Last field of hay- July 27th? Whatever..As the young folks tend to exclaim!

As I am quite confidant everyone is putting aside their worries about rain and soybean failure to wait with nervous anticipation for the next installment of the Budd E. Shepherd Hay Company's next misadventure, here is the news: I'm done, finished, over-with, completed, finis, no more hay, other than some alfalfa that we have planted next to the Buckwheat field.
The Last Field, (located at Gopher Valley.)

The Last Stack

This is not the best hay I have ever made. There are some weeds. Somehow I have to get it home...
My landlady's stepson is obsessed about closing the gate. I closed the gates. He cruised slowly by in his Land Rover. I have no idea why he doesn't stop. I've got to go see my landlady and her stepson. She is nice but he seems to think I am going to bite him. And there is that lingering resentment that I don't shut the gates. I had a nice chat with him this spring but who knows.
The neighbor girl is afraid of him-sort of. She won't go visit the nice lady as she says the stepson creeps her out. I suggested that he is probably an ax murderer  so that she would get all giggly and animated. Then I implied that she was younger and cuter than she actually is and tried to get her to bring me cookies. I like cookies. And chocolate cake with fresh cherries.
What I need to do is get her to run the rake for me. I helped her brother bale his hay and the deal was that she was supposed to come and rake at Muddy Valley. Instead her brother sent his weird little minion who crapped in the field and Bill got the blame.
But, I digress.
I got a call from a chicken feed customer that he had 30 bags of raw soy curls. So I zipped a few miles down Hwy 18 to Hebo Road and picked them up. Who would have thought there was a soy curl factor a few miles past the old Indian School. It is in the middle of nowhere!
Then I made chicken feed.

I have a new tractor. It is an 806 IH, WITH A TURBO! We can't figure out if this was a factory add on or stolen off an other IH or if it is an M&W. It seems to have a lot of power. No gauges and the wiring is very messed up. Most of the hard to find sheet metal is missing. Employees on the previous owner tweeked it all away for scrap. I have no idea what I'm going to do with it, other than leave it on the feed mill. After I add temp and oil pressure gauges. I think the clutch slips a bit. I have a loader to fit it and perhaps a hay grapple. It was a very good price. I don't see cash exchanging hands on this one.
However, I also can't sell it for a respectable amount of time. I'd say 2-3 years.
I had no intentions of becoming an IH collector but the collection grows.
(Note: the entire feed grinding operation consists of equipment that should have been scrapped-and was free or almost free)
Pathetic or resourceful?
You don't need to answer that one!

I have no friends but my dog, business truisms I've learned at Gopher Valley

I used to be a farmer. I had a farm at Gopher Valley.
It is a little pocket in the foothills of the Coast Range. You get there from a little road off of Highway 18 just outside of Sheridan, OR.
General Sheridan carried his campaign of rape and pillage from the Shenandoah Valley on to the hills of Oregon. The old guys tell of trails though the woods that Sheridan cut to haul artillery to use against the Indians.
Boycotting Phil Sheridan Days is about the only thing in which I find any solidarity with the Casino Indians, but then again...
I digress...
I started cutting hay at Gopher Valley in something like 1980 for the family farm. When I started my own farm it was at Gopher Valley. It was the only place you could get ground on a very low budget.
Since then I have lost a lot of money and made a little money. I will say that Gopher Valley hay bought my mower, baler, and various rakes.
However, it is a long way from home and everything goes wrong for me up there.
Lately it is been discovered by other hay farmers. Discovered is a loose term. Actually, it has been absorbed by people I have hired to haul hay for me.
It is kind of amusing. I drove up the valley a bit yesterday and found several "undiscovered" fields. Of course I have not been cutting hay off them and so they look pretty sad. The big guys are not interested in those fields.
The one thing that makes me a little bitter is my old farm on Thompson Mill Road. I put a huge amount of work into that farm. I didn't fight with the family of the elderly lady who I used to rent from when the grand kids wanted to try hay farming. Of course they didn't call me when they decided to rent it out this year. They called my neighbor.
I gave up another 20 acres this year. The fellow who got it is a friend who I've been helping get started doing hay. He got behind and I raked, baled, and stacked the field. Something I swore I would not do.
I found out yesterday that he sold it to the fellow who has been buying hay from me and who bought hay up there last year. He didn't try to sell my hay right next door.
When I questioned my hay guy who helps me sell to these fellows he said, "I have no friends but my dog..."
Had to think just how true that statement is!

Minneapolis-Moline Forklift

Will someone with lots of money buy me this forklift?

"For sale is a White Mobilift forklift, lift capacity is 5,000lbs, the model number is: MY50, the serial number is:20100913. Runs and drives great!!Don't miss this great buy!!"


On the tag it says Minneapolis-Moline. I think it is the real deal!


On the way back you could bring me a nice White 2-110 to pull the mower.

The biggest 60 acre field of my life...Balehenge has been hauled away!

I could go into detail but shall we say, problems occurred, weather happened, tires went flat, the field is done, only 20 acres to go...

 7.5 semi-loads of hay, 3,780 bales, 415,800lbs, 207 tonnes, $3000 to get it hauled away...
There were two flat tires. Had to use the non-air conditioned tractor on the baler for the last ten acres, but my helper is a trouper!

Shopping for tires. $1200 each? They didn't give us a price on Saturday.

I think this tire was new enough I will not have to buy the new one. It was defective.

Muddy Valley invited me in for coffee and a very delicious chocolate cake, which had fresh-from-the-tree cherries cooked into it by the lovely and gracious Mrs. MuddyValley. I told my helper Muddy was probably going to raise my rent or force me to drink Scotch. I said nary a word about chocolate cake. It is always best not to lord it over the help.

Wildflowers

I thought these were called "blue-eyed ...." but after doing a quick search online this morning I don't think they are what I though they were.  I found this site but my internet through OnlineNorthWest (wine country internet-of course) is so slow I can't really do a search.

They are certainly pretty. They grow in low moist and shaded areas. They grow close to the ground but I can't remember if they were on vines or individual stems.
For those interested in the progress of "Balehenge" we made progress yesterday despite all sorts of silly little breakdowns. Tractors not starting, bolts falling out of the baler header, a thunderstorm with no rain and a dog fight.
Muddy Valley saved the day with a special aircraft bolt and sleeve that he used to replace the allenhead bolt that had broken twice in one day, exhausting our supply of spares. I was amazed at the amount of spare parts my trusty assstro-naught  helper carries with me.

 In exchange for his loyal efforts I fixed his air conditioning. I was pretty amazed to see the Carquest delivery girl zipping across our hay field in her little white car, bringing cans or R-134. She is pretty good with directions, and we did set an orange cone by the road entrance.

UPDATE: Thanks to MuddyValley who provided me with the name. It is of course Perriwinkle. I feel a bit dimwitted.
Here is the skinny...
Lobelia  An Annual.
Common Name:    Periwinkle
Over 300 lobelia species are found over a range of 10 hardiness zones. Some cultivars survive in temperatures over 90 degrees Fahrenheit, while others survive temperatures as low as 45 degrees below zero. Perennial varieties will survive through winter.

And...To be taken with a grain of salt:  pun intended
LOBELIA - NATIVE AMERICAN WONDER HERB

Lobelia (also known as Indian Tobacco) grows wild in many parts of the country. Dairy and cattle ranchers have known about it for the last 200 + years and have made it available to their livestock so that their animals could self medicate themselves with it! Native American Indians knew of it's useful properties long before the white man came to the North American continent. Often it was featured in their "smoke" mixtures.

Lobelia is best known as an antispasmodic. Taken in massive doses, it will act as a very effective purgative for every eliminative channel in the body. It is used as a safe herb to control seizures, fits, convulsions, asthma and bronchial conditions. Lobelia is so free from any destructive side effect that it can also be used successfully on newborn children. Lobelia will also benefit someone with cramps, nervousness, sleeplessness and general restlessness.

Southern Botanicals prepares this herb in two forms; tincture/concentrate and tea form. The tincture is made from the seeds and seed pods of the plant in a base of distilled water, apple cider vinegar and a small amount of pure grain alcohol. This preparation is far stronger than any you will find in a health food store, or elsewhere, for that matter.

Asthma - Folks suffering from this ailment can take 2 - 5 droppersfull, four times daily and see definite results in a matter of weeks.

Lobelia contains over a dozen alkaloids, one of the strongest bio-chemicals found in plants.

When in doubt as to what to do, you will see improvement with lobelia even if it doesn't seem to fit the case. One natural healer used it to save folks from heart attacks even when no cayenne was available. An infant was saved when the mothers cervix would not dilate properly and the child was about to suffocate. After 38 hours in labor, she delivered within 20 minutes of receiving lobelia. It has been used to save a girl from kidney failure who was too weak to undergo transplant surgery. When you don't know what to do, when nothing else works, try lobelia.

A famous herbalist of the 19th century named Samuel Thompson, primarily used two herbs. These herbs were cayenne and lobelia and he used them to help an estimated 3 million people recover from all manner of illnesses. Cayenne, he explained, stimulated the circulation and lobelia mildly sedated and relaxed the body.

He used them back and forth; purge them with Lobelia, and then give them Cayenne to bring them full flush with the world. Combined, these two herbs can pull of natural healing miracles in short order. Consider the mainstream medical option of cutting and drilling a four-inch hole through your rib cage and inserting a probe to tap your lungs to drain the fluid out. My preference is for lobelia and cayenne.

Dr. Christopher reintroduced lobelia for asthma and other terminal conditions, in modern times . He used large doses to cure really sick people.

Lung problems can usually be traced to the use of dairy in the diet. Milk, cheese, etc., constrict the broncials. Many people on dairy regularly, notice their nose and sinuses are congested, or they have a wheeze or can't breath as easily. Every asthmatic has to first get off dairy to help their condition.To prove the effectiveness of this wisdom regarding dairy and lung deterioration, try keeping away from all dairy products for seven straight days. Note the improvement in ones condition from such a change alone.  Substitutes can be used such as  almond milk or rice milk. Next, in order to fully effect a recovery, to get one breathing normally and keep one breathing, is the use of lobelia and cayenne. Two and three year olds come off all dairy, use lobelia, and see their lives restored to normal.

 
  (Note: I don't know where this text came from so I can't provide a link to the source, but I find lots of other people copied the text as well. I think it comes from here.)

Moon over Muddy Valley

It was a full moon...

Aphids

We have a couple Aphids in the barley. As in a couple thousand Aphids per plant.
The field man said it was nothing to worry about. I am not actually sure he knows where this field it. It is a little 15 acres tucked in the back of a neighbor's oat field.
What is completely amazing is the sheer number of Lady Bugs in the field. I would estimate one per square foot. Where do they come from?
I suppose there is no point in a chemical assault at this point. It is too close to harvest to use Lorsban and the other options are not as effective. A few leaves are already starting to turn a little brown. Perhaps the lady bugs will eat all the aphids before they suck all the moisture out of the plants.