Thursday, February 22, 2024
Happy Birthday, George Washington!
Pat and I have been down south visiting some family in Jacksonville, Florida and then we spent about a week at Disney. It was really great! We celebrated my 71st birthday (which was on the 19th) each day during our Disney stay, and it was a very relaxing time away from the farm. The food was wonderful… we probably ate a bit too much… but it was so very good. Disney hospitality is superb. But now we are back, and getting into the daily routine again.
We enjoyed exploring many new things at Epcot on this visit, including this new PhotoPass ‘Magic Shot”.
Most days at WDW were a bit cool, but still pleasant to be out and about. We did have one day worthy of wearing shorts!
It took most of the day yesterday to catch up on the mail, the bills, and the paperwork that accumulated while we were away. John handled the specific farm bookkeeping in my absence, and kept that current. I got through a big stack of personal mail, and now I’m feeling a bit more “on top” of all that stuff.
While we were gone, the crew from Hendrixson Construction started the new building. We had signed the contract back in early December, and now this new storage barn is under construction. It’s always interesting to watch these professionals go about their work. The site is has a bit of a slope to it, so that required some special foundation work. This building will be built on top of a concrete foundation, with no poles set into the ground. That should give it a much longer useful life. We plan to place our combines in this new barn, and a few other machines. Our goal is to get all our machines here on site, bringing home the items currently stored in old sheds at remote locations. It’s just more secure here. We certainly don’t like for any of our machines to be stored outside where the sun can fade the paint.
The footer went down first. Lots of rebar in it.
The foot-thick foundation walls were poured next.
The forms came off, exposing the foundation on which the wood-frame and metal-skin building will be built.
This will be a 40′ x 104′ building with a 16′ x 24′ overhead door and a single walk-in door. It will have a compacted stone floor. We think this will be the storage home for the combines and headers.
Another load of stabilizer to fill the interior.
From the west side, it looks like the site will finish off nicely. We are eager to get the fescue established on this new slope.
The Volvo is in the shop today for routine maintenance– oil change and lubrication.
Brandon is servicing this Volvo with an oil change and greasing the chassis.
Next week, the trucks will be running again to deliver corn to market. The remainder of the 2023 wheat crop stored here was delivered last week. Now, only corn remains here in our bins.
Wednesday was a very pleasant February day, 66ºF (19C), brilliant blue skies, and a gentle breeze. It was really nice to be outside. Today, the clouds have rolled in, we are expecting rain in the afternoon. But it is warmer than an average late-February day, in the upper-50s.
Have a great day.
