2013-8-31
Old Thresher's Reunion in Mt. Pleasant, IA. Lots of old iron at this show. 100+ steam tractors and 400+ other antique tractors. Saw one steam tractor on the dyno at 80 HP. The electric trollies run on 660v DC.
2013-8-30
Corn here in the dryer places is done. Ears are tipped down, stalk mostly brown.
2013-8-28
Farm Progress Show 2013. Ribeye sandwich was tasty, the new Deere sprayer is tall, Case has a draper header, wide tires on a Hagie looks sweet, the exhaust is huge on a STX620, three big tile plows can blow through 20 acres in a hurry, and the Versatile Delta Track has more ground clearance than I expected.
2013-8-26
Hot and windy today. The corn sounds like it would in October, dead leaves rubbing together. This crop went from great to ugly in a month, and this upcoming week will degrade it more.
2013-8-25
Déjà vu, it's like 2012 again. The crop was looking great until about two weeks ago. Drought conditions here and the crop is getting worse by the day. The seven day forecast has zero chance of rain and a high over 90 degrees every day.
2013-8-24
The 24" telescope at the local observatory. It weighs about 3000 lbs. Still not powerful enough to see any rain in the forecast.
2013-8-22
Cleaning up some junk, needed to load this old lawn tractor onto a truck, and had a trencher handy. An unconventional method, but it worked great.
2013-8-9
The 7120 is in for some pre-season maintenance. While replacing chains, we found that the used chain is still in better condition than brand new Chinese chain, so we bought some better quality American chain, which we later discovered was made in Taiwan.
| Video Used American chain vs. new Chinese chain |
2013-8-8
Found some old literature from the early 1900s.
2013-8-5
