CCF

Thanks Mandy 

Happy birthday chaps 

FARM JOURNAL #9: PT. 1

As we are changing from July to August, the weather is just as warm as ever, and the weeds are still a problem on the farm. Until October, it is necessary to keep the weeds around the fields mowed down so that they will not grow out into the fields. Today, we took care of mowing around the fields, so now we will not have to worry about mowing until the middle of August.

Today, Garret was sent out on the IH300U and rotary mower to do a bit of mowing around the field. The first area that he mowed had been cut recently, so he was able to cut it quickly:

The weeds in the next area were a bit longer, and took longer to cut than the previous section:

Finishing up the rest of the weeds:

Before the weeds were mowed, and after:

Parking up the tractor and rotary mower in the barnyard:

Hate to say it, but that's all for today folks! More farm progress this weekend.

Cheers Ben 

A bit of Topping to come later tonight.... 

Cheers Chaps, I hope to post the first fragment of next week's journal tomorrow time permitting 

Some of those 1/32 look outstanding so how come they messed up the recent Fords??

Apparently by the looks of it, they tried to make something in between a toy and a model and failed miserably. I hope the new releases will look as good in the flesh as they do from the flyer, I can see Ertl selling a fair few 1/32 STX's if they get it right.

Happy birthday Big A 

That story is wicked ... terrific... amazing... and all round brill,Timmy... your best yet I reckon. Not sure about the 'me' character though... I do look a bit butch 

And it does look to me like Marky is rolling about on the floor laughing... D'you think he's taking these fines seriousy? I may have to take some disciplinary action

Also Gavin looks like he's taking a risk with that Farmall (which I love btw ) - on such a slope surely he should have some blocks under the wheels \

The crops look like they're doing well though... can't wait for the next instalment

Cheers Mandy, glad you liked my journal. Will have to remember to double the fines next time  :D

Who was the guy that was messsing with my Farmall A ... Tim ?

That was Gavin giving it an oil change mate 

As a side note- I now have realized that I have had much less spare time than anticipated this summer. Making one farm journal requires much more work than many think, because of having to haul around and clean the models regularly. Because of this, instead of presenting one large journal in one day, I hope to present fragments of a journal every 2-3 days. In the end of the week there will still be the same amount of pictures included, the only difference will be that different bits of the storyline will be posted at different times of the week. I hope to give this a go starting soon, and see whether it is worth doing in the future.

I'll shut up now! 

FARM JOURNAL #8

Over the past two weeks, the farm has been as busy as ever. As we transition into August, we set our goals to the final fall crops. Squash and pumpkins will be planted in several weeks. At the same time, we are busy managing all of our current crops. Keeping each crop irrigated is very important, as also is keeping each of the rows free of weeds. Aside from managing the crops, we have been busy moving around things up in the barnyard, and keeping the farm as tidy as possible.

Recently, Garret was sent out on the gator to look at each of the crops progress, and to collect a report on the crops thus far:

So far, the onions are coming along well. They will be harvested a bit late this year, but it will not greatly affect their size. The onions will most likely need to be weeded next week:

As an experiment this year, we decided to try one row of potatoes. Whether or not we will grow potatoes next year will be determined by how well these potatoes grow and sell:

To the right of the potatoes are a few broccoli plants. We had planted originally two full rows of broccoli, but the local deer and rabbits ate most of the plants:

Our carrot crop is by far the healthiest carrot crop we have had in over ten years:

And finally, our corn is doing very well. We should start seeing corn within the next two weeks:

As Garret was returning back to the barnyard with the completed crop report, the gator all of a sudden stopped, and a load grinding noise started coming from the gearbox. He quickly stopped the Gator, and put it in park:

Martin saw that Garret needed help getting the gator up to the barnyard, so he came and helped push the the gator into the pig barn:

In the middle of last week, we pulled into a bad sight at the farm. Part of our larger pig pen was knocked down, and the ropes were tangled in several large piles. We do not know who wrecked the pig pens, but we have our suspicions that the gang from several years ago or the evil Bazza and the blue man were responsible. Once we found all of the pigs, they were put up in the pen beside the pig barn:

As a simple call to the police and a police report would not get the police department's attention, Mandy is now working from the early evening until the early morning. This way, anyone who may try to further vandalize the farm will be closely watched from now on. We are thinking of hiring a second farm safety officer for the daytime, but we are still undecided. Ever since the vandalism on the farm has occurred, Mandy spends most of her time looking out for anything suspicious in the pig barn loft. From the large door in the loft, you have a bird's eye view of half of the farm:

As we will be needing more room for hay bales in the loft when we cut hay for the second time in several weeks, we needed to make some extra space in the loft. To do this, we took out the snowblower for our utility tractor, and put it in the other barn:

Also to make a bit of space in the barnyard, Zane picked up the snow blower with the skid steer while it still had the forks on it, and moved it out into the woods where it would be out of the way:

In the middle of last week, the farm received some bad news that could lead to the loss of several thousand dollars on the farm. Because of recent local wetland debates, a field that he have had a long term lease on for over ten years is currently off limits to us. We are not aloud to drive the machinery out of the area, or harvest any of the crops until the court has made a final decision on whether or not we  will be allowed to farm this land in the future. The chances of us keeping the land are slim, but we can always hope. If we loose the land, we will have to sell off our tracked tractor, self propelled windrower, and mulch ripper, because they would be overkill for the other land that we currently farm:

Last Thursday, Gavin gave the Farmall A an oil change as it had recently been cultivating the corn. It was obvious form the oil color that the oil needed a change:

As Marky knew that the boss was a bit unhappy when he broke a furrow on the four bottom plow a month ago, he tried to make it up to him by seeing if he could fix the gator. As he had a pretty good experience with compact vehicle gearboxes, he thought that he would give this one a try. He rolled the gator out of the barn, and began to hoist the rear end up with the skid steer, not taking the time to find a jack instead. What Marky forgot was that Mandy had taken an earlier shift that day, and was watching him from the barn loft:

As Marky was about to slide under the gator to take a look at the gearbox, he heard a loud whistle from right beside him. When the whistle stopped, a small piece of paper was slid under the gator, a $50 safety ticket. According to Mandy, Marky has not paid any of his safety tickets yet, and owes over $1700 from his safety tickets:

Grumbling to himself, Marky put the Gator back in the barn, and walked down to service the hay machinery for the next hay cut:

Finally to end the week off, Dave took the IH 5288 and four bottom plow out into the field in front of the corn to do a bit of plowing for the pumpkins and squash:

Hate to say it, but that's all for this week folks! Next week's journal will focus on a bit of work in and around the field.

I apologize for the poor picture quality in several pictures, I am using a different camera as my camera is away being fixed.

The green heads and mosquitoes up on the hillside where my model farm is...blasted things wound not leave me alone for one minute. Also, one of the wild rabbits that has been gorging itself upon the neighbourhood gardens has finally found my sunflower plants...completely ate the top off of one of the plants 

Good news is that I did manage to take enough pictures for a farm journal! 

Nice job Sean, looks well smart mate 

More weeding at work...the boss is starting to run out of things for me to do...seems like all he has me do is weed and water now  \

Excellent photos Sascha! 'IMG 4622a' is a real first class photo, but I enjoyed all of them 

A warm and slightly overcast day here...looking at the weather report that is what we should be expecting for the next week 

Took a trip up to my relatives farm to help out for the day...helped harvest several garlic beds, weeded some potato beds, and talked to my uncle for a while on truck recommendations. 

Is there sugar cane grown in the US Rick?

I know it is grown in the south USA, I am not sure on Rick's area though. 

The limerick in Marky's signature...now, was it Masseymore or Gav who put it there  :D

Was nice and sunny with a few clouds this morning, came in very dark at noon...has been thundering and raining ever since....all that watering at work done for nothing 

Nice pictures William, that New Holland TX66 looks the part! 

looking through eBay so deerepower cant get any other good buy it now items :D

Oh deere.... I think we will have to call you poshwad instead of tightwad from now on!!  :D

Today...lots of watering and weeding at work, couldn't get any more fun 

its another term we need to learn in the UK/US language barrier Sean e boy ;)

come on Tim, what is it??, some kind of grass living bug \ \

A green head, more commonly known as a horse fly, is a salt marsh dwelling bug that likes to sting practically any humans that may have invaded their space. I live about two miles away from the salt marshes in the Northeast coast of MA, so the area is infested with them around this time of year. They have a rather tough shell, you literally have to take a hammer to one to kill it!  :D

In the August full moon, all of the green head nests on the salt marsh get washed away by the high tides, killing most of the population. As the nights begin to get colder towards the end of August and the beginning of September, the rest of the green heads typically die due to the cold temperatures. 

Here is a picture of one borrowed from Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Horse_fly_Tabanus_2.jpg

Green heads would not leave me alone when I was out on the BEETie mobile cutting the grass, have to wait until the August full moon for the higher tide to wash out their nests. 

That's one ways to use up the leftover 4020's, looks cleaver mate 

Looks good, but it boggles my mind why they didn't slap a diesel engine in it...surely the diesel would have more torque than the gasoline? 

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