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Farm Journal -Cider Hill Farms


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Absolutely brilliant Tim - I am so honoured to be a part of your awesome journal.....

Thank you soooooooooooooooo much :-*

Thanks Mandy  :)

Brilliant Timmy B.. as always mate...

Now Garrett... not being funny... but one of my sandwiches has gone from my box this afternoon... did you bring a packed lunch...

As for Mrs Safety... you can whistle for your $20 Wilson  :P

Thanks Marky...you best pay up though as that ticket will double in price for every week that it is not paid  :D :D :D

No problem Marky I might have a spare sambo or 2 another great read Tim ;)

Lucky you Marky I'm selling flowers like a big girl  :D :D :D :D only kidding Tim great stuff ;)

Thanks Garret...sorry about the flowers but someone had to sell them. I will put Marky on the flowers next time  ;):D

Cracking as ever Tim  :D :D

I thought the evil one had destroyed that 3630 or whatever it is  :D :D :D

Nice signature too mate  ;):D;D

It was fixed....again  ::):D :D

Cheers mate, glad you like the signature too  :D

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*My apologies if you were not included into the storyline, I could only stand the mosquito's outside for as long as I did.

On the 4th of July, Cider Hill Farms hosted a vintage tractor rally. The event was a big success, and many tractor owners from near and far hauled their old iron down to northeast MA for the day. Everyone had a good time at the event, and Cider Hill Farms hopes to do this event again next year.

On the 3rd, all of the participants drove in their tractors for the next day:

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On the fourth, the farm opened the gates to the event at 9 o'clock in the morning. Not long after the gates opened, we heard a loud roar from the bottom of the farm drive. A few minutes later, The evil Bazza pulled up into the field, making quite an entrance with his NH TJ530, even though it was not vintage. He quickly set up his stall, and began doing what he did best: selling off some of his stock from UTS to benefit the event. Even though he was on temporary jail release and was not being supervised, he seemed to be on his best behaviour. One might question that he may be up to something:

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The farm owner managed to walk around and take a few pictures of the tractor rally towards the end of the day. First up in the line was BBLQO92's Super M, a very nicely restored tractor:

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Next up was an IH 300U owned by Tris, another nicely restored tractor:

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After the IH 300U was Garret's Farmall 300, a very nicely restored tractor:

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Following the Farmall 300 was a Massey Ferguson 98 GM owned by Marky Fordson, a very interesting tractor:

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Even Kiwi6920 managed to attend the event after he finished disking. He brought his fully restored John Deere 4620, almost identical to the one that we own at Cider Hill farms:

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We cleaned up our Farmall A the night before, and put it in the show. It is still in surprisingly good condition, considering that it has only been restored once, and is still used daily around the farm for light jobs:

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Next up was Old Ford's old John Deere GP on steel wheels, a true piece of  farming history:

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Following Old Ford was Sean with his IH 5288, quite a large tractor even by today's standards:

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Next, Mandy showed up with her IH 560. A very well taken care of machine:

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Last, but definitely not least, Jason Hasert from the USA came with his Case 1570 Spirit of 76', quite an appropriate tractor for the occasion. It's not everyday that you find a tractor as nice as this at a vintage tractor rally:

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The USA and British flags were flown high over the farm that day:

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An overall shot of the event near the end of the day:

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At the end of the day, we launched off several fireworks for the 4th of July. Many people stayed for the event, and some other people came. The farm owner got one shot of the beginning of the grand finale:

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Overall it was a great day down at the farm, certainly a great way to spend the 4th.

One note to Marky from Mrs. Safety: your $20 ticket will double to $40 if it is not paid by Sunday

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Excellent Tim I would have loved to have been there!!!

I've still to acquire one of those real M's they are such refined tractors... some day maybe but in the meantime I'll have to do with driving a mates one.

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:D :D :D well done Timmy B... cracking shots as usual... some line up you have there mate as well.. well done you.

Two points...

1. I am marky FERGUSON not Fordson... must be a typo by you there.. sure it was an accident though

2. I paid Mandy the $20 on the day I got the fine.. she tucked it in her stocking top and winked at me... but I didn't get a receipt for it  :'( :'(

;D

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  • 4 weeks later...

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:

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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:

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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:

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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:

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

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

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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:

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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:

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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:

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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:

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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:

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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:

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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:

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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:

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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:

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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:

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

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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:

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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.

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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 ;D

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 :-*

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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 ;D

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:D :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!  :-[::)

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Ah! Tim what can I say, great story, it's raining here and you have most definetly brought a smile to my face just like me in your pics. I have to say I look like I have been at the old Cider :D :D no wonder the gear box crashed, as for that Barry bloke I hope the cops catch him ;)

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