poor farmer/logger

That’s a lot of years of hard work to get those trees to that point. Looks good. Saw is definitely overkill but I do the same so I’m not going to judge lol 😂. we were just talking this afternoon weather we were going to get a real tree again this year or not. We’ve never put up a fake one but some years have slacked off and didn’t go to the bush to get one. We have a bunch on our own quarter but I’ve never taken the time to shape or prune them. Lots are grown close together too so that’s not the best either. Usually manage to find something acceptable though and throw some ornaments on it. Definitely not all of them were Charlie Brown Christmas trees lol.

For sure please do. We could all use a little Christmas cheer anyways lol.

That was 40 or so miles north of home. We don’t have much for snow left around the farm either. Just the shady spots and a little bit of white in the fields. Certainly not snowmobile conditions yet lol. Could’ve almost picked your way down the trail up there though. Would’ve been awfully rough though. Yea those bugs can be a real pain that’s for sure. We’ve dealt with them a few times now. I have one other bin with wheat from a year ago but I’d been taking some out of it during the summer and typically don’t have issues with that bin. I filled it up with some other wheat from a year ago at harvest time so hopefully it’s still good anyways. Prices sure aren’t doing much though. Wheat can’t seem to get back over 10 bucks even. Stuck down around 9. Canola is a real roller coaster too. Had a target trigger today on a small bit that I’d hauled in last week. 15.50. Would like to see a 7 or 8 on that second digit not a 5. Could be worse I suppose, could be a 2.

Well looks like the warm weather may be finally tapering off. Been above zero every day here for the last 10 days or so now. Surprisingly still a trace of snow in the fields but it sure ain’t much. Yard got all muddy and greasy again and where it was shaded and froze it’s like a skating rink now. Can Hardly walk in places. Been turning grain in the bins the last few days. Had one bin of older wheat that I had some issues with. Rooftop inspection door must’ve leaked in some water and it had one musty spot. Took a load to the elevator but they said they couldn’t take it with the rusty grain beetles in it. Tried another elevator and they said they’re dead so go ahead and dump it. Treated it today just to make sure. Canola bins have been ok so far but haven’t cooled off a whole bunch yet either. Still around 60°F. Should be ok for another month or two now anyways at least. Brother called yesterday morning at about 10:30 and surprised me out of the blue wanting to go quadding. Called him back a half a hour later and said ya ok let’s go. Needed to get away from here for a bit anyways. Saw some pictures on Facebook this afternoon from nipawin. Guys were lining up to launch boats in Tobin lake last Friday. River was wide open there yet. Where I crossed it was pretty much all froze over though. Sure wouldn’t test it even on foot yet though.

When I first saw this my mind went to the 9 year old girl in Manitoba that was killed last week. She was playing hide and see and tucked away into a supply room. A stack of tables I believe it was fell on her and ultimately killed her. Sad deal all around in both cases.

I think we’ve all been there with farm equipment at some point in time. We’ve all looked at that one pot hole and said it can’t be that wet can it? Usually a hour or two later you’re going again and wishing you’d just gone around the bloody thing but give it a day or two and you’re back in the same scenario all over again lol. Never sunk any of our heavy equipment to badly. Worst stuck I ever had was probably the 850 Massey combine. I stoped at a corner to back up and the front end just sunk. It was like the tires blew out on it and it just dropped. Been stuck with the semi a time or two in the bush as well. Never fun.

Even just parts are getting expensive. 550$ in those few loose parts at the front of the table. Ended up getting one wrong bearing so I can’t start putting it back together anyways 😢. Guy who ordered it mistook a A as a 4. Just so happened that crossed to another bearing in a chaincase from a older sled. Luckily it’s a more common bearing. 6205 I believe.

Hard pass for me. That’s 65,000 in our money. There was a guy just listed a 2020 ram 3500 srw tradesmen with 80,000 miles for 55,000 dollars cdn.

Geez way to make a guy jealous lol. Hudson Bay club was taking sleds out to start clearing trails. Was less then ideal conditions though. Yours looks great by comparison lol.

It was 2004 I believe that lots of guys were bailing crops up here. We had a early frost on the 14th or 15th of august. Lots of canola got cut and either chopped or bailed as green feed. Some guys ram into problems with high nitrate levels though. One guy lost 30 head of cattle over it. Still a silage pile on that old farm from that year. I think it might have been 2002 guys were trying to bake straw well into November here as well. Was a drought year so guys were getting everything they could. The older NH chain bailers were working pretty good with the snow in the swathes. Other guys were going when it was real cold out trying to pick it up.

Might have been my cousin lol. They just got a place not far from Camrose. Haven’t found out exactly where yet. He rides a Harley too. His son lives just south of there so they moved out to be closer to the grand kids. His son works for black cat ground engagement tools in Edmonton.

Load number 9 now. Possibly the biggest one we’ve had so far this year. Hoping to get a couple more loads yet but weMll see I guess. It’s real wet in the bush now. Snow is sticky and wet so you come home soaking.

Out of 8 loads we’ve only stoped once to pick up a few blocks. There’s little tricks to stacking them like finding limbs or knots to help lock them into the load. I wouldn’t take off on a 100 mile trip with a load like that but the short distance we have to go they hang in there good. Have to climb up out of the one ditch onto the road too. Always get out to check after getting back on level ground just to make sure. They pulled out all the approaches into the bush when the built the road up 30 years ago so there’s a fairly steep ditch. Still snowing a bit here but it’s slow going. I need to go into pa to pick up some parts for my old sled but the highways are so wet and salty I’m not sure I really want to go. I considered going into the sled show too but decided not to. My brother went in Friday afternoon. He was sending me pics of a sled there he thought was my old one. Mpd motorsports had a twin to my old viper. I couldn’t tell from the pics of it was mine or not for sure. Sure looked like it but there was a couple subtle differences. Yea prices are insane. Shouldn’t have to fork out 30,000 bucks for a new 4 stroke. I’ve been looking at new trucks too and that’s even worse 110,000-120,000 dollars is criminal. Found a barely used 2024 ram 3500 that is calling my name. Just not sure I want to part with the money lol. It sure is tempting though.

Happy to hear you guys got done what you did. Good feeling to have it in the bin. Sucks you couldn’t quite get it all but sounds like you’re better off then most there. Hopefully you won’t be short on straw. You got a lot more snow then us. We’ve had a mix of rain and snow the last 3 days now. First snow we had pretty much vanished. We’ve got around 3 inches now again. Took the sled out 2 days ago and brought it down to the house to wash it off. Made one lap around the yard and put it back in to polish it up lol. Going to be a few weeks yet by the looks of the forecast. If what they’re saying comes true we might have a sloppy muddy mess around here again. Talking +5 for Sunday I think. Everything is really slippery around here now. I hauled water for the house 2 days ago and actually spun out coming up the hill from the well in the bush. Had to back in a 1/4 mile or so and take another run at it. Sketchy part was sliding backwards down the hill lol. It’s not super steep but the truck wouldn’t hold it. Curve as you come down the hill so it’s a little bit hard to get speed up plus it’s a blind corner so you can see if anyone’s coming. Spent the afternoon in the bush today again clearing trails. Have my one loop opened up so I can get through now again. Been busy hauling firewood out of there so I had the worst part almost done. 3/4 km or so we cut 8 loads of firewood. Half on the road and half out of the bush just along the road. It was a real mess.

I saw this the other day and thought about you Mike. Rather fitting to drink from a pot of black billy tea I thought lol.

Happy birthday Mike and everyone else celebrating today. Hope you have a good one.

I don’t envy our parts guys at all during the busy seasons. I’ve been there when they’re on the phone and someone’s trying to describe a part that’s under a shield in behind a pulley near the back of the combine with a funny shaped hook thing attached to it lol. I really wish all the manufactures would get their stuff together and make some good apps again so we can look stuff up on our phones easier again. I look up everything I can ahead of time and come in with part numbers. Makes everything easier for everyone. Sometimes if I have a questionable part number or a expensive part I’ll have them double check that it’s the right number just to put it back on the dealership just incase it’s wrong. It’s hard to get good parts people these days though. Mostly younger people who haven’t had the experience and in a lot of cases haven’t grown up with it or working on it with their dad or others.

We had issues 2 years ago with our front drum after I had gone through the feeder house on it the year before. One of the locking collars let loose and allowed the drum to skid over into the arm. Ended up going through it and putting new arms on it new bearings again and some bushings and hardware. Been good ever since again. Trace of snow here but nothing to get excited about yet. Been hauling firewood home now. Have 4 loads home so far. Need another 8 or so more yet though. Light snow in the air now as I type again. Wont amount to much though. Got a bunch of parts on order for the old sled so I can get the chaincase back together again and then decide what to fix next on it. Likely going to have to change out the starter and that’s a real pain. Dang near have to remove the motor to get to it.

Yup that’s right. They’re pretty cheap horsepower compared to a lot of the others out there that’s for sure.

No motor is original yet. I was always told around here guys were doing them at the 6-7,000 hr range. Still has excellent oil pressure but I know it should be done pretty soon regardless. Dad made the mistake once on a 1850 cab over that he bought. Dealer told him to do a bearing roll on it right away but he needed it for harvest so it got put off. Think he got through harvest but shortly after a bearing went out. 10,000 dollars later it had a rebuilt motor😢. Our semi with the 3406 got done a couple days after we got it. Had 600,000 or so kms on it. Dad wasn’t going to chance it lol. Versatile only sees about 80 hours a year now so the hours don’t rack up as quick as they used to.

We use fast orange usually and regular dish soap to finish it. I’ve used a powder product from worx that works really well. It’s a little bit expensive though. Sure cuts the grease though and leaves your hands nice. Smells not to bad too.

That sucks. Repair looks good though. Try Loeffelholz Tractor Parts Ltd. in cudworth they used to wreck quite a few ih tractors. Not sure what all they have left.

They just released the new mode 2-3 months ago. They’re just hitting the shelves now. I’ve noticed the price has jumped up 30 dollars in the last month now already. Most places they’re on back order already. My local dealer had some on the shelf yet though and I had asked him to save me one a few weeks back. Just got back in today during the work hours to get it.

Just a bit of a update if anyone’s interested. Got my new 1/2” impact today and got a chance to try it out a bit tonight. Feels a little bit different in the hands for sure. Seems fairly well balanced but definitely didn’t shed any weight with it. Triple light is kind of neat and lights up the area better then the previous versions. Just hope they don’t break right away and aren’t super delicate. Initial thoughts are it’s a fair bit quicker, hits a little harder and the low torque setting seems to work pretty nice. It is shorter in length but taller so it may not fit into tight places ant better. Overall fairly impressed with it so far but have done very little with it so far. In the pictures I had a 5.0 ah battery on for equal comparison.

We have bears on our north quarter quite frequently. Thankfully not much for damage from them lately. One year we had oats there though. Was one big old fat bear that just sat at the edge of the bush. Every time you went by he’d duck into the bush a little then pop right back out. Sat down with the oat swath in front of him and just kept shoveling it in to his mouth. Had crop insurance out and they put in a wildlife claim. Provincial program here that you don’t have to be in crop insurance to apply for. Has come in very handy a few times with geese heading south. Elk have been a bigger problem here then bears like db1486 said. Remember one winter there was a huge heard hanging out around our land. They kept going over to the gay field and eating the centers out of the bail. They’d keep going around sampling bales till they found one they liked then ate till it it would collapse on itself. Made a real mess.