Changes

With the changes happening in my life there are a lot of things to think about, plan out and prepare for. Moving away from my farm was never even remotely in my plans. Of course meeting someone falling in love and getting married again was nowhere in my thoughts or plans either.

The big question my friends ask is if I am going to sell the 60 acres of the farm that I kept. Nope I am going to sell it. I/ Now WE need it and want to keep for a lot of reasons. One of the big reasons is that it is 40 acres of HAY Land after I sold all of the cattle last week. Anything resembling hay land in TN is EXPENSIVE and we have horses, mules and Mammoth Jack donks to feed. Dana spends a small fortune on Hay every year. The Place in IL will save her/us a small fortune in hay every year. And not long before we met I had just bought a new baler, 10 wheel rake, 6 basket tedder and mower conditioner. My plan was to get rid of the livestock and convert everything to hay and selling hay. I only have 10 acres in orchard grass/red clover this year but am going to pull the cross fencing and plant orchard grass/Alfalfa on the 30 acres of pasture. Yeah a lot of the bales look like crap LOL, took a while to get the baler twine wrapping fine tuned to get a good wrap on the bales and the pressure set to making real dense 4x5 1200 pound bales. Ended up with 90 bales off of 10 acres when I finally got the dry spell to do it. That clover and grass was so thick and we were wet for so long............... Best yield I have gotten in the 16 years that has been a hay field like a huge yield. Getting rid of the cattle was a huge change but one that had to happen and well there is as much or more money in the hay as there was in the cattle and a whole lot less work.



I finally had to call in after hours help on Saturday to figure out the wrapping problem and the Service Manager and Senior Field Mechanic appeared and took about two hours to get the glitch in the balers computer figured out and fixed. Made perfect bales thereafter. And they sat in the shade and watched.............. drinking my beer until the baling was finished LOL. Advised that if we were not friends that I would have had to wait until Monday morning. Always a good practice to have good friends that are mechanics, Doctors and lawyers



I like BIG Windrows and I cannot Lie LOL


The only new piece of hay equipment that was not new was the John Junk Mower Conditioner. It was in great shape and $7500 for it was to good of a deal to pass up. I am going to have to paint it Oliver Green and white though and pretend it is not johnny Junky I will give it credit though it mows great and the rollers do a fine job crushing the hay for a fast dry down time.


So I started moving things to TN last week


Far less than impressed with the Black Ram 1500s MPG pulling a trailer with only a couple of tons in the trailer. I need Red back from the shop LOL Da Big super modified Red averages 21-22mpg pulling a trailer with 6 tons on it! Of course the price of diesel vs gas makes it not as worthwhile as it sounds LOL

Two load to TN down and who knows how many more to go


I figured I needed to move the more expensive stuff first. Like there are no more guns or ammo left at the farm in IL. Just my side pieces and the truck rifle. All of the Milwaukee, Dewalt, Snap On and old craftsman tools are here in TN now. My cheap harbor freight and box store brand tools can stay North.

I have to do the hard part next and pick and choose what else to bring South. Dana doesn't have as much stuff as I have but her set up is smaller and different and doesn't have room for all of my stuff + her stuff. I bought the deck over tilt trailer for moving tractors and hay around, But I can get the 20' shipping containers winched on to it and move them down here. And leave the three 40' High Cubes North. I put a 24,000 pound winch on the trailer so can drag the containers on without breaking a sweat.


Oliver, Ac7060 and they hay equipment are going to stay North. The M5660, Box blades, bush hogs and a few other implements and the new BX23 are coming SOUTH I guess the old BX22E and the BX25D can stay North locked up in the machine shed with the other tractors and new baler.

The thought is to consolidate all of tools and use one 20' container as a tool shed and the other 20' container as a big insulated and climate controlled pantry and get another minislplit heat pump to keep it 50 degrees year round. LOL We both have considerable food hoards. Anyway those two containers will free up a lot of garage space and empty spare bedroom and 10x18 walk in closet/pantry of food and tools. The 10x14 walk in closet actually holds all of her and my guns and ammo, Tight but it works.

She is going to retire in 5 years and we are going to revisit where we want to live after she retires. My place is 4x bigger and has the better resources and set up. Her place is nice and well not in Illinois. I have a offer of $1.2 million for my place and that sort of complicates things in my decision making. I could buy a real good chunk of that expensive TN rolling and flat hay land with that money and avoid the capital gains taxes in doing so. But I have invested 16 years, time, money and a whole lot of me into my place. The only thing I don't like about my place is the fact that it is in Illinois LOL. My new car talks to me and when I CROSS the state line going into IL it says "Welcome back to the Communist Peoples State of Illinois!" When I come back to TN and cross the TN State line it says "Welcome Back To America!!!"

Kind of glad that I kept the box truck! It will come in real handy for moving my boxes of stuff. I also kept the older F150 and my now aging Charger can use them to look like somone is parked and still living there, Can watch the new camera system on the computer from TN, and the generator will kick on and charge the battery bank up as needed keeping the LED Lights and Radios on. I will still go back 3-5 days per Month to Mow and keep things up and in good repair.

And will spend a lot of my time there over the next six weeks picking and choosing what will come South. We share the same moral/ethical beliefs on pretty much everything. A big one is Living Together outside of being married. It is one thing to come and spend 2-3 nights and stay in the spare bedroom. It is another thing to share a bed and bedroom and me move in and live here without us being married. So much for Christians having the market corned on morality

5 Months ago if someone told me I would be where I am at today........... We would have to chat about the drugs they were using

Not exactly a easy endeavor for me to move from there to here and a lot to do there to get stuff sorted and under lock key and camera. Bright side is I am not moving the entire Farm AGAIN! And it is only 236 miles from my barn to hers. The funniest thing is how and where we met ...... A SOLO Prepper, Homestead and Offgrid FB group that turned out to be a singles booty call and meat market group. Our first conversation was in a thread called "Barriers to this meeting thing" A thread I started outlining the challenges of two people being fairly equal and well established with their own places that each is heavily vested in. ANd our first conversation was about IT WON'T WORK and then we speculated as to whether we would catch STDs by just being in that FB group. LOL it was not the kind of group either of us thought we were joining or what it was billed as being. Can you believe the Moderators of group KICKED ME OUT of the group!!!! And Dana left it like 10 minutes after that. We obviously kept in touch and started visiting each other at our respective places a couple of Months ago and here we are going to get married and making it work.

I pretty much come down here to visit since she very often works 6 days per week. Me being retired just makes that the most practical solution to the distance barrier. And we get to spend considerably more quality time together. Unless she has a 2-3 day weekend and can spend more time North. And no disrespect to Dee intended but I have never met a woman like Dana that I have almost everything in common with and we think so much alike. I literally have never been as happy in life as I am right now.

ANd when I got back from Henderson a bit ago Poo and Una went at it hard. Una ran out the door and attacked Poo.............. Una got her ass handed to her and laid down on her side in submission with Poo's teeth around her neck. Una FInally made Poo mad and Poo popped open that can of asswhoop on her. Una should have just left it alone. Poo would never have challenged her for the alpha spot here. Up North on Poo's home turf sure but here nope. As usual in a fight Poo didn't get a scratch and Una has punctures and rips from muzzle to tail..gROWING UP FROM PUP TO 8 YEARS old fighting coyotes that want to kill and eat Poo makes her a hardcore combat vet with a lot of experience. Una never stood a chance, she just didn't know it until today. All of that full pit crushing power and weighing 20 pounds more than Poo means nothing if Una can't even get a bite in on Poo. Not sure what Dana is going to think when she gets home and sees all of the new scars Una is going to have. I guess in the long run one of them had to be the dominate alpha over both of our packs since they are going to merge into one big pack. Dana's 100+ pound male dogs are even submitting to Poo now. That will make merging the two packs a whole lot easier.

 

I always love these posts and pictures and the story!

I am constantly amazed how technical farming has become, maybe always has been (I certainly wouldn't know) and how financial savvy the farmer must be to be successful.

"...and the other 20' container as a big insulated and climate controlled pantry and get another minisplit heat pump to keep it 50 degrees year round."
I thought about doing that here (North Idaho) but got scared off as it gets damn cold here, sometimes below zero but not for long, and can get high 90's in summer. So, interested to hear how you actually do this and the results...perhaps the temperatures aren't so bad in Tennessee?

"...Poo and Una went at it hard...Dana's 100+ pound male dogs are even submitting to Poo now."
I never doubt this would be the final result...

 

@bandit 99 ,,,, that's exactly what I was going to say ,, I love reading the story , and seeing the pics as well .

Poo may have just figured out that this was going to be the new situation,,, and just finally said ,, " let's get it figured out now , and get along with life "

Happy to hear things are going well for you KK ,,, you've been thru a lot in the past couple of years ,, I'm not a real religious man ,, but based on my my growing up years ,, influence from my grandparents and aunts and uncles,,, I believe the good lord gives us what we need , when we need it,, if that's true ,, then I suppose he's got you back on track ,,, hell,, who knows ,,, maybe Dee even had a hand in this .
Carry on brother ,,, best wishes to ya ,,,,

 

I hardly ever post anything but you are one of my favorite people on this site! Love hearing about your life's ups and downs. Many of us experience life changing challenges and just trying to cope with what to do next after a love one has passed. The simple expression of "life goes on" never really hits home until it happens to you. I wish you the best for you and your new found love, you deserve the best!

 

I insulated one of the 40' with that 4" purple wall board stuff top and bottom and put the 12K BTU DYI MR Cool on it. In 20 back in 2021 set it on 70 degrees and it has kept it 70 degrees in that container every day since. And DRY they act as dehumidifiers as well. Southern IL runs high 90s to over 100 July through September and we usually 1-3 weeks of -5 to 10 above. Literature for that one says it will keep working to -20. I keep a small DUraflame propane heater mounted on the wall with a 40# tank outside. It cost around $20 per month electric to maintain 70.

I got the Kubota 4160E baler because it is the most basic and simple New baler made now days. It can make as small as a 4x4 bale or as big as 4x5.5 and can really put the pressure to the chamber and make a damned dense bale. The 4x4s I made weigh 750-800 pounds and the 4x5s came in it 1250-1300 pounds and it is designed for 45-70hp tractors. Ideal for the M5660 that has 57hp on the engine and 60hp on the PTO. Had to run it on OLiver because my valves and stuff to put a second set of remotes on the M didn't arrive in time. I got a deal on that Baler because it is brand new but is a 2022 that sat on a dealership lot for 2 years.and they wanted it gone so I got it for $12,000 and it has the full warranties and service warranties on it. The problem is the mechanic that came out and set it up had the wrap settings all screwed up and threaded the twine into the arms wrong and didn't loosen the tensioners on the twine feed so when it tried to wrap it would break the twine. And then when it didn't break the twine half would wrap and then go past the edge of the bale and make a big tangled twine mess. John the senior field mechanic has been working on my Junk for 16 years and knows Kubota Balers inside and out and about every other brand as well. Took him less than a hour to get it all set up right and wrapping perfect every time. Josh the service Manager came along to learn from John, so he would know more when talking to customers. Young guy that manages the department great but not a lot of hands on experience with the machines themselves.

Last week Starting the Saturday before last was the FARM WEEK FROM HELL! One of those weeks where everything you touch turns to liquid crap in yer hands or breaks or breaks and then turns to liquid crap above your head! LOL I have been in agony all week because Saturday before last I was loading the Breeding herd of cattle into the buyers trailers. They brought a dozen people to get them and none of them knew anything about cattle in particular bulls. So my load out is pretty basic I move the ones I want to load into the front half and then just walk a cattle panel around them in a half circle so the only place they have to go is in the trailer. Its a nice calm process that has never failed. It all went great until the last young bull. fortunately a bull that only weighed 600 pounds. He was being stuborn about getting on the trailer and the proper course of action is to just remain calm and wait the 5-10 minutes for him to figure it out. NO a bunch of kids start screaming and yelling and 3 guys start hitting his ass with sticks and he goes NUTS. He hit the cattle panel in front of me low and sent me flying to land face down in the narrow spot between front and back of the barn and then proceeds to go full pissed off bull on me. If he had horns I would be dead now as it is he just worked me over with his head and then trampled all over my back. 4 cracked ribs, deep bruised kidneys on the soft sides and a dislocated shoulder later he was done with me LOL. Shoulder hurt like MF fix but easy enough, ribs are the lower 2 on each side so not horrible. The deep bruised kidneys and torn muscle along the spine lower back NOW THAT SHIT HURTS its going to hurt for another 3-4 weeks LOL. I had no where to go or roll to and the only option a smart person takes in that situation is lay there like a wet noodle and take yer ass whooping until the bull gets bored with you. If you tense up, or try to get away the bull is just going to stomp and hit you harder and longer. And oh yeah put yer arms over the back of yer head a broken arm is better than a broken skull. I got up after the ass whooping. Wedged my wrist between two boards asked the buyer "DO YOU HAVE MY MONEY ON YOU?" He held out a bank bag with 4 10k stacks in it and I hobbled over to a stump and sat down said "You can load yer own Fing bull" A hour later they were leaving with their bull and I was heading to Docs house to see how bad I was hurt......... When Doc returned my call and said just stay there I will come check you out there. Doc arrived Taped the ribs up, concluded the rest was a lot of torn muscle and deep bruising but If In started peeing or crapping blood to get to the ER ASAP. And TZake it real easy for the next 2-3 weeks,

I mowed the hayfield Tuesday Raked it Thursday wasted Friday trying to bale. Got the baler in order Saturday afternoon and finished baling about Dark Saturday night. Hopped in the Truck with the trailer that I fortunately loaded with stuff Before the Bull incident and drove to TN.where Dana unloaded the trailer Sunday Morning thankfully and I have been taking it easy since LOL. I do need to go back North Tomorrow Morning and get the bales out of the field and bring Duke and PoP down to TN. I left them enough Food and Water for 5 days and they can come and go from the Cabin to the Dog yard via the doggy door. Can only travel with 2 of the dogs at a time so I bring Poo and BB with me and leave Duke and PoP to guard the Cabin while I am gone. Now that all of the high dollar stuff is down here from the cabin no need to keep leaving them. Amazing my pack accepts Dana and listens to her........ often better than they listen to me. And Damn we have a lot of overly protective dogs with our two packs merged. She can't figure out why my 60-80 pound dogs can whoop her 100+ pound pit mixes into submission. Sigh hers are big strong and on the mean side but have never fought anything but each other in dominance spats. Poo, PoP and Duke grew up fighting mean things that wanted to kill and eat them. And are Pit/Aussie mixes that Aussie intelligence combined with pit strength and bites is a brutal combination. I was proud of Poo yesterday, she could have killed Una before I could have stopped her. Instead she locked onto Una's throat firm but not firm enough to even break skin and laid Una down on her side until Una went limp in total submission. The whole pack dynamic changed. I really did not want Poo to be alpha and Poo had no interest in being alpha or fighting Una I guess though that Poo being top dog will make combing our packs a lot easier. BB and Theo are both little dogs with big attitudes and both are 15 years old and just don't give a shit about the other dogs one way or the other at their age. 9 Dogs though with 7 of them being 7-8 years old and 60-140 pounds is A LOT of Dogs. We are going to have big dog food bills LOL

 

KK, ",,,insulated one of the 40' with that 4" purple wall board stuff top and bottom and put the 12K BTU DYI MR Cool on it."
I assume you did the walls also with 4 inch? Just checking...

Sounds like you were lucky with the Bull. Take it easy and give yourself time to heal now...

"We are going to have big dog food bills."
And, lots of dog poop! LOL!

 

Laying face down ass up in the cow shit with a young 600 pound bull working me over was not one of more glorious moments in life LOL I am just glad he was only mad and not horny

 

Funny, I paint all of my equipment John Deere Green and Yellow...regardless of who made it! Well, not the Woods bush hog!

 

Not as I recall, but then we would have had a couple of thousand small bales, which had to be loaded on to a cotton wagon and then unloaded at the barn! Good times!

 

Round bales and Big Squares are the only way to go now days.

 

Yeah, but small hay bales built character 60 lbs. at a time...and that's what young people are lacking today!

 

Yea ,, good luck finding a young fart looking to build some character these days ,,, you're better off just continuing to maintain your own character ,,,

 

My Father paid us $1/hr., we were at the field by noon, my Mother fixed lunch for all of us. We loaded hay bales onto cotton wagons until sundown, Mother fixed dinner, then we took the hay to the barn, unloaded and stacked it. About midnight, we all went to the house, stripped down to our underwear and went for a swim in the pool. Afterward, we dried of, dressed and my Mother served a late-night snack. Then everyone went home and got some sleep. REPEAT

 

I used to haul for a nickel a bale.