Been busy lately!!! But many thoughts racing around my head!

The weather has finally cooled off enough that I can get out and work on many of the projects I have wanted to do. Plus the boys are chopping so I try to slip over and help some. All of that has meant that I have much less time on the PC/internet. So I am sure I have missed out on all types of things world wide. LOL More than likely a good thing.

It is funny that many of us have "worked" so long that if we don't work we feel guilty about it. That is kind of a strange thing really. I guess we place a lot of our self worth on what we can do. I know I feel strange not doing the chores in the morning/nights. It is not that I feel my son can't do the job as well it is more of missing the standard routine that I have done for most of my adult life. I actually miss the crisp cold morning air. The smell of the cattle and feed in the air. That is many times the most peaceful feeling you can have. Sounds are like that too. I kind of miss the bang of the hog feeder lids in the barn yard or the soft grunts of a sow nursing her litter of piglets.

I did get to meet and talk to a fellow that owns/runs a large farming operation in Brazil. It cultivates about 50,000 acres. He is an interesting man. He has a very different view on the world of farming. He is a second generation owner/grower. He told me he rarely is in the fields for much besides checking crop conditions. I do not think I would like that much. His life is more book work and number pushing. That would not be interesting to me.

So all of you have a safe harvest and enjoy the fall season.

Shoot I keep trying to catch up to may self and seem like every time I try I find I have 2 or 3 others pop up so I fall behind even more. Still need to fix the Geo tracker clutch pedal problem. Get the boys truck fixed and the Yamaha XS650 fixed. Also need to do a 2nd cutting of hay and now have to get my Old Chev back on the road so I can haul in the Dodge D-50 I just did a trade for. Plus go and look at a NH diesel for some one tomorrow to see if I can figure out why it will only run for a few minutes and died

Hey old, my buddy had a NH diesel loader tractor. Really a Fiat, was running and shutting down. Finally called the dealer, they came fooled with it for a while , then took it back to the shop. Computer was toast,8000 hrs on tractor.

I know what you mean,, I am so use to working that I can hardly just "set around" on Sunday,, and vacations have me looking for some one working...and a week away is about all I can do. I am married to a sweet "City woman",, and she can set around doing nothing all day, and sleeps till 10:30-11 no problem,, I get up at 6:30 and am ready do get at some thing first thing, I guess starting out young with daily chores have shaped our lives to be this way. Growing up My Brother and I had feeding chores to do before we got on the bus every morning, and 1 cow to milk, I milked her in the morning, I was a bit older and could get it done faster, we would fill feed buckets and lay bales of hay out the nite before so we could get done quicker in the morning, and our running water back then was 2 buckets and run to the water tough. And the sounds of hog feeder lids and cattle eating and moving around, along with a tractor working hard spinning a feed grinder are music to my ears too...

Those words are ever so true, just trying to get caught up on things I've put off all summer. We haven't started to chop corn yet
but have everything ready to start except a silo pipe repair. Some more 2nd crop to make & a tractor that has been apart longer than
I care to remember, but now have all the parts for & losing all of JUNE for any outside work. I've built a hunting shed for my step
father on a Ingersoll ran compressor 4 wheel wagon frame, insulated, sink stove & frig, table , chairs bed & carpet, porch off the back
with gun racks included, just pull it to where the deer are running. Thankfully lately the grass hasn't grow & is dying off.. Removed
hornets nest that's been growing, ( UNSTUNG ). Built a fire pit & laid a stone for it & the picnic table ( More Items off the Honey List)
Working full time job as a Parts manager, feeding cow's calves & hauling manure ,combine'g oats baling straw ,attending church a BIL Funeral
& weddings. High school 40th reunion. Oh & painting the window frames & install a new storm door since the 2nd week of August.. Last nite
I mowed the whole lawn, but 1st replaced a deck spindle bear in the J/D Mower, trimmed with a push mower, after my chores, installed a rack
in the bus for my wife, then built a fire & cooked some dogs & bean over the fire pit, relaxed & enjoyed something I've done.....

I understand farming is a business and it pays in volume, get bigger or get out, and the really really big will do better until they crash and it starts all over again, get bigger.... Land/crop farming will follow poultry, dairy, and hogs into the vertically integrated, big ownership, pay folks $10 an hour to do the grunt work, model. Technology allows simpletons to operate the 3pt at the ends of rows, and I'm sure even that is going to be replaced with totally auto tractors.

Bigger is better, and I understand that. I'm not planning to lay down in front of progress to block it, I know I only get run over.....

Kinda glad I will be out by then tho, as it seems a poor way to farm. I guess I don't measure everything in dollars. Not much 'farming' when you are just managing a business same as a Target, Walmart, Napa store, etc. its business, not farming.

I enjoy farming.

Paul

JD, don't worry about those thoughts racing around in your head........it's a real short track! :lol: :lol:

Rick

I enjoy my cows and putting up some hay. I will keep on doing it until I am unable. Nothing like visiting with the "girls" in the morning and watching the calves run around. Worst part is the bookwork. Bud

Feel the same way. Progress has wiped out an enjoyable lifestyle and made it like "Walmart". How can Switzerland farmers stay "frozen in time" and not change the way they do things?

I know what you mean, JD. Being officially "retired" takes the urgency off things, but I would be pretty bored not having something to do. So far, I haven't had any problems with being bored....................(smile)

As Old said, every time I cross one item off the top of the list, five more seem to magically appear at the bottom of the list.

This is an older one. From what I can tell good chance the fuel pump is going bad. Not the injector pump but the pump between the tank and the injector pump

We had a group of Brazilian students stop and look over the new hay rake, do not have that happen every day.

Understand full well what you are feeling JD. I have many acquaintances ( I'll call them that not real friends) who can't comprehend why I am always busy working and don't golf,play etc. I tell them it is only Work if you would rather be doing something else.