Good morning!!!!

[txdon]

Woke up this morning to the sound of swallows chattering away outside.

A few minutes later the radio came on and the bird talk was replaced by a chattering broadcaster. I much prefer to hear the swallows, although at least the radio broadcaster isn't crapping on our patio furniture while he's talking.

To discourage the swallows from building a messy nest on our porch, and use it as a latrine, I use the our chatterbox (Rush) to annoy them away - it works. They leave to build their mud nest elsewhere.

Good morning! The showers in the county have come close but all I get is a few drops. 74˚ partly cloudy.

Whipper gets credit for another kill as she did her vicious snake shake on a copperhead that was on the road in front of me. She avoided getting bit in the face by not hesitating and playing with the snake giving the snake a chance to strike. She is learning, I think.

 

[deerseeker001]

63 with Sun and clouds today with a chance of Rain with a high 75.I will water the Garden today,not that I don't trust Weatherman.

 

[Larro Darro]

Good Morning. 0735, fog, 74F with 97% humidity. Forecast high of 86F with 20% chance of rain today, and a low of 73F tonight. Looks like a cooler day here as well. We ran up to Marianna yesterday morning to get in some early shopping, and drove through a real frog strainer of a rain up about the county line {6 miles north of the Larro Ranchero}. Margie mentioned a segment we had seen on the evening news last week about a terrible rainstorm. The cameraman was in a car and there was a few drops per second hitting the glass, about enough for the mist setting on your wipers. I had the wipers on high, and it was still looking though a solid sheet of rain. We got some showers later in the afternoon here, but nothing like that one.

After the garden, I'm not sure what I will get into today.

 

[Larro Darro]

We have some swallows under the eves at the civic center. But the nest is over the flowerbeds, so no big deal.

 

[farmer2009]

73 this morning and headed to 85 today. Low to mid 80's all week. What a lovely week to be wet everyday.

Half my birds are gone. Others leave tomorrow night. I now have two houses to wash and get ready for the clean out guy. Takes about a day a house when doing it by myself. But hopefully I get further today. As tomorrow will be a short day. Does it count as seat time if the tractor is running but your dragging around a pressure washer hose? I also have a bushhog seat that needs a warm body. I wish they'd get this cloning down pat. If I had two more of me around we could all work a 40 hour week I think. Except wife might not like having more than one of me around.

It never fails things break on a Sunday. Broke a shaft in a gearbox yesterday on a feedline. And of course it wasn't one that was leaving yesterday. Had to call in the parts guy yesterday. When I called he was already at the shop. Guess I wasn't the only one with a breakdown. I've now changed 4 of those gearboxes in 6 years. 3 since January. Guess it's time to start stocking that part. Think all three have been on Sunday too. I know last two have.

 

[RedNeckGeek]

73F @ 7:30AM. Sunshine and a few clouds. A stray afternoon thunderstorm is possible. High 101F. Winds WSW at 5 to 10 mph. The highs will be in the hundreds here all week, so I'll be working inside jobs most afternoons.

I had a pair of swallows trying to start a nest under the patio eves last week, Eric. Thought it mite be kind of nice to be able to watch the goings on, then noticed the mess they were making on the ground. They didn't seem any too friendly, either. Next thing you know the garden hose came out and all the mess was gone, and haven't seen 'em since.

Hope your neck feels better soon, wngsprd.

Don, sounds like you picked a good name for Wipper!

Farmer, the manufacturer of that gearbox has a problem. Is an improved part available? But at least you can get a replacement, and fix it yourself. Nothing like having to wait on a repairman!

Got in a few hours of spraying on the RTV yesterday, and the temperature gauge didn't even move. Turns out the radiator fan is driven off a relay that is triggered by a temperature sensor on the engine block, and both the trigger and power circuits are fused. A few weeks ago another fuse popped (can't remember why) and lacking a replacement, I got out the repair manual to find one that wasn't being used. One was labeled "work light" which this machine doesn't have, so I used it. I should have also looked at the schematic, because that fuse also powered the relay trigger from the temperature sensor. By now I have spare fuses in hand, and slipping one into place got the fan going again. Only took a few hours of probing and taking things apart to figure that out though. :confused2: Hope to finish up the spraying this morning. Yesterday the diff lock came in handy several times, as the bottom reaches of the hill are rough with rock and loose dirt. With the extra weight of the spray tank all the way in the back on the dropped tail gate, the front wheels were in the air a bit on more than one occasion. :shocked: Just the thing to keep the job interesting, but at least I didn't get stuck!

Happy Monday everyone!

 

[farmer2009]

RNG. I guess I should have been a little clearer. I've changed 4 gearboxes but have 16 of those rascals. Also if it sounds like I ever start changing a lot of electric motors. There's 142 on the farm.

 

[buckeyefarmer]

Swallows just built on my porch. hate to tear it down.

 

[RedNeckGeek]

Thanks for posting that photo, Buckeye. Now that I see what my porch light would have looked like, I'm more sure than ever that the garden hose was the right move to make!:shocked:

 

[RedNeckGeek]

RNG. I guess I should have been a little clearer. I've changed 4 gearboxes but have 16 of those rascals. Also if it sounds like I ever start changing a lot of electric motors. There's 142 on the farm.

4 out of 16 is still a 25% failure rate. That's right up there with British cars and motorcycles :laughing: I kept a lot of spares on hand for those as well, until I parked one in the living room for show and replaced the rest with rides that didn't break all the time. Not suggesting you put a gearbox in your living room, but if you contacted the manufacturer, you might find there's a replacement or upgrade campaign, and they might find out about a problem that they are unaware of. Nothing lasts forever, and I'm no expert, but it sounds like you're really going through them for some reason. Just trying to help

 

[dragoneggs]

Good morning. I could be lighting the fire today, forecast to only get to 10C/50F by mid day and with a 19mph wind. RN,RS : As you say, taking pictures as you dissasemble something for the first time is a great idea. Only problem for me is that the camera often gets coated in greese. And then there was the time I took a bale wrapper control box apart, confident of the pics showing where each color wire should go back, only for the SD memory card to crash it's file system when I came to put the box back together again. I still take pics but have gone back to paper and pencil for what I think are the critical parts of the process. My wife had a smashing day yesterday. She broke up old pieces of slate and I put them into a mixer for 10 minutes to round them off before screening and rinsing clean. We are filling in the drainage gaps arount the edge of the paving stones. Yes, gravel would be much quicker, however it feels right to make use of what we can from the discarded parts of the old building. <img src="http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/files/rural-living/427167-good-morning-img_20150530_145958-jpg"/> <img src="http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/files/rural-living/427168-good-morning-img_20150530_150020-jpg"/> <img src="http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/files/rural-living/427169-good-morning-img_20150530_202048-jpg"/> Looking forward to seeing pictures of Kev's oak cart.

Nice job with the recycling/repurposing!

 

[farmer2009]

4 out of 16 is still a 25% failure rate. That's right up there with British cars and motorcycles :laughing: I kept a lot of spares on hand for those as well, until I parked one in the living room for show and replaced the rest with rides that didn't break all the time. Not suggesting you put a gearbox in your living room, but if you contacted the manufacturer, you might find there's a replacement or upgrade campaign, and they might find out about a problem that they are unaware of. Nothing lasts forever, and I'm no expert, but it sounds like you're really going through them for some reason. Just trying to help

Well I just chalked it up to age. They're only 15 years old. Let's see 950,000-1,000,000 lbs of feed a flock 5.5 flocks a year by 15 years. Divided by 16. Um. Lots. So far I had felt like they'd given their use. Maybe not. Although if I was a little more religious about checking the gearbox oil I might get more life out of them. They run in spurts. Longest run is about 30-40 minutes as that's how long it takes to get feed from one end of line to other. Also depends on how tight the auger is stretched. Tighter augers run less. As feed moves faster. But that's harder on the bearings at the other end.

 

[farmer2009]

Attached is a picture of the gearbox. The old ones are steel cases new are aluminum. It's probably rebuildable but I've never tried to get the parts.

 

[daugen]

Farmer I'm trying to do the math here.
1M pounds of chicken feed divided by 50K birds per flock (?) is 20 pounds of feed per bird.
And what, 16 pounds of resulting chicken poop?
How close did I get?
You have over 5M pounds of chicken feed coming on to your property each year?
that ain't chicken feed, that's mega chicken feed

all that chicken poop has to be a huge process to manage; where does it all go?
I pass large Perdue contracted farms when I take the DelMarva peninsula way to go North, and think of all your chickens
getting ready for my recipes.

 

[300UGUY]

Lots of feed. Lots of poop. I see it sold here as fertilizer. Never bought any, but have seen the bags with a chicken on it....

My 25 birds are doing ok, they have been here 4 days now, haven't lost any.

 

[daugen]

found the pics of the burned up bus on route 95 that once again made my trip driving ever so delightful.
Also making progress in the woodshop and got my outside wood storage organized.

am thinking about a steel v bracket on the edge of the counters, checking out two different sizes.

 

[mostly_gas]

good evening all. 68F this morning got 95F in the garage where I was all day. Fan and shade helped keep the wordt of the heat under control. Finished the next set of shelves got most of the garage boxes emptied. Still trying to get the house organized but have not divested enough stuff yet. Garage is between 1/2 and 3/4 empty now

 

[mostly_gas]

Gary nice progress on the replica!!

Dre have fun in your wood-shop and irrigation project,

 

[farmer2009]

Farmer I'm trying to do the math here. 1M pounds of chicken feed divided by 50K birds per flock (?) is 20 pounds of feed per bird. And what, 16 pounds of resulting chicken poop? How close did I get? You have over 5M pounds of chicken feed coming on to your property each year? that ain't chicken feed, that's mega chicken feed all that chicken poop has to be a huge process to manage; where does it all go? I pass large Perdue contracted farms when I take the DelMarva peninsula way to go North, and think of all your chickens getting ready for my recipes.

Drew. 965,000 lbs is roughly what was hauled to me this flock. Feed conversion runs about 1.78-1.88 lbs of feed/ lb. of gain. The most efficient animal raised in commercial production 94,000 birds. That's about 11 lbs per bird. We'll have to see how much litter moves next week. I have a guy coming to haul off all my litter. Expecting 700-800 tons. That's about what leaves here every year. I sell it to local farmers who spread it on their corn and soybeans. I use a little on pastures and hay ground to grow grass for the cows. I made 1 phone call this year. It took him 2 hours to find a buyer at my asking price. So not that big of an ordeal.

Y'all are talking about bags of this stuff and I am talking about tractor trailer loads of it.

67 at 22:20. Had a small shower today. Lots of lightning and thunder but only .03" of rain.

 

[farmer2009]

Drew. What are you going to do with the angle iron?

Looking good. Can't wait for time to finish mine. Already thinking of a shed for it.