Primitive Archer
Main Discussion Area => Around the Campfire => Topic started by: bjrogg on January 22, 2022, 10:21:27 am
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I always felt a bit in the wrong place in the victory garden threads.
I’m not so sure this is a good idea with the age we live in, but I decided to start a new thread. I would love to have others share their farms to.
I enjoy others farming operations to and different crops.
Also gardens certainly welcome.
You might think it’s single digits cold out and really nothing for a farmer to do. It’s never been that way on our farm. We always had milk cows or beef cattle.
Anyone who has cattle knows they take care and a lot of work. That work is multiplied in with the winter weather.
We also have a lot of equipment to maintain and sometimes completely modify.
We changed sprayers and went from 120’ wide to 135’. We want to control our traffic pattern and drive on the same tracks as we plant. It keeps compaction in same tracks, run over less crop and carries better when it gets muddy.
We need to add two rows to our 16 row planter making it a 18 row 30” spacing. 45’ wide. The sprayer can then drive on same tracks as planter.
The old mechanical drives it would have been simple.
We took off markers ( they physically made a mark in the dirt up center of next pass) as with GPS we very rarely use them. We made two frame extensions. One for each side and bolted them where the markers had been.
The mechanics are going pretty quick. But there’s a lot of plumbing and wiring. This is still going to take awhile.
Bjrogg
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Put in a little overtime and made this to.
Bjrogg
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Very nice.
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Thanks White Falcon.
I also smoked 9 sticks of summer sausage. Got another batch to smoke yet but not sure I’ll do it tomorrow or Monday. It works pretty good doing the smoking while I work at the shop.
Bjrogg
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BJ I know what you mean by cattle I've carried lots of hot water over the years to thaw out water fountains.
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BJ I know what you mean by cattle I've carried lots of hot water over the years to thaw out water fountains.
I know Rob. When we had milk cows . Between them and calves. I stayed so busy taking care of them all winter that I wondered how I got anything else done in the summer. They are easier to take care of in the summer. Putting them in pasture was always a big work saver. Of course 16 hours of daylight helps get stuff done to. They actually like the cold weather better than the hot though.
Bjrogg
PS got 10lbs of jerky Marinating for two days now. Ready to go in the dehydrator.
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Got a farm BJ but don't do much farming, got the part you can row crop leased to a local farmer, he rotates Bean's and corn, I have 400 acres but most is wooded, only farm about 80 of it,use about 80 for TwinOaks and the rest I just ramble on ,the ground is just to hilly to row crop much without it washing away. My uncle told me when I got it [ it was his and in the family 80+ years at that time ] that it was a cattle farm, of course that was before no till, all they raised was tobacco ,hay and maybe a little corn for feed, but you could do that then and make a decent living on a 5/10 acre flat spot and hills don't matter much with hay. I love seeing your operation, not many that size around here, there are some a little father north in the edge of KY and some west Tennessee where the ground is flat just not much in Middle/east Tn. in the hill and hollows. I will be keeping and eye on you though, seems you have plenty to do. ;)
Pappy
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I really want to visit your farm someday Pappy. I’ve been to Clarksville to see my retired Army buddy. Nice area.
We have gotten lots of cattle over the year from farms just like your uncle talks about. From Tennessee, Kentucky or Virginia. They come in how we like em. Tall, lean and tough. They usually adapt pretty well to our farm and we put some finish on them. Fatten up pretty good.
I would love to see a old tobacco operation.
Well put another 8 sticks in the smoker.
The jerky is done.
Back to the shop to work o planter. Pulled off all the old fertilizer hose. It’s 17 years old and it’s really in the way for routing wires. I don’t think I will reuse it but might have to see how hard it is to get. A lot of stuff getting very hard to get. Making things very uncertain and impossible to plan and receive products ahead like we normally do.
I think my next step is going to be taking off old wiring and replacing with new as I go. This is the scariest part. Lots of wires and it won’t be wired the same. We previously had two variable rate hydraulic motors with shaft speed counters. They each ran half the planter 8 rows. Now we will have three v-rate motors and they will each run 6 rows. That will be nicer for my swat control. It will turn on and off in 6 row sections instead of 9. That will save me more seed and not double plant angled headlands and edges.
I would really have liked to totally upgrade to modern individual row electric drives and individual row shut off control, but right now it is impossible to get the new equipment. I’m recycling old equipment that others have discard when they updated to the new technology.
Your welcome to visit anytime Pappy. It’s nice here by the big lake in the summer most summers. Can get a bit humid.
Bjrogg
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Well, those put my 18 supplement tub garden to shame! we got a fair amount of tarragon, some squash, zucchs, and tomatoes, enough blueberries to top off a dish of ice cream, and a heck of a water bill! Anasazi beans didn't make at all. Did get the composter filled, been too dry to work, though! Try again this year! Sort of mini farming! (lol)
Hawkdancer
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following you BJ (-P
by the way great obsidian arrow. So nice that it deserve to fly toward a deer :OK
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Thanks Jerry. I’m very interested in your raised beds. Really thinking I should start some of my own. Past few years have been using my dad’s. He won’t be using them anymore. They are certainly more knee and back friendly and you can still grow a lot of produce in a small area.
Thanks Glis.
I’m glad to know someone is watching. Not sure how popular this might be, but I like trying to bring the land back to people if I can’t bring the people back to the land.
Since seems to be a little interest here’s another project we are working on.
Now that we switched to a 18 row planter our 4 row beet digger won’t be right. 4 isn’t devisable into 18 evenly. I can’t dig rows planted from two different passes of the planter. The rows need to be spaced perfectly.
Now I can use a 6 row beet digger. It will take three passes of six rows for each pass of 18 with the planter.
We used to have 4 passes of 4 rows for 16 row planter. So hopefully this will help with beet harvest.
Lots of beet growers around here have switched to the new self propelled harvesters and the old pull type can be bought for scrap price. Of course that’s about what they are worth because the wear and tear parts are expensive and many.
We got this 6 row pull type machine and are reconditioning it. We are going to rob some parts off our old four row. Tank, ferries wheel and elevator will be swapped. Putting in several new grab rolls and all new bearings. All new digger wheels. By the time where done we will have 6x what we paid for it, but that’s pretty normal.
Thanks for watching. Please feel free to add your farm or garden
Bjrogg
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By the way. Smoked summer sausage turned out great and so did the jerky.
Wish you could smell and taste it
Bjrogg
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That looks delicious! My mouth is watering :OK
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That looks delicious! My mouth is watering :OK
Here’s a sample of jerky for you
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Looks good BJ
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Thanks Rob. Still praying for your dads wife. Hope all goes well. Now you better go out and make sure the water troughs aren’t frozen.
I took all the hoppers and meters off planter. They are in the way for removing old wires and rerouting new ones. I switched the meters over to Sugar beets. I will take them to our Precision dealer and he will run them on his test stand to make sure they are working properly. We do this every winter. It can save a lot of costly problems.
I have the planter to the point I’m going to need to hook a tractor to it and unfold it. It’s single digits out and the planter tractor is on spreader for Biosolids. Ten miles from shop. In the cold. It’s probably going to take all day, but I need to change tracks on my old sprayer tractor. I need to take off narrow 18” wide tracks and switch to 24” wide tracks. Then put that tractor on Biosolids spreader. Then put planter tractor on planter.
Probably not that exciting and a lot of playing around in the cold. Hopefully tomorrow will be ready to actually work at planter again.
Bjrogg
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This is a fun thread, Brian! Keep it up.
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looks good Brian
Used to like making smoked jerky, haven't done that in awhile
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Thanks Steve if people are interested I will try to keep you all updated and continue this thread.
Marc I gave some jerky and a couple sticks of summer sausage to my brother. He said the jerky was pretty addictive and hard to ration.
Ironically at the times it seems like I’m not posting or doing anything. I might just be to busy to post but I will try to.
We got a good ways on our projects. My brother got the tractors switched and I continued pulling off the old wiring harness’s. I’m far enough along now to see how the new harness is going to work. I also realize I need one more yet so got that ordered today.
I have two of the four harness’s run. Will have to make a couple extensions wires for the two vacuum meters.
I have the three variable rate hydraulic motors and shaft speed counters wired.
The rate controller, seed star box and 2020 monitor are all wired.
I have the harness for the individual rows monitor laid out but not run yet.
I think I’m past the scariest part.
Got hydraulic lines run for third v-rate hydraulic motor.
I’m cautiously optimistic at this point but I know there could still be lots of surprises and I’m a long way from field ready.
Getting closer though and still have a little time.
Bjrogg
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And I finished up a nice Cherokee two fletch target arrow last night.
I’m really liking the two fletch. Don’t know why I didn’t try it a long time ago. Pretty simple to fletch, looks great and this is the quietest arrow I have ever shot. Seems pretty fast two.
River cane shaft, pole barn spike point.
Bjrogg
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Really enjoying this thread BJ ! The work is never done. Bob
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Good thread about farming BJ.It goes to show to the public that farming is'nt just putting seed in the ground and watching it grow.
There are no classes of jobs out there.Everyone is acquainted with the least meaning full job all the way to the most meaningful job.
You wear a lot of different coats farming.Appreciating each others skills to get to the final goal.
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Thanks Bob. It’s never even close to all done and I guess for some silly reason I kinda like it. Just seems to make you feel like you have a purpose.
Yup Ed been learning the Jack of all Trades skills almost all my life.
Fix it with some baler twine to finish the job. Then take everything apart and fix it right when you can. When I was young you could see mechanically how something worked. About the time I graduated high school computers where just becoming available. Now you have to imagine how something works. Some of it is pretty hard to imagine, but it works. The technology in agriculture is absolutely amazing and essential. One has to remember the planter I’m working on now’s technology is twenty years old.
The new one will blow your mind. Each row driven by its own electric variable rate motor. It knows exactly where it is on the planter and exactly where the planter is. If it’s on the outside of a 90’ wide planter on the inside of a turn it knows it’s traveling slower than the row on the outside of the turn so it slows it’s self down to plant the right population. The one on the outside knows it has to speed itself up.
Well I’m pretty happy with our progress. I think I have all the harness we have installed. I’m going to have to wait for the last one awhile. Hopefully not to long. I think it’s all going to work, but I’m certain there will be surprises . I want to find them as soon as I can.
I’m sure I will have lots of other things to do before that harness gets here.
Bjrogg
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Put in a little overtime and straightened a river cane shaft. Wrapped both ends with sinew
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It goes to show people there is'nt nothing a person can't do if they are willing to do it and have the patience to follow through.
Attention to details trait carries through to practically all things being made.
If it's done enough times a person can remember for the future and not have to go through the getting acquainted part again.
The purpose part to me is saving money as the cost of labor is out of this world.
A friend showed me the remnants of 2 whole deer he made into beef jerky.You could put the contents of 2 deer into a small Wal Mart shopping bag.
Nice shaft but I usually wrap the arrow shafts after self nock is cut/finished and arrowhead is mounted.To avoid any cutting of the threads.
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So true Ed. Often times the scariest part is just getting started. Once you commit and tear it apart, we’ll then you have to stick with it and get it done.
I didn’t do much with the planter yesterday. I decided to do something with that river cane shaft. If your curious it’s posted in the arrow section. Obsidian point, two fletch build.
I think it might be headed somewhere special.
Bjrogg
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Good thread Bj. Ill be following along.
Thats some big equipment.
Maybe come April when things get moving around here I'd have something to add. Ought to get started planting Peppers and Toms in the greenhouse in about a month.
Mike
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Thanks Mike. Look forward to seeing what you grow. I think that’s a big reason I do this. I just love watching it all grow. Harvest is alway sad but sweet.
Actually some of the neighbors have much bigger and better equipment. A couple have planters three times as wide. We get along pretty good with this size though.
I had to take my wife to the eye specialist today and my daughter to the ear specialist. Took all day but at least good reports.
I think I have a meeting in the morning and some banking to do.
Have more Biosolids coming Wednesday and snow on the way.
Bjrogg
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Well yesterday was spent getting ready for the big snow storm we’re supposed to get today, along with getting ready for more Biosolids due to arrive today.
This morning is one of my good friends funeral. I’ve talked about Gary before. Even had pictures of him in a article I wrote for primitive archery magazine.
Gary was a true inspiration. He was in a farm accident 16 years ago and has been in a wheelchair ever since. I have always been so impressed with his attitude. He wasn’t one to feel sorry for himself and definitely made lemonade when all he got was lemons.
Before Gary’s accident he loved hunting and walking. He walked several miles every day and hunted every chance he got. He even went to Africa and talked about it a lot.
After his accident he worked hard at getting any movement back he could. He couldn’t even “squeeze “ his trigger finger. He had to move his whole hand to pull his trigger.
His kids modified his wheelchair and mounted his rifle on it. The whole family went back to Africa and enjoyed another hunt there. Gary took a couple really dumb ones as he said. They had to be dumb for him to get them. Kinda like me hunting with my stick.
My buddy Randy was a fantastic friend of Gary’s. The two of them spent countless hours hunting groundhogs and trying to lower the population for the local farmers. They averaged over 200 a year with Gary shooting most of them. I’m really going to miss him. He won’t be forgotten. Every time I see a ground hog I will certainly be reminded of him. It’s pretty fitting that his funeral will be on ground hog day.
He’s out of his chair and got his wings now. RIP Gary.
Bjrogg
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My friend Gary has a lot of hunting trophies. None of them meant as much to him as this one.
Bjrogg
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Im enjoying this thread BJ! thanks for posting ;D
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Interesting thread Bj. I get to play farmer every once and while on my son-in-law's family farm. Mostly helping putting grain in the bins. The boys know what is up in the fields. Used to help pick rocks in the old days, till technology put me out of business with that new fangled rock picker. Greatest invention ever
Thanks for taking us along for the ride
Leroy
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Thanks Russell. I’m glad you are enjoying it.
Thanks Stoker. We have extended family that we very much appreciate help from every fall. It takes a lot more warm bodies than just my brother, nephew and I come beet harvest.
I did a lot of rock picking, hoeing weedy Sugar beets, baling hay and straw, milking cows and pitching manure. Along with a bunch of other glamorous jobs. Often wonder how so many from my generation grew up loving the farm and doing whatever they could to stay on it. Yet now with many of those glamorous jobs no longer required or at least made simpler, many of our youth are leaving the farm. It’s still a tough, but rewarding job.
I’m sorry I haven’t updated thread much this week. It’s been a busy one even if it doesn’t seem like I got much done. Between doctors, a funeral, snow storm, agronomy meeting, and Biosolids I can’t believe it’s already Sunday.
I did very little on our planter. Still waiting for one more wiring harness to hook everything up to the tractor. Hopefully it comes this week.
We had some nasty weather, but really it wasn’t as bad as predicted. Was actually really pretty until the wind picked up. Then most of the snow in my field ended up in big snow banks in my yard.
I got tractor switched on Biosolids spreader but it wouldn’t work. I had to replumb hydraulics and return oil to a different spot on the tractor. Got that done and everything was working good. Got snow cleaned out of my yard and two truck loads delivered and dumped. I was hoping to quick spread them, but on the first spreader load I broke the apron chain. Fortunately I was able to get the spreader empty. I took it the 9 miles back to the shop and my nephew and I went right to work removing the broken section of chain and replacing it with new. It’s not a fun job, but we got it done in record time.
I took spreader back to my farm and started spreading the Biosolids. It actually went really good. The wind had blown all but a couple inches of snow off the field and now it died down to calm. Perfect for my job. I spread all but one spreader load yesterday. Could have finished, but went to 7:00 mass. Should be able to finish the last spreader load pretty quick if I don’t have any other problems. It won’t be today though.
I haven’t had time for any projects. All my overtime has been work related this week. Maybe today. I don’t have anything planned so far and it really feels good that way.
Bjrogg
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Snow before the wind
Bunny tracks in my barn.
Just a little snow really helps see how your spreader pattern is.
Bjrogg
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Got a bit more Snow here just West of Flint - bout 12" on the flat, finnaly got plowed out day before yesterday. Helped Wirwicki with a tractor mounted Snow Blower in His shop today. Like the posts for sure. Bob
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Yes we were right on the edge of system. We’ve been getting pretty lucky so far this winter. Most of the big snow has stayed south of us. Lots of cold which I don’t mind if it sunny and no wind. I don’t like the wind. Don’t mind moving some snow, but hate when the wind just blows it right back again.
We’re starting to run out of parts we need to finish up our projects. Still have things to do, but really hoping some of the stuff we’re waiting on shows up soon.
Got the Biosolids spread for now. Going to move stuff back to shop. My snowblower tractor has a problem with clutch linkage. Get that in shop to look at to.
Bjrogg
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Just discovered this
Good Idea BJ
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Yes we were right on the edge of system. We’ve been getting pretty lucky so far this winter. Most of the big snow has stayed south of us. Lots of cold which I don’t mind if it sunny and no wind. I don’t like the wind. Don’t mind moving some snow, but hate when the wind just blows it right back again.
We’re starting to run out of parts we need to finish up our projects. Still have things to do, but really hoping some of the stuff we’re waiting on shows up soon.
Got the Biosolids spread for now. Going to move stuff back to shop. My snowblower tractor has a problem with clutch linkage. Get that in shop to look at to.
Bjrogg
I don't know about down your way but up here if there's not enough snow cover then the ground freezes and if it freezes too deep then that just sets back gardens. So far this year snow cover has been a bit on the low side.
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Glad you found it Guy. Good to see you here.
Marc. Around here we say to cold to snow. It always seems like we get more snow when it is on the warm side. When it gets really cold the air gets drier. But the snow we do get stays.
We like it to freeze before we get snow so the fields aren’t mud under the snow. The frost does take some compaction out of the soil to. It can certainly make for a late spring though.
I really like 20-25f. Sunny and no wind.
Bjrogg
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Up here the coldest nights are always on a full moon and it almost never snows on a full moon. I like winter but we've had many nights in the -30's and that I am not fond of anymore. Also I have found that a good snow cover actually helps with heating our house
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Yup that’s a lot colder than we get around here. Normally don’t get much below-14f . Hate when you breath through your nose and it freezes together. The big lake tends to moderate our temperature extremes. In the summer it helps keep it from getting as hot. In the winter it keeps us from getting as cold. It definitely is a big influence on our weather and even more so right along the shoreline. My dads farm where I grew up is four miles from the lake. My farm goes almost up to it. I always have extra clothes. Sometimes it’s hard to believe the difference those couple miles make.
Snow is very good insulator. Especially dry fluffy snow. If we get a foot of snow before freeze up and it doesn’t go away. There will be mud under the snow no matter how cold it gets.
Bjrogg
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We got loader and my snowblower tractor back to shop yesterday.
Snowblower tractor has broken clutch cable. Had to take access cover off bottom of cab floor to work on it. Took awhile but got old one out. Hopefully they get new one soon. Or at least I don’t need my snowblower.
Also got our new used six row topper home. It was nice that we could buy it pretty local. The lady said she might even come and run it for me if we really got in a bind. Hard finding enough good help that time of year.
Got lights wired on beet digger. Put tank and convoy from four row on six row. It has new chain and the electric hydraulic valves that allow me to fold elevator, run conveyor to unload the bin and change direction of elevator to fill cart or to fill bin. I can do all of these functions and more using one hydraulic outlet from my tractor with the value. Otherwise it would take more outlets than my tractor has. I need
the rest of my outlets for other functions.
I did hit a piece of obsidian for a while Sunday. Not done, but starting to look like something
Bjrogg
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We had two four row beet toppers. The topper removes the beet leaves and places them in between the rows. We don’t harvest them . They just go back into the ground.
Now we need a six row topper and again we got one about scrap price.
We plan on using a lot of parts from our four rows. They have almost new flails and a much better bracket to hold them.
We took them off the topper we bought. They were worn out anyway. And we hate these brackets.
Bjrogg
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These are the ones on our four rows.
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It also got above freezing and we finished washing our combine. We need to keep working on equipment. Can’t just sit and wait for parts.
Also have more Biosolids coming.
Bjrogg
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I did a little work on a Osage I had started last year. It’s a beautiful stave that Arvin sent me.
I found out one thing. I’m not in as good of shape as I was last winter. I had a struggle getting it strung.
Good to have a bow in the vice again.
Bjrogg
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Hi Brian,
Was listening to episode 20 of the Bear Grease podcast about soil health and it’s affects and effects, etc. it’s a good one. But, I’ve found that all the episodes are great. Anyhow, it made me think of this thread and your lifestyle.
Be curious to hear about what types of approaches you are interested in and practice regarding soil management and what that encompasses up in Michigan.
Cheers,
Parnell
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Looks like farming ain't just planting seeds. You have to be a jack of all trades and hardly get paid for most of it.
My hat is off to all farmers. :OK
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Yes there certainly is Pat. I wear so many hats that it never gets boring.
Steve I hope you follow along and I think you we see my ideas about soil health. I’m big on it and just like a person’s health it isn’t just one thing that keeps it healthy. It’s a lot of little things.
Just like people soils are different to. Some are more healthy to start with and some take more maintenance.
I could do a whole thread on the subject.
A few things I’m big on.
Cover crops. A crop we grow besides our actual crop. Sometimes before, sometimes after, sometimes both and sometimes even during. We do it to hold soil in place. Slow erosion. Build organic mater. And improve soil structure.
Controlling traffic patterns.
Helps keep compaction to confined areas. We also use track tractors and carts instead of wheels to have a lighter footprint. We try very hard to avoid driving or tilling our ground when it’s wet and more able to pack. Kinda like a snowball. If snow is cold and “dry” you can’t pack it. It just crumbles. Same with dirt. If it wet it can be made into a mud ball.
Tile and drainage.
I don’t think anything we have done in my lifetime has helped our soil health more than under ground drainage tile. I really allows us to do all the other things we need to do to have soil health. It helps keep the plants from drowning like the holes in the bottom of a potted plant. Maybe not as good but it sure helps. It make it possible most years to plant, harvest and till the ground when it’s not to wet. When it is to wet it usually at least allows us to harvest the crop.
Nutrition.
Just like people’s health the soil depends on it to. We have to feed the soil and the microbes living in it. We feed it with cover crops, manure, Biosolids and conventional fertilizers. Right now we are applying Class A Biosolids. It is a highly refined product made from human waste. It’s not the most convenient product I’ve ever used, but it works and both my soil, crops and cover crops seem to really like it. Kinda like Matt Damon on the Martian but not nearly as stinky or messy.
There’s a bunch of other things that go along with the program, but I think if you keep watching you’ll pick up a bunch of them.
Was going to say what we’ve been doing, but running out of time now. I’ll save it for another time.
Thanks for the questions and comments
Bjrogg
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Coldest night this winter.
(https://i.imgur.com/W2ASDdd.jpg)
It was cold but 30 years ago this would have been an average cold night, back then it was common to have temps at least 10 degrees colder
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That temp is 30 degs colder than out 20deg(F) here this morning.
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Yup it’s a bit nippy out there last night Marc. But you definitely have us beat. That’s okay with me though. I’m not sure how low we got but it was -4f before I went to bed last night. Was sure glad my wife had extra blankets on and half the bed warmed up.lol I was like a reptile attracted to the heat.
Yeah definitely remember some cold winters , but it creeps into my bones more now.
The cold weather has been good for our spreading Biosolids operation. A lot of the Biosolids from Detroit go across the bridge to our good Canadian neighbors. When the boarder closes we are suddenly moved up in the schedule and we received 8 doubles loads of product late last week. Went right to work spreading it with good conditions. Still have about two loads to spread, but we got a heck of a pile spread. Was actually good timing for us.
We did get the last wiring harness for the planter and I think I have the planter side of it installed correctly. Need to route it to the front of planter now and then to tractor. Sounds simple, but you have to realize that this planter folds up for transport. It uses that space very efficiently and doesn’t provide a lot of extra space to route wire harness’s and hydraulic hoses. We are hoping not to have to route harness as it was originally installed. I’m afraid it won’t fit with the connectors on unless we pull all the hydraulic hose out, install wire harness and then reinstall hydraulic hoses. We are hoping to run a PVC pipe over top of the brace that the original wires and hoses were routed through, but now we aren’t so sure it going to work. We’ll figure something out though.
Bjrogg
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Still spreading
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Good pictures! I see the track setup on your tractor. I’m appreciating the work put into the management of the soil more than ever, learning more about it. It’s a fascinating subject and I can imagine being very passionate in it’s stewardship.
You can bet I’ll be watching.
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Yes that is a pretty good setup. Tracks certainly seem the way to go
I remember when I was young my grandmother getting her wheel tractor stuck in the mud, it was not a pretty sight
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There are advantages and disadvantages to both wheels and tracks. I like tracks for most jobs I do. They have a much lighter footprint. They are more expensive to maintain though.
Well after fixing a water problem at home I worked at the planter again. I took the planter outside and folded it in and out. I wanted to see if our plans would work.
The first picture is planter folded out. The wires and hose originally were routed inside the braces that run from front to back at 45degree angles. It’s the only way to route them as this length won’t change. The center framework telescopes so its length changes that doesn’t work for running wires and hoses.
Bjrogg
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Next picture is showing how center frame is telescoping out, becoming longer and folding the outsides of the planter inward
Bjrogg
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Thought I had picture of it folded completely but must have deleted it.
Next picture is showing our conduit temporarily mounted on the 45 degree braces
Bjrogg
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And here’s the part we were worried about. The “ hooks” That come around and hook over the center frame to lift everything up are squishing our conduit ever so slightly. I think it will work.
Bjrogg
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I finished running the wire harness to the front of planter and hook it up to tractor.
Now I have to reprogram all my planter information. I setup both the rate controller and planter display so they now have 3 vrd motors instead of two and assign them their proper rows.
I’m having trouble though. My display isn’t seeing my individual rows information. I’m not sure what the answer to my problem is but it’s not going to get fixed tonight. I’m kinda hoping I just need to have the seed star box reprogrammed. Might have to get someone from Deere to do that. Hopefully I can get some answers tomorrow.
Bjrogg
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Well now I’m getting somewhere. Turns out I had everything hooked up right but I didn’t realize that the new harness for the individual rows electric eyes was wired for Deere now instead of Dickey John like it use to be. Dickey John switches the positive and negative their plugs. I had to remove the old adapter harness’s.
I powered everything up and it showed the rows. I also reprogrammed my precession display for 18 rows.
I then had everything except row 13 eye info. A few more calls to one of my buddies and a bunch of trouble shooting and I determined one of the new harness's has a open circuit.
The maker of the harness is going to call me.
I’m getting closer though and feeling much better than last night
Bjrogg
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I was hoping that the company that made the wire harness would just send me a new one and I would send the defective one back.
That’s not how they wanted to do it though. They wanted me to do some more trouble shooting. I had already determined which harness was defective. Now they wanted me to remove the pins from the plugs to see if they had a simple problem with their crimp or a broken wire by the crimp. I have a tool to remove the pins and I pulled pin 13 out of one end and inspected it. It visually looked good. I still had open circuit between pins. I checked from pin to probing the wire just a inch or so from the crimped on pin. I had continuity there so that tells me the pin is crimped on properly.
Next I remove pin from plug on other end of harness. Once again I visually inspect it and it looks good. I check resistance between pins and circuit is still open. I check from pin to probing the wire a inch from the crimp and have continuity. Once again this is telling me the crimp is good. As unlikely as it seems, my new wire most have a break in it .
The technician I’m working with talks to his boss and they decide they want me to send this harness back so they can repair it and then send it back to me. I’m a little bummed as this is liking to take weeks. I’m really wanting to try everything out and see what other surprises I have. The harness is twice as long as I need. I’m very tempted to just cut it in half. See which half has good wire and wire plug on good half, but they don’t want me to do that.
They decide to have Ups pick up my package. It sits in my shop another 24 hours waiting to get picked up.
In the meantime we work on the combine, but we are running out of new part and it’s becoming a real problem getting them. Lots of stuff back ordered. Starting to get pretty nervous. We have most of our fertilizer on farm already in our storage tanks. Usually we have a lot of our chemicals on farm in in our storage to but this year we haven’t been able to get any yet. In fact they still haven’t been able to tell us what we will be able to get and have told us several things we won’t be able to get. Normally we have prepaid the majority of these inputs already. At this point we still can’t because of this.
After everyone else goes home I decide to work on a project. Our ups guy quite often comes about 7:00 or 8:00 pm. The first night he doesn’t show, but last night he did. He always likes seeing what I’m working on.
It’s a river cane shaft I’m straightening for a obsidian point I just finished. Guess I don’t have a picture of the shaft, but here’s the point. I like this shape for arrows
Bjrogg
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Great looking Point BJ ! Hope to be able to Finally meet You at the New location Memorial Weekend. I spend alot of time with that Bruce B. character (lol) ! Bob
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Thanks Bob I really like Bruce and Cindy. They are really good people and made Susie and I feel right at home right from the first event we attended. We keep in contact. They even dropped by our shop a few years ago and dropped off two bear hides they decided to clean out of their freezer. I tanned one, but I haven’t found the time to tan the second one yet. That was a lot more work than I thought it would be. I’ll get the second one someday, but I can see it’s not going to be this winter.
Bjrogg
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I was hoping to test all my systems out and find anymore surprises, but now I have to wait for the defective harness to be fixed and returned.
This is how our row starter fertilizer was applied. We never liked this system. It’s supposed to put the fertilizer 2” to the side of seed and 2” below the seed. It doesn’t do a very good job of that. And we’ve tried tweaking it, but still weren’t satisfied.
Several years ago we tried mounting a knife behind one row like the second picture. It worked good, but the bracket we made was to light and bent. I could sure see that one row got off to a lot better start though.
We were going to try something on one row again, but since we have run out of parts we decided to go for broke and put them on all 18 rows while we wait for parts.
Hopefully they work. A lot of stuff happens in this 6 feet. Row cleaners clear trash and residue out of the path. Then the starter fertilizer is placed 2” to the side and two inches below where the seed will be planted. Then the meter drops the seed in seed trench made by two seed disks. The depth of the trench is controlled by the gauge wheels. Then some nylon plastic “seed formers” gently push the seed to bottom of trench and make sure seed has good soil contact. Then we spray a 3 1/2 inch “Tee band”
that goes in the trench and a inch to each side of it . We can use a very small amount of insecticide to protect our seeds from grubs, wire worms and seed corn maggots. We can cut our rate by 10x using the narrow Tee band. One problem with cover crops is that they are also a very good environment for harmful insects. Finally the closing wheels close the seed trench and light pack the ground to insure good seed to soil contact and consistent depth.
Bjrogg
PS I sure hope this is going to work. I’m a little nervous about switching them all without trying them out on one row first. We plant in a lot of different conditions and those conditions can have a huge effect on how something like this works
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I also got that point haft to a river cane shaft
Bjrogg
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Nice point. It deserve to fly (SH)
did you use foreshaft or direct connection to rivercane?
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Sorry it’s been awhile. Glis glis. It is mounted directly to the river cane. Has wild turkey tail feathers with a two fletch. It’s i. The arrow section . I called it pass thru.
Right now it’s cold again and I’m spreading Biosolids. Bouncing across field 2 mph in the dark
Bjrogg
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Three hours later and the sun is coming up. I could see about thirty just as the sun was breaking.
Bjrogg
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Sorry it’s been awhile. Glis glis. It is mounted directly to the river cane. Has wild turkey tail feathers with a two fletch. It’s i. The arrow section . I called it pass thru.
Right now it’s cold again and I’m spreading Biosolids. Bouncing across field 2 mph in the dark
Bjrogg
Any particular reason why you are doing that in the dark?
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A couple Marc.
1 my schedule. Have a meeting this afternoon and tomorrow I have my great aunt funeral.
2 I like having the ground frozen enough I don’t even leave a track.
3 going to take a few days and have to do it while conditions allow.
With the gps it’s not a problem.
Bjrogg
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I grew up on a beef/hog operation but decided not to peruse it later in life, but still live on part of the property. My brother was born to be a farmer and not room for both of us anyway. He gave it a go for about 20 years but could not find enough land to make it work. Now he just hobby farms about 90 acres and I rent mine to the neighbors. He's the last of 8 generations to farm the area, but who knows what his kids will do in future.
That is quite a conversion! I remember my Dad back in the 70's converted a 4 to a 6 row corn planter, obviously that was nothing complicated as everything was mechanical and pretty simple. These days with the electronics alone makes that a major undertaking. I don't know a thing about raising sugar beet, but my brother put in radishes for cover crop last fall and the deer sure love them! Actually I ate a pile of them as well, I'd pull one on my way to deer stand and munch on it. Also they were great cooked!
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Buckskinner I totally understand you and your brothers situation.
We grew up milking cows, making hay and hoeing weedy sugar beets. My dad was very good at letting us make mistakes and learning from them. It’s something I’m probably not as good at and mistakes have become very expensive.
My dad said we could always come back to the farm, but we had to leave it first and try something else. My dad was a smart man with a lot of common sense. I went to electronics school and after I worked in Detroit for several years. In the spring of 1984 the economy was terrible. Inflation was crazy and the place I worked at was going to have to let someone go. It was me or a guy with a wife and kids. I decided to pack up my meager belongings and go back to the farm.
It was difficult. Interest rates were high. Everything was expensive and when I left the farm they sold the cows. My next youngest brother had taken a job and work off the farm for a few years. Now he was getting married and wanted to come back to the farm. We decided to buy some cows and start milking again. I remember being very nervous about how much money I had to borrow and how high the interest rate was. My dad told me if you don’t have anything, they can’t take anything away from you. That was 38 years ago and I have been I debt ever since. It has been a struggle and the time I spent off the farm made me appreciate my time on the farm enough to stick with it. I have had to sell stuff I couldn’t make the payments on. It hurt and my brother who farmed with me for 35 years decided it was time for him to leave the farm again. We had to sell land and there wasn’t enough left for all of us.
Myself and my middle brother decided to keep trying to make it go. The next couple years were very difficult and very hard on one nerves. We somehow managed to survive them. I said a lot of prayers and asked the good lord to take care of us. Honestly he was the only one who could. He has and we are getting through it.
My dad planted our first sugar beet crop two days before I was born. This spring if my planter works I will plant our 61st crop of sugar beets. Things have certainly changed. Yet stayed the same. We still take those delicate little beets seeds and plant them in the cold moist soil. We still do a lot of praying and worrying.
Last year we had a record year for sugar beet yields. We averaged 44 tons per acre. A whole 10 tons higher than the fantastic crop we grew the year prior. Unfortunately the sugar content was very low. We averaged 16.4% sugar. The year prior we averaged 20.23% sugar. The previous year even though we had over 3,000 less tons. We had over 300,000 more lbs of sugar from them. This still wouldn’t be so terrible except beet are a perishable crop. We can’t just store them in a bin. They go on huge piles and we have to get them processed before the end of spring.
The most we have ever processed as a coop is 5.1 million tons. Last year we estimated we had a 5.8 million ton crop. We left 5% of our crop unharvested, knowing we would never be able to process it. Also knowing we probably should have left another 5 or 7 percent unharvested.
We harvested them though. Hoping for a record slice and hoping the factories could get them processed. We are still very short on employees at our factories with 80 open positions. Covid has made it difficult to keep the ones we have able to come to work with exposures and quarantine.
Instead of having record slice it has been pretty disappointing. Now we are paying to haul beets away and dispose of them. I expect us to discard around a million tons of beets between what we didn’t harvest and what we haul back from the piles. And the amount of sugar we get from the tons we do process is low. Normally we get between 290 to 320 lbs of sugar from a ton. We are averaging 239 lbs.
Kinda like when you have to much zucchini and can’t find a home for it, but a lot more expensive.
We will do it again though and chances are with different results. Hardly ever have the same results two years in a row.
Bjrogg
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Most who don't grow up on a farm don't realize the cutting edge that farms run on, literally year to year where a lot of them you are just trying to pay for inputs and interest. We also had extremely lean years where Dad wouldn't talk about it, but you could see it in his face every day. I wouldn't have traded my childhood for anything, I learned 100x more working on the farm than I did in college, and the farm was the reason I got my first job which laid the foundation for my entire career. My to be first boss saw on my resume that I grew up on a farm, asked me some questions only a farm kid would know and offered me the job on the spot.
I try to instill the same for my kids and even though they helped the neighbor milk and my brother put up hay and such, it's not the same as the grind of every day. I do think they have a work ethic and can appreciate a hard day's work. I remember a day about 8 years ago when their baseball practice was cancelled because it was too hot out and they spent the afternoon unloading hay, that's farm life though...
I learned a lot about the beet business just from your above post! I wish you a prosperous growing season and with high sugar content and efficient processing!
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Stick around and you will learn a lot more about the sugar beets. They are pretty interesting crop to grow.
I got up at 3:00 am Thursday and applied Biosolids till 1:30pm. Then got cleaned up and went to a meeting from 3:00 pm till almost 8:00
Slept in a bit Friday and went to my aunts funeral. She was only a couple weeks from 97. Lived a good life and raised 13 kids. It was really good to see so many of my cousins again. It’s to bad someone always seems to have to pass for so many of us to.
I visited with my cousins till about 3:00 pm and then went back at applying Biosolids till 10:30pm
My wire harness came back. It did have a broken wire. My nephew installed it last night but couldn’t get the hydraulic motors to turn. This morning I looked everything over and tried it. I got the motors to turn but the one we added was turning wrong direction. I’m hoping I can plumb it differently to change its direction. I’ll have to talk to Deere Monday.
This afternoon I got the bow I started last winter back out and did a little scraping. I got this stave from Arvin. Thanks Arvin I’m sorry it’s taking me so long, but hopefully I can get it to the flats someday. September is a really busy time for me though.
It has a little reflex right out of the right fade. Makes it look a little worse than it is. I think I need a little more right outer third. Kinda like left limb so far. I’m not going to rush this one. It’s about 50@21
right now. It seems to have gained a little weight just sitting in my shop.
Bjrogg
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Bow looks good so far. Been trying to keep up on your thread here.
Just found out late last week that the crew we use for pruning will not be coming this year. Spent a few hours late last week with the pole saw. I'll be out all this week to try and get some big stuff cut out of the apples. Labor seems to be an issue no matter what you do. Looks like the ground will be frozen in the mornings but going to be in the mud after that. Going to be a long few weeks, Im getting too old for this stuff :)
Mike
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Yes labor sure does seem to be everyone’s problem Mike. Good luck with your apples.
Had a little birthday party for my daughter yesterday. Was fun seeing the grandkids to.
This morning I started spreading Biosolids and then my brother traded me off. I went to FSA office and reported my cover crops and planting dates. Then I had some tax stuff to do. Then I headed back to the shop.
My nephew replumbed the variable rate hydraulic motor we added to the planter and we tested it out. It worked. Everything is turning that supposed to be turning. In the direction and speed their supposed to be turning. I think it’s all going to work now. That’s a great feeling. We still have to plumb all the new hoses for the fertilizer system. Install the meters on the hoppers and test them on the planter, but I’m thinking they should work and hopefully I don’t run into any problems.
Then my son asked if I could help him clean the cattle pins. I spread three loads of manure and then the loader tractor had a leaking tire. We managed to drive it to the air compressor and then to town and the tire shop. It was closed but at least it’s there and there won’t be a service call.
I have to get my propane tank tested tomorrow before I can get it refilled. Sure hope it passes. I’m down to 10% and it’s still pretty cold.
Then I’m hoping to work on planter again.
Bjrogg
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Well my tank passed inspection and so did everything else.
As often happens my day went quite differently than I was planning.
It was a nice day . Temp somewhere in the high 30’s to maybe even 40 with hardly any wind. I washed my son’s combine. I had it blown off with the leaf blower already but it has been to cold to get it washed. My old arms are sore from running the power washer. My brother lifted me up with the loader and we got it pretty darn good. Somebody else can wax it.
In like a lamb out like a lion. Guess we’ll find out, but it is March now and anything can happen around here.
Bjrogg
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Nice :OK ! Bob
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Combine looks like well taken care of for being in its teen years! I bet you could probably sell now for more than you bought it for, although about $400k to replace new... How much grain do you run compared to beets?
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Yes we are shop people. It’s been passed through generations. We maintain our equipment the best we can. Much of it is very seasonal and when you need it to work, you need it to work. Next week isn’t going to be good enough. Down time is very expensive when you have a crop to bring in.
Here’s our 1985 Kenworth. My favorite of our trucks. We have a 1991 Mac and a 1995 Mac. Our newest truck is 2005 IH
I’m working on the planter again today and hoping to actually put some seed in it and test it out. That might be a little optimistic though.
Buckskinner we really aren’t that big for our neighborhood. We were up to about 2,200 acres before we sold land and my brother got out. Since then we have also had landlords pass and the next generation sold . We weren’t in a position to buy.
We planted more grain when we had more cattle and land.
Now we plant around 440 acres of beets. 470 acres of white wheat. 70 acres of corn. 50 acres of soybeans mostly on sugar beet fields headlands and wedge rows. 10 acres of rye for cover crop seed. About 500 acres of edible beans.
My son has about 200 head of cattle and farms about 300 acres. We work together planting and harvesting. He grows about 40 acres white wheat. 40 acres of edible beans. 30 acres of hay and the rest is corn
Bjrogg
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1985 Kenworth
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What Transmission is in the K Whopper ? I drove Big Trucks for a living - Bob.
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A Eaton 13 speed Bob. She spent the first part of her life fueling planes at Metro airport. 400 hp Cat 3406. She’s a nice truck. I use to transfer sugar beets from the piling grounds to the factories. Ran doubles. Before her I had a IH cab over with a 400 Cumins. I couldn’t believe how much nicer this KW rode. She only had about 70,000 miles when we bought her. Spend a lot of time pumping fuel though.
I didn’t actually put seed in the planter, but I think I have everything ready to give it a try. I put the meters on the hoppers and put the hoppers on the planter. I removed the rest of old wiring harness we don’t need and I tidied up and secured to the harness’s, hoses and air lines trying to make sure they were safe for folding and unfolding and also operations. Then it was time to get to Ash Wednesday mass.
I’m pretty sure it’s going to work now, but I really want to run some seed through her to see if all the systems work.
I have a couple meetings this morning. Still hoping to try her out today if possible, but I get my plans changed all the time so won’t know till it happens.
Bjrogg
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Yes March and -24C last night and +9C with rain on Sunday. Weather like a Yo-Yo.
I can remember 30 years ago getting weeks of -40C to -45C in Feb. and having to get up to go feed the cows. That was a bit brutal. Don't miss those days
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Yes definitely yo-yo weather. I really don’t care for our spring weather. Normally it’s cold, damp and muddy. With a lot of icing wind right off the big lake. My back is getting stiff and sore just thinking about it.
Well I got done with our meetings and tried the planter. 2/3rds of it seemed to be working but one of our existing motors wasn’t turning. I’m hoping it just needs some calibration or a button push but nobody I can talk to now.
Looks like some more trouble shooting
Bjrogg
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I got my planter working. The seed star needed to calibrate its third drive position. I was thinking I could do this by running one of the system test designed to work with planter in up position but I couldn’t. I actually had to put it down and drive about 200’. The ground is a mix of mud and frozen. I had to remove the fertilizer knives we just put on or they would probably have gotten damaged. Then I put the planter down turn everything on and drove. The third motor speed up and slowed down several times until it ran its calibration and then it ran at the proper speed.
The monitor was seeing each rows seed drop and counting population. I didn’t want to run the planter through the mud and frozen gravel any more than I had to. I did the rest of the test I could with planter in up position. Seems like it’s going to work.
Next I have to get the other systems working. My Air Force system uses air bags to either put more or less down pressure on the planter units to insure the seed disks can cut into the dirt properly. I tried the test for the Air Force system but it failed . I found a couple leaks I fixed and one of the air bags that came with the used rows units we added had a leak . I went to my precision dealer and got two new ones. Didn’t get them replaced yet, but hopefully tomorrow and hopefully it passes the tests then.
It’s sure a good feeling to have the planter and monitor working. I still have to put the new hoses on the fertilizer system.
Also have to put my spray pump, tanks and controller.
It should be just my normal familiar problems now. Hopefully not to many of them either.
Bjrogg
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Starting to look a little more like spring.
Got air bags changed and air leaks fixed.
Next step is fertilizer system.
Bjrogg
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Been working at plumbing the new fertilizer hoses. I changed the 1 1/2” from the tank to the pump. Then I changed the 1” one from pump to manifold. Now I’m running individual rows to the new redball monitor. This is for one half of the planter. There are two of these. There will be 18 hoses going to each of them when I’m done. 9 from the manifold to red ball monitor. And 9 from monitor to each row.
Coming along nicely.
Bjrogg
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Put in a couple night overtime and did this.
Snapped my perform a couple nights ago.
Then I changed course and came up with this
We got our snow back, but the days are getting longer. Eventually it will thaw out.
Bjrogg
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I gotta say BJ, you are getting Dang good at knapping! your arrows look great like always but the knapped heads with the art on the shaft makes your arrows look amazing!
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Thank You Russell. I really appreciate that.
I just got home from a meeting.
We started this project 7 years ago. It’s a project that records our farm’s metrics. It grades us on things like carbon footprint, land use, environmental quality, water quality and stuff like that.
It’s been pretty interesting and our metrics are actually very good. I’m really not all that into the carbon footprint as much as I am the rest of the stuff, but the things we do to improve those metrics also improve our carbon footprint.
It’s a bit sad though. We’ve been doing these things for several years now. We did them at our expense. We had to learn all the lessons the hard way. Figure out what works for our farm and what doesn’t.
Now there’s new programs trying to encourage the methods we use. One would think we should have those same incentives, but we don’t qualify because we are already doing them.
I’m glad they are trying to get more operations to try these methods. I believe they are good for the soil, wildlife and environment. However it’s not fair providing my competition with a financial incentive for trying something I have been doing for years and not giving me the same incentive.
That’s the problem with so many programs. They really don’t have to make a whole lot of sense.
Bjrogg
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Planter is looking good!
We've lost frost in the ground here so I'm guessing tilling will start soon, not much put in the ground around here until about mid-April to avoid freezing temps. Beets earlier? What is germination typical germination period?
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Planter is looking good!
We've lost frost in the ground here so I'm guessing tilling will start soon, not much put in the ground around here until about mid-April to avoid freezing temps. Beets earlier? What is germination typical germination period?
Yes beets are sometimes even planted early March around here.
We have to get most of the frost out of the ground, but we plant around some snow piles once in awhile along edges and by woods.
We need to get the ground dry enough though. Sometimes that happens early spring. Often we get a window before the rainy weather.
We have a lot of underground drainage tile.
Sugar beets are pretty cold hardy. They can take temps down to about 20 in the right growing stages. If they are just poking through the surface it can be hard on them.
They are actually easier to get a good stand planting early ahead of the spring rains than later when it’s getting drier and after our spring rains. We can’t plant them very deep, so it can be hard to keep them in the moisture to germinate.
We like to have them planted by my birthday April 16.
Bjrogg
I don’t think we will get any in March this year. Still pretty cold here and a lot of frost in the ground. Hopefully by my birthday
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My son is gone to State FFA Convention and I’m feeding his cattle.
They are happy to see me.
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It’s supposed to be turning warmer next week. We lost almost all of our snow yesterday and it froze good overnight. We decided to try and get as many acres of clover cover crop seed spread as we can today.
We have a gator and we can put our GPS on it. We also have a small spreader. Takes a lot of passes across the field but we can drive about 18 mph. With the gps we have a coverage map and acre counter. Also lines we drive by.
We are going to hit it pretty hard. Got up early and a few inches of fresh snow with more falling. We decided to keep going.
We do it like NASCAR one guy just drives. And another has bag open and dumps seed in.
Bjrogg
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We did pretty good. Got 130 acres spread before the snow got warmer and started melting. That makes it drip water off the sides of spreader and it plugs the holes the seed comes out the bottom.
We had to quit and vacuum the seed back out of the spreader to clean the wet stuff on the bottom.
Sounds like it’s going to be to windy tomorrow. At least we got a start. About 25% done.
Bjrogg
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18 mph! that's getting at it!
Frost was all out of the ground here and yesterday it was 55 degrees, This morning we got about 5 inches of snow and its still coming down.
Mike
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It is Mike. When we first started doing this we drove about 8 mph. We had trouble with the holes the seed flows through plunging a lot. We realized if we opened up the holes more they wouldn’t plug up as easily and we drove faster to put the right amount on. We do a pretty good job spreading it now. We put about 8 lbs a acre. Like everything else it’s getting more expensive. Seed price has doubled.
We got together and ground, mixed, stuffed and smoked 370lbs of pork sausage. Tradition.
This stuff is yummy
Bjrogg
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Everybody gets some
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Got the pork sausage vacuum packed and put away yesterday.
Got up early this morning and spread clover. It went really good.
I had almost 60 acres before the sun peaked out.
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Hard to tell where the sky begins and the water ends. This is why we call it the sunrise side.
The sun didn’t stay out for long though. Which was good for my job. I went from 3:00am to 3:00 pm. It’s getting to sloppy now. I did finish 3 farms and about 205 acres.
I hope I can get the rest soon, but it sounds like it could take awhile. Nothing below freezing in the forecast this week
Bjrogg
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The Canadian Geese love grazing on my winter white wheat. There will literally be thousands of them here.
Bjrogg
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Looks like you are having a busy winter. ;)
Pappy
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The Canadian Geese love grazing on my winter white wheat. There will literally be thousands of them here.
Bjrogg
Free fertilizer!
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Yes Pappy. Usually things slow down a little during the winter, but we still always have a long list of jobs that need doing. It is a never ending list that is very adaptive. What’s a priority in the morning when I get up could be pushed to the side for something more urgent that suddenly pops up.
It’s looking like my busy schedule is going to get even busier. My brother had his colonoscopies and he didn’t pass. Very early in the information process but it sounds like it’s treatable. He’s going to need more test. And treatments. He’s my right hand. It’s really going to be hard for both of us. I pray he does well.
Yes Buckskinner. They sure do make a lot of it. I almost stopped and took a picture of it. My youngest son works at a park and they are swarmed by them. They get lots of complaints from the campers about the “fertilizer”. In the past they could chase them away with the gator, but they can’t anymore. They have to get a harassment permit to do that now.
Today I’m back in the shop. Had some logistical office work to do and I think I’m going to get back at the fertilizer on the planter. The parts I needed to finish the fertilizer system up came now. Gotta stay at something on the list.
Bjrogg
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Waiting for a truck. Sun just coming up and full moon going down . Didn’t get a picture of the moon before it disappeared into the clouds.
Oh there’s my truck
Bjrogg
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Truck
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Hope all goes well with him.
Pappy
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Great looking sunrise Bj. Will be keeping your brother in my prayers.
Cant cover ground like you can. Got about 6 acres done and a little less to go cutting out the big stuff. Working at it at as often as I can, as well as some others who are doing the fine work. Had to head up with the brush hog and grind up the mess I made to make it easier for them to get through. Prunners are powered by compressed air so the hoses get caught up in everything.
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51942507282_6a8caf116a_w.jpg) (https://www.flickr.com/gp/158435722@N02/CGe4S1)IMG_4514 (https://www.flickr.com/gp/158435722@N02/CGe4S1) by Mike Allridge (https://www.flickr.com/photos/158435722@N02/), on Flickr
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51943576033_18a7556ab6_w.jpg) (https://www.flickr.com/gp/158435722@N02/5PQ712)IMG_4513 (https://www.flickr.com/gp/158435722@N02/5PQ712) by Mike Allridge (https://www.flickr.com/photos/158435722@N02/), on Flickr
Had a special project going the last few years and figured I had better cash out now before it interferes with production. A few apple staves I have been watching for the last few years. Sealed the ends but don't have the time to do much to them now. Picture makes them look a little nicer than they are but they are not bad, hope to get a bow or 2 out of them. Hope in 2 weeks things will be a little slower and i'll be able to get back to my shop.
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51943813794_ee6b119d3f_w.jpg) (https://www.flickr.com/gp/158435722@N02/38R89g)IMG_4512 (https://www.flickr.com/gp/158435722@N02/38R89g) by Mike Allridge (https://www.flickr.com/photos/158435722@N02/), on Flickr
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Thanks Pappy and Mike. He is like my right hand. We work really good together.
Everyone worries about the test. Heck the test is nothing. The prep is uncomfortable but You can take it. I’m hoping that the test just saved my brothers life, but it’s to early to say that.
Hopefully we can work through a whole lot more of these sunrises
Thanks for sharing the pictures of your orchard Mike. I have about 3 1/2 acres of lawn. I have often thought about putting a orchard there. I probably have enough work already though.
Please anyone farming or anything related feel free to contribute to this thread. Gotta be some more out there
Bjrogg
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Had a very nice weekend even if I had a cold. I didn’t get a lot of work done. I had a few more trucks to unload and I tried not to get to close to my brother and nephew so I didn’t give them my cold. I went home early Saturday and I slept good. Went to bed at 8:00pm and didn’t get up till almost 8:00 am Sunday. I was feeling a quite a bit better. My sister and brother in law were supposed to come visit at 1:00 pm. I warned them I had a cold. They said they were just getting over one so they still wanted to visit.
It was really nice seeing them again. Their son has been living in Albania going on two years now. They just got back from visiting him and it was really interesting hearing the stories of their adventures. I think they both feel more comfortable with their son being so far away living in a foreign land. They meet a lot of very nice and interesting people. Even another young couple who came from our state.
I made a arrow and stand I gave as a a Christmas Present. We put all the presents on a table. Draw names and you can open a present. Then you can either keep or trade it. My arrow was very popular and my brother in law really wanted it. He never got a chance to get it though.
I made another arrow. I text my brother in law pictures of the entire process. From straightening a river cane shaft and hafting a obsidian point. To painting my Bjrogg markings and wrapping my two fletch wild turkey tail feathers on with sinew. Then I made a display stand from driftwood.
All the while I was making this arrow I was planning on giving it to him. He wanted me to give him details about the arrow I made for Christmas. His brother works with Steve From “Meat Eater” and he shared pictures of my Christmas Arrow with him. I don’t always name my arrows, but recently I have named a few. This one I decided to name “Meat Eater” .
Dave was thrilled with the arrow I gave him. My sister was to. She asked him what he was going to do with it. I told him he could do whatever he wanted to with it. He could keep it, sell it , or give it away. It was his to do whatever he wanted.
He said he wasn’t going to sell it for sure. He said he was going to put it on his fireplace mantel until his brother came to visit. Then he was going to give it to him to take to Steve. That’s pretty awesome feeling for both of us. I hope Steve likes it. I really enjoy watching his show.
After they left I went to our beach. Most of the ice is melted. The lake is a little lower again this year. That’s a good thing. Two years ago it was so high people were losing their houses. Now it back to where it was about six years ago. Except it washed away all the brush and phragmites and left a sandy beach. It’s just amazing how much this beach is constantly changing.
Bjrogg
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This part of the lake is very shallow and was all phragmites when we first got it. The high water washed them away. I’m pretty sure they will be coming back now
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Wow - didn't realize the water was down that much. F=Really enjoying Your posts - Bob.
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So glad you are enjoying the thread Bob. Sometimes I think it’s probably not real smart to be sharing as much here as I am. I tend to trust people more than I should sometimes, but I do appreciate the chance to show a part of modern agriculture that is often misunderstood. I also feel blessed to be able to care for this land and enjoy sharing that blessing with others.
The lake shoreline is always changing. The change is fascinating. I should look back through my pictures from several years ago and see if I can show that change.
Yesterday was just one of those days. I still was feeling a bit sluggish from my cold and had a headache. As soon as I got to work I was greeted with the job of pulling the pump out of the well and changing it. Honestly it went pretty good. It was warm and sunny and everything came apart good without damaging anything. We already had a pump and we got it installed by noon.
Bjrogg
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Then we had another fun job. The State requires us to cover our Biosolids with plastic if we have to store for longer than 21 days. I don’t think we are going to be able to spread these by then. Frost is coming out of ground and it way to soft in the field to drive on with tractor and spreader. I’m hoping not to store it for much longer than that but I’m think probably more like 30 days. This site and covered like this we are permitted 90 days. I’m sure it will be spread way before then.
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I put in a little overtime and finished up a arrow and stand. It’s hill cane with obsidian point. Two fletch. It’s a pretty arrow and I am hoping to get it in the mail to someone special soon.
Bjrogg
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Great pictures, BJ. Hope all is well with your brother (and that reminds me, I'm about due for one of those fun tests, too). It always kind of makes me laugh when people aren't allowed to "harass" the geese. It's never good when we forget that we're the ones in charge...
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Sorry it’s been so long since I updated. Been busy.
Thanks WB. I hope your test goes well.
We found out we have a water line leaking under ground, under our shop. Thats never a good thing to find out. We have a plan but for now we just turned water off to shop.
Between water problems and wet basements it seemed hard to get anything else done. But we did get parts for combines. We put new feeder house chain on my sons and wear strips on both. New clean grain elevator sprockets, bearings and chain on my sons. New straw chopper floor on ours.
Still a bunch more to do on both, but the temp dropped down to high of 25 low of 14 for a couple nights.
I went on swing shift and started spreading Biosolids again. The first night I started at 3:00am and conditions were perfect. The ground was frozen enough that I didn’t leave a track. I had a 11 mile round trip with my tractor to get from the pile to the field. Then another two miles in the field spreading. I was going to have to drive pretty hard to spread this stuff before it thawed again.
I first morning I watched one of the planets rise. I’m not good with them but I think Jupiter. Then about 35 minutes later Just a sliver of the moon rose. Next the sun but the first morning it never came out shining bright. It got cloudy and kept the sun partly hidden most of the morning. By 2:00 pm even though temp was still 24 the sun was melting the top layer of ground and I started leaving tracks.
I went home ate, cleaned up and went back to bed till 11:00 pm. Then I got up and went back at it. The second morning I got to watch Jupiter, a sliver of the moon and a beautiful sunrise all within about a hour of each other. Kinda makes the swing shift worth it. I was glad I started as early as I did. By 10:30 I was starting to leave tracks but I had the field done.
The rest of the pile was supposed to go on a worked field and although I don’t like making tracks, I kept going till I finished the pile. Was good feeling to have that job taken care of. I put over 300 miles on my tractor in two days. Or nights. Plus loaded 33 spreader loads. I slept good last night.
Another of my old timer friends passed. His funeral is this morning. Dang really getting to dislike this. Lost three really good friends in four months. Going to miss them all.
I’m getting ready for winter to be over . I could see lot of tile runs showing up yesterday afternoon. The ground dries over the tile runs first leaving “white” dry ground over the tile. Darker wet ground in between. Usually if the weather cooperates another two weeks and the fields are ready. It’s freezing rain now though.
Hope you are all well
Bjrogg
Wish the picture was better. Jupiter risen with sliver of the moon right behind and sun just starting to brighten up the clouds
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Beautiful picture BJ. :)
Pappy
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Beautiful picture BJ. :)
Pappy
Thanks Pappy, but the picture doesn’t do it justice. Somethings are just a lot better in person.
I really do enjoy a beautiful sunrise and a hot cup of coffee.
Bjrogg
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Ah the anticipation for spring is something on the farm... Gonna get real busy for you soon! Kinda miss those days although I really don't miss relying on the weather. Last years near drought around here was hard on the remaining farmers around here. Luckily there were some timely tenths that fell and salvaged the crop.
Prayers for your brother and your loss of friends.
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Nice pic of the night sky BJ. Always liked astronomy and know very little but still is fun to watch the planets move around. Cant wait for the james webb to start sending pictures back to nasa.
Rain here for now but should be clearing up soon. Need to work on some limb loppers in the shop anyway. I see the light at the end of the pruning job but its still a ways out there. They ought to be sticking the 1st corn in the ground soon. I use to be part of that but haven't in a few years now. The idea is to be picking for the 4th of July. Sweet corn brings the people to the market.
Mike
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Ah the anticipation for spring is something on the farm... Gonna get real busy for you soon! Kinda miss those days although I really don't miss relying on the weather. Last years near drought around here was hard on the remaining farmers around here. Luckily there were some timely tenths that fell and salvaged the crop.
Prayers for your brother and your loss of friends.
It really is indescribable Scott.
Usually by the end of harvest you are pretty well done in. Then you spend the whole winter getting ready for next year. There’s always more to do than you can get done.
The final push comes and priorities change. Fertilizer tanker. Small engines and pumps, field cultivator, seed and a whole bunch more that have to be ready.
You test everything as best you can and undoubtedly the first 5 acres are spent fine tuning everything. And nothing works the way it’s supposed to. After about 10 acres we usually have everything clicking.
And then there’s the weather. Doubt ours is much more forgiving than yours. We try to stack things in our favor with underground drainage, but that only goes so far.
We want to be ready to really get stuff done when the conditions are right.
Thanks so much everyone for the prayers. I believe in them. They are much appreciated.
Bjrogg
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Nice pic of the night sky BJ. Always liked astronomy and know very little but still is fun to watch the planets move around. Cant wait for the james webb to start sending pictures back to nasa.
Rain here for now but should be clearing up soon. Need to work on some limb loppers in the shop anyway. I see the light at the end of the pruning job but its still a ways out there. They ought to be sticking the 1st corn in the ground soon. I use to be part of that but haven't in a few years now. The idea is to be picking for the 4th of July. Sweet corn brings the people to the market.
Mike
The night sky is something I wish I knew more about. It is fascinating. When you get away from the light pollution it is amazing how many stars you can see. One can certainly see how entertaining and important the night sky was to people of the past.
I grew up in the space age. I remember landing on the moon and how amazing that was. How many advancements in technology since then. I really look forward to us going back. Unmanned flight has taken us so many places. I know taking a human along complicates things exponentially. Cost, payload, fuel, oxygen, life support etc. It really does make it more romantic. Especially if we actually do stuff there.
Look forward to seeing your orchard blossoming. And following it’s seasons.
We plant a pretty good sized patch of sweet corn. The kids use to sell it, but now we usually just give it away to friends and family. We freeze a lot. I can’t eat the stuff from store in a can. They totally ruin it.
Thanks again for the prayers
Bjrogg
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Yeah, that canned stuff I never found very good. We put up a bunch of corn each year. Well worth it. We grow about 65 acres now, about half of what we did 20 years ago, but its almost all sold in the farm market store and not sent to town for wholesale anymore.
Going to be a few weeks for the apples to come into bloom. After about a month of sawing out the large branches with a pole saw I only have a few more trees to go until Ill call it good and wanted to finish up yesterday. Had it all planned out to be done early, nice easy day. However, the ground was just dry enough to plant corn and the guys I work with really wanted to have the weekend off. So on my way to the orchard I stopped by to see how well they were getting along and with the wind they were having a tough time of things, so I helped them out for a bit. While I was there I got a call that some roof vents in some greenhouses were not closing in our retail area so had to run down to the market override the computer controlled system down there before the roof got damaged and bounced back and forth the rest of the day. What was to be a short day turned out to be a long one, but 1st acre of corn is in for the year and I'll be in my shop today heat treating a a piece of locust for a special build for my younger boy.
Mike
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51977363320_3fa8367560_w.jpg) (https://www.flickr.com/gp/158435722@N02/53584z)IMG_4524 (2) (https://www.flickr.com/gp/158435722@N02/53584z) by Mike Allridge (https://www.flickr.com/photos/158435722@N02/), on Flickr
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51976801516_cd291c7b04_w.jpg) (https://www.flickr.com/gp/158435722@N02/FL5V58)IMG_4526 (https://www.flickr.com/gp/158435722@N02/FL5V58) by Mike Allridge (https://www.flickr.com/photos/158435722@N02/), on Flickr
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Thanks for sharing Mike.
Wow. 65 acres is a lot of sweet corn. I probably have 1/65th of a acres and I get tired of picking it before its done.
Looks like you use plastic for weed control?
How wide of spacing between your rows? Do you leave it wide for picking? Do you pick by hand? Guessing you plant several planting dates to spread out harvest?
Really enjoy talking farming or agriculture anything with growing plants or animals.
Bjrogg
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Went to the son-in-law's farm last weekend for my grandson's 3rd birthday. They are ready to go, just waiting on the weather to warm up a bit. A little drier than they'd like but welcome to the Canadian prairies in the spring.
Thanks Leroy
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I bet thats some pretty country up there Stoker. I've been lucky enough to get invited to South Dakota a few times to pheasant hunt, vast country up there, I suppose its somewhat similar further north.
Its photo degradable "mulch" and used to heat the ground, Like a greenhouse. On a sunny day it can bring soil temp up 30 degrees or so. Otherwise the ground would be too cold here for another month. Not sure this picture will show it well but it was 37 degrees and cloudy that day but condensation was building under the plastic because of the temperature difference.
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51976801726_aee24b7b30_w.jpg) (https://www.flickr.com/gp/158435722@N02/b70o78)IMG_4525 (https://www.flickr.com/gp/158435722@N02/b70o78) by Mike Allridge (https://www.flickr.com/photos/158435722@N02/), on Flickr
Its a labor intensive process, There are 2 rows of corn under each row of mulch. We use plates in the seed boxes instead of a vacume system, so they will drop 3-4 seeds at a time then be thinned to 2 stalks per hole later. Definite higher yield than "bare" ground corn at 36" row spacing but a lot of work and more risk. But for the next month this is how its planted. Mulch is spaced 6 foot on center if the guy in the seat can keep it that tight. Nothing flat or straight here lol.
Planting will continue until mid/end June with anything from 68 to 85 day seed depending on the conditions. The goal is to keep the market supplied from july 4th till labor day with no holes in the supply or without too much coming in at the same time. Sweet corn is what brings the customers in the door for us all summer.
Years ago they bought a Pix-all picker but that only lasted a few years and didn't have a big enough head for plantings like this. So its all picked by hand. That was my job 7 days a week for years. I don't do that type of work anymore for the most part. But if that's what needs done its what you do. I spend more of my time in the orchards than I do planting anything these days.
Mike
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Thanks for sharing Mike.
Really enjoy learning about others operations. I’m sure you keep yourself and your helpers busy.
I noticed it didn’t look like a lot of flat land there.
I hope you are blessed with a bountiful harvest with good weather.
Please keep sharing.
Stoker hope your grandson had a great birthday. And hope your son in law has a safe and prosperous year. How far north are they? What crops do they grow? Are they to far north for corn? Do they grow small grains and canola?
Bjrogg
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Bjrogg they are about 120 miles north of the US border and in line with the east side of Montana.
They mostly grow Duram wheat and lentils. All dryland.
Thanks leroy
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I wish them the best Leroy. If I’m not mistaken they were pretty dry last year.
We are nothing like last year. Still cold and snowing here. Had about 3” yesterday morning but it’s mostly melted again. Last spring was warm and dry at this time. There were a lot of sugar beets planted by now. Nothing yet this year. Still okay yet though.
I wanted a plan B for the fertilizer knife setup. I think they will work ok with new colters but with partially worn ones I’m afraid they might be to deep and not close enough to the colter. I’m afraid that rocks and residue might make problems.
I decided to drill another set of holes to use with worn colters. It would have been easier to drill in drill press before they were welded on. Oh well I’ll get them. 10 rows done 8 more to go.
Have to drill through 3/4” thick steel . 18 holes 1/2” in diameter. That drilling through 13.5” of steel. Working in very uncomfortable position.
I like the fit though. And it could save me a lot of time during planting season.
Bjrogg
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We also got the water routed into the shop again. Sure will be nice to have water again.
We are all kinda independent thinkers around here. We spent part of a day arguing the best way to do it. When we were all done arguing we used a combination of best ways to do it and came up with a plan.
It went really good other than still some pretty deep frost on the north side of shop in the shade. Dig hard in places.
Our plan was to find water line underground on north side of shop. We didn’t want to cut cement in new part of shop floor because it has in floor heat. We wanted to come up into old shop floor.
I got thinking. When we built the original shop we put in a solar wall my dad designed. The south wall of shop had a solar wall. Just a double wall painted black inside with glass panels over it. When the temperature would get to 70 it would turn on a fan and blow the air through drainage tile surrounded by field stone under the floor. When we put on the addition we eliminated the solar wall. But the tile was still there.
All we had to do was dig under the shop enough to find a tile. Then we ran line right into shop without even have to cut a hole in the cement. Worked like a charm. Love it when a plan comes together
Bjrogg
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Well we have been busy getting everything ready.
I tested every system on the planter now. Hopefully it all works when I actually take it to the field. I don’t think we will get any beets planted by my birthday. The 16th. It’s drying pretty good now though. Getting really close. If it’s still dry Monday I think we should be able to go. They are talking snow Monday though. Wouldn’t be the first time I planted in snow flurries. We always say to have really good beets they need to get snowed on after you plant them and again before you harvest them. Usually the winning combination for good sugar % and good tons.
We have all of ours and my sons clover cover crops seeded into our winter wheat crop. About 565 acres. Thinking it should be having some decent weather to germinate. Hopefully we get a good “catch” as the seed has more than doubled in price.
We have fertilizer truck ready. Tractor and field cultivator ready. Our micro nutrients ready for mixing.
We got a bunch more stuff fixed on the two combines but they still need more.
We continue to try to get as many of our inputs on farm as we can. Seems like that’s been par for the course the past few years with Covid and the supply chain issues from shutdowns. This year has actually been the worst of the three springs . I think we should be able to make what we have work. Wasn’t really plan A, but at least we physically have stuff for plan B.
It’s Good Friday and lots going on this weekend, I’ll try to keep updates. Happy Easter everyone
Bjrogg
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Didn’t get any beets planted by my birthday, but did have a good one.
Our Harbor Beach Community Theatre has been struggling for years and the shutdowns didn’t help at all.
They are doing some out of the box thinking. They have been doing band concerts this year and this one was on my birthday. It was a Creedence Clearwater Revival tribute band. They put on a good show and the theater was a really cool place for a concert.
Wife and I went with several friends. Had a good time.
Bjrogg
PS Happy Easter
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Very cool BJ, always like CCR. not to cold here now but man it has been wet, hard to do anything. ???
Pappy
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Thanks for posting BJ. I've been to that Theater many Years ago. Spent alot of time Fishing out of Harbour Beech, chasing Salmon and Perch during the Hay Days. My Favorite place to Fish in the State. Great Campground just North of Town too. Might be up that way in a couple of weeks, to Troll for Steelhead South of Town, where the Creek comes into the Lake by the Cemetary. Thanks for jogging My Memory Banks (lol) ! Bob
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Thanks Pappy. Might be showing my age a little but I do like a lot of music from the 60,s thru the late 70’s. Just really a period that produced a lot of music.
They probably still are but I guess I’m a little out of the loop anymore.
Was really fun and I wasn’t the only one with a touch of gray. Was more people there than my class reunion. Hope it works out for them.
Bob I know exactly where you are talking about. I’m not sure if the old Dickinson’s marina is still open. I haven’t been there in ages. The power plant is closed and they tore it down.
North park is the campgrounds on north edge of town. All the ash trees died but it’s still a popular campgrounds. My son works at Wagners Park. It’s a county park about 6 miles south of town right on the lakeshore. I prefer it over north park for camping. Pretty decent park.
The creek by cemetery is Rock Fall. Fishing off it has been a popular spot for ages. Also smelt and suckers up it creek.
I’m going to pm you my number. If you’re up this way give me a shout. Or anytime you want to chat text me.
We were going to start planting today, but it’s supposed to snow 3 to 5” this afternoon.
Bjrogg
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Wasn’t really quite dry enough to plant and snow predicted for this afternoon.
Decided to get a few fields soil samples instead. This is rye cover crop seeded after early dig Sugarbeets last September. The wildlife really like this.
Bjrogg
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Looking out my window in afternoon
Bjrogg
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We had that yesterday morning, including the deer. Very cool spring this year and next week is more of the same although we are supposed to hit 74 on Saturday for a taste of warmth and then back to upper 40's.
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Well our snow is almost all gone again.
Got the lawn roller out. Today. Grass is going to need mowing pretty soon. Got mower all in tip top shape. Hopefully it doesn’t make any trouble.
With the snow day I probably should have got more jobs done but I needed a little therapy.
I did some more tillering on the bow I started working on last spring. Arvin sent me this really nice stave.
I have her to 50 & 26” right now on the tree.
Shoots really nice.
Bjrogg
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Nice - the Tiller looks Spot on ! Bob
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That'll hunt!
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Nice looking bow!
My girls are going crazy ordering garden seeds. Looks like "we" are going to have to build a couple more garden beds this spring. ;D
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Nice looking bend and curves on that bow. So the rye cover crop, is that intended to just hold soil during the early spring until you plant?
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Green manure.
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Thank You Bob and Buckskinner. It is from a very nice stave I almost ruined trying to get two bows out of. This is actually from the belly split. I ruined the top which should have been a even better bow. This stave has thick late wood rings and very thin early wood. It didn’t split anything like I was use to . I’m sure glad I didn’t ruin both. Learned something there.
It’s been a week I did a lot of running around and sitting in hospital. My wife wasn’t herself. Wednesday she was very dizzy and complaining that her whole right side was tingly.
I took her to hospital and they did several test. Her results were good but she showed no improvements. They transferred her to a larger hospital to get a MRI. It took two days to get the MRI.
The first day she still showed no improvements and the tests they did run showed good results. I stayed till visiting hours were over then drove home.
The second day she seemed a lot better but still a little dizzy. She was able to go to bathroom without me helping her though and was more her cheerful self. At 3:00 they took her for her MRI. I never saw a doctor the whole time I was there but the RN said her MRI results were good and she was released. We drove back home . She is still a little dizzy. Never really got a answer so not sure were done yet.
Also my daughters little dog Zoey is really sick. We are going to have to get her to a vet somewhere today. We are very worried about her.
It’s been raining a little every day so we still didn’t get in the fields. It’s not early anymore. Really hoping things start going a little smoother and just get back to the normal hectic pace.
Steve the rye cover has several advantages it provides. Like you stated. It helps hold the soil in place and prevent wind and water erosion.
It also scavenges nutrients and holds them till it is terminated and decomposes. This works really well with spreading Biosolids.
Like Buckskinner said it’s what we call “green manure” and the real crop we grow well really like it.
It also really helps with the microbiology of the soil.
It also helps with the tilth of the soil. Allowing water to flow though the soil and helps prevent “ponding” and water laying on top of the soil.
It also has its challenges. It’s like having another crop to manage.
It can use to much moisture on a dry year and not have enough left to plant your real crop.
It is great for environment and that includes a lot of grubs and insects that are not Beneficial.
It also can get to big and it’s residue can keep the ground from drying enough to get your real crop planted
Gotta go lots of people asking how my wife is doing.
Get back when I can
Bjrogg
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Prayers for your wife, hope everything works out. The hospitals around here are the same way since they fired all the employees who didn't want the shot.
Last month my brother had to put his last blue tick down because of blastomycosis. Started in the eye as was misdiagnosed then went to the lungs and it was too far along to have much of a chance of recovery. Hopefully that is not the case for your daughter's dog! My lab had an eye issue about 2 weeks ago so got a bit worried, they have him on antibiotics and medicated eye drops and are not sure what it is his lungs are fine, but the eye thing is lingering.
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Thanks Buckskinner.
Yes that’s the way they are here to. My son in law worked in medical position all through the Covid stuff. Then he was forced to get the shot. He had his concerns about it. He didn’t want to take it but they would have had to let him go if he didn’t. He took it.
My wife and I took two shoots and we both got the virus twice after. One of my brothers didn’t get shot. We all got the virus and fortunately none of us had serious problems. Really my brother and I had very mild symptoms.
I’m not against the vaccine and I don’t want to turn this into a political issue. I really don’t like that first responders who worked through the whole thing got fired because they didn’t want the shot.
WB I really hope to see pictures of those seeds being planted and watching them grow.
So glad your family is excited about the coming growing season. It’s the same excitement that keeps me doing this every year. Hope you have a bountiful harvest.
Bjrogg
PS We got a Emergency appointment for Zoey at 3:00 this afternoon. I sure hope she gets better. My daughter can’t have children and Zoey is really special to our whole family. I never dreamed about spending so much money on a dog when we were growing up, but we are going to now. I don’t know where it’s going to come from, but we really need her to get better
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Prayers sent BJ ! Bob
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Great looking bow there BJ. Sure hope you get some good news real soon on all thats going down.
Finished up with the saw work in the orchard about 2 weeks ago, while the fellas cutting the fine stuff out finished up last week. Been busy here last week or so. took a pic of some red delicious on Friday.
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52027783196_9545d2376f_w.jpg) (https://www.flickr.com/gp/158435722@N02/K13V60)IMG_4542 (https://www.flickr.com/gp/158435722@N02/K13V60) by Mike Allridge (https://www.flickr.com/photos/158435722@N02/), on Flickr
Today they are about in full bloom
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52030333968_dfc79d119e_w.jpg) (https://www.flickr.com/gp/158435722@N02/527zr0)IMG_4544 (https://www.flickr.com/gp/158435722@N02/527zr0) by Mike Allridge (https://www.flickr.com/photos/158435722@N02/), on Flickr
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52029253862_1ca9056044_w.jpg) (https://www.flickr.com/gp/158435722@N02/6eUM2m)IMG_4546 (https://www.flickr.com/gp/158435722@N02/6eUM2m) by Mike Allridge (https://www.flickr.com/photos/158435722@N02/), on Flickr
Had to work out the details on timing last week to get hives moved in, The bee keeper brought in 12 last night for the orchard and another 10 or so this morning for some berry crops. Seem to be some good active hives.
Spent most of the morning riding around checking on things. Best bloom I have seen in several years, so far. they are talking low 30's several nights this week, with any luck there will be some cloud cover and keep things just warm enough that no damage occurs. Would not be a normal year if you didnt have one threat of frost during bloom. lol
Here's some pictures of some 4 year old Gala, high density planting. Wires keep the trees from getting pulled over from the fruit load. Top wire is about 7 ft off the ground. Still about 2 years from a full crop on these trees but they have nice size this year and should be able to fill some bins this fall.
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52029254982_5fa90ae7b5_w.jpg) (https://www.flickr.com/gp/158435722@N02/x8FZ8M)IMG_4547 (https://www.flickr.com/gp/158435722@N02/x8FZ8M) by Mike Allridge (https://www.flickr.com/photos/158435722@N02/), on Flickr
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52030335343_3ce386a739_w.jpg) (https://www.flickr.com/gp/158435722@N02/t1DL2o)IMG_4551 (https://www.flickr.com/gp/158435722@N02/t1DL2o) by Mike Allridge (https://www.flickr.com/photos/158435722@N02/), on Flickr
Took that last picture because you can see all the pollen that bee has on its back legs. If I recall it was a wild mason bee, not a honey bee. Kinda hard to tell in pic. Going to be a busy few weeks coming up then things should slow down a bit, for me anyway. :D
Mike
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Thanks for the prayers and the pictures Mike. I’ve been thinking about you and your sweet corn.
Our weather has still been cold although we had a warm spell last weekend. It’s supposed to snow again the next couple of days. Lows in the mid 20’s for the next three nights. We’re supposed to have sunshine till the weekend and then several days of rain again next week.
There are a few fields planted to Sugar beets now, but not very many. It got dry enough we probably had two days we could have planted. It snowed the day after both of them
No blossoms here yet. At lest I don’t think any. I have still been running to doctors and veterinary every day. Really haven’t seen my apple trees lately.
Susie isn’t 100% yet, but she’s probably 92%. She still has been having dizzy spells and very low energy which is unusual for her. Yesterday she seemed to get her balance back. She had eye doctor appointment with specialist in City. I didn’t want her driving so I took her. She had trouble with her eyes from sugar diabetes and the specialist had to fix them up . It’s been a year long process and she got a very good report on her progress.
Zoey still hasn’t eaten anything in 6 days. Took her back to veterinary again yesterday afternoon. They took X-rays and good news no foreign objects in her system. She still has been vomiting and diarrhea. She has been drinking some water.
The vet wanted to keep her over night. Give her some different medicine for her stomach and take
x-rays again this morning. She is a sick doggie right now.
That isn’t helping my wife and my wife being sick isn’t helping Zoey either. That little dog, sick as she was sat and waited for my wife to come home from hospital. She knows when something is up. When Susie got home her little tail was really wagging. Even though she was still really sick. I’m hoping they both have a good day today.
I really don’t know what has been happening on our farm. My phone has been making trouble and doesn’t work when I go to City. This 5g tower stuff makes it almost useless when I leave our area.
I know my nephew was trying to get the new sprayer to work and having trouble. No surprise there. All this stuff is so complex. It takes awhile to get everything calibrated and figured out. He text me last night that he thinks he has it ready now. Now we need some good weather. Which seems to be in short supply. Maybe we can get good enough weather. It’s definitely not early anymore and to late to screw up. If we can get dirt dry enough to plant beets we will be going at the beets. Still way to cold for the corn, but we want to get the beets in the ground.
Thanks so much everyone who has said a prayer. It means so much to us.
Bob I was thinking of you everyday last week when I drove to Port Huron hospital. The boats were out on the big lake fishing from Port Sanilac all the way south. Maybe you were in one of them? Thanks for the prayers
Bjrogg
PS going to work now. Hopefully I can get this back to a farming thread again.
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Bjrogg,
Prayers sent for your wife.
brian
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Thanks Brian much appreciated.
Well I was hoping we wouldn’t get any more precipitation but we’re getting rain switching to snow.
It’s yuck.
My nephew is moving into my dads house. There was a table there my grandpa built with six chairs he built. My dad sat around this table with his siblings growing up. My now past uncle built another one copying off grandpa’s original. I now have both of them together in my man cave.
It’s kinda cool having these tables and chairs. They have a lot of family history and they look pretty nice here. They both have extensions if I really have a crowd.
Almost looks like they belong here.
Bjrogg
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Looks like a Blackhawk flying back and forth along the shoreline. Hope their just training. Been a lot of boats out lately and I hope they aren’t looking for someone.
Bjrogg
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One more of the tables and chairs
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Haven't been fishing. Saturday, Matt & I took His son Dan to the Sucker Tournament for Kids in Chessaning. Had a Blast watching the Kids. Tired of this Weather ! Those tables are way Cool, like the Man Cave too. I need to get out and Fling some Arrows (SH) ! Bob
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Bob that sounds like a blast. When I was a kid spear season opener was the day before my birthday. I always spent it at my grandmas and my uncle who was only 2 years older than me and I always went sucker fishing. We would catch a bunch and grandma would can them. Man that was primitive, raw excitement for a little kid.
Heard advertisement on the radio that Ubly Drag strip is opening again this year. They made some improvements and are hosting a couple events.
We got about four or five inches of snow last night. Temp is 27. It’s not looking like we will be able to plant before it starts raining again next week. Getting tired of this weather to. Maybe I should go sucker fishing.
My wife is still at probably 92%. Praying she gets back to 100
Vet wanted to keep Zoey another night. Still wasn’t eating anything. My daughter is going crazy. I’m sure Zoey is really missing us all to. Sure hope that little dog gets better to.
I guess we will see what the day brings
Bjrogg
PS Bob you have a invitation to sit at those tables if you get a chance
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Getting tired of this stuff.
Winterizing the sprayer again. Nephew thinks he has it ready to go now. It’s going to be a couple weeks at least till we can plant. If it wasn’t for running to doctors and veterinary I’d be really tempted to get out of here and head to the Classic.
Vet called this morning and they want to keep Zoey another day. Getting pretty worried about her.
Daughter is literally going crazy and I would bet Zoey is to.
Bjrogg
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You guys ever have motorcycles run under your sprayer on the road? My neighbor did and said is scared the hell out of him, said the guy was going about 100 mph when it happened.
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You guys ever have motorcycles run under your sprayer on the road? My neighbor did and said is scared the hell out of him, said the guy was going about 100 mph when it happened.
This is our first self propelled sprayer. Our others have been tractor and pull type. They can’t fit under those.
I’m hoping they don’t try, but I’ve had people I know say that they have had 4 wheelers drive under them .
It’s really not a good idea. Might be a thrill but you never know when they are going to turn and run you over.
Bjrogg
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Well Susie is at least 96% now. Seems to be getting close to normal.
Zoey is still one sick doggie. She spent two days and nights at the vet and still isn’t eating. We brought her home. She was so happy to see everyone her little tail was really wagging. Maybe now that everyone is home she’ll be less stressed and recover.
My son and I picked stones with the gator in the wheat field.
Took a picture where I picked up a rock.
Wheat is greening up nice, I can see the clover we seeded is up. That’s why we like to put it on early. It comes up early enough to catch a little sun before the wheat shades it out.
Bjrogg
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Can’t seem to post pictures with my new phone
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You got on heck of a man cave BJ! Those tables fit right in there.
That high-boy sprayer must get some ground covered in good time, but you got lots of ground to cover. I just have a pull behind with a single 30 foot boom for sweet corn. But this new one is all hydrolic so I dont have to get out of the cab any more to fold it up or make adjustments and thats so nice. Little things like that and AC in the cab make all the difference. Amazing how far ag tech has come over the years.
29.8 degrees F at dawn this morning. With apples in full bloom damage starts at 28 so dodged a bullet there but still spent some time checking for damage. Looks like the low tonight is 32 so if that holds true things will be ok and then its supposed to warm up.
Had time at the end of the day to run a bunch of arrows through a BL bow Im finishing up for my younger boy. A few more tomorrow and it should be time to pretty it up. Good thing, Im running out of time to get this one done.
Mike
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Thanks Mike. The man cave has been a 30 year work in progress. It literally was a falling down old three car garage when I bought the place. It was totally crammed full of junk to.
It’s a pretty comfortable place now. My wife calls it our basement. Our house doesn’t have a lot of room for entertainment and the basement isn’t much. It’s a old farm house that most people would have given up on but we have done a lot of work over the years and we like it. Probably could have built a new one easier.
This is our first high boy sprayer. I’m hoping we really like it. Our last sprayer was a 120’ wide pull type and we really made good use of it. It was 18 years old and would have been retired long ago if we weren’t good shop people. It folded out with hydraulics to and my cousin was amazed how it did. He took video of it and said it was like the transformer movie. I remember folding them by hand and they never worked really well after they got some wear and tear.
Really hope your apples are safe. And your sweet corn too. It’s not that unusual to get snow here end of April beginning of May. Usually we get some nice weather though to. Nice weather has bee hard to come by so far. Hopefully when it comes it stays.
Hope you and your son enjoy some good quality time flinging arrows.
Susie seems to be back to herself again. Zoey spent 3 days and nights at the vet. She still wasn’t eating anything.
She was so happy to see everyone and that really gave her the perking up she needed. She lost so much weight and the vet wasn’t very optimistic about her recovery but she was running out of options. She gave her a steroid and we took her home. She was to weak to climb stairs and very tired, but she was very happy to be home. Last night when I got home she did her normal barking routine. It’s our way of saying hello. I tell her grandpa is home and she barks her greeting to me. She came by me when I was eat and I got her to eat a little bit of chicken and a liver treat. After I finish supper she hoped up in my lap and enjoyed a good petting. She fell asleep on my lap with a big smile on her face. She kept everything she ate down and is still sleeping. I’m cautiously optimistic. I told my daughter not to give up yet, but not to get her hopes up to much either.
I slept good to. It’s so nice to have everyone home again.
Bjrogg
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I needed a distraction this morning and I went back to the woods to find it.
I traded someone for this long horn skull two winters ago. It was almost fresh with all the meat and hide still attached. It had been sitting at its former owners woods for a couple months so I didn’t feel like cleaning it up. I just put it back by my woods.
I was going to leave it till summer but with our weather delays and all the crazy stuff going on I needed a distraction like this. Going to try to finish cleaning it up.
Hope I can post pictures
Bjrogg
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Longhorn
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Washing up a little.
Bjrogg
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Glad to hear your wife is back to normal and pup is headed in the right direction!
That's a nice longhorn skull! My Dad had a set of horns in his office that he bought at the Fort Worth Stockyards in the 60's, had nearly a 7' span, my brother has them now.
I remember my Dad got a deal on about 6 longhorns when we were kids, we had about 200 feeder cattle and he was always looking for a deal on cattle. Well soon found out why they were cheap, damn near impossible to finish a longhorn, skinny buggers that did not put on weight... We ended up selling them to Laotian's that would come out to the farm and butcher on the spot, had rituals and such prior to the slaughter. They took everything but what was in the stomach and intestines.
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Yeah I don’t think the ones at the neighbors are any fleshier than the one on the range. Thinking it was pretty lean beef.
Here’s one on my pickup tailgate. From taillight to taillight
Bjrogg
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Still need to put the lower jaw back together but I’m thinking this is his new home.
Bjrogg
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That would go in my Man Cave!
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I'd be tempted to try a horn bow out of it
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That would go in my Man Cave!
As soon as I saw him I was thinking this was the spot. I really like him here. I do think he would look great inside to. He’d take up some real estate and I already have a lot of stuff in there and more to find a spot all the time.
Maybe this winter I’ll bring him inside.
Bjrogg
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I'd be tempted to try a horn bow out of it
If he was strung right now. He’d have a pretty nice braced profile.
Pretty decent reflex if it’s unbraced profile.
Bjrogg
Maybe If I can get another one
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Well Zoey and Susie are both doing much better now. That’s a huge relief.
Weather is still not letting us get anything done. Not completely soaked, but just can’t quite get dry enough to plant.
Have so much to do and can’t do any of it. When that happens I tend to start or finish up another project to keep my mind right.
Yesterday helped my nephew move into dad’s house.
Then I went for a walk on the beach. I picked up several interesting things. One was this piece of driftwood. I think I can probably do something with it.
Bjrogg
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Then I went to the cedars looking for a handle for this lance point.
Bjrogg
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Now I stripped the bark off and I’ll let it dry some.
Bjrogg
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That Lance is cool ! Will send You a pic of a War Club I just finished - Bob.
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I did manage to get something done yesterday.
We ended up getting biosolids and I finished spreading the wheat at grandmas. It went pretty good and it’s supposed to rain today so that should be good timing. I finished about 11:00 last night so I’m a little slow this morning. It felt good to get something done though.
Hopefully the big rain misses us. And we get some nice weather after.
Bjrogg
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Very nice work on the lance and the arrow. I especially appreciate the look of your hand cresting. Enjoying this series of posts. Thank you.
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Thanks Brian. I appreciate that. I always enjoy your videos to.
The crest is pretty much what I started with from my second arrow. I’ve tried a couple different color combinations. Kinda liked John Deere green and yellow but dang they were hard to find. Not that these are really easy either. They have been my colors and crest for quite a while now.
We had one wheat field that didn’t get biosolids. It needed to get its first application of fertilizer. We always split our nitrogen applications. We put about 2/3rds on now and the second third in a few weeks. That makes the nitrogen available when the crop needs it and lowers the risk of losing any from a large rain event.
Normally we would have to apply fertilizer to all of our wheat now, but because of the biosolids we will put the rest of our fertilizer on when we would normally do our second application.
We did try out our new sprayer though and everything worked. I’m sure we will learn lots of little tricks before the season is over, but we are getting started.
Bjrogg
PS really strange having the spray boom out front. Going to be interesting
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Never was a fan of spraying, I'd rather pick rocks. Herbicides and me don't get along. I remember when I had to spray crops as a kid my glands under my chin would swell up and I'd get a funny feeling in my throat. I finally told my dad I was done spraying and that was that. My dad died from a very aggressive Alzheimer's a few years ago and I'm guessing being around all of those chemicals did not help although hid dad died with Parkinson's as well (also a farmer) so I realize my odds aren't great. I remember my dad taking apart nozzles and blowing through them to clean them out, never using gloves or even washing up after getting herbicide, pesticides, fungicides or you name it on him.
To this day when I use Roundup around the yard (which is very sparingly) I still feel my glands swell up even though I use gloves and am very careful mixing and use the wind when I apply..
So hopefully you guys are using your PPE!
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Yes we use PPE.
We actually do all of our mixing in our chemical building. It has ventilation and spill containment. It is designed specifically for storing and mixing. We followed suggestions from NRCS.
I went home early today and some friends came over. They really liked the longhorn and the tables to. Rained all afternoon so be a few days at least.
also the sprayer cab is positive pressure to keep unfiltered air out.
Alzheimer’s runs really hard in my dad’s family. On or off the farm. My dad is nearing the end of his journey I think.
Bjrogg
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Sounds like you guys are as safe as possible and glad to hear it. It's a far cry from what we used to do, no PPE and either pouring chemical by hand or a hand pump out of a drum and then our tractor we used for spraying was an International 806 which didn't have a cab. Even when the 856 was available which had a cab, both doors and rear window was usually taken off because no A/C back then in our tractors. Was a different world back then I don't think we even had pair of safety glasses in the shop....
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An interesting conversation. My mom is nearing the end of MSA…multiple systems atrophy. It’s rough business. She is essentially trapped inside of her own body unable to swallow well, speak, move well. But, her mind is 100%. They call is “The Beast”. I have read that there may be an association with strong herbicides…which she handled for years and years doing environmental restoration work…no clear answer, though.
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Yes I agree buckskinner.
Not only has the equipment gotten more comfortable and efficient. It has become so much more accurate and gps has made swath control the normal.
Most farmers I know have gotten smarter about using them to. We have lots of meetings in the winter that we attend. They provide lots of very valuable information about how diseases, insects and weeds are best attacked. Thresholds to determine what and if something needs to be done and timing of applications that are best. Some are determined by life cycles and stages of it. Some are determined by size of weeds. Some are determined by weather conditions and if there’s a friendly environment for the pest. Some are determined by insect traps set up by our state organizations.
I still don’t like spraying but we try to do it as responsibly as possible. We follow best management practices set up by NRCS.
Bjrogg
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Seems like this extended cool weather goes on and on around here.Along with it being too wet.Does'nt bother most I guess.Just the people who have to grow things.Lots of farmers sitting on their hands waiting on this weather.
This is the latest I've ever seen and I'm almost 70 years old that the trees do not to have at least leaves beginning to show on them.
Ground temperature is slow to rise this year.
It's a double edged sword in this world raising food for the country and the world,but if you want to see a real crisis be without food.
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All the people up in arms about global warming, what would really be devastating is global cooling.
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All the people up in arms about global warming, what would really be devastating is global cooling.
And we know that’s happened several times in the not so distant past. At least in geological time.
Bjrogg
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The Badgerling went a little nuts with the garden seeds. They're taking up most of the kitchen table now. But most of them are sprouted and hopefully we'll get them into the garden in the next week or two. Hard to post pictures because I can't post from my chromebook at home--something about the forum's security settings being out of date--but I'll try to get some one of these days. Enjoying the journey with you, BJ.
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Figured the cool spring was just a local thing but sounds more wide spread. I have noticed the trend for delayed warm weather in the spring for a number of years now. Without looking into my records I'd say 2 weeks from the weather patterns in the 90's. This year being the latest I can recall. That said the warm weather lasts longer in the fall.
Had one good dry day this week, spent all day in the orchards yesterday. Raining now and suppost to continue till Sunday. Bloom is almost over, Sent word to the bee keeper to get his ladies out this weekend. Looks like the cold weather threat is over here, Should have a good set of fruit this year. Long way to go yet but real happy with things so far. Have not had time to check on the corn but hear its up and doing fine. The rest of the crew showed up this week from down south, all been here before, good group of guys. Should be picking strawberries in 1 month.
Mike
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Hopefully you can post pictures when things are greening up WB.
Mike glad to hear things are looking good so far. I know that whole long way to go bit to. It’s always nice to get off to a good start though. Always hate getting behind and trying to catch up.
It’s still cool, cloudy and damp here yet. It isn’t raining though and sounds like we should be able to put a long enough string of dry days together to start planting in a few days.
I’m confident enough now that we mixed up fertilizer and loaded it in our truck.
Also opened beet seed boxes and mixed talcum powder. Our planter uses vacuum to hold the seed against the seed plate. It turns the plate to a spot that doesn’t have vacuum and the seed drops. It’s actually a lot more complicated than that, but that’s the jest of it. The vacuum causes static electricity and sometimes prevents the small seed from dropping so we use talcum powder mixed in our seed to keep the static from holding the seed. I’m going to mix it all today and it will save me a lot of time when I’m actually planting.
This is what the seed I plant looks like. It’s processed and they coat it with a ground up paper product to make it more plantable. Each company has its own color. This one’s is blue.
It comes in boxes and each box holds 4 units. Each unit is 100,000 seed so 400,000 seeds in a box.
The raw seed without the coating. In the old days each seed would grow several plants. They had to be “blocked” or thinned. Mono germ seed saved a lot of labor.
Bjrogg
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Also because I still have individual hoppers for each row. I figure out how many lbs. of each variety I have and divide that by 18 for the number of hoppers. Then when I’m filling the planter I weigh how much I put in each hopper. That takes a little extra time but saves me a lot of time and hassle trying to scratch seed from hoppers that still have seed and putting it in ones that ran out.
Planting time can be really hard to come by so when I get it I want to spend as much of it actually planting as I can and the least amount filling the planter and scratching seed.
Bjrogg
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Filled planter with seed and fertilizer.
Started planting. Still took a few acres to get everything zeroed in.
One month to the day later than started last year.
Bjrogg
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Bjrogg
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Kewl ! Bob
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Looks like the neighbor who rents my land had a untimely breakdown. They tried to pull it with the other tractor and it wouldn't budge, hopefully not a tranny and something simple...
Still there this morning.
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Hopefully it’s just a sensor for park. I had that happen to me once. Was all done with field and took fertilizer truck back. Got a ride back to my tractor and it wouldn’t move. Their getting to be to many sensors.
Well I’ve been planting sugar beets since Saturday. I did have to do a bunch of wrenching on the fertilizer attachments. The ones my nephew made didn’t work and we had to put old ones back on.
Yesterday I planted our closest beets to the piling ground. Literally right across the tracks. You can see one of the pilers across the tracks
Bjrogg
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Today I’m planting our furthest field from pilling grounds. This one is almost 40 mile round trip to town. With fuel prices I’m thinking probably shouldn’t have panted this field. Harvest probably going to be expensive.
Dry and windy now. Next problem is going to be keeping them in moisture. Can’t plant beets very deep. That’s another reason it’s nice to get them planted early.
Bjrogg
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A rock
And no those tracks aren’t from it rolling out of the way by itself.
Bjrogg
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We almost got done with sugar beets last night. About 25 acres to go. Had sprayer pump quit. I replaced it with my spare pump. Started tractor back up and fuel lift pump quit. Tractor wouldn’t stay running.
I’m sure hoping they have a new one I can get this morning. Hearing all kinds of stories about people unable to get parts for their tractors and down time is a real killer. Glad we got as much done as we do, but it’s time to keep the planter going. As soon as I get done with sugar beets I’ll switch planter over to corn. Then to soybeans. Got lots of spraying to do to.
This farm is right by the lake to. You can see it in this picture
Also one from behind planter. I keep checking to see if seeds are still in moisture.
Bjrogg
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You guys are cruising right along! Hopefully you got some rain last night. it missed us but we have good moisture yet.
Looks like it must have been something like the park sensor. I agree too much electronics these days to go wrong, I miss the linkage days, when it wouldn't go into park there was likely a pin missing...
My grandparents bought this new in 1945 and it replaced horses, was their main tractor for decades. The B was kept in the family and my aunt gave it to me in 2020, so I rebuilt it and got it running again that winter. Fun project and very easy to work on, although I have more money into than it's worth... Wish my dad was still around to see it, he would have gotten a kick out of it.
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That’s great news it was a sensor even if it is aggravating being down.
AC model b was a nice little tractor
Got to closest John Deere dealer at opening and they didn’t have my pump. Had to go to another store. $1,100 and 130 miles later I have my tractor running again. No rain yet. We are really about perfect for moisture but sugar beets can only be planted about a 1 1/4” deep max and this time of year it can easily dry that out before they germinate. I saw a lot of farmers scratching to see if their seed was still in moisture on my trip for parts
Cloudy now so maybe we can keep them in moisture.
Bjrogg
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Well I got tractor fixed and finished planting sugar beets. Now hopefully they come up.
I switched the planter over for corn and planted our two fields. Since we lost acres we don’t grow much corn My son still grows some though and I plan on hitting his hard today. I have seed in the planter and ready to go.
There’s going to be a lot of money buried in the ground this week. Sure hope it sprouts and grows.
Bjrogg
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My brother-in-law and his son were big time farmers before he died, their hobby of buying a few old tractors to restore blossomed into a major obsession over the years, when he died they had 125 of them, all restored to be like new. They had the resources to build a building to house them and the simi trucks to take some of them to old tractor shows far and wide. When the kids decided to auction the tractors off a huge crowd of buyers came from all over the country for the sale.
Now the son and son-in-law are the farmers, the son-in-law got into tractor pulling on the side. He has a full blown nitro tractor and has won on a national level. He said his winnings kept him in the black only part of the time and although he loved it it was a very expensive hobby. He said the regularly blows an engine and it cost $125K to repair it.
Here is his tractor;
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Curious what he farmed to have that kind of hobby budget? I don't know any that could afford blowing $125k routinely!!! Good for him!
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He farms 750 acres of row crops, mostly corn, soybeans and wheat, he has won the grand national championship for 2 years in a row so he has some sponsorship and prize money coming in, just not quite enough to make pulling completely profitable.
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One of my highs school classmates got into tractor pulling. You definitely need sponsors. Very expensive hobby. Even with good sponsors. He’s not farming anymore, or pulling tractors. Must really be addictive when you get it in your blood. The work and money involved is substantial. I think I will stick to my primitive hobbies.
We have a couple tractors and semi trucks we have restored. Some we sold and some we still use regularly. The yellow 1985 Kenworth is my favorite of our trucks. We “restored” it about twelve years ago. It’s still looking pretty good. It’s on my fertilizer tanker right now.
My son’s beef operation. I’m planting corn right next to it. The yellow Kenworth is next to the barn.
Bjrogg
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Just catching up BJ, looking like things are coming along. Nice tractor Eric, looks like it would pull a load. BJ really like you man cave, especially the Miller signs, I worked for them for almost 40 years and have many old ones like that, I collected metal signs/mirror's and all sorts of other advertisements for years, they are hard to come by and people try and beg me out of them all the time for their house bars and man caves. ;) :) Glad the wife and pup are doing better. ;)
Pappy
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Thanks Pappy. Got the Miller’s sign from my son in law. I’m so glad my wife and Zoey are doing better. My brother had his MRI and meet with his doctors yesterday. They are going to start Chemotherapy and then Radiation. Then see what happens. I didn’t get to talk to him yet, but doctors said lots of people keep working through the treatments. Everyone is different and won’t know how it affects him until he gets it.
My oldest son ( actually step son) helped one of our bachelor Neighbor's since he was 14 years old. Cass our old timer buddy had a heart attack then and required triple bypass surgery. That was probably 20+ years ago. Cass was in the hospital for over a month. My son rode his bicycle 9 miles every day to take care of Cass’s cattle. When Cass got back from hospital he was still very weak and my son kept talking care of his cattle. My son became the son Cass never had. They made a really good team. I’ve known Cass all my life. We got along really well and it wasn’t like losing my son. It was more like gaining a Uncle, or something like that.
Cass was a interesting character. He had a shop we all call the hanger. We started meeting at it on Saturday mornings many years ago for a cup of coffee and breakfast. Cass drew a crowd of interesting old timers there and it was in front of that crowd I broke my first Selfbow. They all had a big laugh over that. Later they were very impressed when I got up the nerve to bring my second selfbow there and shot several arrows I had made. They turned out to be some of my biggest supporters.
The crowd of old timers has passed away. I’m almost the oldest one now. We lost some really good people and I am so glad that they were part of my life and my families.
Cass passed away last winter. His old pickup was affectionately named Ray after his brother in law he got it from. Cass had a lot of health problems the past few years but he always loved keeping up with what was happening on the farm. He loved to take “Ray” out to the field. Park somewhere out of the way and watch the operation.
Yesterday planting my son’s corn. He brought the seed corn out to me in Ray and left it parked in one of the spots Cass always watched from. Man it sure felt like he was still watching everything. I’m sure he is.
Here’s Ray
Bjrogg
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Nice story ! Touching for sure - Bob.
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Thanks Bob. I have been very fortunate to grow up where I did and to have had some very good friends and neighbors.
Yesterday Me and my shadow finished up planting my sons corn. Just the two of us. My son went to a feeder cattle sale. Nice to see my shadow again it seems like it’s been such a cloudy spring until last week.
Our rye cover crops are really starting to grow and it’s time to terminate them. They will grow really fast in this weather and use up a lot of moisture. If they get more than about 1 1/2’ tall the residue gets difficult to deal with. My nephew is learning and liking the new sprayer. That’s really good news for me, as that takes a lot of pressure off of me. It will be very nice having someone to share the job.
Less than a full week and looks like the first beets I planted are coming up really nice and taking in the sunshine. This ground is more loam and doesn’t dry as fast after tillage.
The fields I planted after this one are heavy ground and it really dried out the top few inches after it had tillage with the wind and sun. I looked at second field I planted last night. Some sprouted and nice tap root. Right next to it laying in dust.
We have some sprinkle showers predicted for next few days. Hopefully they will make it yet.
Really hard planting beets in those conditions. You can plant them to shallow to sprout, yet at the same time to deep for when the rains and following crust comes.
Bjrogg
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Me & my shadow
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Rye cover crop seeded last fall after sugar beet harvest.
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Two newly emerged sugar beets enjoying the sun. Solar power
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My daughter in law is a ag. Teacher and FFA Adviser. They are having their banquet and a silent action tomorrow.
I promised her a week ago I’d make a arrow and display stand for it. Didn’t have a lot of time, but tried to do a little every day and by golly I think it turned out okay.
Clear coat still drying but it’ll be ready.
I think it’s a jasper point I knapped a couple weeks ago. Nice stuff.
River cane shaft with my Bjrogg markings
Pitch glue and sinew haft
Wild turkey tail feathers and a Cherokee two fletch.
Driftwood stand from the shores of Lake Huron.
Arrow is easily removed if wanted to yet securely and gently held on with removable “staples” made from insulated copper wire.
I like it .
Might have to bid on it myself
Bjrogg
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Beautiful arrow!
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Nice arrow BJ, That should do well at the auction. :)
Pappy
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Wow! That’s a beauty bj! I’m sure that will fetch a good price at the auction!
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Thank You Brian, Pappy and Russell.
The arrow and display did ok. It brought $100 and I think that’s pretty good for that crowd. Not like there were a bunch of primitive fans there. I’m happy it brought that much. Most people don’t realize how much goes into making one of these. It’s going to a good home and the money will help their FFA chapter to. I say it’s a win win. I have meet the lady who got it and I know her husband has a nice hunting cabin I’m sure it’ll look great in.
We got a really spotty shower Saturday night on the way to church. That got one of our beet fields back in the moisture. Had a good shower overnight that I’m hoping got the rest of them in moisture. Glad we had the window to plant our beets and corn.
Today I will probably catch up in the office and shop. Maybe take a little crop tour. Chance of rain every other day this week so when it dries out again we will have lots to do.
Bjrogg
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Did You get any of those Storms, that roared thru Yesterday Afternoon ? Bob
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Did You get any of those Storms, that roared thru Yesterday Afternoon ? Bob
Got the thunder and lightning, but very little rain so that was good. We didn’t need a big splash so that was good. I was working on computer when the thunder and lightning started. It definitely got my attention.
In the morning I took a little crop tour. Then I had to go to town to get my new phone to receive my emails. I was glad I didn’t try to do it myself. It took several tries for the lady that did it. I thanked her. Told her that would probably have taken me three days and a bunch of bad words. She got a laugh out of that, but I’m thinking that was probably a pretty accurate assessment.
The sugar beets all had a really nice shower. The ones that stayed in moisture were coming up and the ones that weren’t in moisture were now. Forecast is for .3” tomorrow and another .3” on Friday. That should give them a pretty good chance if it’s correct.
Took a couple pictures.
Last field planted just coming up. Haven’t seen the sun yet. Still white or yellow. Look healthy though.
The first field planted. Beets that stayed in moisture up nice with a good stand. Still lots of places where they didn’t stay in moisture, but are now. Hopefully those make it yet.
Bjrogg
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Always enjoy catching up on this thread, BJ. Love that arrow, especially the jasper head. Glad the wife is doing better, and glad you're getting the crops in. They grow a lot of sugar beets up in the Bighorn Basin where I grew up, and they really have to nurse them along some to get them going in the Wyoming clay.
Those great big, tall, white plants scattered in your field, now...those must be what grows when you plant one of those helicopter seeds?
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That is a sweet arrow, should have gotten more! Still waiting for my beets to pop up in my garden, one of my favorite veggies. Corn rows showed up yesterday behind the house and we could use some rain. Very slow spring for getting crops in around here, I would guess only about 50% in now.
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Yea WB I wish it was that easy. The windmills were a real pain when they were putting them up and running all the underground wire. It’s a lot better now that they are sprouted and grown up.lol
Bjrogg
PS yes I worry about getting the beets planted. Then I worry about getting them up. Then I worry about all the things trying to kill them before I harvest them. Then I worry about harvesting them. Then I worry about getting them processed before they rot on the piles. Life would certainly be much less worrisome without them. Last year we had a record crop for tons. We had 25% more tons last year than our highest tons the year before. Unfortunately we had to dispose of 20% of our crop and the sugar content was so low that even if we could have processed every ton, we would have had about 10% less sugar. It’s still hurting and a lot of bad feelings with the growers here. Especially since other commodities have gone up in price and beets are so expensive to grow. And everything has gotten much more expensive this year
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Thanks Buckskinner. I was hoping it would bring a little more, but just happy it brought as much as it did. I’ve donated stuff before that only brought a few bucks. Like I said. Most people don’t realize how much goes into one.
I’m glad we got the window to get stuff planted here. A lot of seeds went in the ground last week. A few guys planting again today.
Bjrogg
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We sprayed the rye cover crop to terminate it. It had done its job and now we need to prepare for planting our edible beans.
I have been spreading fertilizer the last two days and almost done now.
Kinda short handed again. My brother has a doctors appointment today and my nephew had a really high temperature yesterday morning. I haven’t heard back from him yet today. I hope he gets feeling better soon.
We had a light white frost yesterday morning but I don’t think it hurt anything we had growing. Turned chilly and cloudy with little sprinkles here and there. I’m hoping to finish spreading fertilizer this morning and then switch planter over to beans. I still need to plant about 75 acres of soybeans on sugar beet fields headlands and wedge rows. It’s another thing that takes a little extra time now but saves so much time when we are harvesting sugar beets. Digging headlands and wedge rows is very time consuming and when we have a full crew of truck drivers and harvesters we like to get stuff done and not have everyone watching me dig headlands.
I took another picture of one of the windmills on our farm for WB. If you look close you can see their service truck parked by it. Kinda gives it a little idea how big they are.
Bjrogg
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We sprayed the rye cover crop to terminate it. It had done its job and now we need to prepare for planting our edible beans.
I have been spreading fertilizer the last two days and almost done now.
Kinda short handed again. My brother has a doctors appointment today and my nephew had a really high temperature yesterday morning. I haven’t heard back from him yet today. I hope he gets feeling better soon.
We had a light white frost yesterday morning but I don’t think it hurt anything we had growing. Turned chilly and cloudy with little sprinkles here and there. I’m hoping to finish spreading fertilizer this morning and then switch planter over to beans. I still need to plant about 75 acres of soybeans on sugar beet fields headlands and wedge rows. It’s another thing that takes a little extra time now but saves so much time when we are harvesting sugar beets. Digging headlands and wedge rows is very time consuming and when we have a full crew of truck drivers and harvesters we like to get stuff done and not have everyone watching me dig headlands.
I took another picture of one of the windmills on our farm for WB. If you look close you can see their service truck parked by it. Kinda gives it a little idea how big they are.
Bjrogg
Wow, those things are BIG! There are a lot of them down in southern Wyoming, but I've always just seen them from a distance.
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Thankfully those turbines do not grow well around here...
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Yea WB these are the biggest ones in our area. There have been several different groups or “Wind Farms” put up in the thumb of Michigan.
From what I can see these where the most annoying putting them up, but have been the least amount of trouble running them.
Bjrogg
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Buckskinner I’m certainly not a huge fan of them either. I do kinda wish they didn’t grow so good around here.
They have had to change and fix about 1/3 of the “sails” or blades which go to land fills.
Otherwise these have been regular maintenance.
Some of the other ones were not so good. Several broken blades. And I mean broken in two pieces laying out in the fields.
They even had one that the blade hit the tower and the whole tower came down.
It has been entertaining.
Bjrogg
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A couple of years ago a blade broke off one of these and landed in a school playground. A few minutes either way and it could have mowed down dozens of kids.
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Bj do you have experience of birds being killed by the blades?
I've heard about it but never had evidence
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A couple of years ago a blade broke off one of these and landed in a school playground. A few minutes either way and it could have mowed down dozens of kids.
Yes so far I would say they have been fortunate that no one has been hurt or damage done to personal property. The zoning laws in our wind farm require them to be something like 2,000 feet away from a house. The smaller ones are much closer. They complained about that at first and I suspect it’s one of the reasons for the larger ones, but I’m thinking that probably isn’t a bad idea.
Gills I have often heard that to , but I have never seen even one dead bird laying under one. I’m not saying it doesn’t happen , but I personally haven’t seen evidence of it either and maybe we just don’t have the type of birds that would be effected by them. I have always been curious what type of bird this is supposed to happen to. Most of ours have pretty good vision and it’s not like the blades are spinning so fast you can’t see them.
One other thing I have seen is ice. It gets built up and then breaks off and is flung through the air and I don’t think it would feel good getting hit by it.
This particular model has had less trouble than some of the others. It’s the biggest model around. They need a really large crane to work on it. This model they have to put the blades on the hub one at a time at the top. They turn hub so blade to be put on is at 3:00 position and hoist blade to top.
The other types are smaller although they are still pretty big. Those all had the blades attached to the hub. Then the hub is hoisted blades attached to the top. They can actually use a smaller crane for them.
They got the really large crane stuck in our field. They crushed our tile main that was nine feet under ground.
I’m not totally against them, but I’m not a huge fan of them either.
Not totally convinced they are going to be the savior to the environment. There’s alway advantages and disadvantages to everything.
Bjrogg
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Looks like things are coming along Bjrogg. Got to do some farming with my son-in-law and his brothers couple weeks ago. Got to ride along in the new to them sprayer. Quite the machine GPS tracking, like the starship Enterprise. So much lining up with a fence post. Your right about the worrying. Hopefully everything turns out ok
Take care
Leroy
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Looks like things are coming along Bjrogg. Got to do some farming with my son-in-law and his brothers couple weeks ago. Got to ride along in the new to them sprayer. Quite the machine GPS tracking, like the starship Enterprise. So much lining up with a fence post. Your right about the worrying. Hopefully everything turns out ok
Take care
Leroy
Thanks Stoker. We are coming along nicely. Hoping everything comes up and does well.
Glad you got to experience the space age ride in the sprayer. Of all the advancements in ag technologies I think I appreciate the technology that has gone into sprayers the most.
Like you said . It has gone from aiming for a fence post and having to remember what is sprayed and what isn’t. Trying to match speed and pressure to get the right amount on. Skips and double up spots as a result.
It’s so different now. GPS with sub inch accuracy and auto steer to guide the sprayer. A coverage map that’s instantly updated to show what is sprayed and what isn’t. Swat control that knows what is sprayed and what isn’t that turns off individual sections of the spray boom where spray has already been applied. Very accurate rate controller that very quickly and accurately changes and applies the right rate to match your speed. Documentation of you chemicals used and a map of the rates applied.
It really is stuff from the space age and it’s technology that is still making amazing advancements. The stuff coming out now is really mind blowing. Each individual spray nozzle is computer driven and turns on and off individually with swath control. Not only that , but it knows if it’s on the inside of a turn it’s traveling slower and adjusts it rate lower to put on the correct amount. If it’s on the outside of a turn it knows it’s traveling faster and increases it’s rate to apply the proper amount. We don’t have that yet but it is available technology and really amazing stuff.
Bjrogg
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Things look to be moving along for you BJ. Don't know a thing about sugar beets but I have seen sweet corn fields come up uneven from lack of moisture, and that late stuff is usually not worth anything at harvest, so hope you been getting some rain there. We been getting rain every other day for the last week or so. Had a hail storm cover the ground about 10 miles south last week, so glad we missed that one.
Been busy here. The crew has been transplanting tomatoes, peppers and strawberries when the ground is dry enough, and mulching blueberries otherwise. Sweet corn is a weekly planting until about the end of June. I've been in the orchard most of the time and will spend most of this week there. Between mowing, thinning, scab/fireblight sprays its usually a crazy 2 week period for me. By June things seem to become more routine through the summer.
Here's a pic of my high tech measuring device in the orchard :)
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52092844465_f3e924d420_w.jpg) (https://www.flickr.com/gp/158435722@N02/9NKY08)IMG_4606 (https://www.flickr.com/gp/158435722@N02/9NKY08) by Mike Allridge (https://www.flickr.com/photos/158435722@N02/), on Flickr
That was several days ago, I suppose that apple is 18mm by now.
A lot of hurry up and wait been going on because of the rains. Had a buddy stop by on Friday to drop off some graphic arts designs for my sons bow. I finished up a preform I had on my desk to give him as a thank you for his work.
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52092341306_3ecc010ec1_w.jpg) (https://www.flickr.com/gp/158435722@N02/1F5r2F)IMG_4617 (https://www.flickr.com/gp/158435722@N02/1F5r2F) by Mike Allridge (https://www.flickr.com/photos/158435722@N02/), on Flickr
Spent today in my shop finishing up a dozen target arrows. way too long in the making. Should have been doing other things, didn't realize how much time I spent down there until it was dinner time.
Mike
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Bjrogg you are right on with the ways of the newer machinery. We had to fix some sort of connection on the one wing when we refilled the tank. They explained it to me, I must of had the deer in the headlights look on my face. Good on them to make it go without too much disruption. Help is 1 hour away. Being self-reliant is a wonderful thing.
M2A Nice looking apples coming along. I like your apple gauge. My Granny Smiths are in flower right now. Coupla weeks away form pie season.
Thanks Leroy
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Good luck with your Granny crop Stoker. Their harvest date is not until the 1st week of November here which makes them a tad late sell in the market, not many customers after October. I did make a deal with a fella a few years ago and planted one in a hole, just as a pet tree. A rabbit got up on the snow above the tree guard and ate the bark off one winter. Left all the Gala around it alone. lol Maybe got 15 apples off that tree. I should give it another go.
Been dry and windy most of the week, looks like a rainy spell for the next few days. Good chance to get some work done in the shop.
Mike
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Sorry I haven’t been able to post much this week. I ended up catching whatever my brother and nephew had. Worked through it, but I just was to whipped at the end of the day to think about anything. I’m starting to feel a little better, but just a little.
I did finish up planting our soybeans and I even planted a small food plot for the wildlife. Be interesting to see how it affects things.
Last Sunday my neighbor and his son stopped over and tilled my garden. Then I switched 12 rows of the planter back to corn so I could plant my sweet corn. Usually my neighbor does with his four row planter but he was still planting soybeans. I planted 24 rows in really good conditions so I hopefully get a good crop to eat and put up in the freezer.
Our corn came up nice. Your right about the corn that comes up later Mike. If a corn plant comes up just a day later than the plants right next to it. It will never catch up and really is almost a weed. Dr. B says it doesn’t matter what you do to it it won’t catch up. You can even pee on it. He’s tried it.
My sugar beets have a few spaces I would have like to see filled in, but they are going to have to be good enough. They aren’t quite as sensitive to neighbor as corn. Also the open spaces make it harder to control weeds.
We are getting ready to plant our edible beans now. I got the pre emergence herbicides this morning. Have the planter switched over to edible beans. Washed it up and cleaned up the Quadris system. I don’t use it for the rest of my planting.
When I was picking up my herbicide I pasted one of the smaller windmills they were working on. They had the hub and blades on the ground.
Strawberries are really blossomed out nice.
Bjrogg
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Strawberries
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Hope You get feelin' better ! Bob
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Hope You get feelin' better ! Bob
Thanks Bob. I’m feeling a lot better today. My head still feels like a volleyball and my ears and sinuses are still a mess, but I’m definitely going in the right direction.
Bjrogg
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Feeling a lot better. Still sinus pressure and ear fluid but much better.
Saturday we moved everything for planting navy beans to my brothers place. It takes a lot of stuff. Tractor and field cultivator, sprayer, tender, fertilizer truck, tractor and planter, seed wagon, tractor and roller, and loader tractor.
It’s a 14 mile one way trip so it took most of the day just moving stuff, but it’s all there and ready now.
Saturday night went to my wife’s 40 year class reunion. Kinda small turn out. Probably past most of their bed times.lol
Sunday we got together with kids and grandkids for a nice campfire.
Monday and Tuesday we hit the planting navy beans hard. Monday I planted 162 acres. Tuesday I planted another 114 acres and moved everything back to Dad’s. My nephew put the pre emerge herbicides on the black bean ground. It was hot and dry and the weeds are really growing.
The soybeans I planted last week are coming up.
The beet fields really need to be sprayed. Can’t believe how fast these weeds are growing.
Today we got the sugar beets sprayed
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Glad you're feeling better!
Yeah, weeds are a pita... Not as common anymore, but I spent many of days on a cultivator as a kid trying not to wipe out the corn rows.
Is that volunteer corn to the sides of the picture?
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Yes I spent many many hours cultivating sugar beets, edible beans and corn. I spent a lot of hours with a hoe in my hand to.
I think what you are seeing is rye cover crop and volunteer wheat. The sugar beets we don’t spray rye to kill before we plant. We just till field once leaving residue for wind protection. One of the really nice things about RR sugar beets. Before we had to spray several times while weeds were very small to kill them. Wind blew off sugar beets every year. It was very difficult to use cover crops. Even cultivating was difficult with cover crop residue. Made for more “iron worm” as we use to call it.
Definitely a case where new and old ways work well together
Bjrogg
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Started planting black beans yesterday. Got 112 acres planted. We have another 107 acres of our blacks to plant and then about 90 acres for my son. Should be able to finish them up in about two days if everything goes well.
My brother got his port for chemotherapy put in day before yesterday. He has appointment with chemotherapy doctor today. I hope everything goes well.
I took two pictures yesterday. One of the residue from rye cover crop incorporated into the soil. The second after planting. It’s a lot of residue and the planter has been designed to brush it in between the rows so it can still get good seed placement in the soil.
Bjrogg
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Looking good BJ, our soybeans are up about 4 or 5 inches but could use some rain,was supposed to rain yesterday but none came, getting a little dry around here again. :)
Pappy
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You guys are a little bit ahead of us here. Soybeans don’t like getting out of bed when it’s still cold out. They will sit there with the ground shoved up but not come out of ground till it warms up .
Scratching seed by the woods. Looks like something is watching me.
Bjrogg
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Classic Coon Tree BJ, He's hopin' You are planting Corn (lol) ! Matt and I are gonna try and get a Mess of Bluegill today, for a Fish Fry. Prayers sent for Your Brother - Bob .
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Classic Coon Tree BJ, He's hopin' You are planting Corn (lol) ! Matt and I are gonna try and get a Mess of Bluegill today, for a Fish Fry. Prayers sent for Your Brother - Bob .
Thanks for the prayers Bob.
It certainly is a classic coon tree. The raccoon is going to be disappointed to find out I planted black beans there. I don’t think they really like black beans.
Good luck fishing. The water’s still pretty cold and those fish will be tasty and firm. Tell Matt I said Hi.
We did finish up planting my sons black beans yesterday. Like Pappy we are a little on the dry side. The little crops are doing fine yet but the wheat and hay could use some rain. A nice shower would perk everything up. It’s supposed to rain this week but it’s been supposed to rain half the days of May and we haven’t had more than a dust settler so we will see what happens. I planted the beans pretty deep.
Today we will be enjoying our grandsons 8th birthday and getting together for a party. So far he’s our youngest grandson and they are all growing up to fast. Gotta enjoy them while you can.
Bjrogg
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We had a really nice time at our grandsons birthday party. Was cloudy and cool. Played some ball. Nothing like a ball game to make you realize you don’t have the moves you use to have. Was fun though.
Bjrogg
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The kids have a lot of animals and they are well taken care of. They have rabbits, big goats, little goats, mom goats and dad goats. Horses and steers. Laying hens and chickens.
Here’s some of them
Bjrogg
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Then it was time for cake and ice cream.
My daughter in law is quite the birthday cake baker. She always makes some special cakes. I have lots of birthday cake pictures over the years. This time Cliff wanted a sports theme. It’s a nice cake, but honestly I like the farm and construction theme ones better. It’s a nice cake though and it tastes good. Cliff loved it and his cousin did to.
Bjrogg
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After the party I took a quick crop tour.
The wheat is just starting to head out.
The clover cover crop looks like it is still doing fine.
Bjrogg
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Yesterday morning I did a quick look at the navy beans I planted on Memorial Day. They were starting to poke out.
Bjrogg
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Then stopped at the Coop to fill up with E-85. I’ve got 170,000 miles on my truck and it’s almost all I have burned in it. No problems at all. Sure is going to be a expensive fall if these prices don’t come down before harvest and fall tillage.
Bjrogg
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One of the best things about the new sprayer ended yesterday. I hadn’t really run it yet.lol Sure was nice to have my nephew take over while I was planting. I usually had to somehow do both before and the days got very long.
Yesterday wasn’t really raining yet it was dripping around just a little. Decided to apply the nitrogen on the sugar beets. They need nitrogen early and a nice shower to soak it in was forecast for today. Got the nitrogen applied to all the beets and we do get a beautiful slow .75” shower. Perfect timing. Still a little cool but I’m not complaining.
I guess I’m starting to feel comfortable in this spaceship of a sprayer.
Bjrogg
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Cake and ice cream always a good thing!
Nice view from inside that spray rig. I'll be getting my boom sprayer out this week for the sweet corn. drive past it the other day and noticed its about time for it to start shooting silk. Still might make the 4th of July for that 1st couple fields. The crew started picking strawberries Monday of last week, kinda a poor year for them as the deer and ground hogs put a big hit on them over the winter.
Finished up the bailing season the other night. 24 round bails, use to do about 700-800 a year so not much any more. Always enjoyed the work but trying to get all the timing down all summer long was a pain. and without a tedder I always needed 1 more day of drying time.
Maybe I'll have some time over the weekend to get a few pics up but I best be headed out for now.
Mike
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Looks like it's coming along. Great your timing was on.
Thanks Leroy
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Hasn’t been very good hay making weather here this week Mike. Hope yours is better.
I did manage to get the wheat sprayed for vomitoxcin. It’s a disease that can make your wheat toxic so it isn’t safe for either human or animal consumption. We are getting perfect environmental conditions for it right now. The fungicide only offers limited protection. I hope it’s enough because this is getting to be a very, very expensive crop year. We absolutely need decent crops.
Yesterday was one of those heart breakers. My daughters little dog Zoey took a dramatic turn for the worst. She was doing so good and just like that the switch was flipped. She passed away in my arms and it was a heartbreaker.
Our whole family is going to really miss that little dog. She brought so much joy to us. She was a blessing.
Growing up on a farm in learned about losing animals, pets and loved ones from a very early age. I know it’s part of life. Some people may even think I’m cold hearted, but they are wrong. Just because I have grown up with it doesn’t mean it’s easy. RIP Zoey.
Could have missed the pain, but would have had to miss the dance.
Was a great dance Zoey
Bjrogg
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Zoey
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Sorry for your family loss, Brian. It's the love that makes it hurt so much and it's something we all experience.
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Always sad to hear of a loss like that. Been through it too many times Myself. Bob
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Thank You Pat and Bob. I to have lost a lot of pets and loved ones. They all hurt. This one hurts especially bad.
We are so happy my daughter was blessed with Zoey. She was so good for her when she was going through some very difficult life struggles. She’s broken hearted now, but I think she is going to be okay.
This truly was her baby as she can’t have any of her own. I was a little apprehensive about her getting a animal that she had to train and care for, but she did a fantastic job of it.
We will be looking for another puppy. Not another Zoey. But hopefully a puppy that can give and receive love like that little girl did.
Thanks again Bob and Pat for your caring words. They do help.
Bjrogg
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That's rough losing a pet, but a new puppy sure makes it easier. Hopefully she can find one soon! Maybe 2!
Growing up on a farm, pets came and went fairly often, lots of dangers for pets on a farm not to mention the road. But there were those special ones that I remember very well and was rough when they passed.
My lab now has it made, he's lying in the kitchen right now because he thinks it's too hot outside. Well,,,, I'm inside too...
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Glad you have your lab Buckskinner. They really are good dogs. Have had a few and they were all smart well behaved dogs.
My wife and daughter have been looking for puppies. I think they might have found one. Afraid we can’t afford two.
They are pretty excited and going to look at them tomorrow. I hope it turns of good. They are hoping the puppies are cute. All puppies are cute.
Bjrogg
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My daughter got her new puppy. Named her Roxy and so far so good. Cute little bugger. My wife and daughter are so happy it really feels good to see that. We all still really miss Zoey, but we a happy to welcome Roxy to our family.
It’s been either on the cold side with short spells of just plain hot. It took awhile for the black beans to come up but we finally got a couple hot days again and they came up.
You can see the residue from the rye cover crop still on top of the soil. I’m really glad it’s there right now. We’ve had three days of very high winds and if we didn’t have the residue on top our dirt would be blowing and our beans would be getting cut off. Afraid there going to a lot of people who don’t have residue that are going to have to replant and hope they don’t blow off again.
Bjrogg
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Black beans
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Then we worked on our old 28% applicator. We had to add two more rows. Had to widen the frame. Plumb up two more rows and reconfigure the rate controller.
Got it all working today.
Corn needs nitrogen later so we split the applications and put most of the nitrogen on now just before the corn gets tall. It’s to the stage it really grows fast.
Was 94 two days ago high of 64 predicted for tomorrow. Lows back in the 40’s. We could use a little rain again, but I’m not complaining yet.
Bjrogg
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Bj I know very little about agricolture so forgive me for the dumb question
Is there an automatic way to drive your vehicle so that it doesnt mash all the plants?
seems to me so easy to get distracted and destroy everything
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GlisGlis in the old days we called it a steering wheel and we had to spend many, many hours steering it and it took a lot of concentration to avoid what we called "iron worm". Now we have GPS and auto steer that steers the tractor for us.
Today I went with my cousin to the Huron Nature Center. My cousin has a nice collection of artifacts that he has found. He's been giving a presentation at the Nature Center for 8 years. I've been doing one with him for four years now. Our presentations complement each other.
It was a small but nice gathering. 33 people attended which is pretty good for the center. They were a very interested and fun crowd. They seemed to really enjoy the presentation and asked lots of good questions. Kevin and myself really enjoyed doing the show and gave us a good excuse to get together again. We both like sharing our passions with others who appreciate them.
This Afternoon I worked at putting nitrogen on my sons corn
Bjrogg
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ty Bj
I recently read that during middle age the wheat harvest was less then 1.5 times what they sowed on average
Surely agricolture has made giant leaps
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ty Bj
I recently read that during middle age the wheat harvest was less then 1.5 times what they sowed on average
Surely agricolture has made giant leaps
We plant between 1.5 bu. Per acre and up to 3 if it gets really late into end of October or beginning of November. We personally very rarely plant that late.
We shoot for 130 bu. Per acre harvest. And if we get below 110 we are a little disappointed. So I would say your right in your assessment GlisGlis. We are in a good climate for winter wheat though.
Also with harvest, storage and quality.
We had a really nice shower this morning. Catching up in the office. Our crops are really going to like this shower.
Played with the new puppy Roxy yesterday. Looks like a stuffed animal, but it’s not. Funny they had a qualification list. Small, short haired and female. I guess they got two out of three.
I’m a little jealous. She’s got a better beard than me.
Bjrogg
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Cute Pup ! Bob
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We plant between 1.5 bu. Per acre and up to 3 if it gets really late into end of October or beginning of November. We personally very rarely plant that late.
We shoot for 130 bu. Per acre harvest. And if we get below 110 we are a little disappointed. So I would say your right in your assessment GlisGlis. We are in a good climate for winter wheat though.
I had to check how much is a bushel. For metric people imperial units are quite a nightmare ;D
To tell the full truth in agricolture and forestal activities we also have non decimal units
Nice pup. She does not look very primitive )P( (lol)
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Thanks Bob.
Roxy spent her first night in her apartment last night. Hopefully everything went well.
GlisGlis we actually try to plant to a certain “population “
We weigh one pound of seed and count how many seeds are in that pound. So smaller seed we plant less pounds than larger seed. Early in the planting season we try for about 1.2 million seeds per acre.
Generally that’s about 120lbs per acre planted. That would be two bushels
If we harvest 130 bu. X 60 lbs a bushel = 7,800 lbs harvested per acre.
I think if I did my math right that’s about 65 times more than what we planted.
Of course Mother Nature has her say in the mater to.
Bjrogg
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Finished up putting the nitrogen on the corn and sprayed the post emergence herbicides on the beans.
The little shower we had Monday was much appreciated. We have been a little on the dry side. We haven’t had much rain, but what we have had has come really slow and every drop soaked in.
We are starting to get caught up in the fields. Still have a lot of stuff to do in the shop to get ready for wheat harvest.
My cousin is arriving tonight. We grew up inseparable. He’s been living in California for close to forty years now. He comes back to visit every summer and I try my best to make some time in my busy schedule for spending with him. Somebody has to keep him out of trouble.
He’s kinda responsible in a roundabout way for me being addicted to all this primitive stuff.
I decided to pay him back a few years ago by making him this HHB Selfbow. I named it “Deep Roots”.
I know he has them. As he told me the other night. Time to come home and reboot my soul.
I think it’s time to shoot his bow again to.
Bjrogg
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That's a sweet looking bow! Glad you are getting some rain here and there. We've been really dry, my lawn is brown and the corn looks more like pineapple. Seems like the rains always go north or south of us.
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ty Bj
I recently read that during middle age the wheat harvest was less then 1.5 times what they sowed on average
Surely agricolture has made giant leaps
Saw a documentary on the beginings of agriculture in the neolithic age.
They found that in much of the middle east and asia wheat grew wild in sufficient quantity that a family could harvest enough in two weeks to feed them for a year.
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Nice looking bow BJ. Ya if we don't get some rain here soon the poor farmers around here aren't going to make anything, dry as I have seen it in several years, some are already feeding hay to the cows. ???
Pappy
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We are in the same situation. Terrible drought is posing a serious treath for all the cultivations
There are already ordinances to minimize the use of potable water. Pretty scary as "real" summer is yet to come
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It always seems like we are either to dry or to wet. Been that way as long as I can remember. Right now we could use some rain. Would be nice to get some now a then get dry for wheat harvest. Don’t get to order the weather we want. Have to deal with what we get. Hope it works out.
Sometimes life is a Beach. In this case a nice secluded one. With a nice bonfire. My cousin and I sat around and tried to solve the problems of the world. Didn’t get them all solved, but did enjoy trying.
Probably take another bonfire on the beach or two yet before he leaves. It’s a good place to hang out and think about anything. Or nothing at all
Bjrogg
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Great place to Stir a Fire (=) ! Bob
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It sure is Bob.
Have had some really nice bonfire’s there over the years. Here’s one from 4th of July. We had a great time and plan on making it a annual event.
Bjrogg
PS it’s even a great spot without a fire. But a good fire and a full moon rising really adds to the ambiance.
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Looks like paradise to me! I'd probably need to put a fishing pole in though...
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Looks like paradise to me! I'd probably need to put a fishing pole in though...
You might want to bring a good pair of waders to
Bjrogg
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Beautiful picture, looks like a great time. :)
Pappy
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Love to have you sit around a campfire sometime Pappy. Could probably even find a place to park the bus.
Getting ready for wheat harvest. Lots of stuff to do. Trucks, trailers, combines, headers, carts and tractors.
I’m cleaning up the planter and getting it ready to store away for the winter. It worked good. Probably do something different with starter fertilizer for it this winter.
I’m hoping to get some grass and weeds mowed down this afternoon.
Was my sons birthday yesterday and we had another bonfire at the beach.
Was perfect night for it.
Bjrogg
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Beautiful Spot !
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Thanks Bob. If you ever end up in the neighborhood I’d love to share it with you.
I did get some mowing done the other day. The grass was getting pretty tall. Probably about 4 or five feet tall. I saw lots of deer beds in it. I left their favorite ones.
My son put a bass from my dads pond in my little pond several years ago. It’s a small pond but it’s pretty deep. Probably about 16’ . I didn’t see him last year and the frogs started to show up again, so I thought he might have fallen prey to the Bald Eagles. Not so though. I saw him while I was mowing the grass. Glad to see he’s still swimming around.
Bjrogg
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Was really hoping for some rain. We are still doing pretty decent and our smaller crops have been growing good. They are reaching the stage they are going to need a lot more moisture though. The wheat is turning. I think a nice rain might still help it, but soon it will be to late to help and only cause poor quality issues which we really don’t need. Would be nice to get a couple inches of rain now before wheat harvest and then have a dry harvest.
Pretty hard to make a farmer happy sometimes. Always can find something to complain about. Would really like rain in this field but none in this other one. lol.
I’m not complaining yet. Corn still looks decent. Beans are growing.
Bjrogg
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Those two look really good ! Bob
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Was hoping for some rain, but it missed us again. Yes Bob. Our wheat is really suffering and has needed some rain for some time. I’m not expecting fantastic yields from it, but maybe I will be pleasantly surprised. Our smaller crops are still looking pretty decent.
As a farmer. I’m outstanding in my field. lol That’s a old farmer joke.
Here’s a selfie for you all. Me outstanding in my field of navy beans.
Bjrogg
PS if you zoom in on base of windmill you can see my pickup truck
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I was picking some asparagus and came across a bunch of these guys. One time I had thousands and thousands of them in my ash trees. Looked like pictures from the rain forest. My ash trees are all dead now, but we still get lots of monarchs.
Bjrogg
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Those wind spinners are massive!
Haven't had more than a sprinkle in several weeks here, very dry. Crops look good in the morning from dew but then curl up when sun gets high. My lawn is a beautiful golden brown aside from well rooted weeds. Ash are all dead around here, you can see them in the background of the first pic.
Haven't seen any monarchs on any milkweed yet around here, but these little devil's whatever they are seem to be on every plant in place of them.
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Thats a heck of a nice location for a beach party BJ.
Hope you get a good rain soon. We had a storm roll through last night and drop almost an inch. Very welcome as things were getting very dry, I could even see the leaves in the old orchard starting to curl just a bit. The guys have been laying irrigation pipe in the corn all week here. And the pumps have been running every day. I was coming off the hill the other evening and got this pic.
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52187134852_09a25e0511_w.jpg) (https://www.flickr.com/gp/158435722@N02/m67m88)IMG_4744 (https://www.flickr.com/gp/158435722@N02/m67m88) by Mike Allridge (https://www.flickr.com/photos/158435722@N02/), on Flickr
Thats about 3 acres of corn, just starting to tassel, getting some overhead water.
Going to be short on the early corn this year as it was too wet to get it all in but going to have some for the market for the holiday and thats the goal. here is an ear I pulled when out checking things the other day, Ate it right after I took the pic:)
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52188404384_0015755cd8_w.jpg) (https://www.flickr.com/gp/158435722@N02/332ipX)IMG_4753 (https://www.flickr.com/gp/158435722@N02/332ipX) by Mike Allridge (https://www.flickr.com/photos/158435722@N02/), on Flickr
Nice size for the first field of the season. It came from the field we planted in the snow back in April. Its a decent stand
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52188402619_a2eed819d1_w.jpg) (https://www.flickr.com/gp/158435722@N02/496F3r)IMG_4754 (https://www.flickr.com/gp/158435722@N02/496F3r) by Mike Allridge (https://www.flickr.com/photos/158435722@N02/), on Flickr
weed control could be better but I have seen a lot worse in the early stuff.
Also started picking blue berries this last week. Pick your own(PYO) opened yesterday for the weekend in the large field. Heres a pic from the small field. We have to net the entire field or the birds will eat every berry before the get ripe.
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52188151291_83d852590e_w.jpg) (https://www.flickr.com/gp/158435722@N02/V86zAi)IMG_4714 (https://www.flickr.com/gp/158435722@N02/V86zAi) by Mike Allridge (https://www.flickr.com/photos/158435722@N02/), on Flickr
I cheated and went in early to get some for the freezer here is 2 gallons, about 10 pounds I got the other night.
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52188403494_e0b65630fe_w.jpg) (https://www.flickr.com/gp/158435722@N02/L11GGM)IMG_4742 (https://www.flickr.com/gp/158435722@N02/L11GGM) by Mike Allridge (https://www.flickr.com/photos/158435722@N02/), on Flickr
I use to have my boys pick them for us but they are older now and have other priorities. I picked 3 gallons this week, I hope to get 1 more before its all over but if not thats fine. Takes me 40-50 min to fill one bucket.
With everything going on between the farm and everything else time free time is very limited as of late. If I'm not doing anything else I have been spending my free time beating on a log that was gifted to me. Its been some long days the past week or 2.
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52188635625_c2499c1593_w.jpg) (https://www.flickr.com/gp/158435722@N02/5qG1oB)IMG_4752 (https://www.flickr.com/gp/158435722@N02/5qG1oB) by Mike Allridge (https://www.flickr.com/photos/158435722@N02/), on Flickr
Not he best log but osage is not easy to come by for me so its like gold. I wish the timing was different but this stuff needs processed. With the rain last night I'll have time today to get the last quarter split up and sealed. Then I can worry about bark and sap wood removal. In the pic I still had the strap on the log that was still hooked to my truck just in case it started to roll down hill, it was too heavy for me to roll by hand.
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Used to spend a week-ten Days in Mid-August at Harbor Beach trolling for Salmon. Many a time the Boat would be loaded with resting Monarchs, taking a break after crossing the Lake ! Bob
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That bug looks familiar Buckskinner but I don’t remember for sure what it is. I’m hoping it’s some kind of predator bug eating unwanted bugs. If the numbers are high it probably means the unwanted pest numbers are high to. That’s what our ash trees look like to. Except most have fallen over and are laying in every direction making a walk through the woods very challenging.
Nice looking cob of sweet corn Mike. Mine is looking pretty nice now but it’s barely knee high yet. It’s to the stage it will really grow now though. Probably be ready around fair week. Sweet corn and blueberries. Good stuff. Blueberry is definitely way high up on my list of favorites.
Be watching to see what you get from that Osage log.
Bob I’ve only seen them in my ash tree by the hundreds of thousands that one year. I have seen lots of them before, but that time they were literally hanging from each other and you couldn’t have fit another one on the surface of the ash trees. They hung around like that for a couple days. We had a sugar beet test plot for Sugar beet Advancement that year and the fella that always checked on the test plot called me up very excited. Asked me if I saw all the butterflies? I told him I did and it was one of the memories I still have etched in my brain forever.
Once again “I was outstanding in my field “ . This time one of my wheat fields. Always hard to guess what it’s going to do. This spot looks good yet. Sure could have used some rain but maybe we can still have a decent crop. Wheat makes me very nervous this time of year. I don’t stop worrying until it’s at the elevator and has passed the vomitoxin and falling numbers test. We have a lot of money invested in this crop and it’s gotta be milling quality or we lose.
Happy 4th of July everyone. I plan on spending the day at our beach with family and friends. Thanks to all who have made it possible for us to enjoy this freedom.
Bjrogg
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Raining pretty good here rite now - hope Your getting some it ! Bob
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Hope you got some rain BJ, we finally did yesterday and through the night. Came along perfect as well, started with a nice slow rain of about 1/4" to soften ground then good thunderstorms at night, probably close to 2".
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Thanks for the wishes guys. We got between 1/10th and 2/10ths. Really could have taken ten times that but it buys a little time. The beans should like it. And everything else will be glad to get it to.
I was walking the beach last night and came across this digging.
What could it be?
Bjrogg
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It could be my favorite granddaughter and my grandson. Love watching them dig in the sand.
Bjrogg
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Your right Buckskinner. Those critters are everywhere.
Also lots of bee’s
And a few of these.
Bjrogg
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25 years ago today I married my soulmate Susie. My life has changed so much since that day. A few more challenges, but nothing I wouldn’t do over again and definitely for the better
My wife and I are celebrating by having a bonfire at our beach. It’s going to be very casual and probably not really well planned. Kinda like my bachelor days party’s. Should be fun.
We have been busy getting stuff ready for wheat harvest and taking care of crops. My cousin is back in California and I have been getting a little more sleep which I really was needing.
We are still very dry. The bigger rains have missed us and the .1” and 1/4” rains have spent the time they bought. We’re definitely farming the subsoil now and any ground that’s been abused by compaction is really showing it now.
At this point I’m hoping we can get a quick wheat harvest and then some decent rains.
Not much I can do about it though.
Last night I did some mowing at the beach. Looking forward to sharing it with friends tonight.
Bjrogg
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Our beach
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One saving grace has been the lake has kept our temperatures pretty cool and comfortable
Bjrogg
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Congratulations Brian and Susie. 25 years is quite an accomplishment. :OK
Is your property right on the lake? Can you use lake water for irrigation?
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Congrats on your 25th! I will be there next year, hard to believe... Have a great party!
Hope you get some rain soon! It's crazy how much a good rain changes things, we were so dry there were knoll areas of our fields where the late planted soybeans were died off. We probably got 3 inches last week over a 3 days span and everything is growing like crazy, corn probably grew a foot over the last couple days.
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Thanks Pat. It’s not as many as some, but it sometimes seems like a lifetime to me. Sometimes it’s hard to remember life as a single man even though I was that way for a quite awhile.
Yes our farm goes right to the shore of Lake Huron. I forget exactly but I think it’s something like 1130’ of shoreline.
My brother looked into using it for irrigation once and I don’t remember all the rules exactly so I hesitate to comment. I do want to say if we owned the shoreline we could use the lake for irrigation on the attached farm. Seems like there were a lot of rules about how you got the water from the lake. Like I said though I really don’t remember exactly and it wasn’t something we felt like we needed to pursue.
Bjrogg
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Yup nothing like a big rain to effect your farming operation. Sometimes they are a blessing and sometimes they are a curse.
One right now could be both. Would probably ruin my wheat quality, but everything else would love it.
Bjrogg
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Had a really nice bonfire for our 25 th anniversary.
Before everyone arrived my son and I had a little time to enjoy the fire.
Bjrogg
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Congrats on 25 years, kind of rare these days. Beautiful place, all I have is creek front property . ;) :) :)
Pappy
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Thanks Pappy. Bring your bus and we’ll share it with you.
We appreciate our friends and family. They started showing up we were so happy to share this time and place with them.
Sure wish you all could have joined us.
Pretty good crowd for a Tuesday night with occasional sprinkles.
Bjrogg
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Then the full moon showed up. It was peaking out from behind the clouds. It really does add to the charm of this place.
Bjrogg
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Susie and I totally enjoyed ourselves just like we did 25 years earlier. It’s usually hard for me to get a picture of her but she took this selfie with me.
Bjrogg
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Then everyone was gone except for me and the moon.
Bjrogg
PS thanks for looking. Wish You Were Here
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Looks like a very nice evening had by all!
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Thanks Buckskinner. I hope you have a fantastic 25th next year.
Bjrogg
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Great Pics BJ ! Noticed a Frieghter on the Horizon in one Bob.
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Thanks Bob. I have noticed that the freighter traffic has really picked up this year. Several times I’ve seen three on the horizon at the same time.
Yesterday I finished winterizing the planter. I have the fertilizer and quadris system completely cleaned out and antifreeze run through them.
Washed the planter several times getting all the nooks and crannies. Dried off good and then I use a hand garden sprayer to apply a mixer of hydraulic oil and diesel fuel. Really helps keep our 18 year old planter stay looking good. Fertilizer is really hard on them so it pays to do this prep work before I park it away.
Bjrogg
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The wheat is getting closer. I sure hope we can get it off in good condition. As dry as we have been it would be a real kick in the___ to lose it now.
I can’t believe how nervous I get about the wheat crop anymore. I’m not the only one. It was one of the most common topics of discussion at the bonfire.
Bjrogg
PS here I am. Outstanding in my field again. About the same spot as the last time I posted from here. You can see the wheat is really turning now.
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Wheat
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Happy 25 years! Looks like the party went well.
That planter sure does look nice for its age. I agree with how fertilizer can rust out the metal. sounds like you use liquid fertilizer. The old planter we have has boxes for granular. Although we do have a tank of nitan for the extra nitrogen in sweet corn at whorl.
Its nice to start to be able to put some equipment to sleep. I have some time before anything I use can get antifreezed. However the boss just got the last 2 acres of sweet corn in the ground on Monday. I was Heading past that way and got a pic from out my back window. Looked like it should make a good pic but looks like everything was too far away to see well.
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52215570688_5b89f6053f_w.jpg) (https://www.flickr.com/gp/158435722@N02/L0059k6N8P)IMG_4760 (https://www.flickr.com/gp/158435722@N02/L0059k6N8P) by Mike Allridge (https://www.flickr.com/photos/158435722@N02/), on Flickr
The fellas out to start and pick tomatoes and peppers next week, So far so good with them. Actually pretty pleased with those crops so far. After thinking things were going well in the apples it will end up being disappointing after such a cold and wet spring, but will still get some nice fruit its just going to be alot of work at the packing table grading them out. Cant win them all. Still could use the rain here as well. Been running the irrigation pumps all the time now. The large dam(5 acre surface) is down 3 feet or so, No danger in running out but Lots of extra work when it gets dry.
Mike
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As a kid I would clean a handful of wheat out of the field and put it in my mouth and chew it until it turned into gum, albeit wheat flavored gum but gum nonetheless.
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Good luck with the tomato’s and peppers Mike. My favorite apple tree isn’t going to have very many apples this year. You could probably have counted the blossoms on it this spring.
Buckskinner I still do that every year.
We tried a sample of my son’s wheat yesterday but it was still just a little bit too wet. The ground sure isn’t though. Cracked and parched.
Was another really heavy dew again last night and wind is supposed to be off the lake again. Keeps our temperature down and makes it hard to get the wheat dry enough to harvest.
Have my granddaughters birthday party today so will spend some time there and then try the wheat this afternoon.
Bjrogg
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Dang, that is dry! We got good soaker yesterday, rained on off all day. You are in a tough spot right now whether to wish for rain now or not...
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We finished my son’s wheat today. It did pretty decent. Not sure what the exact yield was, but I think he is happy. I know he’s happy it’s off.
Had two combines and a cart going for awhile. Hydraulic line blew out on ours. Hopefully we can either fix it or get a new one.
Bjrogg
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We’ll see what tomorrow brings
Bjrogg
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We started out yesterday morning with a hydraulic line needing to be located, picked up and replaced on our combine.
Also a track that needed to be changed on cart. And a bunch of trucks that needed to be unloaded.
I serviced my son’s combine and he took out trucks. Then I helped my nephew take off old track. We found a cracked idler wheel and my nephew worked at fixing it. I went to town to get combine parts.
Then I took my son’s combine to my grandmas farm and tried the wheat. It was 17.2 moisture so I kept combining.
About a hour later the cart showed up and that speeds things up for the combine. About 1/3 of your time is spent unloading grain from combine. The cart takes my grain on the go right while I’m still combining so it makes me about 30% more efficient time wise.
After about another hour the second combine showed up a things really started to roll. We kept my son very busy hauling wheat to the Coop.
We finished my grandma’s farm. About 100 acres. I don’t know the exact yield yet but it was pretty decent especially considering how dry it has been. Really helped it got off to a good start last fall and the ground wasn’t compacted. Moisture was good and quality of wheat should be very good so far.
We moved combines and cart to my farm. All the trucks are full so I need to take some out this morning before I service combine.
Really hoping we have a big day today.
Will update when I can
Bjrogg
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Been a busy past few days.
Last Saturday we started out with 530 acres of wheat to harvest.
But first my favorite granddaughters birthday party.
Her mom always makes really cool cakes and they taste good to. This one was a taco theme and it didn’t disappoint.
Bjrogg
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About 2:00 her father and I said our goodbyes to everyone at the party and headed for his wheat fields. We tried his wheat and it was ready. We took off his 60 acres. It yielded pretty good and quality was excellent.
Sunday started out with one combine down needing a hydraulic line fixed and cart down needing track changed.
I helped in the morning with fixing and running after parts. Then I moved my son’s combine to my grandma’s field. The wheat was ready and I started with one combine and no cart. After a hour the cart showed up. Then a little later the second coming and we got things clicking. We ended up getting grandma’s finished and combines moved to my farm. We did 100 acres so not bad for how the day started.
Monday we started by my house. There’s 205 acres here in four fields. It wasn’t the greatest combine weather. Was sunny but wind was off the lake and grain didn’t dry very good. It was a little higher in moisture than we would have liked but we kept at it. We had a good day and got about 175 acres harvested. The yield was decent 101 by house and 117 in field next to it. Was a good feeling to clear off as much as we did.
Tuesday morning woke up to the wind blowing hard through the night. That keeps the dew off and let’s us start combining earlier in the day. There was still about 50 acres left at my place but it was a lot of headlands and fence rows with trees that the wheat still was a little moist.
We decided to move to Wruble farm about seven miles away. It’s 114 acres. We moved everything and started combining about 11:00am . We just finished the field and it started raining. The rain was very spotty. We got anywhere from nothing to a 1.25” all of the remaining 105 acres of wheat got rained on.
Wednesday we got some more storms that rolled through. A little more wide spread but still amounts very spotty. One of the beet fields that didn’t get anything Tuesday got a splash and one of the navy bean fields that didn’t get anything on Tuesday still only got a dust settler.
I’m really glad we got as much wheat off as we did. We got enough to cover our contracts. It yielded decent and was excellent quality. I’m thinking some of the stuff that’s left is going to be our best yielding wheat , but I’m not really optimistic that it will still be good quality. Pretty hard to please everyone, but we really needed the rain we did get and feed wheat should be a decent price if that’s what it becomes.
Bjrogg
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The wind blew last night and I cut some heads of wheat to get a falling numbers test run. The wind really helped. It dried the rain off the heads before they started to sprout and the falling numbers are still good.
We are moving stuff back to my place. Hopefully by later this afternoon we can combine.
The clover cover crop sure liked the rain. It was shriveled right up before the rain
Bjrogg
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I thought of You, with all the wind and rains passing thru. For bout an hour Wednesday, had the Severe Weather warnings on TV and Radio. Glad to hear it didn't affect You ! Bob
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Thank Bob.
The wind really helped keep our wheat from gaining moisture and trying to sprout. That’s what causes the starches to change in the kernel and the quality to drop. The heads I cut for falling numbers test were trashed and tested. They passed the test so we moved everything back to my place again.
We started combining about 2:00 and moisture was good. Sent load to town and it passed all the test. Happy Happy as Phil would say. Our goal was to finish the 53 acres by my place. We got that done about 5:45 and moved to our last field. It was a good drying day and our last field was ready now to so we kept going. We finished just before dark and filled every truck we could beg, borrow or steal.
I’m so happy to have our wheat harvest completed. I really enjoy the harvest part, but the constant worry about getting it off and keeping it’s quality and covering contracts is really bad on my nerves.
Now I can take a deep breath knowing that we have our most perishable crop harvested. The rest are at least slightly less perishable.lol
Not going to worry about harvesting them yet .
Well there’s still straw to harvest yet but I’m ready for more rain. That wind and heat really saved our wheat harvest but everything else is suffering. Even the fields that did get a rain are withering up and there’s still cracks in the ground.
We are supposed to be hot today yet , but then cool down some and possibly of showers Saturday and Sunday.
We hope the pump is primed now and we can get some more wide spread and soaking rains, but we are very thankful for what we did get.
Gotta go lots of trucks to unload and I need to start spraying beans today.
Will try to post a few pictures when I get a chance
Bjrogg
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The last field
Bjrogg
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Beans are blossoming and it’s time for thier first white mold protection.
Huge difference between where they got a rain and where they didn’t.
We did get a shower this morning. I had .5” in my gauge and it’s still sprinkling. It’s not enough yet but it’s still very much appreciated.
Bjrogg
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Glad you are getting by BJ, we got a little rain here but very spotty also, some got a lot and some got none, went by several corn fields today and they looked very sad, dry and twisted in the field. The beans on my place has got just enough to get by and seems to be doing pretty well now. They are calling for rain every day this week and we could sure use it, creeks and ponds are very low and pastures are brown, the dry is bad enough but it has been in the mid to high 90's for almost a month here and that is unusually for us in July. I am headed north next Sunday for Elm Hall, hope to get into a little cooler weather for a few days. Hope to see you there. :)
Pappy
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Hope you get some more rain to Pappy. We have been lucky here by the big lake. It’s been keeping us pretty decent temperature anyway. Lot cooler here than a few miles inland.
Yesterday my wife and I had a nice day together. First we went to church and meet our new priest. Very nice mass.
Then we went to the China King to eat. Just the two of us. I honestly can’t remember the last time we did that. Was very nice.
Then we went to the nursing home and I visited my dad while she visited her mother.
Then on the way home we visited our brother in law who has ALS. It was nice to see him again even though I can see how much he has slipped since the last time I saw him.
Then back home. That took most of the day and we took a little nap. Boy did that feel good.
Today I am taking my wife to the eye specialist in the city. Then we are going to meet our daughter, son in law and grandson at the campgrounds on way home.
Bjrogg
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Those are some wide row beans! We got another good rain Saturday night things are really greening up now.
Glad you are able to take some R&R, little as it may be. Do you bail/sell the straw?
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Those are some wide row beans! We got another good rain Saturday night things are really greening up now.
Glad you are able to take some R&R, little as it may be. Do you bail/sell the straw?
Yes we are still in 30” row spacing. These are edible beans too. Black Beans and Navy Beans. A lot of guys have switched to 22” or even narrower. We have tried test plots in narrow rows, but we find we get to much white mold this close to the lake. It can be absolutely devastating. We try to do as much as we can to prevent it and there’s only so much we can do. Wider row spacing is one of them.
We have several neighbors who buy our straw. They have most of it baled now.
Bjrogg
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This baler was making big square bales as fast as we were making windrows with two big combines
Bjrogg
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Ah those big bails are no fun... Now thousands of small bails, that's a what I'm talking about!
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Yea my son still makes those.
Some things change ad some things stay the same. I’ll take a loader and the big squares myself.lol
Bjrogg
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That shower really germinated a lot of weeds. I had my cantaloupe and watermelons totally weed free before the rain.
I hoed them all again tonight lifting each vine out of the way and training them to head in the direction I want them to grow. Hopefully they stay weed free for long enough to choke out any that come again.
My sweet corn is really liking the rain and it’s just starting pollination. Won’t be long now.
Bjrogg
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These sugar beets got a couple nice rains the rest of them didn’t. They are looking pretty nice now.
We have been very fortunate and all of our sugar beets have gotten at least some rain now.
The temperature has cooled off a bit and getting heavy dew’s again. The beets are loving it but so do the diseases. So far it looks like they are staying pretty healthy though.
Bjrogg
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Bj, the weeds around your cucumbers look like purslane, pick and make ya a salad ;D Big money for purslane at hi end yuppy stores. Crops look good for as dry as it's been. Bob
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Good eye Outback.
I do eat it sometimes but nobody else in family has tried it yet.
I’m afraid the yuppies wouldn’t like mine. It’s not organic.
My mom always called it cancer weed. She didn’t know what it was but no matter what she did with it. It came back. I got wheelbarrows full if you want it.
Bjrogg
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Then I purslane all over my garden as well. I had to go out and try it and it's not bad, slightly sour taste with an okra finish... I'd eat it in a salad for sure.
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Thanks for the offer but like everyone I got my own purslane to deal with, weed it clean and after first rain here comes again, I guess it could be worse. Bob
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We are getting caught up in the fields now for a little while. Lots of stuff to get ready in shop yet though.
We limped through the wheat harvest with our cart. We thought it just needed a track changed. It turned out it needed more than that. Determined it had access wear in two bushings on track frame. One for front spindle and the Main one that hold the whole track frame on the cart frame.
We got track frame off cart and my nephew cut the weld holding the bushings in off. Pretty good headway on this job today. Still a long way from done though. Will have to align everything really carefully before we can weld new bushings in tight. Everything needs to fit perfectly.
Bjrogg
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We will really need this cart for sugar beets. We have to load our trucks with our two carts. We can’t get over the high sides on our semi trailers with the beet diggers elevator.
Speaking of which. We have extension on elevator. Still some work to do on it yet and we need to install it on digger yet to.
Bjrogg
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It been a pretty wild last couple days.
A few weeks ago one of the local Sportsmans Clubs asked me if I could bring some of my stuff to their youth mentors day. I’ve done this several times in the past . They haven’t done it since Covid and I was glad they decided to start it up again. I told them I would try my best to be there.
My dad has been on a journey for the past two years. He had Alzheimer’s extremely bad. He has been trying to go home for a couple years now.
Last night my siblings, their spouses and our step mother gathered with dad.
I wrote him a Aloha letter and read it to him. I told him I wasn’t going to tell him goodbye again. I had done that so many times already, thinking it was time when it wasn’t yet.
I told him it wasn’t up to me as to when it was time. I told him it was okay if he did though and that we would be okay. That we would remember him and pray for him. That he was a good father and had done a good job of raising us to be people this world could use more of. That we all just wanted what was best for him.
I told him all that and a bunch more.
Then I told him Aloha. Hello, goodbye and until we meet again.
We all told him our deepest wishes for him and how much we loved him.
I think it was one of those very rare moments where deep down inside somewhere he actually understood.
I know it sounds terrible but I left feeling better and hoping I didn’t see him suffer anymore.
This morning I woke up remembering I had promised to take my stuff to the youth mentor day.
I really didn’t know if I was still going to. I didn’t have anything packed and it’s a quite a bit of work to pack it all up. Haul it 35 miles set it all back up again. Show it to kids and parents for four hours answering the same questions over and over again. Pack it all back up haul it 35 miles back home. Unload it and sit it all back up again.
I didn’t think about it very long. I knew I needed to.
I knew I would enjoy it.
I knew the kids and parents would to and I really think stuff like this is important.
I didn’t take quite as much stuff as I normally would have, but it was plenty enough for everyone to look at .
I told the people who invited me when they thanked me for coming that I was glad to do it and I was glad they did all the work to organize it.
I told them about my dad and that I really needed to do this anyway.
As the kids started arriving my phone started receiving text.
My stepmother text saying they thought dad wasn’t going to be long.
That he was nearing the end of his journey.
I continued with the mentor day and like I knew I would. I felt very relaxed and happy for my dad. I enjoyed seeing all the young kids just starting their journey knowing my dad was ending one and starting another.
I stayed pretty busy with the kids and parents and occasionally got a chance to glance at the text on my phone.
And there it was. My dad had taken his last breath. He started his next journey. I felt so happy for him.
After the kids and parents were gone I packed everything up and headed home. I stopped at my dads sister in laws and told her in person. My dad’s brother had taken this same journey several years ago and she understood completely.
Then I went home. Unloaded my stuff. Sit it all back up again and contacted friends and family.
I guess that’s maybe why I’m writing this now. I do consider many of you friends and almost like family.
No need to be sorry. I really lost my dad years ago. Now I just feel happy for him and know he has a wonderful journey ahead.
Thanks for reading this.
Bjrogg
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Sincere condolences bjrogg. May your mind be at ease.
Piddler
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Certainly a rough road to travel down buddy. It's hard to say out loud but he's definitely in a better place. I'll be at elm hall on Saturday only and if you're there we'll cheers a beer to your pops.
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Thanks piddler. I really do appreciate the condolences. My mind is very much at ease. The last few months have been extremely difficult and tiring. I’m glad my dad can rest now.
Bjrogg
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Certainly a rough road to travel down buddy. It's hard to say out loud but he's definitely in a better place. I'll be at elm hall on Saturday only and if you're there we'll cheers a beer to your pops.
Thanks Paul. We’ve had some interesting conversation about life and death you and I. I know in my mind my dad is in a much better place. I truly believe that. His mind is clear . His conversations with old friends who’ve gone before him are once again interesting and he is with my mom again. I’m so happy for him.
I have missed him for a long time now. Now we are at peace.
Bjrogg
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God Bless BJ. I have been in the exact situation, with both Parents. Bob
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God Bless BJ. I have been in the exact situation, with both Parents. Bob
Thank Bob.
I’m sure that was very difficult.
I’m sure you have some idea how myself and my family feel now.
We have missed my dad for a long time already. It has been a difficult journey but we know he is a peace now. That does give us much relief.
It doesn’t stop the missing him. It does help very much though. We still miss him and many tear already have fallen and I’m sure many more will in the near future.
It does make it easier to remember the really good memories. I believe they will replace some of the very difficult ones as time goes on.
Thank You
Bjrogg
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My condolences, BJ. Going through that is a very difficult process with lots of conflicting emotions.
I went through same situation with my dad several years ago, he had a very aggressive alzheimer's that took him from an active farmer to a unrecognizable form over a very short period.
The night before going into hospice he had a very bad turn and at his hospital bed I leaned down and gave him a hug and said I love you dad and he said I love you Scott. It was the only understandable words that came out of his mouth that I'm aware of, for a second he was coherent and it shook me to my soul. He was gone a week later.
It is a blessing when it's finally over yet so painful at the same time.
God bless, BJ.
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Thanks Scott. My dad wasn’t able to talk for several months now. Before when he was it wasn’t anything that was understandable.
The really strange thing is. Since he quit being able to talk I have had more of those seconds where I really think deep down he recognized me.
Anybody going through this. I would like them to know. Although it almost always seems like your loved one doesn’t know you or know your even there. Those seconds do happen.
I visited my dad on my birthday. I told him hello dad. It’s BJ. It’s my birthday today. 61 years ago today I made you a dad for the first time.
He hadn’t opened his eyes or sat up in months.
He suddenly opened his eyes wide. Sat up and looked right at me. He was trying to say something but couldn’t.
I told him it was okay. I know dad. He got a smile. Closed his eyes and laid back down.
When I visited him I read him articles I wrote for PA magazine. It seemed to make him comfortable. I don’t know if it mattered what I said, but I think somewhere deep inside he still recognized my voice and it gave him comfort
Just a few of those seconds made a huge difference to me.
Bjrogg
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And here’s one that shows you never forget how to ride a bike. At this point in his life he only remembered a few of us. Even then not always.
He climbed on this bicycle in the shop and started riding it around. The shop was nearly empty and he had room to get up some speed. He was giggling like a little child. It was awesome
Bjrogg
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Those pics made me smile, thanks for sharing. He looks like a guy I'd have liked to have known.
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Those pics made me smile, thanks for sharing. He looks like a guy I'd have liked to have known.
Thanks Scott.
I’m sure he would have liked to meet you to. He wasn’t shy for a old farm boy. He loved visiting with people.
Yesterday funeral arrangements were made and my sister and I wrote his obituary.
I never dreamed I would write as many things as I have. I was terrible in English and composition. My sister is the teacher. We both have been gifted a way with words. I’ve written a quite a few articles, poems and letters. That was the hardest writing assignment either of us ever had.
It’s going to be a busy week.
Grandkids at the fair. They have goat show today. Rabbit show tomorrow and feeder calf show Thursday.
Then sale day Friday.
I’m going to try get to goat show today, but that’s probably going to be it for me.
I was hoping to sneak out to Elm Hall shoot, but I don’t think that’s going to happen either.
Safe travels to everyone going to Elm Hall. Will miss you all
Bjrogg
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So sorry for your loss, Brian.
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So sorry for your loss, Brian.
Thank You Pat but Don’t be sorry.
My loss was long ago.
This is the start of a new adventure for my dad . He always loved going to new places.
Bjrogg
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That's a great way to think about it. 8)
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Went to the fair to see the goat show today. Was a welcome distraction and good time spent with the grandkids.
I’m always a proud grandpa. But was really proud when my favorite granddaughter got Grand Champion with a goat she has raised from her own herd.
Bjrogg
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Then I got a few of dads things together.
They give me good memories.
His two handed catchers mitt he had in high school.
His fishing pole
He was a lifetime Tigers fan through thick and thin. His Cabrera triple crown signed bat and ball.
He made the wooden semi truck and trailer.
And a bundle of wheat from my field
Bjrogg
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My dad’s farm got some rain a couple weeks ago and the black beans are looking really nice.
We are supposed to get some rain tomorrow. We got some on my brothers farm yesterday and it was very much needed there.
Maybe dad can put in a word for us and pull a few strings.
Bjrogg
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Great to see that your granddaughter is participating in the livestock show and a champion to boot! It is a great experience for the kids in so many ways. I showed steers and hogs at county and WI State Fair through my youth, sold them at the county auction and that put me through college. I still support the auction and bought a lamb a couple weeks ago, looking forward to picking it up and having a lamb-burger!
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Thanks Scott.
Yes it’s really good for the kids. Her two brothers show to and they all work hard at it. They didn’t place as high but I’m proud of them to.
Their mother is a Ag teacher, FFA Advisor and 4-H leader.
They have a pretty large inventory of animals now. They did a financial statement this spring and had over $7,000 worth of goats. That’s before the animals grew and many were still kid goats. They have been breeding and raising them for several years now and I’m pretty proud she got Grand Champion with one of her home grown goats. Even beat out the fancy high priced kids.
They also have a lot of rabbits and several feeder steers. They have a lot of chore to do and I think that’s a good thing.
They also know the struggles and joys of raising animals. They have enjoyed them. Been frustrated by them . Watch and assisted in their births and cried over their deaths.
I really do wish everyone could experience that.
Bjrogg
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Amen!
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My condolences BJ. Sorry to hear.
Congrats on that grad champion!
Your beets look good there, your cart reminds me when we use to grow potatoes and the pull behind digging equipment that went along with the process
Tomato, peppers, lopes, cuks, zuks, corn and some other stuff getting picked here now. Things getting busy. About 3 weeks till ginger gold apples will be ready and that will start the main crop for me.
Much more going on, hope to get more free time to post some stuff soon, but cant right now everything just hitting me at the same time. so just checking in.
Mike
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Definitely understand the to busy to post Mike.
Thanks so much.
Wish you a safe and bountiful harvest.
I woke yesterday morning and looked at my radar. It looked like we were going to for sure get rain. As the morning progressed it all just petered out.
I got ready for dad’s funeral gathered up stuff I wanted to take up in procession. Headed for church. The sun was shining and it was a beautiful Service. Well attended especially for a 85 year old man who has been searching for home for the past three years.
After the service we went to the cemetery and still no rain. Nothing on the radar either. I was feeling a little down but it was so good to see so many people I hadn’t seen in to long. We ate and visited and most all had left. We were cleaning up the hall and it started a beautiful rain. It continued the rest of the day. I think everything we farm got at beautiful inch or better rain. We needed it so badly and the timing was perfect.
I was certain dad was home already, but this definitely reassured me. I think he even got to pull a few strings.
Some of my cousins stayed overnight and I’m spending some time with them today.
As Pappy says Life is Good
Enjoy it everyone
Bjrogg
Bjrogg
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I had a really relaxing and enjoyable day.
A couple of my cousins stayed overnight and one of them spent the whole day here yet today. When I was a kid he spent a couple summers working with my dad. He grew up in the city and loved working with my dad on the farm. He was a few years older than me, but I can remember it.
When he graduated school he joined the army and was stationed overseas. When he came back he moved out of the city to the upper peninsula. We really had a good visit and got a lot of the world’s problems solved. It was just very pleasant and I showed him around.
He reluctantly left about 6:00 this afternoon.
I’m really hoping we can do it again soon.
After he left I did some hoeing in the garden.
The rain was so welcome. Everything looks so much better.
You can literally smell everything growing today
Got a couple watermelons and cantaloupe developing
Bjrogg
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Glad You got that Rain BJ - God works in Mysterious ways, Dad was smiling for sure. Bob
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Glad You got that Rain BJ - God works in Mysterious ways, Dad was smiling for sure. Bob
Sure does Bob. My niece has been looking for a house for months. Yesterday they found just what they were looking for and made a offer. Guess we’ll see if they get it
Bjrogg
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Your Dad could finally get back to work, Brian, with the rain and finding the perfect house for your niece. What's he got planned for you guys next?
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Your Dad could finally get back to work, Brian, with the rain and finding the perfect house for your niece. What's he got planned for you guys next?
Thanks Pat.
Everyone likes feeling useful
It is so amazing how fast everything greened up. The beans are setting pods. Looks like the first blossoms had a few that took.
I can see a bunch of tiny one just starting to
Bjrogg
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Can barely tell which way the rows are planted here at dad’s now
Bjrogg
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Was just heading home from work the other night and a couple of my cousins called. We didn’t get much time to visit at the funeral and they were wondering if we could go to the beach. Had another nice bonfire and really good visit with more of my cousins.
Just something special about this place. As my cousin Chris says. It’s a good place to reboot your soul.
The weather has been foggy and humid now. The environment is good for growing and for fungus type diseases.
I applied white mold protection to our beans. The windmills where completely hidden by the fog when I first got there in the morning. By the time I refilled sprayer the fog was starting to lift and you could see all but the top of them.
Bjrogg
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Yesterday my son thought his rye might be dry enough. It was hot and very humid. The rye is for seed for cover crops. It has to be dry enough to not heat and ruin its germinate. I took the combine and header to the field and got a sample. It was 15.1 moisture and I harvested it. It should keep at that moisture.
After we finished we used a cordless leaf blower to clean up the combine a bit . This really helps add years to a combine’s life.
Bjrogg
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It almost always rains when a farmer is laid to rest. Rained like the dickens the day we buried my dad and can't tell you how many others farmer funerals I've been to and it's rained.
It's blessing from God and your dad, BJ!
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Good to see you guys getting some of your crop in. Your beans are looking nice. Its been wet and humid here for the last few weeks. Crazy how fast it can go from so dry to too wet.
Going to have the crew get a few bins of ginger golds on friday so I can pack some for the market on Saturday. Checked the sugar in them yesterday and their just at 12 brix so hope they sweeten up just a bit more but really like to start early with them. Took a look at some honey crisp the other day and they are coming along good, It will be the first good harvest off these trees so looking forward to how they produce.
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52276141070_1c30668df4_w.jpg) (https://www.flickr.com/gp/158435722@N02/P341E19p68)IMG_4966 (https://www.flickr.com/gp/158435722@N02/P341E19p68) by Mike Allridge (https://www.flickr.com/photos/158435722@N02/), on Flickr
Another month and we should be starting on them.
I interrupted an armyworm's breakfast the other morning in the last planting of corn.
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52275659606_6f8dc40dd2_w.jpg) (https://www.flickr.com/gp/158435722@N02/1824z6JZ9o)IMG_4964 (https://www.flickr.com/gp/158435722@N02/1824z6JZ9o) by Mike Allridge (https://www.flickr.com/photos/158435722@N02/), on Flickr
They just started to arrive from the south so I'll have to keep tabs on them. They can cause a problems for me in a hurry.
Mike
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I know that to busy to post feeling Mike.
It’s been a crazy busy week here to.
Yup it always takes a long time to get to dry but it can get to wet in a hurry.
We certainly aren’t to wet here yet. The only real rain we got was on my dad’s funeral day. Still very great full for it. Sure could use some more. My lawn is starting to turn brown again. We are definitely farming a depleted subsoil now.
One of the reasons we bought the sprayer we did is that it’s designed especially for spraying tall corn. In the past this job was done by the airplane. This sprayer has cones over the wheel rims to smoothy guide the tall corn stalks around them. It also is very tall so it clears the top of lots of corn. The bottom of unit is covered with smooth removable panels so it doesn’t tear up or break over the corn.
There are two “wands” for sensing the corn rows and steering between them.
The sprayer boom is designed to raise very high. The center section right in front of the cab can be switched off and a section behind unit turned on to keep from driving through the sprayed corn.
I sprayed almost 2,000 acres this week for neighbors.
It’s a pretty crazy job.
Kinda like being in a corn maze. It’s easy to get lost in the tall corn. It would certainly be difficult without the GPS.
I took a couple pictures and a video. The pictures don’t really do the job justice, but I can’t post the video. Just have to imagine that you are driving 9 mph through a 10’ tall corn crop. 9 mph might not seem very fast to you but I’m pretty sure if you were sitting in the drivers seat you’d think it was.
Bjrogg
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The crop duster was doing a field a couple miles away.
I have to admit I was a little jealous. I always thought I could really get into aerial application work. I love this kind of flying.
This guy is pulling some pretty serious G’s . He’s banking 90 degrees about 110’ off the deck. Going a lot faster than 10 mph to.
I have a video of him I can’t post either and this isn’t a great picture but it’s always fun watching these guys and gals.
Bjrogg
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My dad’s cousin passed away. He was 86 and a good friend of my dads. He actually married my dads sister in law after my dad’s brother passed away.
My cousin came back for his funeral and we got together with some friends at the beach for a bonfire.
Was a beautiful night. Prefect temperature for a bonfire. The full moon rising over the lake was amazing. I know I’ve said it before, but this is really a special place. Wish you all could be here.
Bjrogg
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Full moon rising
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That Corn Sprayer, is pretty cool. Good Beach pics - can't go wrong there (=) ! Bob
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Thanks Bob wish I could post the video. It makes you dizzy watching the corn fly by.
Here’s another beach picture for you. There were several freighters on the horizon. Took a picture of this one for you
Bjrogg
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Sorry to hear about you loss BJ, thoughts and prayers with you and your family.
Pappy
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Always liked August, chasing Silver Fish out near the Shipping Channel. Up close and Personal with the Freighters (lol). Thanks for posting - Bob.
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Sorry to hear about you loss BJ, thoughts and prayers with you and your family.
Pappy
Thanks Pappy. We really appreciate the thoughts and prayers. They are very welcome.
Would have liked to get to Elm Hall to see everyone but it wasn’t in the big plan
Bjrogg
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So true BJ, Missed you but understand, Prov. 16:9 always applies. Beautiful pictures of the beach by the way. Looks very peaceful. :)
Pappy
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Finished spraying corn yesterday and cleaned up my sprayer. Driving through the tall corn is kinda messy. Flowers from the tassels get in all the knocks and crannies.
I opened all the access panels and blew them out good with the air compressor hose .
Then I washed it good with the power washer. Fixed a couple fittings I had to make a field fix on when I didn’t have the proper fittings. Tested everything out with clean water again and made sure everything was in working order.
I’m also taking care of my son’s cattle for a few days. They were happy to see me. Some really nice looking steers in this barn . They look like they are pretty happy here.
Bjrogg
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Was feeding my son’s cattle this morning and the aerial applicator was eating up some acres. Did the farm next door.
Had to stop and watch. Took pictures of one pass.
I really do still have the bug to try that, but I’m probably getting a little old to start that game anymore.
Still fun to watch though
Bjrogg
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Just starting to pull up on the last picture.
Bjrogg
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No where around here flat or large enough for a crop duster. But I did see one years ago I think we were driving through Arkansas. He was doing some crazy turns. I'll always remember that.
Here's a pic from the cab of my boom in some 10' ornamental corn(Indian corn). Sweet corn don't get that tall anymore, but back when I was a picker Silver King would get 10-12' high. Use to have a hard time throwing it into the truck or wagon if you were a few rows out.
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52295777240_f8f99c1676_w.jpg) (https://www.flickr.com/gp/158435722@N02/yCi01Z6f07)IMG_4988 (https://www.flickr.com/gp/158435722@N02/yCi01Z6f07) by Mike Allridge (https://www.flickr.com/photos/158435722@N02/), on Flickr
I do 3.5 mph with this sprayer so 9 mph is flying for me BJ :)
Tried to get a good pick of the tomato field thats producing right now. Very well might be some of the nicest stuff I've seen in 30 years. Plants are still good and healthy so thats a hugh plus. 8 weeks till we start final pick so the count down is on. This field is just over an acre.
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52295552529_a0d65d9062_w.jpg) (https://www.flickr.com/gp/158435722@N02/58Rk271s12)IMG_4989 (https://www.flickr.com/gp/158435722@N02/58Rk271s12) by Mike Allridge (https://www.flickr.com/photos/158435722@N02/), on Flickr
I had a crew sort pick 400 honey crisp trees in the new orchard, (Premiere) an early variety. Didn't use bins but they went straight into 1/2 bu boxes to reduce handling. Got almost 5 full skids so not bad for the first pick in new trees. I suppose they will be in full production in 2 more years and we'll get 2x that. But these will all get sold retail in the market by the pound and there is nothing to cull out.
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52295289241_554e828bd1_w.jpg) (https://www.flickr.com/gp/158435722@N02/iz5H1xX880)IMG_4992 (https://www.flickr.com/gp/158435722@N02/iz5H1xX880) by Mike Allridge (https://www.flickr.com/photos/158435722@N02/), on Flickr
I'll be shifting gears now and start to spend much of my time washing/grading apples like the ginger golds below. Got Gala coming in as soon as I get a bit more color on them, as well as a new variety Crimson crisp. I hope I can have they guys go over them before next weekend, but not sure how fast they will ripen up. Same with the main season honey crisp. And it will go on and on for the next 6+weeks. One of my main pickers had to go home for a family emergency and he took his nephew with him so I'll be down 2 pickers for a spell. I hope all goes as well as it can for them. I have not picked with the crew for a number of years now but may have to see if I can still keep up with the young bucks. Tomorrow we will start to finish up ginger golds, depends on how many pickers I can get on weather or not we will finish them off or continue on Saturday.
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52295288943_61216065a1_w.jpg) (https://www.flickr.com/gp/158435722@N02/ANZm38mD57)IMG_4981 (https://www.flickr.com/gp/158435722@N02/ANZm38mD57) by Mike Allridge (https://www.flickr.com/photos/158435722@N02/), on Flickr
Maybe I'll be able to get a few more pics here when I post some from the arrow trade but I may be done until things slow down. Hard to say how much free time Ill have till end of October. I do my best work in my shop when I'm busy at the farm lol. Best wishes BJ for getting your crops in. I suppose you'll be in the combine Deep into November, I hope to get some down time before that:)
Mike
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Thanks for sharing your operation Mike.
I find it all very interesting. They certainly have developed some really amazing varieties of apples. They are so sweet, tasty and crisp. Not to mention huge. Some of them are getting so big I can’t hardly eat a whole apple.
I wish you a safe and successful harvest. Hope you find enough help and get your crop in. If not I hope you can still show the young bucks how it’s done. That usually inspires them just knowing you have done it all to.
I debated weather or not I was going to post this. I’ve gone to so many funerals lately it’s kinda scary.
I didn’t want to turn this post into a downer.
I guess I just can’t ignore it though.
Today I have another funeral to go to.
It’s one I knew was coming for a few years now and definitely knew it was coming for the past few months and weeks.
My brother in law was diagnosed with ALS about 3 1/2 years ago. He was what I would call a proud man. He was taken to early, but in his lifetime he did so much good.
He was a fantastic husband, father, grandfather, friend and brother in law. ALS is a nasty disease that takes its victims in a rather undignified way. My brother in law showed so much dignity through the whole fight. He leaves a very sad , but well raised family. They will very much miss him, but he has prepared them well. I know they will do well. I know he is proud of them and they are proud of him. And I’m proud of all of them.
Sorry to bring another passing, but living in this area I know so many of my neighbors and helping others cope with their grief is something we may struggle with, but we certainly try to support however we can. Some are harder than others. This one is going to hurt for awhile.
Bjrogg
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Sweet corn is perfect right now. Will be to busy to freeze it for a couple days. Did do a little tonight. Sweet and tender. Just right for eating off the cob.
Grateful for the sweet corn and being able to enjoy another sunset.
Bjrogg
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Thoughts and Prayers sent Bud, sorry for Your loss ! Bob
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That is beautiful corn. I always grew a corn patch every three years and vacuum sealed what I grew for the freezer. I put up enough the last time to last 4 years and surprisingly it was as good 4 years later as when I put it up.
I restocked this year but old age has caught up with me so I made a trip to the local Amish community and bought my corn for $3.50-$4.00 a dozen rather than grow it myself. I have put countless tons of manure in my garden spot over the years and keeping the weeds out of my corn patch is a very labor-intensive job which I can no longer do.
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Thoughts and Prayers sent Bud, sorry for Your loss ! Bob
Thanks Bob.
They are very welcome
and much appreciated.
Bjrogg
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That is beautiful corn. I always grew a corn patch every three years and vacuum sealed what I grew for the freezer. I put up enough the last time to last 4 years and surprisingly it was as good 4 years later as when I put it up.
I restocked this year but old age has caught up with me so I made a trip to the local Amish community and bought my corn for $3.50-$4.00 a dozen rather than grow it myself. I have put countless tons of manure in my garden spot over the years and keeping the weeds out of my corn patch is a very labor-intensive job which I can no longer do.
Thanks Eric. It could have used a little more rain but it’s looking pretty good yet.
I remember one spring one of my friends had been watching a lot of home and garden TV. He decided he wanted to turn part of his lawn into garden. I helped him till a spot. He wanted something four times as big.
I told him he’d be able to grow plenty of weeds in the area we tilled already.
A few weeks later he said I was right.
He grew enough weed seeds in that spot to last another 200 years and then he turned it back into lawn.
It’s sometimes a shame that it takes a young back to work in the garden.
The older I get the more I appreciate a nice garden.
I’ve seen pictures of yours in the past and they were well taken care of.
Bjrogg
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Had a nice rain Saturday evening. I ended up getting .7” my brother got 1.5” and my nephew got .9”
It was certainly needed and welcome.
Bjrogg
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I picked several bags of sweet corn and my wife and daughter husked it.
Then I boiled it and blanched it in the kids swimming pool. Really helps keep the heat and humidity out of the house.
Then my wife cut it off the cob and I bagged it in freezer bags and put it in freezer.
Had to sample several cobs for quality control. They all passed inspection. Em em good
Bjrogg
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Everyone was a good tired after that. With a good feeling of accomplishment
Bjrogg
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Wow, that corn looks good! Ours won't be ready for another week or two. Tomatoes just starting to get ripe, too, and more summer squash and raspberries than we know what to do with.
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Picked first tomato yesterday WB. Sure is hard to beat the flavor of fresh from the garden sweet corn and tomatoes.
Pretty much everything fresh out of the garden.
The guys have been working at getting stuff ready in the shop. We have a lot of stuff to get ready and make repairs on.
I’ve been working in the fields, but I’m thinking I should be able to help in the shop today.
The first navy’s we planted are starting to turn. I’m thinking about another two weeks maybe three.
Bjrogg
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It’s hard to believe as dry as it’s been, but I’m finding white mold in some of our beans. I’m hoping it doesn’t spread to much. It’s late enough in the season now that hopefully it doesn’t hurt our harvest seriously. This can be a very devastating disease for us. Cool temperatures and heavy dews are the perfect environment for it.
Bjrogg
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When I got home last night I finished picking the first row of sweet corn. Then I cut the stalks off and put them in my pickup bed. Then I spread them out in my field.
I did this to give my cantaloupe and watermelon a little more room.
Bjrogg
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Haven’t had much time to work on personal projects lately.
Last night I put in some personal overtime and put my new ladder stand together. Then I watched the sunset
I put in a food plot this year and I know right where I want to set this stand up. Hopefully I can find the time to get it done.
Today the grandkids are coming over to help me with sweet corn. It’s always good to have their help. Especially since they are getting big enough to really help.
Bjrogg
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Looks like you had a good assembly line going for putting up the corn, like how you used the kiddy swimming pool. The wife and I put up about 8 doz. a few weeks ago. First year with out any kids living full time in the house so not sure if that will be too little or too much. So long as we still have some for Christmas and Easter dinners it will all be good.
We didn't grow any beans this year, Thats probably a good thing, doubt we would have had the labor to hand harvest snap beans. But I have seen that mold before....glad you think your far enough along it will not cause major issues.
Had the guys start on some Jona Macs and Gala. I hope by Monday they can get the gala in the old orchard picked off and we can start on the ones in the new orchard, they are some pretty apples. Its kinda the calm before the storm right now. Just trying plug along at things waiting for the main season apples to ripen up.
Mike
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Saturday we really got the assembly line going.
Not sure how many quart bags will filled but had to be close to fifty. And three ice cream buckets for the holidays.
We should have plenty of corn now. My wife uses it in a lot of the dishes she makes up. It really adds flavor to them. Nothing like the canned stuff from the store.
Bjrogg
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Was planning on getting some play time jobs done Sunday but came down with a stomach flue and was in no shape for anything.
Monday was still pretty wozzy but managed to get my ladder stand up. And trim around a couple other ones.
My first real food plot.
Bjrogg
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Looks like a great place to Stick a Deer BJ (SH) :-D ! Bob
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Looks like a great place to Stick a Deer BJ (SH) :-D ! Bob
Sure hoping so Bob. I’ve been thinking about doing this for a couple years now. I can see them giving me a good shot already.
Bjrogg
PS when the leaves drop I’ll have a good view of the sunrise over the lake to the east just down the hill.
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Navy’s are getting closer. These were our first ones planted and they didn’t get much rain. They aborted most of the later pods. They quit blossoming weeks ago. There’s a few green pods now but they are coming along.
I’m thinking maybe a week and half.
Bjrogg
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Coming along nicely. Son-in-law have there lentils done and going to be durum next. Average yield, but with the lack of rain it coulda been worse
Thanks Leroy
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Down to the last few acres of sweet corn for the season, Ill not having it as a option for dinner every night but Ill be glad to move on from keeping the worms at bay. A good year, we were able to sell our own every day since the 4th of July. You never know how pick dates will turn out when you plant the stuff. Had to walk away from the zuks because the deer have been eating them off the plants before the flower starts to wilt and no one has time to stand gaurd any more :) Too many tomatos, but have given the local food bank maybe 200 bu up to this point. so its good to see them being used to help out the local folks in need.
Did a starch test on some new varieties(daybreak fuji/crimson crisp) the other day. I recall doing it as a kid in grade school with potatoes. I wanted to see how much starch had been converted to sugars. The brix(sugar content) was reading very high but figured I'd do it anyway to double check if I should have the fellas start picking.
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52347498170_e14003bc84_w.jpg) (https://www.flickr.com/gp/158435722@N02/x3o36r69J0)IMG_5051 (https://www.flickr.com/gp/158435722@N02/x3o36r69J0) by Mike Allridge (https://www.flickr.com/photos/158435722@N02/), on Flickr
Halves on left have the iodine on and halves on right do not. Looks like there is very little starch left, time to come off to sell now, they will not hold in storage very long. But the best test is taking a bite, I dont eat apples any other time of the year but I make up for it this time of the year. Got a 1000 bu in the cooler as of now but the main season varities will be coming in within the next 2 weeks it looks like. Coffee done best head out.
Mike
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Thanks for sharing and Mike.
It’s been crazy busy around here getting stuff ready for bean and sugar beet harvest.
I did manage last weekend to finish up my point for the trade in flint knapping section
And my arrow for arrow trade. Got them both sent out Wednesday. Hopefully they survive the trip.
Bjrogg
Here’s a couple pictures
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It’s still been very, very dry here yet.
Our well ran out of water a couple weeks ago and I have been hauling water for my well and garden every chance I get.
My melons are really liking the water
Bjrogg
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I think I’m finished with the sprayer for the year. That’s always a good feeling.
I did look at some of our field corn. Its really variable. This is a good spot. Nice cobs filled right out to the end. Lots of places where there aren’t any cobs. Wish it all looked like this.
My son is going to run out of high moisture corn for his cattle pretty soon. Hopefully we can find something to harvest to get him by.
Bjrogg
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We got together with the kids and grandkids for a camping trip to our county park. It only a few miles from my house so it works out pretty good even when I’m really busy.
Had a two ring fire and it looked like someone put a little copper in it to my eye. A beautiful night and a beautiful fire.
Bjrogg
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We did harvest some black beans for a good friend and neighbor last Friday. Bean looked really good quality. Way to dry though. We don’t like handling them when they are so dry as they split really bad and we get deducted for splits. We did get a few spotty showers over weekend and some cloudy days. Hopefully that puts a little more moisture in the beans and helps with harvest. Usually we don’t want rain for bean harvest
Bjrogg
Sorry no pictures of bean harvest yet , but we should be really busy in them by mid week
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I cut down 4 rows of sweet corn stalks yesterday afternoon and spread them out in my field.
Then I did a little practice shooting from my new ladder stand.
Not to bad , but I need some more practice yet.
Bjrogg
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Not a bad group for starters!
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Nice shooting, Brian. When does your season open?
By the way, I got my trade arrow in the mail today. Beautiful and well made. Is the shaft hill cane?
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That was a Fine looking Arrow/Point ! Good luck with the crops and Hunting, season is just around the corner :-D . Bob
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Thanks WB. I need to keep working at it so I can do it by instinct.
Thanks PatB glad you got your arrow in one piece. Yes I believe it is hill cane that you sent me a few years ago. Our bow hunting season starts October 1. Sure hoping I can sneak out and get some hunting in. Going to be really short handed though.
Thanks Bob. Yes your right. Hunting season is right around the corner. Hopefully things work out and I get to spend some time in my trees
Bjrogg
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For the past few days my nephew has been working at harvesting Navy Beans and I have been harvesting Black Beans.
Yesterday I had all the black beans that were ready harvested and I cleaned out my combine and went to help my nephew with the navy’s. We have to clean out combine and trucks when we switch between the different colored beans. The processors don’t like black beans in the white navies or navies in the blacks. Soybeans are even a bigger problem.
It was a good thing I helped as my nephew had a break down and I had to finish the navies by myself. We did get them.
Today switch back to blacks. Fix on both combines and see if any blacks are ready now.
Bjrogg
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I've been out a while and you've stayed busy as usual and fall is right around the corner. That must be a bugger cleaning out the combine when switching to different beans!
The big rain must not have hit you guys, we got 5 inches while I was bear hunting and just south of us got 11, thankfully that missed us!
Good luck on your harvest.
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Looks like you got some nice mellons coming along BJ. Also great looking arrow you sent out for the trade.
Best wishes on your bean harvest.
I had the crew long enough this week to get some golds picked for longer term storage, 30 bins. They are a bit green now but will ripen up slowly over time in the cooler. I hope they will be ready for retail sale come December.
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52365009802_9892c26a1b_w.jpg) (https://www.flickr.com/gp/158435722@N02/g5p964jQ40)IMG_5101 (https://www.flickr.com/gp/158435722@N02/g5p964jQ40) by Mike Allridge (https://www.flickr.com/photos/158435722@N02/), on Flickr
Only grow a few acres of pumpkins now a days but they are about 2 weeks off yet. Some powdery mildew in them but it looks like an average crop.
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52365947961_de5cd6d74a_w.jpg) (https://www.flickr.com/gp/158435722@N02/663W7MKr08)IMG_5100 (https://www.flickr.com/gp/158435722@N02/663W7MKr08) by Mike Allridge (https://www.flickr.com/photos/158435722@N02/), on Flickr
Not really farm related but after a long time of not bow hunting I'm finally going to get back to it this year i hope. So was putting a new ladder stand together in the tractor shed the other evening. Then I heard the buzz overhead. Seems one of the local hives thought they needed to find a better home. Odd time of the year for a swarm and not the best timing for me lol. They would have left me alone but after a bit I figured I better just go home lol. They were there the next morning still but had left by mid afternoon. One of these days I'm going to collect a few swarms and start a few of my own hives but too many other projects atm and this small swarm was a bit too high to get at easy. Most folks dont have these kind of issues at the office haha.
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52366373135_2c239d90b7_w.jpg) (https://www.flickr.com/gp/158435722@N02/M6R7gMm09u)IMG_5105 (https://www.flickr.com/gp/158435722@N02/M6R7gMm09u) by Mike Allridge (https://www.flickr.com/photos/158435722@N02/), on Flickr
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52365947516_c01e9149e7_w.jpg) (https://www.flickr.com/gp/158435722@N02/7692867MRg)IMG_5104 (https://www.flickr.com/gp/158435722@N02/7692867MRg) by Mike Allridge (https://www.flickr.com/photos/158435722@N02/), on Flickr
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Thanks for sharing Mike.
Those apples look really nice. We don’t have much for apples this year. The ones we do have are very small.
I see quite a few pumpkins on wagons for sale around the area now.
My muskmelons are getting to the end. They were a little small but very tasty. I probably should have watered them earlier but we don’t have enough water in our well for the house let alone the garden.
We e have plenty for ourselves and enough to share with a few close friends.
My watermelons aren’t quite ready yet. My wife and I love eating watermelon standing over the kitchen sink. Em I can’t wait.
Scott you are correct about the being a pain cleaning out the combines when switching bean colors. My son and I probably spent at least a hour cleaning out the navy beans. My nephew spent another half hour cleaning his. We still had a few white beans in the sample and they probably cost us a couple grand. I’m about to give up on Navy’s. The market is shrinking and right now the price is $4 a cwt less than Blacks. They are much riskier to grow and don’t yield any better. In the past they were a premium, but now at a discount it’s not a very good economic decision.
We did finish our beans yesterday and got all the beans my son had ready. One thing nice about no rain is we can sure get a lot of work done.
Bjrogg
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In the last field
Bjrogg
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Our yields have been higher but our quality is excellent.
Here’s a tease of that beautiful bean footage.
Bjrogg
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And then we worked at my grandsons field. He helped me out and things got interesting. Love having him ride along and we took a selfie
Bjrogg
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My son finished up the last of his black beans yesterday. We still have some to do for a couple neighbors but we are done with ours. So far it’s been the easiest edible bean harvest I can remember.
No rain days. At least nothing that amounted to anything.
My brother and I started planting wheat. He has been working at fall tillage working the clover cover crop up. We normally would have left it longer but it’s so dry it hasn’t been growing anyway. He has chemo and radiation next month five days a week so we are going to be missing him then. Might as well get as much done as we can now. We decided to terminate the clover. Spread rye for a winter cover and do our tillage.
I was thinking about no till wheat and letting him stay at fall tillage. I tried about 21 acres but decided to have him work it ahead.
I have a little moisture. Not much. Hopefully I can get this wheat up and it’s gets enough rain to keep it alive. We are still very dry
Bjrogg
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Well here’s something I haven’t had in a while. A rain day
Started planting wheat this morning and the sky was looking a little like rain.
The tractor my brother is doing the tillage with is our newest tractor and the one that makes the most trouble.
I’m sure it’s just another sensor, but it just decided it wasn’t going to move and stopped right under the windmill.
My nephew had to help him pull it out of the field.
They know more than got it to the buildings and I got seed wagon and grain drill inside and it started raining.
Really spotty but we got .7” here so that’s good. Wish it was all planted now. It’s okay though. It’s early yet.
Bjrogg
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If you look at the base of the windmill you can see my brother in his tractor. Gives you a little idea how big these mills are.
Bjrogg
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Tractor towed to the yard. Sitting in the rain
Bjrogg
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Thought of You , when I heard the Storm Warnings, that went up for Your area yesterday. Bob
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Very dry here also BJ, calling for a little chance today and then none for another week or so, September is usually a dry month for us anyway but with the dry summer it has made it worse. Leaves are drying up and falling like late fall. Woods are really opening up. I have no crops to plant so I guess it;s ok for now. :)
Pappy
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Thought of You , when I heard the Storm Warnings, that went up for Your area yesterday. Bob
Thanks Bob. We got lots of lightning and thunder. Just a little bit of a sprinkle. Then when it looked like it was done it decided to drop everything it had and gave us .7” on this field. It was definitely appreciated.
Bjrogg
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Very dry here also BJ, calling for a little chance today and then none for another week or so, September is usually a dry month for us anyway but with the dry summer it has made it worse. Leaves are drying up and falling like late fall. Woods are really opening up. I have no crops to plant so I guess it;s ok for now. :)
Pappy
There’s definitely a change in the air Pappy.
The windmills are pointing to the north now and a cool chilly north wind is powering them. The temperature had dropped to low 40’s at night even in the 30’s onto a high in the low 50’s. Our clouds are those low fall clouds that remind one of fall.
We fixed the tractor yesterday morning. It was just a sensor.
Had to wait till it dried off a little on top to start planting again. Did some logistics to get wheat seed were we needed it and refilled seed wagon. Did a few little repair jobs on the grain drill and even cleaned my tractor windows .
Got planting about 12:30 pm. Not making any dust now.
Bjrogg
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Been a busy week.
The weather has definitely changed. We are still dry as soil conditions go, but It’s been cool, damp and occasionally drizzle and mist. Not the nice bean harvesting weather we had just a little while ago. Lots of beans out there yet and now the struggles of harvest are leaving them out there awhile longer. Which also prevents them from planting wheat.
I was hoping to get Sunday off, but with the weather forecast I decided to work at finishing planting wheat. Got done and I’m really glad to have that job checked off the list.
Also got my son’s corn silage chopped. When we had cattle we had a chopper. Now he hires a neighbor.
Wow these new choppers are amazing. 800 hp and a twenty foot head. It runs through the corn. Makes our old whopper chopper look like a toy.
Glad to have my son’s corn chopped. Will soon be time to harvest the high moisture shelled corn. He’s almost out. Hopefully corn is ready in a few weeks. At least enough to get some harvested to feed the cattle.
Bjrogg
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Bjrogg
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Sure has been a change in the temperatures in the last week or so.
Glad you had a quick fix to your tractor. funny how things brake down when you really need them. Our large cooler froze up over the weekend, had to pull a bunch of bins out just to access units on the ceiling. I think it will be ready to start filling back up today. Going to be a busy week picking Gold del., jonagolds, reds and some others as well. I'll be on a forklift most of the week stacking bins in the cooler, if not at the washer or in the orchards. I wanted to hook up the mower and make 1 last pass in the orchard to make it easier picking for the guys but tractor work is done for the next few weeks for me.
Mike
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Thanks for sharing Mike. Hope your cooler doesn’t make any more trouble. Hope your apples store really well.
I spent most of yesterday catching up on my computer. I m not the greatest on the computer so it takes me three times as long to do anything on it as most people, but I got my production records for navy and black beans entered. Today I will try to enter all my wheat planting data.
I can only work on computer so long. By mid afternoon I needed to work at something else. The driveway at my Aunts farm has a elevation drop of about 12’ getting in and out of field. We have sugar beets there this year so we need that driveway in good shape. It has some pretty serious erosion problems so I loaded up a small tandem load of reclaimed ash fault millings and piled them close to the driveway. Today I will try to get back there with the loader and level it all off nice.
I also gave my brother a little help working on his hunting blind.
The rye we spread on the clover cover and did the tillage on is starting to come up. I was feeling bad about terminating the clover so early, but I think it was the right move now. I’m glad we have the tillage done. We would have to terminate the clover now anyway and it hasn’t grown much where other people have left it. The rye can stay all winter to. The wildlife and my ground will love it.
Bjrogg
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Well the season seems to have changed.
Yesterday was the first day that it didn’t rain in 8 days. We actually are still pretty dry as we only got .7” , but it isn’t drying like it was before.
It’s been cool, windy and damp. With occasional drizzle and rain. Highs in the 50’s and lows in the low 40’s. The hot humid stuff is gone for now.
Still much better than the weather their getting in Florida and locations effected by Ian. Praying for you all.
I did get caught up on my computer. I got my extra wheat seed returned and grain drill vacuumed out. Today I’m hoping to wash it a get it ready to park away.
The first wheat I planted is up really nice now. The rest should be coming up soon. The drizzling rain should have been just what it needed and expect it to be a good stand.
Late yesterday afternoon we covered my sons corn silage with plastic. We would ideally have done it as soon as we had it filled, but it’s been to windy to work with the big sheets of plastic. Yesterday afternoon was perfect. Hardly any wind, cool and sunny. It went really good. We spread the plastic out over the top of the silage and then we put a thin layer of beet lime over the plastic to hold it down. This works really well and we have never lost the plastic to the wind using this method. It’s sure nice having some young blood for the job. My grandkids and some of their friends helped and it definitely made the job easier.
I also found time to knap a point for my good friend DJ. He is the first person besides myself to shoot one of my selfbows. He’s shoot almost as many of my bows as I have. He was in a motorcycle deer accident about 3 years ago and been working at rehab ever since. He finally got to where he thinks he can hunt with his selfbow again. He brought it over and I made him a new string as his old one was showing a lot of wear. He was shooting very good. I can’t think of many things that put a bigger smile on my face than watching someone enjoy shooting one of my bows. Especially when they are hammering the bullseye.
He is really wanting to get one this year with his selfbow and stone point. I hope he does. That’d be pretty cool
Also my buddy Tom stopped over and is getting pretty serious with his selfbow I made him. He’s a big compound hunter. He’s a very good hunter and I think if he really gets serious and puts his mind to it he might get hooked on hunting with his selfbow to.
It’s opening day tomorrow. I hope to get out there, but I can already see things popping up. I think I still should get a little time to sit in my new ladder stand.
Stay safe everyone.
Bjrogg
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Got the grain drill cleaned up a stored away.
Looked at the first wheat I planted. It’s up really nice. Hopefully the rest will to and I didn’t have any screw ups . Maybe should have waited till all the wheat was up and I could check I didn’t have a unknown problem somewhere before I stored drill away.
Bjrogg
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Hauled a little dirt from our pile by the woods. The leaves on the maples are starting to turn.
Bjrogg
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I got some hunting stuff ready for tomorrow. Hopefully get a little time in.
Here’s what’s going in my quiver.
Bjrogg
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I did get out to my new ladder stand yesterday morning. Only saw one button buck, but it was good to be able to hunt again.
Bjrogg
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About 10:30 I quit hunting. I had promised I would help my brother set up his new hunting blind.
This one didn’t come from a bass pro shop. It’s all reclaimed materials from old buildings we have taken down over the years and old beet digger parts.
It turned out to be quite a logistical and technical feet to get this loaded and hauled 14 miles and then set up at its new site
Bjrogg
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First we used both loaders to pick up the tower and then drove trailer ahead.
Bjrogg
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Then we used the telescopic loader to set tower standing up again. Was a little scary but managed to get it done without it coming through the front of the cab when it tipped back up.
Then we set the blind on 4”X 6” on top of tower. It has tapered guides on its bottom to help line it up.
Bjrogg
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Now we can take the fork extensions off and come around to one side. We picked side up enough to get 4x6 out and then pried it up enough to get forks out.
Bjrogg
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Then we did same to other side.
Bjrogg
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Then we secured the blind to the tower
Bjrogg
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It might not be noticeable from the pictures but this isn’t very level ground. Now that we have blind secured to tower we pick up the whole works and slowly, carefully carry it to its new site.
Bjrogg
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Now just need to give it a turn
Bjrogg
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There it sits on its new site.
Then we level it and put the stairs up.
Bjrogg
Should make a darn nice hunting spot for many, many years. I think it’ll out last me.
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No that's a stand. :)
Pappy
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Now all you need is a TV, a lounge chair and a frig and you can do an all day sit. :OK The Tower of Power!
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Way cool = I could live in that ! LOL . Bob
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Yes it’s definitely a nice hunting blind and in a really nice spot to. We built three of them several years ago. The rest are on reclaimed treated 8”X 8” post. This one had to be taken down and moved.
My brother decided to make the tower from old beet digger rolls this time. While it was in our shop people who stopped by kept trying to figure out what we were making. I kept telling them it was a Parker Snovel wash plant.lol. My buddy DJ thought my brother was more the Tony Beets type without the hair.lol I’m affectionately calling it the Dredge.
It’s going to outlast us all I think. It’s very well built and a good use of reclaimed materials.
I climbed up and looked out the windows when we finished setting it up, but I didn’t have my phone with me to take pictures. It’s a really nice view. It’s sitting in what’s almost a meadow between two small food plots. There’s a small creek just to the north of it. It has windows from old bus all the way around with a trap door in the floor to enter or exit. It’s insulated and has a twenty pound propane can for its heater.
My brother has spent the night in it before.
Was a good project to do together. Maybe as much fun as hunting from it.
Bjrogg
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I haven’t had time to get out hunting since opening day.
Sunday my brother and I took both combines and harvested 100 acres of black beans for a neighbor.
It went good. My brother farmed with me for most of my life. Several years ago we had serious financial difficulties and he left the farm for a job that actually pays you money. :o
He really enjoyed getting back in the combine for a day.
Bjrogg
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Yesterday my son and I switched his combine over to soybeans. We did 40 acres for a neighbor so he could get his wheat planted. It went good and I was surprised that the yield was pretty decent. I really thought the soybeans would be a disaster. He did get a nice rain the same time my dads farm did in late July.
Today I think we will try some of our soybeans. They are almost all on sugar beet field end rows. It always takes a lot of running around putting headers on and off. Moving combine, trucks and header’s.
Not big acre days. But a lot easier than harvesting sugar beets from the end rows.
Speaking of sugar beets. They have been harvesting early digs for almost a month now. We don’t have any early digs, but I might try our beet digger out in a neighbors field today or tomorrow. See how things work or don’t work. We did a lot of stuff to this machine and I would like to make sure it’s ready when we do start permanent piles.
Bjrogg
Didn’t get any pictures of soybean harvest for neighbor, but we sure have been getting some pretty sunsets
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Pretty big day yesterday.
Started out taking a doubles load of black beans to Star of the West .
Then moved trucks and headed to the soybean fields.
Still had a little time before the dew was off so I took the beet digger to my neighbors field and dug 12 rows. It worked really good so we called it a successful test.
Then I got in the combine and went at soybeans. This farm had a lot of end rows on the beet fields. I did 18.8 acres of headlands. Then there was a 28 acre wedge field across the tracks. I finished up just as the sun was setting in my mirror. With the moon in the sky.
Was a good day
Bjrogg
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Half moon in sky and setting sun in my mirror
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Beautiful picture, sounds like you are staying busy. :)
Pappy
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You have opened a lot of eyes on just how much work goes into large scale farming, including mine. Great thread!
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Beautiful picture, sounds like you are staying busy. :)
Pappy
Thanks Pappy. That’s one of my favorite things about my job. I’m constantly exposed to our makers beauty. It’s really impossible to capture it all in a picture, but try to anyway.
I actually stopped the combine to get that one. Has to be important to stop the combine.
Bjrogg
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You have opened a lot of eyes on just how much work goes into large scale farming, including mine. Great thread!
Thank You more than you know Eric. I have had a lot of mixed emotions about doing this thread. I’m a little worried about giving so much personal information. It’s probably not really smart.
I’m hoping to give people a little glimpse into modern agriculture.
Many people are several generations removed from the farm and I have to remember that so many things I think are common knowledge aren’t necessarily to others
It means a lot to me to hear you have found this thread a good one :)
Bjrogg
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Brian, you are fortunate to be able to see the day come in and fade into darkness on a daily basis. I'm sure there is a lot of work between but you always seem to be enjoying it all. Isn't the coming full moon the harvest moon?
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Thank You more than you know Eric. I have had a lot of mixed emotions about doing this thread. I’m a little worried about giving so much personal information. It’s probably not really smart.
this post is very informative. I like it alot and it teaches me alot.
The personal informations contribute to depict the scene and the final result is definitely positive :OK
Thankyou BJ
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Brian, you are fortunate to be able to see the day come in and fade into darkness on a daily basis. I'm sure there is a lot of work between but you always seem to be enjoying it all. Isn't the coming full moon the harvest moon?
Yes Pat I know full well that I am very blessed to take care of this land. To be able to experience the natural beauty I am totally surrounded by.
This year has been a particularly beautiful year weather wise. We are dry and have needed rain almost all year. We are coming through it alright though and it has made planning our days so much easier. We have been able to keep up and not get behind.
Sometimes I’m surrounded by rain, mud, snow and ice. Let’s not forget manure.lol Sometimes I get weeks behind with no real chance of catching up. That’s when it get harder to keep a smile on. ;).
I’ve been doing this for a long time now. I’ve put crops in and taken them out in all kinds of growing seasons and conditions.
I guess much like making bows, arrows and flint knapping. Farming is a passion of mine. It’s more than a passion to me. I love what I do. Not saying it’s all fun and games. I do work hard, long dirty days. I experience financial stress that’s sometimes really hard to not let it eat you up.
I’ve had to sell land that we paid a much higher price than we sold it for. Probably one of the hardest things a farmer can do.
I know it’s not supposed to be a religious campfire and I try not to make politics or religion part of my threads but they are part of my life. I thank my maker everyday. Even the ones I’m surrounded by mud, rain and manure.
I am so thankful for my family and that we have been able to get along and do this together for so long. There are many operations that don’t. It’s not always easy working with family and friends. Everyone has to give a little.
One of the reasons I can get as much done as I do is my pit crew. My nephew is a really talented shop person. He’s a lot like me. Sometimes we clash a little because of it. We both see the project in it completed stage before it’s ever started. I tend to look at it longer and try to use old parts. My nephew is more from the cut it off with the torch and replace it with a new one. Honestly both ways are required and sometimes we blend our ways together.
Honestly I’ve really only given the abbreviated version. There’s probably be twice as much work done that I haven’t bothered posting.
We are getting closer to the end of this growing season. We have been fortunate to get our wheat, navy beans, black beans, silage and most of our soybeans. All have gone smoothly so far. Some of that is because of the weather and some of it is because of my pit crew.
We still have a little bit of soybeans and corn. The big one left for us is sugar beets. It’s a grind that usually wears us all out. We will put in very long days and work in some very challenging conditions. We will try to do it with a smile on our face. We might yell at each other once in awhile, but we know each other well and we know that we appreciate each other’s part in this operation.
Bjrogg
PS I’m not sure if this is the harvest moon or the hunters moon. I will be watching it though
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Thank You more than you know Eric. I have had a lot of mixed emotions about doing this thread. I’m a little worried about giving so much personal information. It’s probably not really smart.
this post is very informative. I like it alot and it teaches me alot.
The personal informations contribute to depict the scene and the final result is definitely positive :OK
Thankyou BJ
Thanks so much Gills. Honestly I’ve been wondering how people have been thinking about this post. I see lots of views, but I have wondered how people really felt about the post itself. I even thought about ending it a few times.
It so nice to know that you find it informative and interesting. That’s it’s whole purpose.
Thanks again everyone for coming here. I would love to give you all a real ride in the combine, sprayer or tractor.
You’ll have to come visit in person for that though.
Bjrogg
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Stopped by the landlords field that I took the soybeans off of last night on the way home. He had his old two cylinder John Deere tractor out. I visited with him for awhile and then he drove off into the sunset.
Bjrogg
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Bjrogg,
I find your posts and pictures very interesting and although I do not reply to each post, I do appreciate you taking the time to make the posts. I know it takes considerable time to do but Please if you can keep posting them.
Take care,
brian
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I grew up on a hobby farm of a grand total of 9 acres, 3 cows, 2 pigs, a flock of goats and a bunch of chickens, very small scale but we always had plenty to eat with the livestock and a big garden. I have grown a garden every year since I was 22 (I am 75 now), my early upbringing stuck with me, the woods provide my livestock for the freezer.
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BJ, Every time I read this thread it makes me think of the Paul Harvey speech (So God Made A Farmer). For those that haven't heard it it's worth a listen as is most anything of his.
Piddler
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Bjrogg,
I find your posts and pictures very interesting and although I do not reply to each post, I do appreciate you taking the time to make the posts. I know it takes considerable time to do but Please if you can keep posting them.
Take care,
brian
Thanks Brian. I really don’t expect or want everyone to reply to every post I make here. It would make this post so long. I have to admit I am happy for the replies I have received though and the realization that people are finding it informative and interesting.
It has definitely encouraged me to keep the thread going. I probably would have anyway but I definitely will give it my best effort’s knowing its being viewed by people who are learning from it.
Bjrogg
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It's good you posted your day to day activities of working on a farm.There's seems to be a farther disconnection of how important the farmer is to the enviornment and the countrys' value.
One must realize there's many different types of farms too.One thing about them.There is no lack of work to be done.Sun up to sundown.It's a life style that has stuck with me and my family.
We all seem to have a down to earth common sense viewpoint of life.The weather and the seasons' control our activities and lives.Answering to mother nature and the world outside it.That connection and the importance of it never leaves a person.
Most all holidays are working days.You have to be an investing,problem solving,risk taking jack of all trades with labor and financial difficulties to make it work.Capitalizing on the good years and cinching up on the bad years.Making life changing decisions every year,with the purpose to continue to grow.Realizing too what is important and what is not.
Here's a poem explaining it a little.
(https://i.imgur.com/ctlx2q5.jpg)
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I grew up on a hobby farm of a grand total of 9 acres, 3 cows, 2 pigs, a flock of goats and a bunch of chickens, very small scale but we always had plenty to eat with the livestock and a big garden. I have grown a garden every year since I was 22 (I am 75 now), my early upbringing stuck with me, the woods provide my livestock for the freezer.
Eric I’m sure that small hobby farm did a lot to shape the man you became. Just taking care of a handful of animals and a garden is a great life experience. I’ve always enjoyed your post to and I can see the passion you put into your projects and garden.
Bjrogg
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You know it Ed. I can see that work ethic in all of your projects to.
It is a very rewarding job. At least if you can see the beauty in everything it entails.
Thanks for posting the poem. I don’t think I ever saw that one before.
Bjrogg
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BJ, Every time I read this thread it makes me think of the Paul Harvey speech (So God Made A Farmer). For those that haven't heard it it's worth a listen as is most anything of his.
Piddler
Gotta love Paul Harvey. He was a wonderful person and so interesting to listen to. He just had a way of making things simple and to the point. He had a wonderful way with words and I think he must have really loved life.
Maybe I should be ending each post with.
“And now you know the rest of the story”
“Good Day?”
Bjrogg
PS I love that poem. My daughter and son in law just gave it to me for my birthday on a big plaque. It’s hanging on my living room wall.
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Yesterday was a little bit slower paced.
My son finished up planting his neighbors wheat and before he cleaned up the drill and stored it away I wanted to take a good look at our wheat to make sure I didn’t miss any spots or have any guff ups.
The wheat all looks really good as far as I can see. Don’t see any missing spots either. I told my son he could put his drill away.
Bjrogg
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Then I sharpen my chainsaw and trimmed a few of the trees I planted in the fence row. This one is kinda small and the wild grapes have almost killed it. It’s actually one that grew on its own from a pine cone. The original ones I planted here died.
It’s right in the corner and some day I hope to have a tree stand in it. Maybe I gave it a little chance. Would have done more but lots of poison ivy there and I’m very allergic to poison ivy. I washed really good right away. Seems like I avoided the nasty rash so far.
Still looking a bit sad but the vines are all cut and lower limbs trimmed. Maybe I will be able to hunt from it someday or someone else if not me.
Bjrogg
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While I was looking at the wheat I harvested a five gallon bucket of asparagus seeds and twigs. We have a road ditch that it grows very good in. Lots of people walk this ditch and harvest asparagus. That’s fine with me but my wife and I love asparagus and I’m hoping to start some in a different secret location.
Bjrogg
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The weather is supposed to turn colder and I decided while it was still nice I wanted to wash the sprayer up and get it ready to winterize .
While I was washing it our the Deere mechanic called and said he had the parts to do the warranty work. He came over and we made the repairs. Then I finished washing. Was almost dark by then and the weather was switching from warm and calm to cold and windy.
Glad I tackled that job and got the warranty work done before we parked it away
Bjrogg
Sorry no pictures of the clean sprayer
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It’s been feeling a lot like fall. The temperature has dropped and I had to turn the furnace on a few nights ago.
We finished up the soybeans Monday and got my son’s combine cleaned up really good with the leaf blower yesterday. It’s a really nasty job and when your done the combine looks pretty clean. But you look like you need the go through a car wash. It still needs a good wash job but it’s clean enough to store away now.
It was a beautiful day yesterday and after we finished with my son’s combine we took ours out and tried some of our corn. We shelled two truckloads. Our moisture tester called it 22% but the cooperative said it was 24 and 25%. Hoping to get a little drier than that. Lots of deductions at that moisture.
The cool comfortable weather we have had has really slowed the corns development. My son grows longer day corn than we do. Usually you can get a little higher yields with the longer day corn but the moisture is higher. He feeds most of his corn to his cattle so it’s not a big problem for him. He’s out of high moisture corn for feed now and his corn is still 30+ moisture. Doesn’t make the best feed at that high of moisture. We would like to get it to 27%. He needs feed though so we shelled out to loads for him to feed. It should last him until we finish sugar beets and we finished the field he had chopped part of for silage. Nice to finish the field so he can spread rye cover and do tillage on it.
Supposed to rain again today. We are still dry. We have had rainy days but the amounts have been very small. That’s probably ok at this point. To late for rain to help at this point and it will probably just make harvest more difficult. Then cold again.
Feels like beet digging weather. Probably about a week away from permanent pile .
Bjrogg
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I think the Maples are about at their peak for color now.
Bjrogg
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Wow, you guys are way ahead of farmers around here, still a lot of beans in the field and I haven't seen anyone combining corn yet. I assume you don't have a dryer?
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Wow, you guys are way ahead of farmers around here, still a lot of beans in the field and I haven't seen anyone combining corn yet. I assume you don't have a dryer?
We have been getting a lot of work done and are getting it done on schedule.
Edible beans are typically harvested a little before soybeans if the weather cooperates.
We have a fairly short growing season here. We typically grow shorter day varieties of soybeans and corn.
Our night time temperatures are in the 30’s now and stuff doesn’t grow or mature very fast with lows in the 30’s and highs in the 40’s. We also tend to have a lot of cloudy days in the fall.
We personally don’t grow very much corn or soybeans anymore. When we farmed more acres and raised cattle we planted about ten times as much corn as we do now. We did have a old KanSun drier that was from the 70’s actually two of them. They were very slow and not very efficient. We didn’t dry much corn anyway. We feed almost all of it to cattle.
We are hoping to get the corn we have harvested before sugar beets begin our permanent piles. We were informed that the start date is set for October 20 a week from yesterday. Our corn has been quite stressed due to the dry conditions. It tends to cannibalize it’s stalk to put everything it can into its grain. This causes it to have weak stalks and not stand good. We don’t want to wait three weeks and go through several wind events before we harvest it. Drying charges are expensive but crop loses are to. It’s always a catch 22. With crop prices we have now, crop loses add up really fast.
It’s been drizzling, almost snowing, windy and cold for the past three days. We did get a inch or more now on most of our farms. At this point I it’s not going to help any of our crops much and I kinda hope it stops for a few weeks.
We are working in the shop at getting ready for beets. We were informed that our drivers would not be allowed to exit our trucks after we were stationed at the piler. Our trucks have the controls to raise and lower the box inside the cab so that part isn’t a problem. Someone does have to push a button or the side of the trailer frame to open the tailgate though. We and most everyone else have been using this tailgate system for over thirty years. The new requirements won’t allow our trucks to unload at the piling grounds .
We had to modify all our trucks and trailers so we can open tailgate without leaving truck cab. Of course everyone is in the same boat and we are all trying to find supplies to do this at the same time. Fortunately we did have most of the parts we needed in our shop for spare parts. We did some creative thinking and modified other parts. It looked pretty hopeless for awhile but I think we are going to have all of our trucks and trailers able to meet the requirements. I personally feel our old system was safer, but it’s a OSHA requirement and they obviously don’t see things like I do.
Looks like several more days of the same weather. A little harder to keep that smile now, but we are still smiling. Still blessed to be here
Bjrogg
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Enjoy trying to keep up with your thread here BJ. Don't have much experience in row crops other than sweet corn. Its interesting seeing how its different or the same as fruits and veggies. Regardless in either case the weather always plays a big factor. Sure hope you get some sun and wind to dry things up enough you can get after that corn and beans before beets come in. Regardless keep on keepin on BJ.
Been cold and dampish here for the last few weeks. Had a few frosty mornings but nothing heavy yet. Trying to get all the tomatoes and peppers picked off before we get a heavy frost. Its been 7 days a week now for longer than I want to admit. I ran 120 bushels of apples today by my self just to keep the farm market supplied and will do the same tomorrow. Very limited on helpers so I've been doing all of the grading and packing. Its been an average harvest on the apples this year, much better than I had predicted a few months ago. So rewarding, for me, seeing the crop through the seasons and then to the costumers, even if it tuckers you out. Only thing left to harvest is Rome. snapped a pic yesterday right before the crew picked these trees.
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52430370801_ca790da071_w.jpg) (https://www.flickr.com/gp/158435722@N02/0tn2k4qxW4)IMG_5126 (https://www.flickr.com/gp/158435722@N02/0tn2k4qxW4) by Mike Allridge (https://www.flickr.com/photos/158435722@N02/), on Flickr
And here they were on a 2.25" grading chain this morning. Anything too small falls through and will be used for juice.
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52430371706_a7b33788a0_w.jpg) (https://www.flickr.com/gp/158435722@N02/)IMG_5131 (https://www.flickr.com/gp/158435722@N02/) by Mike Allridge (https://www.flickr.com/photos/158435722@N02/), on Flickr
Still will have some work to do after harvest in the orchards and can't stop till its all done but looks like Monday the apples will all be in a bin in the cooler and that will be a relief. Although the USDA is supposed to be coming for a food safety inspection before the end of the month so I need to check into all the paperwork for that as well. Hope come November I can get back to the shop and finish up some bows that are long over due.
Mike
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Thanks for sharing your operation with us Mike. I have found it very interesting and I learned a lot from it to.
It’s like Ed said. There are so many different types of farming operations. It’s always interesting to see how they do things.
One question for you. Have you ever grown a variety of apples we called Rusty Coats? There were a few very old orchards around here that had Rusty Coats. They literally looked like rusty apples. I haven’t seen one since I was a kid. The old timers said they were very disease resistant.
They were not nearly as tasty as the variety on the market today. They really have breed some awesome apple varieties.
Hope you can find enough help. It seems to be getting harder and harder to find every year. A lot of our help has aged to the point they have either passed or aren’t in good enough health to do it anymore. Even though they would love to.
Maybe it’s just because I’m a old fart now, but it seems like we have been having a difficult time recruiting younger help. It’s not just us though. It’s the common problem we all seem to share around here. It’s one of the reasons there have been so many changes in the way we harvest our crops. Especially sugar beets.
Another thing. It’s almost funny. I’m almost surprised you can still sell tomatoes. I only had two plants I shared with anyone I could give them away to. I can’t find anyone to give them away to anymore l.lol
Once again thanks for sharing your operation. And have a safe harvest
Bjrogg
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I have friends who have a booth at the local farmers market and they sell my extra tomatoes, beans and peppers. We split the take and it gets me some summer spending cash. I can't officially call my stuff "Organic",(but it is)and is also pesticide free.
I had six Jet Star plants and three Roma this year and we had plenty to use, share and sell.
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Kinda funny. I have been reading up on heirloom apples the last few days. I have never heard of Rusty Coats but depending on the source there were 10k-14k different types of apples grown in NA 100 years ago. Most are gone now. I know where a few trees are next to a 200 year old log cabin, and was thinking of getting some graft wood this winter to put on junk tree or 2 in the big orchard. Just for fun, but that does not help the bottom line with the business. :)
We grow about 5 acres of tomatoes, I'd need to check my numbers but I think there are 6k plants an acre. Sounds high, I'll edit if I find out different too early to do the math. Best year ever around here for that crop. Every one in there area has told me the same. We gave several 100 bushels to the local food bank and still had too much. I think they pay cost actually but I usually dont see the numbers. Last year because of bacterial diseases the crop was done in September. You never know when planting what will happen.
As far as help...Dont have the time to get too deep on that atm. But we have a crew with work visas for the growing season. Long hours, hard work and most are kids in their 20's. They will go back home in November. I did everything they do now back in the day. A lot of hand work. But its changed a lot over the past 30+ years. Most of the folks that work in the market are older and retired from a career but still hard to find people to run a cash register and similar jobs. But I dont have to deal with that part of things.
Mike
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I read about a project where a group was scouring old maps looking for abandoned farms and orchards to try to find unique apple varieties still living and neglected from over 100 years ago that had not been passed on to today. I don't know how many varieties they had found but remember they were fairly successful with their project.
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Had been reading some information about the same stuff a few days ago Eric. I bet there is a lot of genetics in some of those older varieties that could, at the very least add some good traits into breeding programs. Wish I had more time to actually play around with it myself as a hobby.
Mike
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I read about a project where a group was scouring old maps looking for abandoned farms and orchards to try to find unique apple varieties still living and neglected from over 100 years ago that had not been passed on to today. I don't know how many varieties they had found but remember they were fairly successful with their project.
That’s the kind of orchards these rusty coats grew in. The orchards were badly neglected and the trees weren’t pruned and dead limbs still standing.
The farm I rent from my neighbor, he told me was a forty acre orchard at one time. There’s still a quite a few trees around the fence rows. There’s a yellow variety that’s really sweet and really late. I should do some pruning on it. I don’t know a lot about pruning, but I think just about anything I did to it would help it.
There’s still a few trees in the orchard by my dad’s neighbor.
Most of the trees have died though
Bjrogg
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Been trying to sneak corn off when the weather cooperates. Which hasn’t been much lately. Rain snow mix and high winds. It’s definitely hard to smile standing out surrounded by this stuff.lol This is really beet digging weather. Refrigerator weather. Perfect temperature for piling beets. We haven’t started permanent piles yet though. Thursday is beginning of permanent piles. Then Friday it’s supposed to start warming up so we might just get started only to be shut down again. We have to pile the beets in the right conditions for storage. The last thing we want is to discard beets again.
Took a couple loads of corn to town. Getting loaded by the cart
Bjrogg
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Headed down to Lawrence today and noticed they were harvesting beans north of town. There were three combines going and the dust was flying. I also saw that there is some corn that didn't get harvested yet in the same tract.
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Yesterday was the beginning of the permanent pile beet harvest. The temperature is perfect for harvesting beets and storing them on our piles. Pile them to warm and they will quickly rot. Pile them when they are frozen and they will thaw on the pile and turn to mush.
It’s the perfect temperature but as often is the case that comes with drizzle and maybe a few snow flakes.
We worked at it till about 11:00 am and then the trucks just couldn’t get around anymore. The field was actually good where we hadn’t dug yet but the drizzle mixed with fresh dirt and sugar beet leaves get pretty greasy in a hurry. We sometimes have to keep going in conditions like this but it’s still early in the campaign and we decided to wait till today to try it again. Stars are shining I think it should go better today.
We did finish our corn. That means we can get the second cart ready for beets
Bjrogg
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Yesterday was a nice sunny day. Today is supposed to be even nicer. To nice for digging beets. The plan is for us to shut down starting at noon . Probably until Wednesday. That one of the things that makes beet harvest a real pain in the butt. We rarely get to harvest in nice weather.
We worked at helping our neighbors harvest theirs and things went pretty good. The smaller trucks could load along side the lifter.
Bjrogg
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It seemed strange for me to be back in a beet truck. I usually run the beet digger. I have been doing it for more years than I care to admit. Helping the neighbors they are operating the lifter so I get to take a trip to the beet pilers. I haven’t done that much in the past 30 years. Before I started running the lifter I visited the piling grounds about 100 times a year.
Things have changed some but still basically the same.
Try to pick the shortest line. Looks like just two trucks ahead of me in this one.
Bjrogg
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The truck ahead of me is dumped now and he lowers his box. Then pulls ahead to get the tare dirt that the piler cleaned from his beets.
Bjrogg
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Then they open the swing around hopper and it’s time for me to get my truck stationed at the hopper.
While I’m doing this the truck on the other side of piler is being unloaded.
Bjrogg
PS you can see the beets coming off the end of the boom onto the pile. They are just starting the pile. The boom has a switch on a lever below it. When the beets get piled high enough they hit the lever and turn on the switch. Then the boom swings a little bit to the side. We try to handle the beets carefully and not drop them from any higher than we have to. At the start of the pile they will raise the boom a few feet each pass until they get to the height they want the pile to be.
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My nephew topping off one of our trailers with our cart.
He makes it look easy but it’s a really tricky job.
Bjrogg
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Our 1985 Kenworth. This is my favorite truck. We basically restored it about 15 years ago. It looks good enough to put in a show when she’s all clean and shiny.
She is a work truck though and she’s not afraid to get dirty
Bjrogg
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The beet pilers at night
Bjrogg
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Gotta go now
We are planning on switching to corn after they shut us down at noon.
We will try my sons corn again and see if it’s dry enough for the bunker silo yet
Going to be another long day
Bjrogg
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Thanks BJ ! Bob
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Love the old KW, worked on many of them. ;)
Pappy
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Your welcome Bob
Thanks Pappy. I’ll have to get a picture of her better side. I always kinda like the look of her air cleaner stack.
We also have two 1990 Mac’s we restored one a few years ago. They are both nice trucks to. The one we restored turned out really nice.
Still need to do the other one yet.
Our newest truck is a 2005 IH it’s a good truck but I’m more attached to the older ones.
Bjrogg
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We dug beets Saturday until noon. It was going really good. Another hour or two and we would have finished our neighbors field. Sure wish we could have got it done before they shut us down.
Bjrogg
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We didn’t miss a gear though.
We just started filling trucks with corn instead of sugar beets.
Bunker is almost empty here and starting to fill it
Bjrogg
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We finished one field and I pushed and packed until the trucks were all empty again. That was about 9:30 pm
A pretty good day
Bjrogg
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Sunday morning and the weather is beautiful.
We moved combine and trucks to my son’s second field. It’s 38 acres and it’s about twenty miles south.
Bjrogg
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The pile in the bunker is getting bigger
Bjrogg
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Worked at unloading trucks and got them all empty by 10:00 pm
The bunker is almost full . Might put another load in. Will decide that this morning.
Was a good weekend. Would have loved to take my bow out hunting, but I’m really glad to get my son’s bunker full. I didn’t want his corn out until we finished beets. This will definitely take some of the pressure off.
Bjrogg
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We call them trench silos, my dad had 2 of them. One filled with corn silage and the other high moisture that would feed about 250 head of feeder cattle all year long. The corn silage trench silo was huge, probably +150 yards long, 40 yards wide and 15 feet deep, it took hundreds of truck loads to fill.
Brings back lots of memories... The funnest job was to push the loads down the hill with a loader tractor, got a little hairy once in a while, silage is awfully soft when not compacted. Also remember me popping a brake line as I was backing up to the edge to dump, thankfully the silo was not empty and I just went over the edge and got hung up and stuck. Could have been a bad ride...
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Last load of corn for the bunker. Only about 20 acres of my sons corn left and about 10 acres for my neighbor. It’s all to wet to take to town yet so it will probably have to wait till sugar beet harvest is done. Time to clean out the corners of the cart and get it ready for sugar beets again.
Bjrogg
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This is the view from top of the pile looking down at the roller mill.
Bjrogg
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The last of the corn going through the roller mill. The mill has two groved rollers that run very close to each other. The corn passes between these rolls and is cracked. The cracked corn is more easily digestible for the cattle and it also makes it so we can pack it and drive on it without just getting stuck on the pile.
Bjrogg
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The high moisture corn goes through a fermentation process and becomes what we call insiled. It will keep for years like this as long as it isn’t exposed to air. We pack it to get the air out and then we cover the top with plastic and hold the plastic down with lime. Just a few year ago we had a bunch of chiefs and not very many Indians for this job. Now most of the chiefs have gone to the happy hunting grounds. My daughter in law recruited a bunch of 4-H and FFA members to help. Now it looks like we have a whole tribe.
Sure made the job easier
Hope they come back next year to
Bjrogg
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Here’s a couple pictures of our Old KW for Pappy and Bob
This is what I consider her good side although she looks pretty good from any angle.
Just kinda like that air cleaner stack sticking out the side.lol some engineer probably got scolded for forgetting about where the air cleaner was going and put it there as a afterthought.
Bjrogg
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I like it ! Been a long time since I ran thru the Gears in one, don't miss the Diesel Fumes tho. Docs said they added to My COPD. Great lookin' Truck - Bob.
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We got a call yesterday afternoon telling us that beet harvest is not allowed to start until 5:00am Thursday morning.
Yesterday I spread rye seed for cover crop on about 80 acres.
Then I had a couple hours before dark. It was a pretty nice day so I headed to my tree stand in my fence row. Saw several deer but nothing close enough to shoot. Probably not even close enough to see on the pictures I took.
Bjrogg
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Today is windy and drizzling rain. Did a few things in town. Was really hoping that Diesel prices would come down some by now. Man we are spending a large fortune every day right now and it’s going to be even worse when we start sugar beet harvest
Bjrogg
PS I’m still burning E-85. I have over 170,000 miles on my truck and have only burned a couple tanks full of regular gas. I have had zero problems with the E-85
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Think we have everything ready for beets todayZ hopefully finish the neighbors and start ours.
All the trucks are serviced. Tractors and carts ready. Digger and topper ready. Rye spreader refilled and tractor on the chisel plow to do tillage behind us. Hopefully we can find enough warm bodies to fill the seats and the weather to allow them to stay in them.
I put in a little overtime last night and worked on this Red Osier shaft. It’s been curing on a old broom handle for several years.
If everything goes as I’m hoping. This could be a very special arrow. I have a point I knapped from a stone I found on my farm. The Red Osier was harvested from my farm. I have a HHB bow I made from a tree on my farm. If it works out I’d like to make a string of natural materials gathered from my farm.
Then harvest a nice buck with it .
Man’s gotta have a dream. Seems like a worthy one
Bjrogg
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Wishing you a good harvest BJ.
All done here. been waiting on some parts that came today then I can get some herbicide down and some urea sprayed on the trees so I can get that stuff winterized. Got a GAP inspection with the USDA inspecters next week so I hope after that things will slow down.
Looking forward to see that arrow all finished up.
Mike
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Thanks Mike. Glade you have your harvest completed. Hope your inspection goes well. I have really enjoyed your contributions to this thread. I always enjoy learning more about different types of farming just like I do with different types of bows.
Yesterday morning we started digging sugar beets again
First off we sent two carts and 3 trucks over to help our neighbor finish his 20 acres.
While they were digging those my youngest son and I moved beet digger, topper, fuel cart, JCB loader, tool truck, pickup, tractor and cart and one truck to the field we want to start our beets in.
It’s the furthest haul. Almost a 40 mile round trip for the trucks. We want to get this field if we can while we still have help. My neighbors 93 year old dad has suddenly took a turn and was put on hospice. We could lose half our truck drivers at almost anytime. Hope he pops back. He has been doing good up until now. He’s a very nice man
The sunrise was a broken cloudy one but it was pretty mixed with the fall colors.
Bjrogg
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I was hoping it would only take about 3 or four hours to finish our neighbors field but it was more like seven.
When they finished the whole crew came to our field and we started digging about 2:00 pm. Things went pretty good for the most part. Conditions were still a little challenging but workable.
We had a few bugs to get out of the new (old) digger. The biggest problem was that the digger wheels slid very easily. They have grouser pads on the spooks of the wheels that help keep the wheels turning.
The new digger wheels we just put on were made for a narrow row spacing digger. They had very small pads and with the soil conditions the combination was allowing the wheels to slide instead of keep turning. Whenever the wheels slide the beets don’t go into the digger and are lost. This means I have to look backwards the entire time constantly watching the wheels. When one stops turning I have to stop, raise digger, back up and carefully lower digger until wheels turn backwards and clear again. This is very time consuming and extremely tiring for me the operator.
This morning we are going to take the old digger wheels with us. If conditions don’t improve we will take off the new wheels and put on the old. In these conditions old almost worn out wheels work best.
We did manage to get 21.37acres off and a lot of the bugs out. Hopefully today is a big day.
21.37 acres down 328 to go.
The beets actually were pretty good. I did one yield check and it was 32.19 tons per acre. For the weather we have had I’m very happy with that. Especially if the sugar content is good
Bjrogg
Just a few pictures. Really could take my eyes off digger for long enough to take many good ones.
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Pictures
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Yesterday morning started in the darkness.
Then a beautiful sunrise appeared and showed empty trucks to fill.
Bjrogg
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With hopes for a big day we start day two of harvesting our sugar beets.
As things often do happen during beet harvest we have a breakdown. We have a belt that gives out. We fix it and a few other things, but it takes probably a hour or more.
Bjrogg
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We have our repairs done and load up all the trucks and send them to town. And then the lines start to get long. The tractor keep up for a few rounds but then they can’t keep up and we have to wait a bit.
Snapped a picture of my tractor and digger in the undug rows waiting for trucks
Second picture is topped beets in a row and entering the digger wheels. The steel wheels are at a angle to each other and lift the beets out of the ground along with dirt and rocks
Bjrogg
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We finish the strip we opened up just as the moon replaces the sun. It was beautiful and I’m sure my picture won’t do it justice
We decided not to open another strip and just do service work on all the equipment.
Bjrogg
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Gotta go. I’m thinking those trucks will be showing up in a little bit again
Bjrogg
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It’s been a busy weekend.
Saturday morning was another beautiful sunrise. Loaded the first round of trucks as the sun rose and they hit the road in clear weather. Before they returned I became a foggy pea soup.
We decided to try putting shims in the digger wheels to make the pinch point 1/2” wider. Hopefully it helps with the sliding digger wheel problem. By the time we get done with installing the shims the fog has become more broken. We start digging again and the shims really help. Had to believe that little change made such a difference. I’m really glad it did though because operating the beet digger how it was, was extremely difficult and frustrating. Not to mention sloppy and leaving beets in the field.
By 5:00 pm the sugar company said our beet temperatures were right at the cutoff point. They shut us down. We were allowed to unload the rest of the beets we had topped, but that was all.
By that time it was about 1 1/2 hours before dark so having my bow along I decided I would stay and do a little hunting
Bjrogg
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Two carts full ready to pad the empty truck
Bjrogg
PS this is after the fog cleared
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After shutdown I kneeled down here by this erosion structure. The wind was right and I saw about 12 does and fawns that passed between my tractor and my hunting spot. Nothing quite close enough for a shot, but close enough to make it interesting. Then they passed by me to my downwind side. I watched were they came from hoping another would come out a little bit closer and at the same time watching the group that was slowly grazing it’s way towards my downwind scent.
I looked back towards the group that had passed and a nice buck was standing about 40 yard away, slowly approaching. I watched knowing that any second one of the doe’s would scent me. Then it came. A snort and a doe ran out into the field. She snorted again and all the does left. Only the nice buck remained. I watched him till dark and then walked to my tractor. That felt pretty good.
Bjrogg
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Yesterday morning we started early. We had the second round of trucks loaded before the sun started to break.
Bjrogg
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We kept the topper right in front of the beet digger. This helps keep the sun from warming the beets. We always keep topper pretty close. Usually about a pass ahead but with the lines and waiting for trucks that pass sometimes sat in the sun longer than we liked. We managed to keep our beets cool enough to dig the rest of the day and finished our field. That is a big relief. The rest of the fields will be shorter hauls and trucks should be able to keep up better.
It’s supposed to rain today and we still have some stuff to move. Glad we didn’t get shut down and rained out before we finished that field.
Time to go. I’m not sure we will be digging today, but we still have a lot of stuff to do
Bjrogg
PS 122 acres down 228 to go
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After reading how much work it is to grow and harvest sugar beets I'm starting to feel guilty for only putting 1/2 and 1/2 in my coffee. :-[
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After reading how much work it is to grow and harvest sugar beets I'm starting to feel guilty for only putting 1/2 and 1/2 in my coffee. :-[
Lol. Just don’t use any of those artificial sweeteners Paul. Just natural sugar.
We didn’t dig today. They are only allowing digging from 2:00am till 1:00pm
We had to much stuff to move in the dark and stuff we wanted to fix.
Got a lot of stuff fixed. Hopefully we can get everything clicking.
Going to get cleaned up, eat supper and try to get a few hours of sleep.
Good Night everyone
Bjrogg
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Good morning everyone. That was quick, but I did sleep good.
Getting ready to go dig beets again. Hopefully we can get it to click today.
Bjrogg
PS I did do some more straightening on that red osier shaft while eating lunch yesterday. It’s nice and straight now. I will keep checking on it and keep straightening it from time to time. This is the stone point I knapped from stone I found on my farm. Sure wish I could find a bunch of this stuff
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The local Farmers were really hustling Sunday, to get Beans and Corn Combined. Thanks as always for sharing - Bob.
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Sure was a beautiful day Bob. Way to nice for digging beets.
We started digging beets at 2:30am and shut down at 12:30. Was kinda nice finishing in daylight. I cleaned and poked mud of digger. Looked it over really good. Greased it. Fuel tractor and got everything ready to go again at 2:00am.
Had my supper and about ready for bed .
Bjrogg
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Well I have all of our trucks loaded and waiting at scales for the piling ground to open. Should be in a couple minutes.
No fog this morning. We are all very thankful for that.
Bjrogg
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We dug from 2:00 am till 12:30 yesterday. Got 35 acres dug and hauled to piles.
We are digging from 2:00am till 11:00 am this morning. Then we are going to be shut down until probably Monday or Tuesday.
We now have just over 200 acres harvested and about 150 acres to go.
We hauled exactly 200 loads 6993 tons and a average sugar content of 19.11% and 34.9 tons per acre.
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The yields are better than I was expecting. They have really been putting on tons and sugar for the past few months
Digging in the dark
Bjrogg
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And here comes the sun
Bjrogg
Gotta go the trucks will soon be waiting for me
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Got the first round of trucks loaded and first one is back for its second load
Bjrogg
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We were really clicking and then the fog rolled in heavy.
We parked our trucks.
Have to get 3 more empty ones to finish the strip we are on
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Sun came up and fog let up enough to get empty trucks back to finish the strip
We decide not to open up another. With fog and 11:00 required weigh in time.
Bjrogg
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We did finish that strip. We didn’t start another.
I cleaned up beet digger and looked everything over really good. Then spread rye seed on the ground we had harvested already.
I thought about going hunting but I was just to tired and sore. I couldn’t stay awake so I went home and went to bed. I thought I would get up in the morning and go instead. When I woke up in the early morning I went to bathroom and decided the bed felt really, really, really good. I decided I needed sleep more than hunting and went back to bed.
Yesterday we finished harvesting my sons corn and our neighbors to. Then I spread rye, and he got some tillage done.
This morning the wind is blowing hard. I’m not going hunting in this. I feel like a person again and I really missed my wife even though she was here all the while. Was really nice to actually have a little time with her.
The weather has warmed enough that we are shut down until Monday morning. Hopefully we can finish the field we are in then.
Tuesday I have to go with my wife to have a spot removed from her cheek. We had a biopsy taken about five years ago. It came back negative. She had a follow up a year later and doctors gave her the ok. Her next two visits were canceled because of Covid. This spring when she was having her medical problems the doctors and nurses were concerned about that spot.
We tried to get appointment but it took almost six months to get in because they are so far behind. As soon as the doctor saw her he was very concerned and immediately started removing the spot and sent in another biopsy. He said he was sure what it was though. Biopsy came back positive. My wife doesn’t remember the name of the cancer, or know anything about it. They did tell her it was highly unlikely that it spread though so we are hopeful.
Tuesday morning we are going to vote first thing and then go to city for her procedure. Any thoughts and prayers are much appreciated.
I don’t know what will happen. It’s a rather large spot or maybe several together. I don’t have a lot of information on it yet. Of course my wife is worried about the spot and what she will look like after the procedure. It is smack dab in the center of her cheek.
I’m just wanting to get her to doctors and get her well and she is going to look beautiful to me as long as she is healthy. It’s been a tough 12 months. I have lost some really good friends. I certainly hope I don’t lose my wife. I don’t think I will , but it’s scary all the same.
We have a good 3 days left of digging beets. Next week sounds like pretty good weather for storing and harvesting them.
Really hoping we can finish the field we are in now Monday. There should be about 40 acres left in it.
Then Tuesday take my wife for her successful procedure while my truck drivers attend their father and grandpa’s funeral. He was a good man and lived a good long life. Was 93 and in good shape until just a month ago. He told everyone not to cry for him. He was very blessed
Then hopefully the equipment can get moved to the last field. It’s literally right across the railroad tracks from the piling grounds so even if we have a skeleton crew we should be able to get something done.
Maybe we can be finished by Thursday or Friday.
Bjrogg
Spreading rye on sons corn stalks and him doing tillage
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My wife and I are having breakfast on the way home from doctors. They decided to prescribe her a chemotherapy cream to use on her spot. They said it wouldn’t spread so that is very much a relief.
They thought the chemo cream was worth trying. Removing by surgery would leave a nasty scar and odds are pretty decent this might work. Sure hoping so.
Bjrogg
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Yesterday was a big day. I started digging beets at 5:30am there was a full moon sitting in the west. It sure was pretty. Way better than the pictures.
Bjrogg
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Then the sunrise in the east
Bjrogg
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The truck drivers kept me very busy. By 2:30 pm we had finished the field. We fueled everything up and moved 9 miles to our last field. Right across the railroad tracks from the piling ground.
The last six rows in field
Bjrogg
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That was 41 acre which is pretty good day, but it didn’t stop there.
We had a really smooth move and got digging in the last field before dark. It wasn’t long and the moonrise was in the east.
Bjrogg
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Just a little while later and the sunset was in the west.
Bjrogg
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I dug another 20.99 acres before we called it a day. That was pretty close to 10:00 pm. I went home very tired, but very happy to be in the last field.
The moon was really beautiful
I even got a pretty good picture of it. Seems like I have a very hard time getting a good picture of the moon.
Bjrogg
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I ended up digging 61.7 acres yesterday. We have about 61 acres left.
I took my wife to doctors this morning and my nephew is running the beet digger. I just checked in with my son and it sounds like things are going good. That’s great news. I’m getting pretty old to still be doing this beet digging job. It’s really not a job for a old man, but I have been the only one who has run the digger for close to thirty years. I hope my nephew makes out ok. The digging conditions in this field were very good so that should help.
Bjrogg
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When I got back to field after taking my wife to doctors I was kinda hoping my nephew wouldn’t want to give up his new beet digger job. He was ready to go back to his cart though. His neck, back and shoulders were killing him. I was pretty sure they would be. By the end of beet digging season my neck looks like a buck in rut.
He did really good though and had a little over 25 acres off. Just another 35 to go.
We all took our normal jobs back and really loaded trucks.
The drivers kept me right busy. They didn’t have a line and they only had to go across the tracks with the beets.
Digging conditions were excellent and I could dig a gear faster. A little before dark I asked the drivers if they wanted to quit for the day earlier and finish in the morning? Or keep at it till we got done. They overwhelmingly voted for staying till we were done. I’m thinking they really just wanted to be finished.
Everything worked like a clock and we finished about 7:30 with a full moon watching over the beet piling ground.
We made it through another harvest. Glad to be done. We did our part and delivered some really great quality sugar beets. Now it up to the factories and Mother Nature. I sure hope they can store well and get processed in good shape to get that sweet sugar they hold inside.
That story won’t be done till mid march. That’s a lot better than mid April though so I’m pretty optimistic. Our Croswell factory that we put so much money and renovations into two summers ago during the peak of Covid was a complete disappointment last year, but it’s kicking butt this year. We already processed more sugar from that facility than we did all season last year and there’s still 4 months of slice left. Sure wish they could have performed like that last year but glad they got the bugs out this year.
Bjrogg
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The piling ground just across the tracks
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The finished field with a full moon watching over the beet piles
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You guys are incredible, Brian. Farmers are the lifeblood of America. :OK
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You are not scared by the thought of the work. That's for sure :OK
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Good job Gang ! Hopefuly, You can get a bit of "Treestand" Therapy the next couple of Weeks, Rut is Full Bore here now :-D ! Bob
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Thanks Pat.
I think we are a vertebra in the backbone, but there’s lots of other vertebrates to.
Lots of amazing hard working people out there that keep things going. I tip my hat to all of them.
The world needs more of them and sometimes I think they are taken for granted. Everyone likes hearing a Thank You from time to time.
Thanks again for yours Pat
Bjrogg
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GlisGlis when I was young my brothers and I would argue about who’s job that was. My dad would say you kids put more time into arguing who’s job it is than if you just did it.
I realized he was right.
Now we don’t argue about who’s going to do it. We just do it and there is a never ending list of jobs to do around here
If I don’t have something to do it usually doesn’t take me long to find something to keep me occupied
Bjrogg
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Thanks Bob I’ll pass that on to the rest of the crew. Without them we get nowhere.
I spend a lot of time by myself in a tractor, sprayer or combine.
There is something about working with a whole crew . Everyone being a gear in the transmission and doing their part.
Joking and teasing usually makes the job more pleasant. A little competition seems to push everyone a little more without making them feel pushed.
We have a fantastic crew and I very much respect and appreciate everyone of them and especially their combined efforts.
As for the tree time I’m sure hoping to get a little in before gun season starts . Just a few days away now. I should of gone this morning. Getting lazy in my old age.
Bjrogg
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The harvest might be over, but the work isn’t done.
Today is going to be a nice day, but then it’s going to get cold. Lows in the twenties highs in the low 30’s with wind .
Yesterday was the day that Michigan Sugar was hoping to be 90% harvested.
They estimate that they we will be 80% harvested. That still leaves a big pile of beets out there yet.
The weather from here on doesn’t sound like good storage weather. Today to warm and then turning to cold for the extended forecast.
They decided to keep harvesting as long as it was possible to do so. These beets will be put on separate piles and processed as soon as possible. This has been done in the past and usually they charge a certain amount per ton for the disruption in beet delivery.
The beets are very good quality yet though so hopefully everyone can get them harvested and our factories can process them.
We hope to get a bunch of washing equipment done today while the weather is warm. I scraped dirt and mud off beet digger yesterday until I couldn’t lift the scraper anymore. Kinda like breaking up the ice frozen on the boats on deadliest catch except it’s dirt and mud. And I’m not worried about sinking.
Lots and lots of stuff to get cleaned up and ready to run through the shop again for next year.
Bjrogg
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Sounds like a good and successful harvest. Congrats! The high sugar content has to make things that much better. I was wondering if the dry weather would help out with that in beets like it does with tree fruit or grapes. Seems I saw numbers almost 25% or so higher than average.
One last tank of urea to spray on the apples then I can winterize and drain outside water lines. None too soon as rain from Nicole gets here tonight along with a cold front. Almost 70 for a high today, while looks like upper 30's by Sunday. Had some unexpected help from the guys that press cider yesterday and we got some sulfur spread on blueberries and some other of my side jobs finished up before the weather change. With the rain tomorrow I'll use the temp help thats still here to wash and grade as much fruit and we can. The last couple guys head south next week. So the more we get done tomorrow the less Ill need to do by myself.
Mike
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I didn't know but read that the Netherlands was one of the biggest food exporters in the world, the climate extremists now in power have passed environmental "regulations" that are so stringent that they will put some of the farmers out of business. The legislators know this but say they have to "save" the planet.
There are places in the world that import almost all of their food, with the Ukraine under siege and the Netherlands essentially in the same boat things don't look good for the more impoverished countries.
I am blown away by the precision and co-ordination of your farming operation bjrogg, it is like a fine well-oiled clock. I fear regulations, penalties and fees that may someday make it difficult to be a farmer. Things like requiring battery powered equipment may be in the future, let's hope not.
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Yes Mike the weather we had this fall really helped us out with the sugar content. It seems to me like the nicer the fall colors the better the sugar content in the beets. Our Maples were stunning this year with vibrant colors. The rest of our fall colors were good to. We had a earlier frost. It wasn’t even a complete killing frost, but enough to trigger the beets into making sugar. Then we had a beautiful Indian summer and the beets used it to make sugar. That seems to be the winning combination for sugar to me.
Glad your getting things finished up and put away.
Bjrogg
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Eric I understand your concerns and I could definitely go on a long rant about so many things I worry about, but I’d probably be thrown out of the campfire in very short order.
I will simply say that my ideas for saving the planet and others are not necessarily the same.
I feel we need to use all our tools for the job. Old ways combined with new ways.
I’m not against electric vehicles, but I don’t see how they are going to save the environment. Mining for the rare earth minerals is not environmentally friendly and neither is making the batteries or disposal of them.
I’m always amazed how these newer (some are 20 years old newer) Diesel engines burn so clean. You can start one up and run it in our shop for 15 minutes and not even be able to smell it. They are so much clearer than the older ones. Seems like a a shame to throw that all away.
Hydrogen shows promise and ethanol is a good renewal energy source.
It seems to me that the requirements for everything to be electric are misplaced.
Kinda like when you watch the green remodel of a kitchen on the home improvement channels.
They take a perfectly good kitchen. Tare out everything that was working. Replace countertops with recycled glass. All new stainless steel appliances and somehow think because they used recycled glass countertops it is a win for the environment. I on the other hand think they just wasted a lot of energy turning a perfectly functional kitchen into a “Green Kitchen “
Enough of that though
I do worry about the future of agriculture. The more land we take out of useful production, the more of the Amazon rain forest that will be cleared to farm its
I feel responsible use of land. Getting the most out of the land we do farm and using all the tools we are given is how we save the planet.
Well hopefully that isn’t too radical for the campfire. Not really where I am trying to go.
As far as the well oiled machine. Thanks Eric and we try very hard to make it that way. We have been doing this for a long time. We do lots of things like planting our edible beans on the early side to try make harvesting them in a better time frame for us. Allowing us to plant our wheat earlier. Little things that usually work for our operation.
Mother Nature can sure throw a wrench in the gears some years though. This one pretty much went how we like it.
Bjrogg
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Netherland (and other european countries) regulations is mainly targeting nitrogen emissions from animals farming and it's aimed to meet EU deadlines for environmental protection.
From what I understand netherlands comes from a situation of very low regulations and ultra high density of animals that produced out of standards rates of pollution.
What I like alot about BJ is that it shows that he loves his land and he try to improve and take care of it while he run his business.
It's not about taking the max out of it regardless the consequences.
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just read BJ previous post and totally agree on electrical devices and waste of still valid objects
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Thank You GlisGlis
I think most farmers share my love of the land and animals they care for. I think most want to leave their farms in better condition than it was when they started farming it.
We don’t all necessarily see that happening the same way, but I do believe it is a shared goal of the majority of farmers.
It’s always nice to be able to have conversations that the participants actually are allowed to express their thoughts. And participants listen to others thoughts. There’s always at least two sides to every argument. And they aren’t always one side is right and the other side is wrong.
A case could even be made for the petroleum industry saving the whale. Oil wasn’t first used for gasoline . It was a dangerous, explosive byproduct. They wanted oil for lamps to light houses and streets. Oil that replaced whale blubber oil that had been used for lightning.
Gasoline, diesel fuel, plastics and hundreds of other products were simply byproducts of producing the oil for lighting our homes.
Bjrogg
PS I’m thinking we will still need a lot of those products and wondering. Will we be left again with a dangerous explosive byproduct?
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I agree about diesels, I had a 2006 F250 with the 6.2 liter engine, that thing sounded like a metal bucket half full of rocks being shaken when it ran, the exhaust smell was horrendous. When we traveled a bumper to bumper 11-mile scenic loop in the Smokies I felt guilty about the exhaust fumes I was leaving behind to choke the people in cars behind us. I traded this truck off at 90K miles because the engine had a habit of blowing at 100K.
I bought a 2013 with the new 6.7-liter engine, it started like a gas engine, doesn't make any diesel noise and has no detectable exhaust smell, pretty amazing.
My wife died, I sold my 5th wheel and only use the truck about once every two weeks. It garage kept, it only has 34K miles on it, it is paid for and I do need a truck every now and then, I think I will keep it.
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Sounds like a nice truck Eric. Should be good for a couple hundred thousand miles yet.
We have been working at cleaning up equipment. Definitely not my favorite job, but it needs to be done.
We e have been doing this for a lot of years to and have figured out a few things that make it work better. It’s still a poor job though.
First we use a good heavy duty scraper to get the really big dirt off.
Bjrogg
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Then we use our water truck to blast the heavy stuff off.
We have a 3” pump we basically make into a monitor.
We reduce the 3” to 1 1/2” hose.
Then we reduce the 1 1/2” hose down and run it through a 1/2” ball valve.
This makes a high volume not so high pressure washer. It really moves heavy dirt.
We park it in our old bunker and the water filters and drains away leaving the heavy dirt on the concrete bunker floor. We clean up the dirt with our loader and reclaim it for our field.
We can get the big stuff off pretty pretty efficiently like this
Bjrogg
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Next we use our high pressure hot water power washer to finish the job.
My arms are like noodles from scrapping and holding the power washer wand. We have so far had some pretty decent weather for washing. Today it’s going to start getting colder
Last night we took the entire beet digging crew out to eat. It’s always nice to be able to sit down, share a good meal and relive stories about the harvest. We really appreciate these people and this is one of the ways we show them that
Bjrogg
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Oh almost forgot.
I did get a little time in my tree stand.
Sure was a beautiful evening to be sitting in a tree
Saw several deer. Nothing close enough though. My food plot really isn’t working out so we’ll. The deer ate it down to nothing and now they are liking my rye cover crop better. Oh well it’s still nice watching them and the sunset
Bjrogg
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A little time in the stand is a wonderful thing
Thanks for bringing us along
Leroy
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Beautiful sun set and time is the stand is always relaxing to me, deer or no deer. ;)
Pappy
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Beautiful sun set and time is the stand is always relaxing to me, deer or no deer. ;)
Pappy
Thanks Pappy. Yes it certainly is relaxing. That’s one reason I like to hunt from the ground sometimes. I get a little to relaxed sometimes and I don’t want to wake up hanging from my tree.
23 degrees this morning and I didn’t wash anything yet.
Needed to get some stuff done on computer.
While I was at it I wrote down a few logistics from beet harvest
We had 336 loads from our fields ( I don’t have neighbors figured yet)
Company has our certified acres at 345.8
We delivered a net 11,355.52 tons of beets
We averaged 32.84 tons per acre.
Our average sugar content was 19.43
Raw sugar per ton was 291.94 lbs
That should make 3,315,130.51 lbs of sugar
Pretty good crop of beets especially considering the dry weather . We are happy with it
Bjrogg
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Beautiful sun set and time is the stand is always relaxing to me, deer or no deer. ;)
Pappy
Raw sugar per ton was 291.94 lbs
That should make 3,315,130.51 lbs of sugar
Pretty good crop of beets especially considering the dry weather . We are happy with it
Bjrogg
That is a lot of sugar!!! No wonder our nation is so obese!
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Those are some big numbers BJ. Not sure I can comprehend a pile of anything that large :) We get juice apples trucked in from various states along the east coast, from large growers, and 1 tractor trailer with a dump bed will average about 50k lbs of fruit. Thats about as big of a number I can wrap my head around.
Time to start working for next season? lol
Mike
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Beautiful sun set and time is the stand is always relaxing to me, deer or no deer. ;)
Pappy
Raw sugar per ton was 291.94 lbs
That should make 3,315,130.51 lbs of sugar
Pretty good crop of beets especially considering the dry weather . We are happy with it
Bjrogg
That is a lot of sugar!!! No wonder our nation is so obese!
In moderation it’s all good. I don’t have a huge sweet tooth. I do prefer real natural sugar to the artificial sweeteners though. I personally don’t think that stuff is good for you. And I don’t think that’s just the sugar beet farmer in me, but I could be wrong.
Bjrogg
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Those are some big numbers BJ. Not sure I can comprehend a pile of anything that large :) We get juice apples trucked in from various states along the east coast, from large growers, and 1 tractor trailer with a dump bed will average about 50k lbs of fruit. Thats about as big of a number I can wrap my head around.
Time to start working for next season? lol
Mike
Yes the sugar beet harvest and processing of the beets is a big number game for sure.
It always seems strange that a tall crop of corn looks huge. But even if you chop it for silage it’s still only about 2/3 as many tons per acre as the roots of the sugar beets.
I’m glad our sugar percentage is up this year.
Last year we had incredible tons. We averaged 44 tons per acre. Almost 25% more tons than this year. We ended up having to pay farmers to dispose of those extra tons as we couldn’t process them before they spoiled.
The sugar content was so low that we ended up producing the lowest amount of sugar in many years.
I’d much rather have 32 tons and 19.47 percent sugar than 44 tons and 15 percent sugar . Hopefully we can get these high quality beets processed. We are expecting to have them processed by mid March. That’s a pretty good ending date. Last year was mid April and we didn’t finish. We just disposed of the rest.
Bjrogg
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Well nothing really exciting going on at the farm. Just a lot of washing equipment and cleaning up the shop.
I did sneak out with my bow the night before opening day gun. I probably should have taken a shoot at a small doe, but I passed. Was nice to get the opportunity though and it’s still exciting to get so close even with out shooting anything
I’ve been out a couple times with my old 12 gauge. Passed on these does. Was hoping a big buck might show but no such luck.
They might not be so lucky next time we meet.
Bjrogg
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Yesterday afternoon the Ubly football team played iron mountain and won district championship.
Next Friday they go to Ford Field for State Championship.
Thinking it should be a good game. They have been unstoppable so far. Really playing good games. They won yesterday 41-14. I think that was the only game they played this year that didn’t end with a running clock.
Making plans to go see that one in person
Bjrogg
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Been working on this arrow when I get a chance for awhile.
I collected the red osier shaft from my farm several years ago. I have been straightening it for about a month and it seems to be staying straight now.
I found a piece of chert from the local quarry. It’s very nice quality chert, but it’s been through crusher so it’s really hard to find pieces that aren’t ruined. I managed to get a pretty decent point out of this one.
I wrapped both ends of shaft with sinew. About a half inch from notch end and 3/4” from point end. I like to do it first so I don’t split the shaft trying to fit point.
Then I dry fit the stone point
Bjrogg
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Then I mix a dab of epoxy and glue point on. Then I finish by using my pitch glue.
I let it cool and wrap with sinew
Then I spray one coat of clear satin enamel before I apply my markings. I do this to keep the paint from bleeding into the grain of the wood. It also allows me to wipe off my mistakes if I need to.
After paint dries completely I will spray several more thin coats of clear satin enamel to lock my water base marking’s on.
Here’s what I have so far.
Bjrogg
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I’m thinking I will go with two fletch but it’s going to have to wait. Maybe tomorrow
Bjrogg
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Point and arrow look great! I've dabbled in making some two fletch arrows so I am interested in seeing yours when you finish.
take care,
brian
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Point and arrow look great! I've dabbled in making some two fletch arrows so I am interested in seeing yours when you finish.
take care,
brian
Thanks Brian.
I don’t know how authentic mine are, but it’s my rendition of a two fletch.
I’ve been very happy with the ones I have made so far.
I will try to take some pictures as I go. Show how I do it.
Bjrogg
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Really like Your Arrows Brian - very nice :OK ! Bob
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Hurry up with that arrow. A deer is waiting :OK
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Nice looking arrow, BJ!
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Nice work on the arrow. :)
Pappy
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Thanks for the nice words everyone. I didn’t finish it yet but I did get a little more work done on my arrow
Two wild turkey tail feathers
Bjrogg
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First I decided how long I want fletch and peal fletch ahead of that point off the quill.
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Bjrogg
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Then I peal fletch off leaving about half as much fletch on opposite side of feather.
Bjrogg
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Should look something like this.
Bjrogg
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Then I use first Fletch for pattern of second. Trying to make them as close to the same as possible
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Then I grind quill down with my bench grinder like so
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Next I put two dots with my magic marker where I want tips of quill to be placed. They are place lined up with string at front of fletch. On top and one on bottom of arrow shaft. I wrap the exposed quill on with sinew and a little tb2 to waterproof it.
This is what I have so far
Bjrogg
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Had a really nice Thanksgiving with most of my siblings and family. Was beautiful day. Pretty white frost covered everything in the morning and the weather was nice.
We watched the Lions almost win their fourth game in a row. Not quite though. We are pretty use to not quite winning. No one was surprised when we kicked field goal to take lead with 23 seconds left and we still lost. At least it was a interesting game
Speaking of interesting games. I’m getting ready to go watch the Ubly high school state championship at Ford Field.
Should be fun.
I will let you know how it goes.
Go Bearcats
Bjrogg
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Thanks for the pictures of your fletching. Similar to how I have been doing mine.
Take care
brian
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Thanks Brian. I forgot to show how I strip fletch at rear. I’ll try to remember to when I finish it up.
Just got back from Ford Field. Was a good game.
Started out pretty Rocky when Ubly fumbled on their first possession. They were marching down field and the fumble really took the wind out of their sails.
They quickly found themselves down 0-12 a situation they hadn’t experienced.
They regrouped and fought back hard.
They tied it up 20-20 in the fourth quarter. Unfortunately they couldn’t hold them. The final score was 20-26.
They have nothing to be ashamed of. Played a very good game
Bjrogg
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I got to see my grandson on the field. He’s the one with the ball on the five yard line
Bjrogg
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I also got to see my granddaughter on the field. She’s the one in the front row second from the right side
Bjrogg
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Tied up 20-20 in the fourth quarter. Was really getting interesting at this point.
Bjrogg
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The team, coaches and ball kids (my grandson is in the front row all the way over to the right side.
After the game
Bjrogg
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Thanks for sharing - so close, yet so far! What a thrill to just Play there for those Young Men . Bob
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Thanks Bob. Yes I’m sure it will be a memory to last a lifetime.
I’m really surprised how much my grandson learned being ball boy all season. He’s watched a lot of game film and learned a lot of formations. He definitely knows more about football already than I do.
The team really likes him and I hear it from them when I talk with them. That’s pretty cool
Bjrogg
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Sorry for the lose but sounds like they put up a good fight and for young men that's what counts.
Pappy
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Sorry for the lose but sounds like they put up a good fight and for young men that's what counts.
Pappy
Yeah Pappy in all honesty it might be a good thing. Sometimes you learn more from your loses than your wins.
Bjrogg
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I hope the Titans can do that ??? :-\ ;) :) Love the arrow fletching by the way. Very cool :)
Pappy
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I hope the Titans can do that ??? :-\ ;) :) Love the arrow fletching by the way. Very cool :)
Pappy
lol. I don’t think anyone has more learning experiences than the Lions.
I have had meetings to attend and seed dealers to get together with to order next years seed. Should have the answers to all the worlds problems in another week or two at this rate. It’s nice to meet with people and get into some good discussions.
I did finish my Arrow
Bjrogg
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This is how I strip the rear of fletch
Bjrogg
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Some wrap the back first and pointed towards rear, then point to front and wrap front. It might be a better way to do it. I’ve never actually tried it.
I just wrap rear to side of shaft. You can change direction of rotation depending on which side you wrap them.
Bjrogg
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I don’t always name my arrows, but some have special meanings for me.
This is one of those. I gathered everything on this arrow from my farm
“Farm Fresh “ seemed kinda fitting
Bjrogg
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Hope you like it as much as I do
Bjrogg
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Very nice
The arrow looks great. I like the hand painted cresting. Machine cresting looks out of place in my opnion on a arrow such as yours. Thanks for posting.
take care,
brian
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Fitting Name :OK ! Bob
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Very nice
The arrow looks great. I like the hand painted cresting. Machine cresting looks out of place in my opnion on a arrow such as yours. Thanks for posting.
take care,
brian
Thanks Brian. I’m not sure if everyone likes my crest, but I do to. So I guess that makes at least two of us. I try not to make it too much, and something that is recognizable. I have tweaked it a little over the years, but it’s basically the same crest I have used since I started making arrows . It’s nice when I go to a shooting event that if I lose an arrow and someone finds it. They know whose it is.
Bjrogg
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Fitting Name :OK ! Bob
Thanks Bob. That’s what my arrow told me to. ;)
Bjrogg
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:OK - Bob.
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Still been keeping busy.
I have been spreading fertilizer again. And listening to RedEye radio. Got almost 100 acres spread this weekend. Been to windy during the day so had to spread at night.
I got caught up to the trucks yesterday morning just as the sun was coming up.
Took a little nap and watched the Lions game. They’re actually getting to be entertaining to watch. Go Lions
I have two more trucks coming today but nothing really early so I’m going back to bed.
Bjrogg
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Been pretty busy yet with meetings, spreading fertilizer and working it in. I’m caught up for now with the fertilizer.
Yesterday my son, daughter in law and grandkids came over for an annual Christmas tree hunt and arrangement. I say arrangement because it’s more like arranging big flowers than putting up a Christmas tree. I have put up a tree like this almost every year since 1984. It might look like a snoopy Christmas tree to some, but my family won’t use anything else. We love our Cedar Snoopy Christmas tree. It smells great and it doesn’t shed a bunch of needles. And the price is right. I have a couple spots I have permission to harvest them.
I didn’t get any pictures of harvest and not many of arranging them but I will post what I have.
We did two arrangements. My son and daughter in law getting the main tree secured in the stand. This is usually one of the tricky parts
Bjrogg
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My favorite granddaughter documenting me documenting her.
Bjrogg
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I didn’t get a picture of their tree when it was done but here’s ours. My wife wanted a smaller one this year as we have two new puppies that it will be their first Christmas tree.
She loved it. Said it was a cute little Christmas tree
Bjrogg
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Then I took it home. Set it up. Put water in it. Put the lights on and turned the decoration hanging up to my wife and son.
Bjrogg
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I kept our new puppy Rocky from climbing it. She was bursting with excitement and it was so cute watching her reaction to her first Christmas tree. So far so good. Everyone seems happy with it.
Bjrogg
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Here it is after everything settled down
Bjrogg
Have a Merry Merry Christmas everyone
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My wife's family used to go out to a cedar hammock along the Savannah River to collect their ERC Christmas trees. We buy our's now from local tree farmers to help support them. Christmas tree farming has become a dying business here. The farmers say because it doesn't get as cold as it used to. We've always prefered live trees even with occasional needle drop. That's easy to clean up once the tree comes down.
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Way cool BJ, always wanted to try a Cedar. Happy Holidays to You and Yours, plus all My PA Friends (=) ! Bob
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Does seem like it would be hard to make a living farming Christmas Trees Pat. I’m sure they appreciate your support .
Give it a try Bob. I don’t look for the “perfect tree” I look for a nice main tree that has a nice top. It can be thin on the bottom. Then I fill in the bottom with branches .
I caught this guy checking out my bows in the man cave. Sure was a Jolly fellow
Bjrogg
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I love cedar trees, haven't had one for years but still think of Momma Pools [my grand Mother] house when ever I smell ERC. good memories. :) Tell the old man I need some new arrows for Christmas if you see him again, Pappy in Tennessee and I been a very good boy. :-\ ;) :) :) :)
Pappy
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I’ll put a word in for you Pappy. I’m pretty sure I’ll be seeing him again in the next few days.
If you keep a lookout for him you might even spot him yourself. Seems like he really gets around this time of year
Bjrogg
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Made it to the New Year. Been doing inventory, financial statements, tax preparation etc. all that stuff I’m not so good at and really don’t want to spend time getting good at. It has to be done though.
Been working in shop too.
Today I was working on computer when my nephew said come here, you gotta see this.
It must be that week. Every year around this time mating season for the red fox keeps them roaming around in the daytime.
A pair were running around our farm buildings and barking up a storm. It was really fun watching them.
Don’t know if you can see them. I should have gotten better pictures but I didn’t have my phone at first.
Bjrogg
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Here’s number 2
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Here’s both of them.
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That's cool BJ ! Haven't seen or heard a Fox (Red or Grey) around Me in Years. Coyotes ran them all off sadly. Bob
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Was the same around here for years Bob. They have really made a nice comeback though. I think they are less afraid of people than they are of coyotes. They really seem to have their territory closer to people now and I often see them laying on peoples lawns and hear lots of stories about people having them hanging around their buildings.
I’m sure glad to see them having good numbers again. They are my favorite animals to watch. They are not only beautiful. They are comical and entertaining the way they run around, hunt and play
Bjrogg
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Nice pictures BJ, they were gone from here for a while, use to see them all the time when I was a kid but when the coyotes showed up they seemed to disappear, but are making a come back now, as you said seems they are staying closer to people, probably figured out it was safer for them, :-\ have a pair in my back yard area, they have a small litter /4 or 5 pups every year for the last few years, fun to watch. :)
Pappy
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Wow no snow, almost like what we have here. Almost lost all our snow last week from rain and warm weather.
Plenty of fox here
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Wow no snow, almost like what we have here. Almost lost all our snow last week from rain and warm weather.
Plenty of fox here
Yeah we lost our snow to Marc. We never really had much in the first place. Seems like it’s been either cold or warm. Pretty mild for the most part. The heavy snow went north or south of us. Kinda like the rain did all year
Do you have the white phase Arctic fox Marc? We have red and grey. Some cross which I have been told is a phase. I’m not sure. No white ones though.
Bjrogg
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I don’t know if I will be able to keep this thread going steady but I thought I might post a few things as things start rolling in 2023.
We made a few more changes to the planter. Put different row cleaners and fertilizer attachments on. I like them. They worked good.
Started planting sugar beets Last Thursday in perfect conditions. Excellent weather. We worked hard at it and by late Saturday night I finished planting our beets.
I’m feeling pretty good about them. The ground was perfect. Everything worked great.
Bjrogg
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By Monday morning the first ones I planted had a nice tap root started and getting ready to push. The weather cooled off considerably though. Snow in the air .
Bjrogg
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My dad always said to grow really good beets they have to get snowed on after you plant them and snowed on before you harvest them.
I guess we’re half way there.
He planted his first crop of sugar beets two days before I was born. 62 years ago.
Bjrogg
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It’s starting to look like spring
Bjrogg
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Great start BJ ! Bob
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I think so Bob. We like to have sugar beets planted by my birthday. April 16 th. We finished the night before and we still had 24 hours of nice weather after we finished. The ground was in really good condition. It’s cooled off now but I think we played our cards right. It’s alway a big gamble though. So far I feel good about everything.
It will have to warm up more before we plant anything else. Hopefully the beets will come up before we start planting other crops and I don’t have to worry about replanting them. Right now looks like we are in good shape. If they don’t come up we will be way behind.
Either way it’s not good planting conditions now and doesn’t look like it’s going to be anytime soon. So it’s nice to have them in.
In the meantime we have lots of other things to do.
Bjrogg
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Ya it is getting that time of year around here also, they got my corn in almost 2 weeks ago, big risk that early even here, supposed to be in the low 60's and 35 at night Saturday, a little windy so maybe it won't frost. :)
Pappy
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We are holding off planting corn yet Pappy.
Sugar beets don’t mind the cold as much as corn does. The cooler temperatures help keep the disease pressure down for them too.
The corn doesn’t do much when it’s cold. Sits in the ground waiting for it to warm up and everything else tries to kill or weaken it. If it comes up and gets frosted off it will grow back, but that puts it behind to. Its growing point is located at its seed so it has to freeze down to the seed to kill it.
Soybeans growing point is above ground so a frost can kill them.
Sugar beets are pretty though. They can take some very cold temperatures even if they are up. They are most vulnerable right as they are barely poking out of the ground.
Bjrogg
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Glad to see you back rolling out. Taters are starting to go in about a week ago around here SE Alberta. Wet snow for a couple days here. S.I.L is to wet in SW Saskatchewan. It's only April, can start in the garden with radishes and such for a start.
Thanks for sharing
Leroy
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I’m guessing they started planting spuds west of us here by the bay. They like to plant them in the muck. A few have tried around here but unless they are in the muck, from what I understand they have to many tiny stones that the processors don’t like them for making chips.
Or maybe they are just telling us that to discourage us from planting them.
Thought we might have some sugar beets up by now but didn’t see any yet.
Still cool a drizzle but a little warmer last night.
Bjrogg
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Spuds always seemed like way too much effort and input compared to the return. At least the way we did it on the scale we did. If you can make it work thats awesome tho. Not much muck ground around here. Interesting they'd put them in that.
Been pretty warm and dry here. Big difference from last year. I could go for another 6 weeks of it but looks like a cold front pushing through today with some rain. Dry, cool weather behind that so that will work, with apples in full bloom now. We got corn up under row covers. Nothing on bare ground yet, maybe planting some of that next week.
wishing the best for you this season BJ.
Mike
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Wishing you the best to Mike. Always start out the season full of dreams of bountiful harvest. Knowing that we only have so much control over if reality is a dream, or if it turns into a nightmare.
It has been cool and moist here for a week now. Looks like more of the same for at least another ten days.
The sugar beet’s still aren’t emerged yet. They still look healthy. I would really like to see them come out and get some sunlight, but they don’t seem to be in a hurry with these cool temperatures.
Highs in the 40’s and lows in the 30’s .
The ground is in good condition for emergence. No crust at all. Moisture right to surface, but not saturated or ponding.
I think they will make it, but I’ve been through some nightmares before too. So far I don’t think
they are hurting to bad yet. Just need some warmth to spur them on.
Bjrogg
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Hey, Brian, are you anywhere near Alpena? We're thinking about a scouting trip this summer, as we're still considering retiring to Michigan (either upper mitten or UP). It would be fun to get together for a cup of coffee.
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Hey, Brian, are you anywhere near Alpena? We're thinking about a scouting trip this summer, as we're still considering retiring to Michigan (either upper mitten or UP). It would be fun to get together for a cup of coffee.
As the crow flies it’s not that far WB. But the Saginaw Bay gets in the way.
We always have to go south, before we can go north. I’m about ten miles south of Harbor Beach.
I would love to have all the Badgers over.
Bjrogg
PS the weather has been cool and damp. The first beets I planted looked like they were coming up good now. It’s really too wet to walk in the field right now, but that should be good conditions for them to emerge. Still talking snow showers next two days and then slowly warming up a bit.
PPS maybe you want to scout the thumb.
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WB my phone say 3hr and 49min. It would probably take you through some nice property. I sent you a pm
Bjrogg
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Beets are starting to poke out in the fields I planted last. It’s been cool and damp. Actually wet now. I still can’t walk out in the field without sinking in to my ankles so not the greatest pictures, but here’s a couple sugar beets that are just poking out.
Hopefully it starts to warm up a little now and we get a good stand. From what I can see looking from the edge of the field. I think we have a good stand in the first field I planted.
When it dries up we are going to be extremely busy. I think our sugar beets are going to make it. I sure hope so anyway. If they don’t it would really put us very far behind.
Bjrogg
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Mother Nature finally gave us a little sunshine and it is getting to 52 F high and lows 40’s low.
Just warming up that little bit and the sun warming that top layer of ground really helped coax our sugar beets out of the ground. I did quite a bit of scouting after going to my grad kids school for grand parents day.
Looks like a they came up perfect where I planted the first two days. Still a little thin where I planted the last day, but I think they will come
Bjrogg
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I’ve been collecting dead ash logs. Limbing them and putting the logs on piles. My goal is to get down my cliff to my beach. It’s literally huge ash trees that died and are so tangled up they can’t even fall all the way to the ground.
I’m doubtful I will achieve my goal at least this spring. I did get started though.
Bjrogg
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Goose nest by my pond.
Bjrogg
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I think Spring has sprung ! Bob
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I think Spring has sprung ! Bob
Yes beauty of a day again today Bob. I think the better half of spring might be here now. Saw a barn swallow today. Always figured the Purple Martians get here to early and leave to early.
The barn swallows seem to have it timed out a lot better.
Supposed to rain again tomorrow. Getting close to being able to get in fields but not yet. Maybe Monday if it doesn’t rain. Lots to do when we can
Bjrogg
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A couple of friends stopped by our shop yesterday morning and we did a little shooting bows.
Bjrogg
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Still a little too wet to work in the fields, so I worked at cleaning up dead ash trees. When my son got home from work he helped me and we restocked our firewood pile at our beach.
Bjrogg
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One for Bob
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Thanks ! Love seeing those Big Boats - what view ! Bob
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The generation ahead of me. A lot of men from around here sailed on the lake with the freighters. I had several uncles that did.
It rained .6” yesterday so nothing in the field.
I think we have a good stand of beets so I switched the planter to corn. I’m really not sure what I’m going to plant next. It might be soybeans but it’s easier to switch to corn and I would like to plant corn next if I can.
Take off all 18 row units and change plates and extractor.
I’m going to clean the fertilizer screens too.
Bjrogg
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Awhile back. On the leatherwall site they had a thread about planting trees for Jawge.
I tried something slightly different. Instead of planting a tree I tried grafting one. I tried grafting my dads apple tree to one of my thorn apple trees.
I still don’t know if it is going to survive, but it seems to be ok so far. Buds are starting to open up.
Bjrogg
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Graft looks like it took. I doubt a twig that size would have the energy to send out leaves if cambiums are not lined up. Nice job on that.
Raining at the moment so not in a big hurry to get out there but Ill be out mowing brush today. Bloom is basically over here. Starting to size fruit for thinning now. Took a few pics last week but things got busy.
Mike
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A Friend of Mines Dad, was a Ag Teacher/Dairy Farmer. His pride and joy, was a Tree in His Orchard that was Half Apple - Half Pear. He had grafted is many Years past, as an experiment. Bob
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Still too wet to plant yet, but dry enough to spray.
I finished spraying the wheat. It needed it. Was very weedy.
Then I sprayed rye cover crop where we are going to plant soybeans. The rye is really growing and it’s time to terminate it.
Then I started spraying sugar beets. They are still very small but the rye cover crop they were planted into is growing and needs to be terminated. It should provide good wind protection now even after it dies.
Bjrogg
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How do you terminate the rye? do you cut it and leave as mulch?
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I hope I can reply now. I meant to post some pictures my last reply but either something changed on the site or my phone and I wasn’t able to. It just showed my last reply in big print and no reply tab.
Where I’m going to plant soybeans yet I can either use tillage or herbicide . The tillage won’t completely kill it. It will slow it down a little and give the soybeans a chance until I can use herbicide later.
Where I used tillage previously to planting our sugar beets the rye I has grown back and it is completely taking over my sugar beets now. There I use herbicides. This is where modern methods work so well with old ones. This has always been one of the biggest challenges with using cover crops. They are very challenging to manage.
Normally I would have used tillage to knock the rye back before planting the soybeans but this rye is really growing fast now and it’s going to be a week before I can plant. We decided to spray now instead of tillage. The rye is getting so big it will plug up and make piles behind our tillage tools if we don’t.
Bjrogg
Here’s where the soybeans will go. The rye has done its job. It’s scavenging nutrients, supporting microorganisms and protecting the soil from erosion while building organic matter. In a week or so hopefully it will be tilled and planted to soybeans and the residue will remain there to prevent wind and soil erosion.
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Seems like I can post again
The next picture is of our beet fields. These fields were tilled before planting. The rye has done its job here too. After applying herbicide the rye will die and the dead plants will continue to protect against wind erosion.
Bjrogg
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Here are the sugar beet plants. At this time they are still very small. Slow growing and susceptible to many things one being cut off by wind and dirt blowing. The old crop residue and rye residue ( we call it trash) will help protect them. They can’t compete with the living rye anymore though
Bjrogg
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Here’s another picture for Bob
Bjrogg
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Are herbicides so specific that they kill rye and dont adversely affect soybeens or beet growth?
Sorry if my questions are so basic but I have big lack of knowledge and I find this thread really interesting
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Good question Glis.
This is really where modern technology make these cover crops work.
In the past this was a huge problem. We had to use tillage to terminate the rye. A lot of it. The rye still didn’t completely die and became a weed. If we did enough tillage to kill it, there was no (trash ) left for wind protection.
Modern (here’s that bad word GMO’s) have allowed us to plant right into growing cover crops and then spray them. Killing the cover and leaving its trash on top to still give protection from the wind.
I’m not against GMO’s . They are very beneficial. They have many different types.
Some allow the crop to be resistant to a chemical. Some allow the crop to be resistant to a bug making it so we don’t have to use an insecticide.
Some protect crop from disease and allow us to not have to spray a fungicide.
I really believe they are good for the environment and have prevented literally tons chemicals from being used.
Bjrogg
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Thanks BJ ! Was She in that close, or is it just the Pic ? Bob
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Thanks BJ ! Was She in that close, or is it just the Pic ? Bob
I would say she was in pretty close.
It always looks closer looking from my field than from the beach. She looks pretty close though.
Bjrogg
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Hopefully start planting my sons corn today. I got some more stuff ready for planting yesterday then looked for asparagus. It was just starting to come up. Made a great Mother’s Day gift for my wife. I have picked her wild flowers before and she said they were stinky and threw them out. She never complains about the asparagus and she never throws it out. We both love it.
Bjrogg
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Then my youngest son and I worked at firewood and burning our brush pile. Might be last chance we get to work at it this spring and I was glad to get to mess cleaned up before the grass got tall.
Bjrogg
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By dark it was all burnt up.
Bjrogg
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Good to see your beets are up. Heck of a nice looking stand of rye, trash from that ought to serve you well.
Next week looks like some good weather here for things to start growing well. Tomatoes and peppers just about ready to be transplanted and strawberries started blooming this week.
Mike
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Thanks Mike hope you have a great growing season too.
I started planting my sons corn Saturday. Planted his field to the south where it didn’t rain as much. Then a couple small ones around his barn . The rest of his fields weren’t quite dry enough and we took yesterday Mother’s Day.
Hopefully we can plant some more today. We actually had a white frost this morning. Was hoping we were done with those . Might get my apple blossoms.
Bjrogg
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By the way my wife loved her bouquet of asparagus.
After the kids left yesterday I checked out my Jawge graft. It’s still looking good. I also did a few more last week and they look like they have potential.
Bjrogg
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I found the goose eggs broken up and drug away from the nest last week. It looks like three of the six made it . The mother , father and three babies are swimming in my pond.
Bjrogg
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It’s been a very busy how ever many days. I’m starting to feel the years. I’m really tired.
I planted my sons corn.
Planted most of our soybeans.
Sprayed beets and killed rye cover in preparation for planting edible beans. They aren’t GMO so I have to kill the rye before we plant the seeds.
I put nitrogen on our wheat and sugar beets.
We are almost caught back up again.
Which is good because my brother goes for surgery tomorrow morning. He won’t be able to help until he gets healed up. We were hoping to avoid the procedure, but the doctors are pretty sure he still needs it. I hope and pray everything goes well. His healing is complete and he adjusts to his new lifestyle well. I also pray he can still work with me for many years to come.
We are still pretty cool around here. Had two white frost this week. A couple days would have been beautiful for February. My cousin who lives further inland said his dogs water bowl was frozen solid one morning.
I was thinking we were past the freezing point. I didnt get any apples from my dads tree last year. Well I did get about five. I was thinking they were safe this year. Almost budded out earlier in April but then just waited for it to warm up. Finally got some warm weather and they blossomed out. Just in time to get frosted and frozen. Maybe we will still get some. This is a pretty hardy tree. I trimmed it in March and it’s the one I saved grafting material from for my Jawge graft.
Bjrogg
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I put the nitrogen on wheat and sugar beets. I we always split our nitrogen applications. Got done just before a nice slow 1/2 “ rain that will put it right where the crops need it. It is a good practice and a great way to insure that spring rains don’t leach it away. Good for environment and the wheat.
I could see how weedy the wheat was when I sprayed it for weeds. Here’s a picture. Maybe you can see how the wheat is green. The funny colored stuff is the weeds that were growing above the wheat. Hopefully now dying. It was already very hard on the wheat in places completely chocking it out.
Bjrogg
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The rye cover crop l planted sugar beets into is dying now and the sugar beet rows are starting to show up
Bjrogg
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I know I’m not supposed to talk religion. I’m not going to.
I would just like you all to know that if you feel inclined to pray for my brother I would appreciate that. Whatever your faith.
Thanks Bjrogg
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Prayers sent BJ. Pappy
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Hope things go OK for your brother, Brian. And hope your weather warms up! It's amazing how fast we've gone from shoveling to mowing. Darn near had to rent a brush hog to do the back lawn.
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Thoughts and Prayers sent ! Bob
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I'm with you and your Brother BJ
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Thank You everyone for the thoughts and prayers. They are very much appreciated and welcome.
Bjrogg
PS I will try to make a update when I get information
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Will keep your bro on the short list.
Mike
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Sending positive energy up into the universe for your brother and your family, Brian.
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Thank You Mike and Pat.
From what I understand he went in surgery early this morning but expects to be in most of the day.
I’m certainly not going to rush them. If there’s one thing I have learned from hospital visits it’s don’t be in to much of a hurry to get out of there. If something is wrong get it checked out before you go.
Thanks everyone again l will keep you updated
Bjrogg
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My sister said he was doing pretty good. Very tired and doctors said he would be in a lot of pain for a few days. He’s resting now.
Bjrogg
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Hospital said my brother had a good night. That they even got him up and gave him a little walk. Said today would probably be hard but he has a high tolerance for pain.
Bjrogg
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Glad to hear he made it through surgery well and is on the mend. :)
Pappy
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Glad to hear he made it through surgery well and is on the mend. :)
Pappy
Thanks Pappy. I just got a text from him. He said he was in a little pain but happy I finished planting soybeans. Told him we had everything under control and not to be in a rush to get out of there. Was really good to hear from him. He was glad to get his phone back. I’m sure he will be playing games on it.lol more than communicating with everyone. That’s ok though
Bjrogg
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Talked to my brother on the phone today. He sounded really good. He had visitors so we only talked for a few minutes but it was really good to hear his voice and it sounded strong and happy.
Getting everything ready to start planting Pinto beans.
Still cool. Talking chance of frost next two nights. Supposed to warm up next week.
Bjrogg
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Good to hear things seem to be moving in the right direction for your brother.
Been cool nights here but looks like the frost is over till fall. Long stretch of dry weather coming now. The guys will need to be laying pipe soon and running the pumps. They planted some sweet corn yesterday, maybe 2 acres, and its going to need to be irrigated to get a good even stand. I been spending most of my time in the orchards, pretty happy with how things are looking so far there, but its a long way to go yet. 1st plantings of tomatoes, peppers, cuks, and zuks are in the ground. Strawberries are starting to color up, but the deer have been pretty hard over them over the winter. Going to be lots of small berries this year and that makes for a hard sell but thats how things go.
Been keeping busy in my free time trying to process a bitter nut hickory into staves. Was not in my plans but have to take advantage of the moment. Nice straight stuff but has some bark pockets in the wood so going to get what i can from it and keep my fingers crossed.
Whelp coffee finished up, I best get out there.
Mike
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Thanks Mike. Glad to hear things are looking good there. Hope the trend continues.
Dr just told my brother that there was residual cancer in the tumor they removed. He was confident he got it all though and his lymph nodes were clean
I’m planting our pinto beans now. Wish it was a little warmer. Still was a light white frost yet this morning. It’s supposed to warm up next week but they’ve been saying that for a month. Here by the lake it seems like when it should be a nice day. The wind decides it wants to blow off the lake it cools thing down a lot. Feels really good when it gets hot out but not so much in the early spring.
Not complaining though. As Pappy says Life is good
Bjrogg
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Thought of You yesterday Morning - had a hard white Frost here. Bob
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Thought of You yesterday Morning - had a hard white Frost here. Bob
It was a light one here Bob. I’m sure hoping it’s the last one for this spring. And we don’t get an early one this fall.
Especially since we started planting Pinto beans. They won’t be as hardy with the cold. They like it warm. Not necessarily extreme heat, especially when they are blossoming. The lake is still going to keep us about 15 to 20 degrees cooler than inland, but when they start getting up to the 90’s that’s alright with me and my crops.
Yesterday I finished planting Pintos. This field is my cousin’s grandpas farm. The people who bought the buildings really did an awesome job fixing everything up. I always enjoy seeing it. I text my cousin a picture and he didn’t realize it was his grandpa’s place until I told him. It could be the home of the Clydesdales.
Bjrogg
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Our soybeans are just starting to poke out. You can see them shoving the ground up.
Bjrogg
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Had a very nice Memorial Day weekend. Not as nice as when we all went to the primitive meet in Marshall, but we did our best. Had two graduation parties and a wedding on Saturday. I was very tired but it was fun.
Then Sunday was my youngest grandson’s birthday party. I love that boy . He’s always gotta be the old ball. Everyone else in the family is MSU. So of course he has to be Michigan. His mother made the cake and said it proves her unconditional love making him this cake. Go Spartans.
We worked hard at planting black beans the last two days. My brother is back from hospital. He’s on the disabled list yet, but he has helped us move stuff around when we switch fields. He looks good and I can tell he’s itching to get back to work. We’re holding him back though. Need him healed up good first.
Was planting black beans at my cousins farm yesterday. Getting dusty now. Definitely warmed up. Slept with windows open past two nights. First time furnace hasn’t run in a long time.
Bjrogg
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Love seeing the happenings at your farm. Thank you for taking the time to post the pictures and updates.
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You’re welcome Brian. Glad you enjoy them. I always try to watch your videos too.
We should be done planting now. We put a lot of seeds in the ground in the last week. I should give you all some numbers if I get a chance. Lots of fresh new green lines showing up in fields now.
I got home a little early tonight and looked at the “Jawge” graft. It looks great to me but I’m guessing I should remove any apples if it gets any this year. Maybe Mike can give me some advice.
Bjrogg
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Jawge
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Had a big long comment almost finished then pressed the wrong key and closed out the screen by accident :fp
Remove the fruit this year. See how it grows and maybe leaving a light crop next year. Looks great! Looks like the bloom made it through the spring frosts so you ought to get some fruit from the bigger tree. 28 degree F for 3 hours is a 90% kill during full bloom. We made it down to 29 for 30 min one night this year. Interesting to see the timing difference. We are about a month ahead. Lodi(July apples) will be ready in a month about. But a long way to go on Stamen and Rome with a mid October pick date. The season for Primary apple scab is over and I think I got through things well this year. Lots of early mornings, maybe tonight I can post a few sun rise pictures from the last month. Need to turn my attention to some of the field crops soon.
Been hot and dry here for a while. No rain in the forecast either. Odd for this time of year in SW Pa. Think the last rain was May 20th and that was less than .5"
Worked hard this week to finish everything to be able to do some work in the shop this weekend. I better start by cleaning up my mess:)
Mike
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Thanks for the info Mike. That’s what I was thinking for my limited knowledge.
I did some mowing by my pond and beach. Made everything look a lot nicer.
Bjrogg
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What a spot by the "Big" Pond (A) ! Bob
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Looks like a fine place to relax and enjoy the view.
Pappy
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Looks like a fine place to relax and enjoy the view.
Pappy
Yes Pappy it certainly is. As my cousin who comes back home from California every summer to visit says. “It’s a great place to reboot the soul”
Bjrogg
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What a spot by the "Big" Pond (A) ! Bob
It really is a great spot Bob. Would love to share a bonfire with you there sometime. The lake is way down again. My brother has been fishing with his waders and doing good.
Bjrogg
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Had a big long comment almost finished then pressed the wrong key and closed out the screen by accident :fp
Remove the fruit this year. See how it grows and maybe leaving a light crop next year. Looks great! Looks like the bloom made it through the spring frosts so you ought to get some fruit from the bigger tree. 28 degree F for 3 hours is a 90% kill during full bloom. We made it down to 29 for 30 min one night this year. Interesting to see the timing difference. We are about a month ahead. Lodi(July apples) will be ready in a month about. But a long way to go on Stamen and Rome with a mid October pick date. The season for Primary apple scab is over and I think I got through things well this year. Lots of early mornings, maybe tonight I can post a few sun rise pictures from the last month. Need to turn my attention to some of the field crops soon.
Been hot and dry here for a while. No rain in the forecast either. Odd for this time of year in SW Pa. Think the last rain was May 20th and that was less than .5"
Worked hard this week to finish everything to be able to do some work in the shop this weekend. I better start by cleaning up my mess:)
Mike
Yes I forgot to mention that the big tree I got the graft material from did set fruit. So glad. My wife and I really like the apples it produces.
Bjrogg
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Wheat is starting to head out. Probably about six to seven weeks till harvest. Still lots of stuff to get ready in the shop, which has been sit aside for now. With my brother still on the DL. My nephew and I have been to busy in the fields to get much shop work done.
Hopefully I can get along in the fields more myself now and my nephew can get some time in the shop.
Bjrogg
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I'm guessing Your Brother is Fishing for Smallmouth Bass when wading ? Bob
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I'm guessing Your Brother is Fishing for Smallmouth Bass when wading ? Bob
Yes. Bass .
Pulled a few lunkers out of there. It’s a pretty popular fishing spot. I’m sure it was even back when the native Americans were still here. It’s a shallow flat area. If you watch long enough you will see them jump out of the water for bugs.
Bjrogg
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All the wheat has been cut here and most have beans planted over the stubble. :) my corn is waste high now and could really use some rain, been a very dry spring here again this year. :-\
Pappy
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All the wheat has been cut here and most have beans planted over the stubble. :) my corn is waste high now and could really use some rain, been a very dry spring here again this year. :-\
Pappy
Yes we are definitely behind your neighborhood Pappy.
Corn is probably a week behind normal and it’s still pretty cool here yet. Had to find a shirt with sleeves again. You need to have a portable closet around here . You never know what you might get for weather around here.
It’s been a pretty decent spring for rain here. Could use a little rain again, but not serious yet unless you are trying to plant beans in ground that was tilled a few weeks ago. That’s dried out as deep as you worked it.
It looks like it’s going to rain every day. It’s like twilight all day long. I’ve seen raccoons running around four hours before it’s actually twilight. Hope they get those forest fires out soon. I’m sure all my crops are missing out on photosynthesis they need because of all this smoke.
Bjrogg
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Our pinto beans came up good. Getting their first tri foliates .
Bjrogg
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Been busy . Nephew in the shop and myself in the fields.
Still smoky haze. I hope they get these fires under control soon. I can’t imagine how much fire it takes to make the sky so hazy this far from the source.
A couple pictures of the hazy sun shining. Hard to capture in pictures.
Bjrogg
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One more
Bjrogg
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We can't smell the smoke but you can easily see the haze over the mountains here. They say it could go on all summer. Just pray for the wind to change directions for relief.
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We got a really nice slow half inch rain over the past 24 hours.
My daughter said that her dog Zoey gifted it to us. She passed away a year ago yesterday and my daughter still really misses her.
We did of course get these two. One a knuckle head and the other has a licker problem. Licks everything.lol
They aren’t Zoey, but we love them and they love us in return.
Bjrogg
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Sounds Like my Daughters dog. He never could hold his licker.
Piddler
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I thought of You and all the Farmers with this rain. Was really needed. Bob
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Ya we finely got some rain also, it was much needed. Corn was starting to twist.
Pappy
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Sounds Like my Daughters dog. He never could hold his licker.
Piddler
Yup just like this one. I honestly don’t know how she could still have any moisture left on her licker, but she does. And she wants to share it with everyone.lol
Bjrogg
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I thought of You and all the Farmers with this rain. Was really needed. Bob
Yeah it’s been a little on the dry side since middle of May. We have been cooler by the lake so we probably aren’t as dry as you, but it was a very welcome rain. Not a big one, but enough to help for a little while.
Bjrogg
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Sounds Like my Daughters dog. He never could hold his licker.
Piddler
Yup just like this one. I honestly don’t know how she could still have any moisture left on her licker, but she does. And she wants to share it with everyone.lol
Bjrogg
Glad you got a little rain to Pappy. Sounds like it missed a lot of people.
My cousin who lives about 30 miles west of me had hail yesterday. Tore corn up but it should grow out of it.
My brother works about 12 miles west of me and he said yesterday a storm popped up at work and it rained for a hour. The system never moved. Just popped up and rained until it used itself up. I didn’t get a drop.
I’m not complaining. Our crops are small yet and I’d rather be slightly on the dry side than to wet. The small crops just don’t need a lot of rain.
Our Black Beans are coming up beautifully.
Bjrogg
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looks like a nice stand of beans Bj.
Got .3" on Monday. first rain since May 20th. It came down last night, have not checked the gauge yet but guessing close to an inch. Very much needed. Some of the dwarf trees leaves were starting to curl up a bit. This rain should put most of the irrigation on hold for a while. Last thing I want is to have to put pipe in the orchards, It happens but such a pain.
Mike
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Well, we’re up in alpena tonight. I waved at you down the shore of Huron. ;D
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I thought I saw someone waving at me.
My cousin came back from California for his annual rebutting of the soul visit.
Maybe you could see our campfire. Hope the music wasn’t too loud.
Sure was a beautiful night for a campfire. The big lake was providing the air conditioning. The fire felt good.
Bjrogg
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Wow - that sure looks nice ! (=) Bob.
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Looks like another nice evening by the lake and fire. :)
Pappy
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Looks like another nice evening by the lake and fire. :)
Pappy
It was so calm. The lake was as flat as it gets. It was perfectly quiet. Isn’t that way very often
Bjrogg
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This is why I like to get our sugar beets planted in April if the ground is dry enough.
The first picture is of a field planted in May. First it got to dry and some of the beets didn’t germinate. Then it rained and some more came but not a great stand and very far behind.
Bjrogg
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The next picture is of our beets planted in April. It took three weeks for them to come up, but when they did they came up really nice. I planted this field without any tillage this spring. Right into a live rye cover crop.
Bjrogg
PS glad the first pic isn’t my field
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This is what the field looked like when I sprayed it. We got a lot out of this rye, yet it wasn’t to much that it hurt the beets. Now the worms are taking it under ground and building up our soil.
Bjrogg
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Nice ! Bob
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Thanks Bob. I’m pretty happy with our personal crops. Stuff looks all over the board around here this year. Some fields look perfect and others very far behind and pecky.
GlisGlis asked before if herbicides could be that selective as to kill weeds but not the crops. The answer is yes kinda.
Our non GMO beans are taken care of completely differently than our GMO ones.
We have to kill our cover crops and weeds before we plant our seeds. We generally put down a herbicide much like Preen that people use for their garden and flowers. It stops some weeds from successfully germinating but not all.
Hopefully we don’t have too many weeds escape from our pre emergence herbicide but we always have some. We have to wait for the beans to get just the right size. They need two trifoliates. They will experience some crop damage but should grow out of it.
This plant is showing some damage but ready to outgrow it.
Leave are crinkly and odd shaped.
Bjrogg
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Just posting to see if BJ can post
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Just testing something
Bjrogg
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If I click on page 51 I can use the reply box. When I click on the reply box I can see the replies on page 52. After I post my reply all I can see is the reply I made a few days ago in large font with no way to reply.
Might figure out how to get around this yet but no time now
Hopefully be back soon
Bjrogg
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I’m :) back
Hopefully I can keep it going here.
These pictures are a few days old now but I was going to show the plant that was starting to grow out of it.
Bjrogg
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Here is a weed. I’m happy so far. Sometimes it doesn’t work. Even as smoked as this weed looks I have to keep an eye on it. Often they will start growing again. If I hit them at the perfect time I can kill them with a very low follow up rate. If I’m not timely I won’t kill them with any rate.
So much is timing and understanding if and when you need to do something.
Bjrogg
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Our sugar beets are looking good. They could use a bit more rain, but for now they are ok. I’m happy
You can see the smoke in the air. You have been able to smell it for a couple days now. It looks foggy but it’s smoke.
Bjrogg
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Lookin' good - 'cept I'm real tired of this Smoke. Bob
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Bjrogg,
Smoke here also. Not good air like we normally have.
Take care, Brian
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Me to Bob. I have had a nagging headache for three days now and I think it’s from the smoke.
Or it could be from hanging around with my cousin every night.lol at any rate the smoke is getting to be irritating.
Hope you get your good air back Brian. It makes me wonder how much oxygen has been consumed by these fires? They’re not only belching smoke particulates into the air. They are consuming a huge amount of oxygen.
Our Pinto beans are looking nice. So far I’m happy with the weed control. Hopefully the beans grow fast enough now to shade out the small weeds that will be coming.
We got a nice rain by my place again last night. Been spotty but most of our beets got a nice rain.
Bjrogg
Bjrogg
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Looking good BJ, we have got plenty of rain after that short time with none, the corn is made here already, the beans will need some more but the corn got all it needed and looks very good. :)
Pappy
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Glad you got some rain Pappy
We have been having a nice balance of work and play lately. Been to the beach a several times now.
Spent the whole day and a good chunk of the night there on the fourth.
Started in the morning and the water felt good.
Bjrogg
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By evening the fireworks started at the neighbors.
Bjrogg
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Then when everything got dark the moon made its appearance
Bjrogg
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That sure is a nice spot You have there. Have to say, that East side of the "Thumb", is My favorite part of Our Great State ! Lots of Deer and Great Fishing. Bob
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That sure is a nice spot You have there. Have to say, that East side of the "Thumb", is My favorite part of Our Great State ! Lots of Deer and Great Fishing. Bob
It is a great fit for me to Bob. Nice mix of farms, creeks and woods. It’s really a shame the ash all died. It was prettier when they were alive.
It took me way too long to realize how beautiful of a place I roam. I don’t take it for granted now. I truly appreciate it.
Bjrogg
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Well, we just got home. Sure did enjoy your state, though we mostly explored the more western side of the thumb, around Petoskey, Gaylord, Grayling, Ludington, and Traverse City. Some of the towns are pretty touristy for my taste (everybody said we were in TC at the absolute worst time), but I liked the hilly landscape around Petoskey and northwest of TC. I get to feeling lonesome if I can't see a mountain range on the horizon. Those maple/oak forests blew me away--we don't have trees like that in Wyoming. Fireflies are amazing. And the Badgerling and I got in some quality fish-watching at Ludington state park. There's a whole lot of biodiversity in your waters, which we really enjoyed.
Too bad we didn't have time for a side trip your way--maybe next time.
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I thought about you a lot the past couple weeks. Wondered how your visit worked out.
Yeah you would’ve been in TC during the Cherry festival and Fourth of July too. I’m sure their population triples then.
The sunrise side of the thumb is pretty cool spot too. No mountains though. Unless you count the Verona hills. I’m guessing you wouldn’t.
It’s not touristy at all. I don’t really know why, but that’s fine with me. I like it that way.
Glad you enjoyed your visit WB. Sure would’ve been nice to meet you and the rest of the Bagers.
I’m heading to the beach now to meet my cousin for one last cup of coffee at the beach. He is getting on a plane to California about noon. Going to miss him, but part of my old body is going to be glad to get a little break.lol
Was definitely nice to have him back though
Bjrogg
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We don’t have mountains, but we’re blessed in many other ways.
I shared a cup of coffee with my cousin at the beach yesterday morning. Then gave him a hug goodbye. Less than a year till I see you again he says. We’ve been doing this for a lot of years and it seems to be getting harder for me every year. I don’t take our time for granted.
I was working in my garden last night when I text him to see if he was home. I sent him a picture or two and told him good night.
Bjrogg
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Beautiful garden BJ. Beautiful place, too. I learn a lot reading your posts.
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Beautiful garden BJ. Beautiful place, too. I learn a lot reading your posts.
Same here. Always enjoy your pictures and hearing what you're up to.
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Thank You Steve and Mr Badger.
I’m glad you enjoy the pictures and extremely happy to share this passion of mine with you all. It’s been over 39 years since I returned from the city to farm full time. Spent many hours farming growing up on one before going to city. I honestly don’t miss the city even a tiny little bit. I think this is where I belong. It definitely has its challenges, but it also has its rewards.
We finally got a good rain everywhere. I got 1.35” and that’s the first one over an inch in a long time.
Of course we are quickly approaching wheat harvest so the rain is a double edged sword. It could turn our valuable wheat crop into feed wheat. We can’t afford that. The rest of our crops really need it though so we will gladly take it.
Doesn’t look like the greatest weather forecast for our wheat for the rest of this week though.
The dilemma of a farmer. Can’t imagine being the good lord sorting out all those prayers for rain here but not there.lol
I’m not complaining though. I’m going to be happy for the rain that we did need and got. Worry about the other stuff latter.
Bjrogg
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I’m hoping our wheat is still not mature enough to be hurt by the rain. It’s getting really close though. I think it’s about seven good days from harvest. Weather sounds like dripping around little showers everyday for the next week. It has cooled down considerably though. Had to find my jacket again. Never get too far away from my pickup and extra clothes.
Wheat looks really nice. Hope we can get it off milling quality. We already have a bunch of the money spent and need some income.
Bjrogg
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Good luck on the wheat. I heard it rained here the whole time we were in Michigan, while Michigan (at least the part we were in) was in a drought. Weird.
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This time of year is feast or famine. Usually spotty showers and the places that get them seem to keep getting them, while the ones that don’t get them continue to not get them.
We’ve had some of both this year, but I’m not complaining.
Our personal crops look good.
The sugar beets have 30” wide rows filled out nicely already and the rain they just got should really help them put some tons on early. We want them to get and use their nitrogen early. Put on tons and then in the fall start making sugar and storing it in their roots.
Sugar Beets
Bjrogg
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Our pinto beans are starting to blossom. The cool moist rain and weather predicted is ideal for white mold. I’m trying to put a fungicide on them between showers.
White mold can be devastating around here. We do as many things as we can to help control it.
We plant lower populations and wide row spacing to help give plants a little more room.
We try to grow varieties that are narrow and stand well to keep them off the ground.
We rotate crops
And we use fungicides much like a person would for a yeast infection or athletes foot
The fungicide we use is very short lived and the timing of applying it is very important. If I have the environmental conditions favorable for it I would really like to get an application as soon as the plants have their first blossoms. The fungus enters the plant through the blossoms. We put a protectant on the blossom to help prevent the fungus from growing on and entering into the blossoms.
It’s raining again. I have to put it on a dry plant and it needs to dry on so I’m waiting to mix anymore
Bjrogg
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Yesterday morning I managed to spray one more batch in between rain showers.
Bjrogg
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Then it was time to go to the county park for my favorite granddaughter’s birthday party. She’s my only granddaughter so I can say that. She might be my favorite even if I had another. She is a sweet heart and I have very much enjoyed watching her grow up. Can’t believe she’s 17 already and going to be a senior this fall.
Bjrogg
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We no more than cut the cake and it started raining. It poured for probably about 45 minutes. We all crowded into the camper and she opened her presents. Mostly books. She is a real bookworm and whenever she gets a chance she has a book in her hand.
Bjrogg
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When I left the park to go home I took a little crop tour to see where it rained and where it didn’t. The field I was trying to spray looked pretty wet. As I drove south the rain was obviously less. By the time I got home, which is only 4 miles from the park I could see it hardly rained there.
Had less than a tenth at home and I’m sure it was well over an inch at the park.
Did a little pulling weeds in my garden then went to church
Bjrogg
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Looks like the smoke is back.
Bjrogg
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Been following along best I can BJ. Just amazing to me how flat and vast things are out west. Looks like your melons are off to a good start in your garden. Had a bad storm come through the other night and drop a small amount of hail. A few marks on the fruit in the new orchard but think things will be fine. I did have to put something on that block, for fire blight, the next morning just to be safe. Beyond that apples had a lighter fruit set this year but should have great quality and size. So pretty good over all. Got my 30 lbs of blueberries in the freezer so should be good for the year with them. The guys been picking cuks, zuks, corn, blueberries and just strated with the peppers. Toms still 2 weeks out. only about 5 weeks for ginergold and the early honeycrisp in the orchards. My how time flies. So far so good. Smoke was bad here 2 weeks ago for a few days but have not seen any since.
Mike
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The Smoke was real bad here yesterday, could smell it in the House when I got up! No rain here - was lucky. Got enough the last storm. Did manage to reduce the Groundhog population with the .17HMR tho - Coyote/Buzzard food ;D! Bob
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Hope you have a safe and prosperous harvest Mike.
We had one good rain everyone had around here and the rest have been spotty. Some people have to much and others don’t have enough.
Some really bad hail damage to the south about 40miles.
We are still okay. Actually really good, but I would really like to get our very perishable wheat crop harvested in good shape.
Bjrogg
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The Smoke was real bad here yesterday, could smell it in the House when I got up! No rain here - was lucky. Got enough the last storm. Did manage to reduce the Groundhog population with the .17HMR tho - Coyote/Buzzard food ;D! Bob
If you want to come over here and hunt groundhogs you are more than welcome. They are terrible this year.
Bjrogg
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I really love this time of year.
Our growing season isn’t as long and our crops get off to a latter start. We make up for it this time of year. Our days get long. Our crops take advantage of the extra hours of sunlight. You can almost watch them grow.
It’s a little too wet in the pinto bean fields yet, but I really hope I can get in them tomorrow. They are loaded with blossoms and even have some that have already pollinated and are growing pin beans. That means the white mold virus could have already gotten into the plant. The very worst time for it to enter the plant is early in blooming stage. The temperature has been cool and it has been damp. Idea conditions for pollination and white mold. It doesn’t like temperature above 85 but it isn’t predicted to get anywhere near that here by the lake.
Pinto bean blossoms
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Almost have the 30” rows filled already.
Bjrogg
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Blossom that has pollinated and “pin bean” growing from it.
Bjrogg
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We got started at wheat today. Wasn’t a really good combine day. Spotty showers passing through. Wind off the lake, but we did get about 60 acres ground through.
Bjrogg
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Wow - that's alot of Buttons to be running (A)! Bob
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Ya looks like a space ship, nothing like my old 30/20 John Deer or my IH 140 :)
Pappy
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Never buy a tractor that's smarter than you are.
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Yes lots of adjustments, settings and controls on a combine.
I’m not sure if I can, but I try to stay smart enough to keep up with our combine, sprayer and tractors.
The combine I was running yesterday had a brain fart.
It suddenly got confused and started throwing trouble codes. Derarated engine to idle.
It’s brain froze and I had to unplug all the connections to it and leave them unplugged for two minutes. After a two minute nap I plugged it back in and everything worked. Wasted about 45 minutes of the best harvesting conditions we’ve had yet, but at least it worked.
About 45 minutes later we had a little shower pass thru. The sun shined and the wind blew after so I’m hoping our wheat is still good quality.
All our trucks are full now. Elevators are full of wet wheat and lines are very long. Got up at 4:30 to take trucks out.
Hopefully we can have a big day today. Probably going to be hard to get trucks empty through.
Bjrogg
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Ya got to love electronics , just turn it off or unplug and give it time to think and it sometimes fixes itself :-\ I liked it much better when things went wrong you could figure out the problem , repair it and it was done until something else happened. I guess the new stuff is good to a point but it seems I am always on edge that some kind of light is going to come on and their is no way on the road for me to fix it, My truck use to do that on just about ever long trip I would take, after the warranty went out I took all that stuff of and deleted it, now for 2 years , no problems. ;)
Can't go to CA. in it but don't plan to go there anyway ;) :) :) :) :)
Pappy
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Yes I know exactly where you are coming from Pappy. It’s all good when it works and totally frustrating when it doesn’t.
I still get to fix the mechanical stuff too. My combine made a clink noise and started bellowing smoke out the exhaust. I quickly shut it down. Looked it over and at first couldn’t see anything wrong. Ended up a stainless steel clamp broke for the boost line on turbo.
We finished up wheat Sunday. It was just really starting to go good.
Typical wheat harvest around here. You have to start about two days before the wheat is dry enough to harvest. We grind the green straw through the combine and take the wheat to the elevator. It has very good quality like this but difficult to harvest. Then by day three when everything is perfect and the combines can make good time. The elevators are stuffed full of wet wheat they need to dry and can only take the wheat as fast as they can dry it. The lines get very long and it gets really hard to keep empty trucks available for the combines. If the weather holds that last about two days and everyone starts bringing dry wheat. The elevator has room for dry wheat and the lines get shorter. The combines cruse and the trucks quickly make their round trip.
Everything is running like clockwork and then it rains. The humidity goes up and the wheat that isn’t harvested yet wants to sprout standing in the field yet. As soon as it starts to think about sprouting the starch converts and the falling numbers go down (not milling quality anymore).
Sure does put the stress on what would otherwise be an enjoyable harvest.
All in all we did good. We had a few loads that had deductions for numbers right on the edge. One load that was feed wheat. Many that were just above deductions.
I’m so relieved that our wheat is harvested. It truly is the most stressful and risky crop we grow. And we grow some pretty risky crops.
Finished just in time. Just finished the last of it and was blowing off the combine with leaf blower when a little shower came through. Warm and humid. I’m sure that any wheat left will be feed wheat now. I really don’t know why we grow this stuff. I can’t tell you how many times this same scenario has happened. Or that we were a day a or two away from being done when the rain came and we were left with feed wheat.
Bjrogg
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The last pass of wheat to harvest.
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Just in time.
Bjrogg
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It appears every time I get to a new page I can’t see or reply from that page. I have to reply from a previous page. Hopefully after a few replies on that new page I can then see it and reply again
Bjrogg
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Yep that worked I’m back.
Bjrogg
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Nice to hear you got that wheat in! Real awesome pics of the harvest. Give folks a perspective they could only understand with the pictures.
Mike
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I want that!
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Thanks Mike, glad you enjoyed the pictures. They definitely help tell my story.
DuBois I would love for you to have it too. I do truly feel blessed to be part of this. It is a tremendous amount of work, but I find it personally very rewarding. I’m mostly showing the fun stuff though. We have to do a lot of stuff that isn’t so fun to get to the fun part. I think it’s worth it though.
My youngest son had the day off from work and asked if I wanted to go to the Mission Impossible Movie. Been a long time since I went to a movie at the theater. Pretty good show and was fun to do it with my son. While we were there we got a nice rain. Anywhere from 1.3” to .8” . So glad our wheat is off.
Bjrogg
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Most definitely looks like a lot of hard work BJ. Happy for you, that you were able to take some time off and enjoy the movie with your son. I don't know a thing about running a farm but I do know farmers are the heart and soul of this country. Thanks for taking us along.
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Thanks Steve . It is a lot of work and probably half my friends my age and even younger are retiring already. I just really hope I can stay a part of this operation for awhile yet. At this time I need it. And it needs me.
There are lots of people who are the heart and soul of this country though. It takes all kinds of us.
They did manage to get some straw bailed before the rain. It wasn’t crispy dry but it should be ok.
Bjrogg
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I went out scouting my black bean fields after the rain. They are looking really nice. Too nice. We have been getting fantastic weather for beans. They like the little showers and the temperature here has been highs in the 70’s lows in the 60’s. Perfect for setting pods. They are loaded with blossoms and pin beans.
The protectant we used only provides about 10 to 14 days of protection. With the forecast and growth we have I’m pretty sure we will need to protect them again.
This is one of the reasons we like to plant beans in 30” wide spaced rows instead of 22. The first picture is looking straight up the rows. There is very little space between the rows now. The little that is will help with providing a little air.
Bjrogg
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Between the rows
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Blossoms and pin beans
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Across the rows
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Nice to see that everything's great. Your beans look vigorous.
How's your brother doing?
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Farming has been going well. Our crop look remarkable.
Thanks for remembering my brother. He went through chemo and radiation. It shrunk his tumor, but they still had to do surgery. He has adjusted well. Has a good attitude and the doctor said they are almost 100% certain they got all the cancer. He looks much better.
The big problem I haven’t mentioned yet is my sister in law. I have been debating whether I should mention it because my sister in law and other brother are not big fans of social media. Also as much as we would appreciate the prayers I don’t like to bring up religion here even though I don’t really think this would break that rule or offend anyone.
I have been thinking I should bring it up and I think this is probably a good time.
My sister is in law has had serious back problems for many years. It got to the point it was simply not tolerable anymore. She had a major back surgery over four weeks ago. She has had a multitude of complications. Her kidneys shut down. She has a bad infection. She has complications from the anesthesia that have really complicated things. She has sugar. She hasn’t been eating. She is definitely in need of prayers. I feel so bad for my brother who has been at her side the entire time.
I really can’t give much more details than that as communication with my brother has been hard to get and usually passed along by one of us. Usually I think no new is good news but it seems that isn’t the case here. I think the good news has gotten so rare that my brother just can’t bare to give us the bad news.
I do know she has had several surgeries since and one the day before yesterday. They had to drain fluids and find infection.
As I understand it was in the hardware. They removed almost half the hardware and replaced it. The last I knew she was not recovering well from the anesthesia. They didn’t think her kidney was filtering properly.
I have been so thankful for the beautiful crops we have had this year. But my prayers of thanksgiving are immediately followed by requests for strength and healing for my sister in law and my brother.
Times like this really make us realize what really is important.
Bjrogg
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I'm really sorry for the bad news.
I have a difficult relationship with religion and prayers but I wish you and your dears all the best.
If power of though exists some positive energy will reach you.
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I can’t see anything other than my first post on the new page again.
I can see that Glis replied last, but I can’t see his reply yet or anyone else’s if they did.
Hopefully a couple replies and I can
Bjrogg
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One more?
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Not working yet
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One from page 54
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Thoughts and Prayers sent Brain ! Bob
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I still can’t see anything on page 56 except for my first reply. See if this works.
Bjrogg
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you can try to change browser to see primitiveArcher site. That should fix your problem.
Both on computer and smartphone there are free version of Firefox, Brave or Chrome you can try to download and install
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you can try to change browser to see primitiveArcher site. That should fix your problem.
Both on computer and smartphone there are free version of Firefox, Brave or Chrome you can try to download and install
Thanks for the info and I appreciate your positive energy.
I don’t know much about my server but I will check into it. I know on most of my computers I can’t even access the site anymore because they won’t allow it.
I’m sure it has something to do with my end and isn’t a caused by the site. It happens on leatherwall to
Bjrogg
PS I can see page 56 now
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BJ, so sorry to read about your brother and sister in law. Sometimes it's hard to understand why certain things happen in our lives. I will definitely pray for you and your family to bring comfort in everything you are going through. On the other hand, very happy your hard work is paying off and your crops are doing so well.
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BJ, so sorry to read about your brother and sister in law. Sometimes it's hard to understand why certain things happen in our lives. I will definitely pray for you and your family to bring comfort in everything you are going through. On the other hand, very happy your hard work is paying off and your crops are doing so well.
Thanks Steve. Life certainly can be a roller coaster. It was a year ago today I was doing a demonstration at the youth mentors day when my dad passed away. That was a roller coaster in itself.
Bjrogg
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Was a busy day yesterday again. The start of fair week and this grandpa has some grandkids that are very involved in the fair.
I got up early and finished spraying our beans. Then I went to the fair to watch the goat show. It started at 9:00am and I really had to hustle to make it in time.
Glad I did though. I really enjoy watching my grandkids show their animals. They work very hard taking care of them. Training them and showing them. They have a lot of their own time and money invested in them. My grandson took grand champion showmanship in his class. Other than sitting on those bleachers it was a great experience for this grandpa.
Bjrogg
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When the show was over I helped my son with straw. He still fills two barns with small squares. I’m getting a little old to be a big help with unloading them but I try to do what I can to help. Mostly I raked some straw and hauled the wagons.
Bjrogg
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It’s a pop up wagon but not a pop up bailer. It’s a stacker bailer so at least one person has to take the bails off the bailer shoot and pile them on the wagon.
Bjrogg
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"JUST MARRIED" (lol) :OK :OK :OK
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"JUST MARRIED" (lol) :OK :OK :OK
I was wondering if anyone would notice that. When my son got married I pulled this wagon behind my tractor from the church to the hall. The entire wedding party along with extra friends loaded up and we stopped by our pond to take pictures. In my opinion it was much cooler than a limo.
Bjrogg
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We had old barn boots dragging behind it. It was really fun for the whole wedding party. We didn’t stop at any bars but we did bring some refreshments along.
Bjrogg
In case someone didn’t see it here’s another pic of the “Just Married “ wagon
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Sure pray everything goes well for your sister-in-law BJ.
Have not made a squares in several years, heck don't make enough rounds to keep the bailer these days but still take it out for one cut of hay. Always enjoyed the work for some reason. Maybe it sounds better as a memory :) Didn't have a kicker either. 2 guys on the wagon, a hook man and the stacker. I was almost always one of those 2. I'd like to think i can still do that and keep up with anyone. I'll keep telling myself that 8)
Congrats to the grand kids on their show. Thats a big deal for them youngsters
Mike
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[/quote]
When my son got married I pulled this wagon behind my tractor from the church to the hall. The entire wedding party along with extra friends loaded up and we stopped by our pond to take pictures. In my opinion it was much cooler than a limo.
[/quote]
Better than a limo for sure. Awesome!
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Thanks Glis. I know it made a lot of great memories and we still enjoy seeing the just married on the back of the wagon. Honestly I’m surprised it hasn’t caught on and more couples in this area haven’t done it. I told my son that’s how I want to go from the church to the cemetery when when my time is up. Only I want a different wagon. Don’t want to scar those memories from the wedding. I want a flat rack wagon. Be easier to load me on.
Bjrogg
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Thank You Mike especially for the prayers for my sister in law.
It’s been 5 and a half weeks since her first surgery. Almost a week since her last. She has been getting dialysis for the past three days and is starting to show some improvement. She sat up in her chair and has even tried walking with her walker. She is having a hard with it , but it’s still a huge improvement and hopefully the trend continues. We are hoping that the dialysis helps to clean the pain and anesthesia medication from her system as well. They have a very bad side effects for her and with her kidneys shut down she can’t filter them out of her system. I have been texting my brother pictures of our crops trying to give him a distraction. I think it has helped him somewhat but he still wasn’t really chatty. I noticed yesterday that he was much quicker to reply and much more chatty. I can tell he is finding a little hope in all this hopelessness.
Thanks everyone for your support.
Yes thinking back about putting up small squares is probably more glamorous than actually doing it again.lol. The reality kicks in about halfway through unloading the first wagon for me. It does bring back lots of memories from my younger days though.
Bjrogg
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The feeder calf show was day before yesterday. It was a long day at the fair .
My youngest grandson named his steer after very good friend Cass. Cass passed away a year and a half ago. He was an old timer and a bachelor and he had many friends. My grandkids always wanted him to come to the fair, but Cass didn’t like the fair and he wasn’t going. My grandson said he was going this year.lol
I don’t think Cass liked the fair all that much either. He was a little ornery and didn’t want to stand still. I was pretty proud of my grandson for hanging in there and not giving up. He did a great job considering how ornery Cass was, but he certainly didn’t win anything in showmanship. The judge did think he was a “Power house” of a steer.
Bjrogg
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My oldest grandson had a holstein steer that was smaller and more cooperative. Wasn’t named Cass either.
He’s really starting to be a good show person. He got first place in his class for showmanship. That’s pretty impressive. He also got first place in his class for goats and rabbits. They all worked very hard on their animals.
Bjrogg
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Here’s a picture of my dad’s apple tree. It seems my pruning job has been pretty successful.
Bjrogg
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BJ, you have a lot to be proud of with the Grand Kids. That's what we miss the most after moving to South Carolina, not seeing hours like we used to.
And I'm sorry to hear about your Sister in-law, saying a prayer for her and your brother.
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Enjoyed the Show Pics - Great thing for the Kids. Glad to hear the Sister- inlaw is improving. Bob
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Thanks Eddie. We are very blessed to have them in our lives as much as we do. It would be very difficult to move away from them for sure. They grow so fast that even as much as we see them we still miss out on stuff.
Bob glad you liked the pictures. Did you go to Elm Hall? I was hoping to sneak a day in there but it isn’t going to happen.
Between fair, work and my wife’s birthday I’m just not going to get a chance.
Yesterday was sale day for large animals and I think that ended my fair attendance for the year.
Tonight we are having a birthday party for my wife at our beach. Bring your own chairs and drinks. Maybe a snack to pass if you like. It should be a good party. Weather sounds perfect.
I’m probably not supposed to say my wife’s age, but it ends with a zero so those are always big ones. It starts with a six. Boy how time flies.
Bjrogg
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My wife would be happy to be 30.
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Bruce and I went up to Elm Hall on Tuesday Morning. Sat around the Campfire at the Bus with Pappy and the Gang for 3-4 hours. Noon time, The Group went and had Lunch. Headed Home soon after that. Always good to see Old Friends and meet a few New ones. Bob
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My wife would be happy to be 30.
So would my wife Eddie.lol.
She has to add x2 to that one though. It’s all good though. I’d probably have a hard time keeping up with a 30 year old wife. I’m pretty happy with the lady I have.
Bjrogg
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Bruce and I went up to Elm Hall on Tuesday Morning. Sat around the Campfire at the Bus with Pappy and the Gang for 3-4 hours. Noon time, The Group went and had Lunch. Headed Home soon after that. Always good to see Old Friends and meet a few New ones. Bob
Really missing all of you. Tell Bruce and Cindy hello for Susie and I.
Bjrogg
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I’m sorry I don’t have any pictures, but we had a really nice birthday party for my Wife. It was pretty unorganized and spur of the moment. Seems like those are often the best ones.
I think my wife really needed it. She did a lot of laughing and her laugh is very contagious. The weather was awesome. Nice cool breeze off the lake. Even my wife put a jacket on. The freighters were out in force. I’m sure we saw at least 19 freighters. The crowd was a good mix of our friends young and old.
Bjrogg
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We had a good rain Sunday thru Monday. A good 1 1/2” before it was done.
Bjrogg
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Two things I can be sure of with our pinto beans. They are going to have white mold . And we aren’t going to get every bean. They are laying on the ground. The parts of the plant touching the ground are developing white mold. I have done everything I can to prevent it but the conditions are very good for the mold. Once it develops I can’t kill it. Hopefully I can still control it somewhat and not have a total loss. Time will tell. The beans could use a dry spell.
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The sugar beets are really liking it though. I’m sure hoping we get a good fall for putting sugar on. I’m sure we personally are going to have huge tons. I sure hope we can get some money out of them. Don’t want another year like two years ago.
Bjrogg
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Had my first cob of corn from the garden tonight. Umm.
Bjrogg
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Bjrogg
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Last night when I picked a few cobs I harvested some greens too. Added them to my roast beef. It was pretty good. Lots of it to pick. Grows like a weed
Bjrogg
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This morning I decided I’d put in enough hours lately that I was going to spend a couple trimming up around my tree stands. Got a couple done.
Was sitting in the one to see what kind of view I had and watched a doe and fawn come from the west
Bjrogg
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My food plots look good so far. Last year they devoured them before season started and weren’t very attractive during season. This year my food plot is part of the field so they aren’t devouring it. After I harvest the rest of the field I will leave my plot. Hopefully that gets them closer.
Another stand trimmed
Bjrogg
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Tonight I trimmed the tree I grafted in honor of Jawge.
It’s looking good to me.
I’m not sure if I should have but I cut a bunch of the thorn apple branches off. Maybe should have left them on? I hope the deer don’t bother it now.
I don’t know if I should take the tile tape off yet either. It’s stretchy so there should be room to grow.
Bjrogg
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I got rained out, but it brought a rainbow
Bjrogg
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Those are some good lookin' Stand sites ! Did You get any of the Storms last evening? Was at the Wirwicki Homestead for Dinner, and had a batch of Storms boil thru. Saw the biggest Hail I've ever seen - Golf Ball size! Sounded like Baseballs hitting the House! Did crack a couple of Windows on the House. Bob
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Those are some good lookin' Stand sites ! Did You get any of the Storms last evening? Was at the Wirwicki Homestead for Dinner, and had a batch of Storms boil thru. Saw the biggest Hail I've ever seen - Golf Ball size! Sounded like Baseballs hitting the House! Did crack a couple of Windows on the House. Bob
Hoping the hunting spots work out.
We got lucky with the storms. We got rain but we didn’t get the hail or tornados.
Bjrogg
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Good looking set up, should do some good there, I love rainbows Genesis 9:13 gives me hope and a warm feeling every time I see one. ;) We have had several bad storms here the last few days, just some wind and rain but no hail, strange weather for July and August, usually they are hot and dry. :-\ The tree graft is looking good to my eyes, never done one but I would say you got it.
Pappy
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Thanks Pappy. I’m hoping this might be a good year for me hunting. I usually see a lot of deer when I have soybeans on the headlands and wedge rows, with sugar beets in the big parts of the field.
As long as I see stuff I’m usually happy. If I get a shot all the better.
The grafts I find very interesting. I have never done them before, but I know people who have. I cut down six thorn apple trees and grafted twigs from a tree I really like by my dads. I grafted two twigs in each of the six stumps.
Four of the stumps have growing live twigs on them now. All in spots I’d love to have a good apple tree to hunt over. Be interesting what next year brings. I trimmed the new thorn apple branches off them now. Hopefully that doesn’t hurt them.
Bjrogg
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It looks like the pintos have white mold but the protectant is helping to keep it from spreading like wildfire. Still hoping this field does well. It sure looks like it has potential. Still have to get them through the combine.
Bjrogg
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Pintos
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My son is on a much deserved vacation. I’m feeding his cattle, spreading some manure and keeping an eye on everything.
The cattle are looking very comfortable and we’re happy to see me.
Bjrogg
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Ah yes, the "Honey" Wagon ;) - that takes Me back! Bob
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Yup they were happy to see me again Bob.
I couldn’t keep up eating the greens. I spent most of Sunday and a couple hours last night and I got my water melon patch looking good again.
Found my first melons. Musk and water. I love watching them grow. They can grow expressively fast.
Bjrogg
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Nice looking melon patch, BJ! We grew a watermelon here in Wyoming once. My friends were impressed. Last year we got a couple to ripen. They were about the size of tennis balls, and there was about a tablespoon of red in each one. ;D Something tells me the climate here isn't quite right for them.
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Went back to work on a couple hunt spots. Saw this guy a couple times now. He doesn’t seem too concerned about me so far.
A little four point I think
Bjrogg
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Nice looking melon patch, BJ! We grew a watermelon here in Wyoming once. My friends were impressed. Last year we got a couple to ripen. They were about the size of tennis balls, and there was about a tablespoon of red in each one. ;D Something tells me the climate here isn't quite right for them.
They do seem to like hotter weather than we get. I just like goofing around with them. I’ve actually had the best luck with just using the seeds from the big melons we get at the grocery store. The first time I successfully grew them it was by accident. My wife threw watermelon scraps in the garden. They came up by themselves. I didn’t even know what they were. They were loaded with blossoms. Then they got two tiny melons that grew really fast. They got about the size of the ones from the store. I didn’t know how to tell if they were rip so I just let them there for a long time. Then one evening I decided to pick one. It was very good. Picked the other one the next day. Then the plant got six more melons. It didn’t even put out any more blossoms. Those got close enough to rip that we ate them but they weren’t as good as the riper ones.
Bjrogg
PS nice fish they look tasty. I wanted to reply to your post but my phone won’t let me.
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My kind of deer BJ. ;) :) :)
Pappy
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My kind of deer BJ. ;) :) :)
Pappy
My thoughts exactly Pappy.
Nice amount of tender crops feed venison. And dumb as a box of rocks.lol. Funny how quick they get smart though
Bjrogg
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We’ve been busy getting ready for early dig sugar beets and and harvesting beans. Got lots of stuff thru the shop and coming along nicely.
Finally some fantastic news about my sister in law. I waited a few days to make sure everything was still good.
About last Wednesday morning she woke up and wasn’t nearly as confused.
She knew where she was and was joking with her nurses. She asked for her phone and put her password for Facebook in and started chatting. It was the first time she looked at her phone in 50 days.
Her kidney function improved significantly.
She still has a lot of physical therapy and other issues but my brother is so glad to have her back.
Yesterday they moved her from the big city hospital to a local rehabilitation facility and my brother was so happy to be back in his county and looking forward to sleeping in his own bed.
Thank You everyone for your support. Sure hope it’s all improvement now and done with setbacks.
Bjrogg
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We’ve been doing a lot of shop work getting ready for early dig sugar beets. We are number one on the list. It’s a lottery. They draw your slot. Then you have to dig a the acres you put in. I’m thinking we will be digging right around September 5th.
Also getting ready for edible bean harvest.
The Pinto beans are starting to turn pretty good now. I’m thinking about September 9th. It all depends on the weather and lots of other things.
Every day counts though and today gets us another day closer.
Bjrogg
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I’ve seen three clutches of second batch turkey in the past week. I had to stop on the road to let a hen and her fuzz balls pass last week. Last night I was going to trim up one of my hunting spots and saw another clutch. I didn’t get my camera out as quickly as I wanted to but I got one picture before they disappeared into the woods
Bjrogg
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ya we have a lot of them running around right now, ours are about half grown by this time of year, looks like we had a very good hatch. :)
Pappy
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I set up another tree stand. I really like this spot. Even if I don’t see any deer I should see some beautiful sunrise over the lake.
And the sunsets over my shoulder should be beautiful too.
This corner of the farm was once an apple orchard. It has been grown over with dead ash and thorn apples. I cleaned it up a bit this spring. Have a little more work to do yet, but it’s certainly looking better. I can see 8 apple trees from this stand, and plus the promise of some beautiful sunrise and sunsets.
Bjrogg
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The stand in a cedar tree that was grown over with dead ash and thorn apples.
Bjrogg
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The sunrise over the lake should be amazing when the rest of these apples and leaves drop. Today I just have this sailboat to watch
Bjrogg
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You maybe can’t see it from the picture, but I also watched this freighter
Bjrogg
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And at the end of the hunt there should be a beautiful sunset or two waiting over my shoulder. Just my pond and field for now though. Still not too bad of a view.
Bjrogg
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Wow - What a spot :-D :-D ! Bob
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Beautiful spot to spend the day BJ, deer or no deer.Good luck on the hunt. :)
Pappy
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Thank You Bob and Pappy. I still might change it up a little bit yet but it’s definitely going to be in this general area. I might switch it to the tree to the south of it and turn it a quarter turn. Going to check that option out yet if I get a chance.
I picked five pods that are in different stages of maturity. Top two are not totally mature yet. Especially number one. Probably need a ten days. You can see the colors isn’t dark enough. The beans would probably be “pick” beans that we would not only get a deduction for but also pay to have them removed.
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The middle two are perfect.
The bottom one is getting too old starting to turn dark in the areas that are lighter colored. Once again deduction and removal fee.
Bjrogg
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I pulled this plant last week one day and let it dry in the pods.
The color looked pretty good to me. Had 144 beans on this plant.
I think we have more immature ones to gain, than older ones to lose at this point.
Bjrogg
PS there were still a few beans in pods when I took pictures so I don’t think there’s 144 beans in picture
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My son and I watched the Blue super moon rise a couple nights ago.
It didn’t disappoint. Was much better than the pictures
Bjrogg
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Cool ! Bob
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Thanks Bob. When I get a chance I’m going to go put my toe in the sand and have a cool one for Jimmy Buffet.
Wasn’t yesterday though. We started harvesting pinto beans yesterday. We finished a 51 acre field and tried a second field that was just a little too wet yet. These beans have to be 18% moisture or less. Samples was 18.3. Now there’s rain in the forecast for the next 5 days. They didn’t have any rain in the forecast for this week five days ago.
The white mold was pretty hard on them. The last thing they need is to get rained on for another week. The white mold is really deteriorating the straw and the pods are falling off as I type.
I sure hope we can get them off before they get rained on again, but it isn’t looking good at this point. Maybe the weather will cooperate
Bjrogg
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Bjrogg
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This morning started out looking good. Truck load of pinto beans and sun.
Bjrogg
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Unfortunately just about the time everything was almost dry enough it started to rain.
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Hope Your rain was a spotty as Ours was here. Good Luck - Bob.
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It was pretty spotty and light here Bob. We had about a tenth of an inch yesterday afternoon but the wind blew and the sun came back out before it went down. It sure looked worse on the radar.
They took a lot of the rain out of forecast now . Hopefully we can get through today and then we get some combining weather.
I would really like to get these pintos harvested before we have to do early digs which I’m guessing will be this weekend sometime. I’m hoping to find out today when we have to dig.
Glad your rain was spotty Bob. I’m sure you guys have plenty to last the rest of the year already.
Bjrogg
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No pinto beans today. Drizzle and 67 degrees. Perfect white mold weather.
I looked at our black bean fields this morning. They still look really nice. Hope they stay that way. Probably about two weeks from harvest.
I just got a call about early dig beets. Not confirmed yet, but heard it through the grapevine they want to pick up our beet’s Tuesday. That means Sunday and Monday dig. Right when the weather hopefully gets good enough to go at our pinto beans again. This drizzle is really messing with our schedule.
I’m really hoping to get a lot of stuff done this month so I can get a few hunts in next month.
Still have to finish pinto beans, dig early dig sugar beets, harvest black beans, plant winter wheat, plant cover crops and do tillage. Plus all the normal stuff.
Bjrogg
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Drizzle on the windshield
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A black bean plant I pulled. It’s one of the greener ones. I think my timing applying the protectants was really good. The straw looks really healthy and so far no white mold. I think my first application for my pintos was a little too late. I got started almost on time but got rained out before I got half done. Couldn’t get in field for three very critical days. Once the white mold is started it’s extremely difficult to control and impossible to kill. Unless Mother Nature decides to give it a dose of hot dry weather. Which we didn’t get this year.
Really nice healthy looking black bean plant.
Bjrogg
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Last week the weather forecast for this week was very hot and dry all week long. Just exactly what we were needing.
This week came and it completely ignored the weather forecast. We had a couple days of clouds and drizzle then a few days of very humid hot weather. And now when the humidity is supposed to have dropped it has rained and is still raining for three days now. Exactly what we didn’t need.
This rain is really going to hurt. I’m not sure the pinto beans will even be worth harvesting by the time they get dry enough if they get dry enough.
We are going to have black beans ready before we get the pinto bean if we don’t get good drying weather and more than two hours of it.
The workload just keeps getting heavier and more complicated.
Our perfect year is starting to crumble. This is when it gets really hard to be a farmer. We’ve been here before and we have come to expect it, but that doesn’t make it any easier.
We do our best to avoid it and if it comes then we do our best to deal with it.
Bjrogg
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Partly cloudy today. Not drying great but at least it isn’t raining and we didn’t get heavy rain.
The beans color still looks good but they took on plenty of moisture that will have to naturally dry before we can harvest them.
I’m hoping tomorrow we might be able to. Monday doesn’t sound like a good combine day and Tuesday is saying heavy rain.
Sunday is going to be a busy day if we can. I have to dig early dig sugar beets too. We will be trying to get enough help for two crews. I’m really hoping everything goes smoothly and we can get the pinto beans before the heavy rains.
Also hope the new (to us) beet digger works good. I don’t like working sundays anymore than anyone else, but it’s better if everything goes good.
Bjrogg
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Still no weather for harvesting pinto beans.
Was light drizzle again with lots of clouds. It actually really felt like beet digging weather and that’s what we did. We dug 34 acres of early digs. These beet go directly to the factories. They will be picked up tomorrow. And made into sugar shortly after that.
We put them on a pile by the road and then they use a Maus to clean and load them on big trucks parked on the road.
Hopefully it doesn’t rain to much because it really makes a mess when they do it in the rain.
Bjrogg
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Glad to see some progress! Looks like after this Morning, no rain til Sunday. Prayin' for Ya ! Bob
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Thanks Bob. We are fortunate that we haven’t had heavy rain. They were forecasting 1 1/2” and then another two days of .5”.
We had .6” and then just like before light persistent drizzle.
Today I went to the eye doctor and they dilated my eyes. It’s still cloudy but it’s much brighter.lol
Really hoping to get these pintos before there’s nothing left to get.
The beans still look good, but the straw is deteriorating very badly and pods are falling off yet. We are definitely going to have huge harvest losses even if we could get them today and they have to dry down yet. Even with my eyes dilated I can see that it’s not going to be today yet. Still talking little drizzle showers possible. Hopefully more sunshine though.
Getting really tired of this view.
Bjrogg
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Praying for good weather for ya Bj! Hope things run smoothly!
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Thank You Russell.
The sun shined the past day and a half pretty decent. I was hoping the pinto beans would get dry enough but they were still just a little bit too wet. We have been having lows in the 40’s and very heavy dews.
The sun is shining this morning. We still had a very heavy dew but I’m hoping the beans will get dry today. They aren’t as wet as they have been the past few mornings. Still pretty wet though.
Hopefully I can post some more pictures of pinto bean harvest soon.
Our early dig sugar beets did amazing. Dug September 10. Approximately a month and ten days before beginning of permanent piles. They cleaned up at 31 tons per acre and the sugar content was 15.74%.
Those are pretty impressive numbers. Hopefully the sugar continues to climb. Would like to see a company average in the 19 % area for permanent piles. If we are going to have to dispose of beets we don’t have the capacity to process before they spoil. I certainly hope the tons we get processed at least have a good sugar content
Bjrogg
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We have been getting some stuff done.
We are trying a different type of cover crop in our wheat stubble this year. We seeded a mixer of rye and radish. The radish are a special variety that acts as a trap host for sugar beet cyst nematodes. They will die with a hard freeze. The rye will grow through the winter and be there in the spring. We will probably do one tillage pass and plant sugar beets into it next spring. Then after the beet crop emerges and it gives enough wind protection it will be terminated.
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We did get some pintos off late yesterday afternoon. I kept taking hand shelled samples until they got to just barely the maximum moisture allowed. The buyer told me to take them. Hopefully they are dry enough on the truck.
We couldn’t start until 5:30pm and it was done by 8:00. Hopefully we can get some more today but it is supposed to be cloudy today.
Bjrogg
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I got one truck unloaded. Moisture was just slightly above maximum but the buyer took them. They looked and graded pretty decent. The beans are still good quality if we can get them before the pods all fall off the straw.
Bjrogg
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Well the weather man was wrong again, but this time that was a good thing. We got more sun yesterday than predicted and we got enough thrashing time to get our pintos off. Praise the Lord I’m so relieved. It’s raining now and I don’t think they would’ve been worth harvesting if we had to wait another week for them to dry.
The beans still look to be good quality but they haven’t been graded yet. They still are at or slightly above maximum moisture levels but the buyer wants them. That is such a relief and we really need some income so it will be very nice to get paid for them. These interest rates are really hurting.
I’m very much going to enjoy my Sunday.
Bjrogg
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Glad it is working out BJ, farmers have a tough life and seems all depends of what the weather gives ya. Busy time for you that's for sure. :)
Pappy
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Glad to hear that BJ ! (=) Bob.
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Glad for you BJ
Seeing so much work at risk for the weather and other events outside your control makes me appreciate your determination
I'm sure I'd have troubles managing that stress levels
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Glad for you BJ
Seeing so much work at risk for the weather and other events outside your control makes me appreciate your determination
I'm sure I'd have troubles managing that stress levels
It’s funny because I don’t like gambling. Not even on a sure thing.
Yet farmers are probably the biggest gamblers there are. Somehow I don’t feel that way. It seems more likely that I feel a faith that if I do my best I will be taken care of. Sometimes it might not seem like it though.
Bjrogg
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My sons bunker is almost empty. He needed to chop some corn. The corn around here is still a little behind. It’s not mature enough to fill the bunker completely yet so we just chopped a small 3.5 acre patch. The really fresh green silage can really guff up the digestive system of the cattle so he also bought a couple loads from a neighbor and we put it in the front of the pile when we were done chopping.
Bjrogg
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Did get started planting wheat. Should get to about 1/3 planted today. Then have to get black beans harvested before I can plant more.
Bjrogg
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Looks like you are making some progress :)
Pappy
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We got started at Black Beans yesterday afternoon.
We got started with one combine about 2:00. I moved the second one there shortly after and we pushed them pretty hard. We also used our cart. It make it so the combines never have to stop to unload their beans. Having two combines and a cart is about the same as having three combines without a cart.
We shelled out a doubles load and two six axle loads before we got rained out. I’m about ready for the weather man to forecast cloudy and drizzle. That’s how his sunny and dry seems to turn out. Maybe his cloudy and drizzle would turn out sunny and dry. Still not many beans off in the neighborhood but we are sneaking a few off when we can.
Bjrogg
PS yes Pappy we try to have everything fixed up, setup and organized so we can jump from one thing to another. Keep checking stuff off the list. It pays to have everything ready.
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BJ i'll show my ignorance. Maybe also others will benefit of your answers
What part of corn do cattle eat?
They eat leaves, husks and stems? all grinded togheter?
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BJ i'll show my ignorance. Maybe also others will benefit of your answers
What part of corn do cattle eat?
They eat leaves, husks and stems? all grinded togheter?
GlisGlis they eat all of it. Some parts have more nutrients than others.
My son feeds a mixer of what we call silage and high moisture corn.
The silage is what we did here. It is cutting the whole plant and chopping it up into tiny easily digestible pieces. Ideally when the “milk line” on the kernel of corn is half way down. The corn plant is about 65% moisture then if I remember correctly. We put it on a pile and pack it as tightly as we can by driving on it with the push tractor. Then we cover the pile with plastic to keep the air out.
It then goes through a fermentation process. It will keep this way for a very long time as long as it isn’t exposed to air.
High moisture corn is just the kernels. We like to harvest them at 25% moisture. We run the kernels through a roller mill to crack them. Then we put them on a pile next to the silage. It gets covered with plastic and goes through the same fermentation process as the silage.
Sometimes we make snaplige . We put a combine head on the chopper. It removes the whole cob and husks. The cob, kernels and husk get cracked and chopped. Then covered, and fermented.
Also some is feed dry . Just the kernels dried down to 13.5% so they can be stored in a bin
Bjrogg
PS the black beans we took off yesterday were excellent quality. The white mold protection really worked. The timing was perfect. I’m afraid a lot of the neighbors aren’t going to be as fortunate. Yield and quality are going to be all over the place
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thankyou very much for taking the time to answer
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You are very welcome. I’m happy to answer them.
We have been making big headway for the past three days
Good to see harvested fields.
Bjrogg
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Back in the truck this morning.
Bjrogg
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Was gone a few Days at Squirrel Camp with Bruce n Sons n Grandsons. Glad to see some productive weather for You! (=) Bob
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Tell Bruce and Cindy I said Hi Bob. Really miss them both.
Yes this weather was much appreciated. Pinto bean harvest was a test of my nerves, but our black bean harvest was a once in a lifetime experience. We had fantastic weather. Fantastic yields and quality. We don’t have all the trucks unloaded yet, but I’m pretty sure we broke all of our previous records for our black bean yields.
The biggest thing this year was white mold control. Bean yields are all over the place from 4,500 lbs per acre to 400 lbs per acre. Our growing conditions were perfect for both our beans and white mold.
Harvest went so smoothly that I almost wished we had a couple hundred more acres to harvest. Opening day bow is less than a week away though and I still have a lot of work to finish.
Today I’m hoping to get trucks unloaded and back at planting wheat.
Bjrogg
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Glad to hear you're finally getting stuff in, BJ. I wish we could grow black beans around here; they're my favorite kind and seem to make one a little less aromatic than most other kinds. But our season just isn't long enough. Anyway, sounds like you finally had some cooperative weather. About time!
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They certainly are a good survival food too. Lots of protein and very nutritious. They are one of the shorter day growing season crops that we grow. They don’t like it cold though and a frost will kill them.
Got another 127 acres of wheat planted but rained out now. Got a chance to catch up on some stuff in the office.
Don’t know if I will have everything done I was hoping to by opening day bow season, but we put a pretty good dent in it. About 140 acres of wheat to plant yet. 32 acres of my son’s black beans
Should be able to get it if it doesn’t keep raining
Bjrogg
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Hope it works out for you BJ for opening day, seems yall are getting all the rain, it is dry as a chip here, we need some pretty bad but September is usually our driest month , supposed to rain yesterday evening but all went south of us. They are cutting corn everywhere here , mine is ready and supposed to be cut early next week, be glad when it is gone, hard to hunt a standing corn field. ;)
Pappy
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Thanks Pappy. I did get out this morning and watched the sunrise from one of my trees.
Almost got a shot at a nice big doe, but she changed directions.
We aren’t actually really wet. We haven’t been getting big rains. Mostly just drizzle. Just hard weather to get beans dry.
I did finish planting our wheat. Finished my sons black beans this afternoon.
Bjrogg
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Great Pic ! Treestand therapy cleanses the Soul :-D. (=) Bob.
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Yep beautiful picture, love them kind of mornings. :)
Pappy
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Great Pic ! Treestand therapy cleanses the Soul :-D. (=) Bob.
It certainly does cleanse the soul.
Gotta admit it doesn’t make my sciatic nerve feel any better though. And my floater’s in my eyes don’t help for seeing deer either. Still was good to be able to get out though. Still the only chance I had.
We did finish up our neighbors Black Beans and another neighbor’s soybeans. They were both very happy to get them off and get wheat planted.
We got parts to fix my son’s header for his combine. Tore it apart and replaced stainless steel floor. Pretty big in season job, but we got it finished yesterday. Really only missed one day harvesting with it.
It rained yesterday and it is supposed to drizzle around here for the next five days. Really glad we got as much done as we have.
We still have to harvest our soybeans, but they aren’t quite ready yet. Permanent pile regular season beet harvest is probably only a couple weeks away now. The weather is supposed to be highs in the 50’s lows in the low 40’s to upper 30’s now. That would be ideal weather to harvest and pile our beets, but it’s a little early yet. Normally we start permanent piles about oct 20. We need cool enough temperatures that our beets will store well. However we can’t pile beets that are frozen.
Bjrogg
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Yep beautiful picture, love them kind of mornings. :)
Pappy
Me too Pappy. They are extra special from my tree stand, but I love watching them from my tractor to
Bjrogg
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Haven’t had much nice weather for hunting since opening day. Mostly been very windy and drizzle. We have been working in shop and office.
One of our neighbors borrowed our litter spreader and broke the apron chain. They pretty much ruined it. We pulled it out and cut all the pieces we need off. Was hoping to fix the chain but decided to get new one. They aren’t cheap.
My nephew cutting apart old chain.
Bjrogg
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Yesterday I had to go to skin doctor. I had a melanoma spot removed about four years ago and it came back last winter. Had it removed again about six months ago. Doctor said it looked good. Couldn’t find any other spots or anything he wanted to biopsy. That’s good.
When I got home from doctors, I did a few things in the office and then I went to the woods.
The wind finally died down and the sun was even shining.
I saw a quite a few deer. One doe came from behind my tree on my right side. I don’t really feel comfortable with that shot. She was nervously looking at something in the trees ahead of her. I couldn’t see what it was. I was thinking about drawing my bow when she decided whatever it was she wasn’t staying there anymore. She turned tail and left. It was nice getting a chance anyway.
I didn’t get any pictures of deer, but here’s a sailboat for Bob.
Felt good to sit in a tree, but I sure was hurting when I climbed out of it. Dang sciatic nerve.
Bjrogg
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I really like this location but I think I might move stand to a different tree next year.
I like having all the apple trees here and I think they will bare more fruit when I get the rest of the dead ash out of them.
Most have dropped their fruit, but I can see two that are still hanging on to it. Nice to have some late season fruit for hunting.
The deer aren’t interested in apples so far. They have all the beans and sugar beets they want. All the apples are rotting on the ground.
Maybe a little later in the season when these drop. I’m hoping so
Bjrogg
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Thinking of moving to a different tree to get better shoots behind me.
That’s where all the deer where last night
Bjrogg
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Thanks BJ - What view, WOW ! (=) Bob.
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Not many of those sunny days this season so far and lots of wind and drizzle. Either it’s been too windy and raining or the rare times it isn’t I have work that needs to be done.
We still haven’t gotten a chance to get our soybeans off yet. They never got dry enough. They are ripe now so hopefully we get a couple sunny days in a row so we can get them.
Michigan Sugar announced that permanent piles will start 10-18-23. We still have soybeans on our headlands yet. We do have one beet field that doesn’t have soybeans on its headlands. If it isn’t too wet we might try to finish it. I would really like to see the sugar content go up a little yet though. I’m not really excited about harvesting them yet.
I was over to my brothers house this weekend and he showed me his Muddy Bull Box Blind. Gotta admit I wish I had something like it now. I think I could shoot pretty comfortably from it. He loves it. Has taken a lot of deer from it with his compound. I think by next year I’m going to have some kinda blind I can shoot my selfbow from. Most of the time I get to hunt it’s not very nice sitting in a tree.
I did have a doe given to me. Vacuum packed the back straps. Canned eight jars and making a batch of jerky.
Bjrogg
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Last night I sat in my most comfortable stand.
It wasn’t raining and the wind was right.
It was still a bit on the windy side, but much better than it has been. The deer were still nervous and didn’t seem comfortable with the wind. I did see several though. Didn’t get busted and even passed on a shot at a really small four point. Might regret that later, but it seemed like the right thing at the time. Didn’t have much time to think about it as he walked down the trail right by me.
Bjrogg
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7:00 am this morning the piling grounds opened for permanent piles. These piles will be used to store our sugar beets until they can be processed. We probe the beets temperature. When it gets above 52 degrees F. we stop piling until the beets cool again. It’s a real crap shoot. We can’t pile frozen beets either so our window is kinda narrow. Today they closed at 2:30 pm.
We didn’t dig beets today. I helped my son with filling his bunker silo with corn silage. I used a big four wheel drive tractor with a blade to push the silage up on a pile and pack it to get the air out of it.
The chopper cuts the whole plant into tiny pieces and blows the out it’s “gooseneck “ to the truck. Usually the truck drives along side, but when you start the field it has to drive behind.
Bjrogg
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We finished chopping, but then we had to move the edge of the pile and put it on top. You can’t make the edge straight up and down while you are making it. We use a telescopic loader to scoop up the edge.
We need this area later for high moisture shelled corn.
My brother and nephew got the soybeans off our sugar beet fields.
We did good. We are in a lot better shape now than yesterday. It’s supposed to rain the next three days.
Bjrogg
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Got another.4” of rain yesterday. Cloudy and drizzling this morning.
Did get the soybeans unloaded yesterday but they were still too wet to harvest. At least they are off the sugar beet headlands. The headlands are where we turn at the ends of our sugar beet rows.
Despite a steady rain and pretty good breeze. We managed to get my son’s silage pile cover with plastic and held down with lime. This is a great feeling. I can remember doing this with Cass and so many others on this same pile. Many of the people who helped have passed and the new generation is now proving to be up to the task.
I didn’t get any pictures. Honestly it was a tall skinny pile and with rain making my windows and mirrors less than ideal it was a little scary. Add to that a dozen or so people who are laying down the plastic and shoveling lime from my bucket to hold the plastic down. It was a huge relief when it was all done.
We still haven’t dug any permanent pile beets yet. They have been getting shut down for beet temperatures above 52 degrees F every day and we were really hoping that the sugar content would improve.
The leaves on the trees are really starting to turn now. Usually the sugar content in the beets improves about the same time.
Supposed to rain next couple days so I don’t think we will dig beets till Monday.
Bjrogg
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It's always a crap shoot at planting and harvest isn't it, Brian. Best of luck to you and all farmers at the critical times.
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Was a strange year for the garden up here. Somethings did OK and others did not. Lost half my garlic to rot and the lettuce refused to grow
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It's always a crap shoot at planting and harvest isn't it, Brian. Best of luck to you and all farmers at the critical times.
Yes it is Pat. It’s funny because we basically start out with the same agenda every spring or at least close to it. I’ve been doing this full time for 40 years and grew up with it before that. I don’t remember two years that were the same. Sometimes they are similar but never the same.
Bjrogg
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Was a strange year for the garden up here. Somethings did OK and others did not. Lost half my garlic to rot and the lettuce refused to grow
It has been a strange one here to Marc. I think a lot of it had to do with the smoke from the forest fires. It definitely cut our photosynthesis a considerable amount. Some plants seemed to like that and others didn’t.
Most of my garden looked great. But then the diseases took over and the plants died before they matured. They were very slow maturing.
We were extremely lucky. Normally by the middle of summer there are a couple dozen things I would have done differently. It’s almost November and I can only think of two things I would have done differently. I would have applied the first preventative for white mold two days earlier on our pinto beans ( or maybe just planted all black beans instead) and not planted as many soybeans. Still don’t have them harvested. I’m afraid many in this area weren’t as fortunate. Still a lot of edible beans out there
In my garden well I certainly wouldn’t have put the effort into my muskmelons and watermelons that I did. They grew lots of vine. Set lots of fruit but I don’t think I’m going to get a single rip melon.
Bjrogg
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Friday I helped my son in the morning with his cattle. When I got done with that I decided to go hunting. It was too wet to do much of anything else. I sat in the same stand as the last time and the wind was right again. I didn’t get a shot but I saw five small spikes and a pretty nice six point. I call that a good day.
The colors are definitely changing now. I think we might try to harvest some sugar beets this afternoon.
Bjrogg
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Yesterday morning I modified a tree stand I never really felt comfortable in. I took an old climber stand I got from Dbar and a ladder stand I got from my neighbor and put parts of them together.
The ladder stand never had arm rests or a rail. I have another one that is similar but it does have a rail. I never liked the rail. It’s made more for a gun or cross bow and to far ahead for my liking. I like shooting from and sitting in this one now. It’s a little trickier to get in but not bad. The rail both a comfortable armrest and safety rail. I can comfortably shoot sitting or standing and the rail isn’t in my way.
Then I went to a good friend’s wedding.
I think this afternoon we will probably start harvesting sugar beets
Bjrogg
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Thought of You yesterday BJ - lot's of Combines and Grain Trucks going by the House. Good Luck with the Beans ! (=) Bob.
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Thought of you to Bob. We didn’t combine beans. It was cloudy until about three o’clock here and then the sun came out. We did dig sugar beets.
It went pretty good. Had to load trucks on the road. Field wasn’t terribly wet, but sticky and a little soft. We did pretty good for half a day. We got 19 acres dug. I did a yield check. It came out 42.9 tons per acre. Lots of truck loads to go yet. Hopefully the sugar percentage is good.
Bjrogg
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Hope it all goes well for you this harvest. Sugar seemed pretty high in the fruit here so hope you have the same with your beets. Need to do some catch up on your thread here.
Mike
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Nice to hear from you Mike. I’m still optimistic that our beets are going to have good sugar. Haven’t got a result posted on website but my crop advisor said she saw a 18.87% and I’d be happy with that for a start.
We started digging early yesterday morning. There was actually a light white frost. Then the sun came out nice. That should help with the sugar content. We went late last night and finished the field. We are shut down again now because of warm weather. Probably at least until Saturday. Then it’s supposed to get colder. Probably cold enough we could get shut down for frozen beets.
Started in the dark and finished in the dark. That time of year
Bjrogg
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Still rain showers just about every day. Can’t seem to get a sunny day, let alone string several together.
We have done a lot of shop work. Finished up and tested out the new apron chain in our litter spreader. Had to make a few changes but think it’s ready. Hopefully it runs trouble free for a long time now.
We are caught right up on tillage and planting cover crops. I took a little crop tour today and looked at some of our cover crop radishes. I think we hit the planting window perfect with them. If you plant them too early they just go to seed. If too late you don’t get much growth and organic matter from them.
Still just a little too warm to pile beets.
A cold front is coming tonight. They will decide tomorrow morning if we can harvest again. Next week looks much colder. Most likely will shut down for frozen beets. This fall has been an unforgiving one so far. If you had the opportunity to do something, you’d better do it right then. Our family farm has been fortunate. We still have a lot of work to do but we have been checking things off the list.
Here’s a couple radishes. Together with the rye they sure green up the field.
Bjrogg
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We started digging beets again Saturday afternoon. Temperature dropped enough to cool the beets down for piles.
Got sugar results from first field. Average is about 18.4% sugar. Not bad but hoping for better.
Started in beets by my house. Really good beets. 45 tons per acre and got the first two sugar samples back at 19.82 and 19.54. That’s getting impressive.
Rained again last night. I have been looking at fields for the past couple hours but I don’t think we can dig this morning. Maybe this afternoon Maybe
Bjrogg
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Do you shoot the beets before digging them? (SH)
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Do you shoot the beets before digging them? (SH)
No. But last night we finished the strip we were working in just before dark. We didn’t want to open another strip. I just parked my tractor. Got out and took my Simply Orange bow for a little walk till I found a spot to stand and see if anything was interested in giving me a shot. Sometimes we get shut down suddenly because of temperature and I just do my service work and then spend the rest of the daylight hunting.
Tomorrow morning we can’t start early because of cold temperatures. Supposed to get inch of snow.
It rained last night and we didn’t dig today. We probably could have but it would have gone poor at best. I could have dug them, but the logistics of loading them onto trucks without totally destroying my lane and preventing us from getting the ones further back the lane right before a wet inch of snow. We decided not to.
It’s nice to see my quiver there while I’m digging too.
Bjrogg
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Don't see any Rain/Snow in the forcast for the next few Days here, Hope things go well for You! Good Luck (=) Bob.
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Temp was 28 f when I got up at 3:00am went back to bed. Got up at 6:00 and it’s 27 degrees. I’m doubting we will be able to dig until noon here if at all today.
My brother lives a little further away from the lake and his temperature is 25 F degrees.
They are calling for lake effect rain and snow for next couple days right along the shore.
Well I was wrong about digging. I just got a heads up text from our field representative. She said our temperature was good enough to dig and we would be getting a phone blast telling us our zone can start digging at 7:00 am. Closer to the lake keeps our temperatures more moderate. It doesn’t warm up or cool down quite as fast as inland. It also gives us lake effect showers and snow.
Bjrogg
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Well Dang - ended up with about a inch of fresh Snow overnite. Guess Winter is here. Rut is going HARD now :-D ! (=) Bob
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Well Dang - ended up with about a inch of fresh Snow overnite. Guess Winter is here. Rut is going HARD now :-D ! (=) Bob
It started here shortly before the sun went down. Then it turned into a pretty good snow squall. We had less than two rounds to do and it was snowing so hard we decided to quit before we finished the field. No more than told the trucks to just go home after they dumped them beets and it stopped.
Decided to stay at it till we finished the field. Finished about 10:30 pm.
We had a huge day. I dug 56 acres. I’ve dug more acres than that before but these are 45+ ton beets.
I load 150 carts and the carts loaded 75 big trucks. We got over 2,500 tons of beets hauled to the piles.
Just got text from field rep. She said we can dig at 7:00am. I’m thinking we are going to wait until daylight. Look things over. Need to move to a different field
Bjrogg
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Looks likes things are coming along for you guys, Brian.
We had our first hard freeze last night, 25 deg.A couple of weeks late for here. Should have 2 more, tonight and tomorrow then back to warmer weather. What we need is rain. We are in a severe drought and have been for 2 months now. For Oct we've had 46" and that is about 1/2 of our normal rain. With all the leaves almost down and the dry conditions fire is a real concern and also it's been windy here.
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Hey Pat! I know what you mean! weather patterns are off! 70 degrees at 4000' in Yosemite today!
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Hey, Ben. You guys have had a few rocky years lately. I thought your heavy snow last your would help break your decades long drought. I guess Mother Nature has other ideas for us all. :o
Hope all is well with you and yours otherwise. :OK
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Hope you get some rain Pat. Funny we keep getting rain, but really still just small amounts. Just enough to make things challenging.
We actually had two sunny days in a row now after our snowstorm the other night. We finished the field by my house two days ago and moved to my Grandparents farm yesterday morning. It was a little tricky finding a safe spot to load trucks at first but the sunshine really helped.
We were required to leave “set aside acres” this year as this was a really big crop and beets are a perishable crop. First they told us 15%. Then they said some areas had poor yields and they estimated that the average yield to be lower than they had estimated. They said we had to leave 7.5% of our acres set aside. Two days ago they told us that we could harvest all of our acres. I hope they can get them processed. That would be fantastic. We are going to need a good winter to store our beets and the factories are going to have to have records breaking slice. Just a few more miracles to count on.
If they are wrong and we have to pay to dispose of the beets rotting on our piles it gets very expensive. We have a lot of money into harvesting and piling these beets. We generally have to pay half of what we get for delivering beets, to get people to haul them away and dispose of them by spreading them back in their fields.
The sugar content has improved. The field by my house was 19.5% and that’s pretty good. Hopefully the 125 year old factories can kick butt. Things are running better than they have for the past few years since COVID. Still lots of time for trouble though. The last beets processed won’t be until the beginning of April if they keep that long.
All in all the release of the set aside acres is a good thing. Hopefully it works out for everyone.
Bjrogg
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Bjrogg,
Thank you for taking the time to keep up with this ongoing post. I find the pictures and explanations fascinating. Very interesting.
Take care, Brian
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Bjrogg,
Thank you for taking the time to keep up with this ongoing post. I find the pictures and explanations fascinating. Very interesting.
Take care, Brian
Thanks Brian.
I’m hoping this is the last early morning digging picture for the season. We are in our last field and we should be able to finish it today.
This is the last field of beets I planted this spring. If you remember, our tillage tractor quit with just this 20 acres to plant yet. I decided to plant the field directly into the rye cover crop without tilling it.
The rye was probably 7” tall when I planted the beets. It was probably 26” tall when I sprayed it and you couldn’t see the beets.
They look fantastic now.
Bjrogg
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And here’s what it looked like in the daylight.
Bjrogg
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We did finish up sugar beet harvest yesterday.
We also finished up soybean harvest too.
Bjrogg
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Even had a hour to sit in my tree
Bjrogg
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Nice ! (=) Bob.
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We finished our harvest a few weeks ago, but I have been busy helping my son and some neighbors with their’s.
We finished my son’s bunker and got it covered. Yesterday we finished the rest of his corn and took it to the elevator. Its yield was good, but it still was pretty wet to harvest for dry corn. Also had so vomitoxicin. If the levels get too high the corn is unsaleable. His levels weren’t that high but they did take some pretty big deductions.
We also spread rye for cover crops and did his tillage. It’s really nasty out there now. Windy, rainy and about 36 degrees. Just about as nasty as it gets. Makes my old joints hurt. Feels good to be in the shop today.
Working on beet digger. The grab rolls took a lot of wear. They had a lot of tons of beets and mud run over them. We took every roll out and are rebuilding the spiral wrap and ramps on them. a lot of work but we are making good progress.
Bjrogg
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Covering the bunker
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The last combine bin of my son’s corn going on the truck.
The standing corn in background is neighbors.
Bjrogg
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Sunday I watched the Lions. What a roller coaster ride that was. They came back to win it. Then I went back to my gun blind for a while. Saw the little spike I passed on during bow season. He got a pass again.
Bjrogg
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Some of you might remember this time last year my grandkids school football team went to state finals at Ford field.
They repeated again this year and they played the same school that they lost to last year. My grandson was water boy again and got to go on the field. It was pretty exciting for him. He’s learning a lot about the game and this is the second time he’s been able to go to state finals with the team.
Bjrogg
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My favorite granddaughter also got to take the field again with the marching band.
Bjrogg
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We won the coin toss and received the ball to start the game. We marched down the field and ended up with a 4th and goal at the five yard line. We went for it and got a touchdown. The play was challenged though and after further review the call on the field was overturned. The players knee was down with the ball inches from the goal line.
We gave the ball up at the half yard line.
It was a long grind with a lot of fourth downs but the opposing team did score a touchdown and missed the extra point.
Then we marched the ball back down the field and scored a touchdown and extra point to take the lead 7-6
Bjrogg
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Last year we couldn’t stop the passing game but this time around we did. We stopped them again and got the ball at our 45. Then we marched it downfield and scored another touchdown and extra point. Most of the high school teams in our division don’t have a kicking game. We actually have a very good kicker. He kicked a 54 yard field goal in the semi finals. Extra points are pretty routine for him.
We took the lead 14-6
Bjrogg
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We stopped them again and got the ball at our 45 yard line again. Their defense was really getting tired and we marched down the field again. Scored another touchdown and extra point.
We took a lot of time off the clock and the opposing team was going to the passing game. We we shut them down and took over the ball on downs with very good field position. We got a first down. I was almost hoping they would force us to try a field goal just for our kicker, but the first down let us run the clock down. Last year was a good but sad ride home. My grandson was pretty blue. This year was certainly a better ride for him. Both experience's were good for him. And I’m betting they all learned more from last year’s loss than this year’s win. Hopefully they will tackle life’s challenges with the same determination.
Was a pretty good day to be a grandpa. It usually is. I very much love my family especially the little ones.
Bjrogg
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Exciting game BJ! My grandsons team made it to the middle school superbowl. He got the first TD with a 65 yd return! I call him Forest! They ended up losing bad. I'd swear some of those other kids were regular high schoolers! They were as big as me! WE ended up losing 43 to 12 with one of ours going out in an ambulance.
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Way Kewl ! (=) Bob
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Thanks Ben. I bet you were yelling run forest run.
I’m glad no one seemed to be seriously injured although there were a few banged up a little.
Our team played hard and so did theirs . I believe both teams only lost one game in the last two seasons. We lost to them in the final game last year and they lost to us in the final game this year.
I don’t know what next season will bring. Going to lose about half the team and our coach is retiring.
We will see how much the younger players learned.
Bjrogg
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Thanks Bob. It was way kewl. Definitely better than the Lions Thanksgiving Day game.
Had our second Thanksgiving dinner yesterday with our kids and grandkids. Was very nice. Everyone was still a bit tired out from the game, but we relaxed and enjoyed each other’s company and the food. Definitely thankful
Bjrogg
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I kind of liked the Lions game BJ :) :) of course I am a Green bay fan, hard to be a Titans fan that's for sure. They did win yesterday but the team that beat has only won 1 game all year and is just a little worse than the Titans. :)
Pappy
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I kind of liked the Lions game BJ :) :) of course I am a Green bay fan, hard to be a Titans fan that's for sure. They did win yesterday but the team that beat has only won 1 game all year and is just a little worse than the Titans. :)
Pappy
Sorry Pappy. I thought I replied to your post but I must not have pushed the post button.
I’m not a huge sports fan but I like to watch the Tigers and the Lions. Being a long time Lion fan I am very use to being disappointed. If I had to count on them for happiness I’d be a miserable man.
Having said that I have very much enjoyed this season. We definitely have a different team. I know our coach is very different but our players seem to really like playing for him and he seems to get the best out of them.
The loss to the Cowboys last night was again a controversial one decided by the officials. It appeared that the Lions took the lead with 24 seconds remaining with a successful two point conversion. After the celebration a flag was thrown and the officials said the receiver didn’t report and was ineligible. Video shows the player walking up to referee to report. Player that ref said did report was ten yards away and said he didn’t report. Impossible to know for sure but it was a tough loss after what appeared to be a hard fought win.
One thing I really like about this team. They are playing with heart. They are leaving it all on the field and when they have a bad game they are shaking it off and coming back fresh. They sure got my attention.
Bjrogg
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I can’t believe how busy I have been yet . To busy to post much but I certainly got an enormous amount of work done so hopefully that helps me get some play time later.
Just a few pictures
Merry Christmas everyone and Happy New Year
Bjrogg
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Grandsons Christmas pageant
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A lot of spreading fertilizer
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Santa
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Our cedar Christmas tree from the ditch
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Glad you aqt least got some time off for the holidays, Brian. Best wishes to you and yours. :OK
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Thanks Pat. Yes it’s so nice to get a little break. Really enjoying the holidays.
Just finished grilling two whole back straps on my grill in the snow. They were excellent
Bjrogg
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Thanks Pat. Yes it’s so nice to get a little break. Really enjoying the holidays.
Just finished grilling two whole back straps on my grill in the snow. They were excellent
Bjrogg
Sounds good! I am going through some serious elk withdrawls this year. Ah well. It is the hardships that make us stronger. At least there's still beef. ;D
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Looks like a great Christmas , hope you have a great 2024. Pappy
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Great Pics, glad things are well ! (= Bob)
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Thanks WB better luck to you next year. I’m fortunate to have several friends who bring me there deer because they don’t eat it. I’m guessing they don’t do that much with Elk.
Bjrogg
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Yes very nice Christmas Pappy. We still have my siblings yet. So far so good in 2024. Hope you have a good 2024 too
Glad you liked the pictures Bob
See if I can get a few more for you
Bjrogg
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Put in a little overtime and made a Christmas present for our gift exchange
Bjrogg
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Nice ! Is that Yucca Handle material ? (=) Bob.
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Nice ! Is that Yucca Handle material ? (=) Bob.
Thanks Bob
The handle is Cholla cactus that was gifted to me from Jon
It’s hafted with pitch glue and wrapped with sinew. ( actually I wasn’t finished wrapping when picture taken) and has a button of black walnut and English walnut on end of handle. Blade is obsidian my cousin collected from glass butte.
Bjrogg
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Nice little knife BJ. Love the handle, I have a few of them and they make sweet light weight handles, I usually fill them with epoxy and sand them down so they are solid. Either way they are beautiful. :)
Pappy
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Was eating some Crackers/Cheese/Deer Sausage yesterday, and happened to read the Box. Never had seen the nice blurb about where the Wheat comes from - "Our White Winter Wheat starts it's journey in the Thumb of Michigan, where generations of Family Farmers grow and Harvest the Wheat used in Our Crackers." Triscuit Brand Crackers. Pretty Darn Kewl !!!!!!!!!! (=) Bob
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Was eating some Crackers/Cheese/Deer Sausage yesterday, and happened to read the Box. Never had seen the nice blurb about where the Wheat comes from - "Our White Winter Wheat starts it's journey in the Thumb of Michigan, where generations of Family Farmers grow and Harvest the Wheat used in Our Crackers." Triscuit Brand Crackers. Pretty Darn Kewl !!!!!!!!!! (=) Bob
That is pretty cool Bob. I didn’t know they put that on their box either. I know several places that exclusively use white winter wheat grown from the thumb of Michigan, but I didn’t know they put it on the box.
Our farm and several others have been working together with Kellogg, Star of the West and several other companies on identify preservation, and sustainability practices we use as environmental and crop protection solutions. I believe we have been working together with them for 7 or 8 years now maybe more, time flies. I know they are very proud of the work that we have done.
Bjrogg
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Made a stand for the knife.
Also made a Christmas Ornament. Knapped it from fiber optic glass.
Bjrogg
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Nice job on the knife and ornament
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Thanks Brian. I broke a really nice point yesterday. Put it down and picked up another spall. Knocked out this one. Figured I should probably just put it down at this point.
Bjrogg
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Getting ready for the storm. Not sure what we will get but it sounds like it’s going to be nasty.
Got a few projects done. My brother asked if I could make a step that was 4” high 15” long and 12” wide for his wife’s physical therapy.
I put a little hand hole in top to get ahold of it. It’s band sawed ash and I didn’t plane it. Just cleaned it up a little with hand belt sander so it still had some traction. It was just stuff I had laying around and it looked a little plain. I decided to touch it up a little with wood stain and my airbrush.
Sure hope it works for her
Bjrogg
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Also finished the point I put down the other day. It’s a nice sized spear point and I halved it to a cholla with pine pitch and sinew. Put a button off some exotic wood scraps I was gifted. I drilled a very small hole in the button and put artificial sinew loop end through the hole. Then I wiggled the end out the cholla holes and tide a knot that was too big to go through the hole I drilled. I just hang it for display. I think it turned out great. Much nicer than using an eye bolt too.
Bjrogg
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Nice ! (=) Bob.
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Thanks Bob. Hope you survived the storm alright. I think we had more snow before the storm. We got about three inches of slush. What a mess. Muddy ground underneath. Really wish it would’ve froze up first. Now it’s supposed to really get cold.
Took a picture by shop yesterday. Before the storm. It’s still dark here yet and electricity is out. I hooked up the generator.
Bjrogg
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I’ve been on a roll knapping lately so I’m taking advantage of it. Obsidian blade, cholla handle. Halft with pitch glue and white tail leg sinew.
Base is reclaimed black walnut from a pallet. I cut a grove in the base of a shed antler and lined it with scrap red fox leg fur.
Not a bad way to ride the storm out
Bjrogg
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You been busy! Your work looks great.
Mike
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Thanks Mike. I seem to like to stay busy. I think it’s because when I was younger. We learned very young not to tell dad we were bored. He would find something for us to do. Realized we could probably find something to do ourselves that was more fun.
Bjrogg
PS I really like how this one turned out and how the base turned out too
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Well what do you know. The Lions won a playoff game. I’m not going to jinx them by saying any more than that.
I have mostly been doing paperwork and computer work which I really suck at. I have a hard time with it and I feel like I need a break. I have been getting some therapy with my hobbies.
Got a pretty good inventory going here for my retirement fund.
Bjrogg
My first arrow of the year. Looks like a good shooter
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Nice ! (=) Bob.
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Here’s another one for Bob.
The freighters have had a pretty easy season so far but they are moving pretty slow this morning. Slushy ice is trying a freeze over.
Bjrogg
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Great Pic, thanks! (=) Bob.
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Arrow looks great
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Did see later yesterday, they closed the Soo Locks for the season. (=) Bob.
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Yup the weather made the big turn pretty fast. My brother didn’t have his heater turned on in his well house. He spent several hours getting everything going yesterday morning.
I certainly wouldn’t want to be on that big lake today. Winds strong out of the north east. Snowing pretty good. It is a little warmer thought. I think it’s high teens maybe low tweeties but the wind and the lake would be nasty.
There were a lot of old timers around here that road those freighters. Think I’d rather stay on the farm. That big lake can be very unforgiving.
Bjrogg
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I did knock this spear point out a couple nights ago. Doesn’t show up good in pictures but it can see light through it and has streaks running through it. Not finished yet but pretty close.
Bjrogg
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Had to blow snow for first time this season. This cold snow blows nice.
Bjrogg
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Lake effect got Ya ! Only 2-3 Inches here ! (=) Bob.
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Yup. Lake had been keeping us “warm “ enough that we got rain, snow and slush earlier. Now the temperature dropped and it is giving us snow. I prefer the snow. I really don’t like the slush and mud. This I can deal with.
I was over to my buddies shop last weekend and he was carving mushrooms. I have several friends who hunt mushrooms. Some of them like a small stone knife to use to harvest them. I got thinking.
I think they are going to like this design
Bjrogg
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I’m hoping that more will be popping up by spring.
Bjrogg
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Way cool ! (=) Bob
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Nice BJ, I think they will like them. :)
Pappy
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Thanks Bob. I like it to.
How about those Lions? I know I shouldn’t mention them. Probably jinks em for sure but that was sure a fun game to watch.
Sorry about the Packers Pappy. They are going to be a tough team to beat next season. They’re young and they learned a lot this year.
These things are popping up everywhere
Bjrogg
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That's a very nice knife, Brian. 8) :OK
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Thanks Pat.
I’m kinda having fun with these. I have a thread in the flintknapping section titled Having Fun with Mushrooms. I have a feeling a few more of these are going to be popping up.
Bjrogg
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This one isn’t quite mature.
Bjrogg
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8) :OK
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We are doing great in the shop. We have beet digger, topper, both combines, two tractors and even one lawnmower in tip top shape.
Before you know it we will be getting spring stuff ready. Got planter tractor in the shop now. You just never know. It could be an early spring.
Bjrogg
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Looks like you got a pretty good crop going now. ;) :)
Pappy
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Looks like you got a pretty good crop going now. ;) :)
Pappy
It’s kinda nice to have something growing around here this time of year.
This one is my favorite so far
Bjrogg
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It warmed up the last few days. We decided to take advantage of the and do a few building repairs and upgrades.
The door in this building was open for a while last spring. The barn swallows made a nest on what was the bottom of the door when it was up.
It’s the inside of the door when it’s closed and about four feet off the ground.
When the birds were still in it they would fly out every time the door opened or closed
Bjrogg
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These things are getting bigger
Bjrogg
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Wow (A), that's almost War Club size! Way cool (=) Bob.
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Must be using some good fertilizer. :) :)
Pappy
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It was the end of the season for the Lions last night. Us long time Lion fans are really used to our season ending early. We have never been to a Super Bowl. We were two quarters away. The first half of last night’s game was all Lions. They couldn’t be stopped. We all knew they needed to play that way for two more quarters. Preferably six.
Unfortunately bad luck, dropped passes, fourth downs and maybe even the same old Lions syndrome all came together. Those last two quarters were a train wreck and we watched our lead slip away.
Gotta give it to the 49’s. They totally took advantage of the opportunity and they are now going to the Super Bowl.
Kinda like farming. Everything can be looking so good. Then a little bad luck. A breakdown. A bad decision and disaster.
That why we have another season. That’s why we look back and learn from our mistakes but don’t dwell on them.
One thing I have learned from 40+ years of farming. Every season is different. You can’t just concentrate on last year. You have to focus on the season ahead.
I’m sure a lot of old Lions fans are really blue today, but it’s time to put that loss aside and focus on the next season.
We went further than anyone expected. It was still a very good season and we have a very good team.
Like farming we are both playing for the Love of the Game.
Here’s to the coming season. Hope it’s a winner for both of us. Go Lions.
Bjrogg
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Yep, watched it and was thinking of you, like you said looked un beatable the first half, not so much the 2nd. :) Being a Titan's fan guess I am use to disappointment. :(
Pappy
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My youngest brother invited me to visit his property in West Virginia. Being a flat lander all our lives we are both drawn to the mystical beauty of the mountains. My brother works very hard and hunts very hard to. He has always dreamed of owning property like this. I’m glad he invited me to share it with him.
Beautiful place.
Bjrogg
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The trail above leads down to a hollow with nice sized food plots.
Bjrogg
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We did a little scouting and found a nice place for a natural ground blind . It’s on a bench overlooking a creek that seems like a good funnel spot.
Hard to tell from the pictures but you can see my brother clearing shooting lanes below the bench. I’m up on the bench looking down from his ground blind.
Looks like a great spot for hunting with a Selfbow.
Bjrogg
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Unfortunately I came down with the stomach flu and a fever the second day. I was a pretty sick puppy until my fever broke.
My brother went out squirrel hunting by himself. I took a few short walks but mostly just rested up by the camper.
I walked another trail close to the camper. Wish I felt better but it was still a great adventure with my little brother. Glad we got to spend the time together. It’s always hard to find the time to spend. And we both realize our time here is limited and we don’t know when it comes to an end.
A picture from one of my short walks.
Bjrogg
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While my brother was out looking for squirrels I noticed one of these popped up right across the trail from his camper.
They seem to grow big around here.
Wondering how long it will take for my brother to find it
Bjrogg
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Nice looking Country ! Love the Big Schroom (lol)! (=) Bob.
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Every year I get gifted several deer. My family loves venison. We don’t waste any of it. We process it into tasty treats.
I usually cut out the blackstraps and loins. Make some jerky and the rest gets cut up into small enough chunks to grind. Then I vacuum pack it into large bags and put the grind meat in my freezer until season is over.
This week I got my grinder going. We had a little over 70 lbs of venison and about 33 lbs of pork shoulder to grind. First we ground the pork in one tub and then the venison into another tub.
We mixed three 26 lb batches of summer sausage and stuffed them in casings. Had 19 big sticks and 15 smaller ones. All ready for smokers.
There was about 13 lbs of venison and 9 lbs of pork left. Not enough for a batch of summer sausage. I mixed it up and stuffed it into burger wrappers. This really helps with clean up. The meat binder in the summer sausage is very sticky and hard to clean up. Running some meat through mixer and stuffer really helps clean up. The meat binder clings to the clean meat. And my wife uses a lot of burger for her dishes.
Two days later and everything is smoked.
I will give a few sticks to those who gifted me the deer. That insures more venison next year.
Bjrogg
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I put in some overtime watching my smokers. I decided to make some shavings. Hop Hornbeam. I almost forgot how hard this stuff gets. Also have to admit I’m a little out of shape. I did get it reduced closer to bow dimensions.
Then it had a nasty propeller twist so I put it on my caul. Gave it a good heat treatment at the same time.
Bjrogg
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Got long string on and started tillering. Pulling to 55 lbs. still a long way to go.
Bjrogg
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That HornBeam make a fine Bow, but Yeah, it's a Booger to work. Still have a Splitting Maul that I made a Iron Wood handle for, bout 25yrs ago ! (=) Bob.
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The old timers around here knew it was the wood the old timers before them used for hitching horses to wagon. They didn’t know about bows but thought it probably would be good wood.
I spent a couple hours yesterday looking for the wood that wasn’t a bow. And trying not to remove any that was a bow.
I started with the bow bending to the previous picture from Saturday
Sunday I removed the small pile of dust on the floor and bench. I should have weighed it. It wasn’t much but it was enough to get to brace. Put short string on and draw almost to 25” at 55 lbs.
Bjrogg
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Starting to think about spring now. Have all the fall equipment repaired. Some we will probably do outside yet this summer.
We are starting on spring equipment. Hooked up to my planter and took it to our shop.
Bjrogg
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Roughed out handle and put water buffalo horn on tips.
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55 lbs at 27”.
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Bow looking good BJ, love hhb , ya be spring before you know it. Pappy
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Hey, Hey BJ! Sharing is caring! I did upcycle a fresh roadkill this year. Tonight is venison stoop. But, sausage sounds good!
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Yes it’s a symbiotic relationship Ben. I like it.
I spread clover cover crop seed on some wheat ground earlier this week. Went really good. We use our Gator and we can put our GPS system in it. It doesn’t steer but it tells us where to steer and make a coverage map showing where we already spread. Also counts acres which is very nice for calculating seeds per acre. We try for about 9 lbs of seed per acre. We can adjust the opening of the holes and or the mph we drive to get on the correct rate.
Bjrogg
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Yesterday the ground froze up good enough to drive tractor and manure spreader on again.
I helped my son sort out a load of fat cattle to go to the sale barn. He stayed at the sale and tried to buy some feeders to bring back home. He got four but they were very expensive. it was a long day for him.
Bjrogg
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While he was gone I spread some off his manure storage pile. He really appreciated that as it was getting full and you only have so many opportunities to spread this time of year. I didn’t get it empty but I put a pretty good dent in it.
Bjrogg
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My summer sausage has been aging in my fridge for about a week. I did some rearranging in my freezers and had enough room to vacuum pack it and deep freeze it.
I cut two of the big sticks into thirds.
Then I put 2 thirds in one vacuum bag. Makes good use of the vacuum bags and about the right amount to get out of freezer at a time.
Stack nice to.
Have our big freezer in basement packed full to
Should be in good shape until next year. Want to make some pork breakfast sausage yet but I need some more freezer space first.
Bjrogg
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I picked up a piece of Osage I set aside years ago.
Finished tillering it out to 50 lbs @ 28”
Bjrogg
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Bow looks good as dose the summer sausage , ;) you been busy.
Pappy
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Great lookin' Bow ! (=) Bob
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Thanks Pappy and Bob.
I had a pair of roadkill garner snake skins that I decided to put on the HHB bow
I got them glued on, trimmed and the scales rubbed off yesterday. I think it’s going to look really nice when I get the finish applied
Have doctors appointments today. Probably let the bow dry really good before I apply finish
Bjrogg
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That looks nice, love snake skins on a bow, didn't know yall had any that big up there ??? :) Been going to MI. for 20+ years and have only seen 1 snake and it was a very small one in the wood pile in camp. ???
Pappy
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Yes we have a few species of them here. Even a Rattlesnake. Which is protected. Not very big either. I’ve never seen one but have been told they can be found less than Twenty miles from me. They aren’t very big. Maybe three feet long and 1” diameter.
We have milk snakes, garners and green snakes too.
Mostly I see garners which are good snakes. I don’t kill them. It does seem like one week of the year that they are wandering. I’m guessing mating but I’m not a snake expert. I just know I see them slithering towards the road ditch while driving my tractor down the road. If I find a roadkill I pick it up.
Bjrogg
They have a nice pattern all around though and I like the small scales. I think smaller snakes look nicer on a bow than big ones.
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Here’s another roadkill I picked up.
Only one I’ve seen but my brother said he saw one in the same area this roadkill was found years earlier.
I think it an eastern milk snake if I remember correctly.
Very pretty pattern. Got a couple set of eyes looking for another one.
Bjrogg
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Another picture
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Nice ! A friend of Mine that lived in Fenton, used to get Lots of the Masaugua (sp) Rattlers every Year. We took one up to Larry that owned the Marina in Harbor Beach. (=) Bob.
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Thanks Bob. I’ve been told there’s a tree in swap that always has a bunch of them in it. I’ve never seen one myself.
Last week I spent two days going to doctors appointments and three days going to meetings.
Doctors appointments went pretty good
Meetings were ok. Learned a few new things. Alway interesting visiting with other farmers and comparing how they operate.
One of the meetings was put on by Star of the West. They recently purchased an aerial drone. It is capable of seeding cover crops in standing crops without damaging them. It also is can spray them.
They had it displayed. It was pretty interesting and everyone had to check out the new toy.
I do think there is a place for them and I suspect there will be more capabilities for them in the future.
Lord knows they are sure using them in Ukraine.
Bjrogg
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I did manage to get my HHB and my Osage bow pretty well finished up.
Kinda lost track but I think 7 coats of Tung Oil. Then a leather handle wrap
Bjrogg
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Looks great BJ. :)
Pappy
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Nice ! Great lookin' Bows Bob. - (=)
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I been a pretty busy week. Half my son’s family is at the State FFA convention and the other half is at our place.
I’ve been taking care of his cattle and keeping an eye on things.
Some of you might remember what the feed pile looked like when we finished filling the bunker.
It was out past the protein building. It’s back aways now. Hope there’s enough left till it’s time to fill again.
Bjrogg
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The mixer feed cart has a scale on it.
First I put 2,500 lbs of silage in. Silage is the whole corn plant chopped up into small pieces. It provides some roughage and nutrition.
Bjrogg
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Then I put in the protein and minerals. This is a mix of soybean meal and mineral supplements. The other ingredients have some of the cattle’s requirements but they need these to supplement it.
I take the scale up to 3,040 lbs. adding 540 lbs of protein supplement.
Bjrogg
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Then I add the high moisture shelled corn. This is the grain of the corn. It’s seeds if you will. They are a good source of protein and energy for the cattle.
Bjrogg
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I put the shelled corn in until the scales goes up to 6,220 lbs. that’s enough for this batch.
Bjrogg
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Then I unload the mixer cart into the feed bunk for the steers. They are usually happy to see me anytime, but especially when I bring them feed.
Bjrogg
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Nice looking bows, Brian! Is that one on the left a bull snake (or whatever you call em out there)? I have a couple of nice ones that will each cover a whole bow. Nice not having to look for matches! ;D
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Nice looking bows, Brian! Is that one on the left a bull snake (or whatever you call em out there)? I have a couple of nice ones that will each cover a whole bow. Nice not having to look for matches! ;D
Thanks WB
It’s what we call garner snake. They are harmless to humans and are beneficial predators.
I don’t kill them but if I find a fresh roadkill I pick them up
Bjrogg
PS I found this one in my house one morning. My wife wasn’t as careful with the one she found. Strange thing I’ve been living in this house for over thirty years now. I ve had five garners and five bats. All at different times. Unfortunately for the one my wife found it didn’t survive the garden hoe. It’s on a bend through the handle HHB
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Weather has been warm or cold here. Yesterday was a beautiful day and I had my planter ready to try out the new vacuum fans we installed.
Everything seemed to work perfectly
My nephew has a food plot and I planted 18 rows in it. Kinda early but it’s going to be interesting to see if they grow
Bjrogg
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Days are definitely getting longer and sun is getting stronger.
Bjrogg
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Beautiful snake bj, looks like the one I found in the wood pile at ElmHall. ;) Yep days are getting longer again and weather is settling into Spring here also. :)
Pappy
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I agree pappy. They really are pretty snakes. My wife doesn’t think so though, can’t see why.
Spring is almost a nasty word around here. We really try to get the most out of the nice days because we know we are still going to be getting a bunch of nasty ones. Usually a lot of cold dreary days with an icy cold wind off the lake.
I’m really feeling it today. Damp, chilly and windy. My body feels so stiff it’s hard to move
Bjrogg
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We had a couple pretty decent days last week to work by my pond.
I have been trying to clean up some of the dead ash trees whenever I can. Straight down the hill (cliff) is the road and then directly across it is my beach. It’s probably only about a 150 yard walk but it has been impenetrable for several years now.
I put the logs on a pile. Cut some of the nicer limbs for bonfires at the beach and put the brush on the burn pile.
We got an area clean up enough that I actually was able to walk from my pond to my beach. Still a tangled up mess with trees that aren’t even able to fall to the ground.
Hoping to get some more time to do more but it’s to wet now. At least I can get between two of my favorite places again
Didn’t get a lot of pictures but a couple
Bjrogg
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Bjrogg
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Rye cover crop is looking great even the ones we planted after sugar beets in November
Bjrogg
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Working on a few arrows.
Bjrogg
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Did get a picture of the area we cleaned up and the route from the pond down the hill and across the road to the beach
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Been busy with processing meat the past few days.
Saturday we got 730 lbs of pork shoulder. We cut, ground, mixed, stuffed and smoked it. I was too busy to get pictures of the process but here are the tubs after removing them from the cold smoker.
Man I wish you could smell them.
Sunday we cut, vacuum packed and froze.
Bjrogg
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While the pork sausage was in the smoke house and before I cleaned everything up.
I decided to make a couple batches of venison summer sausage and snack sticks.
Monday I finished the first batch with my two smokers. The big sticks in one and the snack sticks in the other. I never tried the snack sticks before. I did learn a few things.
Bjrogg
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Finished smoking everything now. I’m a good tired.
Bjrogg
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That makes me want a cold beer, Brian. Nice work there with rewards lasting a long while. :OK
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Wow - Got Me droolin' on the Keyboard (A) ! Alot of work, but I know, it's worth the effort. (=) Bob.
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looks great, yes you have been busy :)
Pappy
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That makes me want a cold beer, Brian. Nice work there with rewards lasting a long while. :OK
Come on over Pat. I got a cold one for you.
I prefer Founders Dirty Bastard but I have a pretty good variety to pick from.
Bjrogg
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Wow - Got Me droolin' on the Keyboard (A) ! Alot of work, but I know, it's worth the effort. (=) Bob.
Bob I wish you all could smell it. Everything turned out great.
Bjrogg
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looks great, yes you have been busy :)
Pappy
I think you and I like to keep a little busy Pappy.
It’s just really satisfying to do stuff like this. It is a huge amount of work but its results are enjoyed and shared by many and you just don’t get a product like it from the store.
I did get a chance to finish up six arrows. Been a long time since I built a set like this.
Shafts are from TSA. Beautiful shafts I gave about seven coats of Tung oil and my Bjrogg markings.
I cut the feathers down the center of the quill with a scissors and then to length. Then I put them in my fletching clamp and ground them on my grinder. First I tried it. Usually I just strip fletch off quill, but I’m hoping this is a bit more durable.
I glued with gorilla glue and did wrap the front of fletch with a little sinew. Hand cut the fletch nice and low
I like em
Bjrogg
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Nice ! (=) Bob
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Nice arrows, reminds me of the 60's ;) :) :) :)
Pappy
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Thanks Bob and Pappy,
As Bob Ross said just a happy little accident. I kinda stumbled upon this technique when I accidentally put a big blob of paint on my shaft and then I took the edge of a razor blade to remove part of it.
And that’s how my happy little accident added a little color and lava lamp like shapes to my happy little world. Funny part is now the hardest part is making the right accidental blob.
Definitely was a different time Pappy
Bjrogg
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We think we have everything ready to plant now. Just waiting on the weather now which could be a bit.
I use to feel a little guilty about working on my bows and arrows when I “should” be working.
I realized that I’m getting to the age that many people spend their winters in Florida.
I don’t feel guilty about spending time with my hobbies anymore. Especially when I’m waiting for the weather to cooperate.
If you go to leatherwall or have gone to my thread in the bow section you can see I’ve been spending some quality time with this piece of knarly Osage.
If you haven’t seen this thread I think you might want to check it out.
Look for thread titled “Starting Small”. I hope you enjoy it as much as I have.
Here’s the piece of Osage
Bjrogg
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I’ve been working on some arrows to.
When I started making arrows I used this combination of colors for my markings, but I wasn’t a very good shot and I realized that they were very hard to find .
Hopefully I don’t lose them now. Still not sure if I’m going to switch, but I made a half dozen like this
Bjrogg
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Holy Week has kept me busy too.
When I got home from Good Friday Mass, I found out our neighbors barn was on fire. My brother and nephew were already there with our escavator and loader. Along with a lot of neighbors and firefighters.
It honestly looked like I would just be in the way. I just watched and hoped no one was hurt and that the fire was kept from spreading to other buildings.
Bjrogg
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No one was seriously injured. A few burns from trying to get the cattle out.
One would think that the cattle would want to run out of the barn, but that is seldom the case.
The cattle feel safe in their home. They don’t want to leave it. It is very hard to watch.
Many of the cattle did eventually get out but for many it was too late.
The last I heard they lost about 60 head. Many that had to be put down. Probably will be more yet.
Believe me. This is very hard.
I am so glad no one was seriously injured.
Bjrogg
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Fire has to be one of the scariest situations around. So glad no one was seriously hurt but it is a shame about the cows.
Any idea how the fire got started?
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Yes it is a living breathing consuming thing. The barn was the original home farm barn. Probably built after the great fire of 1881. Kind of ironic.
I don’t think they know the cause yet. As quick as it started I’m thinking electrical. They had just gotten home from church. It wasn’t going then. Shortly after my nephew noticed the barn was on fire. They were sitting in the house and didn’t know.
Bjrogg
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That’s very sad to hear, glad no people were hurt and sorry about the cattle, bad way to go. Pappy
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Yea they have a huge mess to clean up.
Waterlines that need to be found, uncovered and capped off before they can turn water back on.
I did a little field work today. Was time for this rye cover.
Then I looked at the beets I planted in my nephews food plot. They had a nice tap root started
Bjrogg
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The weather has been beautiful the past few days. A few planters starting to roll.
We don’t have any ground that is dry enough to suit me yet. Especially to plant right before the predicted 2” two day rain we are supposed to get the next two days.
The clouds cleared in time to see the eclipse. We aren’t in path of totality, but we were in the high 90% coverage.
It cooled down and the sun got noticeably dimmer. I looked at it with my wedding helmet and could see it really well. I tried to get pictures but didn’t turn out.
If you look at the reflection spots though you can see it.
One about 15 minutes before peak and one about a minute after
Bjrogg
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We didn’t plant yet but I am putting fertilizer on our wheat. Conditions are perfect for it and the rain will be just right for getting it to the crop
Bjrogg
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Yesterday morning I finished putting fertilizer on our wheat.
Then we decided to plant some sugar beets. The ground had dried up and worked up nice.
I don’t like planting right before a predicated two inch rain, but the ground was fit and the temperature is supposed to stay mild.
I did get our two smaller fields planted. Have about 76 acres planted.
It’s raining now and we won’t be planting again for at least a week. Probably more. Hopefully these beets will make it. They will probably be up before I can get anymore planted.
Bjrogg
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And it starts. A few guys around here are planning on starting in a week or so, I've heard. Son in law is probably 3 weeks away. All pending on weather as usual. Hoping all goes well for you.
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And it starts. A few guys around here are planning on starting in a week or so, I've heard. Son in law is probably 3 weeks away. All pending on weather as usual. Hoping all goes well for you.
That’s right Stoker. The start of a new season. Hope your son in law has a safe and bountiful year.
It’s always both exciting and nerve wracking putting those expensive little seeds in the ground.
And the promise of another crop is never a promise.lol.
This is when I like to get our sugar beets planted. By my birthday the 16th.
Corn and soybean about a month yet. Around first week of may.
Edible beans around June 1
Raining here yet but so far not hard. Sounds like it’s coming though.
I planted into a lot of residue and a rye cover crop. That should help with preventing ponding. Also soil crusting over harming emergence.
Time will tell. So far I feel good about having some planted.
Bjrogg
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Good to see you getting something in the ground, they haven't planted at my place yet, they have sprayed and looks like a bomb went off, :) guess he is doing soy beans this year, they usually do them later in the spring, if he was doing corn he would probably already have it in the ground, they usually try to get the corn in by the middle of April. :)
Pappy
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Our local farmers put their soy bean and corn in about Mother's Day. As of now we haven't had a freeze in about 2 weeks but most farmers still wait til Mother's Day. Since we've been here, about 34 years now, we have had frost as late as Mat 15 but not for a few years. Our winters are getting shorter or at least have come earlier each year. An old local guy told me the other day..."we don't get winter any more just a cold snap around Christmas then an early spring".
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I’m sure we will be getting more frost and probably more freeze yet to. Like Pat we get frost into mid May.
The sugar beets don’t mind.
The corn can take a frost. It will burn off the leaves above ground, but its growing point is below ground and it will grow back.
Soybeans don’t like the cold and their growing point is above ground. A frost can kill them.
Edible beans really don’t like cold. We want it to warm up before we plant them
The weather has been pretty decent. We had some nasty storms come through Friday and it was extremely windy.
Sunday was beautiful and our dogs enjoyed looking out the screen door window. They don’t miss anything.
I checked the beets I planted Thursday afternoon. They are just nicely sprouted.
Bjrogg
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I haven’t really been to the farm much the past two days. Took my wife to sugar doctor and she got a good report.
Today I had meeting.
Tuesday I scouted wheat. It’s starting to elongate and will be rapid vegetation stage now.
While I was scouting I came across a drone spreading a seed.
Then I looked at beets and they had a nice tap root system started.
Bjrogg
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The fields were just about dry enough to plant the rest of our beets, but it rained again. Supposed to rain tomorrow and in a few days again.
It won’t be an early spring anymore by the time we get back planting.
Bjrogg