Took a few pictures this morning in case you guys have forgotten what GREEN looks like. Looks like I will have to be mowing grass soon.

Been windy here last couple of days. Was really howling when I went to bed at 10:00pm last night. Have more tree limbs to pick up in the yard again.

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I ventured out on 4-6 and did all of the clean up / raking that I will have to do. 57degrees when I started and 44 degrees two or three hours later when I finished.  Cool, windy, and rainy most o last week.  Finally a break today though.  34 degrees at daylight but up up 57 a while ago.  Finally!  No growing grass yet but two days ago my last patch of snow behind the deck finally vanished.  The last day or so I have noticed a faint green hue across the lawn so today's warm sun will probably flip the switch for growth.

Charlie

Turning green here too as of today as I noticed some grass in the yard showing new growth. Amazing warm weather yesterday. We were out for a trail ride/field inspection and it was warm riding. Must have been up around 70 and that is warm for this time of April. Fields are still mud but I can get around on the trike if I'm careful and take a good run at the worst spots. There was still ice on the suface behind this beaver dam we walked across. Too many beavers and too much water again. I've spent a lot of time and energy opening up a dam near my yard but every day they have it rebuilt.

My nephews planted 90 acres of corn today.  That was all the ground that was dry enough to go.  My place is 8 miles south of them and we got a rain Sunday night of maybe a half inch.  No planting going on around me.  I have not even had a chance to plant my potatoes.  I would have done that Sunday had I had the spuds ready, but I did not.  It seems like it is always close to May before I get that done anyway, and the potatoes don't seem to mind.

Ron

Ron , it is still way early for planting anything here. I usually try to get a few early potatoes in the ground by the last week of April but I will plant right up to the end of May depending on conditions. Warming up but we still have a lot of drying to do in the fields. Yards improving and the driveway is good on the surface although with the frost coming out it won't handle heavy loads well.
Did a 35 year oil change on the 52 Merc's engine yesterday and took a photo to compare with another shot from 1962.

Ralph,

If you keep wasting oil that way you might cause an energy crisis.  Should stay to a fifty year oil change interval.  :rolleyes:

83 degrees here yesterday pm with light wind and very low humidity.  What a perfect day.  Got some batteries back in and things rolling again. Thought one multi use battery might have gone west.  It sat in the Farmall M unattended since last summer and it is a year 2004 battery of the Walmart brand.  Guess I got lucky.  It tested 12.6 V before charge and seemed to accept a charge fine.  Next time out I will put it back in the old JD 316 to be ready for lawn rolling when the ground dries a little more.  Grass is surely growing now and the few areas that were yellowed off from being under the deepest snow piles have greened right over.

Charlie V.

Ralph,

If you keep wasting oil that way you might cause an energy crisis.  Should stay to a fifty year oil change interval.  :rolleyes:

83 degrees here yesterday pm with light wind and very low humidity.

Charlie V.

I did even worse today Charlie. Changed the transmission oil in the 39 Ford and I don't think I had hardly driven it since I changed the oil last fall. I read over winter that GL5 oil is harmful for older transmissions that have bronze or "yellow metal" in them as something in GL5 will corrode bronze. So I got some "MP gear oil, 80w90, which is rated as ok for older transmissions. Ready for the first spring drive now.
I even worked a little ground today. Got the roto tiller out and worked the higher ground in the garden. The lower side was still a bit muddy but this is early for garden work here.

Looks like clear skies and warmer temps seem to common for all of us. Temps here in Ohio yesterday was mid 70's. Been doing some lawn rolling to try to smooth out some of the damage done by the moles and skunks. Really getting behind on maintaining. Started mowing grass yesterday. Always dread starting that first time.

Was able to get the tiller through my sweet corn ground. It is drying out nicely. Getting about time to start planting that for the family reunion.

Gene

No grass cutting here yet Gene but I did roto till the high end of my garden to warm up and dry out the soil in case I want to get a row of early potatoes in the last week of April. Still kind of cool standing out in the wind today in the 50s at a consignment auction sale. Watched this little McCormick W4 sell at $700 which was probably a fair deal as it started and ran well.

The W-4 is a cute little tractor. Not many W series in this part of the country. Probably more w-9"s and WD-9's. See an occasional 4 or 6 at tractor shows. Mostly trucked in from out west.

Winds here have been pretty brutal since Sunday. Only light rain but constant strong winds. Steady winds today of 30 MPH with gusts to 45 to 50 MPH. Really have to hold on to your hat and be especially careful when opening any doors.

Made a trip to south of Washington Court House, Ohio on Saturday morning. About 85 miles each way. Picked up a lawn roller. Some field work was being done with applications of NH3 and dry spreaders. Saw a few corn planters working around the Urbana/West Liberty area. Dark sandy soil there dries quicker and warms quicker and this area is always the first ground to be planted in this area. Lots of big tractors working the fields. Seems a 24 row planter is the norm here now. Rained on Sunday and Monday, so field work is on hold.

Got the lawn spread with insecticide to try to rid the lawn of grubs and ants. Got that spread then got the pull behind sprayer to spray the lawn weeds. Filled it with water and it would not prime. Worked with that a while and finally started pumping, so added the herbicide  and thought I was ready to spray. Started across the lawn and noticed the right tire on the sprayer was flat. Wouldn't take air so pulled the wheel off and took it into the shop. After cleaning out all the stop leak leak goop and wire brushing the wheel, I was finally able to remount the wheel. While I was fixing these problems, The wind started blowing too strong to spray, so had to call it a day.

Gene

Weather here in WNY is nothing to write home about either, Gene.  I rolled all of the lawn that was dry enough several days ago.  With scattered rain and cold winds holding temp. down, all is on hold for the time being.  So, what to do for fun???  Not much.  A lady in Attica NY (South of Batavia) is accused of murdering her husband the other day.  Then she loaded him onto a forklift and dumped his body in a compost pit some 300 yards from the house.  His hands were tied behind his back.  He was over six feet tall and said to be a gentle giant.  The pit also contained fresh manure.  After a son reported Dad missing. The lady saddled up her horse and spent seven hours searching the farm while police looked elsewhere.  Two neighbors eventually probed the compost pit and found the poor guy.  Sure makes me wonder what goes on in peoples heads.

That is about all I know.  Guess I will just continue cooking meals and making cookies for now.

Charlie V

Even though I have lived here all my life sometimes the sudden changes in weather are amazing. The weekend was so cold and miserable that i was having a hard time keeping warm in the workshop wearing a parka. Today it was up to 73 and I was riding the open Cockshutt 40 baling some flax straw. Still plenty of dangerous muddy parts of the field and the baler left some ruts. The old 40 managed to get the job done without getting stuck.

Has been typical March weather in Ohio. Cold mornings with freeze and frost and warming to 50's and 60's like it should have been last month. Pretty strong winds last week, but finally settled down last Friday. Had rain at Portland for work day on Saturday. Got a few trees down and cleaned up , but was cold and wet. Will have to schedule more time this fall to finish them.

P[ATTACH=CONFIG]867[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]868[/ATTACH]lanted some sweet corn on Monday. Ground was still a little wet and cold, so covered some of it with black plastic to help warm the soil and get a good start so it is ready for the family reunion at end of July.

Gene

Gene, you are getting an early start on the garden. Or at least it would be here. I put in a short row of blue potatoes a few days ago just so I have a few early ones. The rest might go up to a month later. We have had some decent drying weather and the parts of the garden I have worked are dry on the surface.
Had the last calf of 2015 born just the other day. Here is a photo.

Ralph, great photo of your 40 in the field--what an iconic scene.

Gene, Tracy has been working in the garden here and that scene with the black plastic looks mighty familiar to me.  She'll work on it some more this afternoon--even has some blue potatoes to plant.

I've been cleaning up the orchard--there were several good-sized apple trees that hadn't been tended in many years and were all overgrown with weed trees and briars and honeysuckle, and a few of the apple trees had split down low and halfway fallen over.   At the far end of the orchard there was a long-buried junkpile with a young walnut tree growing out of one end of it.  A few long days with the chainsaw, the little Kubota with loader, and a bonfire, and the place is looking much better.   The apple trees are mostly cleaned up although I still need to finish up the two trees that had split.  The junkpile is gone and I think I managed to save the walnut tree.  This morning, after I'd hauled the last of the assorted non-burnable junk out of the pile and set the last soggy wooden scraps on the remains of the bonfire, I needed the 620 and rear blade to smooth out the dirt where the junkpile had been.   I suppose back-blading with the Kubota bucket would have gotten the job done also, although more slowly and not as much fun.  

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By way of comparison, this video from July of last year shows my first passes with the brushhog counter-clockwise around the same row of apple trees shown in the first photo above.

[video]https://youtu.be/uV3JIfSzSPk[/video]

Dean