Farmerjan's journal - Weather

[Bruce]

Ordered one, If it works, then replacing it yearly is not an issue.

You shouldn't have to change the carburetor annually, maybe not ever. And the car?? The used engine was presumably checked over and rebuilt as needed, it should last 100K miles or more. Probably a small thing.

I sure hope things get back on track and REAL SOON!

 

[greybeard]

This don't look good...it's clear of me, but everything North and most of the NW is getting hit..


It streams all the way up to the eastern seaboard too.

 

[farmerjan]

Ah, @greybeard , so glad to get the weather report...LOL . If we didn't laugh over it we would cry!!! Got some pretty bad storms yesterday, Wed., in the area south of me. Roanoke Va got hit with torrential rain and hail, and winds that toppled trees and power outages. Several cars were crushed by trees. Roanoke is about an hour south, and Lexington about 20 miles south got another round of wind and rain. Just a bit of sprinkles here. As posted on @B&B Happy goats, I was raking just ahead of the baler on the last 4 acres because my son was afraid he would not get to it before the skies opened up. I had about 25 acres raked and waiting for him when he got off. But it all got up and then we got a shower. Then it quit.
Today they are calling for more widespread T-storms and rain this afternoon as you posted. The newly mown hay is in rows that just came out of the discbine mower. If it gets wet it won't hurt it as much. If we get much rain here, it will get tedded out to dry then raked. It is not as thick, but we get all these lots in a subdivision for nothing, just to get it mowed. Decent enough grass, we actually fertilize some of the lots that we know aren't in any danger of being built on in the foreseeable future. But these places have "deed restrictions" like they have to be mowed at least twice a year... etc and so on. Rather than them pay someone to bushhog it off, we get it. Most used to be farmland, so the grasses aren't too terrible. It makes good hay for the dry beef cows in the winter when they don't need real high quality feed. And some is pretty good grass on second cutting, especially after all the weeds are gotten off in the first cutting round bales. It adds organic matter back into the soil so even the weeds are not the end of the world to get the "free" hay along with it.

Stopped to get an extra can of diesel fuel at the station to take up to put in the tractor I was raking with, and a black man asked about the cost of the big rolls of hay. I said they were between 40-50 a piece all according to the quality. He was on his way back to Ga with a trailer and said they hadn't had any rain for about 3 weeks. He had planted rye but it burned up. I would have offered to sell him a couple to put on his trailer, but the loader was off the tractor that we had just taken up to be worked on, so no way to load him 2. He said he would try to stop somewhere on the way and see if he could get a couple. There wasn't anyone home in the area that I could think of, either, to maybe get him some. If it had been late afternoon, probably could have found him a couple but not mid-day like that. Most all of us work other jobs and do our farming "after hours". It just happens that my "after work hours" often falls mid day due to testing. And the slow down so that I am off more now.
Sorry to hear that the rain is missing @greybeard and his area. I'm sure that some up in the mid-west would gladly send him a few bucketfuls.
Need to get the rest of the lawn mowed. Got the new carb, mower runs great. No @Bruce , you shouldn't have to replace a carb every year. But rebuilding, with new
o-rings that deteriorate is more expensive than replacing it. And yes, I ran it out of gas so it didn't sit over the winter. Plus, all the small engine mechanics are complaining about the poor quality of the gas and diesel this year and all the mowers that are in for poor/not running problems. As the one friend said, they make so much to be throwaway any more. A $15.00 carb is cheaper than taking it in to be worked on. And a heck of alot cheaper than paying $50 plus a week to have it mowed. I've got a bagger on it and am going to remow what I just got done, now that the grass has had 2 days to dry up some since it was so heavy. It will go in the garden; I have decided to have a smaller one than normal. Wasn't going to do anything with us being so busy and my looking for another place. But will have all this free mulch, and I can smother the weeds. Didn't get it tilled due to the usual guy having major tractor breakdown, and can just mow it short then lay down the paper feed bags and cover it with old hay and grass and put in some stuff like tomatoes and such. Then I can plant a few things and keep it covered. I move the chicken "tractor" around on part since the landlord doesn't like them moved around the lawn.

Right now the focus is on hay for the next few days, then my appt at Duke next week for the possible ankle replacement evaluation. Plus fitting in the farms that are wanting to test.

 

[Bruce]

But rebuilding, with new
o-rings that deteriorate is more expensive than replacing it.

Yeah that is a problem. If you have the knowledge to do it yourself it would be cheap but when you have to pay someone $50/hr (or more) it becomes a case of trash something that should and could be repaired but for the cost.

 

[farmerjan]

Priced rebuild kits at 2 different places. Has the o-rings and some other stuff. $25.99 and 29.99. So going with a new carb. Shop rates around here start at $65/hr. My son can do it, and the friend of his would do it for nothing as we have done things for him in the past. Now that we know what the problem seems to be. But WHY spend that and the time when I can even take the carb off and put the new one on now, if I have to.

 

[greybeard]

I have an old Ford 8n tractor here that parts are still readily available for...even at TSC. It belongs to my brother's 'estate' and I haven't messed with it in months but when he and I were using it, I just kept a spare carb rebuilt and swapped it out in 10 minutes if the thing ever gave us trouble..almost always a stuck float anyway. Those carbs are dirt cheap used, and the kit for them is right about $19, but has way more in it than what is normally needed while a new carb is $199.99 at TSC. (why not just say $200?)

 

[Baymule]

I found a mini tiller on Craigslist for $30 so we went and got it. Our neighbor likes to tinker with stuff and I knew he could fix anything that was wrong with it. It needed new fuel lines and a carb, he found it on E-Bay for under $15, so got 2 of them. So now we have a new to us, mini tiller. Since we share equipment, it's his to use too.

 

[farmerjan]

Boy, @Baymule , I wish you were close. I think that I mentioned that I often get the small "left behind" cornish x birds when they clean out the broiler houses. When the catchers pick up the birds, they don't take the "little ones" as they will only get killed and the farmer actually loses on the "avg" weight gain and all that. Now understand that I am not a big fan of confinement houses, but do understand the reasoning, and the farmers that put them up as they are a good use of help on the farms, and a good source of poultry litter for fertilizer. Not much for the turkey houses, but the broilers are in and out in 42 days. They seldom ever get any kind of "treatments" (antibiotics) like the turkeys do. The turkeys are in there for 12-20 weeks, and turkeys get sick easily.

Anyway, I do not do the killing myself, but have had a small butcher shop do them and I pick them up and then vaccuum pack and freeze them myself. Usually I have 8-15 at a time. Sometimes I go months without any. It doesn't pay me to go pick up 4 or 5 as the farm is 45 min away. Sometimes they are nearly the 4 lb size that the catchers might miss, often they are just little. Given a little room, and fresh air and feed, they grow pretty good. Thing is, all the "hard stuff" like heat etc needed for baby chicks, is done, except in the winter they are used to a heated building and that is a pain. Don't get many in the winter anyway.

So they called and there were alot left this time. Said like 50 plus!!!!! I went to get them. There were the usual ones that were crappy, but alot of pretty decent ones. I take all the live ones except the cripples. How about nearly 90????? Some don't make it but oh well. I now have 50 + that need to be processed, and the butcher shop isn't doing them anymore. I would gladly do something like a trade of half for the killing & dressing.... but no one to do them. Going to have to find someone to do them. It's not an option for me to do. Can't do them here, don't have a way to do them at my son's, and don't have the time to do them. Hard enough to find time to get them packed and in the freezer. But it is hard to turn them down when I only have 30 days feed in them, no original chick costs, no brooder time, nothing except keep the feeders and waterers full. They get out on the grass and learn to be "real chickens" for a month or so.

So where is @Baymule when I need a super duper chicken processor????

 

[farmerjan]

I feel like I was "rode hard and put away wet" as the saying goes. Everything aches this morning. The weather has been VERY COOPERATIVE right here for us with hay making. Yesterday was a marathon. I spent over 7 hours on the tractor raking and my son started baling as soon as he got off work. I was still raking. With the 4600 ford and the V-rake behind, rolling 2 mown rows into a windrow, I can cover alot of ground. Ran out of fuel on the last field and he was getting low on the big tractor, so I left to go get 5 more 5 gal cans and we finished the last field right at 9 pm. Everything that was on the ground is rolled.
I haven't counted but there were nearly 40 in the first field that he was still baling, when I went down the road to the third field to rake. I imagine that we made 125 to 150 yesterday. I was so glad to get off that tractor. It's been too hot for us for this time of year under normal circumstances. Upper 80's and 90's. Usually we are more like 70's, low 80's this time of year. But we also had a good breeze for several days and with the sun and breeze, the hay dried fast. The hay has dried really good and we are several "fields" ahead of where we normally are by the first of June. Normally we get more rain and last year was a tough one to even get into the field. So we will take what we get and be thankful. Need to start getting it all off the fields.
We are due to get "possible severe thunderstorms" this afternoon. I am very thankful that we didn't get what others got south of us 2 days ago with the winds, pouring rain, and down trees and lost power. Got about 20 drops again last eve but it kept right on going and we never stopped. Funny how it has done that a couple times and we dodged the bullet and got done what we were doing. Only had one place get rained on that did any "damage" to the quality. We have been very fortunate this year.

 

[Bruce]

(why not just say $200?)

because you cross a threshold when you hit that big number, yep < $200 is a bargain, $200 is too much

You can fool some of the people all of the time and all of the people some of the time.