My cousin started applying anhydrous ammonia today. We are to a good start on our farming. I am going to mow my yard tomorrow...1st time ever in March. There is no tank in this picture. He was checking out the applicator.

Who'd a thunk Rocket fuel could grow crops,

Dang i though it was refrigerant...Makes the corn tasty.

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It remains liquid at or below -33* ..... anything above that and it turns to vapor , and yes it could propel a rocket HAAAA .... harsh stuff to breath , and you only get one or two good whiffs and you are dead , it takes all the oxygen out of the air and freezes flesh and lungs in an instant. Splash some in your eyes and you are blind.

Great fertilizer and low cost nitrogen compared to the granular stuff.

I miss the smell of ammonia in the spring and the fall ... after I "retired" I ran a large Anhydrous plant for 4 weeks in the spring and 6 weeks in the fall and could almost make a years income.

I worked one summer back in 1967 erecting grain bins to earn money for college tuition like that one in the picture. When I went back to school in the fall I believe I could remove paint down to the metal with my bare hands they were so rough.

Those grain bins are still standing according to Google Earth. A little rusty...but they are there.

When I was growing up on the farm...every summer we were either disassembling a bin and reerecting it on another farm...or putting up a new bin. Because of that...every farm my sister and I own have on the farm.grain drying and storage.

Gotta tell you this one .... HAAAA .... my dad was a unique guy and an old school farmer and he was always coming up with ideas.

He farmed 480 acres of which 390 was cultivated grain land and he did everything himself .... he never wanted anyone helping him ... he said it was "easier" that way

He had wooden grain bins and he put hefty spruce log-skids under each one .... once his wheat was swathed he would spot those bins all over his field and when his combine hopper was full he would dump right into the closest grainery and then continue combining .... no trucking .... no hired man .... no handling grain .... after harvest was done and the ground started to freeze he would hook his tractor to the bins and skid them all home

Wheat prices were always the lowest at harvest time because of the huge supply .... so he would let his grain sit until sometimes the middle of next summer and get the highest price .... he made twice as much income and only did 30% as much work as anyone else and never had to buy a bunch of trucks or hire drivers. Could never do that today

First yard mowing ever in March at my place....and before March is gone...I will mow it again.

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Yeah right !!!! put a push mower in the picture ... who ya trying to kid Stan .... HAAA .... we have green lawns showing but still a bit of snow here and there ..... nice white fence you have there ..... is it new ??

I push mow our yard for the nice workout it gives....but ride the other 4 acres I mow. I put that fence in around the year 2000....so its going on 16 years old.

I want to see pictures of you cutting with that nice new Z turn mower! I'll send you some pics of me cutting with my new 50hp turbo diesel mower! Yeah!!! whoo whoo!
I need to get a cup holder for mine....

Scott- I am so looking forward to mowing with my Toro 6000..My other Sears ZTR has an oxcart suspension...and I felt every ant I drove over. The seat on my new mower feels like I am riding in jello. I have a cup holder and its so ready for my 20 ounce Gatorade bottles....I want a stereo headset that is blue toothed to my cell phone so I can chat on my phone.

Probably won't mow with it till later next week. My yard is fertilized that I push mow and it woke up early this year.

I am going to buy a sprayer to pull behind my new mower so I can control dandelions and buckhorn weeds.

Your mower is a beast and it would spit mine out with the clippings!

Every grass blade cut is a liberal this year! Lets you and I mow em down!

Arnie- I just read your post about your dad spotting grain bins in the farm. Now that was ingenious!

My dad was so independent and he raised me to be of such mind.

I would be given tasks to do by myself, and you would not believe how that phrase..." Necessity is the mother of invention" fit my life. It was absolutely necessary that I come up with a way to invent a method for the task at hand
...or else disappoint my dad!

Off topic...but still kind of....

When I built my stair shop....I swear to God I had 0 help building the structure. Even the 8/12 pitch trusses that spanned 28 feet can easily be put up by myself without anyone else. I built a temporary beam down the center of my shop...used an old loader tractor to lift each truss up on the end of the building....then I would slide it flat down the exterior walls and the temporary beam. ...let it hit some bumper blocks on the walls...then take a 16 foot 2x4 and lag it near the peak of the scissor truss....and lift it into its vertical position. I would nail off the 2x 4 to the temporary center beam...then go up to the roof peak...unbolt the 2x 4...and nail the truss off to a layout board showing me exactly where it is to be. I was able to put the whole roof on in two days by myself. If I had help...it would not have speeded up the process that much.

Another lesson dad taught me one day when I was 10 years old...was how to sharpen a drill bit...except he didn't teach me how...I had to teach myself!. My task for the day was to take a broken 3/8 inch drill bit, sharpen it, and drill 50 holes in a 1/4 iron plate.

I had use of a bench grinder as the only way to sharpen that drill bit....not a fancy drill bit sharpening tool.

He left and my first attempt was to sharpen the bit while spinning it next to the grinding wheel..My bit looked like a sharpened pencil and of course would not even start drilling that plate.

After several hours of experimenting..and finding another bit that was larger to copy the grind....I started coming up with the right grind. Of course the big secret to learn is to grind some relief on the bit so just the leading edge digs in.

Dad was no dummy and having to drill 50 holes was no easy task with an improperly ground bit. You could smoke and blue bit drill one hole...but not 50.

I completed my task after half a day ...and to this day can grind a broken drill bit!

Back to the mowing part of this multi topic thread...ha.

Here is my mower sitting in the corner of my former Helicycle hangar...just trembling waiting for me to fire it up and mow the first.time with it.

I am like that too Stan, I dont have 'friends' to help me do everything... plus, I do what I have to do whenever I decide to... if that is 3am... so be it

I have built and done stuff myself... there is always a way... the latest was putting my imparu on its side, then back down again. While it was on its side, a guy interested in imps came to visit, he asked how I got the imp on its side... he looked stunned when I told him I did it myself and only used a floor jack and 2 pieces of timber

I hate having to try to organise help... so I gave that shit up

Your new mower looks too nice to get dirty

That saying 'necessity is the mother of invention' is like my lifes motto.... having ADD I always overthink everything... but I often see tradesmen doing something or using a tool and more often than not, can almost immediately see something that would make the tool work better or or a better way of doing something... (I have just learned to 'shut the phuck up' and keep it to myself) I am pretty good at sharpening drill bits.... I find the most important thing is to get the center section... that little bridge from the 2 sharp edges, to be identical length each side... if you make one side long and the other side short.... the hole will wind up the size of twice the longest side of that starting center. In fact, not for gyros, but if I need a 1/4" hole and only have a 6mm drill... 2 seconds on the grinder and I can make one side of that bridge a little longer and whammo... 1/4" holes I wouldnt do it on a gyro or something critical... each frame gets a new 1/4" drill bit ... once all of the plates are drilled, that bit goes into 'drill anything else' bucket

Scott... I look forward to seeing sodzilla wide open down the runway... ... maybe you can put some video on youtube (make sure to catch some of the turbo whine!)

Your place looks fantastic Stan.... the new 'wing' looks like it has been there forever

Muz- Thanks for the comment on our wing looking like its been there forever....probably because its taken me forever to build it without borrowing money. Back in my younger days when I could not afford such a project...I would have borrowed the money and had it built in 6 months easily. Now that we can afford it, and I am forcing myself to just be a weekend warrior ....and paying as we go....the project is embarrassingly drug out....

I also have Barbara making me promise just to work on it once in awhile....so it drags on! I will start hanging doors this weekend as two have arrived.
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This mower is a beast compared to my other ZTR mower. It mowed all my almost 5 acres in half the time. I still will always push mow my yard , as its good exercise.

I 've had to mow twice now already.

I have to go buy a new mower. The deck is gone. The sand has eat it up. It has so many holes in it the grass gets thrown up into the belts and they roll over and die.
Thinking about a D-110 John Deere. I'm going to take the deck off, flip it over and spray rino-liner inside.
Friend of mine did that. He says it has not gotten through the liner yet.