Good morning!!!!

[RedNeckGeek]

Something went terribly wrong in a field west of here yesterday afternoon when a tractor rolled off a trailer and landed on top of the man loading it. He didn't survive.

One dead after tractor rollover in Chico | KRCR

Careful out there, folks!

 

[PJSprog]

0°F and partly cloudy here this morning, going up to 16° today. Looking forward to that warm up this weekend.

The list of school closings here in the St. Louis area was long this morning. Pretty much everywhere from the sounds of it as read on the radio. I have mixed feelings about closing schools just because it's cold outside. I get why. I just don't think it sets a good example for later in life.

 

[jbrumberg]

14F and cloudy. A quick passing "warm" front left a gift of 3/4"s of light powdery snow this last night. That makes 28" so far this year. The NWS has issued a Winter Storm Warning for this area. I am still expecting ~7" of snow out of this Great Lakes Clipper morphing into a decent coastal storm. and a warmup for the weekend and a possible rain event early next week.

RNG- It's so sad to read about these tractor/farming/agriculture accidents resulting in fatalities and serious injuries. 35 years operating tractors and power equipment and I am still afraid. There were a few pucker moments and skid marks in the undies events in the past have made me cautious. "Low&Slow" are the norm around here even w/o the tractor. PennState University (my alma mater; great meteorology dept) did a tractor rollover study in the 70's. It was disturbing to read the study and watch the videos of the videos.

BuckeyeFarmer- I am happy to read that you had no "reactions" last night. I hope it has resolved.

PJS- I agree.

My + thoughts, prayers, and wishes for all especially those challenged.

 

[lostcreekranch]

Thanks
I didn't think to look on the bag...this is pretty generic Southern States fertilizer

I wonder if one brand of fertilizer is better than another. All advice welcome.

Application rate likely to be fairly high to make up for low readings on test samples.

It's funny that the soil did not test for any potash when one of the world's largest potash mines is across and further out the Pamlico River.
Would be a bonus if it were naturally occurring
Around here it's all about how much sand is in there vs soil. In the area I'm planting, the corn and potatoes area is a little richer/darker soil than where the fenced area is for
all the other vegetables. I've got cow manure down on about a third of that area, geez I would love a tractor trailer load of mushroom soil dumped here but it just isn't available locally.
So until I can build up the nutrients naturally, granular fertilizer is the way to go. Besides I think corn and potatoes really like fertilizer, or so I've read.

Am thinking 300 pounds an acre to start. Maybe I should double that, not sure what that gets you...and what is too much. I'm sure the only way to really tell is keep
doing soil samples. Might be time to call the local ag agent and stop guessing. Dial on fertilizer flinger shows rate per acre, which I'm sure is not overly accurate since it is stated at a specific exact tractor speed, like 2.5mph. Now a nice digital speedometer like on my Kubota would be great, but the little Massey has none of that. 2.5mph should be walking speed.
I can do this.

52 degrees out today, can't waste this...particularly with nasty weather on the way.

Can’t speak for your area Drew but, in Texas, our Texas Agri-Life agents are a great resource. Make time to get to know the extension agent near you.

 

[farmer2009]

7 this morning and headed to 12 today. A fresh 5-6 inches fell over night.

Don our business closing list is longer than that. Every school in the area is closed also.

Get the call last night. We are going to catch your chickens tonight. An hour after they are supposed to be here and I have everything ready, I call back. Nope we ain’t coming. Crew cab is in the ditch at the intersection of the state and county roads about a mile from your house. Sure enough he was. It’s a tight turn anyways and the 10’ trailer spreads help them skip over the culvert if they miss their mark by a couple of inches. Yes it’s that tight. Well they just went ahead and slid into the ditch. Not enough traction to pull them out. We’ll be out tomorrow night (tonight). Sure they will but I still have to go plow everything out.

Drew. P&K aren’t very mobile in the soil. But in your sand they move more than in any other soil type. Nitrogen is highly leachable and will disappear in no time in sand. Triple 10 is very expensive. It isn’t possible to make with straight fertilizer ingredients. It requires the use of a filler. Usually sand but sometimes you get lucky and it’s pelitized lime. Spring for the triple 19 next time. It will have 3 ingredients. Potash 0-0-60, DAP 18-46-0 and Urea 45-0-0.

Guess I’m getting more seat time today. Minimum of 2 hours to plow everything out to state highway.

 

[LouNY]

Morning all;
Low 20's this morning, maybe an inch of snow last night, light flurries at this time,
depending on who you listen to 1-3 or 4-6 total in the next day and a half.
Felt like a large breakfast today,did a batch of sausage gravy, fresh biscuits and a couple of eggs over easy,
start cleaning up the kitchen in a bit then get dressed to go outside and fill up a couple of bird feeders.
lazy day maybe.

 

[farmer2009]

Around here they use to use a Bobcat for decrusting, but no idea what they do now with all these huge operations.

Toppop.

This is what we use between flock. Housekeeper Dump-Body Model 2 LP | Lewis Brothers Mfg.

Now remember I have 80,000 sqft. under roof. We use a service for total clean outs once a year. They use skid steers.

 

[RedNeckGeek]

35 years operating tractors and power equipment and I am still afraid.

The biggest problem with this equipment is that we don't know what we don't know. Reading studies like those done by Penn State are a good start, and there are plenty of "tractor tip over" threads on TBN, but at the end of the day, you just have to take a minute, think about what you're about to do, and try to spot ways it could go sideways. And then when you start, you still have to be thinking about what is actually happening, and if it's not what you expect, stop until you can figure out why. Complicating this are the interruptions from cell phones, people around you, and the daily pressures that interrupt your chain of thought. Did I set the brake before I got off the tractor? Did I put the safety pins back into the ROPS when I put it back up? Did I remember to throw an old blanket over that winch cable to limit how far it flies if it breaks? The list goes on and on! I bet the two guys in that accident had put that tractor on that trailer hundreds of times in the past. But something went horribly wrong this time. Familiarity breeds contempt. Pay attention and stay alive!

 

[farmer2009]

Our local utility is Warren Rural Electric Company Co-op. Our area is all monopolies so no choices. They buy their power from TVA. Last month was 138.00 plus the propane. Ain’t got a clue on that as it’s filled with the chicken coops and all billed together and a fill up usually last more than a month.

 

[jbrumberg]

Today's Great Lake Clipper's cold front is creating an icy, world of hurt in the SE to MA CONUS. I can see the reasons for all the school closings for this storm. For those who have to travel today stay safe out there.

 

[txdon]

TXDON, how much snow is forecasted for you?

Good second morning! Went back to sleep, the heater was not turned on last night and my wife was surprised that I had got up and made the fire. It was a comfortable 68˚ inside. The WBS is a much more comfortable kind of heat than the electric heat. Maybe it's because I don't feel all those dollars slipping away.

24˚ now, I don't think it snowed last night but we did have frozen rain and there is a coating of ice on everything. You can still see the frozen rain in-between the blades of grass. The north windows have a second pane of ice on them and look like antique windows. I don't know how the roads are but I'm glad we canceled my mom's dr. apt today. She does not need to slip and fall on ice with her walker. On the news I saw a lot of Austin overpasses closed. Kyle any culvert crossing closed in Giddings?

 

[Bird]

Our local utility is Warren Rural Electric Company Co-op. Our area is all monopolies so no choices. They buy their power from TVA. Last month was 138.00 plus the propane. Ain稚 got a clue on that as it痴 filled with the chicken coops and all billed together and a fill up usually last more than a month.

I suspect all the "Co-op" electric companies are about as good a price as you can get; maybe better service, too, in many cases because they are owned by the customers and controlled by local residents. We used to have the Navarro County Electric Cooperative.

Navarro County Electric Cooperative, Inc. | Welcome!

Each month, when we got the bill, there was a place on it to write in the current meter reading when you returned that portion of the bill. In other words, we read our own meters. I asked, and was told that they were supposed to send someone to check each meter twice a year, but in reality didn't get around to it even once a year. And in 6 years, I never saw anyone check a meter.:laughing: And when I wanted to replace the pole my meter was on, and replace the master breaker with a different one, I called before breaking the seal on the meter to see if they wanted to come check it, and they did not; told me to just go ahead with whatever I needed to do. So I did.

 

[Kyle_in_Tex]

I'm staying home too today Don. No sense in chancing it. It is sleeting now, but looks like a band of snow is near.

 

[daugen]

When I lived in PA I was hounded all the time by companies with the legal right to compete against PECO, Philadelphia Electric. Basically the deal seemed to be about a ten percent cheaper rate in the first year, then seemed to go back where it was. Wasn't enough for us to switch to a no name. You had to call PECO anyway if anything broke...

Farmer, I'm worried about using stronger fertilizers, maybe for no reason in this sandy soil.
Many years spent boating in the Chesapeake taught me the perils of too much farm fertilizer washing down into the Bay and causing all kinds of excessive nitrogen problems, fish kills, and algae blooms. Huge effort was made to control that in all contiguous states and it seemed to work, Bay is much cleaner now. So I worry about yeah it might be easy to double down on my fertilizer to get better results, but....the ditch on the edge of this field where all water drains is the very beginning of what they call locally the Blue Line system of water drainage ditches, all of which wind up sooner or later down in the Pamlico River. They are inspected and maintained. Probably only a big issue if there's a gully washer, but I can see in local fields where clearly a lot of water had flowed. So anything on top is headed down to the River.

Any application techniques that can minimize this? First I'm going to disc the granular in and then I'm going to drag rake it. So it should be pretty thoroughly mixed in. But then after the hills are made, the gulleys are natural water drains and anything in those drains, well, drains...
I had planned for the rows to go parallel with the tree line, so they are aiming right at the main ditch. Perhaps I should furrow in the opposite direction. In this veggie garden I can. Out in the main field everything is aimed at the ditch anyway. I don't think my farmer neighbors lay awake at night worrying about their fertilizer runoff. Versus Farmer who has 86 different regulations to comply with and probably isn't even close to water.

My hats off to anyone who has to scoop poop out of a chicken house, I don't care how high tech the equipment is, and those looked pretty cool.
It would take me a long time to get used to that. Very happy and appreciative others do it. All I see is the finished product on that plastic tray.
I watch a lot of farming videos and watch application of huge waste flingers and sprayers, pig stuff looks particularly nasty.
That stuff smells so bad I can smell it coming through the computer!

The ironic part is a couple trailer loads of that foul smelling stuff is just what my gardens need I bet.
Instead, I bought ten more bags of cow manure and I'm going to go dump them now out in the field.
Then I just might screw around a little and disc it all in. Too early otherwise, but it gives the local farmers something to chuckle
about when they drive by seeing me out there thinking what is that fool doing now? Or they may think it's my infamous neighbor until they see the shiny
paint on my tractors...then they know it's not him. And that makes them doubly curious. I watch the trucks slow way down for a look see.

 

[kittyhawk]

Good morning from Houston. Well for us southerners it is Cold 29* sleet and snow. Second time this winter. All the overpasses are freezing over and traffic is getting crazy. I could not get up to the ranch today if I needed to. So I値l just hunker down and try to recover form a sinus infection.

 

[LS Tractor Owner]

Good morning to all! Low of 12 last night, only going to a high of 36 today. Freezing fog caused a bunch of accidents on the roads. Going to work on the organization of the shop (seems like a never ending project). After building the addition and deciding to make one side "automotive" and the other side "woodworking / tractor house", moving all the tools, organizing, and general clean up / declutter, seems to be a daunting task. Never new I accumulated so much stuff. "I'm going to save this small useful piece of 'whatever' because I might need it later for something" has to stop. I have already taken 2 trailer loads stuffed with this junk to the dump already and working on my 3rd! Haven't even gotten to the 'storage area' yet. I wonder what 30 year old something I'll find and say--- I was looking for that!.( I just know I'm gonna need something that I'm getting rid of)(already went back to the scrap metal pile and took stuff back out!) LOL!

I'm glad some of you guys seem to be getting over the hump that life has sent your way. For those still struggling, our thoughts and prayers go out. Have a great day! (Or a better one at least).

 

[CWB Wyo]

Colder this morning 3*, yesterday high was 45*. Today it going be in the high 30's and partly cloudy. They are saying that we are going to get a good storm Friday into Saturday.

Not much going on today. I'll see how it goes.

Hope everyone has a nice day.
CWB.

 

[Bird]

My hats off to anyone who has to scoop poop out of a chicken house, I don't care how high tech the equipment is, and those looked pretty cool.

Hard to believe now, but there was a time when I liked that job when I was about 13 years old because it gave me a legitimate excuse to driver the tractor.:laughing: I'd hook that little 1940 John Deere L to a little trailer, back it up to the chicken house door, load it, then go spread it on the garden to be plowed in later.

 

[jbrumberg]

24F, hazy sun with light snow falling. An easy day planned moving some firewood, feeding the wood stove, harassing the squirrels at the bird feeders, and prepping for my anticipated 7" of snow tonight/tomorrow. No big deal. It usually takes me about the same amount of time to move snow (~2 hours) if it's 4" (minimum) or +2'.

We had 6 male (probably overwintering) robins in our Russian/Autumn olive trees going after the berries this AM. Those berries are nasty bitter. They are some of the last "native" fruits to be eaten by the birds around here during the Winter.

"..... I'm going to save this small useful piece of 'whatever' because I might need it later for something" has to stop."- LS_mt125_owner. I wish you the best. I can not stop. I get anxious thinking about getting rid of all my "stuff." If there is an Hoarders Anonymous Program I should join. Wifey would see my membership as a needed household expense.

CWB- your anticipated snow may become my rain early next week.

 

[rswyan]

11F and mostly cloudy @ 11:30 ... the snow has moved to the south and east, looks like we picked up another inch or two. Overnight low headed down to 0F tonight, back into the 40's/50's starting this coming Saturday.

Stay safe and warm ...