Life on the Farm

[M2A]

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         

[bjrogg]

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

[bjrogg]

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

[bjrogg]

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

[bjrogg]

Hauled a little dirt from our pile by the woods. The leaves on the maples are starting to turn.
Bjrogg

[bjrogg]

I got some hunting stuff ready for tomorrow. Hopefully get a little time in.

Here’s what’s going in my quiver.

Bjrogg

[bjrogg]

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

[bjrogg]

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

[bjrogg]

First we used both loaders to pick up the tower and then drove trailer ahead.
Bjrogg

[bjrogg]

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

[bjrogg]

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

[bjrogg]

Then we did same to other side.
Bjrogg

[bjrogg]

Then we secured the blind to the tower

Bjrogg

[bjrogg]

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

[bjrogg]

Now just need to give it a turn

Bjrogg