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.