Weather in Indiana hasn’t been too bad so far this winter. It was cold early this week, but now we’re in a moderate stretch. The weatherman posted a picture of a bullseye in reverse yesterday where Indiana is the spot that gets no snow for the next week! Sorry kids, looks like you’ll be going to school!

Ken is back from a family vacation to Florida and work in the shop has resumed. Right now we are in the middle of a thorough work through on the field cultivator. Other than sweeps, grease, and airing up tires, I’m not sure it has been in the shop since we’ve owned it. We’re going in depth this time with changing mainframe wheel and walking axle bearings (found one set that had failed), checking all the other bearings, refreshing the rake/basket leveling system, inspecting welds and other wear areas, and of course changing the sweeps. 

We have also been taking some time away from the field cultivator to re-organize and clean the shop.

Making sales

Over the last couple of weeks the grain market provided us some opportunities we felt were acceptable to sell some of our 2021 crop. Of course, the same day we sold a large chunk of grain one of our drivers told us he is going to Texas for a couple of months. He ended up staying a few days longer than expected and got us through the big push we had for this month. Fortunately, when we made the sales, we spread delivery over three months. Our other driver should be able to handle the rest.

We will take advantage of this mild weather and work on hauling beans from bins where we use a tractor and auger. The barn lot may get a little sloppy in the afternoons when the sun comes out, but it sure beats having to haul grain when it’s cold, frozen, and the tractor doesn’t want to start!

Dad has been doing bookwork. I have been splitting my time between shop work and office. Office work wasn’t exactly what I had planned this week. Over the weekend, one of our daughter’s travel team coaches stepped back due to health issues. My wife was ‘promoted’ to head coach and the administrative work fell into my lap. Most of my mornings, evenings, and noon hours were spent working through schedules and budgets for the team. Farm business got the short end of the stick as the rest of my time was spent in the shop.

The opinions of the author are not necessarily those of Farm Futures or Farm Progress.