The Tractor is Here.....

It has been in the works for some time to move my grandfathers tractor the 40 miles from where it is in storage to our farm where it would be greatly appreciated. I also came-up with a great deal on a John Deere rotary mower from the same time period. Yesterday, a neighbor and me loaded the tractor in Columbia and then drove down south of Chariton to get the mower. Round trip was about 100 to 110 miles. We encountered no major problems and got everything hooked-up and running. I took it out for a maiden voyage last evening and had a good time. There are some minor issues with the tractor. The exhaust is cracked off the block and will need a new exhaust head or some RJ weld to hold it together. The hole exhaust is goofy and I will likely put a proper exhaust pipe back on the tractor. The brakes have some issues. The left wheel brake binds and the right side is pretty loose. You can brake the wheels individually for tight turns, but when you slap down on the brakes it is easy to hit them both and then you easily lock the left side-up and flip left. Needless to say, that will need some attention. I will be working through the fluids this week and hope to hit the new field planting by the end of the week and knock down the weeds so they don't go to seed and become a major problem for the planting next year. For tractor enthusiasts, it is a John Deere 2010 with a John Deere 127 Gyramor Rotary Cutter. I have to knock out some consulting this week, finish double bagging birds and weighing them, move turkeys outside, prep the brooder for the second round of turkeys that should be here thursday morning, tamp and set a few field posts, work over the tractor fluids, and mow the new grass planting. A fun and busy week ahead with lots of things I have never done before ahead of me. Until next time.

Purple Palms

I did our July Iowa Food Cooperative run today. It went alright with no major snags except for the mulberries. Last month I decided I would sell just about anything to keep the money flowing in and business bank accounts healthy. I decided to sell mulberries, 12 pounds of them. This is a common issue with me, I want to scale-up just a little too much and I get burned or beat-up doing it. I did that last year when I scheduled chickens, and this year when I tried to raise 320 chickens all in one go. I guess if I am going to do something I want to go at it aggressively and I just struggle to be a bit more conservative. Anyway, it is not easy to come up with 12 pounds of mulberries all in one go. The trees that I usually go to just did not have it in them, and I did not realize how hard to come by a good mulberry tree is. So many had not fruit at all, leading me to believe that they must have separate male and female trees. I have included a picture of me with a pound of mulberries so you get a feel for how many are in a pound. I have to try and spruce the place up for company as we are hosting my sisters baby shower this weekend. I am going to be an uncle next month.

Grazing the sheep along the timber line

The riding mower is dead and the sheep are being employed to clean-up the timber line and cut down on mowing. I included a picture of the sheep. I picked up 1o more laying hens that are two months from laying and the 27 hens I started in the spring have moved outside. I am struggling with my turkeys. We have had an illness or some substantial genetic defects that have taken out a number of birds. I am getting back into cleaning things up around here that have been aloud to get out of control, like the yard, flower beds, gardens, business books, and some other odds and ends. I also had an auction last weekend where got a great deal on 10 old wooden chicken transporting crates. It was a little frustrating that a few few people bought things for novelty like stainless steel milk containers and an egg scale, but that is life. I have another one this weekend, so lets see how that goes. I fried my forehead with a terrible sunburn so next time lots of sunscreen.

One month is too long

I must apologize for being away so long. Life became crippling in June and did not let-up until early July. We had big chickens out on pasture up until the week of June 22nd. That was tough raising 320 chickens on pasture. Our locker did not reserve our processing date so we had to hold the birds an extra week. That also hurt us because we were feeding $40 a day in feed there at the end. We had enough birds that two trips to the locker were necessary to get them all in. I am not doing that again.

Our poultry locker is Hansen Poultry in Kimballton (20 miles north of Atlantic). State inspection begins at 5:00 AM and Jeff Crocker likes me there at 5:00 AM. In order to do that, we load the birds the night before and then wake-up at around 2:00 AM so that we are out the door by 2:30 AM. I have always done this alone, but Janice came with me for the first time that week. Birds have usually all been processed by 6:30 to 7:00 AM. We then have until 10:30 AM for the birds to cool down to an internal temperature of 40 degrees. I usually drive to town and try to nap for about two hours and then go to the cafe for breakfast and to do some work. With Janice, it was harder to nap (two people +dog & small truck cab). We had 180 birds in our first load and left Atlantic around 11:15 AM, after loading every bird and getting them on dryice. We drove strait home and got back 2:15 PM.

If you remember the last full week of June, it was horrible. It was 90+ degrees with dew points in the mid 70's. When we got home, Janice started unloading birds into our freezers. This consists of wiping them off, weighing them, and tagging them. I went out to the pasture to fill waterers. I found a disaster. One of my pens had a waterer that broke. It consists of a big red bell drinker that hangs from a chain, fed from a five-gallon bucket that also hangs from a chain. This was a "Hansen-style pen" consisting of a wood frame with two cattle panels bent over the frame to make a mobile hoop house. String a few tarps over it, add sides, and you have a basic pen. Anyway, the handles on the bucket broke at some point and all the water spilled out when the bucket hit the ground. I am not sure when this happened, but it was likely early in our absence from the state of things.

To sum it all up, many of the birds had died and I had to burst into action to save those that were left. I grabbed watering cans, filled them up and went into the pen sprinkling water on the birds to cool them down. After that, I started to sort through he birds. Those that could stand I put next to a new waterer that I set-up. Those that were barely there, I moved to the shade and put their face into a shallow waterer and forced them to drink. I was not able to save all the birds that were that bad off, but I tried. I have never lost so many birds from any single problem or threat on the farm. All told, I lost 40 birds, half the pen. That was pretty depressing.

I spent the rest of my evening helping Janice with unloading birds and going back out to set-up a new pen for the surviving birds, and to compost those that I lost. What a crappy Monday.

Tuesday was a delivery run to Ames for our customers up that way. Wednesday was consulting work. Let's be honest, I do not make money farming. Right now, if the business makes money it goes right back into the business. I have to do some consulting work and I sell things on craigslist and on ebay from time to time to plug the budget gaps. I had a consulting contract with Practical Farmers of Iowa developing wildlife management plans for several farms in southern, Iowa. All of that work was due at the end of June, so in between farming I was working on these items.

Wednesday night was loading the next batch of birds (103 total). The second trip to Atlantic in the same week (3 days later) went much more smoothly. I was alone and did not encounter significant difficulties. It was just grueling and I slept better in the cab then I usually do. I sat down in the local cafe to do consulting and took some flack from one of the old farmers about the computer and being a college boy. I tried to tell him that I farm in Jasper county, but he thought I was lying. In the interest of being courteous, I held my tongue. Any farmer that is not curious about what other folks are doing or how things work is being a lousy farmer in my book. One the return trip, I stopped at a local locker in Otley to have my birds frozen down. I then went home to get birds together for our Pella customer deliveries that night.

Friday, I was visiting several farmers for consulting. The whole weekend was a blur of consulting work and on into next week. Monday, June 29th, was our Des Moines delivery. Did I mention that we got turkeys a few weeks back too. I will put a few pictures of the little guys. I love turkeys, but this batch has had very high mortality. Anyway, I took some time off over the weekend of the 4th and am getting back into the long list of tasks that need to be done around here. Besides, we are hosting my sister's baby shower on July 19th so I have to get the place together. I apologize for the length between posts (and the length of this one). I will try to correct those failings in the future.