Friday, April 4, 2025
This week has been busy, but nothing out in the fields. The weather has been uncooperative, and the effects of it will last into next week. Early in the week, we had strong winds, and then at mid-week, we had severe thunderstorms. There were even some tornadoes not very far from us. Luckily, we did not receive any tornadoes or hail. Yesterday, was just another rainy day, and that continues today. So far, we’ve had 3.0″ of rain this week, and much more is predicted for tonight and tomorrow. Our dream of early planting is getting moved back by the day. But other tasks have kept us occupied.
The Pete (one of our semi trucks) has been giving trouble for some weeks. Nephew Jake Klepac diagnosed a broken wire, and John put some time in with a soldering iron and wire wraps to repair it. It is working fine now, and will not require a very expensive “brain box” like we initially speculated. The Tony truck may need a radiator replacement. With trucks it seems like “it’s always something.”
The operator on the big door on our largest storage building had to be replaced this week. We thought it might be just a motor gone bad, and we tried a replacement on it. The problem was deeper or bigger than that. Guys from DC Metal at Montgomery came and did the repair on Wednesday.
Brandon D has taken the backhoe to various farm locations and pushed out fallen trees from the field edges. He has also cleaned up the JD 6145R tractor and the Gator. The way the Gator looks today, it makes me hesitate to use it… I don’t want to mar the shiny result! Once again, it’s no surprise, but Brandon D does excellent work.
The 6145R is shiny again, inside and out.
Brandon D has the Gator looking like new again!
We used Monday to get the JD 1910 air cart and JD N550 no-till drill hooked up to the JD 9R540 tractor. We have to separate the two parts of the soybean drill to store it. Getting all the hydraulic hoses, air hoses, and electrical and video connections correct was a big task. Then, on Tuesday, we had our Hutson consultant, Kaylissa Halter, come to make certain that all the information was correctly set up for soybean planting. During that session, we discovered a flaw in the way I had set up the planting prescriptions. So, I spent the remainder of Tuesday re-writing prescriptions in a different (and simplified) way. Then, on Wednesday morning, I wirelessly sent the prescriptions to the tractor and then (from the tractor seat) loaded each one into the on-board screen. It took a while, but now the rig is all ready to run!
With the soybean drill finally hooked up, it is now prepared for action. In this picture from Monday, the guys are correcting the pressure in the 20 tires! It was a chilly day, after a very warm weekend.
I think early next week, I’ll send the Volvo over to Nutrien and get its hopper trailer loaded with soybean seed. During this extended rainy period, it may be a while before we load the air cart, but I want to be ready to do so!
Flowers are popping out this week, and you can see the pink blossoms of the redbud trees as you drive around the area. Those bits of color coming through brighten your day!
Have a great weekend!
