Four days have passed, with one nice seasonal day for this time of year.  I think I mentioned a little less than three inches of rain in the gauge in my last post.  Now we have made it to four inches, double the average amount for the first ten days of June.  I am in the market for some seed rice to plant in my paddies.  It may turn out to be a good crop this year.  Gene, it will help if you wring those clouds a little harder before you send them over here.:cool:
Actually, I think most of this weather is coming up the Ohio valley, then sliding in here.  Tomorrow is going to dry out, then more rain on Thursday.  One thing for sure, things are sure growing.  I read that Onion growers are complaining about 30% or more crop loss  due to too much rain, but hear no other complaints yet.  Onion growers can pump away excess water, but only natural conditions will dry the soil. They are mostly grown in drained muck land to begin with here.

Charlie V.

Charlie;

Actually been dry here. If a cloud came over would try to wring some moisture from it. We are not critically dry, but grass has slowed down its growing. Been a week since I mowed and still not ready to mow. Rains keep threatening, but only get a few drops in the gauge. Had 2 tenths yesterday morning. Temps have been pleasant with highs in the 70's to low 80's and mid 50 's for lows. Most of the rain seems to be going north of us and Michigan is getting more than they need.

Been doing some spraying for my neighbor behind me. He has most of his 140 acre farm in conservation program. Been spraying to try to control the thistles, teasel, giant ragweed and woody plants. Ground is very rough and taking its toll on both me and the sprayer. Still have about 30 acres to spray.

Been taking advantage of the dry conditions to do some cleanup in the woods. Picked up 3 trailer loads of down limbs in an area I had not cleaned up. Making good progress in making it accessable. Neighbor calls it Dotson Park.

Sweet corn is doing good. Only have had to water it once. Had 1 inch last week and still have good moisture. Only had to hoe a few weeds this morning.

I was born on the Sciota muck near Mc Guffey Ohio. My dad farmed my grandmother's 80 acre farm after my grandfather died. I remember how the crops and weeds grew almost effortlessy. Summertime the muck would be too hot to walk barefooted. Giant regweed (horseweeds) would grow 18 feet tall along the river. Was once the onion capital of the world till the onion blight put a stop to that crop.

Gene

Been doing a little crop spraying here too. More info on that at http://mindlessramblings-rlg.blogspot.ca/2013/06/spraying-crops-in-hundred-acre-woods.html
Too windy yesterday and raining today so the sprayer (and I) get a rest. Our crops are looking pretty good. Best emergence of flax and canola I have seen in a while. The one field I had to re-seed I figured I have been over it six times this spring so I guess it ought to look ok.
I even had time to do that water pump replacement on the old 730 Case. It was so loose it is a wonder it did not part company with the engine. I stayed up late editing and uploading a video of the process so I hope you all enjoy it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GFYgf4FTH1A
[video=youtube;GFYgf4FTH1A]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GFYgf4FTH1A[/video]

Ralph,

You never did tell us if the pump came out of there without radiator removal.  My IH 340U has more wobble than I like and should have the same fix.

Charlie V.

Ralph,

You never did tell us if the pump came out of there without radiator removal.  My IH 340U has more wobble than I like and should have the same fix.

Charlie V.

Charlie, I just loosened the lower mounts and pried the radiator a bit forward and was able to get the pump out. Very little room though and I was concerned I might damage the radiator. I think if I did it again I might remove the radiator.

About 8 years ago as I was working ground with my 700, I started hearing a metalic sound from the fan. Before I could get it shut down one fan blade broke off and the vibration took out the water pumb bearing and seal. I was working just in front of the house, so i cut the fan belt and drove to the shop. Only damage to the radiator was a small cut on the back side of the top tank. I did remove the radiator and fan shroud to make the job easier. Small soldering job on the radiator and welded the fan blade back on. Got the water pump seal from CIH and bearing from Bearings Inc. Total cost was less than $10.00. Fan blade still holding together. I bought a fan from a Case 730 that I thought I could use, but it is too big to fit the fan shroud.

Took on a contract haying job for Amish friend. 15 acres near Quincy, about 12 miles south of me. I mowed the hay yesterday with the Case 700 and New Holland 479 haybine. Made good time and had it done in 3 1/2 hours. On the way home with the tractor and haybine, I passed a farm that has 3 Case tractors similar to mine. A small brown dog met me at the driveway and ran along with me. Kept waiting for him to turn around at each side road or bridge we passed. Darn thing ran with me all the way into De Graff where I turned onto the state highway. Dog must have thought it was one of his tractors from the farm. I checked the distance with the car today and was 1.5 miles. Hope he found his way home alright.

Having nice weather. A little cool with bright sunshine. Supposed to warm up by the weekend. Could use a little rain as the systems are mostly missing us. Mid 70's for highs and low to mid 50's at night. Soybeans could use a little more heat, but corn is looking good. My wheat is looking pretty good and just now starting to turn. Probably be combining by first week in July. Want to try to get the beans sprayed tomorrow before I go rake the hay. Getting lambs quarter, ragweed and mustard that I need to control.

Gene

Took on a contract haying job for Amish friend. 15 acres near Quincy, about 12 miles south of me. I mowed the hay yesterday with the Case 700 and New Holland 479 haybine.Gene

Gene I guess you were lucky the fan did no more damage than that. I wish I could use my 730 on my 479 but between the impossibly "armstrong steering" and as bad as the grass pollen bothers me I will stick with the 2090. Although it is way overkill for the job.
I'm pretty well caught up with crop spraying, just a field of flax and one of canola plus one of oats to do. Rained this aft more to come so it might be a day or two. I took this picture over the hood as I was spraying yesterday evening. Canola is really jumping and I got the second roundup application on just in time.

I am not sure I should tell my flying fan blade story.  Well. here goes.

Wife and I were returning from a shopping mission one night in the old 1979 Chev. 3/4 to  full time 4x4 with the 350 cid engine.  Not a hot rod by any means, but geared low.  stopped at a signal light in the curb land, waiting for it to change.  This was maybe 20 years ago.  ( No, I am not going to say that the light did not change yet!!! )  Along side in the other lane pulls up a Ford Mustang.  He sits there gunning, gunning.  It was one of those situations where the four lanes narrows to two a couple hundred yards past the intersection, and my lane will disappear.  

That whole deal turned out to be a little too much temptation for me.   The light changed and both drivers stomped down.  I gained enough lead on the Mustang to get the single lane when my lane ended, but had to crank some RPM's and make my dual glass packs really bark to do it.  During that I heard a noise under the hood and got an antifreeze small.  First chance I pulled over and popped the hood to check it out.  Dang flex fan.  One of the blades had flew off from the RPMs, and cut half way through the nearly new top radiator hose. At least it did not chop through the hood.

I dug out a roll of black electrical tape and taped the hose good to get us home .  Still had enough coolant so no overheating happened.  Glad for a large capacity cooling system.  The next day I went to the auto parts and bought a set of aluminum racing fan blades. for not too much money  ( I seem to remember 12 bucks ) that bolted right on in place of the original fan.   I cut the hose where it was damaged, took a short piece out, put in a short piece of galvanized water pipe, and clamped it up.  It was good to go for several more years until the frame rusted in two and I sent her to the scrap yard.

Stomping Mustangs can be fun, but sometimes we have to pay.

Charlie V.

Charlie that is quite the story. Lucky the old GM did not break in half under the stress of the high torque of that 350 revving. Good fun but nowadays it would probably turn into a "road rage" incident with guns and violence.
Your repair job is familiar to me. I used a similar method to get home with the IH Scout when the by pass hose failed on the 304 V8. Happened I was by the community well so there was plenty of water to re-fill it after I had wrapped the hose with baler twine and duct tape. I think the most challenging and innovative fix I recall was on dad's 64 Pontiac when the spring fell off the distributor rotor on a trip to the city. On the shoulder of a Sask. highway in February is not a great place to work but we found a pipe cleaner (remember those)? and used it to wrap and secure the spring back on the rotor. It got the old six cylinder going again and got us to a gas station where they had a new rotor.
A few scenes of my fields and roads after the four inch downpour of Wednesday night.
[video=youtube;ZkjTqcxOp08]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZkjTqcxOp08&feature=youtu.be[/video]

Thanks, Ralph.  That is a good video.

Charlie V

I think we have had enough rain for a while. Haven't checked the guage this morning but I'm guessing it will put me just over the seven inch mark for the past seven days. No real violent storms since last Thursday's wild winds, just some heavy downpours. Some of that crop I seeded in the "duck ponds" will be under water and not likely survive. Luckily I had no hay cut or it would have been well soaked and ruined. I guess I am lucky not to live on a flood plain. Shot some video of the scenery yesterday on a drive and froze this frame of the approaching storm clouds over town about 4:00.

Rains have been spotty and light here in Ohio. Lots of storms and storm warnings last week. Most have missed us. Most have been going north of us and a few missing us to the south. Have had slightly over 1 inch the past week. Temps have cooled down from the 90's of last week. Having a light rain this morning. Crops looking pretty good for the late plantings. Wheat should be ready at end of this week.

Got the combine up to the shop to get ready for wheat harvest. After driving it to the shop, the radiator started leaking a steady stream. Pulled the radiator off yesterday(not an easy task). Took it into the shop after cleaning it with the air hose and 6 foot wand. Got it into the shop and checked and soldered on it till after 10pm, but finally got all the leaks stopped, including the self inflicted damaged tube when I blew the radiator over and it fell in a big driveway stone and damaged a tube on the front side. Main leaks were the seams where the top and bottom tanks were soldered on. Looks to have been an amateur job putting it together in some previous life. I will apply some paint and be ready to reinstall it.

Got the hay baled a week ago Friday. Had a good afternoon baling and got 508 bales of good mixed hay. Amos was glad to get that. Had 2 young amish guys loading the wagon, so could make good speed with the baling.

Gene

Gene, I really hate those self inflicted injuries like the one you mention on your combine. I have done that to my machinery and myself too many times.
We are seeing heat worse than any I can recall for a few years. It actually hit 80 degrees in my house yesterday. 90 something outside and the humidex was way up there I hear. Not bad cutting hay with the 2090 Case and ac running but I had some cattle work in the morning that nearly finished me. As usual, with hay laying in the swath there is now a thunder storm watch for later this afternoon.

July 4, 2013.  Should be a day to celebrate our independence, and it is.  To be truthful, for the first time in my many years of life I do not feel particularly free.  With the screamingly high cost of our governments in the US and the reaching into our pockets, stealing many dollars, and leaving many hard working citizens much poorer, it is hard to feel free.  At the same time these government employed robbers often are paid several hundred thousand dollars a year and can well afford to live like royalty.  I have voted in all major elections for over fifty years, seemingly for the right candidates, but that seems to be of little help.  What is the answer???  I wish I knew.

As well as all of the above, (which I had no intention of saying when I started this post) the freedom robbing shenanigans of government in Washington and Albany, New York of late are appalling.  

Water!!!  We have lots of it.  Two inches of rain last Friday and Friday night. The ground seemed to accept that pretty well and I found no wet areas in the lawn.  With another inch plus this week, it is a whole different story.  We took a turn about last night and found standing water in the grass in all the slightly lower areas.  If the sun came out for a few minutes it would be nice to mow, but only less than half is dry enough to do that.

Gene, I saw a TV commercial for the air show yesterday.  They show the Mosquito Bomber in flight and are billing it as the only one in the world still flying.  That should be quite a drawing card for the show.

Hope all have a good Fourth of July.

Charlie V.

July 4, 2013.  

Gene, I saw a TV commercial for the air show yesterday.  They show the Mosquito Bomber in flight and are billing it as the only one in the world still flying.  That should be quite a drawing card for the show.

Hope all have a good Fourth of July.

Charlie V.

Seems to me there was a Canadian connection to the Mosquito bomber. Made of plywood and built at one of the Cockshutt equipment plants in Canada during WWII.
We had our Canada Day (July1) formerly known as Dominion Day. I took the day off and took a drive with family and friends on one of the first hot days of the year. It was a good day to be out in the wind and near 90 degree heat.

[video=youtube;AyCF9KPUz6A]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AyCF9KPUz6A&feature=youtu.be[/video]