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Thursday, September 26, 2013

Chopping silage, My stove passes inspection, a rainbow

I have been working on installing a woodstove at bit at a time. My friend came and did virtually all of the work on the chimney a couple weeks ago. I had to install the pad, drill a hole in the floor for the fresh air vent and get the stove lined up and then bolt it to the floor.
It took me a week to install two lag bolts.
Yesterday I called for the inspection. I had to get it permitted and inspected for my insurance. Otherwise...
Today Yesterday the inspector showed up. I was completely surprised.
I started a fire in the stove this morning as I figured this would be the last day for a while that I would be close by to watch it. I needed to cure the paint of the stove when i could have all the doors and windows open and keep an eye on the stove.
The inspector showed up as I was trying the vent and cool the house. Got it up to 85 degrees pretty fast.
He had a bemused expression.
I said, I suppose I'm not really supposed to make a fire until it is inspected.
He said, "yeah, not really..."
He was a nice guy. He said the installation looked good. (Thanks dh, and please get me a bill for the parts)
I stole a chunk of oak from my uncle's shop. Started it burning at 8:30 a.m. Fire was still going at 11 a.m. I was kind of impressed. It was just coals by 11:30 but that was not even a full firebox.
We chopped corn silage today yesterday. It rained.

We have an old IH truck kind of like Ralph Goff's truck. Ours in a tandem and a complete rustbucket.

I actually had to engage the front wheel assist on the 2-155 White, and use the differential lock. We got everything going around 3:30 pm. Lots of little problems. We chopped 150 ton by 8 pm.  The field was getting pretty slippery by then. Only 1,500 more ton to go.

There was a rainbow. I could see the end of the rainbow and I am sure there is no gold there.

There was good corn and bad corn.
This is the no-till corn I've been taking photos of this summer. It could have been better.

9 comments:

  1. I would appreciate that wood stove here this morning with the temp in the 40s and a cold rain blowing. Should be lots of bleached wheat out in the fields by now.

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    Replies
    1. Weather says 3-4 inches on the way. Not so good for corn sliage harvest. Perhaps we will both be combining in the snow!

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  2. I wish I still had a woodstove (but my wife doesn't).

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  3. I love your truck. Could you show us more pictures and write about it?

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    Replies
    1. Really?
      I bought it from a fellow who bought it for the hoist but decided the bed was too rusty and sold it to us for the engine but the hoist did work and the bed had not actually broken in two yet and we can't bear to throw anything away so we started driving it. Yesterday a huge hole appeared in the floorboards. It is so rusty that when it rains the driver gets wet but that is ok because there is enough heat coming through the hole in the floor makes it into a sauna.

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    2. I just like cool old stuff. I was the one who asked about you Studebaker too.

      There was an International dealership in the town I grew up in. It was still rural enough then that there was a market for farm implements and trucks. The always had a couple of Scouts on the lot too. I thought all of the trucks (and the Scouts) were the coolest ever.

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  4. Upon further reflection the IH is an interesting truck. It is a lighter duty tandem axle truck. I can't remember the year or model number. Mid 1970's. My neighbor bought it new. It has a 349 cu in gas engine which is prone to over-reving. I think it is the same engine that was converted to diesel and called the Ford Powerstroke. I am not completely sure of that.
    The truck has a 5 and a 3 shifting set up. Meaning a five speed main and another three speed transmission to give a wider range of gears. I have it licensed at 36,000 GVW. The tandem axle set up with an interlock that locks the two axles together in slippery conditions gives it a real advantage in the mud.
    The fact that it was used to haul fertilizer for much of its life has proven to be a problem.
    Our farm is virtually a museum of pre-twentyfirst century technology.

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