Its Hot, what else is new?

 Its 90 degrees, or 31C now. July in Sask is traditionally hot. Combined with a real shortage of rain is what makes it worse. Cattle guys are hurting for hay and pasture. Glad I only have a hobby herd to feed. 

Got up for some drone video to see how the crops look. Surprisingly good considering its a drought. Better than 1988, our last serious drought. 

Caught the Co-op fuel truck leaving the yard in the drone video and it turned out well. That truck looks huge on my narrow driveway. 

Eldorado Sundown

 

Couldn't resist another sunset drive in the Eldorado today. After spending many hours with a toothbrush, towel and sunlight detergent I have the interior looking (and smelling) much better. Sitting in the shed with the windows and trunk lid open seems to be helping dry the carpets and reduce the mildew smell. 

I built a spark plug boot puller yesterday to get the stubbornly stuck boots off the spark plugs. I guess it worked about as good as one I could buy. Plugs were not bad. I hoped by cleaning them up I might cure the slight "miss" the engine has but after tonight's test drive its still there. Hoping its not a stuck valve. Planning to do a compression test next time I have some help handy.  The 425 still has impressive power even with one cylinder missing. I don't dare use the brakes except in case of emergency as I don't want the front caliper to lock up and drag again. Should have the new front brake hoses soon and once they are installed be back to normal brakes. Thats if I'm right in assuming the caliper is still ok.

Seems to be electrical problems too as none of the dash lights work. No high beams. Reverse lights are on in neutral. Power seats are inoperative. 

Weather has been so cold and below normal the past few days that I'm working in full winter wear in the shop. Spring has been reluctant to stay with us. Forecast is better for tomorrow.

Boss Hogg

 Those that watched tv in the seventies will recall the Boss Hogg character on the Dukes of Hazzard series. He drove a big Cadillac convertible with a set of Texas longhorns on the hood. I've already had a couple of references to that since adopting a 78 Eldorado yesterday. I'll keep it original, thanks anyway. I wasn't looking for one but this Eldo found me and needed a new home so here we are. Its pretty good mechanically and relatively rust free compared to some of the stuff I have. It's biggest problem is the mildewed interior. Coming from a damp climate it has a few water leaks that allowed the carpets to stay wet. It should do better in old dry Saskatchewan but first I need to get the mildew out of the leather seats. I can still smell it many hours after driving the car. 

I guess its my usual style of being a little off the beaten track getting a huge thirsty, carbon producing car when all the rest of the world is going green. But the way I see it my hundreds of acres of trees are a huge carbon sink that will provide an "offset" to the few miles I drive the Caddy. 

Just waiting for the day when Justin starts paying those of us that keep a few trees for carbon sequestration like they do in other countries. 

Too Busy to Blog

Its been steady work here for the past two and a half weeks. No rainy day breaks so I just went from anhydrousing, straight into seeding. When that was done I got on the swather and cut the field of wheat that laid out all winter. Picked it up with the combine today and was fairly happy to be done. No deer antlers in the tires. Found one. Hot and wild wind blowing the swaths around. Then cloudy skies threatening rain so I was pushing it to the limit to try and finish. Thanks to my "harvest crew" we got it all done and machinery moved back home safely.
Might slow down a little tomorrow, unless its quiet enough to run the sprayer. Then I'll be on that as the weeds are growing fast. Early canola is emerging and hope the flea beetles don't find it. We had signs of frost in low lying areas a few nights ago. Early potatoes might show a little leaf damage. Late potatoes are not in the ground yet but hopefully soon as I can get a chance.
Long days and short nights meant no time to edit and upload videos to youtube but I've caught up a little the past couple of days including this one of yesterday's swathing wheat.

Spring Walk In The Pasture

No, not this spring. I'm looking back at spring of 1988 and 90 in the continuing series of converted vhs home videos. It was a beautiful spring day with snow melting and water running across the dead grass from last fall. My dad and dog came along to check out the scenery. Later in the video I jump back to the dry and early spring of 1988 that would turn out to be the hottest and driest year in my farming history, before or since. Can it really be 30+ years ago?

Harvest Long Ago

In the ongoing task of digitizing old vhs tapes I pick out a few to post on youtube. This one from 1994 seems like a long time ago and I guess it is. The majority of that oat field in the second half of the video is, and has been for several years, under water. The nephews were a couple of live wires performing in some scenes and now one has a daughter almost as old as he was in the 94 video.

Family History

I've been making use of winter time to convert some of my old vhs home video to digital. They say recording tape will eventually degrade to nothing. Plus VCRs wear out and might be hard to find in a few years.
Its interesting to see how much has changed looking back 30 years ago. How can it be 30 years since I started farming that West farm? I'd already been farming on a smaller scale for almost 18 years at the time so I was not new to the game but it was quite a change in acres and hours to work.
I've uploaded a few to my youtube channel and they seem to be quite a hit with some viewers.
This latest video shows us setting up the fuel tanks in my brother's yard in April of 89 in preparation for farming those extra acres.
Walking out to "crocus hill". It is still there and so are the walkers. (Not the dog) Some a little bigger. All a little older.

House Moving 1991

One thing about this cold weather is that it gives me more time indoors to work on converting vhs video to digital. Its a time consuming process but people seem to like the videos I post on youtube. And its getting hard to find a working VCR to play the old tapes so having them on DVD and computer makes them accessible to most.
This one from 28 years ago shows some of the highlights during the move of the new to them house that my brother and family have lived in since. It was a bit long so I separated it into a two part series. Now I have to get busy and edit part two.
Something wrong with blogger won't let me post the link to the video. Maybe later.

Uncle Roy Sings

I'm a little envious of those who have a natural musical talent. They can take an instrument and learn to play it without benefit of lessons and produce music. One side of my family had it. I don't. I do enjoy listening to some of the old recordings saved over the years. I'm gradually trying to transfer from the somewhat unstable magnetic recording tape over to digital format where they will be safer and more accessible. At least for my foreseeable future.
This is one of my favourites sung and self accompanied on the guitar by my uncle Roy. He might have had one of his "roll your own" cigarettes in his mouth while singing this old Carl Smith tune. I've listened to a few versions of it by others on youtube and in all honesty, this is the best I've heard. I may be a little biased though.
The recording was made on an old reel to reel to recorder in the winter of 1955 or maybe 56 in the old family farm house. It might have been done by lamp light and batteries as I believe it was 1956 before rural electricity was available in the area. I added a few photos from the old family albums to make it into a music video.

2019 in 8 Minutes

It seems to be the fashion to do year end reviews now so I thought I'd try it. Surprising how long it took to go through the numerous videos I shot all year. I didn't want to make it too long for today's short attention spans so I had to just try and pick out a few short but descriptive segments.

It was quite a year and a memorable harvest that never did get finished. I might have to start allowing ads on my youtube videos for extra income. :-)

Not a bad winter so far though. Just enough snow and not too cold.

Pouring Concrete

I did some more video transfer of old vhs tape from 1989. Nowadays we mostly call a redi-mix truck when we need a cement job done but back in 89 we still made a lot of our own. This was a footing for my brother's new garage we were mixing. My dad was almost 71 at the time and is doing a good job with that trowel.  It must have been a Saturday as three of those guys would have been at work otherwise. Thirty years later the garage stands straight and level on that concrete that will likely outlast us.

Cockshutt 50 Piling flax straw

More old video from the VHS tape collection I am gradually converting to digital. Saving family history. Although it does not seem like so very long ago to me, it is just over 20 years. Dad was always happy to run his old 50 and the blade whether it be pushing straw, snow, dirt or manure. That manual steering was heavy and the blade made it even heavier so you kept warm trying to steer the old 50. I guess he made 50 years on that tractor. Bought it in October of 1960 and I think he was still able to drive it in 2000.

Retro Harvest 89

Second in the series of home video conversions. I'm gradually picking out some of the best old home movies I recorded on VHS tape many years ago. Its a time consuming process that will hopefully get easier with practice. I've always been told that vhs tapes will degrade over time and become unusable so I better get it done before its too late.

After a night of -22F it was interesting to look at the harvest scenes in the August heat of 1989.

November Cold Starts

It looks like winter is here to stay so, even though there is still crop to harvest, I'm putting the headers and combine away for winter. Did a quick partial clean up and parked everything back in place. Now if the snow goes away unexpectedly I can still pull it all back out and combine.

Heat, And AC

Its been a hot week. We actually hit 90 degrees yesterday so I was pretty relieved to get the new fan finally connected and in working condition in the Magnum tractor. It took a real mechanic to get the wiring figured out. Plus 4 extra hands to get the cab roof back in place. A&I really could have been a little more clear in their instructions how to hook up the wiring the right way so it doesn't melt down the resistor.
Seems like I've been trying to cut hay all week but really only got started yesterday. Weather, breakdowns, etc. all conspired to drag this job out a little longer. Hopefully the grass will have grown a little longer too. Some patches are just not worth cutting.
Looks like it might be time to empty the bins of last year's grain to make room for the new crop. Poor timing and I gambled and lost on the price of canola going up. It is now down to 1990s levels. That does not go well with 2019 crop input expenses. Last year $11 per bushel. This year, $9 if we are lucky. Government assistance =$0.

Harrowing Macdonald Hills Farm

Got done early this afternoon and seeing as it is Sunday, and the May long weekend I figured I'd take some time to put a video together showing what I was doing today. Popular myths will have you believe that Saskatchewan is all flat as a table. So as I was working at the farm in the Macdonald Hills area I figured I'd use that in the title of the video. Hills are hard to portray in the two dimensiional world of photos and video but trust me, they are hills. You can hear the tractor engine working a little harder on the steep one.

Another in the seeming endless days of sun, wind, and no rain. Plenty of dust all around me and it would have been cold sitting on an open tractor. If I had to do this job out on an open tractor I'd be retiring pretty quick. Today I just turned on the AC as needed and worked in dust free comfort listening to CBC propaganda and talk shows.

Plant Preview 2019

Time sure flies lately. I think I've been in the tractor(s) every day the past couple of weeks. Between anhydrousing, seeding, picking  rocks and harrowing, and no "rainy day breaks" it keeps me busy. Not to mention a few minor breakdowns that used up a lot of time. I mean 3 days to plant a 120 acre field is a bit much. I could have done that in a day even with the old 22 foot Seedrites in a good day. Flat tractor tire, blown hydraulic hoses and intermittent electric clutch failures on the air seeder kept things interesting. Plenty of video shot either in the cab or outside but no time to do much editing. And I refuse to upload raw, unedited video to youtube.

Still no rain and it gets drier every day. Well we did get that little spit on Wednesday that laid the dust and messed up the cab windows but it didn't do a thing for soil moisture. Lots of money going into the ground in hopes of rain.

Cold But Scenic

If it was in the old days of riding open tractors I'd be sitting here in the house trying to thaw out. That strong NW wind and temps around 50 would chill you to the bone after a few hours on an open tractor.  I know from experience and don't miss those days. Sitting in the scenic greenhouse of the old Magnum today was quite comfortable. I got tired of waiting on rain (or snow) to alleviate the dry conditions and started on applying anhydrous today.
I don't remember when anhydrous has ever been this expensive, pushing the $1000 per tonne mark. Or when I've put it on in such dry conditions either. But I'm giving it a good shot and hoping we get enough rain to grow some wheat on that ground.
Its a nice change being able to drive without concern of mud and getting stuck. Working through sloughs that have not been worked in years or maybe ever seeded.
Even with  late start and not really pushing too hard I finished the field by 9:00 with 112 acres done. That 1985 Peterbilt pulling the anhydrous refill tank would fit right in with my old machinery.

I'm currently uploading a video of some of today's work to youtube and its taking forever. Oh well, gives me time to catch up on washing dishes and checking email.

Slow Spring

Slow progress on the spring warm up here. True, we had temps in the 70s back on Good Friday but then we have also had overnight temps well below freezing. Days when I need to wear parka and toque working out in the yard. Furnace still runs every day at some point just to keep the house at a reasonably comfortable temp.
So no great incentive to get out in the fields putting expensive inputs to the cold ground. On the positive side at least not many weeds are growing. We missed out on the snow that fell in some parts giving much needed moisture.
Yesterday was nice enough to get out on the open tractor and clean up the worst rocks on a small 60 acre field. Started out with the parka but soon had to remove it. (And yes, I need a new parka). No wind made all the difference. Quiet days seem rare here lately and are a welcome respite from the wind.
So I recorded some of the rock picking fun. Similar to the way I was introduced to it some 50 years ago. Back then we not only had to load the rocks by hand but also had to unload them by hand. I think of that every time I'm near those old rock piles built by hand years ago.

Wheat Cleaning

A good day's work getting the wheat hauled to the cleaning plant. Still a month to go til it goes in the ground but its good to know the job is done. Weather was nice and the ground mostly dry. The one stretch of mud was not a big problem and won't be a big deal to smooth out with the blade once it dries out some.

The new residents of the hundred acre woods came out to watch me work. The bison herd has been there a bit over a week and seem to be enjoying their new home. They are the first livestock on that farm since my uncle went out of cattle over 20 years ago.