I walk, make feed, do apparant vandalism, usual mucking about

My exercise program is cutting into my blogging time. I realize that somewhere in China there is a bot farm that misses my updates and I do apologize. 

I am sure that all five of my regular readers and dying for an update on my feed mixing obsession.

 

 

My neighbors are out of the 1/3 alfalfa and 2/3 oats mix so I gave making alfalfa pellets a try. We had some very nice first cutting alfalfa. Actually better than second cutting. I have a ton of pig feed that should be sold(oats/barley/peas/corn/clover and alfalfa hay) but the lady never brings her barrels. This holds up the works as I need to fill her containers and then I can put the leftovers into 50lb bags. I made a 6,000lb batch so I do have plenty.   

My neighbor who goes by Radiant Pony on Facebook marketplace and because of that I will never be able to remember her real name, likes my Weed&Feed mix. After an initial slight over dosage why resulted in her horses craving doritos and Peter Tosh music we have a solid plan. It pelletizes very nicely. My Mexican customers love the fact that it makes the next feed batch reek of chronic. That has boosted sales in the past.

 

I see interesting things on my walks. 

 

I get a little distracted on my walks. I have been pulling annual ryegrass out of the new alfalfa field. Then I started walking down to the river to see if I could shoot a nutria. But I get distracted there as well. No nutria were harmed in this walk.

 

 

Someone was tapping trees for Maple Syrup and forgot about it for a year or two. Aunt Jemimiah would never forget... Uncle Ben would remind her...

 

This target is dead. Looks like three different caliber. Upper right is a nice group of large holes. Someone was pretty accurate on the head. Maybe a little aggression there. Pretty sure the dude did not survive...

 

 

I load my bags of feed on an old truck and park it in my neighbor's barn. I rent his field and his barn. Sort of. He borrows my tractor and stuff and I attempt to pay him rent. Sometimes I forget. Sometimes he won't take money. This really annoys his uncle who apparently is a part owner in the property. Periodically he interrogates my brother on the rental agreement and what happened to the choker cables his dad left in the barn 70 years ago that have been missing for 35 years. Sometimes he corners me. I like to be vague about it. If he really annoys me I ask him if I need to just pay him directly and then he does the whole passive aggressive, "I don't want any money just want to make sure my nephew has money." Then I tell him I think I saw those cables last year and give some vague location. He thinks I stole them. I think he stole our logging tongs.

Part of his passive manipulating bullshite is to have some sort of anchor vehicle in the barn. He had a IH dozer in there for years but his nephew kept using it and so he took it to his house. Now he has this POS GMC Astro Van. It is white, perhaps his plan is to give out candy, I don't know. He says he is going to restore it. Astro Vans are hot collector items I know that for a fact.

I set up wood blocks so when I back into the barn with one dirty mirror in the dark I don't hit his pristine van. Apparently the wood blocks moved... The first time it happened I knew it. I was idling back in low low reverse and I hit it. So I set up the wood blocks. Apologized and all that. However, I have been hitting it on a regular basis. I honestly don't see how I did it. I am so confused I wonder if someone is going into the barn when I am not around and hitting the van. I really did not do this on purpose. This is actually embarrassing. I would rather be a vandal than a bad driver but I suppose I will just have to embrace the latter.

 

I'm walkin...

 I've got twenty pounds in a backpack and I am doing 3.5 miles a day... Cuts into my sitting in my chair looking at blogs time in a big way. Not my favorite thing to do. Have not lost any weight. I just walk 45 minutes one way and turn around and go back. Ends up being three to three and a half miles. 

Kind of boring.

Speaking of walking...

 

Trying to get a sponsorship from Mt. Olive Pickles so I thought I would do my own virtue signalling in honor of the 4th of July

 

I would like to do a change.org petition to encourage the Mt. Olive Pickle company to bring back their flagship brands! Even Poseur Twats (official term with civilized spelling) deserve acknowledgment for past accomplishment.

I think it is pretty funny that the political wing that elected a dude with a Nazi tattoo in Maine is afraid of a flash of the old red and blue. 

In honor of the great heritage of Mt. Olive pickles and their love for the workers. (see previous link) I thought I would post the Frederick Douglass Fourth of July Speech from 1852 as read by Richard Pryor

 

 

Oops! Sorry! wrong comedian. I mean as read by James Earl Jones... So you have to check out the intro by PBS. Sometimes you need to go back to PBS just to see what a total bunch of boomer commie idiots they all are. Oh my, did I string together to many synonym for "Douche Canoe..." 

 

If you really want to put yourself to sleep this fourth of July, here is a link to the printed text. Just think, this lead to the invention of Rap music. (CLICK HERE) I didn't really mean to be disrespectful. He makes so really good points, there are great quotes.

“Fellow-citizens, pardon me, allow me to ask, why am I called upon to speak here to-day? What have I, or those I represent, to do with your national independence? Are the great principles of political freedom and of natural justice, embodied in that Declaration of Independence, extended to us? and am I, therefore, called upon to bring our humble offering to the national altar, and to confess the benefits and express devout gratitude for the blessings resulting from your independence to us?” 

Happy illegal fireworks day! 

 

Just walk it off... I walk three miles, I make feed, I complain about White tractors, I find a rock, I live a life of excitement and thrills, I should be a self-help book

I feel exercise is pretty much overrated. I have been walking 3 miles a day. It takes me an hour and 15 minutes. If I stop and pull weeds out of the new alfalfa field it takes me an extra half hour. 

Today I skipped. I had no motivation. I got another lecture on the beauty of the Dolomite mountains and I kept thinking, "4,000 feet up to see another tree..." I do like trees. I look at them every day. Rocks are nice as well. Sometimes I find interesting rocks on my walk. I should fly 15 hours and climb 8,000 feet and see different rocks, AND trees!

Pushing oneself to take another step is also great. A personal triumph every time. Yesterday I made my three miles in record time. The last mile I did in 18 minutes. But I really had to poop. That was a wonderful reward to the last mile, however, I could have had the same reward by having an extra cup of coffee and not getting out of my easy chair until I was in danger of going blind.

Not to be negative. Just saying...

The weather has stopped hay making. We are done with grass and starting on alfalfa again. Also have oats that are losing a race between reaching proper height and dogfennel. Dogfennel hay doesn't sell well even if  call it Camomile hay and say it is medicinal. The cows will eat it as I just up the rate of molasses I apply with my gatorsprayer. I have 1000 gallons of molasses, might as well use it.

I made 10,000lbs of feed. Sold 6,000lbs. I had 7,000lbs in orders. None of those people actually bought pellets when I notified them as promised. However, another fellow bought 3,000lbs of ground mix and I sold 40 small bags of Super Chick N. 

Now I am out of oats. 

Working on the POS White 2-105. POS should be an official White model. Maybe it is just a generic term for White Tractor. I hope they do not have White tractors in Italy. Probably lots of the POS Fiat that is the POS White 2-60. Perhaps I will meet an Italian farmer and we can talk about how much we hate AGCO. That would be nice.

The POS 2-105, has an internal hydraulic leak. I figured when hydraulic oil ran out of the gearshift  it was time to pull the PTO. But then I looked at a book. This is always a mistake. It could be the charge pump. In fact it probably should be the charge pump because I just rebuilt the POS PTO.

Apparently I forgot an O-ring. 

I pulled the top drain plug. I put a gauge on the pressure line to the PTO. It has 200lbs and oil runs out the drain hole when I run the PTO. It continues when PTO is in neutral. It stops when PTO is in brake. 

This was an important test. Not sure what it means exactly. But, we couldn't do it on the tractor because the lever seems to go into the brake position, but because this tractor is the POS model and someone stuck the PTO lever though the 3-point lift lever hole, it will never actually go into Brake when you are running the tractor.

Maybe I can get a nephew to work on the PTO. They are better mechanics.

I found rocks on my walk. AI says the bottom one is a sharpening stone. I don't know. Top one has quartz in it. I returned them to the field.

The POS 2-155 has a flat front tire. We had Superior Tire Service come out to fix a different tractor tire. I over filled the tire so I could move the tractor near their truck. They couldn't figure out where the leak was because the tire was not flat. Meanwhile air is hissing from the valve stem and around the bead. I would not say they are complete idiots. I mean, they found the farm...

This was Tuesday's walk I think. Yesterday I did about the same but walked a little faster. Pulling annual ryegrass out of the new alfalfa cuts my speed per hour. 

 

What I need to do is find a sponsor for my trip. I have read about the high principles of the Mount Olive Pickle company. Perhaps they would sponsor me! I am partial to the Little Rebel dill variety. 

Apparently the Little Rebel label was dropped after the Southern Poverty Law Center had to drop its support for the label. Too much Turmeric I suppose...

 

I decide to do excercise for the first time in my life...

Today I walked 3 miles in an hour. I forgot to shut off the tracking so it shows the half hour it took me to make breakfast. Probably did 3 miles in an hour and 15 minutes.

 

Two miles was not a big deal. But I can feel the extra mile. 

The main problem is that it takes an hour and I have a pretty hard time dragging my lazy arse out of bed in the morning anyway, not to mention dragging it out to go walk for an hour. I should pack a gun and then I would be a "hunter." 

I saw a coyote this morning. He was catching mice in the ryegrass field. This is an excellent use for coyotes. They don't wake me up now that I have that idiotic sleep apnea machine. Don't hear anything but the plastic lung hissing all night.

It rained last night. The hay is inside and now I have to make feed. Customers have been calling. I need a hobby that doesn't involve noise and dust, or if it does, fun enough to make it worthwhile.

I checked out my instagram while walking. First time in a month. I was going to post alfalfa pictures or look for more Minneapolis-Moline tractor videos.

To my great surprise and somewhat embarrassment my feed was filled with busty girls in leather swimsuits splitting wood. I sincerely would like to know what algorithm produced this result. (Mostly so I could continue it) 

The outfits do seem impractical but they seriously put effort into the swing so I would give a thumbs up!

I don't really understand Instagram.

I generally post pictures of the Moline G1355 cutting hay or driving the Gator into large mud puddles. One would think this would result in similar suggested content. But no...

For a while I got videos of Scandinavian women pushing hay forks on steep hillsides. That was nice as well. Before that were cute girls who were daring each other to touch electric fences, (ok I might have searched for that one)

These seem to be pretty specific niche markets which I have not been searching for. In fact I did not even know they existed. 

I wonder if I talk in my sleep and my phone is listening...? 

But I digress... 

 

Alfalfa bloom when I first started walking and rain was predicted ten days out.

Alfalfa Bloom yesterday morning. It is pretty much 100 percent bloom. The oat field I was going to take for hay is short and in milk stage. We have two-three days of showers.

 

This morning's view of the alfalfa bloom. Looks like deer have discovered the blooms. Some of it is going down from the rain. I wish it would actually rain more than .10 inches. Perhaps do some good.

 

 

 

I am agreeable for five minutes and it bites me in the arse... More adventures

What a week...or two

The hay went from top quality to over ripe essentially in two days. Now it is crap and the last hundred acres seems to be a record yield...

I am waiting for my doctor appointment. Getting my hip looked at as it still hurts from the break two years ago.

I was optimistic for one week and that got me in a lot of trouble. Every morning I need to wake up and say to myself. "Today I will say no..." Just a good way of living my life.

My friend from high school has been bugging me for a year to go on a "walk," though the Dolomite Mountains in Italy, in September.

I said no...

Because, while it may be the trip of a lifetime it is not the trip of my life time. 

September is when I do all my straw baling. We have at least 300 acres of ground to work and plant. I want to get a new dog and don't want to leave it a month, I don't like Italian food, if I wanted to go somewhere I don't speak the language I would got to Mexico, I do not care about pushing myself to hike ten #$%^&*ing miles a day, I do not know anyone from Yale or the Yale crew team, and if I want to look at where my lime comes from I would just drive by the @#$%^&*ing lime shed outside of McMinnville.

I would love to go to Ireland (might even hike there), go to England and see the guy with the little farm that makes berry scoops, go to Canada and see if Ralph would take me for a ride in his Mercury, go visit my friends in Florida and see the Christmas program at the Chicken Church, go to fishing with my friend Tim, go to Christmas Valley and fix a tractor, go to California and buy another Landcruiser with my friend Mark.

If I wanted to work out every day I would do I so I could go motorcycle riding in the woods with my brother. In fact, I need to fix three motor cycles so I could go riding, which is a thing that does bring me actual pleasure.

But no...

I went all Rick Steves on myself and said yes... Chance of a life time. My friend said he would pay... 

Then I got the itinerary, I am back on the group chat. I realize that this is some sort of push yourself to succeed BULLSHITE and I really don't want to walk a fecking eight miles a day in the mountains, dress like a fecking tourist, bond with people, spend money, be in new uncomfortable situations with little return on emotional investment. 

Everyone I tell is laughing about it. 

I am just sort of low level angry.

Started walking. Did two miles a day with no problem. 

My daughter says I have a bad attitude... 

Walking to the river and back in the morning is great. But I have bales on the ground I should be stacking or I should be making feed. I don't have time for exercise for exercise sake. I stacked bales yesterday, that was exercise, I walked a mile to my pickup Tuesday, that was exercise, I pushed in the clutch on the stacker 5 million times yesterday, that was exercise, I saw a tree yesterday, it was scenic...

 UPDATE: Orthopedic doctor says I have arthritis. Says it is a crime against humanity for me not want to go hiking the Dolomites and she won't remove my pins because then I couldn't go... I have to wait. Got a mini lecture from my doctor... 

Her: "You are a farmer, you can do 8 miles a day..."

Me: "But I am lazy..."

Her: "Right...." 

The best addition I made to my Great Plains drill (other than a Loupe Seed Monitor)

The Great Plains 1500 grain drill has one very frustrating short coming. The small seed cups are unprotected and if it rains they get wet. This is especially frustrating if you are planting clay coated seed. The coating melts and makes a sludge in the bottom of the seed cup which plugs up the plastic fluted feed and you have to pressure wash the inside of the small seeds bin to actually get it clean. Super frustrating when using the small seeds to drop slug bait when no-tilling. 

A couple years ago I got a local tent and awning company to make me a fitted grain drill cover. It was expensive but it is essential when it rains and you have seed in the drill. It is made so it folds down over the front and back and has cutouts for the flashers. It folds back up into a compact square and I have a place to store it on the drill.

It rained last night. Not really enough to do much good. But the threat of rain was enough to speed up the hay baling operation significantly.

Unfortunately we still have another 140 acres to go and everything is turning color. It is supposed to be 90 degrees by the end of the week so that will be the end of nice pretty grass hay.

I am trying to plant alfalfa. We had to wait on lime and I didn't get it planted early like I wanted to do. I also decided to water the ground before planting. The plan was to plant into the moisture rather than plant into dry dirt and then irrigate. This was a solid plan but then I needed to do hay and then I started seeing a broad leaf sprout so I decided to harrow it all again. I should have waited till the rain was past and then I really would have had a sprout to work up but I got in a rush because I thought I could plant yesterday.

But then there was a flat tire, and apparently there is something in the fuel tank because the tractor kept dying when I turned right, then it completely quit and it took me an hour to bleed the lines and get it started again.

I planted 10 acres of Teff but didn't start on the alfalfa as I didn't want to plant the alfalfa in the dark. 

This morning I got to the field just in time to tarp the grain drill. Spent the rest of the morning working on hay equipment in the rain.