[mitchmaine]

i hear you geoff. i’m part of the machinery program. i think crimping and splitting the stem is like splitting your firewood. it cures way faster cut and split than tree length. amazingly helpful. its just that i wonder about all the goodness in leaves and heads scattered on the ground and left behind by the pickup on the baler. and the smell of carls hay. i miss the smell of sweet grass sometimes. mitch i also am interested in what tim says. the science is what you base the art on, true?

[mitchmaine]

everyones comments have something important to add to this thread. i been thinking alot about things that have been said. not very long ago, hay was made with a knife and a rake. tedders were only brought out to flip hay after a rain, mostly to break open a windrow. you’d mow and let hay lay and wilt, and rake the next day and let the wind make it. and when the dew was off the ground the next day rerake over to a dry spot and continue drying til it had a rustle and was ready. since then, crimpers, conditioners and tedders and balers have developed to bring hay in earlier and presumably greener, all with the effect of beating the grass to peices, shattering the stalks and so on in the process. so it seems like the same old story. we give up quality for quantity and the result is being able to put up more hay quicker and thats great, but some here, not me, still must put up loose hay. we used to have a ac rotary baler that made a 40 lb. round bale, it took 3 balers to keep one going, but when you rolled out a bale and the heads of the grass and clover were still blossomed and sweet. anyway, just ramblin’ here.

[mitchmaine]

same here. i thnink donn mentioned it, but we are trying to find two good days in a row and mowing before the rain hoping to make it and get it in on dry ground. is there such a thing as one day in a row??????/ anyway, in spite of the poor weather(hail), the ground around here is pretty hard and the gardens look like they need rain. very hard making a plan. hoping for a bright future for all. mitch

[mitchmaine]

hey anthony, pioneer makes a pretty rugged extension spring to go between your evener and the clevis. they call it a spring hitch. you might have to extend your pole to make up for the extra length. don’t know if it would work for you and your problem but it might. mitch

[mitchmaine]

george, i think the dew and the green of the grass are two different moistures. waiting for the dew to come off keeps you from flipping it back and under the hay you are tedding trapping it under the hay. that said, i brought in some yesterday mowed sunday. a day shorter than i expected. i kicked it each day and i think i kicked it too much. it was starting to loose some color already. it was nw winds everyday and thats tops. so maybe it was making faster than i expected. the next batch, i may let it lay the first day and ted it the second day. its kinda like making syrup. the longer you go into the season the less potential for good syrup (hay). i don’t think the same rules apply for june or august hay. you have to feel your way through it. you win some and lose some. good luck with it and let us know what you find out. mitch

[mitchmaine]

around here, the difference between pole construction and frame construction is a sill. on a sill the building is disconected to the foundation.
we have a lot of trouble up here with frost and heaving, and there are no-end of discussions (fights) about how to properly deal with it. and usually a pole barn or building is compromised by the frost. so its considered a temporary structure even if it lasts fifty years.
with a good roof and a good foundation, a building has a pretty good chance of making it.
even insulation is compromising the integrity of a structure, cause somehow or other you are trapping moisture one side or other of a peice of wood and if it can’t breath it rots, but keeping warm is a necessary evil thats here to stay and has to be dealt with.
pole barns are a quick and cheap answer to protecting animals and equipment. i love them

[mitchmaine]

hey richard,
when i was about six (1954), therewas this 62 year old woman from west minot who rode a mule to work. the neighbors called her jackass annie (wilkins or wilcox, i think). her doctor told her she had two years to live, so she took her pickle money ($32), climbed on a farm horse and set off with her dog. they asked her where she was headed and she said she was going for a ride. well, she didn’t stop til she got to the pacific ocean. she was on tv, art lincletter or aurthur godfrey or something. anyway, she got home 7000 miles later, hopped on the mule and went back to work. and lived another 25 years until 1980, i think. thats the truth the way i heaqrd it. what do you think of that one?
mitch

[mitchmaine]

@reb 27680 wrote:

Mitch, does Nick live in Newcastle?

yup, richard. he lives on the backside of route 1 over by cowshit corner. good guy. out on a roadtrip. sounds like fun, don’t it?
mitch

[mitchmaine]

push come to shove, you can always use people urine. penny used to catch our pee in a pail in the bathroom and spread it around the edge of the garden and it worked miracles. she used to hang up my used sweaty t-shirts on posts around the garden too. deer get used to people smells, but not that one.

[mitchmaine]

nick and company are west of ogallala and beyond the south platte heading across the california hills heading for the north platte and scotts bluff.
they are off the roads and in the original ruts of the real trail. kinda exciting. he thinks they may make wyoming come july. cross your fingers.
mitch
maine

[mitchmaine]

sounds like the same weather to me. it rained off and on all may here which is our plowing month. i scratched out our house gardens, but never got any oats in. we have some fall sowed spelt in and coming good for the rain, so i might use some of that for feed, but the wind and water here, with hail, thunder and lightning has been quite a show. tornados don’t happen here, john, but we have had two or three here this spring with all the damage you’d expect so nothin’ surprises me much anymore. good luck with your farming and crops. mitch

[mitchmaine]

@TBigLug 27605 wrote:

Where did you weld it on? My mind’s not working too sharply right now (just got home off a 13 hour day). Can you scribble something on photoshop on the top photo to help me grasp the idea? I’d love to get the old girl going strong again. Plows pretty good now but suction is definitely lacking on hard clay’ish soils.

hi john, it’d be a 2″ by 4″ peice cup down welded right on to the very point and extending out and down to were the worn tip might have been. it was a last ditch experiment to fix a point that couldn’t be replaced and worked pretty good.
a friend has a 14″ syracuse point that might be your point. he was cleaning up his barn and set it aside. it looked like a right hand and might fit your plow. i’ll get the numbers for you.
mitch

[mitchmaine]

@Robert MoonShadow 27549 wrote:

Good flick!
Is he running a 3-abreast?

yes robert. two jens and a jack. he tried the off she on a jockey stick and it didn’t work out to good. she got yanked and pulled around and two thousand miles of that wasn’t gonna work so he texted meaders in new hampshire and the sent ahead a set of triple lines (ahh, the computer). apparently the off mule is also a little shy and jumps at new stuff. she’s gonna get her fill of new stuff, i bet. so all is well so far.
wishen them and you good luck, mitch

[mitchmaine]

best i could figure was to get the photos in the photo gallery.
they were taken on a phone and sent e-mail to us, and getting them over to here took about all the computer savvy me and my 11 year old computer geek neighbor could pull off.

[mitchmaine]

thanks everyone, i will try and keep you all updated. seems like an overwhelming project to me, and i wasw reading last night that 350,000 settlers mnade that trek with losses at ten percent. but the originals didn’t have all you folks out there to help so i feel better already. robert, i’ll see if there is a photo to be had. and thanks again for the kind words. their progress is about a town a day, and i go a few days and get an update and they are 30 miles further. it is really driving home how hard it was moving west in ways i didn’t really get, i guess. thanks again, mitch
i beleive the kearney, neb. affiliate of abctv were interviewing them for a something, i think.

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