CCF

Happy birthday Barry 

Coming along leaps and bounds Graham, excellent job mate! 

well i soor loadsa diggers and poss my new toy

34tonne komatsu 

and some dumpers and a case 5130 in a sorry state and dozers

Pics please mate 

Saw a John Deere 20** utility tractor towing a John Deere two row planter on the way home today, looks like it is finally drying up around here. 

The age on Marky F's profile  :D

What a cracker of a storyline, great idea mate!  :D

On and off rain showers most of the day, warm though... around 18 degrees 

Looks great Will...by all means do keep it as it is. Just add a few proper lights to the front of the roof and hey presto 

Some great photos Allis, amazing how many vintage machines are still out there and running strong. 

You have quite the collection of vintage fords and implements mate, great pictures. 

FARM JOURNAL #3

Thankfully, we are almost caught up with our farm work. Warm temperatures with a combination of a little rain have helped get everything done. The trees and the grass around the farm are starting to show new signs of life around the farm, and the hay field is beginning to show some signs of life. If the weather continues as it is, we will hopefully be able to perform the first hay cut at the end of May. After all of the rain showers stopped on Saturday, we spread manure on our fields at Cider Hill Farms. The fields that we are renting out around the area are still too wet to drive on, so they will be saved for the following week. We are glad that the manure spreading was completed, and we hope to do a bit of plowing on some of the new fields next week.

Dave was put on the IH5288 and Case IH manure spreader for the day. Down at the barn area, he drove the tractor out of the barn, hooked it up to the spreader. After filling up the fuel tank, he proceeded down to the field to begin spreading:

Down at the field, Garret was already busy turning over the manure with the excavator. The manure has been sitting for a week since delivery, so we though that it would be a good idea to turn it over before spreading it on the field:

Once Garret was done turning over the manure, Martin hopped in the skid steer and began to fill up the manure spreader for Dave:

Once the spreader was full, Dave opened up the spreader gate, and headed off:

As the IH had problems getting around in some of the steeper sections of the field, Marky was put on the Massey Ferguson and the John Deere spreader. The John Deere spreader was purchased at a local farm auction back in March:

Marky headed off to the end of the field to spread the areas that Dave could not easily spread with the IH:

Once he finished, he headed back down to the front of the field:

Unfortunately, Marky hit a wet spot in the field on his way back and got the tractor stuck:

As Dave was busy spreading and the tracked tractor was in the shop getting several dead light bulbs replaced, we used the next largest machine we had on hand...........:

It was quite obvious that the Massey Ferguson was extremely stuck:

After several minutes of pulling the tractor with the excavator, the tractor came out of the rut. We will have to go back and fill in the rut before we do any plowing. Marky parked the tractor at the front of the field area after inspecting the machine for any damage that may have been caused while stuck in the rut:

Meanwhile, Dave was still spreading the larger portion of the field:

Once Dave finished, he parked up at the front of the field beside the Massey Ferguson:

As Dave and Marky were about to pack up for the day, they heard the load roar of an engine coming from the barnyard. They ran up to see Gavin hopping on the now running IH300U. Gavin said that the tractor would not start just because of a dirty fuel filter!:

Gavin hooked up the rotary mower, and drove down to test the tractor and mower in the trails in the woods. The tractor and mower worked like a treat:

Once he was done, he parked the tractor back up in the barnyard. We think that we will keep this tractor on the mower throughout the year to keep the farm tidy:

Hate to say it, but that's all for this week folks! Next week's journal will focus on a flashback to the farm in the first week in May of 1976, and a few farm projects that the farm is currently working on.

Cheers chaps 

Some more great pictures, the planter looks to be an Italian make by looking at the brand name  \

Have fun in France 

out with friends....to be honest Tim i'd prefer her not to, people these days cant always be trusted \ \

now i cant use a blooming free text service or O2's website > >

I know what you mean mate...it is too bad that someone's word can't be taken for granted these days...never know what is going to happen 

have you been worrying since your post  :D

No...I thought I would give Gavin the link as a bribe to keep off of my case for Numpty and Stitch awards....needless to say it didn't work  :D

its 0116 and the missus text me to see if i'm still awake....cant blooming reply as for some reason O2 coverage has gone > >...and her battery dies if you ring it > >

What is she doing out at 1am Ben, can't she just take a taxi home? 

oh dear, looks like the snitch may have slipped up to me here.......

Shhhhhhh... 

Not bad at all for a green machine...are those supposed to be grapes in the first picture? 

Great photos mate..glad to see that you have already got the hand of your new camera. One question though, what is the yellow crop in the background? 

Cheers Mark 

As requested by several members, I took several overall photos of the farm. The farm was too big to fit in one photo, so I took several photos of different locations on the farm.

A view from the back of the field. The only things not visible in this photo are a small side field off to the  right, and the timber pile in back of where the photo was taken. To the left of the field behind the rock gardens is another small field used for flowers:

A view from the front of the field. Looking down is a small grass field, the looking forward is the pig pens, then eventually the pond. To the right and underside of the photo is the farm entrance, and to the right are the two small irrigation ditches, and the barnyard:

The Barnyard:

The pond area. A small parking area for tractors in implements is in the bottom center part of the picture, and the pond is in the middle of the picture. The road out to the woods and pond beach (more about that somewhere in the next few coming journals), and the future duck pen are in the right hand part of the picture, or slightly cut out of the picture. Above the pond is the barn and dirt pile:

The general barn area. To the left are the fuel tanks, and to the right is the pond and dirt pile. The road to the tractor bone yard is also near the left side of the barn area:

One of the trails from the woods. A quarter of the way into the trail is the tractor bone yard, and the rest of the area may be used as a second road to the barnyard in case parts of the road by the pond collapse. The lawnmower barn is just viewable at the top of the picture:

A shot from the right of the pond, The pond beach is just visible on the left side of the photo (more about beach somewhere in the next few journals). The road visible forks out to the barn area, and the road to the woods:

The road to the woods, and the woods. There will be more journals that relate to the woods this year, so there will be more pictures of the other trails and roads in the woods, and where they are located in relation to other areas on the farm. To the right of the photo is a flower field:

Happy birthday David

FARM JOURNAL #2

Weather has been cooperating over the past week, and the plants on the farm are finally starting to show signs of life. The top layer of the ground is already dried off, and is almost ready to drive on for manure spreading. We took advantage of an especially warm 30 degree day this week to look for some farm machinery in a farm auction, and get a bit more pond work done.

Early in the morning after the local John Deere dealer opened, we arranged to pick up our lawn mowers and gator from servicing. The flatbed was a tight fit, but we were able to strap down all pieces of farm machinery safely:

Seeing that there was a local farm machinery that was ending in town, we decided to drive down and take a look at the machinery for sale, as the farm auction was not far out of the way from the route back to the farm. We parked the flatbed on the side of the road with the other cars, and went to the auction:

The selection was limited as most of the machines has been sold and driven away, but there were still a few machines left for sale in the auction. Some sellers were lowering their prices, as they wanted to sell their machinery before they left the auction:

First, we checked out the construction section of the auction. We stopped to see a John Deere track skid steer being demoed by it's seller:

Next, we went onto the compact-small tractor section. The John Deere 950 in this section looked oddly like the John Deere 950 that the farm owned several years ago before it was sold:

The last section left to view was the restored tractors section and medium/large tractor section. We had a test drive in the Case 1570 Stars and Stripes tractor, but we decided to pass the tractor up as the seller wanted a bit more for it than we were willing to pay for:

There was a New Holland 8340 with front end loader for sale, but it looked to have a good amount of hours put in on it. In the last section was also a New Holland baler in un restored immaculate condition:

The seller of the baler saw that we were eying the baler, so he approached us with a deal of $2,500 for the baler, and guaranteed us that the baler was recently serviced after sitting in a barn for close to 10 years. The deal was a steal, so we bought the baler. We were given instructions to come back and pick up the baler later in the afternoon, so we brought the lawnmowers back to the farm and waited for the afternoon:

Meanwhile, Garret was picking up some sand for one side of the pond from a local landscaper supply company several minutes down the road from the farm:

He drove the dump truck back to the farm, and dumped the load of sand on the bank  of the pond. We will need four additional truckloads to complete this part of the pond:

Meanwhile, the flatbed pulled back up at the farm. We unloaded the lawnmowers and the gator. They were stored back in the barns, and will stay in the barns for several weeks until the grass needs cutting:

By the time we put away the lawnmowers and tended to the farm animals, it was time to pick up the baler from the farm auction. Dave drove down to the farm auction, and picked up the baler from the auction. When he brought the baler back, Marky parked it off to the side under the trees:

Hate to say it, but that's all for this week folks! Next week's journal will focus on manure spreading.

Coming along nicely mate, great progress on the layout 

A John Deere 4*** with a 3 or 4 bottom plough out in the field...yes it was indeed stuck  :D

Great pics mate...looks like a nice line up you have planned for this year 

Quite warm for a spring day here, felt more like summer than spring really. The temperature was around 30 degrees most of the day.