The Useful Duck!

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Monday, July 19, 2010

I look forward to more hay, talking to landlady, Gopher Valley madness, and feel completely overwhelmed...

This will be short as I need to get going. Have not posted for a couple days as loyal readers may have noticed.
Last week we baled something like eight semi-truck loads of hay. One truckload would be eight blocks with 56 bales per block for 3-tie and 70 bales for small 2 tie. Somewhere around 24 ton. We completed somewhere just over 100 acres. That is not so much for most farmers but is quite a lot for two people in my humble opinion. I have another 60 acres of grass hay down and 18 acres of alfalfa. I am going to go check on the alfalfa as soon as this is posted.
The quality of the grass is not what it should be. It is much too late in the year for good hay. I tried to give a load to the fellow who hauled for me but he wouldn't take it. He said he had enough hay.
So...I had to find storage. I had a fellow with a large barn who owes me for stacking so I had it hauled to his shed. I'm having some landlady problems I guess.
She is a very nice elderly lady. Last winter she got hit by a car crossing a street after church. I did not realize that she was in the hospital and in therapy for something like 6 months. Then I forgot to pay my rent. I thought I paid it. But, the check never came through. As soon as I found out I sent her a check. I have to talk to her in person. She now has a step grandson living with her. I think he is the one who will inherit the place. He has been putting up gates and fences. He also left 100 feet of fencewire in the field which my employee found with the mower. It took two days to get it all out. He as also been driving in the field when it is wet. I spent a lot of time last winter getting it all smooth and level but I didn't get it planted. I was waiting for a sprout so I could get weed control and when it started raining, it never stopped.
So, now I have to go discuss all this. I know the drill. The family thinks I am getting the place for nothing and they think it is worth a lot of money. I have been doing it for 15 years and have not been making a lot of money. The field was so rough it was impossible to harvest. Last year I plowed it, now it is nice and smooth. Except for some ruts left by the grandson. Mostly, I just rent the ground to get an old shed I use for hay storage and because when I tried to quit she didn't know how she would get her hay done. Now I have way too much hay ground. My sometimes-a-great helper is interested in the ground and the landlady likes him. Perhaps that is an angle. Of course no one is shutting the gates and so the gate person is probably upset. He has all the gates shut, even the one to the house. Of course no one comes to visit the housebound landlady as shutting the gate means you are not home or don't want visitors. I just do not want to deal with this. I want to go away...
Here are photos from my other farm next door. This is how we load hay for hauling.


This is the farm with the landlady issue...




This is the fence in the diskmower...

Here is my stunt pilot neighbor buzzing us...

Have a nice day...

6 comments:

  1. Budde, I am impressed. You are getting a lot done and still have time to contribute to the blog. I have not done a thing with mine for almost a month. I guess I could have done it while waiting for the weather to clear up so I could cut some hay. Getting late but it is either raining or threatening rain every other day it seems.

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  2. Yikes. Can farmers hire stunt doubles?

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  3. Ah...., the tranquil life of the farmer!

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  4. That wire in the diskmower makes my hands hurt just looking at it.

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  5. Ralph, it takes me a while to wake up in the morning and I also type really fast. Pderhaps you have noticed the typos... Sometimes I write after work but then I go to sleep and the laptop falls on the floor. (That only happened once)
    I had the same problem with our hay. It didn't get rained on but it is a touch on the ripe side...
    Collieguy, perhaps that is a business opportunity. All farmers pretty much look alike as long as they are wearing a baseball cap advertising the right kind of tractor!
    Gorges, I sit around a lot in the winter.
    Orin, It is a bad thing to be cutting hay while you are combining. The wire in the diskmower did cause anger management issues. I resorted to use of a torch. I made a new shield out of black PVC pipe. It seems to be working.

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  6. My recent anger management issues came on Friday. I had problems with one of the 760's running fine for about 30 minutes and then suddenly crapping out and dying, right in the windrow. Bleed it out and repeat. Fuel filters were new. Changed lift pump....same. Changed Murphy valve....same. Considered attacking fuel system with 4 lb. hammer. Considered getting it running it long enough to drive it in the creek for erosion control. Considered submitting a job-application to Wal-Mart!

    Finally figured out that I had crushed the fuel supply hose when we re-installed the radiator this past spring.

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