3-07-2012- freedom

     

      i had the chance of watching a couple guys fly as i stopped to take pictures of a waterfalls in new york a couple of years ago while i was sightseeing and carving near amsterdam, new york. they were more than eager to jump in cold water above the falls. it was late june but still you are getting up in mountains there. this river runs into lake sacandaga , and that lake drains a good portion of the adirondacs. its is nice and peaceful there without ugliness we sometimes associate with the city. it is more rural with farms growing rocks a landscaper would be envious of and rock walls along pasture fields and roadways. like here , if you know where to look , one can also find a dirt road still. it is sometimes nice to see the dust well up behind you once in awhile. quaint shops catering to the lake crowds adorn this area. in the wintertime it is snow skiing with lake placid a mere 60 miles away to the north. civilization started in the northeast section of our country and history seems to prevail here. sara toga downs also offers horse racing close by. a great place to visit and plan to return some day. 

      a lot of what i write about on the blog is mainly about the pictures i use. i either tell a story about them or with them based on my subject that night. why should tonight be any different as in stead of telling one cohesive story , will tell different stories based on the individual picture. this  a picture of 4 baby barn swallows who were raised one spring while i would watch in garage. at first i watched as the ma and pa swallows would check out existing nests. it appeared that the woman was definitely in charge as she knew that old nest would never do and soon they set about making a new one of mud and sticks . i was really quite amazed at how quick that went . i would go out and just sit on the tractor at first and they would check me out to see if i meant harm . then they let me watch as they built their nest and before long were sitting on eggs. from the time she appeared to lay her eggs till they were hatched was about one week i would say. never went close to the nest. 

      soon these 4 little mouths appeared above the edge of the nest and a flurry of activity for the next four weeks culminated in this momentous event as shown above. they finally got their sea legs or wings and was ready to leave the nest and in fact had already done that when the picture was taken. i remember watching them forever as they would flap their wings as if to make sure they were going to work before heading over the edge. i imagine this helped build up their muscles and confidence . anyhow i watched all 4 go through all this learning to fly. at first it was short bursts from here to there and over shooting the stop, and ending up on the ground . but somehow they would make it back up to perch on this timber before dark. this was one of the last time i saw all 4 together after this. as they to had moved on.

       well one day while selling vegetables i had bought down south in marietta area , and was selling them up north as there growing season can be a month ahead of ours. in the course of selling or vending you run into some strange colorful people who appear to come out of nowhere and head back there as soon as they talk your ear off. the owner of this car was that guy. a friendly soul who never let the air be still as he was always flapping his tongue and running his mouth. he showed me his audi or vw diesel that he converted to run on french fry grease. to illustrate his point and fear of not being able to start it. he left it running so we could inhale the aroma of green power. to be honest it smelled like french fries. he tried to sell me the saw off the top of his car , introduced me to his girlfriend , who never managed to get a yes or no out to affirm or deny, before the tongue flapper moved us on in conversation. figuring he was going to have to raid a fast food place to get home and knowing he had  his life history i had not heard about yet , put his mouth into high gear. words spewed from him so fast i thought he was a lawyer but then again , he made sense . i was speechless as he handed me a coat way to small but had ford emblazoned on it , and he was off with a shudder and his girlfriend looking back at us as if to say. here we go again. but  i had time to take a picture before he left. only in ohio. 

 just a nice pic of one of my carvings. 

3-06-2012- its sunflower day?

    no wonder van gogh went crazy about sunflowers as they just draw you in as their intricate seed pattern pulls your eyes closer to the heart of the sunflower. love them and love growing them . can remember one time driving out of navarre on rt . 62 and saw a field of sunflowers for the first and only time outside of the huge amounts i plant for the fun of it.  anyhow was mesmerized by the view that took my breath away.but  haven't seen them since. i use them on borders to a garden , and on hillsides i cover with compost . also i planted along side rt. 800 at our other farm as eye candy for passing motorists and to help sell carvings. it surely caught their eye. 

      today i would like to talk about bio waste degasification. i believe this to be a solution to our long term problems of energy usage. wood and agri wastes could easily be utilized as a means of creating syngas out of ordinary timber and agricutural waste . this syngas can then be used to run gasoline and blended up to 80 percent of diesel fuel,  and is a true flex fuel at this point . it may also be used to replace propane . and from my understanding is carbon neutral , adding no pollution to the air. there is ash left from the process and this is recyclable by spreading as nutrient to fields. Gasification - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia- this will explain it in better detail . 

      this is not new technology and in fact was used quite extensively during world war 2 as a means of powering over 9,000,000 vehicles as gas for personal use was non existent. tractors were converted to crude gasification units and ran fine with little or no modification of carburetors. this nice little pinto station wagon was broke down at local gas station , probably because he used the high alcohol content gas out today.

        the gasification process begins as the fire smolders in a reverse draft situation allowing the gases to rise in the heat chamber, it is collected and then is  drawn to a lower level and separated  into gas and liquid, the air is then recirculated, the liquid would go to your gas tank and be used as gas or syngas. woody fibrous materials capable of locking up vast amounts of carbon might be chosen to be grown specifically,  for the beneficial effects of reducing global warming. notice the color. im sure he looked great on starting line at magnolia raceway. Wood gas generator - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia- is another article pertaining to gasification. 

          the last one is a very important one to keep for future reference as it tells you how to build your own gasification unit. this was put out by our own fema-(federal emergence management agency ),and it is a simplified wood gas generator for use in petroleum emergency. check it out. i was speechless. for some reason this site was pushed to the side and not referenced much. 

     they say by using ordinary bio waste such as garbage tree limbs , straw, corn sunflower stalks and heads , one could easily produce their own fuel to power a generator or a car or diesel engine. read for your self. the technology has been there all along but they havent figured out how to charge you taxes on a backyard wood gas generator capable of knocking you off the grid. it is good information to know and down load for your later use. bdpanel.com/woodgas1.pdf- down load on paper and put with your emergency kit. a couple of 55 gallon steel drums might work. they say that carburetor or fuel injection adjustment is not necessary as any conventional gas engine will run on syn gas.  don't know but is worth looking at and wondering why more people are not using the technology. 

       i have  heard about a new gasification plant going in at oardc(ohio agricultural research and developement center), wooster ohio , and have drove past the site. i also knew they were buying old waste hay for use in the facility but have not heard how it is doing or if it is up in business. i always thought the term gasification was to complicated a process for average person, but apparently 9 million residents of europe would disagree . also it is my understanding that syn gas has been around in europe for awhile and is making a comeback of sorts as gas prices rise again. who knows what our long term energy answers will be and if we did we should be buying that stock now, but we have to conserve first, and then look to renewable sources of energy as much as we can. 

       one last interesting note is the fact that they produce less pollutants due to the nature of their burning. that they are more efficient and cleaner than a wood stove to use as well as gas or fuel . the same process when applied to coal provides a cleaner burn as compared  with conventional coal fired furnaces. but that source of fuel along with all hydrocarbons from oil distillates are sequestered hydrocarbons responsible for the rise in our average temperature, and are contributing to global warming as opposed to wood and agricultural bio wastes which are replenishable sources of solar power,capturing in effect, in a passive way. sun from sunflowers. 

 3-05-2012- necessity the mother of invention

           well this tractor is kinda freak as far as i am concerned and feel that the wheels were made to roll silage in a bunker silo. i could imagine this might be a good cheap way to give you good compaction , as i dont really feel it woud be of much  use rolling asphalt as i think it would be to light. i also dont see any water tank to add water to the steel wheels to prevent sticking of hot asphalt. if you could sling a couple of saddle tanks on the side of the tractor above and it greatly increase its ability to be used as an asphalt roller. i guess i could just call jim owens and ask him but will wait till i see him as it seems like the tractor always needs something in the spring. this spring will be the hydraulic filter. it seems as if today's tractors are very dependent on hydraulics to allow them to function . from hydraulic assisted clutches to shift on the go automatic transmissions. a filter is a cheap investment in less worry for you the owner and operator of today's tractors.

         today's farmers as well as yesterdays farmers share a common trait or soon will if you are successful at what you do. farming like everything else is more expensive than ever to get into . the more you can do for yourself the better off you are. you need to be an electrician ,welder, designer , fabricator, operator , and that might get a project started. then before it is over you will surely be an accountant trying your best to justify and how to pay for that pet project of yours. so any and all hats you wear are just part of the job.

        the solo farmer is generally the rule and not the exception as you live in a rural situation and friends and family tend to get a lot of air between you. you innovate and learn to get buy. you break something , you fix it . have been doing it all my life and sometimes enjoy the challenge of making it work , gettin her done.

         part of my ability and mechanical skills were forced on me by my dad as he was a nad crusher when it came to breaking things, first you had to tell him then followed the utter disbelief , then followed by i had that when he was a kid as well as then it was because i was careless it got broke. then it got ugly as he said it was because i was useless. wasnt capable .

      well i was capable and inventive as i knew better than to bad mouth my dad with out picking my teeth off the floor, so quietly i could imagine in my head a response to him. number  one you couldn't have had that when you were kid , the wheel had not been invented yet, let alone the cheap steel and the years of abuse and misuse might have had something to do with it. and the one thing i was guilty of was trying to help him and the family by doing my share and knowing full well if anything happens there will be a bunch shit , and there was. yeah dad i was guilty of that.

     so to avoid all of that i learned to fix everything and anything before 4:30 pm as this was dads quitting time . a few drinks at rodeens , the local bar and it was home to see what i screwed up that day. i would have the equipment ready, fueled up , fixed if need be and we would be ready to bale hay , mow or haul manure if it needed to be. i was the last of four boys at home and we still had a pretty good operation . we had about 80 cow calf pairs , filled 3 barns of hay , and combined oats that summer. plus put up straw and had about 10 acres of corn.. mostly i worked with my grandpa that summer we were doing all this and things was moving. grandpa was easy going and a hard worker who didn't talk a lot but when he did it was worth listening to. but he passed at the end of that summer and now it was my dad and i doing it all. at 16 years old life wasn't to good but it just got a little worse . we muddled through it and i didn't flip out on him and now he too, has passed.
      now i am by myself out here on this same farm doing the same jobs we used to do baling hay feeding cows , only not as much and for all the times we spent together on the farm , and being mad at dad or myself because i have to work while other kids played. i miss that help i had in him .  he was a pain and sometimes embarrassing , other times happy jovial , but at least he was there. and it is things like this you cannot fix.

3-4-2012- down by the river

       this is a series of photos i shot one day while i was on my coal tour. starting from home here,and passing acre after acre of reclaimed coal mines mimicking a former vision of themselves in  their unnatural form. their level plateaus where man's machines topped the hillsides leaving tame sloped infertile treeless bare slopes incapable of producing much in the way of anything more than cover to arrest the erosive effects of the rainfall on this land. i cant see how this land , can claim to be better than it was before. the absorption power of reclaim versus forest floor are in no way similar, with the forest floor acting like a sponge soaking up any excess moisture nourishing the tree roots and giving very little to the stream in terms of runoff. 

        the increased surface moisture is either absorbed into the soil, nourishing tree roots and vegetation , or evaporated into the atmosphere, only to be caught by the tree canopy. now we have lifeless grass plains with hopefully enough cover to hold off the advances of erosion. to maintain a lush green environment on reclaimed land requires major use of fertilizers , and lime to sweeten the soil . pine trees seem to thrive and may be best suited the soils . other option would be to bring in  soils specific to what you are growing and place only in row you are working on. by this way you may be able to do some good on reclaim land. will do some experiments with growing blackberries on strip land for a pick your own operation later this year.  this is part of the problem we will have to deal with in the future as life moves on. we need these areas reseeded with trees as  soon as possible to make up the difference  of increased CO2 or carbon dioxide in our atmosphere. 

       from the back side of the farm to the ohio river is a path of endless strip mine sites and i can prove that i can drive along ohio, roadsides and can look and see as far as the eye can see the devatating effects that strip mining has had on our state alone. i would say i am about 120 miles away from the river . all along st. rt 800 to the south until i reach st rt. 250 and head to st clairsville, ohio along the ohio river, from there and all along you will see the devastating effects of coal mining. hundreds of thousand of acres of brush and grasses, sometimes pastured . we not only lost the shape and form of the land , but untold amounts of timber, top soil , and vegetation as well as animal habitats, and generations of animals killed in the process of mining. and in the end we must remember we needed this to happen to win wars , avoid unemployment make jobs , and create a rising temperature in our earths planet thanks to our greedy ways to assure we have a light on in the back of the refrigerator.

       the coal buys the diesel the coal barge relies on to push their loads up the ohio from mountains in kentucky or coal mines in west virgina to the power  plants along the ohio river. ,now as tighter regulations makes using  coal from high sulfur mines more cost prohibitive. meeting the new government restrictions is leading to power plant closures all over the united states as power companies are fnally becoming responsible. still vast swaths of city lights and street lights can be seen from as far away as outer space. do we need people out there running around in mans name 24 hours /day and do we have to leave the lights on for them. 

     they say it is a deterrent to crime but seems with all these lights on in the city then crime should be down . actually i think it helps them find that hole in the fence , or that be able to insert their crowbar in the door. , but just maybe without any lights at night they may not be able to see you sitting in dark cleaning your 45. i think we need to ask ourselves as i am in my eleventh hour is all these lights necessary or are we just putting people to work and making profit?

       through this all we can find ways to make new money and still have a cleaner place to live and possibly restore some of the damage done. a check off box would allow you to make a deduction to save our forests and plant 2 trees in every taxpayers name. this would designate that trees planted by non profit groups would be allowed to be deducted from taxes up to 10 dollars of your return. there would be strict limits on overhead assuring that 8dollars of that money would be used to buy trees and 2dollars  to the non non profit for actually planting the tree and overhead. an energy tax should or could be applied to all energy users, on the grid. this would have a dual effect as it would increase the bill while reducing the usage off conventional power grids. and it would also increase the use of solar and wind generation of electricity or by using on demand generators in off the grid applications. and we need to to turn the devastating effects of strip mining around make it advantageous for farmers to return their highly erosive land back to the wooded area and a reflection of itself. 

      we need to rethink this whole energy thing , and get ourselves back on the right track as mankind goes. we need to find peace with nature and learn to live with nature. nature and physics provide us with the answers if we know where to look and what to look for . man just needs to work smarter not harder. i dont 

 know the answers but have lots of questions . like' do you think when i stand up against this power plant does it make my eyes blue or red? '

        

3-03- 2012 a lot of that s-word

      at the time of my next experience i was in my early 20's working as a farm teacher / manager of the cow calf operation , at apple creek institute around 1976 . basically my job was to do everything everyone else was doing and more plus i was blessed with the opportunity to teach enterprising young folks who had never saw a tractor before , the pleasures of proper and safe tractor operation. sometimes just teaching them how to operate a clutch was enough to scare some away. 

      being brought up on a farm had its advantages as i was  past the awkward  getting used to clutch stage.. this day i was out teaching these 2 girls the fine art of manure spreading. no i really wasn't trying to bs these girls so to speak but in actuality i was just trying to unload a manure spreader after filling it up at the barn . i just figured that for the first couple of rounds i would have these young ladies  just sit on fender and watch as i was having trouble with the chain that runs the manure spreader. when it would come off then i would have to stop and put it back on . 

      and it seemed when i had someone new running the tractor , it would come off more often. so to avoid having to put it on  , i would operate and they would sit and watch. we started to spread manure in a cornfield we had taken silage out of earlier , and no sooner we had started than the chain came off again. i left the the 2 women sitting on the tractor while i dismounted and using my leather gloves i pulled the cover off the chain  and saw the chain wrapped and drenched in green stuff. it was cold as i maneuvered the chain out of its knot rolling the chain around in both hands all the while paying no attention to the girls on the tractor. 

      i had the chain on the small pulley which was the pto pulley, and was trying to work the big end on the larger pulley when all of a sudden a whoosh and my fingers were being carried into the pulley as suddenly my   one hand was being pinched as i tried to pull back on my gloves. my hand was beginning to twist around the pulley and all of sudden my hand was released . the glove continued through the gear and chain and was spit out on other side. the tips of my fingers hurt so bad on my right hand as stood there wondering what the heck just happened. i turned to look at these girls on the tractor and asked who engaged the power take off , and the one pointed at the other . i politely asked her how she would like her butt kicked . 

     she only said in her defense she was bored and started punching buttons on the tractor. i looked down at my manure covered glove and picked it up and to see how close i came to losing my fingers , one would only have to look at the fingertips and see that the chain and the gear sheared the tips off what would be 4 fingers on the right hand. my drawing hand. 

     i am thankful for so small things , and appreciate anything  that comes my way. i saw it as a sign i needed to be even more careful . take steps to learn how i can avoid being in this situation again. mainly i just realized as in a joke i heard about a guy who broke down in front of massilon state hospital.of the not doing so good.  how his tire was flat and when changing the tire had lost all but one lug

nut on his car. well an inmate  from the institution happened to be passing by and says to the guy . looks you are having a problem with your lug

nuts, but if you take one from each wheel then you will have enough to get you home. on contemplation the disabled motorist thought it was a good idea.there were 5 lug nuts , and after he took one off each wheel , that would give him 4 on each wheel .  and  to this he decided to pay the guy a compliment , asking why he was in this crazy house . 

      and promptly the crazy man said well i might be crazy but i am not stupid. 

     i let my guard down, and stupid just about bit me. 

3-02-2012- down by the old mill

        i have a lot of pictures on a perfect day in carroll, co. , ohio.-here is their official website, where a lot more infiormation can be found.Algonquin Mill Fall Festival

        this is a great festival to go to in carroll county at petersburg landing . cars filled up fields all around , acres of people to see a wonderful heritage festival with plenty to see, this is something close by that is quite an experience to see and smell. usually held in the crisp cool of fall as it was that day . the trees majestically showed their colors and the smell of wood smoke mixed with the pungent smell of coal drifted lazily above our heads , then would invade our bodies along with other scents of food cooking and bread baking. 

      laughter and the noise of tooting whistles would dance in your ears adding to the festival atmosphere. steam tractors lumbering away at a sawmill , shingles being cut , caramel corn in a copper kettle aromas , all lead you to believe that you are back in that time. its a shame prices are not the same as yesteryear. i would gladly give them a quarter for sausage gravy and biscuits breakfast, and actually get up and be down there at a decent hour. well whatever the cost, would pay for it anyhow as well as a lot of other people as i know i wouldn't be alone. be prepared to stand in line for most food there. unfortunately wouldn't say this festival is very handicapped friendly . but then again didn't really check . did see they had down front parking for the handicapped. 

      really good collection of old farm equipment , wood stoves , tools  and horse drawn equipment . they also have working steam engine tractors doing various duties with long belts attached to a saw mill , and a cut off saw. imagine a lot of this equipment would be in the era of the 1920"s , safety upgrades are necessary to still operate equipment safely for the public. if you have never seen anyone ever saw a log . you really need to come see this . there was a lot for me to see and do and was exhausted after a couple of hours of walking and looking to see it all. so i stopped at bakery for fresh loaf of bread, and grabbed a chicken dinner for mom and one for myself and headed home. 

      i would sit and reflect the next day as to all i had seen . still trying to digest in my mind what pieces i wanted to keep and what to throw away and decided to save it all . so will quit talking and let you see.

3-01-2012-times are a changing

       modern farming is changing all the time. the biggest improvement in years is computers and geographical  positioning system (gps) when it comes to producing just about everything in farming if there isn't an app there will soon be. a cows tag she wears around her neck is magnetic and at same time tells who she is , such as bossy101, her birth date and feed plan she is on . and maybe a general overall rating. as she walks up to a feeder her tag is attracted to a metal strip and information is read and transferred to a computer via wireless and an amount of feed with her ration amounts is sent back to the feeder in the field telling how much she is allowed to eat. as she grows and she is monitored for weight and other production figures. her ration is reevaluated by the farm manager from the comfort of his office while bossy is left standing out in the cold. don't worry about bossy though as the farmer i'm sure calculated enough energy in bossy's diet to get her through winter. 

       to plant a field nowadays a person calibrates his gps and grabs 4 wd gator and heads out into the field on a pre-planned course to sample all the problem areas of a field where poor production was observed before and will sample the soil. taking down specific information consistent with the gps settings . this enables the farmer when planting to feed this same gps information about soil types and soil needs into his planter and automatically adjust the planter to use more fertilizer or less depending on soil analysis. this allows the farmer to micromanage all his resources very efficiently. producing more corn or soybeans per acre with less fertilizer or herbicide. 

       then at harvesting time giant combines such as this monitor the production based on same gps figures to again gather information such as bushels per acre, and this again will affect next years planting. all at the touch of a button. the computer also monitors the threshing table and various parts of the combine to assure that everything is working correctly. kind of makes you feel sorry for the guy in the cab, pretty soon the computer will replace him to.

          this is a modern chicken growing facility. these buildings are around a 1000 ft long and close to 80 foot wide. the inside is climate controlled at around 70 degrees to enhance the growing characteristics of the chickens . if they are to cold they will eat to keep warm thus costing the producer  more money in feed to achieve same level of production. the same is true in reverse, if it is to hot then chickens wont eat and will soon perish so there is loss of production . they have micromanaged this whole operation down to the most finite detail to increase profits. they have over a half a million invested in just one barn. 

         again this barn is computer controlled and has built in redundancy in terms of a backup generator and also has the ability to call people in to service the building if any of the different monitors require action. if a feeder goes down or feed runs out , a person is automatically called. if a waterer is plugged and overflowing then a monitor will call someone in. it does everything but pick up dead chickens . in 10000 chickens per building , it is possible to have an average of 10 chickens die daily. carcasses need to be removed quickly. they have their own water system and it is monitored for quality as well. the floors are dirt floors and have sawdust placed in each barn prior to starting a brood of chickens . the area is confined and heaters are dropped to lowest levels so that boxes of young peeps are dumped onto the floor . constant monitoring is necessary in their early development to assure maximum survivability. after viewing several of these chicken houses and seeing  there operation . at best it is a marvel as to the american ingenuity , how far we have come. at the worst the chickens are afforded everything they want to eat and are on dirt floors allowed to socialize w/ others for what it is worth. but i am afraid to say that society would be a lot worse off if we didnt have these monster producing units we have now. 

          there is no way the mom and pop farmer could even begin to produce enough to feed our growing needs. although not popular with the animal rights activists , they do address major concerns of the animals they raise on the whole. we need these places unless we can figure out how to tame our population. just seems kind of ironic that the same computer that allows these barns to be successful is also the same on that an activist downloads his videos into and then uploads to the wonder of the internet. one hand feeds and the other takes it away. 

        i heard the latest they are working on is a synthetic protein grown in petri dishes in a lab to replace meat. this means you can kick scream yell , and do anything you want to the petri dish but never be brought up on charges or have to worry about johnny instant reporter taking one moment of a farmers life when he loses it and broadcast it all over the internet. this is where we are headed. the liability is less and returns are greater. your new meat can be grown in old factory buildings that used to house our failed auto industry. allowing the consumer to save money as now his protein will be right next door cooking away. oh boy i can smell the mc ribs now. just have to find a place to put the bones- what it doesnt have bones?