Tuesday, May 30, 2017

Moving the Birds Outside

My nephew George and my dad came to the farm to help move the birds from the brooder to the outdoor coop. Now that their feathers are in they can manage the cold nights. After getting acclimated to their new home they'll start wandering around the farm eating, I hope, ticks!



For some reason, to see a clearer image of any of the pictures below, you'll need to click on it --









Friday, May 26, 2017

Auction Buys

I bought a New Idea model 255 sickle bar mower and a 300 gallon diesel fuel tank.  After putting a new hydraulic cylinder on it and giving it a "tune up", I'll use the mower to cut weeds on the 65 acres that's in clover.  By cutting them before they go to seed, I'm hoping to reduce the amount of tillage I'll need to do next spring/summer.

The tank will get a coat of rust converter paint, a couple of new fuel filters, and a final coat of John Deere green.

Kind of amazing what you can move with ropes and chains.



Thursday, May 25, 2017

Planting Corn

We hire out the corn planting, as right now we don't have a planter!

He is using a John Deere 12 row model 1770.

This has a been a very cold, wet spring and the corn is going in late. We'll see how that affects the yield.




Monday, May 22, 2017

Trying to Dry Out a Field


We try to plant our corn by May 1st. This year has been wet and cold, but there was a small window last week and we missed it.  So, in between the rain, my dad (Gramps), is hoping that by running the field cultivator over this ground the wind will dry it out so we can plant it tomorrow.   The ground is sandy and well drained. It's supposed to rain in the afternoon, so we'll see. 

I had tilled this piece (roughly 30 acres) with the field cultivator almost three weeks ago. The soybean residue on it from last years crop was incorporated fairly easily into the soil.

Saturday, May 20, 2017

Heavy Weather



The neighbor's rain gauge says we got 5" of rain.

I like the distorted images.

Monday, May 15, 2017

Baby Birds in Brooder



The birds - guinea fowl, chickens, ducks, geese and a lone turkey - are about a month old. In a week or two they'll have enough feathers to stay warm at night and I'll move them outside for the summer.  I'm counting on the guineas to eat enough ticks to spare me from Lyme disease.  I find myself checking twice a day for ticks; at this point I've only found 3, but I think there will be more as it warms up.