I fertilize oats but have adventures along the way. Probably more of a quest for fertilizer rather than a trip for fertilizer

Some years ago I purchased a 1972 Ford LN8000 with a 6-71 Detroit diesel, 13 speed, tandem axles, 24ft bed. It is loud, rough rough riding, and it is getting long in the tooth. I can't remember when I acquired it. Probably 15 years ago. (The earliest reference I found on this blog for  Detroit 6-71 was in 2011.)  I bought it off of Craigslist. Got a good deal because the car battery the guy was using, wouldn't spin the engine fast enough to start, and there was an air leak in the shifter so it was stuck in low range.

It is bad enough that the nephew quit using it to haul hay. Kept falling through the holes in the bed I suspect. I have been using it haul fertilizer. I got stuck when we had the thunderstorm and got 2” rain in 15 minutes.
The front tires sank to the axles in the hay field so I just left it until I could get help to get it out.
A month later, someone got it unstuck and drove it out to the field road.

Only problem was the left front tire was flat came off the bead.
I had to get fertilizer so I ended up fixing it.
I couldn’t get a jack under the axle with the tire flat. I was a little worried about taking the forklift down the hill with no brakes.  Then I had a grand idea! 

The Crane Truck.. 

 

I lifted the left side off the ground, found a can of starting fluid and a lighter and popped the tire right back on. Only a small amount of flames. Pretty slick concept really.

The next day I topped off the air and set off to get fertilizer. 

Our formerly local cooperative, which is now owned by some company from Idaho, has decided to rebuild the local fertilizer plant. Apparently the new thing is to close all the small plants and move to one big location so as to be less convenient for 80 percent of your customers. Great idea! 

Since I had to drive a half hour to the other soon to be closed location, I just continued on another ten minutes to the competition who are slightly cheaper. 

On the way a wasp nest dropped off the sun visor on me.  

I killed it. 

Then my neighbor called me and somehow I ended up driving right past the dealer whose box I was using and driving 2 miles out of the way to get one bag of of Orchardgrass seed that turned out to be $200 for 50lbs. Of course they only take cash or check…but I have cash from chicken feed so no worries. Maybe I will get a planting job.

I had to pickup 6,000lbs dry 40-0-0-6 (urea based) and 400 gallons liquid two different types in 350 gallon tanks. 
The guy at the fertilizer plant had a tic. He would suddenly, and with no provocation, jerk his head to the right and go “uurrrrp!”
Scared the heck out of me the first time it happened. Of course I jumped and turned to see what he was looking at.
Freaked me out. After that I pretty much managed not to react. Nice guy I didn't mean to be a jerk.

But I digress... 

Now, you need to keep in mind, It was a good half hour drive to the fertilizer plant in a 1972 Ford LN8000 with a loud under powered Detroit 6-71 engine and a 13 spd transmission that you have to shift for every little hill to maintain 54 mph.

Right out of the yard the shuttle tanks I was using to hold fertilizer started sloshing so bad I thought I was going to lose one off the side. 10-34 fertilizer is like 13lbs to the gallon, so 200 gallons sloshing is a big deal.
I stopped and added straps. Not a big deal but the winches did not line up with the tanks. I finally found some clamp on winches in the bottom of the tool box. Now I am one my way.
So, I took off down 99W and about 2/3 of the way home the accelerator goes to the floor and won't return. Later I was to discover that the alternator broke off and fell on the throttle causing the diesel engine to run wide open. Not a big deal as it is an old Detroit 6-71 and you pretty much run it up against the governor anyway. BUT To shift I had to reach down and pull up on the accelerator pedal. 

A bit dicey in downtown Amity… 

When I got home I popped the hood. 

A few minutes with the welder and I am back in business. Of course the tire went flat again so there is that... 

Spreading fertilizer on oats for hay. I should have spread fertilizer and then planted through the fertilizer but wasn't able to coordinate getting a spreader. We really need a working fertilizer spreader. Hopefully we have enough days left for good growth on the oats.

 

 

Adventures in oil changing

Well, that went badly...

I think this picture speaks for itself...

 

 

Election day and attempting to make hay

Two things that are depressing in life...

Watching the election cycle and making hay when you know it is going to probably rain in five days...

The election is predictable doom and so is rain at hay season.

I cut 25 acres of meadow foxtail and timothy hay yesterday. Some of it was so heavy I cut at 3.5 mph with a 150hp tractor. CaseIH DC103 mower which is 10 foot cut.

I added up the acres left and realized we have over 200 acres of grass hay to do. I probably should say "I" as the nephew has other things to do. Like welding stuff in the shop and combining and driving truck and delivering hay.  Its not like I can just send him off to cut and then fart around the shop anymore. 

I can't do 20 acres and then wait a week for a good weather forecast, I need to cut 20 acres every day so  there is always material to bale. 

The elections always go badly. I voted for Trump because I despised the alternatives. I voted for local candidates not because I liked their ideas or claimed policies but because I despised the alternatives.

So you just get further behind in politics and the hay will be crappy.

I have been listing to the radio. This is a mistake. I started "Dune," on Audible and I should stick with that. I was also listening to a Carl Jung book about repressed memories and how the mind manipulates itself to cover trauma. That was too depressing... I do not want to remember my alien abduction. (Or do I???)

But, I digress...

I find the Trump/Conservative Police State attack on Thomas Massie and their promotion of Ed Gallrein pretty depressing. They are lying about Massie who has consistently voted for conservative issues but has stood against big bills with sketchy things hidden in them, and Trump's troubling promotion of spending, surveillance/secrecy and bone headed foreign policy moves.

Honesty, Donald Trump campaigned on opposition to the CIA and the "deepstate," and the CIA and the "DeepState" got him into an unwinnable war with the most insane people on the planet. Of course it could be true that Iran almost had the bomb and "was weeks away..." But looking at the totally fabricated reasons we got into nearly every conflict since World War Eleven, I am going to be a bit skeptical. 

It is interesting to see Gun Owners of America and the NRA are not supporting Gallrein. Gallrein is establishment security state Republican, typical big farmer douche, and he will tow the line for the donations.

Interesting that Massie is getting a lot of support from young conservatives. But the Republican party has never known what to do with young conservatives and that goes all the way back to the Rush Limbaugh on talk radio days and the royal screwing the Bush clan gave us. 

Now I will say this is all open for debate. What really angers me is the character assassination directed at Massie. It is fine to attack if you are pro Big Government, tax and spend, War Hawk, Security State, and so on. But, don't say he is the worst guy ever or make up crap about his girlfriends or lie about his voting record which according to the scorecard put out by the Heritage Action center for this session, he is at a 92 percent while the average House Republican is at 85. They have his lifetime score at 83 percent but I have to go work on hay so no more commentary.

Looking forward to local elections, will two more lunatics join the Yamhill County board of Commissioners or will it just one crazy vs two sort of conservative people with big ideas that will never fly?

Either way we are getting a bicycle trail... 

I am applying hay preservative. I should have done it when I cut as the stems have probably closed by now and I am only getting it on top of the windrow. But it makes me feel better. I am using a preservative that is lactobacillus in a molasses base so I just dumped in a lot more molasses and declared my program a success. Perception is reality!

 

I rant about politics and I apply hydrated lime and don't know what to do with all the paper bags it came in

Yesterday I posted a bit of frustration with the local elections. I worked ground all day and started out listening to the radio. I tried to listen to Lars but gave up. I wish he would ask good questions and get people to talk. I already know all of the Lars opinions. He gets great interviews and then fails to get the information. Just lectures the poor person on the most obvious. 

But I digress...

I was looking online and one of the posts on the Oregon discussion group was reporting low returns for Republican ballots. Of course I asked AI as it was easier than going to the Secretary of State website myself.

AI said that Republicans in Oregon usually wait till the last minute to vote and then frequently never get around to mailing in their ballots. I thought this was pretty interesting. AI also backed up the claim that Republicans were turning out in lower numbers.

This morning I asked AI again and got the reply that Republicans actually had a higher return rate so far as compared to Democrats, but Democrats had higher registration. I asked AI if they were lying and it started rambling about how AI works and voter rolls and blah, blah, blah.

SO clever man that I am. I looked up the Secretary of State Website and found out that Republicans are slightly ahead of Democrats returning ballots in my county.

Surprisingly ballot return in Multnomah County (Portland) are only 8.5% while most other counties are 10 to 14%. Basically a little higher than average turnout.

What I did discover was very interesting with yesterday's post was that my keywords brought instant results. This one of the things that is so irritating with the Republican party. Their research and propaganda abilities are pathetic. 

I got instant hits from google searches for the proper name for the trail. Also for the country and commissioner race. I also suspect someone has some sort of trackback activated for links to their pages. I did not get the idea the traffic was coming from "conservative sources."

In fact, this is one of the reasons the commissioner races is important. The "progressives," I guess you would say, seem to have a well funded cooperative network for funding and cross promotion. The "trail" is a great example of this. Media savvy people have gotten news coverage in a number of liberal/conservation outdoors and recreation pages. (Also, editorials like this one.) I suspect they have pretty serious funding. 

I know the TrailsPac has gotten enough signatures to put at least one ballot measure on an upcoming election and they have a pretty slick promotional campaign.

The opposition are farmers with limited fundraising abilities and the local crazy Republican cranks who probably do more harm than good.

But, the 6 people who regularly read this blog really don't care...

Yesterday I worked in lime.

Working in lime is a generally satisfying job. Until the transmission cooler line blew out showing the windshield with hydraulic oil. I worked it two directions before the rain showed up last night. It was nice to just sit in a tractor for a day.

 

We got this deal on Hydrated lime that was used for storing apples. Apparently apples continue to respire after picking and the Hydrated lime absorbs the CO2.

The lime is in 55lb bags and on pallets. It seems to be somewhat solid like it has absorbed water but breaks up easily.

This is pretty potent stuff. I wonder if I were to do it again, I wounder if you could just put two/three pallets per acre on unworked ground, dump the pallets, push the bags around with a front end loader and then hit them with the cover crop disk and drag harrow a few times, chisel it maybe, or vibrashank with a spring harrow, and then moldboard plow it to get rid of the paper bags. If it is cheap enough just use more lime to get coverage. Probably do it in the fall and then rework the ground in the spring. Take a soil test, and if it required lime in the top three inches put down a ton of ag lime.

 

My neighbor modified a litter spreader to apply the lime. He just dumped bags and all in the spreader and it chopped it and spread it so we got a lot of paper in the field.

The lime has a higher score than regular ag lime so you use less. It was kind of a pain in the butt and the stuff is seriously nasty to handle but hopefully the price difference will make it all worthwhile. Hopefully it could be a no-till trade that doesn't involve me transporting my drill 50 miles across a narrow bridge or though downtown Salem... 

I rant about the bad ideas proposed by candidates for Yamhill County Comissioners (past and present) and express dissatisfation in general

There are only a few days left to vote in a very important state wide election in Oregon. 

The genius of the Democrat Supermajority in Oregon is supporting a massive increase of licensing fees and a gas tax increase of a few cents. The few cents is not the big deal. What is a huge deal is the tripling of licensing fees. This will make it cost prohibitive to license old farm trucks that you use two months out of the year. (We talking like from $350 per truck per year, to $700 plus.)

But, I admit to putting off voting. I have been avoiding this upcoming election because I just don’t see a lot of good choices in representation locally or state wide.

I am going to vote because I think the fee increases associated with the new gas tax will be devastating if I actually paid them which I probably won’t do because I never drive my ancient trucks more than two miles from home anymore.
I am antigrowth, anti tax, anti progress, and just an all around grumpy old (oldish) fart. Emphasis on the fart. 

I do not like the choices for Judges, most of them are running unopposed. I don't have a favorite for Governor, wanted to write in Tom McCall, but seeing as he is dead, probably not much of an option, although a dead Tom McCall is probably better than a live Tina Kotax or Christine Drazen.  I have been watching the county commissioner race a little bit, but I figured there was no real choice. There are two candidates on one side who promoted by the shrill people who protest weekly out side the McMinnville Public Library. And they are two short pants wearing overly enthusiastic semi-entrepreneurs promoted by the other side. 
The “farmer” candidate made a lot of money growing and selling Weed but is the clean cut country club Republican sort (I think). Of course he also raises hazelnuts, as they all do.
The other candidate is quite interesting and very driven. He has a business making parts for VW micro busses and has invented some sort of logging equipment that he also manufacturers and he also plays country western music at rest homes. He has a lowered rat/rod/surfer style van as his mascot.
Not super thrilled about filberts and pot growers or people running for office with mascots but I suppose weed and round-a-bouts are the wave of the future and I should get on board.
As the election winds down I started getting more and more BoomerBook advertisements for actual campaign goals for the candidates.
So it came as a bit of a surprise to see that the two plans to revitalize Yamhill County were either a bicycle trail, by the love = love crowd vs a new fairgrounds and amphitheater (which will have to be on EFU land of course.) 
Now, I appreciate grand ideas somewhat in the abstract. But they always go sideways and off track and in the end you wish you would have just worked a little harder on what you had, or spent the money on lime instead of growing hemp. 
However, with this grand scheme by “Republicans,” the thing that really irritates me is the suspicion that I will have to eat my own words.
I have been anti trail and anti parks for years and now I am getting all my anti trail excuses thrown right back at me. 
In fact I was part of a neighborhood group formed to fight a proposed park at the old Whiteson landfill. An effort that really soured me on Yamhill County government and a few neighbors. Like the guy who started the neighborhood group and then used leverage from the group to sell his farm to the county for the proposed park. Or the official that just flat lied to us about the park plans. 
I was against the plan for a 17 mile trail on an abandoned rail road grade between Gaston, Yamhill, Carlton and McMinnville for several reasons most of which are not politically acceptable.

I live across a filbert field from a railroad track and I just keep thinking what a pain in the butt it would be to have bicyclists in my front yard.
I hate bicyclists. They are the most entitled arseholes on the planet, them (and flyfishermen) put the K in karen. No one wants bicyclists in their back yard. No one wants to farm with spandex clad bitches reporting every farm operation as if it were another “Silent Spring,” a book none of them have read but have seen referenced somewhere.
Secondly, I think the land should be given to the landowners as it was taken from private landowners and given to the railroads to create transportation routes. That time has past. Turn the page.
Third issue is the trail will not be maintained and possibility of it degenerating into a zombie corridor of drug addicted homeless and the needles, trash, and stolen children’s bicycles that come with them.
Fourth, the trail is supported by the culture in Yamhill County I don’t like which may be reason number one but no one reads my blog anyway so sue me…
Fifth reason, which is related to the fourth, is that the trail was the brainchild of Kasey Kulla. I voted for Kulla because ran on a platform stressing smart planning and what I thought was innovation. This means he was a progressive and having a pot farm before it was completely legal doesn’t mean you are clever, it just means you are a liberal douche. Except for my neighbor, he is a pothead and I respect that.
And finally, it is going to cost money, not really bring in money, and if it is successful, will bring more people into Yamhill County.
Now we get to the point of this long ramble…
The candidates I feel forced into voting for have mostly quashed the trail. This is good…
BUT…
Now they are promoting a scheme to build an Amphitheater and a new County Fairgrounds and all the so-called “Conservative,” leadership are doubling down on it. 
Now I have seen boondogles before, and I heard stories when I worked at a newspaper, and this one will go down in the recordbooks…
If it doesn’t result in a landslide defeat for these I dots… 
An Amphitheater will cost a lot more than a trail. If you read up on concert venue projects by cities and counties, they cost a lot of money, they take ten years to bring in money. They require infrastructure and a lot of open land. 
They require maintenance. 
The reason we need a new fairgrounds is due to this very issue. 
The maintenance budget is where the County trims the budget. That fairgrounds has been falling apart since it was built. 
Who is going to maintain, promote, manage, and fund a massive capital project for a county that can’t even fix their existing structures???
Now, I have to go to work as I have to balance my own budget and maintain my own freaking infrastructure and I can’t do it by floating a bond or putting on a show or finding getting the Rural Organizing project or cutting a deal with some developer. 
I live on chickenfeed and resentment and I suspect I am not alone...

Why can't someone run for office with the slogan, "I won't spend money and I won't do stupid shit stuff..." 

Here is my example of an idea that seemed good but in practice was not. Imagine this on a countywide scale. Perhaps picture the ancient forklift as an proposed concert venue and the ancient crane truck as Yamhill County Government and the surrounding scrap metal as the rest of Yamhill County. See how the one will NOT LIFT THE OTHER and note how both should be retired...

Edit: After realizing people were actually reading this post I thought I better clarify. The candidate with the grand plans came out and talked to me after hearing I was irritated. He is a great guy and I appreciate his vision and drive. I voted for him and his pot growing counterpart as I support party over common sense. Maybe I am secretly a democrat.

I am afraid hay is the heyday of my life or hay day? Farming with the oldies part IX

I tend to operate on the principle of setting potentially catastrophic events into action and then wasting a lot of time in a salvage operation. I think it might be a form of self motivation.

So I cut hay in April. I almost succeeded. Probably succeeded in stunting the alfalfa field for the duration of the season by cutting before first bloom. But, I got rid of the annual ryegrass for one cycle at least.

I have raked and tedded this crap every day for ten days and every day is the same. Overcast in the morning and two hours of sun at 4 p.m.

Yesterday I baled the alfalfa. (I got a whopping yield of 150 bales on 15 acres.)

I raked a few rounds and then baled to see what it looked like. I picked up a moisture tester with a bad battery. The moisture tester in the cab had a bad connection so I did not entirely believe the reading of 14 percent.

So I got my brother to bring me another tester and I raked the rest of the alfalfa. Put four windrows together so I could keep the header full. It seemed to be ok. 

I feel our future is not in farming but in a foundation for the preservation of 1970's farming techniques. People would pay good money to see how their grandparents suffered before the advent of the Corporate Family MegaFarm!

 

I baled another 80 bales of meadow foxtail grass hay. It was pretty heavy but tends to dry quickly.

I have four acres of Timothy and five acres of clover left. It looks like rain but the weather service says no.

Since I have been making chicken feed all winter and not working on equipment it was a quite fun. I was counting on the M670 Super for the baler but I killed the M670 on the pellet mill. I thought I could use the 656 Hydro but when I started it I remember that the hydro is making noise, it doesn't like reverse, and the wheel hits the PTO shield on the baler when I turn.

I hooked up the Minneapolis-Moline G1355. The 1355 has the PTO out of a G955 which drops the PTO/Engine speed setting to 1500 rpm for 540. The tractor is quiet, turns good, and who would have thunk, the AC still was charged and blew cold air. Didn't really need it but it was comforting knowing that if the sun ever came out I was prepared.

Of course the rear window was so dirty I couldn't actually see the baler so I just assume everything worked until I could see the previous row. Small things are important.

 

Minneapolis-Moline G1000 Vista tedding hay, best tractor ever made

 

Making hay in May is a bit sketchy. I am running the tedder to fluff up the windrows and hopefully get it up off the damp ground to dry out. The old G1000 Vista works really well on the tedder. Gets you out of the dust and handles it really well.