The title pretty much says it all. There will be a lot of farming related posts here as well as some ancient family history and photos. Another family history blog I have is at....
http://nevardblog.blogspot.com/
Its been a challenge, as usual, trying to get crops sprayed on time. Well no chance of being on time any more but I'll get them done eventually. Wind blows like a hurricane some days so nobody in their right mind will run a sprayer and blow herbicide all across the country (and his neighbour's crops). We finally got a decent day yesterday and I got all of two tanks of heribiced sprayed on wheat. Might have made three but a front tractor tire developed a bulge that threatened to leave me stranded if I kept driving. Thanks to my "pit crew" we had a new tire on and rolling again about 3 hours later. Not easy changing a big 11.00x16 tire on the farm without benefit of proper tire changing equipment but we got it done.
Today, clouds and threatening rain means the sprayer gets a rest and I get to catch up on a few jobs that I haven't had time to do. As usual time flies when you are trying to do too much. I did take time to take this photo of a nice sunset last night. Actually I didn't take any time as I kept rolling right along as I took the picture.. Talk about distracted driving!
Wheat looks good from the ground but a drone view from last Saturday makes it look a bit patchy.
When its too windy to be running the sprayer (frequently), to avoid going crazy watching and waiting on the weather, I spent some time trying out the spot weld cutter. Up til a few weeks ago I never even knew what spot weld cutters were. Its almost a necessity for repairing old car bodies. In the learning process I managed to break all the teeth off the first one before I got all the spot welds drilled out. Second attempt with new cutters went better. Or maybe I was more careful or learned the right technique.
Its not a "how to" video. More of a "how I did it".
Then a little, or a lot, of work with body hammer and dolly and the badly dented hood on the 52 Merc is starting to look a little more presentable. No, the truck in the picture is not the 52 Merc but it looked so good that I had to use it in the video.
Actually a lot better but still far from body shop standards. The price was right though. To be continued.
Been a while. Been busy, as usual. I did finish seeding this past weekend which is pretty much right on time historically for my farm. I was amazed how quick the canola fields germinated and started to emerge. 8 days is really good considering we have next to no rain all spring. Being seeded on chem fallow helps as it has all last year's moisture waiting beneath the surface to help get the plants growing. We even reclaimed an extra 13 acres on one quarter now that the water levels dropped enough to allow access with farm machinery. You can see some of that in this video.
Its not quite a replay of 1988 (driest year in my farming experience) but the continuing absence of rain was cause for concern. Up until yesterday. A real old fashioned rain/thunder/lightning storm hit in the late afternoon that gave a real boost to the soil moisture. I was not optimistic enough to have a rain gauge out so can only go by guess and other reports of anywhere from 4 tenths to maybe twice that. Its still muddy driving around the fields on the trike this morning. More to come tomorrow. Gorges Smyth liked the photo I took of the Western sky as the clouds passed by and the sun was emerging. It shows you how dry its been when I actually have to take a picture of a rain storm.
I have to say it is the worst year yet for wood ticks. I never used to be a "tick magnet" as others seemed to be until this year. The past week or so I'm picking ticks off several times a day. And those preaching about wearing long clothes and staying out of the grass, its all rubbish. I'm never out of the house without coveralls and work boots and yet the ticks are on me. From what I've read our ticks don't carry Lyme's Disease but their bites do raise a nasty red bump that itches for a day or so.
More by good luck than good management I have two new calves in the past few weeks.
Picture here of one as she meets her father for the first time. Some difference in size.
Its been a busy week planting crops between the times I'm fixing stuff or driving from one farm to another. Finally the first rain of spring fell last night and a little more today so I've had a chance to edit some video I shot earlier this week while loading the truck and air seeder.
Surprisingly I am about half finished and only started last Friday.
On the positive side the leaking fluid from a tractor tire seems to have slowed down to almost a stop. The strange and disturbing noise the tractor made intermittently, and finally steadily, turned out to be a worn out alternator. Luckily I had one "in stock". The same alternator fits tractor and combine. Still a lot of time lost diagnosing, remove and replace, with the necessary driving back and forth between farms. A leaking radiator on the big truck, and now one on the old GMC pickup. Both still on the job but needing work. I also drove over my tool box (for the second time). This time with the grain truck. First time was with a tractor. It gave me some practice at metal shaping and straightening.
Record breaking high temps a few days combined with incessant wind and no rain had it looking pretty bleak. This little sprinkle of rain will alleviate the situation for a while.
Several of the early planted potatoes are up and I planted a few more today.
Grass is growing enough that the cattle are getting a little to eat. They still like the hay in the feeders though so I guess I'm lucky to have some left.
Due to the continuing dry conditions a total fire ban is on this area which is fine by me. Some people get a little careless lighting fires and disaster results.
This little calf showed up this afternoon when I went to give the cows a pail of oat chop. Earlier this week I was convinced I had lost the cow and calf as well. She was missing Monday morning and I spent a few hours and miles driving around on the trike searching the entire quarter. Round and round the bushes looking in to all the likely spots. Walked through a good many of them with no sign of the missing cow. I even sent the drone up for an overhead view but could not see a sign of her. I figured she must have had trouble calving and likely dead. Searched some more a couple of days later when I was convinced I had heard a cow bawling. Sat out in the pasture listening for a repeat but nothing. Must have been a goose, moose, or my imagination.
Couple of days ago the heifer showed up with the rest of the herd at the chop trough. It was good to see that she had survived but no sign of a calf anywhere so I figured it was laying dead somewhere. She didn't seem too concerned but I did hear her bawling for her missing calf some time later. Normal I guess. She will get over it.
So today the calf is here with the others looking normal enough. Just amazes me I did all that searching and never was able to find them until they decided to come back to the yard.
All this talk of wire welding and now, finally, I have some video showing the results. It turned out pretty well for an amateur I think.
Now that I have one solid corner on the body maybe I can use that as a base to continue along the entire rocker panel. And then the floor?
The weather. Last week this time we were fully covered with the winter's snow. A few warm and windy days has us down to just a few drifts on the fence lines left. Not a lot of water to show considering how fast it melted. I guess I need to be making preparations for field work. In fact I did a little work on the smallest field of all today. Fired up the old roto tiller and worked the garden. Might get a few potatoes planted in April yet. Got the air seeder tank pulled out of the shed. Fixed a leaking valve stem on the John Deere without losing a lot of calcium chloride. Washed a couple of trucks. Probably a few other things I've forgotten already. This farming is cutting into my time for working on old rusty cars.
