I was trying to figure out the elevation of the field. I know the lowest point was 250ft above sea level. I looked at the GPS at the top of the highest hill and I am sure it said 1600 ft. Say it was 1450 and I rounded way up. That is still a heck of a climb in a 20 acre field. Total acres ended up being 75 acres in three fields. Not too bad a job.
Sunday I went back to move the tractor out of the field. I planted my way down a hill and up another which was about half a mile from the main field entrance. The hill was too steep to climb if it would rain and rain was forecast for Sunday evening.
So Sunday afternoon I went to move the drill and pump the remaining fertilizer out of the tank on the drill. It was quite a nice hike up the hill. I need to exercise more.
I had 100 gallons of fertilizer left in the tank on the drill so I decided to pump it back into the tank on the truck. This should have been simple but of course it was not. I blew the end off the hose on the truck. I did not think the little pump on the drill was that powerful, just an little ace 104. You can loose a lot of fertilizer in the time it takes to shut off a tractor, get out of the cab and turn off two valves! And it all ran right down the field road so there is no way to just pretend it didn't happen. 10-34 is something like $3.?? per gallon I think.
Later I drove by a field I planted April 27th. I think I posted about it here. I planted oats into a fescue field that was green as can be. It had only been sprayed a day before and there was a lot of plant growth. Well, I was worried about it. On the way back from moving the drill I stopped and looked. It is a little yellow as everything has been pretty wet, but it is growing.
I do NOT understand this whole no-till thing. You can do something you know will not work, planting oats into not dead fescue on wet river-bottom soil, and it works. But, you think you have it all figured out-like my barley into nice crumbly soil, and it turns yellow.
Now it is Monday and I have to decide if it rained enough to change my plans. Not that I really had a plan.
I could:
1. Plant a pasture 10 miles away on another steep hillside.
2. Plant corn for a neighbor
3. Plant soybeans here, it is still a little wet
4. Try to disk
5. Bug the dairy fellow next door about chopping silage
6. Take a nap
7. Wander around aimlessly and try to look busy
8. Scrap metal
9. Clean behind the barn so Aunt E. doesn't have cow
10. Take my truck in to find out what went wrong in the $2500 overhaul that failed.
Oats into Fescue Photos. Note the lovely shade of orange...
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That is a nice oak tree. Although I don't really like spraying around them, I like having an oak or two in the field. They make a nice field-shop for decrepit 35 year-old farm equipment in 100 degree weather. The only really nice looking oak we have on our place is right next to the machine shed, is hidden from view at most angles, and is quite possibly a danger to the shed. I can't bring myself to lobby for its removal since all our other oaks are lopsided, scraggly affairs.
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