I almost win 11 million dollars and other wise have a typical day in the life

For much of yesterday I though I had won the lottery. 11 million to do with as I pleased.

It was destiny...

I didn't feel like fixing lunch so I went to Dad's Market to get a Crunch Box. This is $5 worth of greasy chicken and deep friend potatoes. 

The nice Indian man misunderstood my order and gave me a Oregon Lottery Ticket. Since I am an optimist I assumed God above had declared me a lottery winner. I spent the afternoon in cautious optimism thinking of all the good I would do with 11 million dollars. Also tannerite, I would buy tannerite and blow stuff up! The neighborhood would have entertainment if I had 11 million dollars.

I am not sure how ordering a $5 "Crunch Box" sounds like a $5 megabucks but when heaven gives me pennies I make lemonade

My mellow was not even harshed by the unexpected visit of my neighbor's annoying uncle. It was not a good time for his semi annual discussion of if I had paid his nephew rent for three acres and a shed...

I was doing a custom order of pellets. My feed making competitor who routinely gets all my customers unless I sell pellets at pathetically low prices, wanted me to try making a chicken supplement mix into pellets. 

It was vitamins and minerals with soy and red wheat. It pulled hard but pelletized pretty well, although I had to tweak the moisture and feed rate constantly.

The other issue was that I switched the PTO gears on the Minneapolis-Moline G1355 into 1000 rpm. This dropped the engine rpm for 540 to 900 rpm. Which is fine for the G706 or U Diesel, but I was a little worried about the D585. It pulled hard and I got serious black smoke, unlike the oat, barley, corn, mix I had tested this idea with, so I bumped the rpms to 1100 which put the pellet mill up to 780 rpm.

The G1355 has a G950 PTO in it which is for an engine with lower RPM. So shifting my G1355 into 1000 PTO really drops engine RPM too far. The real reason I switched is that it seemed easier to switch gears than to take the throttle linking apart and figure out why the throttle lever won't hold steady at 1500 rpm... It is a good example of true Lazy Farmer mindset. Do more work to avoid work...

 

I have a magnet sensor for RPM zip tied to the PTO shaft so I can read rpm on this Calc-an-Acre. Very handy device. Has a little GPS puck on the roof for speed. I ended up running the PTO at 760 rpm which did not seem to produce more pellets per hour. However, when it was all said and done I did do 1,960lbs in 50 minutes. 

 

I also had this all timed so I could see lbs per hour to see if this actually would make me any money.

Then Uncle T showed up. He was doing the nice guy concerned uncle pretentious old guy act. I didn't get the our families have been friends since 1948 routine which I sort of enjoy so I had disappointment to deal with right away. 

I do have a hard time taking him seriously as I have seen him in assless chaps and he has poodles. Nothing wrong with poodles, and he had a Harley, but I think that Village People album I saw in the record bin at BiMart in my impressionable youth ruined me for biker culture.

But I digress... 

He had to ask me the annual questions. Who exactly was farming the nephew's field. Was someone cutting that grass field and doing spraying? (no for some reason the field didn't get sprayed and it has wild mustard so I will have to mow it as soon as it drys out and then put on MCPA with the gator sprayer again.) 

I said that I had been doing that field and paying his nephew for the past 15 years, although sometimes we traded work, for example, using my tractor and diesel to work up his pasture. 

I wanted to say that I had just taken it over and he should go fuck himself, but I thought about the lottery ticket and divine providence and spoke gently, assuring him that in fact his kind and wonderful nephew was getting compensation.

But I knew what was coming. I wanted to laugh or perhaps giggle just a little, I hope I didn't smirk, but I had done a terrible deed and I should have confessed. I would have but lacked the energy at the time. 

He very kindly and almost in a self depreciating fashion, had to ask the  question. Someone backed into his mid 1980's Chevy Astro van and dented the hood.

I suggested perhaps the air brakes had failed and the truck had rolled backwards? 

But, also completely accepted responsibility and offered to buy him a new hood. I mean, it was a highly collectable vehicle. If I ever wanted to hang outside a middle school with Justin Beiber CD's on a string, I would want that very White Van!

Thing is... I didn't just dent the hood slightly. 

I was backing the 1972 Ford Louisville tandem axle gutless Cat power POS truck that I store my bulk bags of grain on, into the shed in the dark. I have a block of wook that I roll up against and I was inching back in low-low (5 and 4 transmission) and I never felt when I hit the van. In fact I think I pushed it back three feet into the rear of the barn and didn't feel anything until I had pretty much destroyed the hood. I did not break the front window but probably readjusted the engine. Oh well... Should have apologized then... My bad... Probably why I was not blessed with a winning lottery ticket.

Whilst all this was going on the G1355 started pulling hard. Black smoke, dust burning on the exhaust manifold, the crankcase vent actually started working, and I didn't like the sound. So I had to adjust speed, adjust pellet moisture, and listen to Uncle T ask me meaningful questions about my home built and not real efficient pellet mill set up. 

I did not win 11 million dollars...

However, I did check the oats and they are sprouting! Soil temp has dropped a few degrees with the rain but not too bad. 

The oats are sprouting. This was a no-tilled field. It is going for hay. I am supposed to put 100lbs of N on it in the next ten days. I suspect it will be ten days before I get the truck unstuck. The rain seems to have buried the oats planted in the worked field. I am a little worried about that one.

Of course I totally misjudged the amount of rain we got and nearly got my pickup stuck on the road.

I attempted to move the fertilizer truck and I buried the front wheel to the axle. That rut is going to hurt during hay season.

Overall, it was a day... 

As they say nowadays, You can't park there...

Editor's note: Since I have lost my last pair of reading glasses and the whole writing process was accomplish with my eyes squinted mostly closed due to my macular degeneration (different from degenerationists who wear leather chaps with the butt cut out and have poodles), there may be more mispellings and random nonsensicale sentenses than usual...