This weeks Farming Update from Ben

Oh so much this week. 

I’m not so grumpy this week, either. 

Oats has been harvested and the swather is running. 

The End

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(Making the story longer…)

I had my own personal odyssey adventure this week. Wasn’t nearly as dramatic as the movie, and didn’t involve quite so many sirens, or shipwrecks, or islands, and no lotus leaves, but several destinations and multiple issues were involved. There was even been some bloodshed. Of course I’m talking about the swather.

Everybody says it’s just a plain slant six engine and, you know, just pick a car that had a slant six in it. Well, I tried ‘67 Plymouth Valiant and none of their pieces fit. We tried some ‘74 vehicles to no avail. And then one day I’m walking out of Menards and I see this old car, (it turned out to be a 1958 Pontiac), I see this old car pulling in and it sounded really cool, it sounded better than it looked. And I get in my vehicle and then I think to myself that guy knows what a slant six is and I see him walking into the store. I called out to him and we stood in the parking lot and talked for 10 minutes. His name was Tony. And he suggests I try parts for an Dodge D100 pickup, otherwise try the NAPA store in Zumbrota, a little more rural town, probably a lot more familiar with a swather than anybody in Rochester. I tried the D100 but that didn’t work either. 
On Monday I drove to Zumbrota. A dog greeted me in the store, a blue healer like Bailey but without the Pomeranian mixed in, and he just kind of looked me over and  didn’t get too involved. He checked out everybody that came in but minded his own business. Occasionally barked at random things, with the same shrill piercing bark that Bailey has.

When I got to the counter, I said I was looking for ignition parts for a John Deere 800 swather and another guy says “Yep they’re in the book over there.”  Well, there’s a start. At least they knew what I was talking about. And the guy goes to the book and has trouble finding it and the other guy says it’s under “windrower” and he comes over and flips a few pages to the right place.

He doesn’t have the rotor or the distributor cap, but he finds the ignition points and condenser, and then I get new spark plugs and new spark plug wires and he tells me the NAPA store in Cannon Falls has the distributor and the rotor. I’m this far away from home, what’s another 20 minutes. He gives me the part numbers and in Cannon Falls the guy goes in the backroom and says yeah they’re little dusty but we got them. I told him what I was working on. “Oh yeah, the sidehill hemi.” I haven’t heard that term before but he says yeah, that’s what they call the slant six, ‘the sidehill hemi’ and apparently because this is the industrial version it has a cast-iron crankshaft which is a big deal. I mean if you know you know. I don’t know, but those of you in the know, you know. 

By the time I got home on Monday the boys were here and we spent the rest of the day working in the pole barn. Tuesday I had the boys rebuild the door and I had them each pound in some nails just for the experience of it. Surprisingly, number one did really well and much better than I expected. Number two had a little trouble but he managed. I keep telling them someday when they own a home this will matter.

On Wednesday we finished the boards in the pole barn and got the door put back on. I have to get some latches yet but I can cross that project off my list. And I am just tickled about it all. 

They started combining oats on Monday.
Got about a third of it done, filled up the grain cart, and then couldn’t get their truck started. Rounded up another truck, and then it rained overnight. The co-op said everybody’s oats has been pretty good this year. So was it the fact I planted it on soybean fields, was it the weather, was it planted early, fertilizer, fungicide? I don’t know, the only thing different I did was the crop rotation: Oats on soybeans, rather than oats on corn. But if everybody’s was good then who knows.

They finished the oats on Thursday. Whew! Ended up about 65 bushels / acre and good test weight. Price is down. 

I mowed weeds, took the mower off, tried to power wash it, but now the powerwasher won’t run. Jeepers… if it’s not one thing, it’s your mother. 

I put the loader back on, moved some stuff, took the loader back off, hooked the baler up, had P2 cut grass, P1 pulled out wagons for straw and checked tires. I cleaned out the pole barn to be ready for straw. Welded the frame of the rake back together, double raked some of the straw fields (meaning I put two rows into one) A heavier windrow makes a better bale, and not so many trips around the field. I’m only planning 2 or 3 loads in the barn (300-450 bales) and will have large round bales made of the rest. A neighbor said he would take those. 

So, yeah, It’s been a busy week. 

And those swather parts: It was Friday before we got to it. I had P1, the car guy do some of it. I told him he can become the expert on these old parts for his age group. And the swather started right off! Drove it to the shed so we can replace spark plugs and spark plug wires. It was 3:30 on Friday and I said we’re calling this a win and we’re stopping there. 

HAVE YOU SEEN THE ODYSSEY MOVIE? READ THE BOOK?

HOW ABOUT THE ILLIAD?