Do not stare at the paint shaker, It is hypnotic

Maybe my problem with painting is that I stare at the paint shaker too much...

I am afraid to go to the shop this morning.

Yesterday evening I painted the last hood panel for the White 2-155. When I walk out and open the shop door I fully expect something to go wrong. I have precedence for this worry.

Last winter when I was painting this tractor I had damage from, wayward cats, birds building nests, a hole in the roof, mosquitoes swimming in the metal flake, a chicken feather that was on my hat and fell into the wet paint, hooking the airhose around the barrel holding up the hood, oil on a rag I thought was clean, runs, sags, orange peel, strange puddling of the flake after painting because I thought I needed to build the gloss in one little spot and ended up with too much paint. 

Then there was the time I had it perfect and screwed up the clear coat. This may yet happen as that is the next step. I think I will wait a week before attempting any sanding.

I left an imperfection on the lower back of the panel as an appeasement to the whims of fate. 

Hope it works!

It honestly looked pretty decent when I left for supper last night. I wonder where the roof leak appeared and where the rain puddle is setting. Or perhaps a chicken roosted on it. Or the cat struck again...

Perhaps I am just negative. I mean, I was never struck by lightning, or earthquake, but I suspect a Container Ship with sketchy registration papers could somehow hit my shed and put a scratch in my pant job.

As long as I don't see the hood I feel it will somehow remain unblemished.

I have done the dishes, fed the chickens. talked to my friend who wishes not to be mentioned in my blog, applied for a job I do not want (and so it will be offered to me), sat a spell, petted the cat (literally, not a euphemism for anything), my hip exercises, and I swept the laundry room. 

Eventually I am going to have to look...

Perhaps I should split some kindling first. 

Retrospective

Today I was looking at my blog and trying to remember how to edit the layout. I saw the top five posts in the last month and I see my rather poorly written review of The Blue Goat restaurant is back in the top five.

I suspect this reflects more on the lack of popularity of the blog than it does on the increased popularity of the Blue Goat.

However, I started thinking about the life and local changes since 2011.

I would have to say the hilarity that was Amity has decreased considerably. I don't think I would classify the town as especially weird any more.

No naked guy in the park. No crazy guy with a megaphone telling people how to park down town. No weird guy setting out front of his antique shop reading a book. There is no Cafe that I eat at every day and the owner comes out and yells at me for ordering half a cob salad.

No old guys pitching quarters in front of the barber shop, no good BBQ...

But, the Blue Goat remains.

Sometimes it is open. Sometimes it is closed. You don't always know when. The food is interesting and generally good. I have not been there in several years, so I suppose it is time to try it again. I am sure that when I go back it will be quirky.

I do miss the old days.

I congratulate the Goat for remaining. 

I did have to laugh about the hours. Of course they do roll up the streets in Amity after 8 pm nowadays. The winery crowd apparently doesn't "party down," like they used to now they have hit 65. 

(Of course one should not confuse the Blue Goat vs the Blue Moon.)

How I set my grain drill

There is nothing more maddening then to discover you are five acres short on a fifty acre field and it is after 5 p.m and it is going to rain tomorrow.

Setting the grain drill is one of the biggest frustrations on the farm. I have an operator's manual and a lot of times it is correct. I also write down all my settings. But, if I do not double check my rate I am always sorry.

My favorite way to calibrate my grain drill is the Seeder Meter (acusale.com). This tool was invented by Dave Berckes of Minnesota. Now I have written about this before but I have to write about this again because I love it.

It is so simple that it genius. It is just a scale which is calibrated according to drill row spacing and distance covered.

You drive the distance and put the collected seed into the scale cup. There is a little ring by which you hold the scale and a level bubble on a sliding weight.

To use it you pull off one seed tube and put a bucket under it. You look up the chart printed on the scale and drive the distance according to your row spacing. You can also use  two tubes and drive half as far. I generally can set the drill pretty close going by my book so I just fill up the whole drill and use the Seeder Meter to fine tune the drill.

I just keep a wire or a bungie cord on the side of the drill and use it to hold the bucket to collect seed from row one. This way I don't need to make a skip row. I just overlap a little on the next pass.

I do some specialty seed which is not on the chart. Generally I can pick similar seeds out of my chart or off my records and set the drill close. Then I just pile the seed over one row and drive the distance. 

I have planted really light seeds and used different spacings which are not on the chart. You can compensate by driving twice as far and diving the rate on the scale or using more tubes. 

There is a chart on the side of the scale which has row spacing and the distance needed to drive to get the required amount to get the weight right.

The Seeder meter is not the best for light seed especially if it is windy. In that situation I lift the drill and turn the wheel by hand. For example if I am planting 2 lbs per acre on 15" spacing the weight is going to be pretty light so I have to do some planning as you are not going to get a lot of seed in 115 feet.

Generally I am planting 7.5 inch spacing so my distance is 232 feet so I do try to get the rate pretty close to start with as that is a fairly long distance to drive.

Of course the issue is measuring the distance. I have a magnet wheel sensor on the drill so I can use an electric acre counter sent to feet. The other tool I have is a GPS speedometer which I can connect to a Microtrak Calc-an-acre or SprayMate to measure distance. This helps out considerably.

It doesn't matter if you drive a couple feet too far. Of course I do also try to count the number of seedbags and the number of acres I am getting per bag just to keep myself honest.

I also have a set up in my Gator. But I like gadgets.

I find the sensor-1 GPS speedometer very handy. It also puts out a pulse for an external controller like this MicroTrak FlowMate II.  You can also use the Sensor-1 to check calibration on your external flowmeter or acre counter. The GPS sensor is always correct so you can compare speeds on your magnet sensor device or meter which needs calibration. 

Life on the farm seems to be a series of minor crisis followed by sore muscles

 

A couple days in the life of a crippled farmer

Today I am still in bed and it is 9 a.m. I have ice on my leg. I decided to take a break. I can hear everyone working like mad outside. I think my brother just loaded up the bin-on-a-trailer with more barley so I suppose I really need to get to work. I am truly the Lazy Farmer.

Maybe one more cup of coffee...

A baby calf appeared!

I am raising dust

I figured out how to load the drill with a broken leg. (Hint, it involves use of a forklift)

Then I went back to working ground. Or since I am taking the photo, my brother took over working dirt and I started planting

When the GPS works properly it is a beautiful thing

I planted ten acres without knowing I had lost two V-openers. There may be some seed on top of the ground

The service Gator uses very little gas and has very little horsepower.

Herschel has cheapened the bearing assembly on their openers. I am sad. Try installing a rubber hubcap when your hands are freezing!

Of course the fertilizer pump failed!

Some progress was made...

Planting Belford Barley at 50 degree soil temp and 1/2 to 2" deep. (Long story there) The goal is 120lbs per acre. My copy of The Doanes Farm Management guide, which I keep under the seat of the tractor says 90 lbs, but I figure with inflation I should plant more. The seed company went a little heavy on the seed treatment and the barley keeps plugging up the seed tubes. After hearing that beep and the screen saying "low seed rate row 4," I was suffering from mental fatigue so I now I am one hopper short of a full field.

Sometimes it happens

My first day as a farmer

Today went as I remember farming to go...

Went to Derry after oat seed. Thought it would be 1200lbs. The pallet was 2000lbs and they said to bring back what I didn't need. I think I overloaded my wife's half-ton Ford.

Got back and the big tractor had electric failure. I took off for town to get a cab solenoid, sign papers for FSA, pickup parts. I was going to take my wife lunch but forgot my wallet in the ttruck.

Went to the welding store. They were laughing with me about my limp and made a comment about if I has handicapped I could be president. I said, "Hey! I like ice cream." A good time was had by all...

Got home. My brother wiggled a coupe wires and the tractor was working.

My wife had fixed me lunch.

A friend from work stopped by to see me. I got him to help me a little bit.

My brother and I decided to go check on our helper. He was working up 30 acres for barley. The soil temp is not quite 53 degrees so we are using a Vibrashank (spring tooth) to stir up the dirt.

The 1966 Ford quit. No one was home to come get us.

We walked a mile and a half. I was really missing my cane by the time we got back to the shop.

I decided to drive the White 2-60 in to the Co-op to pick up 5000lbs of 38-0-0-7 and the bulk spreader. There was a line for fertilizer. (It was 70 degrees and sunny) I had an hour wait. However, they were nice enough to load my bucket with cheapest glyphosate and helped me untarp the box.

Went down to the field to take over the ground work. 

The a/c wasn't working. 

Around dark I found out that the number six injector line had broken off where it hooks into the injector. This is a brand new line and is the hardest to replace as the injector connection is between the block and the injector. I did not have a stubby 3/4" wrench or a tubing wrench and I couldn't get it off.

I went home.My wife brought me a bowl of soup and made me sit down. She brought me some ice for my leg.

I got in almost 12 hours. Not a bad day.

Stepping off the brink

March 18 was a long time ago...

After digesting a lot of information which may or may not predict the up coming year I am not impressed. This whole concept of pulling oneself up by your own bootstraps is the bunk.

However, I have been doing my exercises and I feel better. Yesterday I had my wife help me come up with a process to get into the tractor and back out again. We practiced climbing onto the grain drill. She helped me climb onto the fertilizer bin which will carry the seed to the field. I need to be able to load it which means I need to climb up the side, remove a tarp, and then untie the bottom of a 1200lb bag which is being held over the bin by a forklift. I think I can do it.

Today is essentially my first day of farming.

I am scared. I talked to a fellow at Church Sunday who is paying $250 an acre rent and who has had to take out his one year old Fescue grass seed crop. He is subleasing his farm to someone else. He thought he was done farming for five years.

I want to plant oats today and barley tomorrow. I really don't see those as big money makers. I know too many farmers who don't get paid and crops that are too low priced. For crying out loud, wheat is the same price it was in 1972. It was a good price then, but a new combine was $20,000 then, not $350,000.

So I kind of feel like I am stepping off a cliff. I probably will have to go to work at a Golf Course in the end. 

Perhaps I will feel better when I actually get to work.

If I would have just... The start of a post that got interrupted

"If I had to do it all over again," said my accountant. When my dad bought me one of the first computers and wanted me to study computers and stick around I would have done it, she said.

"Don't you have one of those? (thoughts)," she added.

Well, yess! Never quit your first job without finding another job! Even if it means you got to spend two months in Costa Rico. 

This is of course not a fair question. You do what you do because of a lot of reasons and how you build from your actions and how you view yourself is really the definition of success. 

Of course neither one of us robbed banks or served jail time. My answer to the question, what would you do different is probably just a rationalization. There are lots of things I would do different. Starting changing jobs last October, not walking on the ice, and finishing with not going so close to that tree and busting the boom off the sprayer I worked over last week.

That tree jumped out and grabbed the boom. Mother Nature's revenge!

And then there is this, "You gave them the best years of your life and they gave you this...," She said somewhat jokingly. (My accountant and I tend to philosophize.) She is a graduate of my former employer and she does not approve of the direction her college has taken.

But, I digress...

I now feel like a real farmer... (This is not because I am sort of depressed.)

My brother took me to a farm meeting and then we went on the Northwest Farm Show which was rescheduled due to freezing rain.

It was interesting to be back in the farming world. There are a lot fewer farmers than I remember.

My leg hurts like sin, but I can't admit it to anyone (meaning my wife) because it was an obviously bad idea to walk on concrete.

This will have to be a second installment as I am out of time for blogging.