Some like it wet....

Farmers are not the only one who get excited when it rains. Casey and the Sunshine Band like it to.

Chopping continued...

A few more shots. This is what it looks like on top of 60ft of silage, sorry so dark. And Simon gives Grandpa a hat check while filling silo from a safe distance.

The glamour of modern farming

We have never owned a chopper at the ranch. We have filled the silo numerous times, filled bags, piled but always with the help of a hard working neighbor. Well this year we made the plunge... Here she is, a 1968 Fox Double D with  4 cylinder Detroit Diesel, two row wide head and vise grip mounted throttle control by the engine. Now this wasn't all by choice, some of the locals had gotten out of the business and the custom outfits we called said they were booked, one told us we had been the 200th call and he was already tired. We picked this unit because we figured since we had never owned a chopper before we want to jump in low on the technology curve so we figured getting one made about the same time the ranch was established would be good.... Or maybe it was the because it was priced right and available as they are hard to find this year. Well this unit has an appetite for corn and sustains itself on copious amounts of roller chains, grease, diesel, and oil... A good lube job every three loads is recommended and your hands look like you are an old steam train engineer, even after wiping them off as seen in the photo. Major thanks to Roger for working on her for a few days before running and keeping it running. He is a wizard with stuff like this and made it happen, I think he will fix up a few things over winter that we bandaged to get by and hope it still has some years left in it. We have a 3 row narrow head but it needs a new drive shaft so that is another project, anybody know where we could find a forge head to fit it? Will another color fit it? We also picked up a couple forage boxes from a neighbor and another from southern Minnesota. Total investment was around $13k to get into the business... Pretty reasonable I think. Still haven't been able to find a bracket to mount the autosteer.

So off we went north of Maynard, at 10mph. Yes 14 miles each way. And 60+ loads later, one full silo, and 150ft bagged we are done with the main part just in time for my back surgery. Still a few check strips for insurance inspection to harvest and feed. And we still plan on planting rye as a cover crop. Did I mention Roger went down a little over half way through the job with a banged up leg? And we limped along with out him...(pun intended) and a neighbor fellow and hauled a few for us, thanks Gene.

We also want to apologize for that hum/buzz sound you have heard the last week and a half for 3 or so hours at a time. That Detroit screams requiring substantial hearing protection.

Heat relief

If you didn't know it has been hot and dry here. The sows enjoyed a spray down. It works for kids too.

Classic tractors

A tractor ride was in town. We went down to Mr Smiths house to see a few of his on display, he is an orange tractor fan. They went by our house so we took a few moments to wave and cheer them on.

Corn time

It is sweet corn time. This crew helped with 10 dozen of so tonight. They did almost all of it by themselve. One little fella did his first ear by himself, raised it in victory!

Do you know what this is?

Have you ever seen those sections in a magazine that show some old piece of farm equipment that nobody uses anymore? Well what is that blue thing in the picture attached to that tractor? No it is not a counter weight.... We did a little cultivating of some corn on corn ground with a volunteer corn problem. Also did another 60 acres in place of second ignite  herbicide application, the cultivating was cheaper by my math even with the extended time of labor needed. I told Roger the neighbors might laugh at our little 6 row cultivator, he said the are probably just jealous and wish they had one. You can scream with this thing up to 7mph in tall corn, a far cry from the old S tine machine I spent months of my life on growing up. It is also important to have a cultivating buddy, one of mine is pictured here. Pretty brave guy perched high on the buddy seat with no shoes. When it gets really bumpy he likes to have the assurance of his hand in dads.