Machinery Infatuation

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I bought my first NEW piece of farm machinery. I am not sure if this is a failure or a success, but it is different. I picked up a NEW Rotary Cutter (bush hog, brush hog, mower, etc) from a dealer. It cost me almost as much as the tractor did with its bits of hardware and options. It seems to work well on the CNH Boomer 33. I planned on getting up to NY in the next couple of days, but Gracie has been sick.. she has been up and down. The steroid treatment and a change in diet seem to be helping at this point. Besides hauling the tractor and mower up to NY I have numerous events planned over the next month. I will be in Charlotte for a conference as well as Tucson Arizona and of course other events and activities. I started installing radio equipment in the Humvee. It now has a telescoping 30 foot antenna, a 24 volt to 12 volt converter, a removable SDR radio and some other stuff to be sure. I'd like to get it to the Stone Mountain Hamfest -- thats what i am shooting for. I thr...
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I bought a new digital camera. The thing has so many features. All I want is to be able to take some photos, jeepers. I ended up with a Canon SD 700is. I was looking for a small, hi res cammera. I will still be using the good old Sony Mavica but this one is a lot more mobile. It fits in a small pocket and with a 2 gig card I will be able to put hundreds or thousands of photos on it without screwing around.

I ran in the corporate challenge the other night. I finished the 5k in 25:30. The cool thing was that I did not push my heart rate to maximum. Although it was not what you would call relaxing, it was not stressful. I am going to be getting my time down, but it is going to be a fair amount of work to do it. I think if I keep my work out routine consistant It will come. It just takes a while.

The weather is supposed to be great this weekend. My list is long. The lawnmower mower deck is broken, the Bobcat tire has a hole, llama house needs leveling, the fence needs straightening, firewood needs chopping, and the car get new brakes (front and rear), as well as an assortment of other items that are written on the 3 x 5 card that is in the other room.

Meet Rosey the llama. We are going to have the llamas in the barn this winter. I have to figure out some lower maintenence living quarters. The llamas are getting into the chicken feed and the chickens don't like it one bit. Of course the chickens have been getting into the llama feed all along.

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Machinery Infatuation

-
Image
I bought my first NEW piece of farm machinery. I am not sure if this is a failure or a success, but it is different. I picked up a NEW Rotary Cutter (bush hog, brush hog, mower, etc) from a dealer. It cost me almost as much as the tractor did with its bits of hardware and options. It seems to work well on the CNH Boomer 33. I planned on getting up to NY in the next couple of days, but Gracie has been sick.. she has been up and down. The steroid treatment and a change in diet seem to be helping at this point. Besides hauling the tractor and mower up to NY I have numerous events planned over the next month. I will be in Charlotte for a conference as well as Tucson Arizona and of course other events and activities. I started installing radio equipment in the Humvee. It now has a telescoping 30 foot antenna, a 24 volt to 12 volt converter, a removable SDR radio and some other stuff to be sure. I'd like to get it to the Stone Mountain Hamfest -- thats what i am shooting for. I thr...
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Environmentalism and Earth Day

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I remember the first "Earth Day" in 1970. I remember it well. I was in third-grade at Oakview Neighborhood School in West Irondequit, NY. We had energized school lessons regarding care for the environment and there was a common thread in our cultural changes that we all need to care more about nature and ourselves. There was almost no opposing dialog. We had seen large fish kills, weird colored skys, and bodies of water we wouldn't even think about swimning in, including Lake Ontario. This was almost 10 years before the awakening of " love canal " in nearby Nigagra Falls NY. Generally, in 1970 the dialog was about polution and what we can do to reduce polution. Polution consisted of many things, trash along the highways, untreated sewage and industrial dumping and runoffs. Don't forget about sound polution, also part of the polution spectrum. We were also significantly concerned about needlessly cutting of trees and wasting paper. Since 1970 we have made g...
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I finally cracked the code on lime in my fields. Trying to find the cheap/smart way in farming is difficult since farmers are generally very resourceful and they figure stuff out. My lime project has been in my thinking for years. Down here we need lime on our soil for hay. The soil is great for berries, but for hay it needs to be sweetened every 10 years or so with 2 ton/acre of a lime type product with minimal mineral values. I found a close-by source (Lansing) of fine concrete dust. The numbers are great. The price is cheap since it is a byproduct and I found a guy with a tri-axle dump truck in between the source and the farm who was also willing to drive it out the field. It was about 1/4 the money and much higher quality than what most other folks do. I will be spreading it at the same time I mow. The mower on the front and the spreader on the rear. That is efficient.
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On Being Single.

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Another weekend over. The scrap in the picture sold for 150 bucks this past Saturday. Amazing how high commodities have got. Hang on. The economy is in for some twists. I was all set to invest in forign currencies and I held off because of fear. Wouldn't you know my fears were warranted. The dollar started gaining some strength back. I lucked out there. I have to remember that. I was bit surprised how easy I got the scrap to the scrap yard. I used the tractor to drag the metal scrap out of the hedgerow (way back on the property), the bobcat to load onto the trailer and the truck and trailer to get it to the scrap yard. I seem to be set up for this stuff. It took less than two hours from end to end. The llama shearer will be here this weekend. I am going to look at a D6 dozer too. The dozer may be helping make some new ponds and what not. The projects on the list are going well this summer. Like always there are steps forward and steps back on the roads of progress. It is ve...
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I twisted my ankle Saturday. I am OK, but I will be taking it easy for a few days I am sure. The culture here is somewhat refreshing. People are polite and friendly and when you are driving around they wave to you. People who don't want to be here are not here. Living in close quarters with something and having much in common (being in Antarctica) allows people to connect better it seems. The bird is a Skua. http://www.antarcticconnection.com/antarctic/wildlife/birds/skuas.shtml They can get very aggresive. They will see you carrying food and then attack you. They are a good sign of summer and they are very skilled at getting their way with humans. The other picture was taken at about midnight. That is about as low as the sun gets. It is so weird. We still call it nighttime. I understand what folks say about short term memory loss on the ice. It definately seems to have affected me. We carry small green memo books which we call green brains.
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