J-birds place

[j-bird]

The apples on my one apples tree seem to be developing OK. They are not quite the size of my fist, but this one tree has maybe 2 dozen apples on it. None of my other trees have apples to speak of.....this tree has the worst form of all of them, but it produced a handful of apples last year and doubled or tripled it's production this year.....so poor form or not at least it's showing some promise. Apples are not real pretty, but they are for the critters and not for me so big deal!


I went to spray some Remedy on my switchgrass planting and apparently I interrupted someones dinner plans. I like to spray in the evening in the summer because I feel it reduces the chance of burning the non-target plants. She was much closer than the pic looks....maybe 100 yards or so. She watched me pull up, get off the tractor swing the booms out and get back and before she realized maybe she needed to wander off. As I was finishing up, she came back out to resume her dinner I guess.


Did have a little SNAFU. Damn cheap bracket design on my FIMCO sprayer failed! The boom is supported by two little formed tabs and the weight of the boom tends to make the tabs bend some while in use. Well when I was done spraying I hopped off and noticed the tabs where bent again so I "adjusted" the boom and....tink! All of the sudden I was holding the entire boom assembly in my hands!! All these brackets need are some little gussets and it will make all the difference in the world....but I'm sure someone decided to save a few pennies in the design. I'll screw with it tomorrow and see what I can do to fix it. I'm not a welder, but I'll figure something out. At least it waited until I was done with that tank.....but I got more to do tomorrow. Maybe a lot more cause I am not sure how soon Remedy is rain fast. I'm not sure how long I was back at the house and then mother nature decided that we needed a pop-up rain shower.


Home to pull the card on my cam at the waterhole tomorrow.....if I find anything interesting I'll post those up as well.

 

[THE LLC]

Hard to slow that momentum on the slip and slide. LOLOLOL

 

[j-bird]

Hard to slow that momentum on the slip and slide. LOLOLOL

In physics I learned mass x velocity = energy..... I had him whooped in mass!

 

[j-bird]

Pulled the cam card - just a couple of does.....nothing exciting so I moved the cam to the food plot. We have been getting enough rain that I don't think they are being forced to look for water. The frogs have moved in though so I have created a different type of habitat, but many of our deer project help other critters as well.

I fixed the sprayer. A piece off angled aluminum and some bolts and I was back in business and far better than new.....take notice FIMCO....this is how you design stuff the ISU way - simple, but effective!!!! Maybe another patent pending idea!!!! Works great and even more stout than the original design.


So I set out to go finish spraying my switchgrass planting. Applying a product called Remedy at 2 pints/acre (their recommendation on the label for switchgrass seeding application). I get 1/2 way thru filling up the sprayer and......rain! So I took shelter in the garage. You can see it wouldn't last long because the sun was still out, but it was enough to halt progress on a temporary basis.


The rain broke, and moved off and I headed out to spray. Took some pics along the way. This is facing south over my bean field....you can see the rain still falling as it moves off in the left hand side of the pic.


These are pics I took facing west. It wasn't as dark as the pics show, facing the sun the phone/cam makes some adjustments on it's own.



So I hit the rest of my switchgrass planting with the remedy and then took what was left in the sprayer and sprayed a small area I have that is mostly fescue, but have an ongoing canada thistle problem. I had mowed the area 2 weeks ago or so and decided to hit it with what was left in the tank. We will see how that works as well. I realize some of this stuff and the details are "trivial" to you guys, but it helps me document the how and when of different things I have done, so I can go back as reference later....because otherwise, I take terrible notes.

 

[j-bird]

Got an unexpected visitor today....... This is right off the front porch of the house.....literally maybe 100 yards away. We have had neighbors fields crop dusted before with planes. Never our fields and a chopper is a first.

Told my kids it was the DEA looking for drugs. Kids asked, "Are you worried?" I said, "NO, why should I care.....as long as they don't look in the basement!"

 

[George]

They thought that your water hemp was woody hemp.

G

 

[j-bird]

They thought that your water hemp was woody hemp.

G

They have checked out my place before. Sunflowers and giant ragweed really caught their attention in the past. Also turns out having two large anhydrous tanks parked by your detached garage is a "warning sign" as well. Yep, that's me growing weed and cooking meth! They need to investigate my bank account first.....no way I have the disposable income of a drug dealer!!!!!

 

[George]

It's free money these days, better off to keep putting it in mason jars and burying it in the yard, just dig them back up before oldtimers sets in.

G

 

[dogghr]

Got an unexpected visitor today....... This is right off the front porch of the house.....literally maybe 100 yards away. We have had neighbors fields crop dusted before with planes. Never our fields and a chopper is a first.
View attachment 8344
Told my kids it was the DEA looking for drugs. Kids asked, "Are you worried?" I said, "NO, why should I care.....as long as they don't look in the basement!"

Funny. This time of year thru fall is when they fly our area with heat sensors looking for Mary Jane. I was picking up fert at my coop couple years ago and made joke comment I was fert my weed. Then had 30 min conversation with older worker as he explained that I should fert weed sooner in the summer, and also be careful since flyovers had started. Interesting conversation with a one armed man throwing 100# bags onto my trailer twice as fast as me and his 20 yo two armed helper. Lots of displaced 70s hippies in my area. We don't have the laced gummy bears of CO preferried by their yuppies but supply is not a problem here. All good people.

 

[j-bird]

Funny. This time of year thru fall is when they fly our area with heat sensors looking for Mary Jane. I was picking up fert at my coop couple years ago and made joke comment I was fert my weed. Then had 30 min conversation with older worker as he explained that I should fert weed sooner in the summer, and also be careful since flyovers had started. Interesting conversation with a one armed man throwing 100# bags onto my trailer twice as fast as me and his 20 yo two armed helper. Lots of displaced 70s hippies in my area. We don't have the laced gummy bears of CO preferried by their yuppies but supply is not a problem here. All good people.

They watch my place all the time. Blackhawks to AC-130's......sometimes they are not even that sneaky about it! A low flying AC-130 is NOT quiet!!!! Between watching for weed growing to having the county fuzz show up once in the late spring looking for a meth lab! I assume the eye in the sky saw the anhydrous tanks parked behind my detached garage and looked suspicious..... Cause the corn field that is right there wasn't a clue as to what was going on apparently. The county fuzz showed up and asked if they could "look around". I had nothing to hide and they made a bee-line for my garage. I didn't even notice the tanks where there until we walked out there. Then the light bulb went off. They where not pleased when I ask, "Just how much meth you think I could make with that much anhydrous?" A-holes have no sense of humor!

 

[SwampCat]

Pulled the cam card - just a couple of does.....nothing exciting so I moved the cam to the food plot. We have been getting enough rain that I don't think they are being forced to look for water. The frogs have moved in though so I have created a different type of habitat, but many of our deer project help other critters as well.

I fixed the sprayer. A piece off angled aluminum and some bolts and I was back in business and far better than new.....take notice FIMCO....this is how you design stuff the ISU way - simple, but effective!!!! Maybe another patent pending idea!!!! Works great and even more stout than the original design.
View attachment 8303

So I set out to go finish spraying my switchgrass planting. Applying a product called Remedy at 2 pints/acre (their recommendation on the label for switchgrass seeding application). I get 1/2 way thru filling up the sprayer and......rain! So I took shelter in the garage. You can see it wouldn't last long because the sun was still out, but it was enough to halt progress on a temporary basis.
View attachment 8304

The rain broke, and moved off and I headed out to spray. Took some pics along the way. This is facing south over my bean field....you can see the rain still falling as it moves off in the left hand side of the pic.
View attachment 8305

These are pics I took facing west. It wasn't as dark as the pics show, facing the sun the phone/cam makes some adjustments on it's own.
View attachment 8306
View attachment 8307

So I hit the rest of my switchgrass planting with the remedy and then took what was left in the sprayer and sprayed a small area I have that is mostly fescue, but have an ongoing canada thistle problem. I had mowed the area 2 weeks ago or so and decided to hit it with what was left in the tank. We will see how that works as well. I realize some of this stuff and the details are "trivial" to you guys, but it helps me document the how and when of different things I have done, so I can go back as reference later....because otherwise, I take terrible notes.

With the way some things are made today, you sometimes wonder if the manufacturer ever has used the product.

 

[j-bird]

With the way some things are made today, you sometimes wonder if the manufacturer ever has used the product.

"Planned obsolescence" That is why so much stuff out there is junk today. It's all part of the disposable society we live in today. Even my wife asked, "So you getting a new one?" I told her a new one was $500, and I could spend $50 and fix it......I was fixing it. Had a similar thing happen with my mower - somehow the crack of the engine got bent. Not replacement part available.....have to replace the engine......for $1200!!! I can buy an entirely new mower of the same size for $1700!!!! This is another "game" companies play to force the consumers hand.

 

[j-bird]

Nothing major to update. Had a get-together with some friends on saturday so today was clean-up day. I did move the trail cam and checked the card.....all does. I did check on my chestnut trees and the burrs are growing so that is encouraging. They are the size of a ping-pong ball or so.


Need to break-out the mower next weekend or some evening this week. Things need a trim.

Did see a splash of color while I was out as this swallowtail butterfly visited an iron weed plant in bloom.


The MG/Bill grass on the back deck seems to be doing fine and my sawtooth/catscratch oaks seem to be holding their own as well. They don't seem to be growing so to speak but at least seem to be surviving. My plan is to get them into tubes to spur their growth come spring. Always seems to be some sort of task to complete.

 

[OkieKubota]

I like the fix you did on your sprayer. I tend to have to fix a bunch of stuff throughout the year and when I can make it better I do...upgrades...

Sawtooth oaks seem to be pretty good growers for us and I am glad we have these non-natives to utilize. You will really like the "catscratch" oaks!

 

[catscratch]

My sawtooths tend to get about 2-3 foot tall and then stall out a little. They should pull out of it next yr. I think they are just throwing energy into their root system when they do that.

Sent from my SM-N910V using Tapatalk

 

[Rickey]

I planted 3 from arbor day last year. I had one dead by the end of summer and then as fall came in the deer ate the other two down to almost nothing. I tubed them over winter. They are making a comeback this year tubed. One of them is out of the tube while the other is right below the top. I'm pretty happy with them now. Hopefully I will have some acorns in another 5 years.

 

[j-bird]

I figure as long as the oaks live - that's all I can ask for right now. I'll tube them up this spring and see how things go from there. Some where direct seeded and others where transplants so I wasn't sure what to expect. I figure they are working on growing a good foundation first and that is fine by me. They are oaks....being in a hurry and oaks don;t tend to mix well.

 

[Chainsaw]

Enjoyed all the updates. Your bean plots look good. Haven't had the opportunity to try a water slide yet. Looks like fun!

 

[j-bird]

Enjoyed all the updates. Your bean plots look good. Haven't had the opportunity to try a water slide yet. Looks like fun!

Thank you. The slip-n-slide was a one time deal.....but I had to defend myself since I was publicly challenged like that! We have been getting decent rain all summer so most stuff is growing well. Beans are not showing serious signs of pods yet but they will. I will also overseed turnip and cereal grains into those same plots around Labor Day for additional food as well.

 

[OkieKubota]

Thank you. The slip-n-slide was a one time deal.....but I had to defend myself since I was publicly challenged like that! We have been getting decent rain all summer so most stuff is growing well. Beans are not showing serious signs of pods yet but they will. I will also overseed turnip and cereal grains into those same plots around Labor Day for additional food as well.

Send some of that rain our way! Lol...