toward the head. Plus they fed in WAY better !!

Ask questions as much as you need. Quite happy to answer. Thank you !!

 

[82355]

Ha, I figured you were getting annoyed by the notifications!

The Poultry Hawk was one of my other questions! I was wondering if you were still a dealer, and if that was a decent side gig at all? Did they update the newer models with your upgrades?

Martin

 

[jblnut]

Ha, I figured you were getting annoyed by the notifications!

The Poultry Hawk was one of my other questions! I was wondering if you were still a dealer, and if that was a decent side gig at all? Did they update the newer models with your upgrades?

Martin

I actually really enjoyed the notifications as I'd click on one of them and it would bring me to a random page of the thread and I'd read through a few pages again. Seeing the little people and how little they were brought back some great memories as well !! So thank you !!

Still a dealer for Innovative Poultry Products. I sell 8-10 units in a typical year. They are amazing people to deal with and have implemented a bunch of my ideas. The basket is variable speed now and there is an option to retrofit the older models, like mine, to use a drill battery instead of a car battery.

While I was trying to pencil out if I could "retire" from my in town job I kept doing math that worked but not really ...... I'd tell myself - If I sell a Poultry Hawk I can work X Hours less and be the same. If I make $X in commission from selling seed I can offset more time from Leedstone. Doing X Feet in tiling will offset more time and so on .... the problem with that is I was doing those things AS WELL AS working off the farm so I ended up literally just giving up income, at least for the short term. I've had a couple days of selling seed corn this fall that offset a month each of income from the off the farm job. That is quite encouraging and hopefully as our business grows and farmers get the info they need on what makes us different it'll get easier to make sales.

We were looking for an 8330-8530 for a while to add to the fleet and this 9420 came around. We were going to get rid of the 7630 for the 8 series to gain a higher hp row crop tractor that we can still plant and spray with but it'll also handle the 800+ bu of stuff getting hauled home in the fall a little nicer. Plus we could likely hook both Brent 644's together and haul 1200+bu to town in one trip. That'd be nice !! I've done it with the 7810 before but it really fills its shorts

 

[82355]

We have square fields out here, and no terraces, so it's completely different, but the old man has an 8335R and a 8R340 (I HATE the new numbering, why use flywheel HP???). He previously had an 8430 (non articulated), I preferred the 8430 to the 8335R, but the 8R340 is really nice! It even has the massaging seat that the John Deere guy was talking about. Also have a 744 Brent wagon with BIG flotation tires on it, but rarely uses it. Haul the majority of the grain with two semis.

I remembered another question. You were talking about crop rotation. Do you really plant a field into alfalfa for a single year? We haven't had alfalfa for years, as the old man hasn't had any cattle for years, but the first year of alfalfa was always a weak stand. I don't know if I have ever seen someone around here leave a field in alfalfa for a single year.

Does anyone no-till around you? we don't have manure to spread (unfortunately), so we do a lot less tillage than you guys do. Reminds me of when I was a kid watching all the tillage work you do.

Martin

 

[82355]

Remembered another. Sorry to wear you out! Have you thought about buying a 1" impact? I use an Ingersol Rand 1" impact to take duals off and on. My old man is pretty set in his ways, so it entertains me when I can change his ways. He always used a big breaker bar and cheater pipe like you. The first time we put duals back on and I used my 1" impact, he went and got his breaker bar. I asked him what he was doing. He told me he was going to finish tightening the bolts. I laughed and said he could try. He was impressed when it was tighter than he expected!

I also use it on disc gang bolts. I think it would make your life a lot easier.

Martin

 

[drivesitfar]

Good stuff as per usual. Just curious if you’ve actually kept count of how many chicks to chickens and then rinse and repeat you’ve done so far? I can’t even fathom the amount of fuel just the chicken barn uses much less your entire farm.

Nice find on the wood and awesome that neighbors have even more to give you. Built in exercise that saves you money too!!

Merry Christmas and here’s to a good full year of retirement in 2023

 

[welder57]

What the Temp there today? Are the animals and people fairing well?

 

[ambenz]

Got to be chilly there. I'm 500 miles southeast of Albany and we are 3F 6pm CST... friggin cold!
I bet there wind chills are close to -20 or more tonight....and you have to feed the boiler too!
I noticed they have the curtains down on the cow barn in previous posts.
Keeping the water feeders from freezing and the feed available has to be a chore, in these temps, for sure.
I feel for you jbl.

 

[82355]

Thought of another question. Is the Lely that makes the dairy equipment the same that built the Lely Roterra? The old man bought a Lely Roterra new back in the 70's. I didn't even know the company still existed until this thread.

Martin

 

[jblnut]

We have square fields out here, and no terraces, so it's completely different, but the old man has an 8335R and a 8R340 (I HATE the new numbering, why use flywheel HP???). He previously had an 8430 (non articulated), I preferred the 8430 to the 8335R, but the 8R340 is really nice! It even has the massaging seat that the John Deere guy was talking about. Also have a 744 Brent wagon with BIG flotation tires on it, but rarely uses it. Haul the majority of the grain with two semis.

I remembered another question. You were talking about crop rotation. Do you really plant a field into alfalfa for a single year? We haven't had alfalfa for years, as the old man hasn't had any cattle for years, but the first year of alfalfa was always a weak stand. I don't know if I have ever seen someone around here leave a field in alfalfa for a single year.

Does anyone no-till around you? we don't have manure to spread (unfortunately), so we do a lot less tillage than you guys do. Reminds me of when I was a kid watching all the tillage work you do.

Martin

We've planted alfalfa a couple times and torn it up a few times after a year or two if the stand wasn't great. I don't remember where I said we planted it for a year on purpose but it's certainly possible. We do silly things sometimes.

Not a lot of no-till around here but they're a few guys playing with strip till and cover crops. We're going to be doing more cover crops in the coming years once I can find a decent no-till drill.

Remembered another. Sorry to wear you out! Have you thought about buying a 1" impact? I use an Ingersol Rand 1" impact to take duals off and on. My old man is pretty set in his ways, so it entertains me when I can change his ways. He always used a big breaker bar and cheater pipe like you. The first time we put duals back on and I used my 1" impact, he went and got his breaker bar. I asked him what he was doing. He told me he was going to finish tightening the bolts. I laughed and said he could try. He was impressed when it was tighter than he expected!

I also use it on disc gang bolts. I think it would make your life a lot easier.

Martin

I like doing things the hard way. Just kidding. Once I get an air compressor that can run a 1" impact you bet there will be one in the shop !!

Good stuff as per usual. Just curious if you’ve actually kept count of how many chicks to chickens and then rinse and repeat you’ve done so far? I can’t even fathom the amount of fuel just the chicken barn uses much less your entire farm.

Nice find on the wood and awesome that neighbors have even more to give you. Built in exercise that saves you money too!!

Merry Christmas and here’s to a good full year of retirement in 2023

From the hip estimate says 1.3 million chickens have been raised in the barn so far. Seeing it in print makes it seem like quite a few lol. Chicken barn uses 175gal of LP a day MAX when it's cold so it isn't that bad considering it's keeping almost an acre of floor space at 90F.

The rest of the farm has used 0 gallons of LP so far this fall/winter thanks to the outdoor boiler !!

I'm excited to build relationships with people with wood lol. Bring it on !!

Merry Christmas to you to Sir !!

What the Temp there today? Are the animals and people fairing well?

It's a balmy -15f. Critters are frosty but happy. The humans are cold and grumpy lol

Got to be chilly there. I'm 500 miles southeast of Albany and we are 3F 6pm CST... friggin cold!
I bet there wind chills are close to -20 or more tonight....and you have to feed the boiler too!
I noticed they have the curtains down on the cow barn in previous posts.
Keeping the water feeders from freezing and the feed available has to be a chore, in these temps, for sure.
I feel for you jbl.

Psh wind-chill is just a weatherman's way of making it sound cold. In reality it's a cold kiss from Mother Nature that says "go inside!!". Wood stove is easy to take care of. Toss wood in and watch it burn. I lower the curtains when it gets chilly to keep the wind from whipping through and makings super chilly in the barn. The waterers have heating elements in them to keep them from freezing so they're all good. I put new elements in last year so they should be good for the winter.

Thought of another question. Is the Lely that makes the dairy equipment the same that built the Lely Roterra? The old man bought a Lely Roterra new back in the 70's. I didn't even know the company still existed until this thread.

Martin

Lely's milking equipment stuff and their cropping stuff are tied together as one larger company. I didn't know there was any Lely equipment sold in the US before the milking stuff. Neat !!

 

[racer-john]

Best of the season to All.

 

[jblnut]

Best of the season to All.

Same to you !!!

Thank you everyone for following along !!

Merry Christmas to all.

 

[jblnut]

The wood stove has been putting in overtime the last week keeping everything nice and toasty in the subzero temps while chewing through wood like crazy !!


This snow stuff can go away anytime !! A shed needs to be a priority next year for sure.


The fire looks like a far away galaxy


I put a roof over the cattle shed to keep out the snow


Sun dogs in the morning. Neat. Must be cold out lol


The steers flick water around and make a damn mess when it's -15f out .....


Leroy fell victim to a drift in the chicken barn driveway lol

 

[woodfor1]

Thank you for sharing life on the farm. Merry Christmas to you and your family.

 

[loganb]

Lely's milking equipment stuff and their cropping stuff are tied together as one larger company. I didn't know there was any Lely equipment sold in the US before the milking stuff. Neat !!

And the milking stuff isn't just sold in the US, it's mostly made here as well. They just expanded their US headquarters and manufacturing in Pella, IA (southeast of Des Moines) in the past year.

 

[jblnut]

Thank you for sharing life on the farm. Merry Christmas to you and your family.

Thank you for following along!!

Merry Christmas to you and yours as well.

And the milking stuff isn't just sold in the US, it's mostly made here as well. They just expanded their US headquarters and manufacturing in Pella, IA (southeast of Des Moines) in the past year.

Correct. They just built a huge facility. I've been to the new one twice and the old factory a half dozen times I suppose for training when I worked at Leedstone. Me and another guy got escorted from behind the Vermeer factory because we were snooping around after training one day looking at stuff and being a couple nosy farmers. We spied a round baler with caster wheels on the front and wanted to know what it was. It was a very early ZR5 and they didn't want us to see it lol.

Oh man lots of memories in Pella over the years. We went to every Casey's gas station one evening and bought a 12 pack of Busch at each and made them disappear before going to the next. Training was a bear the next day lol.

 

[loganb]

Oh man lots of memories in Pella over the years. We went to every Casey's gas station one evening and bought a 12 pack of Busch at each and made them disappear before going to the next. Training was a bear the next day lol.

LOL

I work for another company in that area so know the town very well...even lived there once upon a time.

Buying beer at every Casey's would be simpler now that they closed (3) of the locations and consolidated them to 1, so think you'd only end up with 24 cans instead of 48 that I think you probably had

In a prior role of mine I was responsible for a couple training classes a year of new salespeople and we always had to close out day 1 with a lecture reminding them that although this is a small town and likely a long way away from where they came from...their behavior would make it back to their bosses before they did and on average 1 or 2 attendees a year behaved in a way that earned them an early dismissal and another exercise in job hunting. Breakfast was always healthy and coffee was hot so if you enjoyed yourself too much and made it to class no worries....but please don't "overconsume" to the point that you think that passing out in the backseat of a random car at a factory parking lot or in a car parked at the police station is a good idea.....

 

[cvairwerks]

I like doing things the hard way. Just kidding. Once I get an air compressor that can run a 1" impact you bet there will be one in the shop !!

You do know that Milwaukee makes a couple of rather nice M18 powered 1" impacts?

 

[82355]

I looked through a LOT of pictures, but could not find one of the old man’s Lely Rottera.

Well except for this very partial one.



If you zoom in, you can see the emblem on the gear box cover.



At first first I thought it was just an odd coincidence that they had the same name. Till I saw the emblem on one of the machines, and thought it was a dead ringer for the cast in emblems. It’s a powered harrow with a rolling basket. Leaves a really nice seed bed, but at 16’ wide, is ridiculously slow. Back in the late 90’s we ran it over 240 acres. Behind a 4650 with a 16 speed Powershift. At least it was a nice tractor, because it was monotonous. The new boy thing it gets used for anymore is finishing off dirt work and tilling up gardens.

Martin

 

[jblnut]

Puffing away in the below zero temps for around a week. This monster ate a cord of wood the week it was so cold out. Good grief !!!


It's **** cold outside and Lily is eating snow. What a goof.


Life continues in the cold. Gotta mix little calf feed again and add oats in. I'm excited to get my hopper bin in place next summer to put oats in instead of messing with a gravity box all the time !!


Oaty goodness !!!


Nothing to see here other than this looks neat


Snow blows.


The abominable snowCat. Glad to have a cab and heat on this thing


During the little blizzard we had the stove grew some icicles as it snowed sideways.


Kiddos are excited to have another foot of snow.


We had a couple snow days last week and made a cookie pizza. Turned out amazing and tasty !!!


The soybean bales are almost burried.


The drift is higher than the 4-wheeler


I caught Leo midfall and he was giggling the whole way down


The snow piles are getting rather tall and winter has barely begun !!


Wood pile is gone !!


T'was cold out and there was a very gentle breeze and the smoke looked neat. I watched it roll and boil for a while.