Quick update of progress

Just wanted to do a quick update post to show you progress on the shed. 

Got all the post holes laid out and drilled.  They were a little off so they needed a little adjusting but not too bad.  As you saw in the last post I had them all in the holes but not set.  My wife was able to help set three of the corner posts and the rest I did myself which, if you have ever set a post before you would know, is not easy when the posts are 14 and 16 foot tall with a moderate wind blowing across them.  I got them all set but the three in the middle.

Widening the hole a little bit.

 Checking the depth.  I marked 32" and 36" on the handle so I wouldn't have to get out the tape all the time.

 Setting the post back in the hole.  I actually almost had it go over on me when she snapped the picture.  A gust of wind hit it just as I picked it up and I just barely kept it from going over!

 The pigs decided to spend the time a little more lazily by sunning themselves just out of the wind!

 A pic of the posts all set except for the three center ones. 

 This is Alex.  He was out helping for a while and came in and had a snack and passed out on the couch.  Guess I should have taken a hint from the kids and the pigs and taken a nap myself! 

To wrap up I wanted to post a pic of the pond I was working on in the fall.  I was told by the contractor doing the digging as well as my boss that there was no way the pond would ever fill up over winter.  I said repeatedly that I thought it would and that we should get the over flow in and be ready so we wouldn't have to do it after it got full.  Everyone told me no and that I was crazy for thinking it would be full.

My boss got a call at the end of February that the pond was full and was about to start flooding the area.  I was dealing with snow and ice control so he had to meet the contractor in a severe ice storm and install an emergency overflow to keep it from flooding everyone out. 

After seeing it full the client would like us to enlarge the end closest to me in the photo.  I also have about 350 tons of toprock to install in various places.  I will post some pics if I can.  Pretty awesome project!

Hope all is well for everyone!  TTYS

Kenny

Some more tasks accomplished this week!

Busy week so far.  Started out the week working on the tractor and the truck.  I had repaired my truck at the latter part of last week and finished on Saturday.  However, after a test drive I had an extremely loud whistling sound coming from the turbo region of the engine.  As I previously posted, I was repairing the exhaust pipe from the manifolds to the turbo.  I originally thought the sound was the alternator bearings going out but, after installing a new one, found that wasn't the case.  Next time I will simply undo the belt to check for noises instead of replacing parts....DUH!!  Hind sight is always 20/20!  Anyway, got a piece of tubing and using it as a stethoscope I touched it to different parts of the engine to find where the noise was actually coming from.  It was coming from the pipe I had just worked on.  So I tore the entire thing down again thinking it was a bad weld.  What I found was surprising.  The two piece steel gasket that came with the replacement pipe was apparently a very cheap and flimsy one.  I had exhaust gas leaking out through this gasket.  The sound was identical to taking a large blade of grass, folding it in half, putting it between your thumbs, and blowing air through it. 

Good news is it is fixed and passed the test drive.  On a side note I am getting very quick at removing the turbo and exhaust from for 6.0L diesel engines, even though I did not want to become proficient at this task!

 Some more tractor upgrades.  I installed a ball to the top of my trailer hitch for the tractor.

Why would I do this you may ask?  Trailers don't hook that high....or do they?

Yes they do!  I needed a way to move my gooseneck around without having to use the truck or the bucket on my tractor.  This makes it very easy to move in and out of storage or place it for loading without needing to mess around with the truck!  I would never tow it or try to move it when full as that is way to much weight for the hitch or the tractor but I can move it around empty which is a huge plus!

When I traded in my old M6800 I kept the weight rack off the front of it with the intention of bolting it onto the new tractor.  However, after the trade I found they changed the front grill guard design on the new model and I would have to find a different way of mounting.  

 If you look at the side plates of the weight rack you will notice that there are holes where it used to bolt to the side bars on the grill guard.  The new guard is much wider and I had to manufacture a plate to weld to the weight rack then drill the holes in it to bolt it onto the tractor with the grill guard.  I also had to get new bolts as the originals were just long enough to hole the guard on.  Having the weights on the front helps a lot when mowing with the 3-point hitch mower that I have.  It keeps positive contact with front wheels to the ground so they don't slide when turning.

The weather has been phenomenal last week and the first half of this week.  This gave us some much needed outside cooking time on the fire pit.  My wive made potatoes and BBQ chicken for supper Monday night!  It was great.

Unfortunately it looks like the weather is gonna go back to below normal for a couple weeks so it was great while it lasted but at least we know that spring is hear and trying to break through the gloom of winter!

Hope everyone is having a great week!

Kenny

What a week!!

Do to the short notice of my wife getting hired I needed to take a couple weeks off to watch the kids till we were able to line up daycare.  So I have been spending some much needed quality time with them and the farm! 

To start the week the kids and I went out and fed the animals, played in the sand box, and cleaned up the garage.  We then put the top onto the toolbox I got back in December.

 Lisa swept while I worked on hanging tools up.  You can see the top for the toolbox sitting just behind her

 Here is a pic of the top on the toolbox!!  It is very nice!  Makes an awesome mobile bench and it is just the right height!

Next thing we did was work on my truck.  There are some flex joints in the exhaust pipe going from the manifolds to the turbo.  The ones on the passenger side all broke after I removed the egr system due to leaks and malfunctions.  If recently found out that when you remove the egr cooler you have to replace the piece of pipe it connects to with a solid one or you will have this problem.  Vibration from the engine running cracks all the flex joints and causes a pretty large exhaust leak. 

This is what it should look like.

 This is what it looked like after the breaks.

I took it to a friend that works on stuff like this and he cut and spliced pieces in to replace the bad section on the left close to the where the pipe hooks to the turbo.  The section where the bolts are at the pliers to the end by the tape measure I ordered a replacement section for.  It was a solid pipe that eliminated the egr cooler port and the scoop inside the pipe.  Unfortunately, in the hurry to get it in and tested, I forgot to photo the new part. 

The truck does run great, however, during test drive, bearing went out in the alternator, so I have one of those on order now.  Unfortunately, the truck is at that stage in its life where all the wear parts are failing and need replaced for another 5 -7 years of trouble free use.  By that time I am hoping to have a newer one and I can use this one just for the farm.

The weather this week was phenomenal!  Sunny, 60 degrees in the second half of the week, and drying out some.  So, in preparation for the lumber guys arrival in a couple weeks, we started bucking the logs we harvested and getting them close to the barn where we are gonna do the cutting.  We are having the logs sawed here due to cost.  Lumber from the lumber yard will range from $1.50-$3/ board foot.  We can have it cut here for $.26/bd.ft.  It will be rough but for a barn structure it is perfect. 

I have not been able to get the back tires of the tractor loaded with ballast liquid yet so I had to come up with a way to get some ballast weight.  To do this, Steven and I decided to add a bar to the trailer hitch i rigged up for the tractor to hang the front suitcase weights onto. 

Steven is in the background left, Willie, another friend, is on the right.

 I simply welded the bar to the top of the hitch frame.  This hitch is the base frame from a bolt on 3 point hitch that I purchased at an auction.  The weights I purchased with my original tractor.

 Rear shot.  You can see the hitch in the center.  I use it to hook up to the farm trailer I have.  I am going to add another ball to the top of the main frame post to be able to move my gooseneck trailer around with.

 Picture with one of the weights removed.  I bent the mounts last year trying to pull out a stump....yea, it was a bad idea.  I need to hammer them back out strait and re-enforce them but they are working for now.

 Picture of some of the logs.  This is about 1/4 of what we have down. The rest is at Steven's farm next door.  We will bring it over as needed when we start cutting.  My son, Alex, checking out my days work!  After this photo he promptly went to the tractor for a ride. 

 Lisa, coming out of the house to help build a fire to cook lunch.  We made hot dogs on the fire pit grill.  They were home grown all beef hot dogs.  Very very good!

 We went down in the pasture for a walk while the fire got going.  Took a couple apples along for piggy treats.  That is our boar walking past Steven in the pic.

 My new droid X has a pretty cool feature called panorama assist.  You can take panorama shots with it.  This is a pic of the area down in the loop of the creek where the cows and pigs spend the hot summer days.  This area is full of willow trees and is cool and shaded in the summer.

I am gonna try uploading a video clip of the pigs.  If this works out I will do this again in the future.

To finish out the long week and start the weekend we had a cookout and finished with smores. 

Hope everyone has a great weekend! 

Kenny

Another site for imagery of japan earthquake

here is a link to the Google gallery of their before and after imagery that they have to this point.

https://picasaweb.google.com/118079222830783600944/Japan?feat=directlink#

kenny

A usgs overlay map for disaster in japan

I wanted to post this for anyone interested.  My wife found it while keeping track of the disaster back home. 

http://mw1.google.com/crisisresponse/2011/sendai_earthquake/google/map/sendai_earthquake_2011.html

This is an overlay map showing the location of all the events in japan starting with the primary quake.

hope this helps.

Kenny

What a mess!!

Well, the creek is finally down inside the banks for the first time in two weeks.  A week of rain got finished off by a day of slushy snow.  Today however was a beautiful day!

As I am writing this we are watching the live feed from Tokyo on the TV.  What a disaster!!  My wife was able to reach her parents by phone yesterday morning.  We didn't hear from her sister and her family till late in the day.  Everyone is ok and doing well.  They all live in suburbs around Tokyo.  The buildings they live in are fairly updated and modern and will take a lot before getting damaged. 

I have a good friend from Ohio State University who's brother and his family are over there right now.  He works for honda.  They were a lot closer to the major damage as they live in northern japan.  The only utility they currently have is water.  Food is very hard to find as is most anything else.  The good thing is they are all ok and noone got hurt.  The plant he works in is damaged badly and he is not sure when they will be able to reopen or if he will still get to come home at the end of the month.

They have had aftershocks off and on since the big one and they have had a total of four earthquakes.  The first one was 8.9, second was 6.8, then a 6.3, and they had a one around 5.5-6 this afternoon.  Not to mention all the aftershocks and tremors.  They also currently have one nuclear reactor melting down and two more on the verge.  I really hope they can get everything under control before it gets much worse.

So, to get everyone's mind off of it for a little bit we all went outside for a while.  Yesterday it was snowy and cold.  Today it was 60 and sunny with a strong breeze.  We checked the pigs and cows and then took a tractor ride out to give the cows a lick tub and pull some large trees out of the stream that were backing up the water pretty bad.  I got out and hooked the chain up and let the wife and kids pull it out while I videoed it.  I also videoed little man walking around in the pasture for the first time.  He had a blast.  He is looking like a true farmer tonight....flannel shirt and dirty jeans!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eoM1PXjyaTI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=25oB9a0cj4c

After we finished in the pasture we went across the creek to check out the hayfield and then went across the road into the woods to carve all our names into a beech tree up there.

Dude driving....or at least trying too!!  "Mom quit distracting me while I drive!)

 

 Posing after getting up from falling down.

 

The tree we used for our names.

My dad did this with all of us as kids in his woods up home.  The beech trees work the best as they will always have smooth bark on the trunk and can get to 200 years old if left alone and don't get hit with lightening.  This mark will definitely out live all of us.  There are marks like this on trees all over this area.

In other news, Steven, the young man who is partnering with me on the pig portion of our business, got appendicitis while working down in southern Ohio this week.  He went in for emergency surgery and is doing well.  They are expecting to bring him home tomorrow.

Lastly, my wife got hired in her field of study during the week.  She is quite happy and ready to go back to doing research again!!

Lets hope the earthquakes stop in Japan and the weather turns really nice here in Ohio!!

Goodnight everyone, talk to you soon!

Kenny

Pig's got out again!

Well, I was getting ready to leave work today and got a call from the wife saying the pigs were out and headed for the road.  She wanted to know what to do.....I said chase them back toward the barn.  So I hurry home and get them put back in and give them some milk water to keep them occupied while my daughter and I went to find out why the fence was still shorted even though the water was down.

We started at the fencer and started checking fence.  We went around the entire thing and didn't find much on it.  However when we went across the creek to check the other side we did find some visitors!

 

 Do you see them??

 

 Zoomed in a little....I counted 9 total.  Three or four were little ones that must have been born late in the year.  The rest were pretty big does.

 

They walked on over to dad's pasture next door and then headed up and over the hill.  Didn't really mind us but didn't stick around to talk either!

Back to the original story...so we checked the entire fence.  Didn't find anything more than a couple pieces of grass and misc. stuff on the wire but nothing that would short it.  So we went back to the beginning and started over again but walking instead of riding the tractor.  This time I was looking for something small instead of a break from flood damage. 

All along the property line between me and my dad there are bits and pieces of old fences that were put up over the last couple hundred years.  These fences have since fallen down and rusted up but there are still parts of them left.  There are also some other misc. junk laying around that the previous owners had tossed into the fence line.  Over time the cows and pigs will kick these pieces up and they end up on the new fence.

I found three places where there was junk wire shorting it out and one small tree limb.  If you look closely you will see the wire on the ground at the bottom of the bottle.  Then if you look at the fence near the top of the bottle you will see just the tip of the wire touching the fence.  This was the last one I found.

After removing all four grounding shorts on the fence it is now very hot!!!  Pigs shouldn't be out tomorrow!

Anyway, everyone is doing great.  Just waiting for the weather to get nice....way to muddy to do anything right now!

Kenny

The continuation!

After I got done looking at the flood waters I notice the cows were looking for me so I hollered at them and they came a running!  I will see if the wife can put the video up on youtube tomorrow while I am at work.

That is Thunder, our new charolais x angus bull, on the left.  The next one going right is Stormy.  We were gonna use Stormy for a bull this year till I found Thunder.  Once I saw him I new I wanted him.  Good looking bull and I don't like solid black cattle.  I should get some really cool color patterns from this cross!!  

 That is Crazy to the left looking at us.  This is the closest I have ever gotten to her since I bought her last winter.  The one in the center is Stormy, Frosty is just to his back left, and the new black angus steer is to his immediate right.  The red butt to the right is Candy apple!

 Jane is the Hereford with the white face to the right of the pic with her son Stormy in front.  The one in the center is Suzie.  We have not been able to get her bred so she most likely will be be headed to the butcher with the steers this June.  The same goes for the crazy bald one in the previous pic!

 This was a good side pic of Candy Apple.  She is currently bred and will be having her calf in August!  I can't wait!

 The usual suspects with Sallie clear in the back and Pistol to the right.  He is headed to the butcher in June!!  He and his buddy Firecracker may not be very tall but they are wide!

 This is how I know Suzie is still not bred.  As a cow is coming into heat they will fight and but heads with the other cattle.  I will most likely see her being ridden tomorrow and possible bred by the bull if he is big enough to mount her.  This would make the 5th or 6th time she would be bred and she hasn't taken yet so I have pretty much given up hope.

 This is Thunder checking to see if she is in heat yet or not.  They will sniff the females hind end and then curl their nose up and exhale through their nose.  This allows the sensory glands in their nasal passages to pick up the different hormones she is giving off.  Once they smell the right hormone it is game time!

 Apparently it wasn't game time just yet!

Anyway, they are calling for some dang nice weather toward the end of next week......lets hope it doesn't wait that long to get here!

Kenny

Ground piggie feed again today.

Well as I stated in my earlier post we got a lot of rain again. 

 The snow was just adding insult to injury!

 The cow were just wondering around checking out the flood.  Probably, just like me, wondering when this is gonna end and we get some nice weather.

 I snapped a quick pic of the new barn doors open after got done unloading the feed.  I realized today I didn't have one yet and wanted to put one up.  I love them.  Wish I had done that the year we moved in as the old ones were a pain in the butt!!

 Steven is headed out of town for a week to clip and wash cattle to get them ready for a large sale.  So before he left I ran over to their farm to get the waste milk to bring over to the pigs.  It is left over from feeding the calves and what is left in the line when done milking before they wash up.  The pigs love it!  We mix it with some warm water and it gets them out of having to walk to the creek when it is cold and muddy out!  I had just given them some before I headed out to get a closer look at the flood.

 I knew that since we had been working on the barn the cows would all be up to see what was going on so I took a small bucket of the ground feed for the pigs and gave it to the cows as a treat. 

 These are some close ups of the flood.  Again, not as bad as last week but still enough to mess up the fence a little bit and make everything a muddy disaster.

 In the flood last week, these post were completely submerged in water.

 In august of 2004, the night/morning of our wedding, we got almost twelve inches of rain in a span of about 7 hours.  I would have had water up to the height of the camera that day.  From the left in the picture above to the right in the picture below was all under water that day.

I took some more pictures of the cows when they came down to see me but I am going to do in a separate post so this one doesn't get to huge!