I am not a football fan, never have been, so I don't follow college ball at all, other than a vague awareness that Tennessee played Alabama last weekend and that Alabama won.

Apparently this hasn't happened for a while and the Tennessee folks was some upset about it, but I think I have an explanation for ya'll.

I heard Condi Rice was at the game. She probably used Karl Rove's mind control device to cause Tennessee to lose.

All it would've taken was a little tinfoil lining for the quarterback's helmet and Tennessee would've been good to go. As it was they didn't stand a chance.

My work is done now, since that I am sure I have offended Tennessee fans, Alabama fans and anyone who actually suspects the GOP has a mind control ray.

Cletus n' Luther are a'tryin' to diagnose my starting problems with this beast.


This is about as bad as the time I called TC and held the phone up to the Ferguson engine so he could tell me what was wrong with it...

To be completely honest, I have a fair idee of what's wrong with the Deutz, I just haven't gotten ambitious enough to try an' fix it yet. 'Sides, you never can tell when a third party will throw a good idea out at you.

As an explanation for the previous post, we came back the looooooong way. Went over to Fitzgerald and came up 441 all the way through to Homer, which is up in Northeast Georgia. We picked up a load of post-hole diggers at a place there for Tony and then proceeded home through the mountains.

I was confident that we wouldn't get lost, as I left a trail of boiled peanuts by the side of the road from Fitzgerald to Athens. I would've never thought I'd be able to eat boiled peanuts whilst driving, but I worked out a method pretty quick.

Passed through some pretty country that I'd never seen before and I'm not knocking the folks in east-central Georgia... but damn! They ain't nuttin there but pine trees for miles and miles... I was kinda glad to get up in the hills.

South Georgia was much more interesting to me. Everyone has defoliated their cotton and are beginning to pick it. Some of the fields we passed looked like they were covered in snow.

I kept telling TC it was his turn to drive, but every time we stopped somewhere I would forget, only to remember when we got back on the road.

All in all it was a pretty good trip. We got back late Friday afternoon. I've been pretty useless since. I didn't pick up many goodys this time. Bought some pins and a 4-lug implement rim at Agri-Supply in Tifton and a Tap and Die set at the expo. That was about it.

Lost? LOST?

I ain't never been lost... been powerful confused for a month or two, but never lost.

Anybody know what movie that was from? hmmm?

Seriously, we weren't lost, but we were so far out in the sticks that there was one town we went through that had what looked like a Morton building for the bank and a doublewide with bob-wire around it for a county jail...

Ok, that was a slight exaggeration. Very slight though...

Gone

to Sunbelt. Be back Friday afternoon sometime.

Whereupon I drag home more junk

Went to an equipment sale today, looking for another hay wagon, brought home a Gehl 260 gyro rake. Dirt cheap. Funny thing is, I didn't even bid on it, TC did... I was on the damn phone and missed it. He knew I'd been looking at it, no-one seemed to be interested in it (rotary rakes ain't real popular 'round here) so he bought it for me. Probably the cheapest rake we've ever bought, this now makes me hayrake-poor as I now have 6, yes six. Three bar-rakes, a tedder-rake and now this contraption. Too bad it'll be next spring before I can try it out.

Sweetie had the camera so there's no pictures today.

Bargains of the day were a Case 310 Dozer with good undercarriage for $5900 (bidding went to $5700 and was a no-sale. Owner said he'd take $5900). A Lincoln AC/DC stick welder (don't remember the model #) for $125. 24 foot tandem axle gooseneck equipment trailer for $2800. 110 gallon spray rig with boomless nozzles for $175 (I should have bought that). "C" Allis with tricycle front end, ran well, decent tires, $475... you can't buy a riding lawnmower for that. If it were a wide front, I might have had some interest in it, but I really don't have any use for it.

The Public service announcement for the day is

When using a pressure washer to clean an aluminum stock trailer that has floor and walls covered with 6+ inches of dried cowsh*t, it is best not to begin operations from the inside. Dried cowsh*t turns liquid, very, very quickly. And tends to splatter... I would go so far to say ricochet.

The results are not pretty, if you don't believe me, ask my bride!

Pick-up sticks or Good Luck vs. Bad Luck

I am often the butt of other peoples humor, sometimes intentionally, sometimes completely inadvertently. I like to think I have a good sense of humor, so I tend to go along with it because I like a good laugh myself.

Got to talking to DR this evening and it put me to mind of something that happened a few years ago. DR's been doing some work for Toby to make some extra walking-around-money. Mostly hauling off a lot of brush from Tobys old house. Tobe don't believe in doing no yard work if he can pay somebody to do it for him.

Many moons ago, when I was in college and flat-ass broke, I hauled brush for Toby. I was carrying it off by the pickup load and was making just enough to keep myself in gas money.

It was in the heat of the Summer and I had my old F-150 just about loaded down. I pulled down the driveway and was getting ready to leave, when I noticed I'd missed a branch. I stopped to throw it in the truck and when I did, it hit the back window.

Now, it was hot. That truck is black and it had been sitting in the sun, soaking up the heat all day. That limb hit the back glass jusssst right. It shattered into a blue-million pieces whilst I stood there with my jaws agape catchin' flies and thinking whatthehellhaveIdonenow?

Like I said, I was broke. I knew that a new back window was going to cost me more than I'd made that day (truth be known, couple of other days besides). I think at the time, you could get one of those el-cheapo sliding back windows for about 75 bucks, which was about three weeks worth of gas money for me.

Now, I had pulled the truck out by the side of the road, which happened to be Highway 41 of Allman Brothers fame, so y'see there was quite a bit of traffic.

There were several people over at Tobys there at the time and we were all standing around in a knot lookin' at what I'd done. I was being laughed at and told quite pungently what a dumbass I was when a truck drove by, slowed down, then turned around at the next driveway and came back and pulled in front of me.

Guy jumps out of the truck and says "Hey! Do you need a back winder?"

Well damn, ain't he a genius... must be one of them rocket scientists I hear tell of... "Yessir, it appears I do."

"Well, I got one over here in my garage I'll let ya have fer 20 bucks and I'll even go git it and brang it to ya."

Naturally, I was somewhat stunned by this turn of events! I quickly told him I'd take it. I didn't quite yank his arm off, but I came close. This was not a situation where you look a gift horse in the mouth.

I hit Toby up for an advance to pay the man, but Toby and the rest of the crowd were laughing so hard, Toby paid for the window in addition to paying me for hauling off the brush. He said the laugh was worth 20 bucks any day of the week.

He also said "You're the luckiest SOB I've ever met in my life."

My reply to that was "If I'm so all-fired lucky, I wouldn't have busted the back glass out of the truck to begin with."

"Yeah, but we wouldn't have had this opportunity to make fun of you then."

I've been around relic hunters for many years, most of them understand that Uncle Sam tends to frown upon folks walking around with metal detectors in our national parks. But occasionally you have some greedy dork who missed class that day.

On a related note, I was watching Junkin the other night (which is a sort of redneck Antiques Roadshow) and they came accross some guy at an Alabama flea market with a "CS" buckle with a minie ball stuck halfway through it. Wanted $100 for it. That sounds more than a little fishy to me. I'd bet my last paycheck that it's a fake. I have no idea what buckles are bringing at the shows, but I think it's a safe bet that they bring more than a hundred bucks, 'specially one with a bullet sticking through it.

The new Slavery

Catfish has a damn good post about nanny-statism. It's not very long, but well worth the read.

I have a wonderment about something

Would it be considered heathenish to post photos and descriptions of some of my surplus scrap iron, AKA failed Moron Projects™ on the sidebar in hopes that one of the three people a day who drop by might actually be interested in buying said scrap iron?

For instance, I have a New Holland 1010 stackwagon that I'm not using. It works, just looks ugly. It doesn't do too well in my small fields and since it's only a 56 bale, it's impractical to use in the big field. I'd like to sell it to someone who will get some use out of it. I hate to see good equipment turn into a pile of rust. Plus, since this was a Moron Project™ from the time before the term existed, it'd be really nice to get (most) of my money back out of it.

But if that were to happen, would it still be considered a Moron Project™?

Rain, rain and more rain

Gene has about ten or fifteen acres of Tifton 44 getting rained on right now. That, my friends, is an exceedingly rare occurrence. He's pretty canny and watches the weather real close when he starts mowing. I've thought back as far as I can remember and I don't ever recall him getting any of his hay wet before.

I'm wondering if'in this is maybe some kind of inherited curse, 'cause the field in question is one he's got leased from Farrell's brother. See, back when poor ole Farrell was still farming, there was a stretch of several years where he didn't bale any hay that hadn't been rained on at least once. Even the years where we had a drought...

Bad luck and poor maintenance seemed to always insure that it either rained before he could bale, or that something would break which required parts that had to ordered. So naturally by the time the parts came in, it was raining.

We had a pretty good dry spell the year after he quit farming. As I recollect, it only rained twice in a three month stretch. I heard a rumor that some of the neighbors wanted to take up a collection to give 'im so he'd go out and mow a few passes around the field and see if we could get some rain.

Brainstorms, complete with thunder and lightning!

I have a flat on the Deutz. Rear tire of course. 16.9x30s. I don't have a tire hammer. TC has one, but I was never able to get together with him to borrow it. Thus I had no way to break down said tire, even though I did get the wheel off the tractor Saturday, but that was as far as I got.

So yesterday I was piddling around at the barn and I says to myself "Self, I got an idee!"

I cranked up the Ford and pulled over to where the wheel/tire was lying on the ground and proceeded to set the loader forks down on top of the tire, right beside the rim. Put just enough pressure on it put pressure on the bead to encourage it to come away from the rim. Then took Ye Olde Sledgehammer and whacked the tire right beside the rim.

Pop! Broke the bead on the first whack. I raised the loader, flipped the wheel and proceeded to do the same thing to the other side. Granted, it ain't rocket science, but it do beat the stew outa frailin' away at it with a tire hammer.

I have a plan...

TC and I are going to meander our way down to Moultrie on a Wednesday, go to the Expo on Thursday and loaf our way back home Friday, touring dealerships and tractor junkyards and eating BBQ all the way. I should get in enough tire-kicking to last me all winter.

The riding cultivator

I was talking to Frank last week about the "good ole days." Frank is in his seventies and is a retired railroad man, but he grew up on a farm. We were talking about tractors and such when the subject of mules came up. Frank spent a great deal of his youth staring at the back ends of a team of mules. Frank is a slender fellow, but when he was a teenager he said his arms were as big around as his legs are now, mostly from using a walking cultivator.


Ths reminded me of something that Gene (one of the other neighbors) told me once. When he was growing up his daddy traded around and got a riding cultivator. I asked him how he liked it and he said he liked it pretty well, but he only got to use it once before his daddy took the seat off of it.

He said that his daddy told him that the poor old mules had to work hard enough without having to drag him around too!

I spent most of Saturday burning a brushpile (the very same one I've been working on since February) because Saturday was the first day since April 30(?) that the State EPD has lifted their ban on open burning. I do find it very interesting that the two counties in which most of North Georgia's industry is concentrated were not under the burning ban. But everyone else on this end of the state was. Strange, very strange indeed.

I seriously thought about driving over to the Blogfest in Helen, but I decided with gas prices the way they are I'd best just stay home and tend to my own knitting. If I make any road trips this month, I think it will be a short one to Moultrie for the farm show.