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For the small brush cutter that I made here, I purchased the rubber belting from Swisher. It's fairly sturdy stuff, but over time I think it could be considered a consumable. A few branches have been launched through it and torn holes. Chains may be a better option.

Found a sasquatch track when sweeping the barn today. I believe it would have been me, when the barn was remodeled in 1965. There's another larger one closer to the door - sister sasquatch.

"If Swampbuster is violated, USDA farm program benefits may be lost." "NRCS will determine if a producer’s land contains wetlands that are subject to the provisions. NRCS employees have been trained to identify, deliniate and certify wetlands. These “certified” determinations stay in effect as...

Depending on the level of bureaucracy you decide to go with - you pays yoyr money and you takes your choice. Wetlands and stream banks have a special place in their heart.

Knock it off, now straighten up and die right. Quit your cryin or I'll give you something to cry about. Don't cut off your nose to spite your face. It takes two to tango. What the hll, that looks like sam scratch. Dear Mom.

Or to improve my standard of living. Avoiding cardboard poison food, and living in a place made with my own ingenuity, has far more than monetary or time value.

If any of you saw the inside of the Cold Spring Egg farm in Wisconsin, or currently have a chance to witness the aftermath of 3 million chickens being exterminated and composted (due to bird flu) in your back yard, never again would you buy the poison eggs they call food and the tasty Campbells...

Just picked up a strap filter tool and the channel lock #215 filter wrench. On a ck4010 hst, the strap worked to loosen the engine filter, and the channel lock wrench was able to get hold of both hydraulic filters to break those loose. There was enough room at the base of all these to get a...

This is the tire I pulled off of a spreader that had been stored, untouched, since 1969. There is a date stamp on the side, 1954, army surplus. Both tires hold air, and have minimal checking. The side walls are so stiff, the air pressure read zero when I first put the air compressor to it...

$4.50 heating oil, $14cent electric, $2.50 LP all equate to around $500/cord. Locally, cordwood goes for about $300/cord. We use wood as a primary source for heat here. The few gallons of fuel used to process it doesn't amount to much cost wise - good luck jacking the price a bit based on...

I changed the oil on my first car way back when, and made sure to put the new filter back on, nice and clean and dry. Next time, I had to rip it off pc by pc, and finally chisel the base plate of the filter loose. It wasn't on tight, but was just dry and wouldn't turn. Rub some oil on the...

One interesting find we have here is a 65lb chunk of solid copper found as a "field stone" while out picking rocks. It's a glacial erratic most likely moved in from the superior region.

One neighbor here had a reputation of killing small animals on his property - rabbits, chipmunks, cats (the neighbors cat, 20yrs later they brought it up, that sob shot my cat), another neighbors dog (earned him a 3day stint in the county jail). Incorrigible is a thing. I've seen others go...

I wonder how many things we look at a certain way based on past experience. Some things, once seen you cannot unsee. I'm in the process of cleaning out an old machine shed that to me I haven't seen in 60yrs, when I was very young. Nothing has changed in it since that time. Funny how I know...

A couple of things I had to do here. Ph was a limiter for germination and later greening up and growth. Either the seeds wouldn't germinate, or if they did, the seedlings would get a couple inches high and then sit there with no growth. That doesn't quite sound like what you are experiencing...

Send it in to Blackstone? Send it to me and I'll agree "there's water in it". But where did it come from. Mr dealer, please find out. If I had wanted a sample, I would do so, then take it in.

The area here was first surveyed in 1839. Our farm house was built in 1846. If I look at the 1840,50,60 census, almost all names from one are not on the next. Speculation and land platts with town and rural lots have been here since the beginning. 1910-1925 saw a lot of development. One zoning...

Trying out the new ms462. There is a lot of oak wilt going through the area now. Quite a few are 180yrs old. Interesting when counting the rings, the first 100yrs the things were only 4" dia or so, then take off to 30".

The grapple here has tines that curl up at the end. If they are just right, they can rake everything in their path. If not, I'm either excavating or doing nothing. And I can't see a thing down there when it's buried in trash, branches, leaves, brush. We too have other tractors, some with...

My son in law said his bent the first time he used it, and was in for repairs many times after. Eventually he permanently loaned it to a friend and replaced it with a cta-55 grapple. The cta is a much tougher unit apparently. I have one now too - no pins to come out, grease zerks, grade 80...

When it's -40f outside, and the heat is on high inside, I can feel the cold air/hot air sloshing around due to accelerating around corners or from change in speed.

But to what precision. If I remember right, size and distance matters.

At 100yrds, they would be of the most prime specimens. Beam me up, I'm on it. But on the way up only to find out they growl, have buck teeth and burdocks in their hair. Oh man, we're in trouble now.

Ok, what the happened. You don't fry something like that without a clue.

Of all the OEM customers that I've had contact with regarding sub-contract work, Caterpillar and Deere were by far more thorough at every step. Initial products would be presented, with meetings involving engineering and sales on both sides, a comprehensive quoting process, qc benchmarks set...

So there is a lot going on. Free market vs intervention, value added as in a phone vs a raw commodity, efficiency and productivity, supply vs demand. In my world, I look at the extreme labor reduction from using fuels and think what on earth is everyone complaining about. I just got done cutting...

According to this logic, where should fuel prices be at the moment?

It's fun cherry picking numbers. Kind of looks like a hockey schtick. Makes for great news - the end of life as we know it. Or, maybe not. Fuel is still relatively cheap. Or go back to a hand mower like my parents had. This summer I ran out of gas while mowing. After a couple hours...

Brings back memories of getting the tractor and plow "stuck in onions". Time to get out they're tracked tractor. There was a 3k acre muck farm near us that grew carrots, onions, tatoes, sweetcorn, mint. We would farm the perimeter of the marsh, which made for great corn and beans, but some parts...

Are there any photos of these companies actually making there own products, other than assembly? I worked since 1990 in sheetmetal jobshops, and could see a lot of the outsourced parts and subassemblies used on others assembly lines. But we were certainly not Cat, Case, Deere, Komatsu, etc, etc...

.12 x mph x width (ft) = ac/hr

Or, carb set too lean, leaking crank seals or gaskets, broken internal parts such as rings, a rod snap ring that comes loose, flaked nichrome finish maybe from a previous rebuild, carbon buildup. What are some others, electronic control malfunctions, air filter plugged - . It's got low...

Try pulling the muffler and get a look inside. If it's scored, then maybe look into a rebuild. There are a lot of reasons why a saw can be damaged or run hot other than oil mix.

Or a party line - no one was listening then. I got an electronics kit when I was a kid. Made my own radio, alarms, fun stuff. It came with - ready - a mic you could put over a phone speaker. I swear - I never recorded anything.

We were clearing fencerows last year and came across a stash of old fertlizer bags. At the time, we used to go to the plant 15mi away with the pickup, and get fertlizer for planting corn, and of course what to do with all those plastic bags - set them aside on the fencerow with a rock over...

Maybe a similar situation here. The loader and 3rd function on a ck4010 were added by the dealer. The routing for the hydraulic and electrical were between the hst pedals, causing the 3rd function to chafe and short out, blowing a fuse, and also to wear on the hrdraulic lines. No damage to the...

$2.89, SE Wi

Farmland rent is usually "a few hundred dollars" - per year. Land prices here for upland glacial till is around $5500/acre. So a couple percent/yr after taxes.

IH634 and IH4166 had equal sized front and rear yet still able to steer and clear. It didn't seem to catch on though for some reason. The neighbors had an IH3588, which I always thought looked a little strange. But now that I see it again notice it was articulated and not mfwd. Seems like...

What type of conditions would mechanically lock a tread with the surface? In that case the cf would be 1. Rubber on dry asphalt is around 1. Rubber on wet smooth concrete in the cow yard is near zero it seems.

They also spin up the tires just prior to using them. Does that somehow make them more sticky? Maybe there is something else going on there. Tractor tires generally don't go through that.

Put some money in an growth or index fund and leave it alone. I have some, started in 1969, still there, all interest reinvested - put that into a future worth calculator.

The weight transfer that occurs is sometimes hard to recognize. With tillage equipment, the point of engagment is actually below ground level, which means the draft angle is negative (angled down), and the resulting downward force is added to the rear wheels (and subtracted from the front)...

A while ago my cousin talked about helping on the farm in the ealrly1960s. He recalled plowing with my dads JD720 diesel pulling a 4-14. "Must have had quite the jugs on it because it was keeping right up with the neighbors internationals." One of my earliest memories was dad filling those tires...

A larger tire footprint would have more weight bearing capacity per given tire pressure. Larger diameter (or width) would provide that. (Tracks, even more.) Footprint size has no relationship to tractive force. It does allow flotation though so you don't sink out of site while trying to get that...

There are only two things that govern tractive force - coefficient of friction and the force between the surfaces (weight). Changing the tire design changes the coefficient of friction. The coefficient of friction (cf) would be highest in most cases if all tires could be lugged with chains-...

If you plan on using a loader (or other attachments such as a grapple or forks), get ballast in the tires. Don't put it off. You'll be ditzing around thinking all is well, until it tips unexpectedly, just a little, yah just a little unsettling. Beet juice, washer fluid - probably washer fluid...

Has it always been that way? Of the 5 dealers I went to, only one wasn't glued to a computer. The one was out right along side the service mechanics putting tractors together. Wiped off his hands - lets go take a look at what we have. And side business it was not - been an implement dealership...

Here, price increase was irrelevant. Recently retired, time to shift gears and move on. Workplaces have changed, I've changed. Is that a trend? And inventory was nill, except for the one dealer an hour away.

A few more picts, around 1907-1920. The engine is not ours, but is similar to the one used to run the ensiler and elavator.

About the only thing to worry about are birds nests. So far there has been enough volume and pressure to move them down and out. Those old silos though, I wonder how they thought anyone would get up there to replace the roofs on those. Most of those roofs are gone. The barn on the left was...

Delivery day.

We ran a dairy, beef, hogs, poultry. When I was 4, the steers were out; but it was after dark, coming home from a theater, drive in the yard with the headlights on and the dmn things were peering around the sheds in the dark. Strange things come out at night.

Two things that are affecting orange production in Florida are citrus greening, a desease that causes stunted fruit and eventually kills the tree, and lasting effects from Hurricane Irma. It's been a steady decline for a decade now.

LP gas h2o heater, AC at 72 for the summer, wood stove for heat, 3400sqft .20cent/kw electric, $65-$90(summer)/mo 110gal LP tank twice a year, $150ea $95/mo total

They must have gotten all of that that year. Have pictures clearing the walkway out the front door with the snowblower. No-one and no eq. visible, just the snow flying up and out.

Here in SE Wi only a couple inches so far this year. Rare to get so little. I visited relatives several yrs ago, about this time of year, in Watertown NY. I was warned about the lake effect snow that they get. We ended up following two plows clearing the interstate the last 10mi. They would tag...

I've looked up to find out if land here is designated federal wetlands. Some of it is, and in one case found out after the fact. We got gigged on a couple acres where we tilled and filled. Had to take it all out and restore it. Not saying it's right or not, but just sayin...

Usually I ride with the right hand eyed in line with the painted roadside. Keeps me about 2ft off the edge. Put it in cruise and go - hrs at a time. For several years, I did organized cross state tours. Wisc, Virginia, Georgia, Sc/Nc. Each had a pre start meet, where they went through the...