New member from the UK

[mickeyw]

Hi All, this is my first post here, so I felt I should introduce myself a little first.

My name is Michael, and I live in the south-east of England, about 45 minutes south of London.

I am a mechanical engineer by trade, albeit office based these days, but I've had an involvement in farming since a young age, having worked weekends on a dairy farm while finishing school.

My parents bought a small holding (20 acres) back in 1987, and this helped develop my interest in agri machinery and associated matters.

My mother keeps a small flock of sheep and a couple of calves, but my interest is more machinery orientated. As a family we have built pole barns to house hay, livestock and machinery, mostly using second hand materials; we have made and carted our own hay until a couple of years ago (my father is now 84, and isn't really up to such activities any longer).

We manage most of our own machinery maintenance, and none of it is at all new. The JD1640 is a 1980 model, that's about as new as we have . There is also a 1970 Ford 3000 with Horndraulic FEL that I modified a few years ago adding power bucket tilt. This is a fantastic machine, largely due to its simplicity. One thing it is missing is power assisted steering, this is especially noticeable when there is a bucket of manure on the front end. One day I may get to do something about this.

Other equipment includes an International B400 baler, Lely hay turner, Perry bale grab, an ancient MF tipping trailer that has seen a lot of repair, Taarup 5ft mounted drum mower, a couple of very old hay trailers, and a Howard side exit manure spreader.

Anyhow, I stumbled across TBN while researching log splitters, so I have been lurking here a while, and gathering ideas to make far more pieces of equipment than I have a real need for .
There certainly are some inventive and clever folk on here.

I shall be posting a thread on my hydraulic log splitter build in the Build-it-yourself forum very shortly. I have made a start on it, but there's still plenty to do.

[nybirdman]

Welcome to TBN from Northern New York State(I can see Canada from here).Great place to help sort out your equiptment.

[murphy1244]

bullet says hi too

[MIKE R]

Welcome to the forum.

[TripleR]

Welcome to the TBN forums from Southeast Missouri, sounds like you have a very nice setup.

[mguitas]

[creekbend]

Welcome aboard.

[The kid]

Welcome to TBN.

Sent from my iPad iOS 6.01 - TNB v1.6

[kensnelling]

Welcome from Oklahoma.

Ken

[mickeyw]

Thanks for the welcome guys.