Farm Journal -Cider Hill Farms

[rich.new holland]

cool  wouldnt lke to see the stx and the tj arguing over an egg  they would be in a mess 

[THEBRITFARMER]

Happy Easter everyone

Nice one Timmy, what an imagination and at least my "deer" isn't that yucky yellow & green  :D How many HP does my deer have  :D

[Rick]

:D :D   Typical of old tight as bark on a tree  Ben to go hock his egg........and scott riding one of his zoo animals  :D :D :D  damn funny story

[Lord Ferguson]

I can agree with that... very good Timmy B... cracking story (no pun intended)... fancy old Evil Bazza trying to nick my egg 

I have rubbed him out of my copy of the group photo  :D

[THEBRITFARMER]

I can agree with that... very good Timmy B... cracking story (no pun intended)... fancy old Evil Bazza trying to nick my egg 

I have rubbed him out of my copy of the group photo  :D

I'm not in the group photo  :'( :'( :'( :'( Can we all gather back please and have another one taken  :D

[CCF]

Very good Tim! 

Cheers Will

cool  wouldnt lke to see the stx and the tj arguing over an egg  they would be in a mess 

Cheers Rich

Happy Easter everyone

Nice one Timmy, what an imagination and at least my "deer" isn't that yucky yellow & green  :D How many HP does my deer have  :D

Cheers mate...the deer has 4 deerpower, one for each leg  :D

:D :D   Typical of old tight as bark on a tree  Ben to go hock his egg........and scott riding one of his zoo animals  :D :D :D  damn funny story

Cheers Rick

I can agree with that... very good Timmy B... cracking story (no pun intended)... fancy old Evil Bazza trying to nick my egg 

I have rubbed him out of my copy of the group photo  :D

Cheers Marky

I'm not in the group photo  :'( :'( :'( :'( Can we all gather back please and have another one taken  :D

Please don't tell me you are going to make me haul al of those tractors back outside to get one picture  :D

[NewHolland2]

Excellent Tim......

Just had a good read through the past three Journals......Keep the good work going mate...... :)

[THEBRITFARMER]

Please don't tell me you are going to make me haul al of those tractors back outside to get one picture  :D

ALL OF THEM TIMMY and the eggs oh and please make sure all the leaves, twigs etc are in the same place too  :D

[CCF]

Excellent Tim......

Just had a good read through the past three Journals......Keep the good work going mate...... :)

Cheers Martin 

ALL OF THEM TIMMY and the eggs oh and please make sure all the leaves, twigs etc are in the same place too  :D

PWTTTTTTTHHHHHHH  :P

May get a new group photo tomorrow 

I'm surprised Tight Wad hasn't seen this topic yet  :D

[CCF]

FARM JOURNAL #1

Welcome back to Cider Hill farms after a long winter's nap. The cold temperatures from winter have lingered in the northeast longer than expected, so we have working at full speed to catch up on the farm ever since the temperature has been warming up. Over the past few weeks, we have been working on cleaning up debris left from winter storms, checking over machinery for functionality, and working on several spring projects of the farm. We are nearly caught up with our work on the farm, so we are hoping that the temperatures will stay around 17 degrees for the rest of the week, allowing up to complete the remaining pre-farming season tasks at hand.

As the weather has been warmer, we shut off the heater int he barn, and took down the extended pig pen. We also took down the winter outdoor pig barn. Unless the temperature drops drastically, the door from the outdoor pig pen to the indoor pig pen will be left open most nights:

The winter outdoor barn was taken apart and stored up in the loft:

Dave pulled out some of the implements that we stored under the trees, now that we are certain that there will be no more snow this year:

Recently, we got our Caterpillar excavator pack from the dealer, all of the problems were fixed and the excavator was tuned up. The excavator has been back in use for eight hours six out of the seven days of the week. Now that we have the excavator back, the pond is nearing completion:

Servicing our lawnmowers are also an important task to accomplish before the farming season. Garret, a recently hired farm worker, is pulling the lawnmowers out of the barn, and attaching the mower decks in the pig barn:

After he was done, he pulled all of the mowers out to the front of the farm for the John Deere dealer to pick up. We also are getting our Gator serviced at the same time:

Meanwhile, Martin is taking the snowblower off of the John Deere utility tractor, and attaching the mower deck. We will store the snowblower up in the loft of the pig barn later in the day:

Spring is also the time to introduce new farm animals to the farm. Recently at a farm auction, we acquired two Mallard ducks, three geese, two goats, and two sheep. We made a new pen for the ducks and geese up by the pig barn. The sheep and goats will be staying in one of the larger pig pens by the pond for the time being:

Recently, we acquired another junkyard special tractor from an equipment auction. For $1,000 , we bought an IH300U with rotary mower. The previous owner stated that the tractor had been working fine until one day, in which it would not start. He said that is should not take much to get the tractor going again. We put Gavin to work on fixing the tractor. First, he unhitched the mower and moved it off to the side with the IH600, then started working on the tractor:

Meanwhile, Zane is changing the oil in the John Deere front end loader, and checking the hydraulic fluid. This machine has been in use all winter, so it needed an oil change to start out the farming season:

Over by the dirt pile, the farm owner is cleaning up some of the piles of scattered dirt near the dirt pile:

Over by the pond, Marky and Garret are working on a larger pen for the ducks and geese. The pen will be right up against the pond, so the ducks and geese will be able to swim in the pond by the summer. Marky is learning how to use the excavator by using the bucket to grade off the ground, and Garret is getting the hang of the skid steer by using the blade as a bulldozer to clean up the area:

Hate to say it, but that's all for this week folks! Next week's Farm Journal will focus on a local equipment auction, and finishing up the pond.

[Lord Ferguson]

Superb Timmy B... so glad its back mate... I seem to be getting on well with the 360... can I be an expert for journal #2 please  :D

Some great pics and a great deal of thought has gone into this journal once again Tim... thanks for posting

I don;t know why... but I have a real soft spot for that little JD crawler  - she looks like my kind of machine 

[CCF]

Superb Timmy B... so glad its back mate... I seem to be getting on well with the 360... can I be an expert for journal #2 please  :D

Some great pics and a great deal of thought has gone into this journal once again Tim... thanks for posting

I don;t know why... but I have a real soft spot for that little JD crawler  - she looks like my kind of machine 

Thanks Marky mate, glad you enjoyed it. Don't get your hopes up on the excavator yet, looks like it will not be used again until next week, unless it is used in the other topic!  :D

[smallclaas]

Thanks Tim I see I finally made the grade and got onto the staff of Cider Hill Farms, Now lets talk business and get down to the brass tacs, what are the wages and how about the old pension Thanks again Tim for thinking me worthy to join your ever growing staff down at Cider Hill

[THEBRITFARMER]

Another great journal Tim. Good to see some more animals on the farm 

[NewHolland2]

Looking good there mate......Like the pic where the John Deere Loader tractor is being serviced with the other kit parked up inside behind it...... :)

[smallclaas]

Tim any chance of getting an overall pic of your farm, in your next journal? It would be nice to see the full extent of Cider Hill Farm

[FW]

Tim any chance of getting an overall pic of your farm, in your next journal? It would be nice to see the full extent of Cider Hill Farm

Yes I agree with you there Garret.

[CCF]

Cheers lads...I will see what I can do for an overall photo tomorrow. 

[CCF]

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.

[Lord Ferguson]

Great stuff Timmy B... Nice baler you have there mate as well... I must see a doctor about my posture... I must either have piles or a trapped nerve  :D

[CCF]

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:

[Tractorman810]

nice work timmy skipping that nh tractor, to unreliable for your fast moving layout,

[rich.new holland]

good idea the sale is mate  somthing differant eh 

nice little buy that nh baler 

[FW]

Cheers for the photos of your farm Tim, looking good!

[CCF]

Cheers chaps