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 was right. This past week was a blur. I want to slow things down.

I am moved into my new house. There was a lot to do of course, I got my appliances and the Internet today. I had to settle for a 35 Mbps Internet connection with a 8ms latency. What a difference from the farm. On the farm I had to spend a fortune each month for a 2 Mbps connection with a 900ms latency.

We went flying this past weekend and went to a "Brazilians in Atlanta" meetup party. Fun stuff!

I have two trips booked, one to Wisconsin and an another to North Dakota. I will be going for a significant trip to Europe and another to South America in the next couple of months.

It is important to remember the danger of traffic in the Atlanta area. It really is dangerous.








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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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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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