Farmerjan's journal - Weather

Ridgetop

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The thing I don't like is that the top shelves in all the top cabinets are so high I will need a ladder so it is almost useless space.... will have to put stuff up there that I don't use much because it's useless for food storage. I do have counter space here that I didn't have there so that is a plus.

I keep all my stuff that I only use on holidays, etc. on the top shelves. Also store extra plastic sealed bags of sugar for baking, canning stuff that I only need during summer (didn't need it this year due to ground squirrels), etc. That wide step footstool comes in really handy for reaching stuff. It is aluminum, so easy to bring in from laundry room. Those top shelves are really only good for storing stuff you seldom need (or if you are about 7' tall), but having that extra space for that type of stuff is great since otherwise you would have to store it in cabinets that are better for stuff you need all the time.
 

Bruce

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Again something to consider.... it's just that I really noticed how much the wind was blowing.... a breeze really, but it might be enough to get and keep it turning regularly/comsistently.....
If there are people that install residential wind towers they likely will come do a free wind/site analysis and you can find out if it is reasonable. From your description it sounds like you might have good clearance for "undisturbed" wind and possibly solar as well.

You can do measurements with Google maps. Just bring up the house on the map, put it in satellite view then right mouse. The last option on the bottom of that menu is "measure distance". Click 2 spots and it will tell you the distance between them. You can grab and move one of them to another spot and the new distance will be shown.
 

farmerjan

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@Bruce if you ever head south for anything, leave an extra day for a stop in Va.....you can get all my electronic stuff set up for me and show me how to use it....all this stuff about googling the house and distances and whatever......Guarantee I will feed you some real beef even send you home with some to hide in the freezer for future meals....@Cntryboy777 said that you are real good at it. (electronic stuff)

Tuesday eve. I got the orchard grass hay raked, and the grass mixed hay tedded in the "creek pasture field". Tomorrow I will go up on top and get the 2 "top fields" tedded out and then rake the creek field. I expect that he will get the orchard grass sq baled tomorrow, and then the creek field. I will rake the 2 top fields on Thursday or Friday morning. Some clouds Friday with scattered showers to come in Saturday. Compliments of this trop storm Epsilon(?)..... He said something about getting another field cut today too....if so, I will rake the 2 top fields on Thursday most likely and get the other raked on Friday. Should have been done cutting them yesterday to insure they will be dry enough....but I am not in charge.... All this inbetween him saying that we are hauling Fred's cows on Friday..... he's the closeby neighbor that we make the hay for... work his cows/calves in the spring, and then get them in and haul them to town in the fall when he sells them.
I have a farm set up to test on Thursday afternoon so won't be able to do much after 1:30 p.m. And he asked if I could haul the 2nd load of calves on Friday.... so that means any raking will have to be done before noon so it has a chance to be up off the ground for additional drying for baling. Maybe He didn't get to that other field.... I really hope not at this point.

Got the samples packed from the 200 cow herd yesterday. packed a few things at the old house and did some sorting of stuff there too. Told Jim that I wanted to take the tractor and the sweeper down to the house so that I could 'cherry pick" some of it to bag up for the chickens for the winter; that I would be doing the last mowing there. And that I wanted him to let me know when he took it so that we could load the 2 "chicken tractors" on the trailer so they could come up to the new house and I could get the one redone.... it needs new plywood and a new roof which I am going to do metal I think even though it will make it a little heavier....it will be more sturdy and shed the snow/rain better....
Now I am thinking that I will get a skil saw so that I can do the simple cutting of the plywood for this coop....and do other stuff...I am inspired to try anyway. I had always used a hand saw to cut stuff. That I was able to "operate" !!!!!

:hit:hu:idunnoSent the floor guy a text and asked when he thought he might be able to get here......😢😩😞😞😞

I've given up on the other guy about calling me back about the trees and boxwoods with a price.... Going to look at a battery powered chainsaw to use..... tired of this. I will wait until this bout of hay is done and once more ask my son to come and pick up the fuel tank.....then will call another friend to see if he could run up here and do it for me. I realize that we were busy with the silage, then the heifers, then the hay again.... but he quit early today to have her come meet him so THEY could go take the "bagger" back..... she was no where to be found during the silage bagging.... but .....
Not going to say it. I asked twice about the fuel tank because I want to get some heat in this house... it will take the furnace guy a week or so to get me worked in he said... as it gets colder I expect he will get busier....Would be especially good if there was some heat for the finish to dry better on the floors......
I am getting frustrated again.....
Going to take the 4x4 down to the old house tomorrow after I get done at PT, the fields I need to rake and all are near the old house so makes sense to take that truck and then just go after I get done; so that I can maybe load some stuff to bring up to put in the shed.....tires/misc stuff that needs to be moved. I have all the meters on the 2wd for testing on Thursday so no point to load and unload....will need them again on Monday for that farm then probably take them off and put in the storage box for a few days. Going to have to get a couple sheets of plywood for the freezers to sit on too....want them to have a good floor to sit on.... Don't want to get too much stuff piled in there so that I can maneuver with the freezers. Plan to put one in the house where the dryer would go for now.... not going to put a dryer in there since I haven't had one for 15 years.....That is the space where I think a door and a small porch would be good to come in from the carport end into the utility room.... but that is next year or 2 away....so going to put the freezer there and it will be out of the way and still allow me to move at least one cupboard in there from the old house for food storage too....pantry type stuff.
@Ridgetop; good idea about storing extra staples, on the top shelves. I had planned to put all the "seasonal type stuff" up there. I am going to see about a step stool with wider steps, although the one I have isn't too bad and it also folds up.....my balance with the knees isn't as good as it was and that bothers me.....
Yep, I know, time to do them.... But have to get in the house first.....

I'm going to head down the hill and work on some packing I think. FINALLY turned off the internet there so that is now a done thing. So I have to use it up here....just wish I had a desk here to start getting things organized.... Never thought that it would be so long getting the floors done.....I would start moving more stuff... but what's the point with all that dirty dust that is going to be made with the sanding. I got the 2 doorways with plastic and taped to the doorframes on the "away side" and taped on the top and floor.... as ready as I can be for him except for 2 baskets of clothes I have to fold... socks and stuff and 1 pile of T-shirts that are laid over the chair.... might do them tonight and get them in the snap lid tote; then go down the hill.

It will get better.....
 

Baymule

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If you have a friend that can set the tank for you, then ask him and get it done. I don't think I could hold my tongue if my son was putting me off like that. Does he want him Mom to effin' freeze to death? :barnie

By all means get a battery chainsaw and tackle those dratted boxwoods yourself. A little at a time and eventually you will have it done.
 

Bruce

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@Cntryboy777 said that you are real good at it. (electronic stuff)
I don't know about that! I had gotten my "smarter by far than me" phone a few weeks before I went down to help Fred and Joyce move. Learned a lot of things about the phone from various people. Like the front desk lady at the motel told me I had navigation capability. Who knew? And Fred showed me a lot of things. I'd bet I don't know more than 15%-20% of what it CAN do!

Beef ... it's what's for dinner :D

I don't know how far or how long it would take for DS to get that tank lifted up but I'm with Bay, no way MY mom would have waited even a week for such a thing.

And yes to the battery chainsaw for the boxwoods. 6" isn't really all that big. Start by lopping off the branches higher up at chest height if you don't want to drop it as a unit and then there won't be much trunk left to drop. Or if there are a lot of branches close to the ground, cut those off first so you can easily get to the trunk.

You can learn the technique of cutting the trunk down by watching YouTube videos ... I did. Buckin' Billy Ray does some pretty interesting stuff though you won't see him videoing cutting boxwoods, he and his son do some mighty big trees and in tight quarters and climbing them to drop them a section at a time from the top when there is no room to drop the entire tree. And no, I have NO plans to climb any trees!

But you can find basic info with a web search. Start small in any case with some branches so you get a feel for the saw. And remember, unlike a gas chainsaw, if the battery is installed the electric is ALWAYS in "run mode", you won't hear anything until you squeeze the trigger. Like a gun, keep your finger off the trigger unless you are ready to "fire".
 

Ridgetop

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Now I am thinking that I will get a skil saw so that I can do the simple cutting of the plywood for this coop....and do other stuff...I am inspired to try anyway. I had always used a hand saw to cut stuff. That I was able to "operate" !!!!!
Have Deb help you with the Skilsaw the first time you use it. I did everything with a jigsaw for several years because I was scared of DH's big Skilsaw! I burned up 2 of them trying to jobs that were too big for it. Go slow and don;t be afraid to stop the saw and start again if you get nervous. Better to be safe.

Important with the Skilsaw is to have adequate support when cutting so the blade doesn't bind up in the wood as you get to the end of the cut and the 2 sides of the wood shift. I often use 4 saw horses on a very large piece so the sides don't tip and bind the blade. You can also get masonry and metal cutting blades for the Skilsaw. They also make lighter weight battery operated saws too. I would not get a really light weight Skilsaw since it won't cut as heavy items as you will eventually want it to do. However, don't let the salesman sell you one that is too heavy duty either. If it is too heavy it will be harder for you to handle. There are nice medium duty ones that will be perfect for what you want (plywood cutting for the coop roof, etc.) and will let you get a feel for the saw. Once you are feeling really confident you can decide if you want a heavy duty saw or not, Actually, I like our portable table saw since t makes exact cuts. However, you can also get a metal edge that clamps onto plywood or long boards and will allow you to guide the saw along the edger to give you an exact straight cut. For your chicken coop roof though, just measure and mark using a carpenter square and pencil and you will be fine. I can't count the number of J hog feeders, rabbit nest boxes, and keyhole feeders I have cut and made that way. (Keyhole feeders are a breeze if you trace the hoe with a cake pan and use a jig saw on the circle cuts. The trick when doing cutouts is to use a 1/2" drill bit to make a hole in which to start the jig saw blade.

So excited for you to be tackling all these things with power tools! Power tools are our friends! They make us women able to do big men things! :lol:
 

Bruce

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And make men do even bigger things?

If you get a Dewalt battery chainsaw and a Dewalt battery circular saw they will use the same 20V battery so you have a "spare" for either tool.

One thing I learned watching YouTube videos that weren't even remotely about circular saws but they were being used was you can use a metal speed square on boards up to 7" wide as a guide for the saw. I never even thought to do that but it makes for a nice straight cut, don't even need to draw the entire line with a pencil.
 

farmerjan

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Wed eve. Beautiful day again today.... sunny, warm enough for a short sleeve shirt on the tractor. Took the 6600 ford & tedded out the small section in the end of the field I tedded yesterday since it is so shaded and wasn't drying very well. Then went up on the hill and did the 4 acre field and then went to the top field and did that one,...about 10 acres I guess,,,maybe less. Came down the hill, traded tractors and took the ford 4600 with the long rake, went up the road a bit to turn around and then came down and sandwiched it in through the gate to rake the field along the creek that I had tedded yesterday. Due to the shape of the field, plus a big tree in the middle, and a real rough spot with holes... probably from a ground hog, and the "dog leg" it is a royal PITA to rake. Have to back into a few spots in order to get the rows decent.... but got it done. DS had come down, unhooked the 6600 from the tedder and hooked it up to the sq baler they brought down yesterday, hooked a wagon on the end, and was sq baling when I came out of the field with the rake. He was done with one full wagon, dropped that and got the 2nd wagon and went back to baling. I took the 4x4 ranger and went around and picked up some of the sq bales that the kicker had thrown over the top and where he was making the turn at the ends of the rows, and it just kicked them out because the wagon wasn't directly behind the baler. So he filled the 2nd wagon just as the belt that runs the kicker broke.... so went on and got the other tractor with the round baler and finished up about 2 rows with the round baler. I think he was going to try to round bale the creek side field too. It was dry except for that little patch in the back corner but he knows that it wasn't dry so will roll it on the outside of the bale so it won't mold inside. Tomorrow I am going to try to get the 2 top fields raked before I go to work to test.

Now the weather is saying only a slight chance of showers on Sat afternoon... Friday was supposed to be cloudy and they changed it to partly/mostly sunny.... With having to get in Fred's calves Thursday afternoon and hauling to doug's barn, then loading out one load early Friday morning, and ds wanting me to haul the 2nd load of calves later.... I think I will have to get the hay raked tomorrow so that ds can get it baled on Friday. I think that is why he wants me to haul the 2nd load so he can bale. It was still pretty green in spots, but with as nice a day, it was drying well.

I am going to get the bottles in the trays I use in the barns, tonight and get it all in the truck. Then I will take that truck home and then I can just go from the stone house right around the corner to get the tractor and go rake. No real tight gates to go through at least.

No sander at the house.... 😞 😞 :barnie:he:hit:hit:hit:hit:hit

I did get all the clothes folded yesterday evening, except the socks, and most all are in the plastic totes.

Went to the pasture with the 5 old cows, where we took the panels on Sunday, and called the cows down for feed. Left a sq bale of hay outside the fence too, to give them a couple sections to munch on .... 4 of the 5 cows came down and 3 calves. I am afraid we are going to have some trouble with the one cow and her calf....and the other ones are eating the grain so she isn't learning that she has to come down for it.... because it is gone if she comes down a little later anyways..... hoping that the calves will all want to follow each other after a couple times. I am going to have to make a bigger effort to go pretty much every day..... Didn't get up to the nurse cow field as it was getting dark. Need to get them called in so that I can get the ones caught to go to the dairy. One of the heifers is really bagging up so she must have caught sooner than the others. They are all as round as barrels....They look good.

Got to do my cycling exercises and then am going down the hill. I am tired and need a shower.
 

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