Good morning!!!!

[farmer2009]

45 this morning and headed to 59 today. About 2 inches of rain yesterday. Sunny today.

Back into the chicken coops. Maybe I'll get somewhere today. Have another tractor dealer supposed to call back today. He has options. Now I just need to decide if I want a 45 pto hp tractor with a finish mower or a 100 hp tractor that will pull a batwing. Both will give me my clearances inside the barns. Originally I wanted a one tractor does all. Then I decided I wanted a finish mower. So I was going to get a tractor for the chicken coops with a finish mower. Then later add a 100 hp cab with batwing for everything else. But now I'm not sure. Life's difficult choices I guess. . They have the little tractor in stock and already have a couple of the big ones ordered.

 

[farmer2009]

Drew good job on Christmas tree. Ours doesn't go up till after Thanksgiving. I refuse to skip holidays.

 

[RedNeckGeek]

Now I just need to decide if I want a 45 pto hp tractor with a finish mower or a 100 hp tractor that will pull a batwing. Both will give me my clearances inside the barns. Originally I wanted a one tractor does all. Then I decided I wanted a finish mower. So I was going to get a tractor for the chicken coops with a finish mower. Then later add a 100 hp cab with batwing for everything else. But now I'm not sure. Life's difficult choices I guess. . They have the little tractor in stock and already have a couple of the big ones ordered.

Farmer, I can think of worse problems to have :laughing: One tractor does all means one less battery to maintain, heck one whole less tractor to maintain. But then again there's nothing like having the right tool for the job. If the finish mower can be rigged to work on the bat wing tractor, you could try getting the big one first and see if it really is do everything. That would also let you see how easy it is to swap around the implements. If not to your liking, you can pick up the smaller tractor later.

 

[KevT]

Farmer, what color tractor are you looking at now? Do you really want a 100hp tractor? That just sounds like a lot. Just seems like I see a lot of 60hp pulling batwings, moving hay bales 2 at a time... etc. But then again our area is pretty flat and it depends on how big of batwing and other implements you want to use. A 100 hp Tractor sounds like it would cost more than my 20 acres cost me.

 

[txdon]

KevT, Yesterday was the last day of my wife's cooking class. They gave an hour long telecast. This is the only cooking class in the world that teaches the techniques of cooking without oil and it had the extra benefit of being WFPB. My wife high recommends the class.:thumbsup:

 

[txdon]

. . . would cost more than my 20 acres cost me.

The longer you live on the farm the more you realize that the land purchase is only the small initial investment. My Dads tractor cost 70% of his land cost 35 years ago after he bought his land 15 years earlier, and it was only 45HP.

 

[farmer2009]

Farmer, what color tractor are you looking at now? Do you really want a 100hp tractor? That just sounds like a lot. Just seems like I see a lot of 60hp pulling batwings, moving hay bales 2 at a time... etc. But then again our area is pretty flat and it depends on how big of batwing and other implements you want to use. A 100 hp Tractor sounds like it would cost more than my 20 acres cost me.

This dealer is a New Holland and Kubota dealer. The Kubota he recommended is the M9960 Low Profile. I asked him about the MX5200. He has that one but is researching if he can add creeper kit. And looking at other options in both color lines. The 9960 is to much tractor for the finish mower. They only rate to 60 hp. I have access to two litter spreaders and I wouldn't want anything smaller than the 9960. Currently the spreaders are pulled with NH T6030's. Some of my hills get hairy with those and a 8 ton spreader. The 5 ton isn't as bad. The 6030's will out weight the 9960 by about 2 tons. Around here a 15 foot hog will eat a 75 hp tractor. You really need 85 hp min. Now I have a neighbor that has a 40 foot hog behind a 300+hp tractor. But he runs 800 head of cattle too.

 

[sodamo]

70°F and 2.29 inches rain last 24 hours

Too wet to mow

Be safe
Have a great day

Sent from my iPhone using TractorByNet

 

[sodamo]

Thanks for the encouragement, guys. I know I can do better.

David Sent from my iPad Air using TractorByNet

 

[rswyan]

57.6 and partly cloudy @ 12:45 ... still nice out.

I spent most of yesterday working on picking up leaves with the Trac Vac, three loads picked up. With the winds gusting to 35+, it was largely an exercise in frustration ... but I did get the lower front yard cut with the deck set down to 2.5" ... grass should be short enough to allow any leaves that come down/over to get blown elsewhere. Also got around the house.

Once it got dark I ran over to the LFS to pick up the top frame for the 55 gallon tank. The good news is that it came in a day early. The bad news is that it doesn't appear that it will really fit correctly. The size is ok for the outside dimensions of my aquarium, the problem is the top of the frame is made with a "c-channel" whose open side points downward, and which is designed to capture the glass on three sides. The part of the frame which goes inside the opening of the glass is too long/wide to fit. I could probably still use it ... just by laying it on top of the glass and siliconing it on ... but that would be way less than ideal, from a strength standpoint.

Did manage to pick up the correct intake strainers for the Magnum filters though, so at least something went right.

Got some of the PVC glued up for the reverse flow UGF after I got back. Here in a bit I have to go pick up a couple more pieces of PVC that P.R. turned down on the lathe last night, so I can finish that up.

Spent some time before I went to bed reading Glenn Minor's write-up on building natural-looking rock backgrounds out of styrofoam and QuickCrete mortar, over on his website Dramatic Aquascapes. Pretty impressive work I think:

I think I am going to do it ... I have a lot of scrap chunks of 1 1/2" or 2" styrofoam insulation laying around over in the polebarn (knew I saved them for something ... )

Biggest issue I see is the buoyancy - I really don't want to silicone it in place, to the aquarium glass itself ... so I need some way to weigh it/keep it down. I will have to build it in two sections (in order to be able to remove it), due to the cross brace on the top plastic trim piece ... so I might be able to silicone each piece to the UGF plates, and with the gravel sitting on top of the plates that would keep it down. Hafta see.

For now though I'm probably going to have to do something outside to take advantage of the nice weather ...

What I'd rather be doing though is working on the aquarium ...