Scrounging Firewood (and other stuff)

[kingOFgEEEks]

I'm not saying it's impossible. The hardest thing is getting that much hay dry enough all at the same time. And then the volume of bales would be quite a bit. It's possible, though.

 

[MustangMike]

If memory serves me right, can't you set the bailer to make different size bails???

 

[nomad_archer]

Hope they are all Mennonites or they're all cheaters.

Using my experience they all and I mean all of them look to be Amish. Yes they are "cheaters" they use everything the non amish guy uses in there work or business.

 

[Mike-M]

Finished my scrounging for this year already. I wish my yard was big enough to get a couple years ahead like some of you guys, but I can only store about 2 cords, thats with my stacks 7-8 feet high. I still have about half a cord left to buck and split, that should be done pretty soon.

 

[Mike-M]

The other day I broke the tip off my wood grenade (diamond shaped wedge) which I use almost every day. I was going to weld it, but after taking a look, its some real low quality cast steel. I went to Lowes to get it warrantied, but they no longer carry them. Went to HD, same thing. Went to harbor freight, they carry them, but theyre out of stock and arent expecting them soon. I guess I'll order one from amazon or something.

 

[cantoo]

Ambull, we have every type of Amish, Mennonites etc here. The Elders decided on what they can and can't do and every once in awhile a family gets kicked out (banned) from the group because of the Elders changing their minds. We have ones who only use horses , ones who only use tractors with steel wheels, use rubber tired tractors and ones who run hundreds of acres and every type of equipment there is out there. My lawn mower guy just got banned and had to leave because he was getting too modern for the Elders (his father is one) he sells every type of motor there is out there, is a Dewalt dealer, Johnsred, sells solar panels and installs them, sells Natures Comfort owb's and can order tons of other stuff. His brother also got booted out because he was a Contractor, he had a "white" guy hired, paid him to buy 2 duallys and a bunch of trailers. He had a ton of employees and did a lot of business.
The sale I was at had a steel supply business, butcher shop, fencing installation, raised cattle, custom feed grinding and on and on. At least 4 families lived on the property. Had a huge diesel generator running everything including electric garage door openers on all the overhead doors. Their `` office`had 4 stocked pop coolers, chocolate bars etc.

 

[svk]

The term tree nuts takes on a whole new meaning...

 

[MustangMike]

Just cut the legs, cut the trunk, flip em right side up, and you got yourself a saleable item at the art show!

 

[cantoo]

The guy had lots of homemade equipment. This is a post driver that started out as a skid steer.


Stand on platform on this one. The bins hold different types of fencing wire.



They must have used this to load logs onto a feed table or something. I don't think it had a drive system on it.





This was a hammer mill inside the barn, powered by a diesel. They also had a huge diesel powering a hay harvester that ground up round bales of hay, again inside the barn. Twin drive shafts on it, one went to run the cyclone sucker behind the hammer mill.


Parking lot.

 

[zogger]

10k in a day? With 5 people? That's quite impressive. We could hit 1,300-1,500 in a day with 4-5 people, and the neighbors could do about 3,000 max, with 6-8 people. You would have to be averaging close to 100 wagon loads per hour!

Big dairy. OK, not exact memory but sort of what I remember, approx 200 acres pasture/ hay, 200 corn and milo for silage. Plus woods. He had a big tractor, the baler with a kicker, multiple wagons, (land train) his son shuttling the wagons and then a conveyor at the barn. I can't tell ya what baler, but he had a huge JD tractor running the baler and kicker, smaller JD for running the wagons. I was in the barn stacking, it just DIDN'T END. AAARRGGH. Hugemongous barn. Not stop deluge of bales. Still stacking at midnight or so. Later on the farmer told us that was his all time record by a big amount. I was in my mid 20s, thought I was just gonna keel over. I was much stronger then of course. Hook in each hand, slinging. Mostly two of us slinging, sometimes three, big overload for awhile, he had a lot of big hay wagons.

I HAVE NO IDEA if that count was accurate, just what he told me later.

I also remember, two bucks an hour.....

 

[cantoo]

Zogger, I used to hay for lots of farmers. Had one I really hated to work for. He had a Wonder steel barn with only a small door for the elevator at each end. We started in the middle and as soon as you got a few rows wide and up to the roof it cut off all air flow. He used former tractor trailers to haul the hay with, the "wagons" held 240 bales because that's as high as his loader tractor could lift the stooks. Most normal farm wagons held just over 120 bales and you got a few minutes break when they switched out wagons. The trailers from hell seemed to last forever. And he was too cheap to hire a couple of decent guys, he would have his 10 year old son with me in the mow and as soon as he could he sat on his azz and played with the cats. The kid now lives about 10 miles from me and farms a couple 1000 acres, yeah he sure was a dumb azz but way smarter than me.

 

[cantoo]

Oh yeah, I checked out the bar and gave it a bend or two in my vise. It's actually pretty straight and I'll wear it out cutting body wood at the landing. And I took a look at the splitter I bought. 9 hp briggs on it, store bought unit and decent enough cycle time. I think I'll cut it apart and use the parts for my 36" splitter if I ever get the time to build it. .

 

[zogger]

First squash scrounge!

 

[MustangMike]

You are way ahead of us Zog, but my Tomato plants have flowers on them and the squash, bean and broccoli plants are all getting bigger!

If it ever stops raining for a day, I will get in there and weed a bit.

 

[USMC615]

First squash scrounge!

...yes sir...now the deep fryer oil to hit about 350 degs, sliced 1/4 thick, and a bowl of light salt and pepper flour ready to the side. Ain't nothin like fried squash and zucchini. Only thing I could rank with it is fried green tomatoes and fried okra. Both of the latter with a light mix of flour and cornmeal.

 

[svk]

...yes sir...now the the deep fryer oil to hit about 350 degs, sliced 1/4 thick, and a bowl of light salt and pepper flour ready to the side. Ain't nothin like fried squash and zucchini. Only thing I could rank with it is fried green tomatoes and fried okra. Both of the latter with a light mix of flour and cornmeal.

Yum!

 

[MustangMike]

I do my garden to eat healthy. I grow mostly Butternut & Spaghetti Squash. We split them down the middle and bake em, maybe with some real Maple Syrup and stuff (I don't know all my wife's cooking secrets), but they turn out very good!

Zucchini you can just slice and eat raw on your salad, great!

Also had some real good venison burgers the other night.

 

[USMC615]

I do my garden to eat healthy. I grow mostly Butternut & Spaghetti Squash. We split them down the middle and bake em, maybe with some real Maple Syrup and stuff (I don't know all my wife's cooking secrets), but they turn out very good!

Zucchini you can just slice and eat raw on your salad, great!

Also had some real good venison burgers the other night.

...butternut and spaghetti squash is fine eating. Good deal.

 

[svk]

Spaghetti squash with crumbled Italian sausage and chunky sauce.

Zucchini squash halves baked with Italian sausage and shredded Parmesan!

Getting hungry now!

 

[MustangMike]

A lot of times the veggies will be lightly steamed, then mixed with some roasted garlic and olive oil ... healthy & delicious!

She did some baby spinach that way a few weeks ago, it melted in your mouth.