2013 is coming to a close quickly on the farm. A fair amount of time was spent in the office writing checks to various places before the year ends. Christmas took up the middle of the week, and Dad and I got some cool new stuff! Check it out!
Aerial Agnerd
My DJI Phantom 2 quadcopter arrived on Christmas Eve. Yahoo! My kit has a few upgrades over a stock Phantom 2. I’ve got a Futaba radio, a transmitter for live video from the camera to a 7″ inch screen, extra batteries, extra props, and a very cool and incredibly stable gimbal to hang my GoPro Hero3+ Black Edition camera from. Oh, a a custom case made to fit it all! I’ve already done a full write on my few days of experience with the UAV so take a minute to read that post would you?
Now this tool is going to be used for crop scouting, but since it’s winter and I’m learning I can have fun too right?
Got a nice shot of my parent’s house! Hmmmmm. What is that near the end of the driveway?
Meet the New Boss
Hmmmm. Tool box open, seat leaned forward, tailgate down, and lots of stuff on the bench. What is happening?
Beautiful! Dad got a new truck this week! The black 2004 was traded in for this 2014 Chevy Silverado 1500 High Country with 5.3L V8. He said if I got another diesel he might step down to a half ton, and here it is on the farm. I’m on my third four door and this will be Dad’s first. No more three (sometimes 4) grown men sitting in a standard cab pickup. The 8.1L gasser in the old truck got about 9mpg empty, loaded, or towing. Dad thinks he’ll save $2,000 in fuel per year with this truck. Wow!
Dad and I popped in to Rural King on Saturday to pick out a tool box. He decided to go with a lower profile which also has space underneath. The old truck had a 100 gallon fuel tank under the tool box, and that’s not going in this truck. We’re talking about building a trailer for fuel or possible setting up a tank than can easily be placed in one of our trucks temporarily during planting and harvest.
Tiny bit of info for those that don’t know. After college I didn’t come back home to the farm. I spent almost six years working at two different Rural King stores. I started as an assistant manager working at our local store 3 months before it even opened, and became store manager the next year. My last three years were spent running a store about 30 minutes from home. I left the world of “real” jobs and came back to the farm in 2009.
Future Farmer. Or Mechanic. Who Knows?
I will leave you with this. Someone received a John Deere tool belt for Christmas this year. I found him in his room one day making adjustments to the trampoline. What a kid!
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Cute picture in the end.Did your father get the new Chevy from Hubbard GM Center up there?
Came from Mann in Flora.
Good choice in truck! Really a beaut. What is the range on that quadcopter? I’ve always wanted to fly one of those things and get some cool footage for work
I’ve been out 6/10 of a mile so far. Once I started losing video and flew back, and another time I lost control of the ship and it came back on it’s own.
That’s pretty cool that it comes back when losing battery power or going out of range. A really good idea. I could be wrong, but isn’t there some rule/law about how far a personal UAV is allowed to travel from the operator? I don’t know why but for some reason I thought I read somewhere that it is 300 meters or something.
That I do not know. Altitude needs to be max of 400′.