As close to the dream property as I am going to get, at least for now

[Blizzard Ridge]

I will do a rain dance for you tonight.

Yes I got lucky with this one. It took me a couple tries at it but finally got one that gets it.

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

 

[OkieKubota]

I was thinking of this thread yesterday while I was having another uneventful evening of commercial brushhogging on my fabulous orange tractor. If you want to test how good something is, use it commercially...day in and day out!

Keep on keeping on...

 

[CTM1]

I will do a rain dance for you tonight.

Yes I got lucky with this one. It took me a couple tries at it but finally got one that gets it.

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

Did you do the dance wrong as it has not rained?

 

[CTM1]

I was thinking of this thread yesterday while I was having another uneventful evening of commercial brushhogging on my fabulous orange tractor. If you want to test how good something is, use it commercially...day in and day out!

Keep on keeping on...

I think my tractor was made on a Tues after the assembly line guys had a long drunken holiday weekend.

 

[CTM1]

Sept 11th

Well I took the day off from the "66" and decided to work on the culitpacker bearings.
Mental note, buy a grinder with a cut off wheel, because the hack saw is a young mans thing.

There was only one well worn wood bearing left and to get at it took copious amounts of time
with a hack saw cutting off five bolts that were rusted beyond belief.

One of the ends caps had so much dirt and old grease inside the collar inside was locked in it. It was almost like it was welded inside the end cap. It took some serious time with a hammer and chisel to chip away to break it free. Given it is a cast part I did not go all caveman on it. Then it was a grinding wheel on the end of a drill to grind off what was left inside. I should have worn a mask instead of breathing all that dust in.

 

[CTM1]

Sept 12th
Given the evil orange is over at the "66" and I no longer dead life 800-900lbs there was no way I could load the culitpacker onto the small trailer, so I had to call upon in my friend with his shiny new Blue tractor. FYI this fella is the same friend who followed behind me last year as I took the Evil Orange tractor over to the "66" and the same man who followed me back.

Well I followed him over the mountain on my quad as he was a little nervous given some of the slopes he had to tackle to get it to me. Damn thing does not even have a clutch, it is all fancy, you just press one pedal to go forward and other to go backwards.

He wanted no part in lifting and loading the packer on the trailer so I did it. This shiny new $32k Blue tractor with its fancy QD bucket does not have a place to hook ratchet straps. I dropped the packer twice when the hooks came off. Found out today that I broke on the packer wheels when I dropped it.
Here is my friend getting ready to go back over the mountain. It took him longer to drive over the mountain then it did for us to load the packer.

Given the shiny new Blue tractor was on my property I tried to lay claim to it, that whole possession is 9/10ths of the law thing. He was not having it so he fled back over the mountain

He was more nervous coming down this hill then going up. He is what I like to call a "newbie" when it comes to tractoring.

 

[CTM1]

Sept 14th.

I am in the home stretch now. So after a few more hours running the disc I was finally ready to spread some Urea. Of course the weatherman said 50% chance of rain and we received NADA.

Here is the first 100lbs ready to go down. I am embarrassed to say that about 100 feet into the first run I looked back and the spreader was on its side and the entire contents was on the ground. I elected not to take picture and was not going to tell you guys as I felt I would spare myself some ribbing, but I tell you now because not long after there was another accident, so I figured what the heck.

First run of Rye going down, and going down hard. Thankfully we do not need insurance to run a spreader or I would be in the "assigned risk pool" and paying massive rates.

and we are over, just like last year.

I did my best to clean it up with my hands and a plastic cup.

The first field of Oats went fine, but given the other two fields were narrow it would be all up and down runs so I elected to spread the oats via my hand held SOLO spreader. It was exercise, hated it.

In anticipation of rain I ran the disc to cover all the fert, rye and oats in , and then hooked up the packer and ran it until dark, but did not finish it all.


Just in case anyone is still looking for rocks I have plenty. As always they are free, and the best part is you get to pick your own so you are assured that you only get the good ones.

 

[OkieKubota]

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[dogghr]

CT, you wouldn't be the first to over fertilize a spot that way on a hillside.. You just fess up to it and the rest of us lie.

 

[Buckly]

I had that happen twice. Never again. I went to the option pictured above.

 

[CTM1]

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I had read the thread where you were trying to figure out what direction to go on a news spreader.
After my two tip overs I swore to never attempt to run my spreader on rough ground again.

Will you or can you spread small seeds like clover with a PTO spreader?

 

[CTM1]

CT, you wouldn't be the first to over fertilize a spot that way on a hillside.. You just fess up to it and the rest of us lie.

I think I am going to hunt right over these drop spots as the growth should be spectacular.

 

[CTM1]

I had that happen twice. Never again. I went to the option pictured above.

My third spill so like you I think next year I have to seek out a better option. If I can run clover through one of those it would save a ton or walking and cranking with my SOLO hand seeder

 

[OkieKubota]

I had read the thread where you were trying to figure out what direction to go on a news spreader.
After my two tip overs I swore to never attempt to run my spreader on rough ground again.

Will you or can you spread small seeds like clover with a PTO spreader?

I wouldn't alone but mixed with turnips, rye, wheat, oats, sunflowers, etc... there is nothing better.

 

[CTM1]

Sept 15th
It all needs to be done by the end of the day today as I need to move onto finishing the roof on my old shack, a pergola for Mom next week and then it is off to Ohio for a whitetail hunt the following week.

I finished the packing earlier in the day so it was onto mixing white and some red clover along with some rape. I am so far behind , literally weeks behind so there will not be any radishes or PTT.

There would lots of walking today and cranking today.

First batch mixed, two more to go.

Last batch, ready to mix.

Yes, my fingers nails are dirty from digging in the dirt and mixing stuff.
Ran the packer over it all again.

 

[CTM1]

After another long day I am finally done. Field 1& 2 are in. I was to tired to walk over to Field 3 to take a picture, but that plot is already coming up nicely. I got that one in last last week just before some good rain.

All that is left is to hope for rain, to clean up and transport all of the working, slightly working and flat out busted stuff back home. The good news is the big trailer is fixed, the bad is that the truck started to make some odd noise. I think it is a bearing on the pulley, so hopefully my local shop can squeeze me in over the next few days because without the truck I am dead in the water.

So another plotting season is over, many lessons have been learned, some I will no doubt forget by next year, like tillers and rocks do not play nice together and the rocks usually win. While I did shake my fist into the sky a few times and let more then a few expletives go, I always realize "it is what it is", which coincidentally is one of my favorite sayings. In fact I use it on my 94 year old grand mother quite often when she rails about what the world has become since she was just a girl.

Some of the leaves are already starting to change, there is a chill in the air, especially at night which for me has and always will signal that the season is upon us.

Thanks for reading, thanks for sharing, and most of all I am glad we had some laughs along the way. Until the next one, be well!

 

[OkieKubota]

I will start you a list so you have year to come up with this stuff.

1. Spring tooth chisel plow.
2. 3 point cone speeder.
3....

 

[CTM1]

Pulled a couple of cards. He is sniffing my "Doe in Heat" scent dispenser.

I guess this is the best my area is going to offer.

 

[lakngolf]

Looks like that last buck is on a well traveled trail. Amazing how far that bear can reach.

 

[Elkaddict]

As always CTM, I enjoy your updates. I'd really like to set up a Catskills property tour and get to know some you. Any interest?