spring at last... in pictures

It would seem that we finally have winter in the rear view mirror. Good bye and good riddance. Two blizzards, one a record setter, cold for weeks on end and holy cow did it get muddy when it thawed out but yet we endured.


Nothing is more a sign of spring on the farm than the annual spreading of the poo! So we started on wednesday and we spread....


...and spread...


... and spread untill the last load about 8pm saturday night.



We were able to knock out a small fence building job last week before the manure spreading. Trying to get it done we worked well into the dark on monday night. Nick and Travis were stapling the fence to the corner post using the tractor lights to see.


Another sure sign of spring is calves running around the lots. Seeing the calves running around is a nice way to start the day.


Took this pic this afernoon. A warm windy march day with abundant sunshine. These three tractors, a combined 108 years of expirence and about 24 thousand hours of use are still going strong. They take care of most of our daily cattle chores.


These early spring days when we start working long days take their toll on all of us, even wrigley. This day I caught him napping in the tractor seat. He is upstairs sleeping right now. He had another hard day! Oh a dogs life.
bill

Thats pretty cool Bill. I sure do hope that we are heading into spring. It was a long winter

Our's is still frozen down!

Not just yet for us over here in the buckeye . My buddy and i were talking this evening that MAYBE , just Maybe we might be able to start to clean the barn IF we don't get a bunch of rain. As for anything else not this week . I have a ton of work to do on the new to use disk chisel and then there is the let's fix the wing on the 470 I H disc that a weld let go on one of the wings and it is sprung and will need a lot of work to get it back in place before i put the Lincoln ready bolt to it . Then there is the spring service to all the rolling stock plus the need to a new set of 18.4x38's for the 1066 and a new set of 18.4x34's for my 806 . And as soon as the parts get here for the chisel we will get on that first, now as being able to pull it That is yet to be seen , not sure if we have enough pony power yet. It is a Landoll that has had some shell we say BARN YARD engineering done to it and now is sporten 5 DMI Parabolic shanks with 5 inch Tiger points. Got to do some work on the wheel lift .
Untitled URL Link

That 'walk" gate. Lots of guys here in SD are putting ATV cattle guard gate there. Just buzz through a lot of fences when calving and other chores.

The kids are ready to start farming, The tractors are still inside waiting to go to work here. Still have quit a bit of corn to get out of the bins and get it hauled. Gonna be in the fields before we know it.

Went to the WIU bull sale friday night and there was a tractor putting on NH3 right north of deere crossing. Saw NH3 tanks moving around here today so I'm guessing someone is running. I think we will try to get the ripper and the moldboard plow ready in the next day or so and stir a little dirt. A couple more nice days wont hurt.
bill

I figured some dirt will get turned over around here pretty quick. Not sure when dad plans on getting things rolling, not for a while I would guess but soon

Always interesting to see how Spring moves north, across the USA, plus the level of "cabin fever" that us Northerners don"t understand, from Southerners that are itching to plant in Feb, Mar, etc. Here, we know planting is mid-late April, some years at best. We are an hour NW of MPLS, had snow cover since Thanksgiving, when the ground was thawed, so had little to no frost...field drain tiles and rivers running all winter. Alfalfa should come through the winter in great shape, with no winterkill. Had 60-80 inches snow this winter, Feb thaw sent a lot into the ground and down the rivers. Flooding still a threat from later snowfalls, but now, many fields are nearly black. I always figure that we get into the fields three weeks after the snow melt, so with the limited cover we have now, I expect field work to start about mid-April.

Nice pics, Bill I always enjoy them. Here in NW Iowa most of the ponds have soaked in but there is still some frost out there. Maybe in a week I will be able to rip three of the four locations where the cornstalk bales sat but that's just because the ground is high and sandy in those spots. Fieldwork won't go for quite awhile yet. We do need a good rain to get the rest of the frost out. Jim

i got the 70 and moldboard plow out last evening and plowed the corn stubble at grandmas. glad to have it done. plowed very nice. had a couple damp spots but nothing bad.

Pictures dang it lets see the PICTURES!!!!
bill