Gene, I bet that'll be a very nice shop indeed.

The rains weren't quite as heavy down here but there were some powerful (but brief) storms Saturday night.  Sunday morning we noticed a couple of big trees by the side of the road just a little ways away from here that had been hit by lightning and split.  Pretty sobering to contemplate the sheer force it would take to tear a tree in half like that.

Dean

Only a half inch of rain here on Monday but it was a welcome rain. Maybe too late for a good hay crop as it was the first significant rain of the season.
Gene, that new shed is going to be a lot of fun to fill up. Now you just need one of these $24,000 Case eagles to set out front. I didn't know the original cast iron ones were worth that much but that is what one sold for at a farm auction here in Sask. yesterday.

Ralph, I had heard of some of those selling for prices, around $14,000 to $15,000, but $24,000 must be a new record. Had to be at least 2 bidders who wanted badly to take it home.

Rainy spell finally ended on Monday and warming spell made for good hay curing. I had mowed about 2/3 of my field last Tuesday and finally baled it yesterday, Thursday. Got 198 bales of mostly alfalfa that was still in fairly good shape. Mowed the rest of the field on Wednesday and favorably weather may be able to bale it Saturday.

Looking forward to getting the new shop. Will try to not fill it too full to not have room to work. Will still use the old shop for welding and some machine work. Try to keep most of the dirty jobs there.

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Pictures of my Case 700 tractor, Case 200 baler and Case wagon.

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And the sweet corn patch.

Gene

You are right on top of things Gene with the haying and gardening. It is a bit early yet here for haying and with the lack of rain we don't expect it to be a big crop of hay. Temp hit 85 today, hottest day yet this year. I took the 52 Merc out for a short spin as it had been sitting in the shed for quite a while and I thought it needed a little exercise. :-)

My small hayfield just produced its first cutting, thanks to the efforts of a hardworking young kid who lives a mile or so down the road.  Only about 20 years old, studying agriculture, working full time when school's not in session, and has a hay business on the side to bale for people in return for half of the hay (which I have to say doesn't seem like a very big payoff for everything he puts into it).  Shifting weather forecasts and balky equipment didn't make it easy this past week but he pulled it off, and the hay looks, feels, and smells good and it was all in the barn prior to today's thunderstorms.

Wednesday evening he'd raked the main field and started to bale by the time I got home from work, but that left the little meadow by the orchard and the little triangle of land out by the waterway from the neighbor's field still to be raked--which made a nice task for the Super M.   I took the camera along and got some bouncy hand-held video.  

[video=youtube;4ooxR2kZZdw]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ooxR2kZZdw[/video]

Dean
Saint Paris, Ohio

Rain, rain and more rain. North western Ohio is totally under water. Have many roads closed due to high water. Has rained almost every day since last Friday. Wednesday had 6 inches from 5:00am to noon. Roads flooded in city of Lima with no highway open into or out of the city. Indian Lake area north of me is totally flooded. Went to Lakeview hardware this afternoon and parking lot for hardware and grocery store was completely under water. Parked in back of store and entered through service door. Had to drive through standing water to get to the back door.

Have some pictures of my front field and water over the road. Lost some more of my new gravel, but still passable.

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Building crew was here on Tuesday to start erecting my new shop, but was too wet to work. Only getting worse each day with more rain. Soybeans need spraying, but no chance of that till water dries up. warm weather has left with a high today of 67 degrees and more morning rain. Wish I could send some to Ralph to help his hay crop. My second cutting is growing very fast and lots of alfalfa. I have a neighbor about 2 miles east of me that i usually make hay off of 5 acres. I cut it last Friday and has rained almost every day since. Our total for this week is near 10 inches, so not likely the hay will be baled.

Haven't heard from Charlie lately. Hope he is doing well in New York.

Gene

Dean, the old M sounds pretty good on the hay rake. I won't see a good hay crop like that here this year. No significant rain lately. I guess Gene is getting our rain and more than he wants right now. The irony is that they are setting up pumps here to pump out the areas where the roads are still flooded from the last few years of high rainfall. Yet the fields beside the floods are beginning to need rain. Just lucky we have not had the high heat like in 1988.

Well we did get a couple of tenths out of yesterday and today's showers so that is better than nothing. Still under a severe thunderstorm watch here so there could be more to come. I took this shot of the 39 Ford this afternoon when I had it out for exercise during a sunny break.

Wonderful photo of the Ford, Ralph!

Gene, as you know I don't live all that far south of you but there's been less rainfall here--a lot compared to normal, with rain almost every day, but not like what you've been facing.  Most fields in the area look fine except for a few low spots, most roads have been unaffected, etc.  And this past Sunday turned out surprisingly nice, contrary to the forecast, with no rain all day and good dry air most of it.  I took advantage of the break to mow the yard around the house and then get out the 620 and brush hog the pastures that I could get to without crossing a creek.  Ground was mighty wet in a few places but manageable and the goats seem to like the freshly-cut pasture.

Dean

Wet, wet, and wetter here in WNY.  Thank you for thinking of me, Gene.  I am just sort of struggling along here.  Keeping the house going but not much out of doors.  You are by far the high water champion here on the forum, but at least half of my ground has standing water on the surface most of the time.  Just have to wait for a small window to mow a bit of grass here or there.  Managed to do a good part of it last evening without messing up too much mud.  Had to leave half of what I call my back lot due to standing water there.  Knew more storms were expected during last night so did what I could.  A storm came through around 5 AM and dropped another 4/10 of an inch.  Some of the storms earlier on last week dropped 2 inches in 45 minutes.  Clay soil does not take that well.  The corn I see varies from just sprouted to knee high.  Wheat and oats are looking great with some yellowing on the wheat.  Hope it dries enough to get combines in the fields by about third week in July.  The fact that much acreage has underground drainage these days has to be a super benefit at times like this.  Those installations were money well spent.  Some towns in the area that are not set up to handle rains this heavy have had serious flood damage.  Luckily, not ours, but the falls downtown spend a lot of time raging like spring flood time.

I saw Ralph's new video blowing flax seed into some pretty wet soil.  Hope the weather cooperates to make it grow well.  Good luck to Gene for getting weather to finish the shop.  The worm has to turn at some point.  Dean must be in the chosen spot and enjoying himself.  That is good and a sign that he lives right.  

As for me, I went back to using my two canes wow or three days during the last two weeks.  Took a while to remember where they wee stored away but I found them.  This wet weather and inactivity doesn't do my body and favors.  If anyone ever tells you that hip replacement takes away all the pain, as I was told many times, tell them I said they are full of mud or something like that.

Charlie

Charlie, thats no fun living and working with pain. I seem to deal with back pain most days, some more than others like today. Hope you get a break from it. Your rain is like we had last year. That was actually oats I was seeding in the mud in the video although the flax went into pretty wet ground too. Last I saw it was looking very good. With a little luck I will have some blue fields in July.
Got blooms on the first potatoes already so there should be some new ones soon. I cut a little hay today which might just make it rain. The hay crop will not be great as we got no good spring rains.

They say a change is as good as a rest so we have a change from the sun, heat and wind of yesterday. Today it is so smokey that visibility is down near a half mile and the smoke burns the throat. Temp in the 70s is a nice change and will give the crops a break. I took this photo this morning showing the smoke in the air at my yard.

Ralph, those wildfires are amazing, and not in a good way.   I know you've been mentioning the lack of rain this year--is that the main reason the fires are so big?   Hope the smoke is the worst you have to contend with.

Doesn't seem like there'd be much risk of big wildfires in this part of Ohio this year, since the days with rain seem to have way outnumbered the dry days over the past few months.  Sure different from a few summers ago, 2012 maybe, when relentless hot and dry weather just baked the lawns and farm fields practically to a crisp.

I've spent most of the last few days clearing out more osage orange trees from various parts of my place.  This afternoon I ran into a big grapevine that was in some surrounding trees also, so I used the little Kubota and a chain to pull the vine down.   It just kept coming.  

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The Kubota seems to have taken over from the Super M and trailer as my default go-out-to-cut-trees equipment, at least when I'm working relatively close to the house.  It'll fit right up next to the door of the little building where I store firewood, where the Super M is too big to go, so I've been hauling cut wood with the loader bucket rather than the tractor and trailer.   I still like the tractor and trailer if I'm going way back away from the house, since it's nice to have the trailer for chainsaw gas, bar oil, extra chain, work platform when I need one, etc.

Dean

Dean, I can just imagine that little Kubota and front end loader is handy. My old Massey Super 90 with front end loader is my first choice for chores as that bucket is so handy for so many jobs.
Forest fires situation not improving up North and over 13,000 people evacuated from the area so far. Just a little smokey down here in East Central Sask.
Canola blooming nicely and we had a good 6 tenths rain on Saturday which was welcome. Although I wish I had not cut my hay the day before.
I took this picture yesterday evening while taking a drive in the 52 Merc.

Weather has finally changed here for the better. Been without rain since last Tuesday. That was a very heavy rain and flooded low areas some more. Ground is saturated, so nowhere for it to go as tiles are running full. Farmers were finally able to get into the fields on Sunday. Some wheat combining started on Saturday. I flew over the area to my northeast and north of me. Some areas completely drowned out and poor crops in all areas. We officially had the wettest month ever in June with over 16 inches of rain. I believe my soybeans look better than any others I saw. I was able to finally get the rest of my soybeans sprayed. Some places were as high as the sprayer booms.

Here is a couple pictures of my new shop building. Builders finished on Wednesday and door company put up the overhead door on Thursday. The heavy rain Tuesday flooded the interior of the building and with the piles of dirt from setting the poles acted as dams so the water could not run off, so all finish work was done tramping in the mud. Been running 2 fans since Thursday trying to dry up the water. Finally making some headway on that.


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Will be attending the Greenville, Ohio show this weekend. Will be taking the LA over tomorrow and the motor home on Wednesday morning. Always enjoy this show and running the sawmill with the big Case.

Gene