farm life

And it continues

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It is amazing some of the things you learn when you work with old stuff. When we first moved to the farm one of the kids that was helping my father -in-law would collect old railroad tie date nails. I knew he had found a couple out on the farm but I never really paid any attention to it. As we build this Bull enclosure we are ripping down an old fence line and a few random railroad ties. About 50% of the ties are rotted off but the other ties are still good and are getting reused in the new fence. I have found two of the dated nails and managed to pull one out intact. The head popped off the other one. Annmarie looked it up for me when I came back inside. They were used to date the tie as there were several different methods to treat the posts and the railroad company wanted to track which ones worked the best. So this railroad tie is from 1929 and I put it back in the ground! I am hoping to get 100 years out of a railroad tie, truly amazing. A real testament to what living in a desert like climate can do for stuff. I guess that < 12 inches of annual rainfall is good for something.

I decided to do something about the front gate entrance. When you step in through the gate I always have to step to the side and onto some gravel I had piled up. Well that gravel is sliding down hill so I thought that creating a short wall would help the problem. I bought 25 blocks on Friday and got them installed two days ago. I am still not certain it is a good thing. It will keep the gravel from slipping as much but now I have to actually pick up my feet.

Bubba has been out for a few hours the last couple of days and has been filling the rock cribs. This is an essential task as I cannot move forward without them full. I was very clear that I wanted him to get them from the old rock wall to minimize driving on the hill. So yesterday when I was out working on the enclosure I had to finish topping off a couple of the cribs. I ended up crawling on top of the the cribs and moving rocks around by hand to get them to stack better. This made more space therefore requiring me to haul more rocks. I decided I would drive to the top of the hill and get some random rocks that were sticking out of the ground. I would eventually like to pick all of the huge rocks off of the hillside. As I drove past the old rock wall I marveled at how many rocks were still left. We had four rock cribs almost full and it looked barely touched.

Yet as the mistress took me up the hill i noticed what looked like a well beaten path going up to the top of the hillside. I knew i had only been up there a couple of times and could not have made that many tracks . I was right, Bubba decided that the extremely large pile of rocks on top were a lot less work. The rocks are all loose and you can just drive to one spot and load them up. Now this might upset the rock chucks that live in the pile but other than that no harm. If you look at the below picture the old rock fence is at the top of the shadow and the huge pile of rocks is at the skyline. Oh well, the grass truly is greener on the other side!

I went out and worked on the bull enclosure again until dark. This is cutting into my wife time. I need to just get it done so I can move on to the next thing, which is going to have to be the machine shop. All of my evening help was busy so I worked alone, I did three loads of rocks to top off cribs and then hung a gate over but the lamb shed. The gate only opens out toward the bull enclosure, it only went about 25% of the way in the opposite direction. I will need to remove some earth to make it open both ways.

I had to go get some woven wire but I my choices are severally limited as there are only three rolls left on my fencing pile. I managed to find two that will hopefully work. I will have to reuse the woven wire from the fence line I am tearing down to make the entire enclosure.

I managed to get the woven wire stretched over one section and will now just need to install the tamarack railing and it will be done!

Annmarie took these pictures out our kitchen window. We had some water issues and fertilizer issues this year with our boxes and had a hard time with some of our seeds growing. We have lots and lots of onions and potatoes. This is only our third year and we may have gotten it figured out. I still want to do the underground greenhouse next year. I think it would be amazing to grow fresh vegetables year round!

Last of purchased hay

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Saturday was a good day. I had Bubba helping me and we went and picked up the last load of purchased hay first thing. I was a about 30 minutes late picking him up and just told his mother I was on farmer time! This is a real thing! Serious! There are times you just need to get a job done and are sure it will only take another 15 minutes to complete so you tell the wife you are headed in. 90 minutes later, two phone calls and you only give up to come inside because it is getting dark. I would like to say this doesn’t happen very often but that would be a lie. I can easily get sucked into something and just want to get it done! It is immaterial that the project will take three weeks to complete. I have set a goal for work to be completed at this time and must finish.

So Bubba and I hand loaded the last 2.5 tons onto the trailer and came home and unloaded it into the barn. It was a lot easier to put onto the trailer than it was to stack it up on top of the hay pile. The easy portion of unloading is the bottom three levels of bales, after that it is all work. Hay elevator next year! As I was explaining to Bubba how next year we would be storing round bales it occurred to me that I need to put some rails on the inside of the barn so the bales don’t push on the siding and I may even need to put a cable tightener at the top of the barn to keep it from spreading out from the pressure of all that hay. One more thing to do in the Spring of next year. This came to me as an epiphany while waving my hands in the air and talking. This is good, I can plan ahead and have things ready.

After we stacked it all Bubba took a lunch. I drank water and thought about the next task we were going to do. In all reality, I was resting in the shade, but saying you are planning sounds better. You cannot let them sense weakness, teenagers will exploit it.

Before I could show Bubba how to pick up rocks we needed to empty out the rest of the tractor bucket. We set two more posts for the Bull enclosure and then I had him drive the mistress. I walked alongside giving him pointers. Most of the rocks are going to come from the back hillside. I only have about three buckets worth laying around the barn lot. So Bubba needs to know how to safely pick rocks from the hillside. There is a technique to this as the tractor is small and can easily get over balanced. He is to go straight up and back down the hillside once loaded. This allows you to keep the bucket low to the ground and drop it on the ground if tractor tires start lifting off the ground. He must always wear the seatbelt. He is good at this already. It is a must and something that I harp on everyone about. I wear it faithfully. He can loosen the rocks out of the ground with the front bucket but he has to hand load each and every rock. I don’t think he expected it. I suspect he thought he could scoop them up like gravel from the pile. So he hopped off the mistress and we started to load the bucket. Next thing I know he is screaming “snake!” He landed five feet away with a panicked expression on his face. I asked where and started to dig around in the grass to see it. I pointed out that he was getting rocks from a rocky hot hillside and he was going to find lots of snakes. If he doesn’t bother them, they won’t bother him. We got back to work. He managed to back down and got stuck in the dry creek bed. He had popped the mistress out of four wheel drive. When you have that much weight in the bucket you need four wheel drive and positrack to get over slippery surfaces. He was able to drop the rock load into the first rock crib and then I turned him loose. There are five rock cribs to fill currently and each one will take a minimum of two hours each.

After getting cleaned up Annmarie and I headed into town to get me new work boots. One of the local stores has a one day sale and clothing and shoes are 20% off so I try and buy foot wear on this day. I had spotted an add for an estate sale on facebook during Bubba’s lunch time and it was on the way to town so I asked the wife if she was interested in stopping. She was game, we like to do these but most of them are not true estate sales, just glorified yard sales. We like to yard sale but usually on days where we can visit 10+ sales in a single day. I had seen the signs for this sale on Friday while doing the supply run but had not stopped. Big mistake! It was a true liquidation of everything from a man over 90 years old. There was still a lot of stuff left and we went on day three. We found a few odds and ends but the real find was a DOG TAG MACHINE from World War 2! The thing is a beast and weighs around 250#. I just kept coming back to it and finally made the best offer of the day for it. A couple of people were holding out and hoping that no one would want it. I spotted one of these years ago and coveted it then but it was really expensive. They go for $500-1000 depending on how old they are. Most of the ones I have seen are not this old. Once I get it into the house and onto the breeze porch I will start cleaning it up. The thing is sold metal and just has surface rust. Its a light coating from being stored outside in a shed. I will get that cleaned off and lube the machine up with some WD-40 and I will be set! Annmarie asked me what I was going to do with it. I am gonna make tags! I have no idea what for but I am gonna make some. I hunted around and finally found blank tags for 18 cents a piece if I buy 1000. It seems like a nice round number. I figure it will take me 50-100 tags just to get it right and see how many lines I can put on the dog tag. I need to create a postcard with information on the machine and process so I can include it with any tags made. I am pretty stoked about this find! Now I just need two more hardy souls to help me unload it and carry it upstairs and onto the breezeporch. I have it wrapped in a tarp in the the back of our pickup now. I also need to print up the instruction manual.

As an added bonus I spotted this internal gear stacked over against some discarded stuff when we went back to pickup our Graphotype. I was gonna trade it with a couple of buddies. One does metal work and the other does woodwork custom tables. I figured that surely one could use this unique item. Well after talking to Annmarie on the way home we are going to use it! We have been talking about getting a custom metal sign for the farm and we can have someone cut us a pattern using their CNC machine and I could weld it after taking the class this fall. But today as I was staring at the picture it dawned on me that we could just have the CNC machine cut the shape to just barely under the circumference of the gear and I could just drill holes through it and bolt it to the ring! No welding necessary therefore no waiting needed. Annmarie just needs to design it and I need to get two metal posts from the scrap yard. Once I have those posts I can set them in concrete and we will be ready! I really like this idea. Annmarie can do all the design work and just have the CNC machine do its duty. I want to make it out of 1/4″ or 3/16″ plate steel, with the price of steel currently I will probably go for the 3/16″. If we use steel then I can create the rust patina on the new piece easily with a chemical spray.

I did get some new leather boots and some slip on leather shoes!

Supply time

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Friday, I opted for a supply run to get the last of what I think I need for the bull enclosure. There is one item that I forgot, some Fastenal anchors I will need to put up all the enclosure railing. I will have to get those next week but I don’t need them yet. The store I was going to get the other supplies doesn’t carry them so its a second stop. This defeats the purpose of the quick trip if I keep stopping at various stores. I had the 16 foot trailer also and did not want to drag it around town, parallel parking it would be a special kind of torture. I ended up buying cow panels to cover the used feeder panels we picked up at auction. These will be wired directly over the panels. I may cut some of them in half lengthwise to make them stretch farther. But on the other hand, if I don’t cut them then at some future time I would be able to reuse them. I am still torn on which direction to go and have another week to ponder a choice. I am all about reusing stuff! I have saved a ton of money by reusing materials. It isn’t always the prettiest of things but it is always functional.

I also picked up a few blocks to put next to our gate. When we step in we step next to the concrete. I poured a bunch of gravel there to keep the mud away but over time the gravel is sloughing off down the hill. I need to put in a short wall to contain the gravel and allow us to have a clean stepping spot.

My other nephew, came out in the evening and we worked on setting more posts. I am paying him and offered to give him some cash but he wants to save it for college. I talked to him and we will fill an envelope with his wages and keep it at the house. This way when he gets ready for school he can just come pickup the envelope. We don’t care as we will just keep paying him about every ten hours. It just makes the math easier. Annmarie is going to help me with the water system for the bull. She thinks we have enough of a gradient that we can simply insert a hose upstream and run it to a trough. I can then put an overflow from the trough out onto the ground. This will keep the water clean and keep the bull out of the water. I am all for this and we will be testing the theory soon. We could pump it also with a solar pump, this will work as the bull will really only be spending three to four months here out of the year and only during the summer. The pump can be very low volume, as little as 5 gallons an hour. I can wire a float switch system to keep it from running all the time. The first option is far cheaper.

It tried to rain on us while we were fencing. It never really put down enough rain to stop us or to knock the wheat kernels out of the the drying heads. I don’t mind those kind of showers when it is hot outside. I have been drinking more water but I need to increase my intake. I have noticed the last couple of years that I cannot go outside and work in 100+ degree heat all day any more. I get too tired and usually get sick. Ten years ago I did it all summer long, it is not happening any more. I do wear a long sleeve shirt when out in the sun and that helps considerably. All the teenagers think I am a freak when they see me dressed for work. They think shorts, tennis shoes and T-shirt are the go to garb when working in the summertime. I make them wear boots, jeans and gloves while they are working. I even supply the gloves if they don’t bring any. They learn over the course of a summer why we do things a little different on a farm.

Bully for us

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This week I have been trying to work on the bull enclosure. The best part of this is after last weekend I went and got a load of hay and had Mr Consumer unload it while I was at work! This is the absolute best way to move hay, by not moving it at all and letting someone else do it.

I decided to change my name for Mr Consumer. Its a big deal for me as I don’t usually do this but I just cannot pass up the opportunity to use a better one. His mother calls him Bubba! I cannot make this up and it is way cooler than my name! So I am switching forever and ever, this one time.

My nephew has been coming out to the house in the late evenings to help me out. We are focusing on the bull enclosure. Its slow going but we have been able to sink 6-8 posts every night. We are setting each post with gravel instead of putting the dirt back. This means we are staying out till 2130on the nights we can work. This means I just come home, eat dinner and then head out to the barn lot to work. This only works 2-3 evenings a week but it is a little more done every day and ultimately it will be done if I just keep at it.

The only lousy part is we are having to manually dig the holes the rest of the way. My tractor just won’t do it. A 16 pound breaker bar will move a lot of rocks a little way then we manually dig them out of the holes. Most of the time you have to dig them out by hand as the post hole digger doesn’t grab the rocks. It is amazing how you can literally break a rock in half with a steel bar and enough effort. I can tell we have been at this for over three weeks, my T-shirts are starting to not be as loose on me from the upper body muscles compensating for the hard work. Now if only this would contribute to a six pack ab set without having to work at it!

We are reusing some old cedar posts in an effort to keep costs down. I am hoping they will hold but the only real way to test this theory out is to build it, put the bull in there and see how it works. So we are going to do a trial by fire after completion.

Hay moving time again

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Mr Consumer has been out helping me again. I have had him on the tractor discing up the two upper fields. I am going to try and level out the middle field as it is pretty uneven and see if I cannot get it flatter so it will be easier to hay next year. I was able to spend a few hours at it one evening this week working until dark. My wife was out of town and so there was no curfew to come inside and relax. It was just the mistress and I for a few hours. The fields are all disced up now and I will spray them this week or the weekend at the latest to keep the weeds knocked down. This will allow us to disc it one more time and then a friend will bring in his big tractor in the fall for a day and condition the field then I can plant alfalfa. I am getting super excited about doing our own hay next year!

I am especially excited after having to pay for hay again this year and moving all the 65-80# bales. These are light compared to the 110# bales we had two years ago. I am too old and those are too heavy. After moving 8 ton in a day I am bushed, beat, exhausted, stick a fork in me done! Our new bales will only be 50#. They will be round, but since we are stacking them in the barn that won’t be a big deal as the walls will keep them from rolling away.

Mr Consumer and I stacked 8 ton yesterday and another 8 ton today. The stack just gets higher every time we bring in more hay. In the barn we can stack the bales 12 high and it is done all by hand. I have the used elevator I got last year but it needs some welding repairs and since I am taking the welding class this fall, all welding projects have been delegated to next year.

We stacked a total of 9 ton in the machine shed over the weekend. We stacked it high in the middle so that I can lay down a couple of sheets of plywood and fix those broken supports in the roof I broke out last year with the old tractor. It will be a lot easier to work on a six foot ladder than a 16 foot ladder.

I will work on getting the lumber to fix those next week. Things are starting to come together. The bull enclosure is my single big project, if I can get that done then I think I can get the barn addition frame work done this summer. I have a few more fences I want to install but honestly its too late to be fencing. I need to do that next spring.

The machine shed gate got hooked by a trailer so I will have to repair that now. I have learned that anything can be repaired and things will go wrong or break all the time. You just keep moving forward and fix them as they come.

I am going to let Mr Consumer unload the trailer while I am at work! I plan on getting a load every evening and letting him unload it the next day. This is by far and away the best way to unload hay!

This is our club wheat crop this year. It is probably the best crop we have had since we have been back to the farm. I will get a shot once it has all turned a golden color.