Life on the Farm

[bjrogg]

   I always felt a bit in the wrong place in the victory garden threads.


   I’m not so sure this is a good idea with the age we live in, but I decided to start a new thread. I would love to have others share their farms to.

   I enjoy others farming operations to and different crops.

  Also gardens certainly welcome.

  You might think it’s single digits cold out and really nothing for a farmer to do. It’s never been that way on our farm. We always had milk cows or beef cattle.

  Anyone who has cattle knows they take care and a lot of work. That work is multiplied in with the winter weather.

   We also have a lot of equipment to maintain and sometimes completely modify.

  We changed sprayers and went from 120’ wide to 135’. We want to control our traffic pattern and drive on the same tracks as we plant. It keeps compaction in same tracks, run over less crop and carries better when it gets muddy.

  We need to add two rows to our 16 row planter making it a 18 row 30” spacing.  45’ wide. The sprayer can then drive on same tracks as planter.

  The old mechanical drives it would have been simple.

  We took off markers ( they physically made a mark in the dirt up center of next pass) as with GPS we very rarely use them. We made two frame extensions. One for each side and bolted them where the markers had been.

   The mechanics are going pretty quick. But there’s a lot of plumbing and wiring.  This is still going to take awhile.

Bjrogg

[bjrogg]

Put in a little overtime and made this to.

Bjrogg

[White Falcon]

Very nice.

[bjrogg]

Thanks White Falcon.

I also smoked 9 sticks of summer sausage. Got another batch to smoke yet but not sure I’ll do it tomorrow or Monday. It works pretty good doing the smoking while I work at the shop.

Bjrogg

[Trapper Rob]

BJ I know what you mean by cattle I've carried lots of hot water over the years to thaw out water fountains.

[bjrogg]

BJ I know what you mean by cattle I've carried lots of hot water over the years to thaw out water fountains.

I know Rob. When we had milk cows . Between them and calves. I stayed so busy taking care of them all winter that I wondered how I got anything else done in the summer. They are easier to take care of in the summer. Putting them in pasture was always a big work saver. Of course 16 hours of daylight helps get stuff done to. They actually like the cold weather better than the hot though.

Bjrogg

PS got 10lbs of jerky Marinating for two days now. Ready to go in the dehydrator.

[Pappy]

Got a farm BJ but don't do much farming, got the part you can row crop leased to a local farmer, he rotates Bean's and corn, I have 400 acres but most is wooded, only farm about 80 of it,use about 80 for TwinOaks and the rest I just ramble on ,the ground is just to hilly to row crop much without it washing away. My uncle told me when I got it [ it was his and in the family 80+ years at that time ]  that it was a cattle farm, of course that was before no till, all they raised was tobacco ,hay and maybe a little corn for feed, but you could do that then and make a decent living on a 5/10 acre flat spot and hills don't matter much with hay. I love seeing your operation, not many that size around here, there are some a little father north in the edge of KY and some west Tennessee where the ground is flat just not much in Middle/east Tn. in the hill and hollows. I will be keeping and eye on you though, seems you have plenty to do.
 Pappy

[bjrogg]

I really want to visit your farm someday Pappy. I’ve been to Clarksville to see my retired Army buddy. Nice area.

We have gotten lots of cattle over the year from farms just like your uncle talks about. From Tennessee, Kentucky or Virginia. They come in how we like em. Tall, lean and tough. They usually adapt pretty well to our farm and we put some finish on them. Fatten up pretty good.

I would love to see a old tobacco operation.


Well put another 8 sticks in the smoker.

The jerky is done.

Back to the shop to work o planter. Pulled off all the old fertilizer hose. It’s 17 years old and it’s really in the way for routing wires. I don’t think I will reuse it but might have to see how hard it is to get. A lot of stuff getting very hard to get. Making things very uncertain and impossible to plan and receive products ahead like we normally do.

I think my next step is going to be taking off old wiring and replacing with new as I go. This is the scariest part. Lots of wires and it won’t be wired the same. We previously had two variable rate hydraulic motors with shaft speed counters. They each ran half the planter 8 rows. Now we will have three v-rate motors and they will each run 6 rows. That will be nicer for my swat control. It will turn on and off in 6 row sections instead of 9. That will save me more seed and not double plant angled headlands and edges.

I would really have liked to totally upgrade to modern individual row electric drives and individual row shut off control, but right now it is impossible to get the new equipment. I’m recycling old equipment that others have discard when they updated to the new technology.


Your welcome to visit anytime Pappy. It’s nice here by the big lake in the summer most summers. Can get a bit humid.

Bjrogg

[Hawkdancer]

Well, those put my 18 supplement tub garden to shame!  we got a fair amount of tarragon, some squash, zucchs, and tomatoes, enough blueberries to top off a dish of ice cream, and a heck of a water bill!  Anasazi beans didn't make at all. Did get the composter filled, been too dry to work, though!  Try again this year!  Sort of mini farming!
Hawkdancer

[GlisGlis]

following you BJ 
by the way great obsidian arrow. So nice that it deserve to fly toward a deer 

[bjrogg]

Thanks Jerry. I’m very interested in your raised beds. Really thinking I should start some of my own. Past few years have been using my dad’s. He won’t be using them anymore. They are certainly more knee and back friendly and you can still grow a lot of produce in a small area.

Thanks Glis.
I’m glad to know someone is watching. Not sure how popular this might be, but I like trying to bring the land back to people if I can’t bring the people back to the land.

Since seems to be a little interest here’s another project we are working on.

Now that we switched to a 18 row planter our 4 row beet digger won’t be right. 4 isn’t devisable into 18 evenly. I can’t dig rows planted from two different passes of the planter. The rows need to be spaced perfectly.

Now I can use a 6 row beet digger. It will take three passes of six rows for each pass of 18 with the planter.

We used to have 4 passes of 4 rows for 16 row planter. So hopefully this will help with beet harvest.

Lots of beet growers around here have switched to the new self propelled harvesters and the old pull type can be bought for scrap price. Of course that’s about what they are worth because the wear and tear parts are expensive and many.

We got this 6 row pull type machine and are reconditioning it. We are going to rob some parts off our old four row. Tank, ferries wheel and elevator will be swapped. Putting in several new grab rolls and all new bearings. All new digger wheels. By the time where done we will have 6x what we paid for it, but that’s pretty normal.

Thanks for watching. Please feel free to add your farm or garden

Bjrogg

[bjrogg]

By the way. Smoked summer sausage turned out great and so did the jerky.

Wish you could smell and taste it

Bjrogg

[Will B]

That looks delicious!  My mouth is watering

[bjrogg]

That looks delicious!  My mouth is watering

Here’s a sample of jerky for you

[Trapper Rob]

Looks good BJ