Dogtrot at Hightop

[ChuckinVa]

Looking good John. Is all that wood fire wood or did you get any saw logs out of it? Not asking for me of course cause I can only get over there when it is snowing to beat the band or the Loudermilks are in town and then not often enough.

[Redoverfarm]

Looking good John. Is all that wood fire wood or did you get any saw logs out of it? Not asking for me of course cause I can only get over there when it is snowing to beat the band or the Loudermilks are in town and then not often enough.

Chuck the majority of this will be firewood.  There are some good saw logs in the bunch but I am not sure what kind of shape they will be in by the time I get them to the landing.  There was just no good way to remove them before punching the road.  Unlike logging where you punch the road and then cut the trees.  I guess I will see once I pull them out and get them to the top.  The majority I'm not sure that I would want to saw after they are dug out and slid through the dirt.  But we will see.  Let you know the next pickin date.  Looks like mid May.

[ChuckinVa]

I guess I will see once I pull them out and get them to the top.  The majority I'm not sure that I would want to saw after they are dug out and slid through the dirt.  But we will see.  Let you know the next pickin date.  Looks like mid May.

I had hoped to get over this month to get some ramps before they are all gone or too leafy but it will either have to be next week end or April. I'll try and keep Mid May in mind for the pickin. I have a set of log tongs if you need to borrow them to skid those logs behind your tractor but it might be better to use a skidder or the dozer if you have those available to you. I'm working on getting a F650 truck from work. We have a 98 model.diesel with about 65K milles on it. The injectors were just replaced by Ford and the Co has written it off so I think I can get it for a pretty good price. It was just inspected. Just waiting for the replacement truck to arrive which is supposed to be sometime in April. It has a 16 foot flat bed and a lift gate on it. Not sure what i would do with the lift gate but will have to figure it out.

[Redoverfarm]

Chuck thanks for the offer on the tongs.  I have decided to go ahead and pull them with the skidder.  Some of them are going to be difficult and although it may be possible with the tractor it is also possible that I may do damage to the bucket cylinders.  I think it is money well spent at $55 hr.  Some of the logs are substantial and I would just be more comfortable.  You will have to stop on teh way over/back and inspect the progress.

[Redoverfarm]

Well I think it is time to let my son start standing on his own two feet.  Monday we looked at and purchased a 2006 Chevrolet and traded off his little D50.  Although the D50 was good for his first vehicle it just didn't have any room and wasn't that dependable.  Since he has more or less a full time job in the winter and summer months I felt it was time.  Of Course Dad had to cosign but I really don't feel that there is any risk involved.   He needed to start establishing some credit.  The truck was a one owner with 48K mileage. 



Now off to the road building.

[ben2go]

Nice PU for the young man. 

[ChuckinVa]

  I have the same truck but mine has 148 K miles.  Dad and I are headed over Saturday. Probabaly will come back Williams River Road. Don't worry if you already have  plans. We will probably stop and if you are home we will see you and if not we won't .

[Redoverfarm]

I have the same truck but mine has 148 K miles.  Dad and I are headed over Saturday. Probabaly will come back Williams River Road. Don't worry if you already have  plans. We will probably stop and if you are home we will see you and if not we won't .

Not sure about Saturday yet.  Daughter has a Basketball game in Monterey sometime (am/early pm).  Then headed to Frankford for some Saturday Jam Session later that evening.     Stop by if you can maybe between the engagements. 

[Redoverfarm]

Nice PU for the young man. 

Yes he has worked hard and continues to so in way he's earned it.  But there is something wrong with this picture.  Mom & Dad's s are 2004 & 1999.

[ben2go]

Yes he has worked hard and continues to so in way he's earned it.  But there is something wrong with this picture.  Mom & Dad's s are 2004 & 1999.

Time to trade up. 

[ChuckinVa]

Not sure about Saturday yet.  Daughter has a Basketball game in Monterey sometime (am/early pm).  Then headed to Frankford for some Saturday Jam Session later that evening.     Stop by if you can maybe between the engagements.

Not sure what time we will be coming through as I really don't like Dad driving after dark but no way we can make the trip in a day with out that happening. Probably won't see you this trip if you are headed to Frankford. If we by some chance head back earlier we will check on you, otherwise maybe sometime in May.

[Redoverfarm]

Not sure what time we will be coming through as I really don't like Dad driving after dark but no way we can make the trip in a day with out that happening. Probably won't see you this trip if you are headed to Frankford. If we by some chance head back earlier we will check on you, otherwise maybe sometime in May.

 

Probably will not leave until around 7PM for Frankford.  Yes it is a long trip and hard to get it all in a day especially taking time to enjoy your ramps. 

[Redoverfarm]

Finally the hardest part is done on the road.  Still plenty to do but not as strenuous as this past week. 

Here is the last load of logs heading to the landing.  I had contimplated using my tractor to skid the logs but soon came to my senses.   If my tractor breaks I PAY and if his skidder breaks HE PAYS.  There is also the amount of time saved.



This is the larger landing and the logs that were cleared from the road in addition to the ones from the landing that I had posted earlier.  I left the 4 wheeler and chain saw in the the pictures to give you some idea of the size logs and the amount that were landed.

[ChuckinVa]

It sure beats pulling them one at a time. I talked with Dad this evening and we are going to leave lexington around 8:00 am Saturday. I'm hoping the weather won't be too bad to be out and about. He said he didn't think he could walk up the mountains very well so I guess we're going to have to find some close to the road.   I know where some are but I'm not sure I can get across the river to get to them. I hope we get to see you guys but like I said if not then next trip.
CHUCK

[Redoverfarm]

Pretty common site around here this time of the year.  I would expect a bumper crop of Turkeys this fall with the mild winter that we experienced.  Just a short drive this morning we saw about 6 flocks in the fields near the house.  The largest was about 40 birds.   Here is a picture taken from the house of a Gobbler sharing space with some deer.

[ben2go]

We have been over run with turkeys, so far this year.I have never seen so many in my entire life.

[Redoverfarm]

I've got grass.  Or should I rephrase to say "I'm getting grass".  No big deal you say.  Well considering that there was no top soil and the majority of the ground is groundhog shale I think it is coming along real well.  I didn't plant it until late fall of last year.  But it may be short lived when it becomes dry.  Top soil is the retention of moisture and without it there may not be much come late summer.

On another note.  The phoebe's have returned for the 6th year.  Different porch post but one of the family did return.  Earlier this year than previously but I heard someone say we are 4 weeks ahead of where we should be at this time of the year.

[ChuckinVa]

I'll be over to cut grass next week.

[Redoverfarm]

Finally got the road finished.  Well for the most part.  Caught a dry spell in this monsoon season.  I still need to sow grass for soil retention.    Installed 5 water gaps on the main run of about 1500 feet.  Probably not enough but it will suffice for now until I can line up the guard rail panels to install for open culverts.  I have a 5 ac field beside the house which had a drainage ditch to rid the water coming off the hill adjacent to barn.  Over the years the groundhogs had burrowed along it to where water would not drain.  So while I had the dozier I recut the ditch.  Maybe 400 feet.  The lower portion of the new road drains in that direction so I figured I would rather be safe than have a swimming pool in my hayfield.

The new generator was delivered on Wednesday to replace the defective one.  Spent part of Thursday re-wiring it to my AGS & Inverter.  Connected the gas supply line.  Need a couple more hours to complete this and I am back in buisness.   

[Redoverfarm]

Not much in the way of Dogtrot this past week.  Had other chores which I had to complete at the farm.  Did manage to get the road's final grade done.  I am waiting for some precipitation to settle the soil before I seed the road and embankment.  I did manage to get the drainage ditch and road entrance at the barn seeded and mulched.  Finally some much needed rain arrived this morning to get the grass started.

In the meantime cattle purchased for the summer grazing.  Boy are they high.  I have never seen cattle prices this high before.  In talking to some of the more prominent farmers they were in agreement that the cattle has reached an all time high. So get ready this fall for higher prices at the supermarket.  Here is a picture of three that I bought.  Sorry for the long distance shot but they were a little spoked after their ordeal. Hopefully they will settle down throughout the year.



Yes it is that time of year again. Picked up the kids annual 4-H/FFA pigs for this years project.  Here is a picture of the little girl.  Straight from the soccer field to the pig pen. 

[rick91351]

In the meantime cattle purchased for the summer grazing.  Boy are they high.  I have never seen cattle prices this high before.  In talking to some of the more prominent farmers they were in agreement that the cattle has reached an all time high. So get ready this fall for higher prices at the supermarket.

John they are high here as well.  I had to buy some replacement cows and calves this spring and good young stock cows (Angus and Black Baldies)  with 200 - 300 hundred pound calves by their side were running $1600 on up to $1750.  Or they were a couple weeks ago.  Last year I was picking up way, way better cows and calves for $1500 than I am this year for the same price.  They are still good cows, older meaning they will not be with us as long.  (Maybe four or five years before I will have to think about replacing them.)

I did have a bout of auction war blues....  I got in a bidding war with someone and bought a good young big framed cow and calf and went $1750 and laid awake for nights thinking about that.     Oh well Daddy said there would be days like that....     GGRRR!!!  @#$#@$@#O$ -- Stupid!  Well I'm about over it or was until I just relived it!   

Last month here I seen 400 to 500 hundred pound calves selling for $200 plus per hundred weight.  500 - 600 hundred pounders were going for $180 per hundred weight.  I have never in my wildest dreams ever thought or imagined that they could go that high.  A lot of the feed lot buyers and owner - operators  are really starting to get nervous and not buying as heavy as they were.   We here are already seeing a lot of movement in the meat counters my wife and I watch.  Costco I recently noted a huge jump in premium cuts.

There is not a lot of availability in cattle right now.  The Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas drought last year, caused them to take a lot cows to market that never would have went in a normal year.  That of course depleted a lot of herds.  Plus the culling of herds up this way down to nothing due to high hay and feed prices.  This now has reduced beef availability greatly in our area.  Stock cow hay as well as dairy hay both more than doubled in price out here in the west and northwest.  Unless you raise a lot of winter feed or have cheap winter feed available from other sources it is hard to impossible to make ends meet.       

[Redoverfarm]

Rick last week at the spring sale 300-400# steers went for $2.00 per pound, 400-500# was $1.65 and 500-600# was $1.50.  Shoot even the heavier stuff in the 700# and above range went for $1.20.  Any heifers close to breeding age of 750# were $1.30.  This was a spring sale so there were no cow/calf pairs but from what I understand you got a good buy by our standards being set here.   

Another thing I noticed that out of approximately 375 head only about 10 head graded out at L1 and the majority were M1.  That is a big decline from previous years.  Larger groups were sold as FG (Farmers Grade) which were not graded individually. 

I just hung around for the single's which were a good bit cheaper.  I couldn't afford the small or large groups anyway at those prices.   Just like Vegas it's a gamble whether the prices will stay firm this fall or the bottom will drop.  I would hate to have been the one that bougth 10-15 head at $1.60# and find out this fall they went to $1.15.   Their weight gain couldn't even pull them out to break even.

[Redoverfarm]

I am up and running again at Dogtrot.  Finished re-installing the new generator yesterday and tweaking the AGS and inverter.  Now I do not have any excuse to not vaccume and clean up.   I will go up this morning and see what transpired overnight or whether it had run in my absence.

I did notice an oddity when I recharged the water system.  The shower head did not have very good flow rate.  In the fall (early winter) I drained and blew out the water lines including the shower.  I took the shower head off to investigate.  It has never been used yet.  SAND    or what appeared to be sand was clogging it.  Normally it would be a simple explanation if the well pump was installed too close to the bottom of the well and other spigots experienced the same thing.  But the well is a good 10-15 feet off the bottom so it is doubtful that I am picking up anything.  Cleared that away and run it again w/o the head and into a clear plastic bottle.  I left it sit for several minutes just to see if any more would appear and settle to the bottom.  None. 

[mgramann]

Have you considered a whole house water filter?  There aren't that expensive, and would be cheap insurance for your fixtures.

[Redoverfarm]

Well I spoke too soon on the generator.  I have been intermittently trying to get the generator in sync with the inverter charger.  After multiple calls to Magnum Energy and trying different solutions I think it "may"   be running the way that it was intended and originally set up.  Apparently when I disconnected the inverter and batteries when I had to send my generator in for repairs I had lost a lot of parameters which I initially set and re-entered them wrong when I re-installed the new generator.  One problem was the internal clock on the generator was not in sync with the AGS (automatic generator start) internal clock.  When I left this evening the inverter controller indicated 49.2 VDC with 92% SOC.  I keep monitoring the voltage to determine exactly where 50% SOC will be so I can further "tweak" the system.

Installed another toilet inthe loft bathroom which I got at the auction last week.  It is a one piece, dual flush similar to the one that froze and broke last fall. 

I did manage to install the two pre-entry doors I had bougth at an auction a short time ago.  I can tell you that Korea has a long way to go in quality control.  Missing parts, miss tapped screw location, incorrect welds and the list goes on.  But as a whole they are pretty heavy built doors which have a deadbolt system and a little modification and figuring out the parts location ( No direction not that I would use them anyway) I got both done without too many left over parts.   There are two reason I bought these doors. One being ventilation (full length glass or full length screens) the other in that it will keep the heavy snow accumulation off of the main entry doors.  These were put on the doors to the deck area on each side of the back foyer.



Nature never ceases to amaze me.  I noticed that the Teaberry plants were in bloom.  I just never noticed before that they would have to bloom to bare fruit    They bare fruit all winter but only bloom in the spring I guess as I have never seen them bloom in the winter but they have fruit. 



And a picture in the fall