My new home!

Once again I have been long overdue in my updates here, but as I have some news to share, it's time to post once again!

 A couple weeks ago I finalized the purchase on my very own farmstead! I am SOO excited!

What I purchased is a nice little ~13 acre plot just one mile North of our farm, with an excellent set of trees, a little old house, and an old grainery-turned toolshed...
Here is the view up the driveway, showing the beautiful evergreens lining the road.

Front view of the house, looking North. As you can see the roof needs to be worked on, so I won't be bored this summer...

Here's the grainery/shed, Not much to look at, but some good storage. Looking East

Between the house and shed, looking West/Northwest. Here you can see the HUGE Weeping Willow tree, which I love!

North side of the garage, looking Southeast. You can see the nice little patio, complete with a brick grill! Oh, and the very fruitful Apple tree... ;-)

Partway up the drive looking East:

Today I had to go to Bismarck, and ended up picking up a few pieces of furniture to put in my new place. Took a few pictures after moving it in this afternoon, so here's a little glimpse into the inside:

Pictured above is the living room, with the couch I just picked up... Below is the master bedroom, with a set of bunk beds (minus mattresses) for the time being:

Dining room, with the table and chairs I picked up today as well:

And the kitchen and laundry/entry way, which I haven't done anything to as of yet... :-)

I will be working on fixing it up a little this summer, and until I am ready to move in, it will be used for storage and as a guest house... :-)
 Well it's getting late, and I'm going to head for bed, so I'll stop here. Good night all!
   Andrew B.

Busyness, and an upcoming Appleseed!

Dear readers,
 It may seem like I have forgotten all about you, but that is not the case.  Truth is I have been so busy with farming, and my mechanic work, that I have just not had time to post here.

 I have mostly been busy working on the farm, trying to make as much hay as possible, as with the drought this year, hay is rather scarce... We are now putting up our second cut of Alfalfa, which is also very short...   I have also been working on getting the combines ready for the field, as well as fixing the loader tractor when one of the wheels fell off... (!)

 We have also been spending a lot of time setting up a rifle range here at our farm, as we are planning on hosting a couple more Appleseed shoots this year, and needed a good place to do it... You can check out the Appleseed website for more information about the program: www.appleseedinfo.org  Check out the FB page I set up for our event here: http://www.facebook.com/events/213108062148105/?ref=notif&notif_t=plan_user_joined
  I will also post links to the event pages on the Appleseed website where you can register, as soon as they get post up there...   You are all invited!
  
  Got to go,
    Andrew B.

Done seeding!

Hello all,
  Once again, I have not posted for many days, and my only excuse is I have been tremendously busy... ;-)  Hope that is good enough...

   We finished our seeding here last Friday! (not yesterday, 8 days ago...) So glad to be done with that, and now we can move on to other projects... The Lord has blessed us with beautiful weather this year, and even sent us a shower this morning. :-) 
 
 I have been keeping busy with shop work mostly, now that we are done seeding.   Going to have to go through the haying equipment and make sure that is all ready to go for the busy haying season...   We also have to check on the fences in our pasture, and move the cows up there soon...  So much to do -- we are sure never bored around here!

A couple of days ago I got a chance to go outside and take some nice pictures, so thought I'd share a couple of them with you.  :-)  Here is a sneak peak at my latest project:

Our apple tree blooming:

"The Lonely Dandelion"

A nice bleeding heart in the greenhouse:

Do you see it?

The Monarch:

Hope you enjoy my pictures!
   Andrew B.

Finally a little time to slow down...

Yes, that's right! We are essentially done with this years spring tillage/planting, so things are slowing down a little bit.  The past week and a half I spent working for an organic farming friend of ours, helping him get his crops in the ground. That left Jacob to pick up a lot of the work I would have normally done around the farm, but I heard he was enjoying driving the tractors around. :-) You can find some pictures my sister took over on her blog....

 Today Jacob and I went up to Mandan for the Dakota Thunder R/C club's first race of the summer. I didn't take any pictures this time, but if you would like to get an idea of what was all going on, you can check out my post from last year, "Workin' hard, Playin' hard"    We didn't do so well in the races today, as we both had trouble with our trucks... Oh well, we had fun, and that's what we went up for! :-)

 That's all for now,
   Andrew B.

Mid May already!

Where does the time always go? It seems like it flies by when you are busy...
  Dad and I have been very busy with grain cleaning, and thankfully we are pretty much done now. Now on to our own farming! We haven't actually got anything planted yet, as the weather hasn't been cooperating very well... It is raining again today, so I don't know if we will get out in the fields tomorrow or not.
 We spent most of the day yesterday working on the corn planter, trying to get all of the seed sensors working... For those of you who may not know what I am talking about, most corn planters have a monitoring system which shows you lots of information, like how many acres you have planted, how many seeds per acre you are planting, and most importantly it will alert you if one of the seeder units stops planting. Last year when we were seeding with it, a couple of the sensors were not working, and it so happened that the drive chain ran off of one of the planter units, and so we ended up with a missing row of corn in the field... Not good!  We did eventually get it all working yesterday, after a trip to the John Deere dealer for some new sensors... :-)
 My younger brother, Jacob, and I have also been working on hauling compost out from our cattle lot onto the nearby fields... Not the most pleasant job, but one which needs to be done! Jacob has been driving the big tractor and spreader, while I have been driving our older and much smaller John Deere 4020... I know that seems a little backwards, but the newer spreader is a lot easier to operate, so Jacob wanted to drive that one...
  That's all for now,
    Andrew B.

Another very wet day...

The past week has been nothing but a big wet mess! Today it is raining again, so we are all trying to work inside as much as possible... Here is a video clip I took a couple of days ago when Jacob and I went out to check cows:



Most of the snow has melted again, but that just means there is even more mud... We are praying for nicer weather, both for calving, and so we can get back to cleaning grain...
 Thanks for stopping by!
    Andrew B.

Calf sale!

Last Wednesday we spent most of the day chasing, sorting, and loading last year's calves, in order to take them to the local livestock auction here in Napoleon. (http://www.napoleonlivestock.com/) The sale was actually on Thursday, but you pretty much have to get the calves there the day before the sale... Thankfully the markets are very high right now, so we got a good price. Here is a short video of some of our calves going through the ring and being sold:




New poll: Have you ever been to a livestock sale? Vote now!
  Andrew B.

For Sale:

For sale:
Computers:

Camcorder:

And Geese!

For complete listings, check out my page over on BisManOnline, the area's most popular (FREE!) online ad website: http://www.bismanonline.com/user_andrew
 Andrew B.

Moving hay home...

Hello all,
  I was just going through my pictures, and found this video clip I took a couple of weeks ago when we were moving hay home. We are going to have to get to work on that again, as we are starting to run out of hay at home... This video was taken with my iPod Touch, check it out in HD!



 Andrew B.

  PS. Check back later for some pictures of something Dad and Mom brought home yesterday...

12 days between posts...

Yikes! Must be getting forgetful in my old age... ;-)
I have been busy with the normal farm chores, and just keeping up with the day to day things, as well as all of the "Partyin' " that comes with Thanksgiving... :-) Last Sunday we went to Bismarck to be with my Bornemann grandparents, then on Thanksgiving day one of my Mom's brothers and his wife came to visit...

(Later)
I guess I will have to postpone the rest of the details (and pictures) until tomorrow...
Andrew B.

Done Combining!

We are finally done with this year's harvest! We just finished combining the corn, and it is already trucked into the yard and stowed safely away in the bin. And just in time, as it's supposed to start raining and snowing tonight! We were able to get done a lot earlier this year than last year, mainly because we had a lot of sunflowers last year...
That's all for now, but hopefully I'll have more time to blog soon...
Andrew B.

Today's projects...

Today we spent most of the day cleaning out one of the grain bins, moving the grain to a different (Larger) bin... Dad was cleaning some grain for a neighbor of ours this morning, so after chores Jacob and I unloaded the "Orange Box", then set up the drag auger in the (First) grain bin as it was getting empty, and started shuttling grain to the other bin... After loading the old Ford truck, moving it to the other bin, and getting the auger running, I had a couple of minutes to work on the lawn mower, as dad had got some parts for it in town yesterday... It's kind of funny, we have 3 riding lawn mowers around here, and none of them were working! My John Deere needs an engine overhaul, the green one has a bad bearing on the mower deck, and the Craftsman needed a new air filter, and a couple odds and ends... At least that one wasn't too hard to fix! :-)
I also spent a little time working on the snowmobile, as I had found out yesterday the mice had been using it as a storage room--Lots of seeds and other objectionable items stuffed in the air vents and the pull starter... I did get it cleaned out and running again, and gave the little varmints something else to chew on--a couple bars of mouse bait! :-)
I guess it's time to get to bed,
Andrew B.

A Milestone...

Guess what? This is post number 100! It took me a year and a half to get there, but I finally made it!

We have been busy finishing up the fieldwork for the year, and also working on our storage shed as we get time... Here are the latest pictures of that project:

Mom just got home from a long day in Bismarck, and the rest of the family wants to watch an episode of Bonanza, so I guess that will have to do...

Andrew B.

It's a Girl!

--My calf that is!

Yup, that's right, I am back to milking... I went out to the pasture a couple of days ago to check on Sally, (The cow) as I knew she was getting close to calving. What I found was a several-day-old calf! I guess I should have kept a closer eye on her, but it turned out just fine anyway. :-) It's soo nice to have an abundance of milk again, and to be able to get some cream too. Whipped cream on pancakes, with ice cream for dessert! YUM!

The calf, Laura, is doing very well. It didn't take her too long to get used to drinking from a bottle, and now she is a regular pest!

Today was one of those rainy days where it's just nice to work on things inside... I spent most of the day cleaning up the basement: throwing out a bunch of junk, and setting up a little workbench for some of my projects. Maybe we can even get to the Foosball table again... ;-)

That's all for now,

Andrew B.

More fixing than expected...

We didn't quite get to combining today, although we got really close... We ended up having to fix more things on the combines than we thought, and had a little trouble getting the concaves adjusted, so it was supper time till we had the combines ready to try in the field... It was really windy and hot here today, and would have been REALLY hot in the combine cabs -- neither of which have air conditioning -- so we weren't too disappointed. ;-)

Thanks for the comments on my last post, it's always fun to hear from my readers! Jonathan; yes, that is a picture Jacob took while on their flight back from Georgia. Here are a couple more cool "Above-The-Cloud" pictures:

And "Anonymous," sorry I couldn't make it to the jam, would have been fun! I will stop by next time I get to town... :-)

Post number 90...

I am finally getting close to having one hundred posts, but if I keep posting at the rate I have been, it will probably be 2011 till I get there!
We have been busy with haying once again, although we will have a short break soon as our next field isn't quite ready yet...
Tomorrow we will be getting our combines ready to go, and trying them out on one of our wheat fields that we swathed a couple of days ago... Hopefully the old machines won't complain too much! We had them both running a couple of days ago, but still need to get the headers ready and all of the adjustments made... It usually takes a couple of hours just to get the combines set!
We did finally get the "White Truck" back in operation; we ended up changing out the camshaft for a good used one that we bought from a neighbor who had one laying around, and also swapping the intake manifold and carburetor for a different one we had from an old engine... Now she runs like a top!
~ How do you like my new layout? Leave me a comment!
Andrew B.

Workin' hard, Playin' hard...

Hello everybody,
As the title implies, I have been busy again lately... This past week I have been gone working for a friend of ours, Dave, helping him get his seeds in the ground... I was running the tractor with the Wishek disc, and Dave was doing all of the seeding. It went very well, only a couple of minor problems... It does get tireing sitting in a tractor, going round and round the field for 13 hours on end, but I guess that's what farming is all about! :-) It will be nice to have a little extra spending money too... ;-)
On a lighter note, last Saturday, Jacob and I went up to Wheels Wings n' Hobbies (WWNH) in Bismarck for the first DTRC (Dakota Thunder RC Club) race of the year. :-) Have you ever been to a RC race? Vote in the new poll! I took several videos of the races, check them out!
The 1/8 scale Monster Trucks:



The Short Course trucks:



The most exciting class: The 1/8 scale Nitro Buggies! I taped the whole A-Main race, which is about 15 minutes long... I had to split it into two clips to upload to YouTube, so here it is in two pieces:




This was our first time up at the races, although we had been to WWNH several times, and seen the track before, but hadn't ever driven on it, or watched an actual race. The races are set up as follows: In each class, there are 2 qualifiers, then if there are enough people in the class there will be a B-Main, with the leader of the B-Main getting bumped up to the A-Main in that class. If there aren't too many people, then there will only be an A-Main, with everybody participating... Jacob and I both raced in the 1/10 2wd electric class, with 2 qualifiers, and the B-Main. Surpriseingly, I actually won the B-Main, and got a chance at the Gold! Unfortunatly, one lap into the A-Main, I had trouble with my truck, and had to drop out... :-( Oh well, just making it to the A-Main on my first time up there was quite impressive. :-)
Got to go for lunch,
Andrew B.

Video clips...

A couple of days ago, Dad, Jacob and I went down to Kintyre where some guys from the railroad were loading the rocks that they got from us onto a short train, and then hauling them out to the lake, where they dumped them by the tracks... The train had just dumped, and was heading back to the loading area, so we walked around for a little while until it got back.
After standing outside in the rain for about ten minutes, the train finally got back from the lake, and was ready to be re-loaded. After a brief consultation with the guy in charge, it was decided that we would be allowed to ride in the train out to the lake! Here are some pictures from our 'Train Ride.'
Steve, coming to talk to us:


Dad and Jacob standing waiting for the verdict:



Inside the engine, looking out the front window:



A view of the controls, sorry it's soo fuzzy:



Looking out of another window:



And, as I took along my camcorder, I thought I would share a couple of video clips:



Here is a little interview I did of Jacob, while we were waiting for the train to get loaded:



That's all for now,
Andrew B.

Done!

Last night Dad and I finally finished combining the sunflowers! Yipee! Here is a video that Cora took of us combining:



 Enjoy~

Hey! I'm Back!

Hi all of you out there!
Guess what? I'm still alive! LOL I am sorry for not posting in soooooo long, but I have been excessivly busy........ I finished cleaning grain (for now) last Monday. It was a lot of work, and a lot of headaches, but it was a start in business, and I didn't mind making some money either. :-)

Last Friday we chased our cows up to our summer pasture, which is about 4 miles up the road. The cows were rather hungry, and kept on wanting to stop and eat grass in the ditch. :-) I think my sister has posted some pictures on her blog, as she has been keeping up with blogging in her spare time. We did eventually get them up there, and now someone has to drive up there and check them every day... Oh, did I mention the road is impassable with a 4x4 pickup? We have to drive our dirt bikes up to check them, but it is fun really. :-)

The past couple of days Dad and I have been working on cleaning out the lots, and spreading a lot of manure on one of our fields. Farming isn't always fun, and certianly doesn't always smell good!

Got to go,

Goodnight!