DeerMeadowFarm

Heh, heh, heh....boy...I guess you haven't ever seen New England! Water just pours off of my hill... Last year we started 800 pumpkin plants in peat cups and transplanted them because the fields were too wet to work at planting time...

Wow, I can't believe the ground is ready to be worked in your area; we still have snow... :'( And where are all the stones?

Holy cow, our field is still covered in snow! Even if it wasn't, it would be so wet my tractor would sink out of sight... I bet I won't be able to turn our pumpkin patch until mid-April if I'm lucky!

Not at all; tell me more! Around here, the farm trucks in use are fairly old...mostly gas engines. Gas right now is about $1+ less per gallon than diesel (this of course happened shortly after I bought my diesel truck... :'() I'm not sure how much cheaper off-road diesel is around here. The guy who cuts my hay uses #2 heating oil with some additives in his tractor. He hauls hay on a wagon behind his tractor but he's never more than 2 miles or so I'd say from his farm. We don't need beacon lights to run down the road and there are still a lot of guys who have tractors with open platforms (no cabs). We don't have license plates for the most part either. We can get a "farm" plate and switch it between all the vehicles we use. In fact, if you operate withing 2 miles of your farm, you don't need to have a farm plate on your vehicle at the time as long as you do have one. For example; if I have a farm plate and it's on my pick-up truck back at the barn, I can still drive around within 2 miles on my tractor. Realistcally, the police never bother the farmers for tractors...some of the old trucks however...well, lets just say some of these are 50's vintage and have been worked hard all their lives... how safe are they?

OK, I am new to the 1:32 scale collecting and as you may know it's not a popular scale in the US so all of my models represent what you guys use. I watched some silage videos that were posted in another thread (http://www.farmtoysforum.com/forum/index.php?topic=20216.0;topicseen) and it prompted some questions for me that I hope you will indulge me and answer for me. First of all, I live in Massachusetts and most of the farms left around here are no longer big operations. Even so, one of the first things I notice is you guys do everything with tractors. Those big dump trailers you guys use are pretty much non-existant around here. Everything we do is hauled from the fields on trucks. About the only thing you will see a tractor towing down the road around here are implements (mostly for hay production: mowers, tedders, rakes, and balers) and occasionally a wagon with small rectangular bales. So...for my questions: 1. How heavy are those dump trailers when loaded and do they have their own brakes? 2. Why do your tractors have the yellow beacons on the roof and what is the requirement for their use? 3. When the harvester is shooting the silage in the trailer, how does he load the wagon evenly? Does the guy in the tractor towing the wagon adjust his speed or does the guy in the harvester move the chute to spread the load out? 4. How fast do those tractors operate going down the road with a load (or empty wagon for that matter) on? In the videos I watched, and from my observations in Germany, they seem to drive a lot faster than we do. Of course, most of the tractors around here are older and have no where near the nice options you have. That's about it for now... sorry to ask seemingly dumb questions but I find the differences in methods interesting and would like to learn more. Thanks! Rich

I can't believe how awesome those dioramas look...outstanding!

No problem...This guy is my "German brother"...he is an awesome friend! I mule Ford parts to him when I visit, he sends farm toys!

Well, 2 of our R&D guys are going to France...I gave them a list...I'm hoping to get a MF round baler and Kuhn mower from UH....

Our parent company is in Germany and I have traveled there a few times for work and have made some excellent friends. This week we had some visitors from the parent company arrive for some meetings. One of them said he had a "special package" for me; I guess he did! All Siku: 3251 Massey Ferguson MF 8280 Xtra 3051 Massey Ferguson MF 5455 3653 Massey Ferguson with loader 3483 Planting Machine 2456 Kuhn Disk Mower Today was like Christmas!

Nice conversion; very authentic IMO...

Sorry the pictures are small but I really don't know how else to post them. I can e-mail specific ones to those who are interested in a specific one(s). Thanks for viewing!

Last ones for now. A Farmall H, an IH 300 and a Minneapolis Moline

This is an old Massey 4WD.... never have I seen one like it....

Believe it or not, this is a wood splitter. One of the scariest wood splitters I've ever seen... Second photo is an ol IH (I think) hay baler being powered by an Old Oliver

This is an ice cream churn powered by a hit & miss. Second photo is a dowel making machine alos powered by a hit & miss.

I finnaly got these downloaded. They are from our visit to the Fryeburg Fair; one of the largest agricultural fairs around and certainly the largest in Maine. I have a bunch of photos so this may take some time... I love shingle mills and this was an old one originally made in Orange, Massachusetts being powered by an old Allis Chalmers. Second photo shows them squaring the edges....

Looking good man; I like the layout!

We pick a lot when they are green. If there is a little orange on them and the stem is good, they will orange up after being picked....

Nice tractors! I have to say, they are probably the cleanest working tractors I've ever seen... What is it with you guys? What are you planniong to do with all the apples Marky?

Excellent update; keep them coming!

She'd fit in my barn quite nicely!!!!!

No problem; my friends in Germany are always asking me for more pictures of my truck(s) too!

I haven't even named this truck yet! My last truck (1995 Checvy K2500) 'Ol Yeller and the one I owned before it (1987 Chevy K10) The Beast:

I only have a few; this is a "new-to-me" truck (2002 Chevy 2500 HD, Duramax):

Yup, she helps out a lot. She baked some cookies (with Mom's help of course) to sell to pumpkin customers. Someone would drive up and she'd be at the door telling them about the cookies... My boss and his wife showed up and she told them "You need money if you want any pumpkins you know..." Anyway, the patch isn't too big about 210' by 85'. It's enough to keep us busy. I had about 120 in the truck in those pictures. We were busy all day on Sunday and when we were done we had about 150 left on "display". We picked up another 130 last night and we have about 50 or 60 piled up along the side of the field to pick up tonight and there is probably a good 200 to 250 that are still green in the field. We did a few gourd plants as well. Hopefully, we'll be able to move most of the pumpkins; I am praying for sunny but crisp weekends for the next month!