Did you say Cat? Now I'm jealous. Becoming one of my neighbors is your choice. Not to boast, but taking care of my neighbors first is a top priority with me. My motto is "the way to have good neighbors; make sure that each one of my neighbors owes me a favor at all times" An oak savanna in the east is an interesting concept that bears more studying
Any equipment with a Cummins diesel is automatically worth a good bit more. One of the best engines ever built. I can't imagine you without the case dozer. I still have images stuck in my brain from you pushing down the big oak tree
I like making a few mountains of brush every year. The rabbit population instantly increases when I have lots of brushpiles.
If you’re talking about that first video that was a long ago as a brand new operator on my own property then I understand your face...I work it 3-4 times a week for the past 2 years and it’s a whole different deal now... That’s a 60’ x 220’ pad I built out of a mountainside using only the material that was already there after also clearing it of all the trees. There is a warehouse on it now... Another absolutely flat pad I built out of what was already in place for a big shop addition... An old demolition of house and 2 barns... And a clean up job where I was asked to come in behind not one but 2 other operators. This first picture is after both operators left... This is what it looked like when I left...
Nice but my rule is never get rid of guns, equipment, or women. One never knows when their need will resurface.
Riding into the sunset on 4-20-22. This is the first time that I ever planted corn with snow on the ground (a roof edge snowdrift from an earlier storm)
Our weather has really warmed up this week, average highs in the mid 60's, today it was 77, which follows our yearly weather patterns. I know my soils and keep records of planting dates, and always plant corn more by the calendar than by current temperatures. If it's unseasonably warm in early April it's still a bad idea to plant corn, because it could still freeze, and if it's unseasonably cold in mid April like this year it's not a good idea to wait, because the last week always warms up drastically. I plant ridgetop fields in shale soils in an area that generally has dryer summers, and the main key to getting a good corn crop is to plant early and get the soil well covered and shaded before it gets dry in July, which helps the drought tolerance in a big way. We always seem to get just enough periodic thunderstorms to get a decent crop if it's put out early, but late corn plantings usually fail. I have started buying seed from Seed Genetics Direct, a new seed company that works kind of like a buyers club, better seed for cheaper prices. It's herbicide tolerant, but I don't think that it's coated seed.
Looking good MM. My Eliza's look very similar to yours. In fact, it looks like a bumper crop of nearly everything here this year - except for the pears in my frost pocket of course......
PA is starting to come around on fire. There is a PA fire council. I'd suggest reaching out to them, to see if there's interest in helping you burn. Somehow I got on their email list. I can't remember if it was an accident, or on purpose. https://paprescribedfire.org/
The corn emerged in 10 days even though its been unseasonably cold here, this picture is today, 16 days after planting. We had a steady rain all day, probably 1.5 inches and still coming down.
No, I'm zoomed in which makes those little shale chips look like rocks. That gravel is no bigger than 1.5" and rain washes them clean, making it look worse than it is.
Take another gander at our PA dirt! This is the same field as the prior picture, but a better representation of our dirt without all the gravel washed out on top. It's nice dirt but by category it's a poor soil type for row cropping simply because it has no binder in the composition of the soil, therefore its prone to erosion, making tillage on slopes a no no. I do mostly no-till, but on the flatter fields sometimes I like to loosen it up with a chisel plow.
I'm fixing up a few roads today, June 4th and we are already in a mini-drought, the dust is flying and slopholes are drying up.
That looks great! Have you been back to take a peak at your oats in clover? I wonder how that's coming along.
