Did I forget to post the link to my latest Cockshutt 50/Loadstar IH/hammer mill video? Gradually catching up on jobs that should have been done a month ago. Shot this a couple of weeks back, finally emptying the seed oats off the truck and putting them through the mill.
[video=youtube;oYfseufQwdU]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oYfseufQwdU[/video]

Bet that is an easy job for the 50. Probably didn't open the governor.

Been having much nicer, cooler weather in Ohio. The soybeans are looking very good. The cool nights has slowed the progress of the corn. Low temps in the 50's and daily highs in mid 70's. Good crop of ragweed and mares tail in the wheat stubble. Mowed the weeds the last few days and looks a lot better. Mares tail are getting to be a real problem and I am determined to not let them spread.

Had our family reunion last weekend. It is a 3 day affair. Had pleasant weather for reunion, except for early morning rain on Saturday. Some of the kids sleeping in tents got a soaking, but dried out alright. Had to cancel the horseshoe tournament for Saturday morning. Everything else went very well. Had lots to eat and did a lot of visiting. I furnished the sweetcorn for the dinners and everyone raved how good it was. I took about 160 ears and had very little left.

Finally getting caught up on my work, now just have to start getting ready for the Portland tractor show.

Gene

Bet that is an easy job for the 50. Probably didn't open the governor.

Been having much nicer, cooler weather in Ohio.
Gene

No big load for the 50 because the belt will slip before it works too hard. Thought I posted this yesterday but will try again. We finally have some real summer weather for the past couple of days. More like fall the past month it seems. Crops are slow and behind normal development. No signs of crop cutting anywhere locally.
Here is a shot from the weekend. My Chevy II on the right beside a fine looking 59 Parisienne convertible at a local vintage car display. Nice display of over 30 cars.

Decided I better get this back on track. Have had decent weather so far this month. Starting to get a few more warm, humid days.

Portland tractor show went well. I took my Case LA and ran the sawmill 4 days and threshing machine on 3 days. Tractor ran well on both jobs. Put in more than 20 hours on sawmill and tractor never missed a beat. Gave it a good workout. Threshing machine was easy work running the 28X56 Minneapolis machine. Thought it was ironic that for 4 days I had the only tractor to run the mill. There were over 500 tractors there. Finally had a Port Huron 25-75 steamer run it Thursday through Saturday. Had a nice turnout from ATIS group. Good volunteers on the sawmill, parking trailers, operating tractors and working the trading post. Weather was mostly pleasant except for rain on Thursday afternoon. By Friday morning everything was back to normal and the mud had dried up by noon. Was a good dust settler.

I mowed my hay as soon as I got home. Finished that Friday evening. Today I raked up the apples from under the trees. Had a full load on my 3/4 yard dump trailer. Took them back to the woods for the critters there.

The dry weather here is starting to stres the corn. Some early fields are starting to show signs of ripening with ears drooping and lower leaves turning brown, but most fields are behind with late planting and cool July temperatures. Soybeans are pretty much the same condition with early planted beans looking good and later planted need a good rain to fill the pods. My soybeans are looking good and starting to show some yellow leaves, so are pretty much determined.

Gene

Good to see a post, Gene.  I did get your apple tree pictures.  Did not reply.  My bad.  My one apple tree which is a product from the root stock of a flowering crab has a crop like never before.  I am sure they are a wild apple and they do not get very large.  About 2-2 1/2 inch diameter so far.  getting some pinkish red on them.  I did try one a week ago.  Pretty hard, but not especially sour.  If they stay on the tree long enough to ripen well, they might soften up a little.  

We have had generous rain this month.  All of the crops I have seen are looking stellar.  Cooler August than normal and lower humidity.  Every tine we get a thunderstorm or two, I have another inch in the gauge.  I have dumped two inches in less than a week.  I did notice a corn crop yesterday that is yellowed for the first one foot from the ground.

Really hurting hip and knee tonight.  I had some outdoor mowing of high weeds that I wanted to get done today that involved moving a truck, car, and my 20 foot flatbed trailer.  Just getting in and out of a car or truck kills me as I have to load my full weight on the bad leg just to get the good leg up and in.  Add that to a fair amount of walking around with my two canes and it equals a bad evening.  Along with that, the battery in the mower gave up so I had to visit Tractor Supply and get a new one.  The one taken out was the second one in 10 years, and it lasted just about five mowing seasons.  It did almost as well as the OEM battery.  I guess i did not get beat up as it was a Walmart Everstart to begin with.  Lawn tractor batteries do not seem to be known for long life.  Probable why the new Exide from TSC comes with a gigantic six month conditional warranty.  My experience 20 years ago was that Exide gave very short life so I have avoided then ever since.  Guess I had a weak moment today.

After Monday I will most likely be missing for a few days.  Going to get some after market parts installed to see if it will cure at least part of my problems.  Hope you have a great week.

Charlie V.

Charlie, hope the surgery has positive results. I may have mentioned my brother, Edsel, Has had a knee and hip replaced. He is doing very well. He visited us in Portland on Friday and is planning on camping with us next year and bring his Farmall B and hopes to have his H finished to bring it also. He had Rhuematic fever at age 8 and had heart issues since. Had heart surgery and wears a pacemaker and gets around pretty well now. He has a 1955 Packard that he shows and does very well with it.

Just got in from the woods. Cleaned up the ash trees I cut last week and burned the brush. Started cutting the hickory trees at the edge of the woods. They sap the ground so bad that nothing grows for 40 or 50 feet from them. Hope this helps the crop and getting good firewood from it.

Ralph must be busy with harvest. Imagine the spring wheat is ready to harvest and oats too.

Weather today has cooled down some and the humidity is down to more comfortable levels. Forecast rain did not develope here, but did see some lightning and heard some thunder, so maybe someone got some rain.

Hope everyone has a good Labor Dy.

Gene

Good luck Charlie, and I sure hope it gives you some relief and return of mobility. My dad had good results from a hip replacement late in his life. Couple of days this week I felt like I needed a hip and knee joint after bouncing around in the swather cab cutting canola and oats. Unfortunately those 70 acres of oats got an inch of rain on the swath that same night after I swathed them. I think I will let the wheat stand til it is ready.
I shot some video last week while moving  a bunch of machinery out of the shed so I could get the swather out and ready to go. Indoor storage is nice but sometimes a lot of work.
[video=youtube;BNHDR2q4VLM]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BNHDR2q4VLM[/video]

Thank you, guys.  Encouragement from friends is always a good thing.

Charlie V.

Just testing. A harvest shot from yesterday.

That sure is an excellent photo, Ralph, with the agri-landscape as a background.  You may have missed a calling in life.  You seem to have a photographic aptitude.


Charlie V.

That sure is an excellent photo, Ralph, with the agri-landscape as a background.  You may have missed a calling in life.  You seem to have a photographic aptitude.


Charlie V.

Thanks Charlie but I think its mostly good luck with me. I was actually shooting video with the camera but decided to take a still shot as well as I don't get many pics of my truck driver .

Nice to hear Charlie is on the mend and Ralph is progressing with his harvest. Charlie is probably ready to go square dancing?

Nice weather in Ohio. Had 2.5 inches of much needed on Friday. Not a drop was wasted as it came nice and gentle and all soaked in. Ground is now in good condition for fall tillage. I started plowing today with the Case 970 and 4x16 Case plow. Ground turned over in nice shape and probably as nice a job of plowing I have done. Was plowing wheat stubble. Marestail weeds were getting thick and wanted to get them turned under before they go to seed.

Bandy and I wiped out a rat family on Saturday. He was smelling and barking around the combine clean out door, so knew something was in there. I started the combine and ran the seperator when I heard a thump from below. I ran it a couple more minutes and shut down to investigate. Found 3 baby rats below the straw discharge on the ground that Bandy had killed and about 25 feet behind the combine I found the remains of mama rat that went through the straw chopper. Instant carnage.

Soybeans about ready to harvest. Just waiting for them to dry from the rain and heavy morning dews. Likely be ready Wednesday.

Gene

Tried square dancing when I was about in the fifth grade, Gene.  The two problems I had were that I was not used to being that close to girls, and I could not quite get the hang of following the calls.  In later years I got over the girl fear, but never tried more square dancing.

Do not have the new joint well broken in yet, but working on it.  After getting the house work finished and getting blood drawn this morning, I went out and pumped the flat rear tire up on the old 1974 Cushman cart so it could be moved.  Cranked up a string trimmer and cleared the area around the garbage cans  so we can actually see them again.  Things can sure get over run fast when I am unable to keep up. Looking forward to some improved capability.   For the time being, odd but necessary jobs are my therapy for recovery.

We had 1 1/8 inch of rain.  I guess that is what was left over after you took what you needed.  Heading for 66 F today, so it could be worse.  The cold N wind kept us to the middle 50's yesterday.  No snow in sight yet but at 34 this morning.

Charlie

Charlie, I'm glad to hear you are getting out and about now.
Gene, no harvest here for the past week except yesterday afternoon when canola got down to 10% moisture (dry) and I got three truck loads done before it got too tough late at night. More showers and now a big rain predicted for tomorrow so I think we are done til October now.. So I am harvesting potatoes today. Trying to get them out of the ground before it turns to mud.

Ralph;

Those are nice looking  potatoes. Look like the perfect size for baked spuds. Wish I could send some of the sunshine we are having.

Charlie;

So good to hear you are getting some of the neglected jobs done. Glad the replacement parts are performing up to par.

I did do some square dancing many years ago. Thought I was doing pretty good till I attended a square dance in Virginia with a lady I was dating at the time. They called a Virginia Reel and I thought I would do well. Not well!!! Virginians have a completely different brand of square dancing and I was lost the whole set. Caller stopped twice to explain what I was supposed to do.

Combined the soybeans yesterday and today. Moisture was less than I expected with first load at 11.4 percent and the loads from today was 12.4 percent. Yield was just over 47 bu/ac. Respectful but not great, but not bad for the early variety. Lots of guys started on Tuesday. Had a problem with the combine Tuesday when it quit moving. Neighbor came and helped pull it out of the field to where I could work on it. Turned out to be a coupling on the wheel shaft had slipped to some bad splines. Slid the coupling back on to good splines and cut a short piece of plastic pipe that I split and hose clamped on the shaft to keep it from slipping back off. Worked like a charm and held to finish today.

Lots of typical fall sunshine and cooler temps all this week. Lows in the 40's and highs in high 60's to low 70's. My kind of weather.

Gene