Off to Italy! This is going to be the best adventure of my life and I will be inspired for at least the next decade!

 I leave for New York City tomorrow morning.

Apparently, if you visit people in New York they don't pick you up a the airport because of traffic. So I am taking the AirTrain to Jamaica Station, then transferring to the E line towards Manhattan then the G line to Brooklyn. 

Me, being a regular city traveler, am absolutely not intimidated by wandering around NYC by subway. It will be fun! I was going to ask if it was the Last Exit To Brooklyn but wasn't feeling that chipper... 

My luck I will take Last Exit to Babylon and will be stuck in parallel timeline, which could be better or worse than my current one... This is what I am actually hoping for... 

For the past four months my friend has been telling me to relax, taking a month off won't make any difference, the work will still be there. You just need a reset. I have heard that from several people who are trying to be supportive.

Yes, the work will still be there. 

And Of course, when I plan something, things go sideways.

I had planned to have the last cutting of Alfalfa finished today. But, we got rain... We just found out our shed loan went through and the builder is coming mid September...It rained and I didn't finish planting Timothy, or get the annual ryegrass ground ready, other than 2x with disk.

So what I have left for my nephew has to do by himself when I am gone. 

20 acres of Alfalfa and 20 acres of Teff/Alfalfa hay, 200 acres of annual ryegrass ground to finish (one pass with vibrashank and probably 3 trips with harrow and roller-(fighting constant plug ups from residue.) Managing cleanup to build shed extension, building side racks for his truck to haul silage, plant 10 acres of timothy, deliver hay, haul silage...

When I get back, I can plant the annual, but I also need to make about ten ton of pellets, and do 150 acres of custom planting in November, plus another 100 acres of our own. And I promised my wife I would put new skirting around the house at least a year ago.

Then there are the dead tractors... 2-135 has no hydraulics again, plus a head gasket failing, three speed slipping in direct, oil leak from steering, 2-105 has no transmission lube pressure and I think it fried the PTO during startup because I forgot to put grease on the thrust bearing which became a serious problem with no transmission oil pressure. 1355 needs brakes, Stacker needs brakes, Both 2-155s are leaking oil around the head gaskets, as all three have about the same hours on remanufactured Hercules engines.

That is just a list off things to do right off the top of my head... 

Maybe I just need to start smoking Chronic...

I bet I will comeback from Italy completely happy and refreshed. I will be super enthusiastic and full of great stories and be really encouraged and inspired by the Yale graduates I will get to hang out with. This will be a new and better version of me. No longer will it be the Lazy Farmer, I will be the Inspired Farmer! This blog will rival Zig Zigler in inspirational material! I will be THE motivational blogger!

 

This is a representative image of my past summer and past life. After this trip things like this won't happen because I will have had an emotional reset and all will be right due to sheer positive energy!

I tried a dress rehearsal. I did 1000 feet up and 1000 feet down in 3 miles in the rain. It was sort of like groundskeeping only with no leaf blower and weird synthetic fabrics. I haven't tried the hiking poles yet. Feet still hurt. Mostly the foot I ran through the stacker cross conveyor chain 30 years ago.

Not sure about the man purse. Sort of uncomfortable.

I worry that the attractive ladies who post videos of hiking the Dolomites will lust after me due to my amazing middle aged physique. I wonder if there will be lots of Italian ladies splitting firewood while wearing improper safety equipment. I will take picture if I see them.  Also, attractive Italian ladies making hay on steep hillsides! I am pretty sure that will be my view on this trip. Also, cows. Cows are nice.

Wife says I can't wear my favorite hat...

 

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.

 

 

An Early Christmas, My JiCO stylus arrives-Registered Mail!

I bought a JICO stylus for my Shure VN15 type II cartridge.
I mean I really did it!
Yes my dear readers I spent actually money on a piece of new stereo equipment!
I am setting in my old Lazy Boy recliner listening to The Nitty Gritty Dirt band, Symphonion album. I am amazed at how good it sounds.
For those of you who have followed my misadventures as an "audiophile," you may have picked up on my skepticism. I just don't have a "good ear."
Then there is the issue of buying records for $1 at thrift stores. I do have a few gems but frankly my "HiFi" system is a hodgepodge of components which I have scrounged and not quite properly restored. I realize that myself and so I am reluctant to spend real money on anything.
While there was a time I would not have been caught dead listening to the Nitty Gritty Dirt band I am now old and I can listen to what ever the $%^&* I want. Like I could possibly embarrass my daughter anymore than I already do.
I must say that there are very few things I have added to my "HiFi" which have made audible improvements for the better I am amazed at the sound of this stylus and cartridge.
The Shure VN15 came with the Dual 1019 I purchased from a lady in Portland. She had it advertised on Craigslist and had been packed up in the factory packaging and stored for years. If you recall I reworked the mechanism with an 8" crescent and a big screw driver. However, the stylus was broken and I installed a Stanton D71EE which I already had.
I was never all that happy with the Stanton. I like the elliptical stylus especially for the scratchy records I listen to. It always sounded a bit dull to me.
My main cartridge over the years was an Audiotechnica AT155LC until I lost it in a move. It was a bit overkill for what I used to listen to but it was really a sweet sounding cartridge. After getting back into vinyl a few years ago I found I really missed the bright and accurate sound of that cartridge.
Well, today I got a notice that I had a package at the post office. Finding a parking place in Amity is a bit of a challenge-I just parked on the wrong side of the street, those idiots have totally ruined parking, it is just hard to comprehend what a bunch idiots run the city.
Anyway, I had to sign for the package as it came from Japan. I was a bit worried it would be radioactive but I can't find batteries for my geiger counter so I was unable to check it.
I anxiously waited for evening so I could instal the stylus and give it a try.
I put the family to bed and in about five minutes had it all installed. Perhaps tomorrow I will read the included instructions.
I was amazed at the sound quality. It is clear. Not too bright, not to dense, just right. Somewhat warm as one would expect from the vintage shure type II cartridge. I am perhaps not good at describing the sound as I don't really have the proper audiophile vocabulary.
The first album I listened to was the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, "Symphonion." I chose it because it opens with the sound of rippling water and it has a wow on the first track which always causes tracking problems.
I was impressed. There is little background noise and it picked up the delicate sound of the water. It is well defined sound, not fuzzy on the quiet edges of the sounds.
I also tried out my Commander Cody album which I bought because of the cover and that it has the most heart breaking trucker song ever, "Mama Hated Diesels."
The album has so many clicks and pops and it so worn that I couldn't tell anything.
I also gave the Allman brothers a try. I like their version of Statesboro Blues and I have yet to find a Blind Willie McTell album at the McMinnville GoodWill store. Perhaps I should try "Treasure Attic in Amity..."
I couldn't tell a big difference on Statesboro blues, it always seems a bit muddy sounding, (no offense to MuddyValley nor do I mean it sounds like a trombone). However on the next track "Stormy Monday," I was quite impressed. I like the warm sound it gives the lead guitar and the contrast between the loud and quiet passages.
I am currently listening to my old Baby Advent speakers at low volume. They are not the best speakers in the world but I can't hear the rattle that one discerning ear picked up on first listen. The Dynaco speakers would be better but I use the Advents more at low listening volumes-meaning late at night.
My only regret is I should have doubled my money and bought the SAS stylus. JICO puts a little more effort into that stylus and it really is a long term sort of purchase so I should have just bought the best.

An important consideration for Dual 1019 owners is the contacts in the headshell. I first clean them with a pencil eraser but you have to be very careful as they are little spring brass connectors and the mounting points are VERY fragile. Note that everything is now 40-some years old.
I applied DeOxit Gold to the contacts before installing the headshell on the tonearm.
Should this post attract anyone who is seeking info on the Dual 1019, you have to be careful installing and/or removing this headshell. Dual used a funky cam and lever setup that is not exactly intuitive. There is a metal lever on the side of the headshell. Since I am avoiding work and posting from out in the shop (a couple days after first post) I can remember if you push it forward or pull it back. Just don't force it! AND put something soft under the cartridge as the headshell could slip from your fingers and land on the needle. It can just drop off the tonearm/top headshell mount.
To put it back on you look for the notches in the top of the headshell mount back close to the tonearm. Make sure the brass springs don't get out of alignment as those are your contacts. There is no need to force it as when everything is aligned properly it goes right in.

For those who care...
The whole system is as follows: Dynaco PAS-2 preamp, Dynaco ST120 solid state amp, Dual 1019 with Sure V-15 type II, JICO stylus, Dynaco A-25 speakers, Baby Advent secondary speakers.
Have been using a Rek-o-kut K33H with a Fairchild 282 tonearm and a Shure hi-trak cartridge.
Alternate system has a Kenwood KA3500 amp.

Another Vintage Stereo Post

This whole vintage stereo thing is getting a little out of hand. I actually spent money!
My wife seems a bit bemused by the whole thing. I have not made a big deal about the latest addition as I am a little sensitive about the amount of Crap I drag home. However, I almost never spend more than $25 on anything.
I found a Dynaco ST-120 amp on craigslist. The fellow I bought it from was really interesting. I talked to him for something like two hours and I couldn't really back out of the deal at that point. He was asking $75. The ad has been on for several weeks at $100 and I doubt he got many calls.
The Dynaco ST-120 was Dynaco's first attempt at a solid state amplifier. There were some problems. Plus it was a kit and often there were problems with the amateur soldering jobs.
I got it home an connected it to my amplifier. I hooked it into the headphone socket since my KA3500 does not have a preamp output. I turned the volume control down and switched on the Dynaco. There was a loud pop though the speakers and buzzing noise.
I tried a record and one speaker rattled badly. I switched the amp off and waited a minute for the caps to drain and then turned it back on. I got pretty good sound which then faded in volume and became quite fuzzy. There is no fuse on the output of the amp and I think this is how the powersupply deals with a short circuit. I don't really understand it but I think it increases the voltage but decrease the amperage to keep it from burning anything up.
I disconnected the Dynaco 120 and hooked the speakers back up the KA3500 now I had distortion in my right speaker. I kind of freaked out a bit. I scored a pair of Dynaco A-25's which are kind of ugly but sound incredible. I'm not going to be able to touch another pair for less than $200 which is hard to do on a $35 budget.
Muddy Valley suggested that since it was an intermittent problem I turn the offending speaker face down and run it to see if something had stuck in the voice coil. Wonder of wonders it worked.
I pulled the cage off of the Dynaco 120 and discovered the solder had melted where the power supply capacitor lead was soldered to the circuit board.
Sunday afternoon I resoldered it and low and behold it worked.

I hooked it back up the head phone jack on the Kenwood but I hooked up my Baby Advents as I do not want to kill the Dynaco's and the Advents already have fried crossovers. It worked! Very little noise.
The Dynaco 120 is not considered a very good amp by the audiophiles but I'm not exactly "HiFi" and it fits in with the rest of my Dnyaco set up and plus, it looks cool so who cares!
I am listening to the amp at this very moment. It sounds incredibly clean hooked to my little Sansa MP3 player and playing though some little Jensen bookshelf speakers I stole from my brother. They don't have a lot of bass so I can't really work the amp very hard but it is not getting hot at volumes that don't wake the rest of the family.
I am listening to Merle and Lefty and a little Ian Tyson but have not worked up my nerve to give the Legendary Stardust cowboy a try.
It sounds pretty incredible with strong midrange guitar and vocals. I am listening to the Louvin Brothers, "The Drunkard's Prayer" right now. Excellent details in the high range. I can't hear any noise at moderate volumes. The bass is not real strong but these are little bookshelf speakers, but the tone is pretty good.

I think I killed my Blog!

I signed up with Amazon associates so you can search books mentioned on this blog. It seems to have slowed things down a bit!
Any of you folks with a slow internet connection please comment and tell me if you can still load The Lazy Farmer.
If so, please buy stuff from Amazon by using my Amazon search feature, or the Cloud thing widget at the bottom of the page.
Should anyone happen by who wants to support the Lazy Farmer you can buy me something off my wish list. Just looking at my wish list should provide entertainment...
Or you can just cut the crap and donate 1.2 million to me through my paypal link!
So, if anyone has comments on my shameless efforts to get rich-comment away! I have pretty low expectations but it is really entertaining to see what Amazon thinks I'm talking about and the links to books they provide!
In news unrelated to my lazy efforts to become rich... I am listing to iTunes radio on the internet. Specifically the station, Boot Liquor on SomaFM. They were playing "I want you to want me" the old Cheap Trick song and it was set to banjo music. It was pretty good but iTunes has become so complicated I couldn't figure out how to get the mini-player to stay on top of everything else so I can see what I am hearing. Oh boy... now it is Iris Dement, she gets old in a hurry! Earlier it was Jim Croce singing about the dangers of cigarettes, strong drink, and wild women. A worthy cause on a Sunday morning when we should all be in Church...

If I had a million dollars

If I had a million dollars. Aspirations weblog has this as a topic. I think there is a weblog challenge to write a certain number of words or something. This if you had a million dollars thing is along those lines.
You see my problem is my attention span.
I look read her blog and Ed Winkles, then I get distracted by some other link and then I wander off through the internet and I can never remember where I started or what I wanted to look at to begin with.
This whole million dollar windfall thing is a game that Sadie and I play sometimes. It has to do with my faulty logic, which comes from attending a public school where logic is not taught.
I once read that you have nearly the same chance of winning the lottery if you don't play as if you do play. I don't play as I am to uptight to spend the dollar but somehow I have it in my head that I still could win. The illustration is supposed to make you understand that playing the lottery is such a long shot that actually buying a ticket doesn't really increase your chances that much. It is faulty reasoning to say that if you don't play you still might win. Still, it may happen to me....
S. wants to by legos.
I have simple needs. I want to pay off the bills and the farm and get my brother and I a retirement.
Now if I was filthy rich... The example of Nicolas Cage was brought up. It seems that he is as nuts as I have always suspected. He bought an island, lots of houses, all kinds of stuff and now I guess he is broke...
If I was like a 250 million dollar winner then that would be something else. I'm not sure I want that. It would either be really fun to farm, because you could do it anyway you wanted, or there would be no point to farming. I don't think I would know until my first crop failure.
The extra cash would be bad for the kid. Anything she would want. You don't really have the hunger to do something if you know you have a safety net.
I would like to set up a program of preschools which use retired people to give the kids a link to the past. Like grandparents. S. went to a preschool like that and it was amazing.
I'd like to own a couple thousand acres all in one spot. I would pick a year, like say 1967, (that way I could have a G1000 Vista) and I would allow nothing on that farm newer than 1967. (Except for children...)
There would be a visitor staging area, kind of like a qaurantine  facility. If you didn't have the right clothes you could check some out. (like bowing shoes at a bowling alley.) Any deliveries would have to be transferred to period vehicles. I'd let antique tractor people bring in their old tractors and play with them. I'd have lots of implements for them to pull. I'd have a farm that looked like the Marx Lazy Days farm. I would have the place divided into smaller farmsteads. So there would be a mix of small and large farms. Each farm would be out of a different decade. I'd try all the old techniques out of the Farmer Stockman's hand book of 1945. I'd raise old breeds of cows and real tomatoes and wooley pigs. There would even be some horse farmers. Perhaps I'd expand by inviting some Amish to start a colony.
No cell phones...
There would be no wine.
Hard cider perhaps.
I would allow banjo music but only once a week.
Visitors over 16 would not be allowed to wear short pants except when swimming at the ol' swimming hole. I would have a steam powered ice cream maker.
I would wear a Fedora and drive a 1953 Pontiac around the farm at break neck speeds. Perhaps I would have a very cute intern to drive me around.
But, I digress...
Sometimes Sadie and I play the three wishes game. We have pretty well figured that one out. We will ask for good fortune. I think that is bullet proof.
We will not ask for a sausage. I read a story about that once. Those folks ended up in the end with nothing...

Sometimes it works out

I've been a bit depressed lately. Lot to do and no money coming in. I was planning on going to a fairly good sized agricultural show today with my sometimes a great employee young farmer kid but I found out S. was winning an award at school. So, I got D. to help me move farm equipment out of the river bottom. We had our 3 antique Hesston 6600's, the New Holland 1085 stacker, freeman baler, G1000 Vista, and a dead ranger pickup all lined up in the field. The idea was to blow them all off with the aircompressor, move them up to the shop and wash each one and find a shed to put them in. Well, the main employee just never came back to work a month or so ago and it didn't get done. I'm finally rained out from planting so I've been trying to get things put away. It is almost painful for me to see wet hay in the bale chamber of the baler.
D. helped me pull a the stacker out, it was stuck. Then he bought me lunch at Alf's. Had a very good hamburger I might add. He was trying to cheer me up. He has plans. We are going to build a shop...
We were going to go to the Ag Show but I found out S. was to get that award. She just had a teacher conference and the teacher said she is really good in all her courses. Math, spelling, and science. So, I'm thinking she is getting an award for something academic. I never got those awards. I was pretty happy.
I got to school and saw a former employee. We called him Smilin' Dave as he grinned a lot and is missing his front teeth. His kid vandalized the school last year as a second grader. He broke in and stole a jar of licorice. The kid likes school this year and is really doing well. He got the math award. His dad says he hates math...
S. got an award for being a nice person. I am postive she is my daughter but yet sometimes I wonder. I think the nice person award is kind of BS. I was going to take her to the AgShow with me today. I didn't so that she could get the award. She was kind of dissapointed. I think she figured she was up for something a little more substantial.
I took her home with me. Got her out of the last 20 minutes of school. It was close to 3 p.m. so we had coffee break. I had a pepsi and she had a coke. She drew a pretty good picture of us setting at the coffee break table. I think she is a good artist.
My brother called and was back from truck driving and thought we could still make the show. S. decided she wanted to play with her cousins instead. So I picked up my brother and took off.
Now for the amazing part of this story.
We walk in and are looking around for the Great Plains drills. I see a fellow I sold straw to last year right before the market crashed. I said hi to him and he says he has been looking for me. He pulls out his check book and starts writing. He hands me a check for $5,000. I ask him if he has sold my hay from this year. He says no this is from the straw from last year. He said he didn't want to get too far behind. Then he thanked me for encouraging the local dairy fellow who kind of went down in flames last year. I did think the dairy fellow kind of over reacted when I told him he was a really good dairy fellow that I always respected and as I knew he was having some tough times I was not going to charge him for planting his field. I didn't realize he was really depressed. I did want to encourage him and the field was only 12 ares. I set the drill wrong and ended up doing it again, and the GPS tablet crashed, and I really had no idea the true acres and I just thought I'd just not charge the guy. The fellow who bought my straw said I gave the dairy dude encouragement at just the right time. That made me feel worthwhile. It does kind of make the idea of doing the right thing for the sake of doing the right thing and not to be thinking of doing the right thing to make yourself look good but, doing it because you want to, much more rewarding. Now that was a run on sentence... Anyway I feel much better this evening.
I really didn't expect to see that money. Wow! Glad I decided to go!
I pretty much have the money spent already-but it does take a lot of pressure off me. Half the stacker payment right there!