Another week has passed. We’ve been meeting about taxes, checking out farm sales, cleaning up equipment, and more. Here a few pictures of the highlights.
An old road grader for sale at an auction.
These short lengths of drain tile were used as cores to wrap longer but smaller diameter tile around for packaging and transport. We loaded them up in my truck and returned them to the tile manufacturer.
The 8420 got an oil change this week.
I dug up a few cover crop radishes to see how they are doing after some very cold days last week. They should being dying off soon. As they decay in the spring they will release the nutrients they have absorbed to the growing corn crop.
I thought this was pretty cool. And old and large dragline bucket probably used for cleaning out drainage ditches.
The farm auction we visited this week was a mint farm. These are mint wagons used in the harvesting process. I don’t know much about mint farming, but if you click the picture it will take you to a video from and Idaho mint grower. Good stuff!
Our 8420 has the ILS front suspension. It’s very much like the independent front suspension on a car but with larger parts. The shaft powers the front wheels. After changing the motor oil I serviced the front end by greasing it.
This is a before an after shot of the disc off of our disc/belt sander. We got the tool from my great uncle and the sanding disc we finally wore down was apparently glued on the machine. The last disc wasn’t the stick on type. I let the metal plate sit in the parts washer during lunch and the glue came right off!
What have you done this week?
Reblogged this on cftc10.
Equipment sales and oil changes, I think farmer’s are doing the same thing here, too.
Drove through local JD dealership on the way to lunch with my cousin. Looking for a corn planter that uses dry fertilizer…. hard to find. Watched the snow melt, the rivers and our pond rise, the fog come in (on little cat feet) and the rain continue to fall. Sorting out information for tax time. Filed crop insurance claim for corn crop. played euchre and had pizza with farmer friends…
I read your post on CNN today. It is refreshing to see that an actual farmer is writing on their site. Sadly, however, people WANT to believe that non-organic farmers are evil and are “factory farms” that are “corporate owned.”
I help my Dad run a seed wheat farm in Central Kansas, and I’m just worn down from all the negativity from people who don’t farm and who don’t know the truth and frankly don’t want to know the truth. Thanks for taking the flag and running with it…
Thanks, Heather. I just try to keep in mind there may be a lot of lurkers out there trying to make up their minds who don’t comment, but certainly read the comments.
Brian,
I just read your essay that was published on the CNN web page. First of all, I have to tell you that I think you must be one of the most polite and least confrontational people in the world. I read the the comments after your essay, and several of them made me angry because of their complete lack of understanding of so many things. But, then you’d reply and be rationale, calm and informative. Compared to you, Ghandi was a bully.
I grew up on a corn farm in eastern Iowa; my sister and I inherited it and rent it to a cousin who farms the land. I’ve become a city slicker and do biomedical research at UT in Austin, so I hear all the misconceptions about farming from my city-bred colleagues and students. I asked my cousin about Monsanto, and his comments were very similar to yours. He uses some Monsanto corn and has no problems with the company.
I could ramble on here, but I’ll keep it short and just say that I think “The Farmer’s Life” is a great service. I know it must be hard to keep up with it during planting and harvesting seasons.
Keep up the good work,
rick
Thanks, Rick. I don’t feel there’s any point in me getting upset about those comments. If I can keep a level head and state my case and expand it via comments I like to think I’m giving those who are reading but not commenting a way to see both sides of an argument.
Also I think some of my best ideas come during spring and fall. 12-15 hour days in the cab is a lot of thinking time!
Just finished reading your post on CNN and dragging through the comments, which was a rather painful experience. As a farmer I thank you so much for putting yourself out there and staying calm about it. Great job! I find it terribly discouraging to be denigrated under the “dumb farmer “stereotype, and I suspect I could never be as patient. So thanks again.
Enjoying your blog, Wish I could follow it on fb. But I signed up for the emails.
Thank you, Jeff! Anyone wanting to follow on facebook can go to http://www.facebook.com/thefarmerslife. I share pictures from the farm during the day quite often!