Thank you, gentlemen.  I had fun making that video, and learned a few things in the process:  Next time I'll try to protect the camera from wind somehow, and give it some more side-to-side stability (the vertical part was a 1x3, flexible enough and long enough to whip back-and-forth side-to-side when I went over a bump, so I had to keep my hand resting on it most of the time).  But most importantly I'll be more careful about hitting the right button to stop filming.  I ruined a few clips, such as the one in which I'd arrived at Tractor Supply to pick up a new battery, by fumbling around and hitting the "off" button rather than the "stop filming" button as I was driving along--which I later realized caused the camera to only keep the first second or two of that clip instead of the whole scene.  Oh well.

Looks like the wet and snow are behind us for a while, but it's still cold this morning, just below freezing.

Gene, I hope your lawn treatment works well--those pesky little critters sure can have a big impact.

Dean

Gene, hope the Lorsban works on the ants. Pretty toxic stuff so be careful using it. Dean, the wind noise was not all that noticeable to me in your video. One trick I use is bungee cords to firm up the mounting when I use a camera pole. Mine is a pieces of electrical conduit pipe and can be a little too springy sometimes. I think the rubber straps help take out some of the vibration too.
Cold overnight here with a little blowing snow. It was to our advantage as it kept the ground frozen enough to get a couple of semis of wheat loaded and off the farm early this morning. Spring break up will soon put a stop to moving heavy trucks around the farm. Took this picture from on top of the bin looking down on the 2090 Case running the grain vac. Sure beats shoveling.

Ralph, are you getting any melting and thawing yet? We have 72 degrees now at 2:00pm. Nice sunshine and very little wind. Was a good morning for cleaning up the lawn from the winter limb falls. Did some wiring work on the John Deere lawnmower and used it to tow the dump trailer for clean up.

I know the Lorsban is pretty strong stuff, Since I no longer have Bandy Nothing will be in the area. It has a 24 hour re-entry period. Sure hope  it does the job at $84.50 for a 50 pound bag.

Have work day tomorrow for the Tri-State club grounds. Have lots of dead ash trees and that will be a big cleanup job.

Hope everyone has a good Easter.

Gene

Ralph, are you getting any melting and thawing yet? We have 72 degrees now at 2:00pm.
Gene

Well Gene, it is melting , but the new snow is falling faster than it can melt so in a word it is miserable out there. Got about half mile visibility now and its around 30 degrees with a strong south easter blowing.

Ralph, are you getting any melting and thawing yet? We have 72 degrees now at 2:00pm.
Gene

Well Gene, it is melting , but the new snow is falling faster than it can melt so in a word it is miserable out there. Got about half mile visibility now and its around 30 degrees with a strong south easter blowing.

We will have a cool day here, (Tropical for Ralph).  Low 50's with a dominant north wind, but a mix of sun.  Last two days have been pretty decent.  I have on e four wheeler that needed a battery last year or the year before.  The price of those small MC/ATV batteries jumped so much that I did not buy one for the little I use that machine.  Mainly for hunting which I have not been able to do lately.  To make a long story longer, that Polaris, the other Polaris, and my Honda Shadow can all take the same battery.  Post position may vary, but I work around that.  Both the other two also need a battery this spring so I went shopping on the net.  Prices generally run $45 to over $100 each, depending on type of construction.  Low and behold, deep into a Google search, like on page 8, I found a supplier practically giving away the battery which I need.  I ordered three so each machine now has a new one and the delivered total was under fifty dollars.  I am happy.  Filled and charged one and it is in the Polaris Magnum and working well thus far.  Have the second one filled and charges for the Shadow.  The third in line will be the Polaris 4 x 4 that has been waiting for a couple of years.  Getting past that, next comes the Honda CH 250 scooter.  (Toy happy??? Maybe.  Nuts is more like it.)  That battery which I installed in 2003 gave up this winter also, even though it had a working maintainer on it.  Same type of battery as the others, but a different size and AH.  It required a bunch of searching but I landed a SLA type for that for $31 delivered.  Still a pretty darn good deal.  I expect that will land on the door step about Tuesday.

When the four in that toy box are all happily running, the plan is to advance to cars, trucks, and tractors.  I am quite sure that even buying blem batteries some heavier money will be required.  Have to go with the old saying about play and pay.

Charlie

Charlie, I found a similar deal on a bettery for my little motorcycle. $18.50 plus $8.50 shipping. Ordered on Sunday and arrived on Tuesday. Was a sealed battery so no hazardous shipping charge.

Have had 3 nice spring days with temps in the 60's and 70's and nice sunshine. Nice to not have to keep the fire going.

Amish neighbore are starting to sow oats and keeping busy. I checked my sweetcorn patch and was dry enough to tear up with the field cultivator. Went to the woods and hooked onto the 700 and made 5 passes across the patch. Plowed ground in the field was drying nicely, so decided to work up some of the edges of the fields and dress down some of the gullies washed across the plowed ground. Ground worked better than I expected, but will wait for the low spots to dry. Still have some plowing to finish but needs to dry some more. Mowing season officially started on Sunday as I spent all afternoon mowing grass. Needed to get that done before it got ahead of me.

Sold my old Winnebago motor home last week, so glad to see that go.

Gene

Congrats on selling the Winnie. At least someone can sell something.  Luckily our grass here is not at mowing height yet, Gene.  It is starting to take a pretty good hold so it will not take too long.  I put the battery in the old JD 316 the other day and brought the roller over and filled with water.  Did a little flattening of plow truck impressions but all else was too wet.  Today I did get the east half or the property rolled.  Some areas were still pretty soft, but no real standing water.  Took one turn around on the other half out in back and thought I was going to get stuck.  Made it around though and gave that up until conditions get better.

I have all three of the new dry charge batteries filled and in service and all is well with them so far.  The SLA battery for the CH250 came and that is in and working good so far.  This afternoon I brought batteries from winter storage for the Cub Cadet and the Exmark and installed them.  Both of those machines fired up with no problem.  If I remember correctly, the Exmark needs sharp blades as I put it off last fall.  Other than that it seems things are good to go when the grass demands cutting.  Little by little we progress.

Gene, Fed Ex did not require a special haz mat charge for my dry charge batteries with the acid pack enclosed but both battery and acid bottle were sealed in a plastic pack and then absorbent packing was also used inside of the shipping box.  UPS would have charged extra for that so was not used.  My sealed battery was shipped USPS second day priority with no extra charge.  

While I was walking past the old JD model L this evening I stopped, turned on the gas, got the crank and started winding.  It took it eight or ten 1/2 turns to fire up but after a couple minutes of warm up it sounded pretty good.  At least there are no battery worries with that one.  Keep the magneto dry and things should be OK.

Charlie V.

Charlie, hope you can finally get dried up some. Looks like Ralph is finally getting some warmer weather. His snow should be mostly melted, now just have to get the frost out of the ground.

Ohio had a nice week of spring weather. Soil dried up enough that I was able to finish the plowing and do the first tillage on my soybean ground. Worked pretty good for first time over. Will be at least 10 days before I get it planted. Waiting for soil to warm up. Got sweetcorn and popcorn planted this week. Will need to get some warm sunshine to bring it up.. Neighbors have gotten oats planted this week. Next door neighbor planted some spring wheat, unusual for this area. Will see how it turns out. He does a lot of experimenting with different crops.

Hope everyone has a bright sunny day.

Gene

No hurry to get the lawn tractor going here for a while. Still the odd snowbank around here and pretty wet from a heavy rain on Wednesday. More rain forecast for the next two days. We had one nice day last Tuesday. Up in the sixties and I spent a little time at a farm auction watching things sell. Roads good but the yard muddy. Garden still too wet and cold to plant any potatoes though I often do put some in by this date. At least a week away from any field work here I think.

Hi Ralph.  At breakfast this morning in my new place, I was sitting at a table by a window that looks north toward the road.  Nice sunny morning, calm air, cool but warming up quickly.  After a few minutes I heard the smooth hum of some approaching machine traveling along the road, so I watched to see what it was.  Turned out to be a guy on a nice wide-front Cockshutt 40 with a little three-point disk mounted on the rear, apparently on his way to till up a big garden plot or something at the neighbor's place across the road.  Fine looking machine.  I thought maybe you'd driven down for the day...

Dean

Hi Dean,

Seeing that 40 going by is just a little more evidence that you have moved into a classy neighborhood.  As I read I thought you were going to tell us that you could see Ralph's grain bins when looking out the North window.  

Glad you are moved in.

Charlie V.

Nothing like an early breakfast on a clear morning on the country. Makes a person look for reasons to be outside.

Went to directors meeting at Portland this afternoon. Getting things ready for swap meet next month. Came home and used the little tractor and trailer to pick some rocks from the field. By 7:15 had enough of that and called it day,

Gene

Dean, glad to hear there is at least one Cockshutt tractor in your neighbourhood. Would you believe the ground has turned white again this evening? After a cold windy and rainy day it has turned to snow. Just what we did not need. I spent a cold few hours at a farm auction today and you can see some of the video scenes here
[video=youtube;TCKdaQF5cwg]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCKdaQF5cwg[/video]

Raining now and expected to continue most if not all day.  Temperature expected to drop into the 40's during today.  I went for a blood draw early today (before the rain started)  over in Mendon, about a 10 minute drive.  Along the way on Rt. 251 I saw the first field work I have seen this year.  On what used to be the Lord farm,a big IH was ripping to bury corn stalks.  Lords used to grow potatoes just about exclusively there in years past.  Nice folks.  It is a nice high piece of ground, probably 2-300 acres and well drained.   I suspect there is a gravel base under there.  My thought was of getting a picture on the way back.  On the way home the IH tractor was not in sight but a Stieger was hauling a ripper down through the field.  I did not stop for a photo.  My mind was more on getting home and building a big stack of pancakes for the Mrs. and myself.  They were good too.  Like that Maple syrup.

Charlie V