A rambling discussion of New Year events

I ended 2024 properly. I spilled hot soup on my phone and ended the year with the rainbow screen of death.

It was a fitting end to a depressing year.

I feel worse about the soup than I do the phone. 

I have been regressing on iPhones. Every time I kill one I find an older one somewhere. No sense in throwing good money after bad.

I say 2025 will be better. Or at least that is what I said in the spirited lecture I gave my daughter and her friend she invited to the farm for New Years eve. I need to work on a ceremonial prayer. I just tried to mention things that were important and relevant. They seemed to appreciate my effort.

I cooked a couple steaks on the gas grill and the lovely and gracious wife made the rest. It was a nice dinner.

I asked my daughter why in the world her friend would want to come to the farm and spend New Year's with old folks. She said explosives and vinyl records were the draw. I am well versed in both those areas.

Her friend had just bought a newer stereo and wanted to set it up. It was new enough that I knew nothing about it. It was a modern Marantz amp and Bowers and Wilkins speakers. He seems to feel I am an expert which is a myth I hate to dispel. 

He also had a box of LP records he wanted to clean. I have a SpinClean record cleaner which does a good job. I loaned it to him last year but I used warm water and it warped his records. This seems odd to me but i am not going to try it myself after hearing his story.

We hooked his amp first to my Technics SL-J2 Linear tracking turntable. It is pretty neat as you can skip songs or repeat sides and it is fun to play with. 

No sound on one channel. I didn't mess a lot with it as I had my old Dual 1019 set up to play Christmas Music and it was easy to hook up. (The Dual has a Shure HiTrack, I think it is an old V15.  I splurged and put a JICO stylus on it. (However, they were not $300 15 years ago) I think it is nice sounding cart. The Dual is pretty quit although grounding is always an issue.)

The guy is currently into 1960-70's prog rock  which is not a genre I really appreciate. But it was fun.

I was a little disappointed with the Bowers and Wilkins speakers. They are the modern style bookshelf speakers that are narrow and deep. Simple design with woofer and tweeter. The were very clear and I would say accurate sounding. But I didn't find them very musical. They sounded really good in the midrange. But I am probably not a good judge. I really prefer warm sounding audio and "warm sounding," is essentially distortion.

I am listening to the same album (Dire Straits) that I used to set up his stereo on same turntable using an early 1980's Yamaha amp, DCM Timeframe 100 speakers, and it sounds brighter with more depth on the low range. Of course we are talking a serious difference in size of speaker so it doesn't directly compare. It is just an interesting difference in sound. Not sure which is "Correct."

Later, we blasted a whole series of mortars shots into the heavens greatly distressing all the pets in a mile square and including our own. I had to spend a half hour with Rosco but he seems to have forgiven me by this morning.

Rosco is very lonely when his humans go on trips and he becomes my dog.

Today my wife and daughter went somewhere to watch something with her sister.

I put together an old table. One of her sisters borrowed our "dining room" table and we have been sitting around the living room eating like Philistines off our laps. I think maybe spilling soup on the me, my phone, and the floor might have inspired a directive for me to dig another table out of storage. 

I can't believe this table made it from 1919 to 2025 without being painted some odd color by a frustrated housewife! It is a bit wobbly and took quite a bit of oil but it is not that bad.

It is a 100 year old piece of crap but thank the Lord no one has painted it grey or black. It was taken apart for storage. I tried to set it up yesterday evening but I couldn't find proper screws. Last night I woke up from a sound sleep with the idea to wedge match sticks in the old holes and use modern phillips head deck screws. It actually worked.

So that is the first day of 2025. Not an adventurous start but probably adequate...

I put license on the 1966 Ford again. If only one could return to 1966 or 1970 or just 1990. It was just better times.

An interesting Christmas

I wish a Happy Christmas to my thirteen faithful readers. It has been an interesting year.

I haven't been posting as I had a major change in my life and haven't really had the opportunity or perhaps the motivation. 

My daughter moved home from the big city and most of my time has been spent with her. This is a good thing. 

I am thankful for a lot of things. Most of all I am so glad to be away from a job/institution that seemed to be draining my very soul. 

I am thankful I am working with my nephews. 

I am thankful I can walk. 

I am thankful I sold a ton of hay and one bottle of hemp tonic yesterday.

I am thankful I didn't go broke this year.

I am thankful for friends who supported me when I was injured.

This morning Rosco the dog was waiting at the door. He isn't my dog but seems to like me.

I suppose this should have been a New Years post but Christmas is more of a time for Thanksgiving I think.

Honestly, I have been a bit down. It has been an interesting year. I picked the wrong year to go back to farming. However, this last month I have been thankful to be unemployed. 

I have developed a lot of even stronger opinions than I had last year. These involve the utter pathetic uselessness of a liberal arts education, therapists, liberals in general, and fake positive reviews on Amazon. I also have found out that many of my observations made on this blog were pretty dang accurate regarding my former employer. 

So, I hope you all have a great Christmas. I am not sure I have confidence in the New Year but life is one step in front of the other...

progress...

I deliver hay and do farm stuff

The other day I stopped by the Farm Service Agency to find out about low interest loans for on farm commodity storage.

The nice lady was quite happy to see me after eight years of me avoiding the place. She said I was still in their computers! 

It was a little disconcerting to hear her negativity on the farm economy for next year. However, she was encouraging with our plan to focus more on selling small bales to horse people. It seems to be the only bright spot lately. 

We need to add storage to house another four semi truck loads of hay. (around 2,400 bales of 14" x 18" x36" @ 65lbs each) Storing it outside under a tarp is not working. It makes a mess when it rains.

It sounds like we will be a shoe-in for the loan program. Three years ago the estimate for the addition was $40,000 ready to move in. It seemed a bit expensive then. Who knows the price now.

I helped my nephew haul a load of hay earlier in the week. I haven't been moving a lot of hay in the last few years. This was 110lb three tie bales. It wasn't too bad. 

The delivery location was not great. Tight location. Nephew just finished rebuilding the bed on our machinery transport truck so we decided to try it out. He loaded up the Skid Steer with hay grapple and I drove the old Ford Louisville tandem and we kept coastal traffic at 45 mph for a few miles.

I did feel a little guilty about taking two trucks and not just stacking in the barn. I have had worse barn stacking jobs. I was happy to see the roll-back deck worked flawlessly. 

Unloading truck with skidsteer and hay grapple. Worked pretty slick. The grapple also rotates to facilitate stacking.

Not a great picture but it is proof of life

The next trip with the truck will be to help Muddy Valley move his farm equipment. Probably next week.

Down the highway... My ears are still ringing! Lots of gears to make it to 55 mph.

A link to an interesting perspective on the Future Farmers of America

I have been amazed at the efforts of the Future Farmers of America to stay relevant in todays idiotic world. I was at the Willamette Valley Ag Show this week and was impressed at the number of FFA members who were involved with the show. Of course everything depends on your local advisor and some are incredible and some are completely worthless.

However, the National FFA organization seems to have understood that it is more than just "cows and plows," as the pathetic nerds at National Honor Society like to say, as they hug each other and frolic with rainbow flags.

And therein is the  issue. I suspect FFA has become a refuge for students who need to escape the bullshite of modern high school life.

There are two ways to look at that idea.

Mother Jones has found the last bastion of non doucheness left in America and they are exposing it...

CLICK here to see how the Future Farmers of America are a bunch of racist colonialist homophobes. (Thanks to my nameless buddy for texting me the link hoping to provoke an "intelligent discussion)

Also, if I were advising a young person of color... I would encourage them to join FFA. My observation is that you actually learn useful life skills. Skills which are not taught in public school. Like, how to run a business, public speaking, how to run a meeting, how to suffer in a dorky uniform in hot weather, how to talk to old people, how to put up with girls taking all the leadership positions, and if you are a kid with brown or black skin, how to win a place in society based on merit. 

But, what do I know? I am just a racist, inappropriate, insincere, and sarcastic old fart...

Also... I would really like to know why the percentage of farmers in the USA who are black went from something like 14% to a current rate of 2%. I can tell you the liberal bullshite interpretation of why this happened but I am betting there are correlations with declining farmer numbers in other areas. I am of course looking for support for my theory of megalomaniac family farming but do not want to give any support to other groups that I don't like. My world is a schizophrenic world, but at least I am never alone.

I go to an Agricultural Show

Yesterday my Brother and I went to the Willamette Valley Ag Expo. We needed pesticide credits so we went early in the day. Unfortunately we looked at the schedule wrong and the pesticide classes are today. I am not very excited about going back.

One of the highlights of the show is a hot lunch served cafeteria style. It is $12 with your admission ($5). This year it was chicken fried steak or lasagna. There was no steak left when we got there but there was iceberg lettuce. I do love iceberg lettuce and Ranch dressing. The lasagna stayed with me all day.

My brothers Wife and Son came up in the evening for a progressive type dinner that was supposed to feature Oregon grown delights. They were meeting with friends. 

My friend at the N&S Tractor booth gave me a ticket so I got to join the tour.

I think I was expecting something a little different. Perhaps more educational? It was supposed to feature Oregon grown items and I expected small portions with labels or maybe someone promoting products. Instead it was just dinner lines in each building with the main entree from a local meat producer. Also, Iceberg lettuce. I opted for the Italian dressing as I felt I needed to be more "cultured."

I also like meat. Not a huge fan of dead sheep but anything is good with salt and a little char.

You can't go wrong with meat! Mashed potatoes, boiled beans and Iceberg Lettuce!

Other than indigestion all day and much of the night, I was happy with the show. There were lots of free pens and key fobs this year. Lots of big ticket farming items. Four booths selling baler twine, (which I thought was a bit odd.)

The vendors were paying a lot of attention of the young people. Lots of kids were sporting new hats and had bags bursting with pens, cheap frisbees, writing pads, and candy. Lots of candy.

I have no idea what this says about the farm economy. There was almost nothing for small farmers. (IMHO) But there was a lot of equipment there.

I know the grass seed industry is not seeing much cash flow, commodity crops are crap, I think filberts are doing better, straw and hay are okay. 

Just my observations. The show seemed to have a lot more energy this year than in the past. There were very few empty booths. I saw two vendors I remembered from 20 years ago when we sold moisture testers at the Portland show.

I am sure this is a favorable result of the Booming Biden Economy!

How much I ended up charging to plant a hayfield/pasture

This is what it cost to plant a 12 acre pasture. This does not include the price of glyphosate or application of aforementioned evil poison...

100lbs Fawn Fescue $175
100lbs Orchardgrass $275
100lbs Climax Timothy $155
Recharge seed inoculant $116
129 gallons 10-34 liquid fertilizer $496.65
No-Till planting for 12 acres which was two directions at $30 per acre $660
(or I could have charged 5.5 hrs @ $120/hr which actually came out to the same price)

Total price was $1877.65

I think that is a lot of money for a 12 acre pasture. But I am not really making a lot of money on the job. I ended up getting the seed and fertilizer and it took forever. Plus, I paid for it all.

I was hesitant about charging for the second pass but it took a lot of time to do the first pass at an angle in this field. Second pass in a circle took a little over an hour. But the price I charge for planting reflects a high maintenance and expensive grain drill, a 180hp tractor, diesel, tires, and since it is a 1980's White tractor-the hydraulic oil I leak per acre.

I really feel that the cost in seed and fertilizer is pretty telling in relation to farming today. I know I am selling a service but I would have worked the ground. That would have doubled or tripled the farming cost but there would be a much better seed bed and better weed control.

Seed and fertilizer was $100 per acre and I assume Glyphosate was another $35 per acre.

Not a lot of room for error anymore...

I think it if fails I will replant for free or a substantial discount. Sort of feel guilty about charging so much...

Planting a pasture

Yesterday I planted a pasture. I avoid doing pastures as I have never had a lot of success. 

I live in Western Oregon. It seems to me that all the farming is done elsewhere. There are never good deals on tractors or research on alternative growing methods. The Rodale Institute is PA. When you look up farming information and get excited because the web address is "OSU." You soon find out that the research was done by Ohio State University, NOT Oregon State University.

It is pretty crazy when the catalogue from Great Plains MFG shows a set up just like mine replanting pasture but my experiences have mostly been failures.

There were three problems with this planting job. 

First issue is it is too late in the year for me to have confidence in good seed germination. My experience is that the seed just sets there and rots. If it does come up then it frost heaves out of the ground.

Second problem is that this is an old Turf-type Fescue field. Turf fescue has Endophytes bred into the seed which help prevent disease but cause issues with animal health. It was sprayed with glyphosate a couple days ago but there will still be seed sprouting later on. Also, the fescue sod is hard to kill. If there is any sod that is still dormant from summer, it may still come back. (not likely but I have seen it) 

The final issue is that the fescue is planted in 15" rows. The fescue rows have sod which is taller than the bare dirt between the rows. The no-till drill doesn't track well on the ridges. You have a lot of depth control issues. I could compensate if I could plant at an angle to the rows. However, this is an odd shaped field and there are few straight lines.

I suggested several alternatives. First I could no-till Cayuse Oats which will do "okay," winter planted and have a pretty decent hay yield. Take the hay off in late May when the oats are in late bloom. It is a little late for Oats so it would be better to wait until our winter weather break at the beginning of February. This would give time to make sure the fescue was dead.

Second suggestion was to work the ground. This would insure a kill on the fescue and make a smooth field. Again, November is a little late as we are heading into the rainy season.

My customer decided he wanted the pasture planted now and if it didn't come up we would do it again in the spring and he would pay me again.

So I planted.

The field was supposed to be 10 acres. I opted to plant two directions because of the difficulty with the fescue rows. This was not real successful. I picked a good straight line but soon found I was turning around way too frequently. Then I discovered that the field was more like 12 acres.

I got 100lbs of Fawn Fescue, 100lbs of Orchardgrass, and 50lbs of Timothy. The recommendation was 10lbs two directions but I wanted to go a little heavier. The goal was 30lbs total. However, having two acres extra was a problem. I scrounged through my shop for left over part bags, buckets, coffee cans, of any sort of forage grass. I found 25lbs of Kentucky 31, some Kentucky bluegrass of unknown vintage, and 25lbs more lbs of Timothy. I have 25 acres on the counter.

The other issue was fertilizer. I rebuilt my fertilizer applicator system with mixed results. I thought I had a system that I could easily agitate my fertilizer. This is handy if you have crappy 10-34 from Valley Ag or if you are mixing 32 and 10-34 as they tend to separate overnight. I needed the agitation as I was adding a Compost Tea inoculant called Recharge. 

My friend has worked with these folks, CatalyistBioAmendments. They are in Colorado and seem less sketchy. I need to email them and see if they offer a similar seed starter. I had a picture showing how one side of the drill came up faster due to the inoculant but it doesn't show up well on a computer screen.

Compost tea additive is just a bit hard on the filters

My agitation comes from the bypass which is how I regulate fertilizer pressure. The servo valve directs flow back into the tank instead of the usual method of restricting flow to the boom. There is a three-way valve on the boom which was made by Texas Industrial. A TIR.2401 three-way valve. This valve is now discontinued and I can't find instructions or a parts breakdown. It used to direct flow back into the tank when the fertilizer boom was shut off. Now it mostly just sticks open so if I want agitation I have to slowly reduce speed so the bypass directs all the flow back into the tank. It is a bit frustrating. A new high quality valve is like $400.

But I digress...

I mixed the compost tea inoculant in with the 10-34 fertilizer as this puts the mixture right down with the seed and set the Micro-trak Spraymate II at 8 gallons per acre. Everything was calculated for 10 acres and I foolishly mixed up very close to the correct amount. After making the first pass I had to go back home and mix up a second batch to make sure I came out correctly at 24 acres.

Then it started to get dark...

It was impossible to see anything and the GPS didn't work as the field had multiple slopes. The second trip I put down my marker, put the 2-155 in fifth over and ran at 7 mph. It took me 3 hours to do the first pass and an hour to do the second pass.