Keeping up with the exciting posts you all have come to expect

I am a bit dry on the blogging material.
Have been working.
Have had some problems which I would like to talk about but of course the "organization," that caused their own problems ask that we keep quiet about everything. This of course results in speculation and conspiracy theories. Which makes everything many times worse and heaven forbid you every question authority in this modern age. (or in this case, give the impression that you are)
Schools are a mini-example of everything wrong with society. I don't mean the usual of kids drinking and fooling around in the baseball dugouts, I mean how we interact with each other in terms of authority, handling crisis, personal interactions.
I bring a little baggage to the negotiating table myself and while my wife is of the forgive and move on philosophy of life I tend to fall into the "fool me once," and even though my ancestors left southern Missouri before I was born, and even though I suspect that their ancestors were carpet baggers, I'd rather starve then beg.
In other news, Sam (the farm dog) killed the last chick this morning and I lost my temper... Although they should not be escaping. I think he thinks they look like pheasants at this stage in their development.
I wanted to go to a Gospel Bluegrass concert at the Grand Theatre in Salem yesterday afternoon but went to sleep on the couch and no one woke me because they didn't want to go, but then they were bored because they wouldn't do what their cousins wanted to do.
I should be planting right now or mowing grass in order to chop silage but I just don't feel like it.
Just heard a pickup start, looks like my brother is on it.
Hurrah for my brother!
Have a nice day...

Mud, hillsides, and I could have died on the way home or at least been somewhat stranded along the highway

I have often thought of my mental state as "swimming in mud," that was almost a literal thing yesterday.
I was planting a number of small fields in a new residential neighborhood. There was a spot where water was running across the access to a field. The farmer said they drove though it all the time and it would be fine.
I almost didn't make it though to plant the field. On the way back I got a run at it. I almost made it.
I briefly considered unhooking the drill and driving the tractor out, then towing the drill out from dry land. I had a heavy log chain with me.
Then I smelled the faint oder of human poop.
So stepped back into the tractor and I called the farmer. Actually I called his farm manager, Armonado. Armando is a nice guy. He sent someone to pull me out. I sat for an hour and it took five minutes to get me out.
I do not like to get poop on my shoes.
I think someone has some issues with their septic drain field.

I planted another 20 acres and then drove several miles up into the hills to do a 60 acre hillside. The field was worked in the fall. It appears to be a black heavy clay soil like our river bottom. There was no way to pack a soil like this last fall, because there was no rain until late, and then it never stopped raining.
The ground was crusted on top and alternated between fluffy underneath, rock hard clay and gravel underneath, or mud.  The tractor and drill sunk into the fluffy soil and made wheel tracks. I managed to get lucky and pick the correct way to go around the field and I encountered the wet spots going down the hill. Otherwise I would have planted the tractor and drill.
Contrary to the hopes of many experiments, planting a White tractor and Great Plains drill in the spring does not result in many little tractors and drills in the fall. I suppose it is because the White is a hybrid.
Then I lost a press wheel bearing.
I also realized I lost my knife which I use to pry the press wheel apart to replace the bearing. Then I realized it was 4 p.m. and I had promised to be at my daughter's softball game which was 20 miles away. (Only five miles from home)
So I went home.
I remembered a really bad bump in the highway. Yamhill Country has the worst roads in Oregon. There was my pocket knife. I stopped and picked it up.
On the way home I spied the farmer out standing in his field. I told him the field was too soft to plant grass seed in with my no-till drill and he should work it. He said ok! No one ever say's "ok... you know best..." They always try to talk me into planting-even if they have to drive 20 miles in a tractor to pull me out. I think I shall give this farmer a discount!
I headed to the game.
I almost drove my pickup straight to the game but instead pulled into the farm in the hopes that I could find someone else to fix my presswheel. (I had the bearing with me)
Instead of turning into the driveway the pickup continued straight into my sister-in-laws garden.
The tie rod end had come out of the socket!!!! I did remember a funny pop noise when I was going through that ditch in the other field...

I took the family car to the game. On the way I though about the number of opportunities I had to die on the way home. I think I shall attribute my "luck" to divine providence as affected by the earnest prayers of our hot-headed by very sincere tractor collecting friend who calls to check on my spiritual state from time to time. The only person I know who has been permanently banned from Weyerhaeser land and had to sell his logging truck as a result.
My daughter's team won! It was a hard fought game.
Middle school softball is often pretty boring as it is mostly the pitcher trying to get the ball near the plate and the kids end up walking.
This game had hits. Line drives and fouls and almost a home run. (by the other team)
My daughter's team had a pretty good pitcher and ended up winning in the last inning.
Now I have to empty a grain drill that holds 2,200lbs of wheat.
Grass seed is fluffy so it won't be that much work.
Better digging grass seed out of a drill with a five gallon bucket and a vacuum cleaner than pulling a stuck tractor out of a field.
Below is a photo of the planting job when I started. I am at only 280ft above sea level. Ignore the bird poop on the back window and look at the levels in the foam marker tank and the fertilizer tank. This was not even the steeper part. I couldn't really take a photo at the steep part.

Motivational Issues

I should be planting...
Or Disking...
Yesterday Morning I was working ground.
This morning I am less enthused.
I have acres to plant 85 + 85 +20 + 40 + ours (50-100). These fields are spread out over 15 miles or so.
The Dairy fellow wants to chop grass silage at the end of the week.
I have to help at daughter's school fund raiser auction this Saturday. Next Saturday we are going on a trip. We may visit Zetawoof. Or at least honk randomly when we get within 20 miles.
The silage chopper and truck are not ready.
My helper got the mower almost ready yesterday but he was not doing well by 7 p.m. and I don't expect him early today.
Yesterday I planted another four acres of Flax. have been planting a few acres at a time as the field dries out.
The problem is I have not felt good for a month or so.
I am tired, I have sinus issues, I can't think clearly, I have no motivation.
For example.
I looked all over for the last six bags of Flax seed from the variety I started planting. I couldn't find them and assumed I planted them. Yesterday I found them on a pallet. I think someone unloaded them from my pickup but I don't know. I try to be careful not to unload seed onto anything but the pallet it came off of.
The strange thing about this is I know several other people with the same symptoms. It is some sort of strange virus or radiation poisoning or something.
It ain't my usual depression because 10,000 mg of Vitamin D made no difference.
AND now I am going to work.

Age 12

Being 12 is an interesting state. You are not grown up and you are not quite a child.
Our daughter is 12.
We, as in our family of three, made the decision to put the daughter, who was part of the decision, in private Christian school this year.
I have gotten some negative feedback from people in the neighborhood who are strong public school supporters.
I've heard some negative feedback from people in the church who think the school is a little modern and they also think I'm a little modern.
I'm not especially modern, more post-modern I suppose, mostly just kind of negative and cynical about life in general I think would be more descriptive.
I wanted her to go to private school because I don't really see any point in joining the real world any sooner than you have to.
That is the bottom line.
The private school is populated by kids whose parents care enough to spend money and time in order to send their kids there. The kids are a little sheltered-but, for the most part, they are happy and friendly and enthused and positive.
They have yet to learn the essential survival skill of distrusting authority.
Yesterday, my wife went to see her father and my daughter and I stayed home. I don't really know why. That is just how it worked out.
We went to Church and then went for Chinese food.
Had a nice time. We talked about her school and I told her some stories about being her age. We discussed the differences between my early years of school and how I turned out to be a weird and contrary kid and how she seems to be fairly happy and well adjusted. We discussed how lonely I was as the youngest with my brothers being six and ten years older and her being an only child.
I didn't do all the talking.
We came come and whilst I pondered my turntable plinth misadventure she practiced her guitar. I suggested she look up the girl band, The Donnas. I'm not sure that was a good idea.
I also suggested she learn some Joan Jett songs and pointed out how funny it would be to do a school talent show dressed as an Amish girl and singing a nice song and then launching into "I love Rock and Roll."
We discussed using humor to deflect embarrassment and the theory of making funny sarcastic comments which forced your opponent to laugh but also relieved your frustration. Or how to be actively passive-aggressvie as opposed to a victim.
Then she made an airplane out of cardboard boxes and we mounted Nerf guns in the wings. I took up a position on the trampoline with the Nerf machine gun and she bombed and strafed me.

It could be that she is watching way too much Hogan's Heroes.
We had a nice afternoon.

It was pointed out that there is somewhat of a contradiction between attending a Mennonite school and playing war. I noted that the Nerf machine gun was orange. That was not accepted as an argument.
I suppose I should add that, The Donna's are also not the Gospel Echoes.

The Donnas

The Gospel Echoes

Someday I will realize I am a failure as a spiritual leader in the home. This is what happens when two youth group outcasts get married...

My daughter is already better than I and seems to realize her father is full of crap. Is having this all out in the open now better than having a false illusion and finding out your father is a fraud later in life?I do not know...
I think I shall go and plant something...

A reader sends in a very useful plan...

I think MuddyValley pretty well captured the essence of why I did not ask for help online.

However, I think it could work...
Have been looking at the GSA auctions for a Hercules. Found a Beaver. Have been trying to get rid of Beaver around here. Who knew the GSA had one from 1956.

An interesting link that will waste a couple hours of your life...

My wife says going to sleep on the couch at 10 p.m. is almost the same as going to bed at 10 p.m. I am not so sure.
I found a link to this place on NAT. (http://www.dontevenreply.com/Click Here)
I was going to post asking for info on putting a military Hercules into a White tractor. Hopefully I would get detailed info.
Most likely I would get...
1. Why don't you buy a John Deere?
2. Why don't you put a Cummins in it?
3. Someone thinking it was the little engine in an Oliver and not the big engine in a 2-155/2-135
4. Commentary on the viability of White tractor is in the 21st century
5. Off subject but interesting stories of tractor pulling
6. Nothing at all because I have not been commenting on a regular basis.

But I got distracted by a guy who makes prank emails to people on craigslist. Very funny. I need a new hobby. I just need to figure out those proxy servers.

I was just explaining the fun of prank phone calls to my daughter's friends at her sleep-over. I suppose that was a bad idea. I did explain caller ID and how you needed to borrow someone else's phone.
I also taught them how to have an argument conversation by purposefully misunderstanding words and taking it personal. Thus, you keep getting angrier/more offended/whatever while the other person attempts to explain away their offense. We did a couple practice conversations.
I think I have made the world a better place for those efforts.
Have a nice day.

I build a tow bar

I needed a ride to the field and there was no one to give take me.
So I built a tow bar for my pickup.
It took me a couple hours and a raid on the scrap barrel.

Then the kids killed the forklift while lifting the lawn mower (another story) and I took my pickup to jump start it. After getting the forklift running I discovered that I would have to walk. So I hooked the tow bar tot he forklift.
And I turned too short.

I think I should have made it a little heavier.
But, I'd wasted two hours and I still had to get the truck from the field.
So I got the welder back out and found a large hammer and a few more scraps of metal from around the band saw.

I don't think it is safe for highway speeds.

I pulled the pickup behind the truck while delivering hay to the neighbor, it provided some entertainment for several other neighbors. Fortunately it did not break off and crash into the ditch.

It is raining

I have been replanting wheat with the no-till drill.
It is a little depressing as the neighbor just hired me to replant a field of wheat to oats. The wheat field that he sprayed out looks better than the wheat field I am replanting sections of.
I was going to ask my brother if we had decided to plant wheat or flax or barley or oats in the sections of the ryegrass field that drowned out. Or that was consumed by Geese who are from Canada and probably use the metric system and are socialists.
However, my brother was not at the shop and since I got in trouble yesterday from my Uncle for getting mud on the driveway, and not really feeling like I am 16 years old, I came to the house to warm up some coffee and see if the strange comments I posted on the Contrary Farmer got a response.
Then it started pouring down rain.
The house is dark and quiet, other than the rain hitting the tin roof of the porch. I can hear the clock ticking somewhere and the chickens clucking happily on the porch.
I am suppose to shoe them off but it is a losing battle. Unconfined chickens tend to make a mess.
I fixed myself some eggs and toast.
I was in the process of filling out an application for a night janitor job at a local college. I then realized I would have to work there for the next decade so that my daughter could get free tuition. But, then if I waited ten years they wouldn't hire me as I'd be too old, but who says they would hire me now. I haven't had a real job in 20 years.
Perhaps some optimistic millionaire will hire me to provide a negative balance to their eternal optimism. Now that would be a great job.

I build a bench

I am such an amazing craftsman.
I built a bench for my wife to sell at her school auction. Well, I made the misshapen metal part, she finished the walnut slab.

It is patterned after an expensive bench found in some high brow catalogue.
I used 1/4 by 2" flat bar and bent it with the old Hossfeld bender or was it 3/8". Seems pretty heavy.
Because I screw everything up slightly I started in the middle and made my wife help me. I can never remember which side of the line stretched and which side didn't and so I can never make the same bend twice.
We attempted to make two legs exactly the same. I bent them into a an oblong shape, slightly bigger at the bottom then at the top.

The two ends came together under the slab. I just cut the extra off with a cut-off wheel and welded them together where the weld wouldn't show.

I didn't get the second leg the same as the first and had to pound out my bend and start over. Gives it kind of a hand forged look.

I added a couple pieces of 1/4 scrap I found by the band saw in order to provide further bracing. They are not the same width.

Here is the semi-finished project.

I did this over the course to the last few weekends.
Today i planted wheat.
Actually, I made feed, went after wheat seed, waited for the fellow to come after feed. Went to plant, spilled fertilizer everywhere, loaded the feed, talked about the danger of an EMP strike with my wife, had some garlic bread, then went and planted wheat. It was only ten acres replanted in a field that drowned out over winter. Seemed like a bigger field than that.
But, I suppose the short version, "Today I planted wheat," would have sufficed.

I stay up all night and read, "Helmet For My Pillow."

My wife was cleaning house in preparation for a visit from her sister and she discovered a Christmas Present she forgot to give me.
It was the book, "Helmet For My Pillow."
This is the story of Robert Leckie, who joined the Marines in 1942 and spent WWII with the First Marine Division and came home again.
Click Here for an excellent article about him.
I will not attempt to write a review but rather make a few observations.
I admire the man because he was smart, well read, and an independent thinker. He did what he wanted and was quick witted and decisive. These are characteristics I aspire to but do not have.
I understand his bravery, he did what he had to do, but yet he took care of himself. In the book I think he downplays his bravery and his war experiences. I know from reading other stories that he was in the worst of the Pacific Campaign. He was a survivor and I really admire him for it.
What I find depressing are what I can read between the lines.
The USA in 21st century is run by junior grade Lieutenants and "Ivy-Leagers." (using the terminology of WWII) This includes our dear leader and congress. They don't know right from wrong and have never seen hard times.

Free Ebraimi Jamshid!

I have a daughter and I understand...
CLICK for story

It is not left vs right or Republican vs Democrat, it is only absurdity.

If you want to be depressed.
Click here and look around for a while...
So let put the USA preparedness scheme into perspective.
We get the first successful terrorist attack on American soil. Ho does the gubment prepare for the future?
1. Instruct people what to do in case of a hi-jacking?
2. Start a civil defense program based what to do in case of an emergency, as in places to go in case of crisis, (on your own-not at the point of a gun) Or perhaps volunteer programs in local communities to practice and prepare of evacuations or food distribution or what to do with no electricity, you know basic stuff?
3. Actually control borders.
4. Stockpile emergency supplies in case of flood, fire, hurricane, terrorist attack?
5. Anything sensible?

What they did...
1. Homeland security? A police force that goes around annoying people, turning the USA into a police state, NOT actually stop a single terrorist.
2. Strange FEMA camps and they bought a lot of plastic coffins.
3. Sold guns to Mexican gangs
4. Stockpiled a billion rounds of ammo and bought APC's.
5. Gave huge grants to local fire departments to buy new fire trucks...
6. Fusion centers to collect information on people who are not really a threat to anyone but free coffee at Denny's but not to distribute supplies or information in case of an emergency.

What happened when there was a crisis?
Remember the last hurricane?
And now we find out everyone in authority lied about the radiation from the nuclear meltdown. A meltdown that is still going on.
Insanity...
And you all thought the guy who talked to aliens was insane!

American is now officially a weenie nation.

Let's just get this straight to begin with. I'm not a big sports fan. Too much money and too many egos.
I never post about sports because I just flat don't care.
But, I've been listening to the radio.
Now that North Korea is threatening to blow us up with a poorly aimed nuke which will fry our electrical grid and it is finally reported in the news that those of us on the west coast got our thyroids irradiated from Japan, the unimportant events in life are what I plan to focus on.
However, I suppose it is all tied together.
A coach from Rutgers got fired for using "gay slurs," and abusing players, and now the AD has been fired.
What a bunch of pansies.
It is college basketball.
They can't handle a compound fracture and all start crying like little children at the sight of a bone sticking out of a broken leg. (Which was of course gruesome as all get-out true but they started crying?)
Then the coach resigns in tears after calling the players fags and pushing them a bit?
This is college not elementary school basket ball.
When a crazy gunman opened fire in an elementary school one of the little kids actually led friends to safety.
But in college basketball they call someone a poopie-butt and then cry?
When my brother cut the end of his finger off in a large v-belt I did not cry. I took him to the hospital. When I ripped the top layer of skin off my foot, broke my toe bone, and filled the stacker cab with blood trying to catch someone to take me to the emergency room, my brother did not cry, he took me to the hospital.
The official word is that sports teams teach toughness and teamwork and turn boys into men. If you can't handle being called names and pushed around by a coach you shouldn't be on a sports team.
I'm not sure if I agree with the theory that you have to belittle your players to make them perform but it is not like the coach broke anyone's arm. Get over it!
I suppose it is all due to our heightened sensitivity to using "gay" slurs.
I doubt that anyone who makes policy will ever figure out that the reason we all hate the gay kid on Glee is not because he wants to marry another man, but because he is a smarmy little prick. I like to see him cry because he is a whiner. No one likes whiners, except the Nannies who run everything in this country. They love whiners and victims.
It is the glorious modern age.
Perhaps we need Sandusky back to whip them into shape...
I listened to the coach's apology on the radio and I just had to laugh. He was getting all emotional and apologizing. What a wimp. Now if he would have said, "did I put anyone in the hospital? Stop be a bunch homo's whiners and play ball, heck you guys got a full ride scholarship, you don't like it-get a job at Home Depot!"
I would have started watching college basketball!

This post will self destruct in 48 hours

I was trying to buy an engine for my tractor. I found an interesting fellow on ebay with three Hercules engines out of military trucks.

All went well, I got lots of important information and good advice. The fellow is actually coming  to Oregon and will deliver the engine.

But he made an off hand comment about his computer being “taken apart by the gubment.”

And I bit…

I was thinking, there is no what in heck this guy is going to admit to an obscession for Traci Lords, the early years.

Turns out if is even more amazing.

He said in 1958 he was an airman working with nuclear weapons. There were problems. Things were done incorrectly .

He caught the mistake and prevented the detonation of a nuclear bomb in the USA. I missed part of what he said but he was also involved in what I think was a security exercise where he, along with a fellow airman, stole several nuclear devices from under the very nose of the guards.

This lead to several reviews where certain officers hated him but his commanding officer rated him very highly and kept recommending him for promotions.

Turns out he was just the guy they were looking for. The USAF was embarking on a project to make contact with, extra-terrestrials.

There are many inhabited planets out there. Most of them have much more advance civilizations that we have.

It got to a point where there were negotiations between the extra-terrestrials and we were going to have to either give them something or go to war.

He implied that he went on an exchange program with the extra-terrestrials and found them quite interesting.

About that time in the conversation I could hear his wife in the background telling him to be quiet and eat his lunch.

So he cut out quite a bit of the interesting stuff and got back to the gobment and his computer.

Turns out the gubment  needed some info or advice and they contacted him again. He started researching the program again and discovered that the war in Iraq was to recover a cache of information left by the ancients and the extra-terrestrials. He was able to use his contacts to view this information online.

It was all quite interesting. Some documents were just things like shopping lists but others were much more interesting. He would stay up till the wee hours of the morning and read this stuff, much to the annoyance of his longsuffering wife.

The gubment discovered his intrusion and sent a virus which wiped out his computer, along with much of his ebay records and Windows 98 which was his favorite version of Window. His computer repairman had never seen anything like it.

He also related other interesting events to me, which I will not publish at this time.

However, we will have faster than light travel by 2060 and good will prevail.

Woe to those who live in the cities.

Anyway, I had a very enjoyable time talking with him. Spent a couple hours on the phone. I am going to call him back. Somewhat unsure about buying the engine from him. I really want to go visit him.

I have never met anyone who has a first hand encounter with aliens. It is always, a guy I knew, or my friend's friend. 

I am thinking of inviting him to read this blog.

I am trying to come up with a plan to get him to tell me more but not have him think I am making fun of him. I'm not. I think this is all absolutely fascinating. 

I don't really believe it, but that doesn't mean I am putting him down or laughing at him. I think he believes it and I respect that. It is just that I live for these kinds of stories.

When I was a kid the old bachelor plumber that lived down the road used to tell stories about being in the OSS. It was so cool. I never really believed him as I thought it all came from cheap spy novels but I enjoyed the stories. Of course I never really believe anything unless you are from Missouri and are selling me a tractor.

So this post is a little tidbit for my regular readers and I'm taking it down tomorrow.

I'm thinking of some questions to ask him.

Speaking of mistakes

It got this song stuck in my head. It is a pretty obscure song by an incredibly obscure band and hopefully it will now be stuck in your head.
Now I am going to go and attempt to plant perfectly straight fescue rows in the dark, and not get stuck.
Both CV joints are very loose.
I used the 4wd again. The field looked a lot dryer than it was. It is no longer perfectly smooth. I did not get stuck.
Today I will go back to the previous 2-155.
Here are the Kingbees, "My Mistake," It has nothing to do with bad CV joints and a blown head gasket on a White 2-155.

My mistake gets even bigger....

Ok, so I bought a tractor. The 2-155 from Smith Grain and Cattle Company in Missouri. I linked to it a while back.
None of the neighbor's have figured it out. All Whites look alike to them. The CarQuest delivery guy notice right away.
I did not go and look at it before I bought it. However, I would not have caught the serious problems.
I got it for $20,000. It had a leak under the cab and the tin and the paint is not so good.
I called the guy and asked him if it used oil, had lots of blow-by, if the front end had been worked on. If you all remember it did have a new clutch, PTO, and FWA seals repaired and it ran great. In fact if it didn't sell he would keep it and use it next year.

No excessive use of oil--- USES three quarts a day. Bad head gasket.
New Clutch, Has a lot of free play but I haven't adjusted it yet.
New PTO, haven't used it
New Seals in the FWA-Right front leaks. I called him and he said they always leak in road gear.

I just discovered the right CV joint is out.  CV joints are $5,000 each. It did not fail in the last 100 hours.

There are more problems but that is all for today.

Called to see if Case-Credit would give me the service I would have go with my VISA card, or PayPal, or ebay. I found out no...

Did not call Mr. Smith. Don't really see the point. I am so screwed....

Have a nice day.

PayPal donations accepted, but just make them in $1,000 increments please.

Got to plant 20 acres today, don't really see the point in going after the other 2-155 which is a half hour away. The new 2-155 still runs. I just put it all back together and came in to sit a spell.

My mistake

I've been worried about the tractor that Orin should have. I'm starting to think perhaps it would not be nice to give it to him. I'm thinking the whole misadventure was a mistake.
When it gets to 70 degrees outside, when I run it wide open around 2,200 rpm, when I have a long steady pull, it starts to knock. It sounds like it is coming from the top-end. If I idle down a little and/or shift down a step, or if I stop for a while and let it cool down, it quits knocking. The temp gauge rarely goes over 165 degrees, but it does climb to 170 under a heavy load.
So, I went to plant Monday morning and as I was checking the oil level and also wondering where all the oil that runs down the side of the engine was coming from, I found this...

Antifreeze on the side of the block.
I checked the radiator. It was a gallon low, it holds like eight gallons so that was not really a problem. There was a film of oil on top of the water. When I filled it and then started the tractor antifreeze started running out of the drain. I got a good pint out of it.
I took the radiator cap off and let it warm up.
Periodically I would get a large bubble. Not the usual little tiny bubbles that I've noticed with a bad head gasket, but every couple minutes one big bubble would come up.
I don't know...
Found a running Army Truck engine in Round-up MT. Just need to change the manifolds, turbo, oil filters, front cover, and injector pump. Or I could buy a school bus and put an 8.3 cummins in it. Or I could paint the hoods and swap the new tires and put it on Craigslist, or I could take my wife's advice and move to Panama City Beach.
But those are long range plans.
In the short range,
I dropped down a gear range and ran in third high instead of fourth direct. Monday was a little cooler. It didn't knock so bad. Don't think it used a gallon of oil like I did Saturday.
I planted 55 acres. It was not too bad a production rate as I had to load thirty-eight bags of peas into the drill every 11.3 acres.
I found an IH truck for Ralph. It is a nice one.

In a side note I like planting much more than baling hay. At this point I only plant for people who I know. Almost all of them have been friends in one degree or another, or at least the sort you wave at when you see them in the field. I'm usually helping them do something they can't do, or don't have time to do themselves, generally they are happy.
Baling hay is always a struggle, people seem to think they are in danger of getting ripped off, it is hot, it might rain, I have to deal with employees....
And now I am going to make some pig feed.
260 acres done, 150 acres to go. Wish I had another 500 acres, need the money for a new tractor...