The Massey

[KSQ2]

Called in the big guns this evening to get our 10 acre field ready for the alfalfa planting — my father-in-law LOVES to fire up big green. He doesn’t get in the field as much these days since they began to share crop their ag ground. It has been 11 years since this ground has been worked, the cash renter exclusively no-tills, almost to a fault. We had to smooth out a few areas that have washed some.
The ground looks great, the coop said it doesn’t need any inputs until fall. We did have to put down about 16 tons of ag lime.


I need to wait a couple days and harrow it, to really smooth it out.

 

[KSQ2]

The persimmons are finally beginning to catch up with the chestnuts in the bareroot potted experiment.

 

[KSQ2]

Got the 10 acres harrowed this evening. We’ll see if it passes the father-in-law test tomorrow. I left the harrow at the edge of the field, just in case. Lol

 

[KSQ2]

One of the first big parts orders came in. This is hardware for the swather/conditioner, and plumbing parts for the 3 point boom sprayer. I’ll post up a couple pics of them when we go to work on em. I hope this alfalfa project is successful, talk a little a lot of upfront investment, relatively speaking of course.

Speaking of the alfalfa I hope we get the rain this weekend to pack the ground some and prep it for planting, but hopefully it doesn’t come too fast, the 10 acres looks pretty vulnerable right now.

 

[T-Max]

I love Shoup! Have another order coming in today. I rebuilt my corn planter almost entirely through them.

 

[KSQ2]

All of the chestnut bare roots have awakened now, along with 2 of the persimmons. So far the experiment is going well. I’m dipping the pots once a week and keeping them out of the downpours we’ve been getting some of lately.

The most awake persimmon.

 

[KSQ2]

Also, it’s beginning to look like we’re not going to hit our window for alfalfa planting. There is still a small chance, but it’s not looking likely; and trust me, I’m NOT complaining, the rain has been wonderful! We really wanted to make a profit this year for tax purposes, and there is now a plan B. We’re looking at planting teff grass for a hay crop. It’s an annual and there is little to no chance for reseeding. Since it’s a warm season grass, we’re still a couple weeks from the beginning of the planting window. Our seed supplier said it would also make a great bed to no-till the alfalfa into this fall. If we can get at least 2 cuttings, we could stand to make a little bit of a profit, teff grass hay is pretty highly coveted around here. We plan to just pay to have it round baled; it wouldn’t be worth the effort to square bale it as opposed to alfalfa. One last plus is the cost of seed, it will be no more than the cost of oats as a cover crop.

 

[cutman]

Looks like you are getting some more good rain today. I’m jealous - we are in drought in SC coming into summer. Ugh.

 

[catscratch]

Yep, I spent the morning watching it slide east of us. Lots of lightening! Actually a beautiful storm to watch. We're supposed to have a home track meet today. As of yesterday the forecast looked good. Now the hourly is saying 3-8pm is looking like it'll pop back up.

 

[KSQ2]

Yep, it’s coming down again. Very grateful! We could actually use a break for a while, but the last few years have taught us a grim lesson about that.
It’s the first time in 4 years we’ve seen stuff like this in the plots.

The unfortunate thing is morning glory has somehow creeped into the area in a big way during the drought, when we got a little bit of rain last late spring, it showed up, as I mentioned here. With the rain this year it’s everywhere. I’m afraid I’m going to eventually have to kill everything in our plots and waterways but the grass, just to get rid of it. The thought of spraying 24d that close to planted trees makes me very nervous. I’m not yet sure how I’m going to go about it.

 

[KSQ2]

Yep, I spent the morning watching it slide east of us. Lots of lightening! Actually a beautiful storm to watch. We're supposed to have a home track meet today. As of yesterday the forecast looked good. Now the hourly is saying 3-8pm is looking like it'll pop back up.

We have a home meet scheduled today as well, but Coach was already working on moving it to next Monday. Hopefully you get some more relief from the drought the next couple of days. Are ponds still low over your way?

 

[catscratch]

We have a home meet scheduled today as well, but Coach was already working on moving it to next Monday. Hopefully you get some more relief from the drought the next couple of days. Are ponds still low over your way?

Ponds are still low. Haven't really had much of run-off type of rain in a while.

They decided to have our meet yesterday. It went very well and the weather was beautiful! Got rained on a little but it felt nice.

 

[Mennoniteman]

Ponds are still low. Haven't really had much of run-off type of rain in a while.

They decided to have our meet yesterday. It went very well and the weather was beautiful! Got rained on a little but it felt nice.

I hear you on the not much run off rain in a while. Although we had a nice little shower in PA last night, our spring seems to be continuing along the lines of our drought saga of last summer, cold and dry in March, then unseasonably warm in April with below average rain. I'm old enough to remember some dry spells of bygone years, and they often followed a 3 year pattern. Our last two years have been dry to the point of losing some trees and food plots, and I'm seeing the same pattern starting this spring. So, we're right there with you guys hoping to snap out of this pattern, but it hasn't happened yet. The thing about a drought is that it's hard to get a handle on it while it's happening, the severity and damage is mostly realized after it's over, so I'm not sure what we're starting to see here this spring, but I've got a bad feeling about the start of the season.

 

[Mennoniteman]

Yep, it’s coming down again. Very grateful! We could actually use a break for a while, but the last few years have taught us a grim lesson about that.
It’s the first time in 4 years we’ve seen stuff like this in the plots.
View attachment 29666
The unfortunate thing is morning glory has somehow creeped into the area in a big way during the drought, when we got a little bit of rain last late spring, it showed up, as I mentioned here. With the rain this year it’s everywhere. I’m afraid I’m going to eventually have to kill everything in our plots and waterways but the grass, just to get rid of it. The thought of spraying 24d that close to planted trees makes me very nervous. I’m not yet sure how I’m going to go about it.

I don't think morning glory can stand being mowed, so that might be a control option. Gramoxone (Paraquat) is another option close to fruit trees (if you have a license to buy it), this will burn down everything but not kill the roots, generally the clover and grass will grow back faster than the morning glory and choke it out.

 

[KSQ2]

A neighbor to the Massey and good buddy had a very special surprise and gift for me this week. The last 2 year’s sheds off my buck! Including the year with the set that I last had trail cam pics of him in ‘22.

 

[Native Hunter]

That's a very unusual surprise!

 

[catscratch]

That's great!

 

[Mennoniteman]

A neighbor to the Massey and good buddy had a very special surprise and gift for me this week. The last 2 year’s sheds off my buck! Including the year with the set that I last had trail cam pics of him in ‘22.
View attachment 29686

That's a gift indeed!

 

[KSQ2]

The top-worked tree behind the house is off and running. I like the view behind it just as much. It’s been a long time since there’s been this much water in the little pond.

 

[KSQ2]

We got almost 3/4” of rain this late afternoon and evening. It was the first time in a while I had the evening free, so I headed to the barn for the first time this year. Until the rain ran them back into the woods, the deer were really beginning to move. It was a beautiful evening. They’re talking about it getting abnormally dry again this summer, so I’m really trying to enjoy the green right now!

The resident barn owls are making themselves comfortable as well.