I'm impressed

We use 80/20 talc/graphite seed lubricant in the corn planter.  I wanted to stock up early because the last year or two it has been a little short supply in season.  We've checked various Rural King Supply stores, Big R, etc and not found ANY. I was getting a bit frustrated.

Aman, Ben, and I went to the show at Gordyville yesterday and I ran across the guys from Precision Seeding. 

We had purchased a few things from them in the past, and I asked about 80/20. Sure, no problem.  It's $xx.xx a jug and we'll ship it to you.  I said sure, send me 3 jugs. Didn't give the salesman anything but my business card.  I figured I'd get a call from a secretary in a day or two asking "..and how did you wish to pay for this?".

This afternoon I check the package box at the back door and inside is a box with 3 jugs of 80/20!

I'm impressed.

We finally got to haul some corn today. 

 I think when I win the lottery I'll put hopper bottoms under all the bins.  We also got to play with one of our new toys, the conveyor I bought late last fall

Worked pretty good.  Gotta run.  Later Y'all

What a difference a week makes

It's January in Illinois.

That means one week you look out the back door to a beautiful morning

and a week later you're driving on the Angling Road through this

So ... what are we getting done on the farm?

Waiting

We're waiting on parts so we can get stuff out of the shop so we can put more stuff in the shop to work on and wait on more parts.  Right now we are waiting on a call from a trailer salesman.  We've been tossing back and forth whether to stretch the IH semi tractor and make a 10-wheeler out if it, of keep it a semi and get a trailer.

I can argue both ways with equal enthusiasm.

Yesterday we called a salesman who gave us a quote for a trailer and told him we'd take it if he'd deliver it.  He said he'd run some numbers and let us know.

So far he hasn't said yes or no.

We're also going to meetings.  Had to go to a meeting at Richard's Farm today.  Yeah, I know, bad job but someone has to do it.

Decisions ... decisions

I did something kind of impulsive a few weeks ago and bought a single axle semi tractor

Good looking little tractor.  But we have been kicking around whether to get a short trailer or put a set of tandems under it, stretch the frame, and move the bed off the Ford on to it.

We've looked at a couple trailers.  One salesman even came out and looked at the Ford!

He hasn't got back with a price yet.  But he has a new 24 ft Maurer trailer that is pretty tempting.

Our biggest reservation isn't cost as much as figuring out if a trailer is the best move for us.  I don't think a long trailer would be a wise choice, but maybe a short one.  If we get a long trailer not only is it more difficult to maneuver, but it is substantially larger than everything else, which causes bottlenecks in harvest.

Decisions, decisions.

Anyone need a modem?

I guess technology moves on. We are in the process of shuffling computers around.  We started to work on Mom's records when the hard drive died.  I wasn't too inclined to put much money and time in a Windows 98 machine, so we took the Xp computer from the tool room and moved it to the house.  I had another Xp machine at home we weren't using for much, so I'm taking it to the shop.  However, to use it in the shop it needed a wireless modem.  To install that I had to remove the telephone modem

I guess that is progress.

I'm also learning about wireless networking.  I got Sue a new laptop for her birthday.  The Lexmark printer in the office had wireless capabilities but I never tried getting it to work. So I sat down and configured her laptop, my laptop, and the netbook to work with it.  Amazingly, it worked!

Who knows, someday I might be current with technology.

Are we done celebrating yet?

I enjoy the holidays, I really do.  But between Christmas and New Year's and traveling and birthdays and anniversaries and visiting plus the regular day to day stuff ...  I haven't written much about the farm.  And now I getting ready for taxes.  I'll write more soon.  Be prepared for a tax rant.