Sixty-five years ago, I would occasionally sell a bale of hay where I worked. If you needed new shoes (and nails) for your horse or mule, a new point for your plow, a sack of Portland cement, a peck of cornmeal, a pack of cigarettes, a cut or plug of tobacco, canned goods, dried beans, overalls, school notebook paper, a sack (100 pounds) of flour, a sack of cow feed, yard goods for your wife, and so on, I could help you.
Johnny
Norm,
Dairy farms can typically store out side covered up, cows are not as finicky on what they eat. For horses they need a higher nutritional value so stables will store indoors. I grew up with milk cows, pigs and sheep. Cows, if it's green they're happy - sheep are to dumb to know and pigs, they eat anything. Used to get day old bread from the old Schaefers bakery in downtown Detroit, now part of I-75, including donut rejects in 55 gal drums. Pigs have a sweet tooth!!!
When we baled, there was only the standard 16" x 18" x 36" bale, none of the jumbos or rounds. Baled about 100 acres at around 65 bales or so per acre in the 1960's. Guess who got to stack the wagons. Man, I was in great shape by the end of the summer.
Bob,
Not trying to be contrary but in Shiawassee County I've seen lots of round bales under white covers. Gotta keep the rain out as they can spontaneously combust under the right conditions. Drive up to Elsie and look over the large dairy farm there.
Norm
afternoon
Ns had a coal train to go east in the siding.Wind from the south is warming things up.Need to go to town for errands.
stay safe
joe
Deshler Ohio-crossroads of the B&O Matt eats your fries.YUM! Clinton st viaduct undefeated against too tall trucks!!!(voted to be called the "Clinton St. can opener").
[quote user="tree68"]
JoeKoh Don't have the help to stack the square ones.
Some farmers are using square bales here - the extra large economy size. No stacking them by hand, either.
The big square bales tend to be stacked in the field - sometimes 6 high - usually with a tarp over them to at least keep some rain out of them. The round bales are often wrapped, either individually (marshmallows) or in a line (big white worms).
A lot of the hay grown here heads down to PA for use in mushroom farms (old mines).
Those large square bales can get a bit heavy - 1500 - 2000 pounds. The large round ones 800 - 1200 pounds. The old regular square ones, 40 - 60 lbs. You can put 25 smalls in one jumbo.
JoeKohDon't have the help to stack the square ones.
Larry Resident Microferroequinologist (at least at my house) Everyone goes home; Safety begins with you My Opinion. Standard Disclaimers Apply. No Expiration Date Come ride the rails with me! There's one thing about humility - the moment you think you've got it, you've lost it...
Ns was clear when I left work.Most farmers around here make round bales now.Don't have the help to stack the square ones.Need to go give hugs.Other chores after that.
Joe
Norm48327 Larry, Being a native Michigander you know we have water to spare and are willing to send it downriver. If the "river" I live near (basically nothing more than a creek by western standards) floods, Michigan is in deep doo-doo.
Larry,
Being a native Michigander you know we have water to spare and are willing to send it downriver. If the "river" I live near (basically nothing more than a creek by western standards) floods, Michigan is in deep doo-doo.
That'd probably be either the Huron or the Clinton. The Huron is barely a stream until one gets down below Kent Park (but at one time provided considerable water power for mills, and even electricity). I don't think I ever saw it get out of hand.
I was out with neighboring fire departments placing sandbags last night. Despite observations of those who have been watching it closely who said the lake was down, we still did a lot of wading over normally dry ground to place those sandbags.
There have been several groups filling the sandbags. Those of us filling them manually (using cut-off traffic cones) find that three heaping spades full is about right. We've got some Air Guard troops filling them with a machine now - they tend to overfill them. Then there was a group that we figure was only putting two spades full in each.
As we passed them hand-to-hand, it was easy to figure out which was which...
We easily placed 1500 sandbags last night - and I'd estimate that over 20,000 have been filled in the past week or so. With no relief in sight.
Ns had an eastbound and the local uptown when I left work.Nice sunshine today.Chores to do.
Morning
Happy Mothers Day to all the mom's out there.Friend was early out of Garrett with a q 166. Saw a couple other stack trains.Saw produce trains both ways while in town too.Need to give more hugs this week.Just the way things go at times.
Two days without rain! WooHoo!
The lake is still high, though, and many on this end of the lake are grateful for gentle easterly winds.
The powers that be are gradually increasing the flow through the power dams, which will help - but they still have to be mindful of the effects of doing so on downstream communities. Montreal isn't out of the woods yet, flooding wise.
evening
Ns local was uptown when I left work today.Went into town so Matt could mow.Csx sent 2 westbounds.Mother nature is going to warm us up for next week.
Had errands to run.Ns was clear when I left work.According to reports q 165/166(CP Trains) are back running on CSX.Glad tomorrow is Friday.
blhanelYep, he did talk about that. He felt sorry for you and Pat being so far behind schedule.
And that didn't even take into account the trip west! Who had ever heard of a wind-related detour before that?
CShaveRR (Did I mention about how he hung around La Junta until the wee hours of the morning to visit with us when the Southwest Chief straggled through, hours late, and hung around as long as the train did to keep us company? As I said, what a guy!)
(Did I mention about how he hung around La Junta until the wee hours of the morning to visit with us when the Southwest Chief straggled through, hours late, and hung around as long as the train did to keep us company? As I said, what a guy!)
Yep, he did talk about that. He felt sorry for you and Pat being so far behind schedule.
Brian (IA) http://blhanel.rrpicturearchives.net.
What a guy that Mudchicken is, keeping track of his long-time Forum friends! I'm glad that he gave you an opening to get lunch with him, and that you were able to take him up on it.(Did I mention about how he hung around La Junta until the wee hours of the morning to visit with us when the Southwest Chief straggled through, hours late, and hung around as long as the train did to keep us company? As I said, what a guy!)
Carl
Railroader Emeritus (practiced railroading for 46 years--and in 2010 I finally got it right!)
CAACSCOCOM--I don't want to behave improperly, so I just won't behave at all. (SM)
Are everyone's ears burning? Had a nice lunch visit with MC today in downtown Cedar Rapids. Tomorrow his group is being treated to a special excursion up the Iowa Northern RR, and I'll be chasing them to get some pictures. Hopefully the weather will clear off for them (we're currently experiencing a monsoon).
Local was busy uptown when I left work.Mother nature wants to send us more rain.Chores to do.
Norm48327 Joe, I'm having a hard time believing it is May. The weather is more like early April.
Joe,
I'm having a hard time believing it is May. The weather is more like early April.
Same here - the truck showed +34F on the way home from a meeting last night, and I don't think that was all rain hitting the windshield. Didn't stick, though, at least not here.
Just ran across my old CB callsign, so I looked it up on-line. What came up? A discussion right here on the Trains forum. I'd forgotten that Mike Yuhas said he was a ham then - and probably still is (as am I, now).
I've run across amateur frequencies for train chasers (2 meter), but off-hand, I don't recall what they are, and I haven't used them. Given that a technician license requires no code and allows unlimited use of the 2 meter band, it's really a great idea if a group of folks regularly chases together.
Using local repeaters, individuals could be many miles apart and advise their friends of oncoming traffic, especially something of interest, like a special movement.
Cool with some sprinkles today.Ns was clear when I left work.Need to go give hugs.
Swamp drying out day today.Ns local was uptown with some cars.Chores and errands to run.
BOB WITHORNLarry, A few years back Grand Rapids, Mi. had a 100 year flood of the Grand River downtown. There are pictures of fish swimming past the windows of our eye doctor. When they built the building they made it water proof fully expecting floods.
I remember seeing those pictures, Bob, and others showing the CSX bridge in town being weighted down by a string of loaded covered hoppers (that would be the one just upstream from Wealthy Street).We spent part of last week at my sister's place; their back yard boundary is determined by the Grand River. It's still within its banks, but is almost at the same high level that it was last year. That close to the mouth of the river, one doeasn't expect much change in water level, but it does happen--they couldn't use their dock one year not that long ago because of low water levels.As we were traveling last week, the St. Joseph River looked uncommonly high, and it was nice to be able to see distinct channels on most of the other rivers along the Lake Michigan shore.
And this morning? Snow. Not a lot - just a dusting, and widely scattered. But, snow.
Back to winter - 29 degrees this AM in lead pipe capital (Flint, Mi)- guessed wrong when I left Elkhart and brought the wrong jacket.
tree68This is nothing like the flooding they get along the Mississippi, et al, but it's sure significant for us.
This isn't quite as disruptive, but today was the Lincoln half and full maratons. In preparation, they dug up and closed a majority of the thru streets last week and today, ran the marathons on what was left...
Someone in this mix needs a reality check - bet they stayed home today...
She who has no signature! cinscocom-tmw
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