Oh this is so cool!

One difficulty we have found with the Kenworth is the bed is so tall you can just barely see in it ... if you stand hanging with your fingernails in the cab door.  We looked at Cab Cam kits  a couple places, but kept talking ourselves out of it.  We stopped at Bristol Hillbilly's (aka Palestine Auto Parts) one day and played with one Steve had on display.  I took a deep breath and said "OK"

Boy am I going to regret this.

Because now we will end up having to get one for the other trucks and one for the combine and if Wifey Dearest realizes how well it works we may have to get one for the Honda.

It worked out very well.  We (OK, Aman did the work while I was spending the day doing bookwork.  I'd MUCH rather have traded him jobs) put one camera on the front of the bed

and one at the rear pointing down at about a 45 degree angle.

That was a really funny incident.  Littlejohn is hauling corn for us, and we decided to make a run or two to Martinsville with the blue truck.  We'd never done it and had the time. We're unloading and the two guys in the photo were just kind of standing there unconcerned ... until one looked up, nudged the other with his elbow and pointed at the camera.  You could see him saying "Oh **** look at that"  What he didn't know is there is a microphone built in the camera as well.  I kind of wished I didn't have the volume turned down.

But like I said, it worked well for what we intended.  You can set in the cab and see how the truck is loading without risking falling by standing on your tip toes to see.

I mentioned it to a neighbor yesterday.  He said "Yeah, I put one on my combine.  Still backed the auger into the wall."

It's been a good week ...

Setting here Sunday evening with the wind blowing and snow falling and getting colder by the minute ... last week was a pretty good week. Looking back I'm going "Oh, that WAS this week."

We had 2 big accomplishments on the farm this week.  Monday Aman and I bought newer forklift together.  Nice little Toyota 42-5FG25

I don't know what all those numbers mean, but it runs on gasoline or propane, has air tires on it, lifts 4000 pounds and will reach higher than Gramp's shed.  It's probably what I should have bought in the first place when I bought the AC.  So I listed the AC on a couple ag classified sites.

Littlejohn FINALLY got some room Thursday for some corn.  Greg called a little after 7 AM and said "I'll have a truck there in 20 minutes."

I told him that was fine, but they were supposed to let us know a day ahead and it would probably be an hour before we got the tractor set up and ready to go.  They showed up about 10:20.  I just love waiting on trucks.

But we got everything set up and working and were waiting when he got there ... 1 truck and unloading was taking a while because there were lines..  So the next day we loaded out more corn.

By Friday afternoon we were down to the sweep auger.  But we didn't have enough time to clean out the bin before everyone had to be someplace Friday evening.  So I climbed back out and closed up everything and we went home.

Kind of wish now we were able to get it cleaned out.  We for sure won't be loading corn tomorrow. Rod Scott took this on the way home Sunday afternoon.  It's gotten worse now

As I set here I have been listening to the Sheriff's department handling multiple multi-vehicle accidents on I-70.  Dispatch just asked the Sheriff what road conditions were between here and someplace further west.  His response was "Terrible".

Yes, last week was a really good week.

Ever have a week when you didn't accomplish anything and took all week to do it?

My big accomplishment of the week wasn't really farm related.  I completed the Freedom Of Information Act Officer training online from the Illinois Attorney General Office.  I guess it qualifies as an accomplishment.  It should have been completed in June.  I started in June  ... 8th I believe.  First there was an internet glitch, then I got busy and it slipped my mind. all 58 pages of it. But now I am official certified as the FOIA for the West Union Community Fire Protection District and the Walnut Prairie Cemetery.  I had a couple other entities ask if I wanted to be their's as well.  I was even offered 3 times what the cemetery was paying me.  Still amounted to the same money...

Have gone on a couple fire runs this week.  We saved the frame on a caravan

It was fully involved before we arrived.  Same for a house trailer run today.  I saw the smoke on the way to a Birthday party, so I dropped Sue off and went to check out the smoke.  Before I got there we were paged out and told it was mostly burned already.

We are slowly working on a new web site.  In fact, try it out and see if you can gain access.  You are not supposed to be able to.  It is at www.BumpusFarms.info  Our goal is to set it up so landowner's can enter a password and access information about their property, planting info, yields, grain stored, photos, who knows what might tickle our fancy?  But we want it to be secure, so we are in the testing stage right now.  Right now it is hosted by Google.com.  I'm not sure how comfortable I am with that.

We've been contemplating selling some less used equipment. 

The 26 ft IH 496 ft disk we bought last year to disk in ruts was purchased with the idea if we didn't need it had some market value

 I've had a for sale sign the big orange wagon for a couple weeks.

  We don't need the little head hauler since a bigger one is coming with the combine

And of course there is the Ford tandem truck we have listed 2-3 places already.

Plus there are some things like the extra rim off the 8440 plus we have some 30.5 32 combine tires off the 2166 last Spring. As well as probably a few other things.  I'm just not sure I want to go through the hassle.

I said I'd never do that again .... well ..........

The last time I went to a Groff Machinery Consigment Auction I said I'd not be back.  Well ... never say never.  I went with one specific purpose and a couple side interests if they went cheap enough.  Didn't come home with any of those.  I did come home with this

That is a 70 foot 10 inch diameter belt conveyor.  It was more in my price range than the 2 10" augers they had.  I kind of think the guy in the trees was bidding on it.  Maybe I should pause and explain that.

One of the things at Max's auctions that irritates the **** out of me is the guy up in the trees bidding. There has to be one, because too often the auctioneer is taking bids when nobody seems to be bidding. I know, some guys are masters at hiding their bid.  I watched one guy I know bid on something and if you were not watching him carefully you never knew it.  The ring man was standing right in front of him, and an almost imperceptible wink or nod and there was a bid.  But I was down on the far end of the lot when they sold an old Safety Klean box truck.  Ugly, theft resistant green.  There was me and two other guys there when the bidding started.  Everyone else had walked off to where the auctioneer would be next.  We were talking.  None of us bid.  But the truck sold for $3500.  The guy in the trees must have bought it.

OK, so I am standing there watching this conveyor sell.  It was cheap for what it was.  REALLY cheap.  But 2 guys kept bidding it up.  And then I noticed I was standing there all by myself, just me and 2 ring men.  And the price kept going up slowly.  One ring man came over trying to get me to bid.  Then both of them.  I finally said I would bid one time, a very small increment higher than the current bid.  And I won it.  I think the guy in the trees almost bought that as well.

Oh, and this:

Yes, I bought a semi tractor ... at Groff's.  THAT might cause the end to get kicked out of the coffin.  It was clean, but not too clean.  I heard a couple guys talking, one was a company employee, and it had been driven up from Florida.  Not hauled, driven.  300 Hp, 8 speed transmission, air conditioning, good looking.  The only problems I have found is a broken mirror, the air hose to the fifth wheel slider is leaking, a rear fender is missing, and the gear shift need a worn pivot pin replaced.  Ralph says that is common in this transmission.

So, for the next question, "Now what?"  Ralph has a set of twin screw tandems that will fit it, and gave me an estimate on switching the axles, lengthening the frame, and moving the bed and hoist off the Ford to it.  It was less than a trailer will probably cost.  So I told him to put me on the schedule and I was going to advertise the Ford as is.  If someone wanted it bad enough before he started we'd cancel and I'd go trailer shopping.  I figure I have a month or more to try and sell it.  Anyone want a good old Ford?

Do you know what a $500 disk looks like?

Yes, that brought $500! I would have hauled it home for it if I had a empty truck.  Not paying $25, you pay me to take it.  They also sold a really good M&W big red wagon with a seed auger on the side for $2500.  If I weren't trying to get away from wagons I would have been really interested.  Big orange is for sale, too.  Guess I need to take some pictures of it.

So what have you been doing this week?

Ever have one of those weeks where Friday you look back and ask yourself what you did that week?  In my defense, this was Thanksgiving week.  Aman was on vacation so I didn't have anyone pushing me to accomplish anything.  I took a couple mostly personal days ... but even then they are not entirely non-farm.  For instance, Sue and I went shopping.  Coming back I saw a seed tender for sale.  It's just what I want.

I called.  His price is actually pretty fair ... if it weren't for some of the other stuff I did this week.  I mentioned shopping. Sue bought some Christmas presents, I bought a combine ... yes, we signed papers on the Big Green Machine.

BIG GREEN COMBINE
Yeah, I know, I should get some real photos of it.

I've been hoping to haul grain for the Prust Farm.  The grain has been sold, augers are in place, just waiting for Littlejohn's to come get it.  I called Wednesday and was told they were full and waiting on a train.  And I might be a couple weeks before they could come after it!

So not a lot happened on the farm this week.  Put the disk, roller, tandem axle trailer, and Soil Saver away away, moved the grain trucks to a different location, pushed a little dirt and modified a field entrance, cleared out some parts drawers, bought a combine, took the platform off the 2166 and put the corn head on ... "piddle jobs".  Also the thing I am worst at.

Dad did the piddle jobs.  Once field work was caught up I took off and hauled propane.  It's been a difficult task for me to master, the odd-job off-season stuff.  And now I am setting home waiting for a delivery.  I hate waiting.  Gotta go, someone just pulled in.

Later Y'all

Fixing the unloading auger

The last time we unloaded the Prust bean bin we weren't happy with how it worked, so we decided to pull the unloading auger out and check it before using it.  The screw wasn't totally worn out, but it was worn enough it wouldn't handle the volume it should.

An opportunity to use new toys!  We got a new screw from Dale Crumrin and used my new SawZall to cut the shaft and take the head off.  When we got it apart we found the tube was getting pretty thin,

so we repaired it.  Aman cut the old ring off,

  used the plasma cutter to cut a new piece, welded it in with the wire welder, cut a new opening with the plasma cutter,

and it was as good as new

And end to life as we know it ?

No, I haven't changed religions.  No, I haven't become a Vulcan.

 I did agree to buy a combine.  Yes, a green combine. This isn't the actual combine, but it's just like it.

I hope Adam understands.

I didn't want a green combine.  It's kind of like speaking a foreign language.  But I survived the switch from Massey to IH.  It's not quite that big a change.  (Remember what they told us?  Just think about what you would do on the MF and do the opposite.  It usually worked!)

We traded our 2166 with a 20 ft platform and 6 row corn head for a 9660 with a 30 ft platform and 8 row corn head.  I said when I started looking I had 3 requirements.  It had to be 4WD, under a certain number of hours, and a specific maximum annual payment.  I didn't go to every dealer in the country searching for the absolute bottom dollar.  I did go to my local dealers (one in particular I bent over backwards trying to work with) as well as contacting others.  I told them what I had and what I wanted (4WD, hours, payment) and would consider most any suggestion. two dealerships have not gotten back to me at all.  One did send me an email with one combine late Monday after promising to email me several options the previous Wednesday.

It's obvious these guys never sold copiers.

OK, so what is this big green thing?  I won't give specs because they would just be numbers to you. Here is the bottom line: This machine will cut as much in one two rounds as the old combine did in 3.  In corn I don't know it will be 50% bigger but it will be at least 30%.

We've watched folks around here with red combines and 30 ft heads.  I don't know if it is the combine, the heads, or the operator, but unless you get to a BIG red combine they just don't seem to get a jump in productivity over the 2166.  We demo's a 9660 (not this one but one just like it) in double crop beans with green stems and it just walked through them.  It doesn't spread straw quite as perfect at the 2166 with a 20 ft head, but then again I haven't seen anything that was as even as it was.

Another thing it will allow us to do is switch back and forth quicker between corn and beans.  The head has a ... I forget JD's term for it but most folks call it single point hookup.  Instead of unplugging several hoses and an electrical connection then unlocking the header, you plug in one connection and latch it and the header is ready to go.

The other feature that really appealed to us is setting everything from in the cab.  With the 2166 to switch from beans to corn you disconnect 4 hoses, unplug the electrical connection, unhook the driveshafts, drop the safety latch, unhook the header locks, raise the safety latch, remove the platform, put on the cornhead, drop the safety latch, crawl under the header and lock it on, hook up the driveshafts, change the concave, sieve and shoe settings, change the chopper belt, move the chopper knives, adjust the fan speed, get back out of the cab and raise the safety latch you forgot, and if you were practiced up you could be going in half hour to 45 minutes.

I've not actually done this yet, but I've watched the neighbor do it on his Deere.  Unlatch the single point, drop the platform, pick up the cornhead, latch the single point, change one belt (from the ground, no crawling up inside the combine), touch the corn setting on the screen in the cab, and go.  He says "Yes, it is that easy".

One change that we asked for was the tires.  This one has rice tires and we asked they switch them for regular tread.  Neighbors had a lot of wheat a couple years ago and rented a combine identical to theirs with rice tires.  On wet sand they are too aggressive and dig a hole too quickly.  The rig with rice tires was stuck (more than once as I recall) and the regular tire combine just went around it.

I have a new black John Deere hat in the display cabinet.  I did wear it home, but decided to put it on display for now.  Boy ... 2 green planters, a green lawn mower, a green combine ... I'm not sure my heart can take this.