Guess I'll try again.

[Icu4dzs]

ummmm, how about we just give ICU his journal back....

Ok, so you think I should get a say on this journal,huh? Thank you!

The rocket heater is now built and working! The burn tests have all improved with each stage of the build. The details and some pics will be forth coming. I have to remember how to upload pics. This thing gets really hot. In one section of the horizontal section it got over 800*F. It was so hot that it dis colored the paint on the thermometer. Now I need a fan to circulate the heat. I added 10 feet of 6" stack and the draw was astounding. It lit immediately and even the little bit of paper I used to get it started (one used paper towel) got the flame so hot that you could see the flame shooting to the stack and the wood got hot enough to burn! It was awesome. We'll see how it does when the winter is "In Full Bloom."

My cat Emily and her sister, Whirlygig came into the shop tonight for the first time that can recall. They both followed me there as if they expected the "Cook's tour"! They were exploring and Emily decided to explore the heater. I tried to discourage her but she would have none of my good counsel. She took a step onto the place that got over 800*F and it didn't take her long to reconsider her position. I don't think she'll do that again.

 

[Icu4dzs]

The last week or so has been productive. I hesitate to use the word "busy" as I read an article stating that the word "busy" is a "toxic" term or some such concept. At any rate, I have been working as usual and on top of that cleaning up the farm and getting ready for winter which from the looks of things this morning is nigh upon us.

Saturday I spent the entire day cleaning and repairing the southeast stall in the barn. I noticed sometime last spring that it was "flooded" with diarrhea from the cattle but of course could not know which of them did it. It certainly was a great deal more than just a little bit. I don't know if it came from Rose before she died or not. In either case, during the warm weather, I thought I would allow it to dry before attacking it. What I did notice was that there was what looked like a railroad tie on the floor and couldn't for the life of me figure out how that got there until I realized that it was the 6 x 6 that formed the closure of the stall and held the gate in place. Once I realized that, I had to pick it up, clean it off and reset it in the right place so the stall gate would meet within 1/2" of it. This worked out OK and I put some more 2x4 ties to the side of it to hold it to the 8x8 that formed the pillar of the hay mow. Got the gate lined up and drilled a new hole for the gate lock. Cleaning that stall and the feed bunk next to it was NOT, repeat NOT FUN but had to be done. I shoveled more s**t than I could possibly have imagined, much of which stuck to the wall like a hard glue. I rinsed it down with a hose but could tell more might need to be done. O well, that is life on a farm, I guess.

I am supposed to be getting a breeding pair of Llama. A fellow who has a herd of them wants to divest and is giving them away to "good homes." I figure my place ought to be just that. I have enough pasture and barn space for them and since it will be a breeding pair, my barn with the calving stall and head gate should be ideal for that. While I don't know all that much about Llama, it will be a trip back to the books for me. If these two manage to breed well, maybe I'll have enough to sell some wool or make some nice wool clothing from what they produce.

The rocket heater is working "as advertised". I get a lot of heat from it, but since the room is about 35x35 and 15 feet tall the cubic foot calculation is about 13000 and that takes a lot of heat. I had it burning up a storm on Sunday and added my LP furnace which hangs in the ceiling to it. That seemed to work well because the furnace has a pretty powerful fan to circulate the heat. Having done that made the room very tolerable for working and I started a new project using my lathe and welding.

I found that I needed a reel for fence wire spools. They are about 14" in diameter and about 12" long. I saw something I liked in the farm supply store and decided to make my own rather than buy theirs. I have the steel to do it. While I didn't use their plan exactly, the steel that I use will be just as strong, if not stronger. I got the parts cut out and had to put the shaft on the lathe and turn it down from 7/8" to 5/8" which was not difficult. Since I am at the very early stages of learning to machine on a lathe, I tried to do it as accurately as I could. After calculating the amount of material I would have to remove, I began turning and somehow, no matter what I did, I over-shot by 20/1000 on one end and 10/1000" on the other. I have to be a lot more careful when approaching my finished dimension but since I was using a caliper rather than micrometer, that may have made the difference. I have to admit though that I found the work challenging and fun to do. This particular project required cutting the steel which I do with a chop saw and steel cutting disk, welding the parts together, boring a hole in the exact right place with a drill press (so that the steel 2x2 tubing lined up correctly with the hole in the receiver of the hitch) and turning the shaft on a lathe. Each operation is an exercise in and of itself. I am getting better with accuracy which is my goal and I will have a functional object when it is all done.

I did notice that I have managed to get all of the debris off the ground all over the farm so I won't hit it or damage any equipment when moving snow this winter. Of course, looking out the window of my house while eating breakfast and seeing big white "things" falling from the sky this morning, re-emphasized the importance of having the ground cleaned up.

I harvested all my winter squash on Friday. I have more butternut and buttercup squash than I realized. I have (needless to say) been eating a lot of squash lately. The zucchini squash is not as good as the other two so I don't think I'll plant more than one of those next year. I really like the butternut squash and it is easy to bake and eat so that will be where I put my effort next season. I will say those two squashes took over most of the garden while I was away so I never was able to see or find the cucumber plant, the pepper plants or the other things I planted. I will however, emphasize how important the dried cow manure was to the success of this garden. I have a lot more to move before the snow flies so I can till it all in and have it ready for next spring. I have NEVER added any chemical fertilizer to my garden and with the current inventory of animals (chickens and cows) there is little liklihood that I ever will need anything else.

I did decide to order a new tractor. I am getting a JD 3520 with a loader, back hoe and front mounted snowblower. It will be able to handle the sickle mower so I can cut hay without having to use the really big tractor for that. I should be getting that delivered sometime this next week. They have been working to put it together at the local JD dealership. I am NOT clear as to why it didn't come finished at the factory but then I am not an expert on those sorts of things.

My hope is that the loader and the back hoe will be easy enough to mount and dismount so I can use the tractor for other things such as the garden in the spring. I have the cultivator, landscape rake, tiller, sickle mower, box blade and baler so all I need now is a wheel rake. I have a dump rake and while it works, it is a bit unwieldy to handle. I have a one row planter so I can do all of my own work as needed. With the 9 or so acres of tillable land currently used to grow feed corn and soy beans, I am getting to the point where I can grow enough of what I need each year to be about as "SS" as one would like to imagine. This to me, is the goal.

Next season, I want to plant at least 1-2 acres of wheat so I can have that as well. I have been thinking about using the tilable fields to increase my food production but with all the time I spend working outside the farm, I can't do that yet and be efficient with it. I may decide to break some more ground out in the south pasture for more cultivation but only in places where the cattle "DON'T GO". That will require some fencing so it may have to wait for a while.

I need a better water source for my cattle in the south pasture. I have the stock pond at the east end but no fence to keep the cattle from going "where they want". Now that I have the back hoe, I will be able to dig some trenches to divert the water where I want it to go when it overflows the stock pond and allow the cattle to drink from that rather than have them stuck coming to the barn for the Richie which despite it supposed to be freeze tolerant, requires two heaters to prevent freezing at times. That is EXPENSIVE. Solar power does NOT provide enough electricity to handle 2000 watts/24h/day. Not sure what I'll do if the grid goes down but I will do something...believe me.

Got the fence panels to improve the hog yard for next year. They will have to learn to live with the cattle and the Llama.

Buddy is in the operating room this morning. He won't be a HE when he gets home, but he'll still be my best boy.

Things keep going on...
Saepe Expertus, Semper Fidelis, Fratres Aeterni
Trim sends
//BT//

 

[~gd]

The last week or so has been productive. I hesitate to use the word "busy" as I read an article stating that the word "busy" is a "toxic" term or some such concept. At any rate, I have been working as usual and on top of that cleaning up the farm and getting ready for winter which from the looks of things this morning is nigh upon us.

Saturday I spent the entire day cleaning and repairing the southeast stall in the barn. I noticed sometime last spring that it was "flooded" with diarrhea from the cattle but of course could not know which of them did it. It certainly was a great deal more than just a little bit. I don't know if it came from Rose before she died or not. In either case, during the warm weather, I thought I would allow it to dry before attacking it. What I did notice was that there was what looked like a railroad tie on the floor and couldn't for the life of me figure out how that got there until I realized that it was the 6 x 6 that formed the closure of the stall and held the gate in place. Once I realized that, I had to pick it up, clean it off and reset it in the right place so the stall gate would meet within 1/2" of it. This worked out OK and I put some more 2x4 ties to the side of it to hold it to the 8x8 that formed the pillar of the hay mow. Got the gate lined up and drilled a new hole for the gate lock. Cleaning that stall and the feed bunk next to it was NOT, repeat NOT FUN but had to be done. I shoveled more s**t than I could possibly have imagined, much of which stuck to the wall like a hard glue. I rinsed it down with a hose but could tell more might need to be done. O well, that is life on a farm, I guess.

I am supposed to be getting a breeding pair of Llama. A fellow who has a herd of them wants to divest and is giving them away to "good homes." I figure my place ought to be just that. I have enough pasture and barn space for them and since it will be a breeding pair, my barn with the calving stall and head gate should be ideal for that. While I don't know all that much about Llama, it will be a trip back to the books for me. If these two manage to breed well, maybe I'll have enough to sell some wool or make some nice wool clothing from what they produce.

The rocket heater is working "as advertised". I get a lot of heat from it, but since the room is about 35x35 and 15 feet tall the cubic foot calculation is about 13000 and that takes a lot of heat. I had it burning up a storm on Sunday and added my LP furnace which hangs in the ceiling to it. That seemed to work well because the furnace has a pretty powerful fan to circulate the heat. Having done that made the room very tolerable for working and I started a new project using my lathe and welding.

I found that I needed a reel for fence wire spools. They are about 14" in diameter and about 12" long. I saw something I liked in the farm supply store and decided to make my own rather than buy theirs. I have the steel to do it. While I didn't use their plan exactly, the steel that I use will be just as strong, if not stronger. I got the parts cut out and had to put the shaft on the lathe and turn it down from 7/8" to 5/8" which was not difficult. Since I am at the very early stages of learning to machine on a lathe, I tried to do it as accurately as I could. After calculating the amount of material I would have to remove, I began turning and somehow, no matter what I did, I over-shot by 20/1000 on one end and 10/1000" on the other. I have to be a lot more careful when approaching my finished dimension but since I was using a caliper rather than micrometer, that may have made the difference. I have to admit though that I found the work challenging and fun to do. This particular project required cutting the steel which I do with a chop saw and steel cutting disk, welding the parts together, boring a hole in the exact right place with a drill press (so that the steel 2x2 tubing lined up correctly with the hole in the receiver of the hitch) and turning the shaft on a lathe. Each operation is an exercise in and of itself. I am getting better with accuracy which is my goal and I will have a functional object when it is all done.

I did notice that I have managed to get all of the debris off the ground all over the farm so I won't hit it or damage any equipment when moving snow this winter. Of course, looking out the window of my house while eating breakfast and seeing big white "things" falling from the sky this morning, re-emphasized the importance of having the ground cleaned up.

I harvested all my winter squash on Friday. I have more butternut and buttercup squash than I realized. I have (needless to say) been eating a lot of squash lately. The zucchini squash is not as good as the other two so I don't think I'll plant more than one of those next year. I really like the butternut squash and it is easy to bake and eat so that will be where I put my effort next season. I will say those two squashes took over most of the garden while I was away so I never was able to see or find the cucumber plant, the pepper plants or the other things I planted. I will however, emphasize how important the dried cow manure was to the success of this garden. I have a lot more to move before the snow flies so I can till it all in and have it ready for next spring. I have NEVER added any chemical fertilizer to my garden and with the current inventory of animals (chickens and cows) there is little liklihood that I ever will need anything else.

I did decide to order a new tractor. I am getting a JD 3520 with a loader, back hoe and front mounted snowblower. It will be able to handle the sickle mower so I can cut hay without having to use the really big tractor for that. I should be getting that delivered sometime this next week. They have been working to put it together at the local JD dealership. I am NOT clear as to why it didn't come finished at the factory but then I am not an expert on those sorts of things. Not an expert either but we ran about 30 JDs over the years and had to order and wait for all but one [built on spec by the dealer.] farmers have different needs and tend to plan ahead so I think one of their smart boys figured it out that it was cheaper to have the dealer add all the bells and snow blowers, loaders. backhoes etc. We have a CAT plant here in town and they do the same thing with their 'Bobcat' model There are only two shipped from the plant, those with tracks, and those that use wheels, everything else is dealer installed.~gd

My hope is that the loader and the back hoe will be easy enough to mount and dismount so I can use the tractor for other things such as the garden in the spring. I have the cultivator, landscape rake, tiller, sickle mower, box blade and baler so all I need now is a wheel rake. I have a dump rake and while it works, it is a bit unwieldy to handle. I have a one row planter so I can do all of my own work as needed. With the 9 or so acres of tillable land currently used to grow feed corn and soy beans, I am getting to the point where I can grow enough of what I need each year to be about as "SS" as one would like to imagine. This to me, is the goal.

Next season, I want to plant at least 1-2 acres of wheat so I can have that as well.Keep in mind that small grains like wheat oats & rye must be dried for mold free storage.~gd I have been thinking about using the tilable fields to increase my food production but with all the time I spend working outside the farm, I can't do that yet and be efficient with it. I may decide to break some more ground out in the south pasture for more cultivation but only in places where the cattle "DON'T GO". That will require some fencing so it may have to wait for a while.

I need a better water source for my cattle in the south pasture. I have the stock pond at the east end but no fence to keep the cattle from going "where they want". Now that I have the back hoe, I will be able to dig some trenches to divert the water where I want it to go when it overflows the stock pond and allow the cattle to drink from that rather than have them stuck coming to the barn for the Richie which despite it supposed to be freeze tolerant, requires two heaters to prevent freezing at times. That is EXPENSIVE. Solar power does NOT provide enough electricity to handle 2000 watts/24h/day. Not sure what I'll do if the grid goes down but I will do something...believe me.

Got the fence panels to improve the hog yard for next year. They will have to learn to live with the cattle and the Llama.I suggest you read up on Hogs They are major pests here in the south. They love meat and will take down cattle to feed upon, boars and old sows will go after humans too. He went to the outhouse but the hogs ate him is more than just a funny story! you don't read about boar fights because they are just to mean and smart to fight like bulls.~gd

Buddy is in the operating room this morning. He won't be a HE when he gets home, but he'll still be my best boy.

Things keep going on...
Saepe Expertus, Semper Fidelis, Fratres Aeterni
Trim sends
//BT//

see cimments in bold above ~gd

 

[Denim Deb]

Hey Doc, w/your male llama, make sure you get a good one! They can be very territorial and have been known to attack humans. Believe me, it's not fun to be attacked by one!

Hope Buddy's OK.

 

[Icu4dzs]

So the world just keeps on turning, turning, turning...
Buddy came through it OK. He was rather subdued and seemed a bit depressed last night when he got home, but that got him a bunch more affection which he seemed to appreciate. Today, he was much more "himself" and there didn't seem to be any serious ill effects. I did notice that he didn't like the sound of the impact driver (18v) I used to put the steel panels back up on the fence around the barn yard. He stayed away and only approached when summoned. For some reason, (and I don't know what) he seems to be a bit more "obedient" today than he was before the operation. I really do not want to dampen his spirit but Since I don't know much about owning a dog, and he is the first one I have had, I am learning what to do and how to deal with his reactions to things.

I am meeting with the lady who is giving me the Llamas tomorrow. She will be bringing me stuff to read and assimilate on the subject of care, feeding and general understanding of them. Not sure when they will come. Never sure of anything until it really happens but "being forwarned is forearmed" as they say. I got the barn nice and clean but I still may want to power wash it with a bleach solution to be as sure as I am able. As it was today, it looked a lot more hospitable than I thought it would but I still want to be certain that it is clean enough.

As for the wheat and drying, I will be careful about that.. Thanks for the tip. I am aware that wheat stores in definitely if it is properly dry and stored in a good dry container that doesn't get hot. I have had some in the house for a while and it seems to process just fine when it meets the Country Living Grain Mill's steel plates. The bread is wonderful. As for hogs, I have had two of them for the prior two years. This year, I was going to take 4 of them but having to work so far out of town as much as I do convinced me to hold off. I got those panels to enlarge the area I use to let them wander. I have heard the "horror stories" about hogs but like other things, being careful is always important. I don't abuse or mistreat animals so getting attacked seems somewhat less likely to me.

The latest project in steel is the fence wire roller that attaches to the trailer hitch. So far it is going quite well. I am still working on the design because even though I was able to turn the shaft down to the right diameter, I still have to have a way to keep the shaft on the roller so that the reel of barbed wire doesn't come off when unwinding it during a fence job. I am really enjoying working with steel. It is a new medium for me. I grew up working with wood, but after owning and working my farm, working with steel and learning how to repair and construct things made with steel opens up a whole new world of creativity for me.

Saepe Expertus, Semper Fidelis, Fratres Aeterni
Trim sends
//BT//

 

[Denim Deb]

He's going to be a bit down. After all, he just had "brain surgery".

 

[~gd]

He's going to be a bit down. After all, he just had "brain surgery".

Aren't you the fiesty one [Deb]I expect Buddy associates the sound from the impact driver with something he heard at the vets. Doc you should know that it will take a while for him to use up the stored hormones [about 25 days for this 300lb male human] I fondly remember when my doc had a new female PA and I asked about a new supply. "Don't worry dear we have purple pills for ED now. Well I lost it big time. You dumb B never bothered to read my chart or you would know that I am not worried about ED! Male hormone has lots of other effects. I really crewed her out and stormed out without paying my bill. After I had cooled down I called her supervising Doctor [old School from India] I told him calmly that if he ever assigned some one that had not reviewed my record I would find a new doctor. I went to him due to the crappy medical care I had gotten at the ER which was stocked only with PAs.
Trim I debated with myself if I should mention the need to dry grains. Lot of farm boys don't know that when the grain is combined and hauled to the grain elevator it is dried before storing. Corm is less so because it will dry on the cob [good air circulation] small grains do nor allow good air circulation so they tend to mold or ferment. As for the pigs the most dread cry on our farm was the pigs are out Our farm bell was rung fir pigs and fire only. I remember one year we butchered early because my father had stuck a 2x4 down the maw of a boar that turned on him. The new pigs are bread to be smaller. leaner and more docile so you may not have the problems the old timers had ~gd

 

[k15n1]

As for the pigs the most dread cry on our farm was the pigs are out Our farm bell was rung fir pigs and fire only. I remember one year we butchered early because my father had stuck a 2x4 down the maw of a boar that turned on him. The new pigs are bread to be smaller. leaner and more docile so you may not have the problems the old timers had ~gd

Are feeders castrated? I assume some of the aggression that your father experienced was due to hormones.

 

[Denim Deb]

I've never raised pigs, but I seem to recall hearing from somewhere that you were better off castrating pigs that you were going to be eating because you'd get a better meat.

 

[Icu4dzs]

The first two pigs I had were a male and a female. the male had been castrated and was rather docile. To tell the truth they were both very pleasant animals, and I kind of felt bad about the day I sent them off to the butcher. I sold one to a friend whose wife said it was the best pork she had ever had. She bought a pig from me the next year as well. I do take very good care of my animals and I never mistreat them in anyway. I have a feeling that makes them the whole lot easier to live with and it makes it easier for them to grow and produce good meat.

I met with the lady who is giving me the llamas today. She gave me several books to read and a scrapbook with articles of information about taking care of them that she has accumulated over the years. I read most of the one of the books and was impressed by the fact that they are able to survive on such very low amounts of protein and five of them can very easily on 1 acre of land. I told her friend that I would take two females and one male. I hope that this will allow me to have them breed on a regular basis every year. Apparently there is an 11 month gestation cycle.

We'll see what happens next.
Saepe Expertus, Semper Fidelis, Fratres Aeterni
Trim sends
//BT//