Author: Steve Hardin

Welding, Farmer style

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If you want to know what a true road obstacle looks like, look no further it is a herd of alpaca! These guys are truly obstinate. They will not get out of the road for anything. You can drive right up to them and touch them with the bumper of your car and they might think about moving. If they do decide to move a smidgen it will be at their own leisure. It is easier to go around them if at all possible. All of the delivery drivers have learned to not barrel down the driveway. The alpaca will not move no matter how fast you come up on them and since we have not had a single one hit it means they are always winning in an alpaca versus delivery vehicle situation. On the plus side, we never worry about vehicles tearing in or out of the place.

We had another reason for me to have purchased a welder and to have taken the first quarter of the community college’s welding class. The sprayer tried to fall apart! There is a 3 point platform and the upper point of the 3 point is tearing off of the platform. This was supposedly built for a 50 gallon tank but it is certainly not holding up. There is a part in the front that broke in half that then placed all of the stress on the upright base. This is obviously not a good thing. I had not noticed the front crack as the paint covered it. This meant that we had to take the sprayer off first. Of course there was a lot of water in the tank. We did finally manage to get the tank emptied and all of the main parts torn off the platform. I only managed to break two fittings! I simply don’t like plastic for this reason, but it is a lot cheaper than the alternative. We could not beat the upright back into position so we used a tie down from the top to the far side of the platform and cranked it over until it was close enough. I broke out the welder and used the welding gloves this time. Last time I used my thin leather gloves and it was not enough. I got the top repaired and I am not going to be a commercial welder any time soon but even Mr Rainman can tell that my welding skills are getting better. The beads look like an actual bead instead of welding confetti. I wanted to weld both the top and bottom of the platform so we raised the forks on the tractor up high enough I could stand underneath and weld over my head. Now this was not a skill they taught us in class. Yep, I see why now, I had a sold weld burn to my upper right bicep in the first two minutes. It did not feel good. I then went and put on the leather arm guards I had purchased with the welder but had not ever worn before. Safety is a learned craft, the trick is to survive the first accident. I got it all welded and we put on a new heavy piece of angle iron across the front where the initial crack occurred. It is holding as Mr Rainman is back out and spraying. We even installed a couple of new fittings and fixed a couple of slow leaks we had on the rig. It works like a champ now.

I may even have enough skill to work on the stock rack for the pickup this fall. It needs some repair and rebuild.

New siding work in progress

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Well the contractor did their part and came out and started tearing up the house. They had the siding off in a week. The 60’ boom truck is a little rough on the yard as it sinks in as it moves and the tracks are about 4” lower than the surrounding yard. This works well for Annmarie as she wanted to redo the front yard anyways and this will just move that project up on the timeline. The nice thing is the gate can stay closed so we have not had to move the dogs. They just harass the worker to throw the ball for them. The problem with that is they never get tired and would keep that up all day long. We are installing LP SmartSide siding on the house. We need to have to not paint before we die in 30-40 years and it looks good and is durable. This will be the test. I was able to drive by a house and see it before choosing this contractor. I really liked the final product and I think it will look very good on our home. For the price I sure hope so, but anyone who has had to hire a contractor recently knows they are very expensive. My advice to you is to do your due diligence and find someone who is very reliable and does good work. Don’t skimp out, get it done right the first time. Because paying for it twice or to get it repaired will cost more than doing it right the first time.

I had to call for more farm diesel and again they only filled one side of the tank. It has two 65 gallon tanks in the large tank. It came from a trap wagon so one side had diesel and the other gasoline. I only want it to hold 125 gallons of diesel. So when I sent the check for payment I asked if they would come out and fill the other side. The salespeople keep telling me that both sides should be filled by this is the second time only one side has been filled. So I bought a paint stick, cleaned off the diesel and wrote directions directly on the tank. I am pretty sure they will get it right now.

Parts for “Little Dumper” (1957 truck) keep trickling in. The $44 seat cover arrived and I got it installed. This was not easy to do considering you cannot open the driver’s side door yet. The front left fender needs to be moved forward about one inch to allow the door to open. It needs a little adjustment but it is way better than the original seating. I may still throw a horse blanket over this to keep it protected. But before I can do anything else inside the cab the driver’s side door has to be fixed. It was hard to be inside the cab and contorting myself enough to get the straps in place. The Gingerman is still working on the engine so until that is up and going the door issue is on hold. Plus, we really need the new tires on the vehicle to get it off the ground enough to be able to crawl around under the truck. I have been at the shop twice weekly to get things going but the parts are not easy to find.

Getting ready for contractor

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Last weekend I had to start getting things ready for the contractor. They were going to come out and start tearing the old vinyl siding off and get ready for the new LP Smartside siding. The trouble is I needed to get some things done. I had to remove everything away from the house so ladders, boards, some TREX decking I had left over were moved away from the house. I had to take down the temporary fence on the North side of the yard. I really just rolled it up most of the way. I had never set the posts yet or added a gate as we knew any contractor would have to get over on this side with equipment.

They wanted to bring in a 60’ cherry picker and that meant getting across or through the front spring. I had created a crossing for the septic pump truck but the driver did not want to chance it and was able to reach the tank from our driveway. I had dug out the large rocks I had used for the crossing. So I tore down the temporary crooked fence I had stopping the horse and sheep from getting out of the main barn lot. I filled the crossing with 2-3” rocks and packed it all down by driving over it with the tractor. Some of the water is flowing through the rocks but mostly it is crossing a wide spot with about 2” of water. I used part of the temporary horse corral panels we had blocking the narrow creek side of the barn lot. This can only be temporary as I need those panels to block off the spring access when we run cows through the barn lot. So I may have to insert a small fence. I am thinking about just making a wire gate. We will almost never use this crossing but it is nice to have the option. I am tired of buying new metal gates at $350/each. I need about another 10 gates and am now going to be selective in which ones get a metal gate. I did find three more metal gates while I was out and about on the farm. It took me a few hours to get all of this up and in place.

I salvaged what honey I could from the hive that died in early winter and was able to collect five half pints. We had them all sold in about ten minutes. We could easily sell 5-10 gallons of honey annually we just cannot produce anywhere near that! We are looking at getting another Nuc and starting a second hive this spring.

Every once in a while I find one of these salamanders when I pick up a plank that has been on the ground for way too long! I am pretty sure we have one living down in the main water shutoff access hole. They are pretty calm. I no longer disturb them and just let them wander off on their own. We are so looking forward to getting the siding completed.

2023 annual farm finances

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We have a hobby farm. It is a labor of love to have a small hobby farm. We do not expect to make money and every year we are closer and closer to breaking even. I have to total all of the receipts up annually so we can do our taxes. Recently, I have been slacking and waiting until the last minute. Annmarie does the taxes and this is frustrating for her. This year I will be totaling up the months as we go so as to not have to spend two days sorting, organizing and totaling a years worth of receipts.

INCOME: $11,254

Sheep sold 59 lambs (a couple of cull ewes) for $5570

Eggs sold $-344

Cows sold cows (2/3 of profit) $5121

Alpaca $0

Hay sold $807

Losses: We lost 22 sheep last year to predators. 15 lambs and 7 ewes for a market value of $3275. This is painful. We had a bunch of different hunters out and the only ones who had any luck were hunting at night with thermal scopes. They still did not kill enough coyotes to slow down the depredation. We penciled out a guard dog (need 2) and as much as they eat with the price of food it is nearly $2200/yr just for dog food. It seems like a no brainer but this was hands down the worst year we have ever had. Normally we lose 3-5 sheep to predators annually. It was just a banner year. It is fairly obvious that we cannot sustain this loss long term. We are currently looking at donkeys. So if you know of two donkeys that we can handle well enough to get their hooves trimmed and allow us to brush them occasionally we are interested.

EXPENSES: $24,725

Truck = $238 for repairs

Chemicals = $581 for herbicide

Conservation = $231

Custom Hire = $0

Depreciation = $0

Feed = $10984= only $6125 of this was for the cows. The rest was for the rest of the animals with most of it going to the sheep. I carried every bag by hand! A rough total of 209 bags of feed.

  • Cats 320#
  • Dogs 340#
  • Chickens 2000#
  • Lambs 2350#
  • Ewes 5150#

Fertilizer = $0

Freight/trucking = $0

Gasoline/Oil/Fuel = $470. I think this should be more but I could not find the receipt for the second fill. I think doing this monthly will solve some of my tracking issues as I will be able to remember what should be on the list.

Interest on Loan Equip = $0

Insurance = I missed this charge and did not track the expense. It continues to go up every year.

Rent/Lease vehicles machinery/equip = $0

Repairs & Maintenance = $1523

Seeds/plants = $381 we bought some orchard grass seed and planted it this last fall. 

Supplies = $7853

Taxes = $1212

Utilities = $558

Vet/Breeding/Medicine = $646

Purchased Animals = $48

Total for 2023 was a loss of $13,471.

On the plus side we had some major improvements. We got all of field #1 fenced so it can be used as a pasture in late summer when the rest of the farm grass has turned brown. We got the bridge concrete footings poured and the bridge in place. The ramps on both ends of the bridge still need to be finished. It is a lot of shoveling dirt! We got the bee equipment storage room installed in the old wood shed. Upstairs bathroom is 100% completed as I installed the last countertop. We leveled, insulated and walled the freezer room and got the freezers moved into it. Got the tractor mower rebuilt. Installed 12V light system in the barn. Horse trailer 100% rewired, new brakes, grease and hitch. Finished Annmarie’s office at the beginning of the year. Honestly, that is a lot of stuff!

Chicken tracker 2023

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We averaged 19.8 laying hens for the year and currently have 31 hens. We collected on average 4.4 eggs/day for a lousy production rate of 24.3%! Definitely my worst production rate ever. Our monthly feed weight was 168#/month at a cost of $62.54/month. The crazy part is our feed cost was 47 cents/egg or $6.95/dozen. Our total cost for the year was $7.28/dozen eggs. We sold them for $5/dozen. We ended up losing $344 on the chickens last year. Now mind you, every time the weather goes crazy or a raccoon showed up the chickens refused to lay eggs.

In an effort to try and keep hens from feeding the predators we added a second solar chicken door to the chicken yard. During the summer there are usually a couple of slow pokes who don’t make it to the coop before the door shuts. They sit outside the door all night and end up feeding the raccoons. Now I know there are two raccoons around the farm as I just shot at them this month. We purchased enough chicken wire to to put a lid on the chicken yard. This way the slow pokes will be protected from dying and will only be terrorized by the raccoons trying to get at them. We got the overhead supports in but the wire has not been laid out yet and stapled in place.

Bottom line, with the increase in feed prices I am going to have to raise the price. On the plus side, I am getting eggs more often and that is helping. Plus, if we can keep the chickens alive they will lay eggs. It seems like a simple concept but quite hard to execute. So the price will be going to $6/dozen. I am hopeful that with the second chicken door and the overhead wire it will make all the difference and volume will offset the feed price. We were very good this last year about keeping all of the feed receipts which is helping forecast a factual based cost not one arbitrarily chosen.