First I would like to thank Ed Winkle for forwarding me the 22 signs of economic Doom. I'd link to it but I figure the NSA guys have already seen it. That did not depress me in the least. Now... where is that bottle of vitamin d, not finding that perhaps a little more old number 7 in my coffee will help.
Secondly, I have got to find a more fuel efficient service truck. My 1989 Ford 4wd will haul 250 gallons of 10-34 (11lbs/gallon) but it also uses gasoline at an alarming rate. I went though a tank and a half in two days worth of planting. And (as my family has told me) I drive like an old farmer. That pedal has not seen the floorboards since the second week of owning that truck.
I really need the 4wd and the ability to carry an air compressor, 150 gallons of fuel, 10 gal of hydraulic oil and 200lbs of tools. Also, the ability to carry a 120lb dog who attempts to stand on the roof would be nice. That and a 350lb employee.
I violated my only remaining personal belief and planted on Sunday. I did got to church first. We had an excellent sermon but I find I can't remember a word of it this morning. Other than I missed a rousing talk by a really interesting fellow who I wanted to visit when I was in Costa Rica years ago and parts of the sermon were from his talk.
I took the daughter and fishing poles and went and helped my neighbor who had 15 acres of worked ground.
My transmission cooler developed a leak Saturday and instead of planting late we took it apart and the fellow I was working for said he knew someone who would weld it. I texted Orin as I knew he had suffered through the same problem. When he referred to the AGCO parts service as the AGCO Sodomy department I did not inquire as to the the price. I'm still a little sore from buying the pistons for the G1355. I wondered why they included a bottle of Vaseline and it was labeled "assembly lube."
But, I digress...
We got home from Church early and my neighbor was over working on my other forklift. Then my brother from the big city showed up. Then the farmer I was to plant for called and said they didn't have the cooler welded yet. So I pulled the cooler off the MM G1355 just in case.
By the time I got started it was 4:30 or so.
We mapped the field with the FarmerGPS program which estimated our finish time at 7:30 p.m. We did want to go fishing so we bumped up the speed until FarmerGPS decided we would be finished at 6:33. It also turned out to be 18 acres on the map but I ended up with 22 acres. There were a lot of corners!
We didn't catch any fish but the farmer's lovely wife brought us pizza. I think my daughter was not terribly bored. It was nice to have her with me. She is good a calculating how long it will take to finish the field.
Now I am off for about a 20 mile move. It is raining where I am going so I may sneak in another 30 acres of straight no-till where I am. We did the worked ground yesterday which was good as it rained last night.
The farmer that needs planting today worked his ground yesterday as he had a planting deadline. I hear it rained on him and I really doubt I can plant his field today.
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Planting? Not here. Although we are enjoying a rare sunny day today it is still wet from the weekend and forecast is for more cloud and rain rest of the week. At least I am getting wheat cleaned today tearing up and down the highway with the ancient Loadstar.
ReplyDeleteDon't call it ancient. Ancient is before 1942.
DeleteI think we are headed into a wet weather cycle. There has been climate changes since the world began. We've all heard about Noah and his ark!
I hear that there's an IH pickup in your neighborhood that is up for grabs but I'm not sure the fuel economy would be any better than your 460. I worked yesterday also, and am rained out today fixing all the stuff that went wrong yesterday.
ReplyDeleteThere is an IH pickup with a DUMP bed in my neighborhood! You really need it on your farm. When you bring my new combine you could drive the IH home!
DeleteToday I went early to do the no-till field. Fellow thought it was too sticky so I worked on the drill and cleaned all the oil off the tractor.
It is certainly too sticky right now. It it were my field I would have planted it and got it DONE! I have really good scrapers on my drill!
I really like my IH pickup. That said, one is enough! I've spent the last year off and on looking for a vacuum motor for my air blend door. The stuff that you really need to keep it running isn't hard to find...it's the little stuff that keeps the accessories working that make life interesting. I expect a Studebaker is very similar.
ReplyDeleteOK guys. You don't really expect me to trash that new (old) F-250 driving around the hills & tossing firewood into it do you? I think I should use the IH off-road on the place here, at least until I wear out the new tires I just put on it.By the way, how can our mud be both sticky and slippery at the same time? Maybe we can market it somehow. I know I found myself levitating (albeit briefly) the other day as my feet went horizontal walking down into the field below my house. I'm picturing the McMinnville Karate class sparing on my hillside. That should be worth seeing.
ReplyDelete