The weather finally got back to normal a bit this week. We did some work outdoors this week, and we picked up some new equipment. I spent some time working on agnerd stuff on the laptop. This time last year we were already in the field planting corn. Well that ended in a prolonged drought remember? Glad we’re back to more normal weather patterns this season. I don’t think we’ll be in the field for a few weeks yet.
On Top of It
Here I am on top of an old corn crib. We’re pulling the metal roof off. We’ll take all the steel to the scrap yard to be recycled. This crib is coming down. It’s not in terrible shape, but no one is using it and removing it will make farming this field quite a bit more effecient.Tear Dow
Dad and Randy pulling nails out.
Stripped
Look, no roof!
One for the Record Books
We now have a digital record of the subsurface drainage system we installed last fall. This map will make it easy to find the lines if they ever need repaired or if we choose to expand the system. I can also lay these lines over yield maps to see how the drainage is affecting our crops. The lines you see running from left to right drain a wet area of some of our best soil. The other line is a larger main that covers nearly a mile and follows the curve of an old county tile several yards to the West.
Little Helper
My son helped us a bit this week. What little boy wouldn’t want to pull a big trailer and watch a load get put on it? Not to mention running around on the trailer. I spent quite a few hours when I was a kid climbing stacks of seed bags loaded on a trailer while Dad was out in the field planting.
New Toy
Well we left our 1550B JCB backhoe at the shop and traded up for this 214 model. This tractor rolls out in 4th gear better than our old one did in 1st. This is a 1995 model. We were also looking at a 2001 214 with about half the hours of this machine. However this one was in as good or better shape than the later model. The cab was especially in nicer shape. The 1550B has had it’s share of nagging problems, and for the money after trading I think we’re way ahead now and will likely use a backhoe more than we have in the past.
Dig It
This backhoe came from a municipality (as many used models do) and the hoe has a special feature. It can slide from side to side rather than being fixed in the center. This allows the operator to pull the tractor right up next to a building to dig along the foundation.
Greasy
The pins on one side of the loader arms wouldn’t take any grease. Dad and I knocked the pins out and relieved them of the old, hard grease inside that was keeping new grease out.
As the weather gets warmer field work draws closer. Looking forward to a great 2013!
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