It is going to be a great day I can feel it in my bones

The week loomed but failed to inspire me into great production levels. So far I have not accomplished what I should have but more than I would have. It sounds better on paper than it looks in real life...

I finished working 25 acres for alfalfa. While the neighbors endlessly flogged 200 acres. I got tired of moving clods the size of small pebbles around and got the Nephew to put out irrigation. Of course it turned out there was considerably less hose on the irrigator than we thought so that kind of went south...

Yesterday I cut 20 more acres of alfalfa. Some of it was getting very rank and had annual ryegrass choking it. The alfalfa in the picture is short and light green with yellow tinged leaves. Might have a little bit of a deficiency. I of course can't remember the blend I used in the spring. 0-0-50-18? Should probably add more, also write things down and not lose the tablet. Of course the Weather forecast on the TV this morning says possible showers Wednesday. Maybe I should cut the 30 acres of red clover also. If you are going down people enjoy the show more if you add flames.

Big Old Jetliner, was circling the farm yesterday. Probably signal jamming my GPS so my field lines are crooked as some sort of a nefarious plot to disrupt my sanity. I showed them as my sanity was already disrupted and I can't drive straight regardless of GPS. If I had autosteer I would probably still auto wander...

 

 

The week looms ahead of me

I need a service truck. An air compressor mounted on a Chevy Luv trailer is not the ideal setup. 

Over the years I worked off the farm all my farm equipment suffered. Especially my service truck, a 1989 Ford F250 with a 460. (Lack of exhaust plumbing under the engine seems to have confused the O2 sensor and my helper put the front wheel drive assembly together wrong. And something is wrong with the electrics so it doesn't start reliably and shuts off randomly while driving)

I left the grain drill next to the field I need to plant. It had two flat tires. On the same side. The two tires I just had repaired.

If only I was not lazy and would get more work done...

This week, need to spray weed patches with Gator Sprayer, Plant alfalfa, make cow feed, cut hay, fix brakes on Moline 1355, fix rain spout so my wife can steal water from the state of Oregon for her garden, fix the tire on my LN8000, and clean my shop.

If I do one thing on the list it will be a success...

 

I observe how to farm in the modern way

I have been watching the megafarmer's helper work ground next to my hay making misadventure. It is amazing and depressing at the same time.

This is probably 300 acres of river bottom ground and they are flogging it hard. I think it is going in to corn again.

They started with one of those huge John Deere articulated tracked machines and like a 20 foot disk ripper. Ripped it at least twice and now using second one with a heavy harrow and roller set up to smooth and break clods.

Earlier in the week I watched the tractor operator dig mud out of the rolling baskets behind the ripper at one end of the field, while raising dust at the other end and could see where this was all going. 

The ground is in the dreaded golf ball round clod stage and has no moisture, but I don't think it is going to matter, with that much weight and horsepower, it will break down.

If it doesn't, they will just plant the corn into dry soil and apply so much water that the ground melts together. The cost and time do not really matter. 

My neighbor that owned the place was one of the really good old school farmers. He has been gone a good ten years and the ground is rented out for a lot of money.

I remember him out at my Uncle's farm store at coffee time talking about working ground. Talking about the different soil types on his farm. The good Chehalis soil by the river and how to work the heavy clay Wapato on the wet ground. 

Back when a really big tractor was 110hp, and irrigation was hand lines or a big awkward Vermeer, knowing how to work your ground was incredibly important.  

You didn't work up more ground then you could get packed back down before it dried out. If you were under a dust cloud when spring farming, you were in trouble.

I actually bought his 16 foot equipment and have been using it to work up 20 acres to plant alfalfa. I thought I was doing it wrong when I plowed 30 acres and let it get a little too dry on top. In fact I am fighting that problem with the alfalfa ground.

But the newer and better farmer is doing 300 acres at once and that is modern efficiency. I keep thinking of my farming advocate neighbor who likes to quote USDA stats about how one modern farmer produces more that 20 old time farmers. 

I think it is more like one modern farmer has displaced 50 farmers who knew their land and lived their local farm existence. 

Progress... 

I am watching out the window of my ancient New Holland 1085 stacker as my neighbor works ground the right way. I have a friend that keeps sending me Tristan Swartz videos where he talks about his small scale dairy farming. The old ways are never coming back.

 

 

 

I fertilize oats but have adventures along the way. Probably more of a quest for fertilizer rather than a trip for fertilizer

Some years ago I purchased a 1972 Ford LN8000 with a 6-71 Detroit diesel, 13 speed, tandem axles, 24ft bed. It is loud, rough rough riding, and it is getting long in the tooth. I can't remember when I acquired it. Probably 15 years ago. (The earliest reference I found on this blog for  Detroit 6-71 was in 2011.)  I bought it off of Craigslist. Got a good deal because the car battery the guy was using, wouldn't spin the engine fast enough to start, and there was an air leak in the shifter so it was stuck in low range.

It is bad enough that the nephew quit using it to haul hay. Kept falling through the holes in the bed I suspect. I have been using it haul fertilizer. I got stuck when we had the thunderstorm and got 2” rain in 15 minutes.
The front tires sank to the axles in the hay field so I just left it until I could get help to get it out.
A month later, someone got it unstuck and drove it out to the field road.

Only problem was the left front tire was flat came off the bead.
I had to get fertilizer so I ended up fixing it.
I couldn’t get a jack under the axle with the tire flat. I was a little worried about taking the forklift down the hill with no brakes.  Then I had a grand idea! 

The Crane Truck.. 

 

I lifted the left side off the ground, found a can of starting fluid and a lighter and popped the tire right back on. Only a small amount of flames. Pretty slick concept really.

The next day I topped off the air and set off to get fertilizer. 

Our formerly local cooperative, which is now owned by some company from Idaho, has decided to rebuild the local fertilizer plant. Apparently the new thing is to close all the small plants and move to one big location so as to be less convenient for 80 percent of your customers. Great idea! 

Since I had to drive a half hour to the other soon to be closed location, I just continued on another ten minutes to the competition who are slightly cheaper. 

On the way a wasp nest dropped off the sun visor on me.  

I killed it. 

Then my neighbor called me and somehow I ended up driving right past the dealer whose box I was using and driving 2 miles out of the way to get one bag of of Orchardgrass seed that turned out to be $200 for 50lbs. Of course they only take cash or check…but I have cash from chicken feed so no worries. Maybe I will get a planting job.

I had to pickup 6,000lbs dry 40-0-0-6 (urea based) and 400 gallons liquid two different types in 350 gallon tanks. 
The guy at the fertilizer plant had a tic. He would suddenly, and with no provocation, jerk his head to the right and go “uurrrrp!”
Scared the heck out of me the first time it happened. Of course I jumped and turned to see what he was looking at.
Freaked me out. After that I pretty much managed not to react. Nice guy I didn't mean to be a jerk.

But I digress... 

Now, you need to keep in mind, It was a good half hour drive to the fertilizer plant in a 1972 Ford LN8000 with a loud under powered Detroit 6-71 engine and a 13 spd transmission that you have to shift for every little hill to maintain 54 mph.

Right out of the yard the shuttle tanks I was using to hold fertilizer started sloshing so bad I thought I was going to lose one off the side. 10-34 fertilizer is like 13lbs to the gallon, so 200 gallons sloshing is a big deal.
I stopped and added straps. Not a big deal but the winches did not line up with the tanks. I finally found some clamp on winches in the bottom of the tool box. Now I am one my way.
So, I took off down 99W and about 2/3 of the way home the accelerator goes to the floor and won't return. Later I was to discover that the alternator broke off and fell on the throttle causing the diesel engine to run wide open. Not a big deal as it is an old Detroit 6-71 and you pretty much run it up against the governor anyway. BUT To shift I had to reach down and pull up on the accelerator pedal. 

A bit dicey in downtown Amity… 

When I got home I popped the hood. 

A few minutes with the welder and I am back in business. Of course the tire went flat again so there is that... 

Spreading fertilizer on oats for hay. I should have spread fertilizer and then planted through the fertilizer but wasn't able to coordinate getting a spreader. We really need a working fertilizer spreader. Hopefully we have enough days left for good growth on the oats.

 

 

Adventures in oil changing

Well, that went badly...

I think this picture speaks for itself...

 

 

Election day and attempting to make hay

Two things that are depressing in life...

Watching the election cycle and making hay when you know it is going to probably rain in five days...

The election is predictable doom and so is rain at hay season.

I cut 25 acres of meadow foxtail and timothy hay yesterday. Some of it was so heavy I cut at 3.5 mph with a 150hp tractor. CaseIH DC103 mower which is 10 foot cut.

I added up the acres left and realized we have over 200 acres of grass hay to do. I probably should say "I" as the nephew has other things to do. Like welding stuff in the shop and combining and driving truck and delivering hay.  Its not like I can just send him off to cut and then fart around the shop anymore. 

I can't do 20 acres and then wait a week for a good weather forecast, I need to cut 20 acres every day so  there is always material to bale. 

The elections always go badly. I voted for Trump because I despised the alternatives. I voted for local candidates not because I liked their ideas or claimed policies but because I despised the alternatives.

So you just get further behind in politics and the hay will be crappy.

I have been listing to the radio. This is a mistake. I started "Dune," on Audible and I should stick with that. I was also listening to a Carl Jung book about repressed memories and how the mind manipulates itself to cover trauma. That was too depressing... I do not want to remember my alien abduction. (Or do I???)

But, I digress...

I find the Trump/Conservative Police State attack on Thomas Massie and their promotion of Ed Gallrein pretty depressing. They are lying about Massie who has consistently voted for conservative issues but has stood against big bills with sketchy things hidden in them, and Trump's troubling promotion of spending, surveillance/secrecy and bone headed foreign policy moves.

Honesty, Donald Trump campaigned on opposition to the CIA and the "deepstate," and the CIA and the "DeepState" got him into an unwinnable war with the most insane people on the planet. Of course it could be true that Iran almost had the bomb and "was weeks away..." But looking at the totally fabricated reasons we got into nearly every conflict since World War Eleven, I am going to be a bit skeptical. 

It is interesting to see Gun Owners of America and the NRA are not supporting Gallrein. Gallrein is establishment security state Republican, typical big farmer douche, and he will tow the line for the donations.

Interesting that Massie is getting a lot of support from young conservatives. But the Republican party has never known what to do with young conservatives and that goes all the way back to the Rush Limbaugh on talk radio days and the royal screwing the Bush clan gave us. 

Now I will say this is all open for debate. What really angers me is the character assassination directed at Massie. It is fine to attack if you are pro Big Government, tax and spend, War Hawk, Security State, and so on. But, don't say he is the worst guy ever or make up crap about his girlfriends or lie about his voting record which according to the scorecard put out by the Heritage Action center for this session, he is at a 92 percent while the average House Republican is at 85. They have his lifetime score at 83 percent but I have to go work on hay so no more commentary.

Looking forward to local elections, will two more lunatics join the Yamhill County board of Commissioners or will it just one crazy vs two sort of conservative people with big ideas that will never fly?

Either way we are getting a bicycle trail... 

I am applying hay preservative. I should have done it when I cut as the stems have probably closed by now and I am only getting it on top of the windrow. But it makes me feel better. I am using a preservative that is lactobacillus in a molasses base so I just dumped in a lot more molasses and declared my program a success. Perception is reality!

 

I rant about politics and I apply hydrated lime and don't know what to do with all the paper bags it came in

Yesterday I posted a bit of frustration with the local elections. I worked ground all day and started out listening to the radio. I tried to listen to Lars but gave up. I wish he would ask good questions and get people to talk. I already know all of the Lars opinions. He gets great interviews and then fails to get the information. Just lectures the poor person on the most obvious. 

But I digress...

I was looking online and one of the posts on the Oregon discussion group was reporting low returns for Republican ballots. Of course I asked AI as it was easier than going to the Secretary of State website myself.

AI said that Republicans in Oregon usually wait till the last minute to vote and then frequently never get around to mailing in their ballots. I thought this was pretty interesting. AI also backed up the claim that Republicans were turning out in lower numbers.

This morning I asked AI again and got the reply that Republicans actually had a higher return rate so far as compared to Democrats, but Democrats had higher registration. I asked AI if they were lying and it started rambling about how AI works and voter rolls and blah, blah, blah.

SO clever man that I am. I looked up the Secretary of State Website and found out that Republicans are slightly ahead of Democrats returning ballots in my county.

Surprisingly ballot return in Multnomah County (Portland) are only 8.5% while most other counties are 10 to 14%. Basically a little higher than average turnout.

What I did discover was very interesting with yesterday's post was that my keywords brought instant results. This one of the things that is so irritating with the Republican party. Their research and propaganda abilities are pathetic. 

I got instant hits from google searches for the proper name for the trail. Also for the country and commissioner race. I also suspect someone has some sort of trackback activated for links to their pages. I did not get the idea the traffic was coming from "conservative sources."

In fact, this is one of the reasons the commissioner races is important. The "progressives," I guess you would say, seem to have a well funded cooperative network for funding and cross promotion. The "trail" is a great example of this. Media savvy people have gotten news coverage in a number of liberal/conservation outdoors and recreation pages. (Also, editorials like this one.) I suspect they have pretty serious funding. 

I know the TrailsPac has gotten enough signatures to put at least one ballot measure on an upcoming election and they have a pretty slick promotional campaign.

The opposition are farmers with limited fundraising abilities and the local crazy Republican cranks who probably do more harm than good.

But, the 6 people who regularly read this blog really don't care...

Yesterday I worked in lime.

Working in lime is a generally satisfying job. Until the transmission cooler line blew out showing the windshield with hydraulic oil. I worked it two directions before the rain showed up last night. It was nice to just sit in a tractor for a day.

 

We got this deal on Hydrated lime that was used for storing apples. Apparently apples continue to respire after picking and the Hydrated lime absorbs the CO2.

The lime is in 55lb bags and on pallets. It seems to be somewhat solid like it has absorbed water but breaks up easily.

This is pretty potent stuff. I wonder if I were to do it again, I wounder if you could just put two/three pallets per acre on unworked ground, dump the pallets, push the bags around with a front end loader and then hit them with the cover crop disk and drag harrow a few times, chisel it maybe, or vibrashank with a spring harrow, and then moldboard plow it to get rid of the paper bags. If it is cheap enough just use more lime to get coverage. Probably do it in the fall and then rework the ground in the spring. Take a soil test, and if it required lime in the top three inches put down a ton of ag lime.

 

My neighbor modified a litter spreader to apply the lime. He just dumped bags and all in the spreader and it chopped it and spread it so we got a lot of paper in the field.

The lime has a higher score than regular ag lime so you use less. It was kind of a pain in the butt and the stuff is seriously nasty to handle but hopefully the price difference will make it all worthwhile. Hopefully it could be a no-till trade that doesn't involve me transporting my drill 50 miles across a narrow bridge or though downtown Salem... 

I rant about the bad ideas proposed by candidates for Yamhill County Comissioners (past and present) and express dissatisfation in general

There are only a few days left to vote in a very important state wide election in Oregon. 

The genius of the Democrat Supermajority in Oregon is supporting a massive increase of licensing fees and a gas tax increase of a few cents. The few cents is not the big deal. What is a huge deal is the tripling of licensing fees. This will make it cost prohibitive to license old farm trucks that you use two months out of the year. (We talking like from $350 per truck per year, to $700 plus.)

But, I admit to putting off voting. I have been avoiding this upcoming election because I just don’t see a lot of good choices in representation locally or state wide.

I am going to vote because I think the fee increases associated with the new gas tax will be devastating if I actually paid them which I probably won’t do because I never drive my ancient trucks more than two miles from home anymore.
I am antigrowth, anti tax, anti progress, and just an all around grumpy old (oldish) fart. Emphasis on the fart. 

I do not like the choices for Judges, most of them are running unopposed. I don't have a favorite for Governor, wanted to write in Tom McCall, but seeing as he is dead, probably not much of an option, although a dead Tom McCall is probably better than a live Tina Kotax or Christine Drazen.  I have been watching the county commissioner race a little bit, but I figured there was no real choice. There are two candidates on one side who promoted by the shrill people who protest weekly out side the McMinnville Public Library. And they are two short pants wearing overly enthusiastic semi-entrepreneurs promoted by the other side. 
The “farmer” candidate made a lot of money growing and selling Weed but is the clean cut country club Republican sort (I think). Of course he also raises hazelnuts, as they all do.
The other candidate is quite interesting and very driven. He has a business making parts for VW micro busses and has invented some sort of logging equipment that he also manufacturers and he also plays country western music at rest homes. He has a lowered rat/rod/surfer style van as his mascot.
Not super thrilled about filberts and pot growers or people running for office with mascots but I suppose weed and round-a-bouts are the wave of the future and I should get on board.
As the election winds down I started getting more and more BoomerBook advertisements for actual campaign goals for the candidates.
So it came as a bit of a surprise to see that the two plans to revitalize Yamhill County were either a bicycle trail, by the love = love crowd vs a new fairgrounds and amphitheater (which will have to be on EFU land of course.) 
Now, I appreciate grand ideas somewhat in the abstract. But they always go sideways and off track and in the end you wish you would have just worked a little harder on what you had, or spent the money on lime instead of growing hemp. 
However, with this grand scheme by “Republicans,” the thing that really irritates me is the suspicion that I will have to eat my own words.
I have been anti trail and anti parks for years and now I am getting all my anti trail excuses thrown right back at me. 
In fact I was part of a neighborhood group formed to fight a proposed park at the old Whiteson landfill. An effort that really soured me on Yamhill County government and a few neighbors. Like the guy who started the neighborhood group and then used leverage from the group to sell his farm to the county for the proposed park. Or the official that just flat lied to us about the park plans. 
I was against the plan for a 17 mile trail on an abandoned rail road grade between Gaston, Yamhill, Carlton and McMinnville for several reasons most of which are not politically acceptable.

I live across a filbert field from a railroad track and I just keep thinking what a pain in the butt it would be to have bicyclists in my front yard.
I hate bicyclists. They are the most entitled arseholes on the planet, them (and flyfishermen) put the K in karen. No one wants bicyclists in their back yard. No one wants to farm with spandex clad bitches reporting every farm operation as if it were another “Silent Spring,” a book none of them have read but have seen referenced somewhere.
Secondly, I think the land should be given to the landowners as it was taken from private landowners and given to the railroads to create transportation routes. That time has past. Turn the page.
Third issue is the trail will not be maintained and possibility of it degenerating into a zombie corridor of drug addicted homeless and the needles, trash, and stolen children’s bicycles that come with them.
Fourth, the trail is supported by the culture in Yamhill County I don’t like which may be reason number one but no one reads my blog anyway so sue me…
Fifth reason, which is related to the fourth, is that the trail was the brainchild of Kasey Kulla. I voted for Kulla because ran on a platform stressing smart planning and what I thought was innovation. This means he was a progressive and having a pot farm before it was completely legal doesn’t mean you are clever, it just means you are a liberal douche. Except for my neighbor, he is a pothead and I respect that.
And finally, it is going to cost money, not really bring in money, and if it is successful, will bring more people into Yamhill County.
Now we get to the point of this long ramble…
The candidates I feel forced into voting for have mostly quashed the trail. This is good…
BUT…
Now they are promoting a scheme to build an Amphitheater and a new County Fairgrounds and all the so-called “Conservative,” leadership are doubling down on it. 
Now I have seen boondogles before, and I heard stories when I worked at a newspaper, and this one will go down in the recordbooks…
If it doesn’t result in a landslide defeat for these I dots… 
An Amphitheater will cost a lot more than a trail. If you read up on concert venue projects by cities and counties, they cost a lot of money, they take ten years to bring in money. They require infrastructure and a lot of open land. 
They require maintenance. 
The reason we need a new fairgrounds is due to this very issue. 
The maintenance budget is where the County trims the budget. That fairgrounds has been falling apart since it was built. 
Who is going to maintain, promote, manage, and fund a massive capital project for a county that can’t even fix their existing structures???
Now, I have to go to work as I have to balance my own budget and maintain my own freaking infrastructure and I can’t do it by floating a bond or putting on a show or finding getting the Rural Organizing project or cutting a deal with some developer. 
I live on chickenfeed and resentment and I suspect I am not alone...

Why can't someone run for office with the slogan, "I won't spend money and I won't do stupid shit stuff..." 

Here is my example of an idea that seemed good but in practice was not. Imagine this on a countywide scale. Perhaps picture the ancient forklift as an proposed concert venue and the ancient crane truck as Yamhill County Government and the surrounding scrap metal as the rest of Yamhill County. See how the one will NOT LIFT THE OTHER and note how both should be retired...

Edit: After realizing people were actually reading this post I thought I better clarify. The candidate with the grand plans came out and talked to me after hearing I was irritated. He is a great guy and I appreciate his vision and drive. I voted for him and his pot growing counterpart as I support party over common sense. Maybe I am secretly a democrat.

I am afraid hay is the heyday of my life or hay day? Farming with the oldies part IX

I tend to operate on the principle of setting potentially catastrophic events into action and then wasting a lot of time in a salvage operation. I think it might be a form of self motivation.

So I cut hay in April. I almost succeeded. Probably succeeded in stunting the alfalfa field for the duration of the season by cutting before first bloom. But, I got rid of the annual ryegrass for one cycle at least.

I have raked and tedded this crap every day for ten days and every day is the same. Overcast in the morning and two hours of sun at 4 p.m.

Yesterday I baled the alfalfa. (I got a whopping yield of 150 bales on 15 acres.)

I raked a few rounds and then baled to see what it looked like. I picked up a moisture tester with a bad battery. The moisture tester in the cab had a bad connection so I did not entirely believe the reading of 14 percent.

So I got my brother to bring me another tester and I raked the rest of the alfalfa. Put four windrows together so I could keep the header full. It seemed to be ok. 

I feel our future is not in farming but in a foundation for the preservation of 1970's farming techniques. People would pay good money to see how their grandparents suffered before the advent of the Corporate Family MegaFarm!

 

I baled another 80 bales of meadow foxtail grass hay. It was pretty heavy but tends to dry quickly.

I have four acres of Timothy and five acres of clover left. It looks like rain but the weather service says no.

Since I have been making chicken feed all winter and not working on equipment it was a quite fun. I was counting on the M670 Super for the baler but I killed the M670 on the pellet mill. I thought I could use the 656 Hydro but when I started it I remember that the hydro is making noise, it doesn't like reverse, and the wheel hits the PTO shield on the baler when I turn.

I hooked up the Minneapolis-Moline G1355. The 1355 has the PTO out of a G955 which drops the PTO/Engine speed setting to 1500 rpm for 540. The tractor is quiet, turns good, and who would have thunk, the AC still was charged and blew cold air. Didn't really need it but it was comforting knowing that if the sun ever came out I was prepared.

Of course the rear window was so dirty I couldn't actually see the baler so I just assume everything worked until I could see the previous row. Small things are important.

 

Minneapolis-Moline G1000 Vista tedding hay, best tractor ever made

 

Making hay in May is a bit sketchy. I am running the tedder to fluff up the windrows and hopefully get it up off the damp ground to dry out. The old G1000 Vista works really well on the tedder. Gets you out of the dust and handles it really well.

The Nephews Buy A truck and I cut hay. Over achievers are we...

The Nephews have been jonesing for a truck since they got their first Tonka Toy.

Finally, through the wonders of online auctioneering and possibly the poor judgement that accompanies that aforementioned anonymous pleasure that is the downfall of so many farmers, they are now the proud owners of a Ford LN9000 crane truck.

The new truck devours my nephew... It was a little tight getting to the battery!

 

Its a beauty!

We went and looked at it before bidding. The batteries were completely dead and the auction yard was unable to start the truck. Without starting it was impossible to lift the hood so you could only kick the tires.

Nephew crawled under the hood and was able to check the oil with was perfectly clean. The auction company claimed it was an 8 spd but it was a Fuller with a blue knob and a red flipper so that means 13 spd. It also had a fifth wheel plate mounted and a frame long enough for a dump bed.

I did look up the vin and other information and discovered that it was a special order heavy truck and most likely had a big cam Cummins 400 and a 9 or 13 speed Fuller. Crane trucks and Low Boy trucks often have lower miles and are on a regular service schedule with a big company and often are good buys. Or so we rationalized. 

We set a price and someone went just a we bit more. As will happen...

So yesterday we went after it. Took a generator and a battery charger and just let it charge for a while. I knew it was going to be a good day when the generator hit the tailgate, knocked the tail gate open, dumped charger and generator onto Highway 18. While there are a few scratches, now the electric start feature works on the generator! I am very happy with that development as I did not spend the extra $50 for the Harbor Freight extended warranty and the electric start failed after one year and three days. Aside from a wee bit of embarrassment, I would classify this a pennies from heaven, but then I am an optimist.

But I digress...

We got it started. Fired right up with minimal smoke and then cleaned up pretty fast. Might have a ticking fan blade. Pretty sure it is not in the engine. After moving the crane out of the way we discovered that the truck had been setting so long the hood hinges had corroded stuck. (Aluminum with steel pins.) 

It is not quite Minneapolis-Moline Energy Yellow. I feel the color will grow on us. The crane is cool, it is a shame to sell it.

 

No turn signals but the brake lights worked. So we drove it home.  

Truck ran great! Blinkers actually worked twice on the way home so I feel more success is in our future. 

Major Bonus! The turn signals may not actually work but deer will not cross in front of this truck. I have always wanted one of these devices but never actually have seen one in the wild

 

After playing with the crane briefly...

I hooked the mower to the Vista and cut hay. Have not run the Vista in 20 years. Nephew fixed the brakes and hydraulic pump issues. I think the mechanic nephew also worked on setting the oil pump pressure last summer.  

We have ten days of warm weather but it is April 30. This is not the time of the year when you cut hay in western Oregon.

I cut five acres of Clover that was getting a lot of radish blooming and a field of Timothy that was full of annual ryegrass and wild carrot. Hopefully the Timothy will get serious about growing and I will get a crop of hay in a month when it will probably be raining...

I really just want to keep cutting but I have not even attempted to start the stacker yet this years so I don't know. 

 

There are things which seem like a good idea and which prove not to be... On the best laid plans of mice and men...

 

To a Mouse

By Robert Burns

On Turning her up in her Nest, with the Plough, November 1785.

Wee, sleeket, cowran, tim’rous beastie,

O, what a panic’s in thy breastie!

Thou need na start awa sae hasty,

          Wi’ bickerin brattle!

I wad be laith to rin an’ chase thee

          Wi’ murd’ring pattle!

I’m truly sorry Man’s dominion

Has broken Nature’s social union,

An’ justifies that ill opinion,

          Which makes thee startle,

At me, thy poor, earth-born companion,

          An’ fellow-mortal!

I doubt na, whyles, but thou may thieve;

What then? poor beastie, thou maun live!

A daimen-icker in a thrave

          ’S a sma’ request:

I’ll get a blessin wi’ the lave,

          An’ never miss ’t!

Thy wee-bit housie, too, in ruin!

It’s silly wa’s the win’s are strewin!

An’ naething, now, to big a new ane,

          O’ foggage green!

An’ bleak December’s winds ensuin,

          Baith snell an’ keen!

Thou saw the fields laid bare an’ waste,

An’ weary Winter comin fast,

An’ cozie here, beneath the blast,

          Thou thought to dwell,

Till crash! the cruel coulter past

          Out thro’ thy cell.

That wee-bit heap o’ leaves an’ stibble

Has cost thee monie a weary nibble!

Now thou’s turn’d out, for a’ thy trouble,

          But house or hald,

To thole the Winter’s sleety dribble,

          An’ cranreuch cauld!

But Mousie, thou art no thy-lane,

In proving foresight may be vain:

The best laid schemes o’ Mice an’ Men

          Gang aft agley,

An’ lea’e us nought but grief an’ pain,

          For promis’d joy!

Still, thou art blest, compar’d wi’ me!

The present only toucheth thee:

But Och! I backward cast my e’e,

          On prospects drear!

An’ forward tho’ I canna see,

          I guess an’ fear!

 

 

 

 

I couldn't understand a word of that poem.

I think it has to do with chickens and a man who left Mexico with a Rooster and his sisters picture in

gold frame who was going to win back the land that the Commies stole from his oppressor class parents by fighting with chickens. 

 

 Totally excellent idea! 

Execution of idea, not so good...

 

Sort of like making so much money I don't have to get a real job by making CHICKEN FEED!!! (Super Chick N with herbs and spices... also Weed & Feed for horses with alfalfa and oats and Herb- if you get my drift) 

 

 

Anything involving heatlamp chicken is a bad idea

I am not a fisherman, or fish do not exist...

Detroit diesels are deceptively difficult to work on.

While I have longed for a classic Chili Burger and unlimited shite coffee. The reality is not the memory...

The solution to every problem is not flooring it... Unless it works, then it is...

 

 

 

The problem with asking for advice online, I want to comment on Tristan Swartz video but resist

I have started following Tristan Swartz of Doing it Wrong Dairy. (So is every other farmer in the world) My brother even bought me one of Tristan's goofy hats.

So when he posted a video asking for information on his White hydraulics I actually watched the whole thing and read the comments. Lots of comments from people who absolutely no experience with hydraulics or even know that his DeutzAllis has a transmission and hydraulic system built by White Farm Equipment.

I had been trying to look up his video about why he doesn't use RoundUp ready seed because it kind of missed the point of why you shouldn't use it and there were so many superstitious idiots posting I wanted to show it to my friends and laugh. I kind of wanted to argue but I need to resist commenting.

But, I digress... 

There was a time when you could get good advice from people online. There was NewAgTalk, Yesterday's Tractors, and you could find pages from manuals or at least figure out what manual you needed. 

Not so much nowadays. (I enjoy using the word "nowadays")

His comment section was filled with bad advice...

Here are some basic rules... 

If you are having hydraulic problems with your White tractor, first find the I&T service manual for your tractor. White Farm Equipment put out a really good manual with trouble shooting advice. I have currently lost mine as I have issues with never putting anything back where it belongs. But I try to be the change I aspire to be.

Is the system not building pressure? Do you not have brakes or steering? Does the PTO not engage? Is it making noise?

Check the oil...

If you are not building pressure you have either sheared the splines on the PTO hub on the flywheel, your charge pump is out, the coupler to the hydraulic pump is out, you forgot to start the tractor, the little valve in the filter head that bypasses when you are starting the tractor is stuck in bypass.

Hit the filter head with a crescent wrench and see if hydraulics start.

Pull the switch on the filter head and install a gauge. If you don't have 35 or so lbs the Charge Pump is not working. (This also could be from the PTO hub splines being bad)

Do you hear cavitation noises? Is the pump loud? Is there bubbles in the hydraulic oil?

This is often a problem with the steel lines cracking which feed the charge pump. But it can be a cracked pickup tube from the sump. A completely plugged sump filter. The main pump is shot. The charge pump failed. The pressure relief in the filter head is stuck.

Do not ever mess with the compensator on the main pump. It is the little screw adjustment on the side of the pump. It might get you a couple months until you can find a new pump but it is never the problem. 

Make sure it is not a problem with the hydraulic valves. It won't be, but you should check first. Switch hoses around and switch between valves. You could put a gauge on one hose and see if you have 2200lbs of pressure. You could hook two hoses in with a t and a valve in the middle, run the valve and turn the valve down and watch the pressure.  

Change the filters. It won't help but if you ask anyone for advice it is the first thing they will suggest. Finding metal filings in the filter is not that unusual. Finding a teaspoon full is a problem.

There are two filters, the main one under the step and a sump in the bottom of the transmission. It is behind a large plug on the left hand bottom side of the tractor. This requires draining the transmission. This has a fine screen that can plug but probably is not the problem.

Do not add or remove shims from the pressure relief. That is not the problem.

Go to the JenSales website and find the WFE hydraulic service manual set or call Welters, or Maibach Tractor.

You could get the manual first but changing the oil is the first thing anyone will tell you to do. Narrowing down the issue with pressure at the filter head will also help with trouble shooting. 

The more information you can find on your own the easier it is to get advice.

After watching the Tristan video I would guess the top three probabilities are, the bottom sump is plugged because the previous owner NEVER changed the oil, cracked line feeding the charge pump, bad main hydraulic pump.

Long shots, stuck valve in the filter head, PTO hub on flywheel has bad splines and skips under load (but that would affect PTO operation), cracked sump tube for hydraulic pickup, hydraulic valve problems, bad charge pump.

Although, did not say when he runs the PTO the PTO clutch pops out. The PTO will pop off with low hydraulic pressure or cavitation. He seems to have a flow problem which makes me think remote valves or remote pressure relief on the valve body but it is probably time for a new pump.

Click here for a link to the videos on Facebook.  This might be the same reel. CLick Here

Now I must go to work as my neighbor called me to pick up filbert shells for my next ill advised project... 

 

I have had more hydraulic problems with this 2-135 then I care to remember. Actually, I kind of hate this tractor...

This is the first real tractor I bought. I abused it. Pulled it to death (several times) on the silage chopper. Baled with it, cut hay, no-tilled, great raking tractor, fairly quiet and the A/C sometimes works! Leaks a little hydraulic oil but that is how I find my way home when I get lost. Follow the trail...

Here is a link to Replacing the Hydraulic Pump on the White 2-155

Fixing a hydraulic valve

Somewhere I talk about trouble shooting a charge pump. Sometimes I fail to give usable info. You could try looking at nearby posts... 

 

 

 

I find artifacts, the oats are coming up, I am not the pinball wizzard

I plowed this field for the first time in maybe 20 years. My wife has always been disappointed that I find arrowheads and she does not. So I decided to plow. That is just basic farm management.

We found five decent arrowheads and she found part of a spear point. 

This was an old campsite along the river. You can see it when you work ground because the ground is black from the charcoal. This was probably a site where the Injuns (actual term I learned from cartoons) gathered read Albert Camas and eat the roots of Indian hyacinth and paddled their own canoes... (Sometimes I crack myself up)

Also, probably got up to all sort of high jinks which probably included singing woodland creatures and deer with really big eyes.

Mohicans and Stocking Tops no doubt... 

 

I like to think of it as grave robbing but in reality it is not illegal.

I am always amazed when the field actually sprouts. If the picture were clearer or if everything was no blurry when I forget my glasses, you could see the difference in growth/sprout between no-till and worked ground.

 

I dropped $4.25 in quarters and played for 40 minutes while waiting for Pizza. Unfortunately they neglected to tell me my pizza was ready and so not only did I lose my pocket full of quarters but the pizza was cold by the time I got home. But, such is life...

“The absurd is born of the encounter between two opposed concepts: the human need for meaning and the apparent meaninglessness of the universe.”

 

 

 

 

 

I make chicken feed and spill a ton of peas and ramble on about stuff...

 Suddenly people want feed.

I have orders for 1000lbs chicken feed, 2,000 oats/alfalfa, and 2000lbs cow feed.

I had finally emptied the barn of various bags and was looking forward to doing something else farming related. I actually put the Gator-Sprayer in the shop and was trying to figure out the charging system and how to wire the sprayer monitor without killing the battery.

Yesterday morning I actually broke down and purchased a grain from my neighbor. I have been fighting with the pellet mill making crumbly pellets and I thought doing a ton of chicken feed would be an excuse to try wheat.

My neighbor has a couple bags of oats and peas that got mixed together and he doesn't want to reclean them and I bought a ton of peas from him.

I thought I would start out with a high protein mix and dilute it for the cows by adding oats and Timothy hay.

Unfortunately, the bag sizes were such that I ended up with over 5,000lbs in the mixer grinder. This was all grain so it didn't over flow. In fact all was well until I got to the one ton of peas.

I needed 250lbs of corn so I just threw in 8 or 9 buckets out of my bulk bag. When I got the bag almost over the mixer one handle ripped... I slowly and carefully moved the bag to my bulk bin. Just as I was over the edge of the bin, but not far enough to just cut the bottom of the bag, the remaining three handles rippled and the bag hit the floor of the hay shed.

 

I love plastic bulk bags for moving and storing grain. Until the handles rip and I have to shovel a ton of peas off the ground

Nothing like standing on top of running hammer mill and shoveling straw and peas. Every so often the throat would plug and I would have to knock the hay though with the shovel handle. Did not run the handle though the hammer mill so that is a success!

This is where having a cement or a dirt floor would be nice. The hay shed floor has layers of plastic and straw over gravel. It is not fun to shovel off of. 

I finally resorted to a vacuum cleaner! Fortunately I was close enough to the mixer that I could just shovel most of it into the the mixing hopper in the back. The rest which had a lot of hay in it,  I shoveled into the bucket on the White 2-60 and then feed into the hammer mill on the mixer grinder. 

I really have no idea what my mix of peas and corn is right now but for the sake of sanity I will pretend I scooped it all up.

I have a mix that is 36 percent peas, 18 percent wheat, 18 percent barley, 10 percent oats, 12 percent buckwheat, and 5 percent corn. Total weight is 5,500lbs

If I plug the info into CoPilot it tells me I have Crude fat of 2.24 percent and Crude protein of 16 percent.

My chicken customer says her chickens are laying small eggs and wants more protein. I think small eggs mean she is not giving them free access to oyster shell or there are environmental factors, like weird chickens. We operate a home for aged chickens plus some crazy young white hens, and they lay just about every day and the eggs are good sized. Sometimes I forget to feed them, or don't let them out until I hear them yelling at me when I go by the hen house.

I would like to add more alfalfa as alfalfa seems to be an excellent chicken food. (Also, buckwheat, which I added because I think Buckwheat and Alfalfa combinations are hilarious.) However, I am out of alfalfa.

I am going to take 2000lbs and add more peas, clover seed, canola seed, and my last bale of alfalfa. I think I will take the protein to 17.5 percent maybe call it 18 percent. I have warned my customers that if they want 18 percent protein and no soy meal the price is going to have to go up. It is better to just buy a few bags of layer from Wilco Feed Store and supplement. High protein is not the point of feeding a mixed grain and alfalfa ration to chickens. 

Then I will take another 2000lbs and add oats to drop the protein to 12 percent, probably throw in 200lbs of Timothy hay or second cutting Canary Grass for smell and color. Add 80lbs of liquid molasses. This would drop the wheat percentage and make the ration more gut friendly.

I could actually have a business here, if I just, had a building with a non gravel floor. Four bulk bins that hold 30,000lbs or less. A real cooler for the pellet mill. A White 2-110 FWA (becaue I like FWA) or something Perkins powered with good hydraulics to run everything. Or three-phase electricity....

Also if I could do math, could successfully charge just a little bit more money, do marketing, remember who my customers are, develop a social media platform to promote Super Chick N, get a feed license, get mental help through drugs and talk therapy, remember anything at all, could work 16 hours a day like I used to do, and every joint in my body didn't slightly hurt every moment of the day. 

Simple things... 

 

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...