The Useful Duck!

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Friday, March 23, 2012

Your typical day

It was one of those days.
I had to grind some feed. I got the ratios wrong. Neighbor gave me some wheat. It had large rocks in it. The rocks jammed up the auger on the power bin.
I killed the PTO in my free International tractor.
The White 2-135 is apart still.
I used the M670 super which has more HP than the IH but I am scared I will kill it as well and be tractorless.
After about the fifth auger jam I commenced to swear.
My wife appeared with coffee and tried to help.
She then left in not as good a mood as when she arrived.
I finished after dark.
She made the mistake of asking how my day went. I went on a rant.
I later over heard my daughter asking if I was going to get a new job.
Earlier today I discussed planting with a competitor. (Sort of a competitor he has a drill and charges to plant)
He makes people prove it was his fault before he replants or gives money back on failed plantings.
I generally tell people I will replant for a reduced rate or not charge them or just tell them to pay me what they feel like paying me. Most of the time if I replant I just charge a reduced rate whether it is my fault or not. Perhaps this is a stupid thing to do.
However I really mostly plant for people I am friends with. Having a Great Plains drill and a White tractor keeps the tight-arsed people away. They don't hire me.
In other news,
Today there was snow.
I figured out how to get my tuners to work. You take that FM antenna you bought at Radio Shack and toss it in the trash can. Then you get a chunk of wire 59.6 inches long and connect it to the 300 ohm terminals on the back of your receiver. Or 53.4 inches for 90.7 FM.
I found the bare copper wire a bit ugly and unwieldy (of course I got it tweeker style-by burning the electrical insulation off some old house wiring and so it was a bit scorched) so I wrapped it around a hollow piece of some sort of insulating material I found in the shop. Then, contradicting how I thought it all should work, I ran an insulated wire through the center of the tube and connected it to the far end of coiled copper wire. I hooked one end of the copper and then insulated lead to the 300 ohm connectors on the back of the receiver and I got even better FM. It is a little more directional than just the plain loop.
Then I realized I had a lot more to do than screw around with tuners and I went back to work.
If someone would just give me a million dollars I would say thank you.

4 comments:

  1. Oh , what a day. When I find rocks in the grain or poor crop emergence I have only myself to blame. Not sure which is worse. And yes, snow in the spring is a little depressing. Just when we think we are finished with it for six months, its back. Well not for us just yet but I'm not hitching up to the air seeder either.

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  2. Ralph, I get way to frustrated. Must be female hormones in the drinking supply. But, then again frustration and farming seem to go hand in hand. I was thinking about that when reading your post about loading cows!

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  3. And the moral of the story is...

    Don't grind feed with rocks in it! That is not a good source of phosphorous!

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  4. The fellow wants more minerals in his feed! I gave him minerals!

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