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Mus have been scarce, so I put some bird seed in strategic locations to draw them in. It didn't take long before a mus was in the crosshairs. SJC

MUD FARMING 101: I definitely picked the right year to sell one of my old 2 wheel drive tractors. That 1951 Ford 8n, originally purchased by my old neighbor from Yoder brothers in Clarence ctr, would have struggled on the half acre that I plowed up for sweetcorn the other day, with all the wet spots. We towed it over to my buddy’s place with his truck on Saturday, after we got back from fishing. My wife had taken my pickup truck, on her annual Ohio shopping spree, so we needed his truck to get my boat to the lake. That old Ford tractor had quit on me, early last summer, with an unknown “no-spark” issue. My 5 year newer Farmall Cub exhibited a similar issue, while I was plowing snow with it, in January. It’s just too difficult for me to keep two of those old non John Deere tractors operational, while I still have a full time job. I was going to push the Ford into a corner of my barn, and let it sit there about (5) years until I retire. My buddy wanted it, to leave down at his southern tier camp, for hauling logs for milling. He said he has it running already. I gave him a new coil that I had bought for it, and a new wiring harness and a bunch of other spare parts, including a new rear rim. Amazon had accidentally shipped me two of of those, when I ordered 1, a few years ago. Oddly enough, that old Ford plowed the best that it ever did last spring, with just one loaded rear tire (on the sod side). It also has a worn out brake on the other side, from about 75 years of riding that, to compensate for the traction differential when both rears were loaded. Towing it about 5 miles to my buddy’s place was fun. The left front wheel would start shimmying pretty good at about 17 mph, and just one working brake made slowing down a little dicey. There’s an “s” curve, on the road thru the swamp, which has claimed a few lives when folks took it too fast with their cars. There were some buzzards circling over that curve, as I was towed thru it. I wasn’t quite quick enough with my phone to get a picture of them (plus I really needed both hands on the wheel to keep control thru that curve). That old Ford still has all (4) original tires on it, original paint, had always been stored inside, and only has 2100 hours on the proofmeter. I didn’t include the 2x12 plow, that came with it on the deal, but I let my buddy borrow it whenever he needs it. That plow is a little on the small side for my 4wd JD 4120, but smaller implements work a lot better than big ones on my mucky bottomland farm, especially on a wet spring like we are getting now. It’s pretty cool watching the wakes roll off the moldboards, when I pull it thru standing water, without even getting any wheel spin. I’m hoping to use my Dodge Durango field car, which has Cooper with good deep tread on it, for most of the disking, and much of cultipacking (until I get my Farmall Cub back from the mechanics) later this year. I think my 8 ft pull type disk should be just about perfect behind that. I’ll need a longer control rope to reach the front seat of the 4 door suv, with the hatchback open. No problem keeping the hatch back up, because The AC don’t work on it anyhow, but the Pioneer stereo still works great. It was still a little too wet to try it on the first pass with the dusk, on that plowed half acre, this week. I had to use my 4wd JD 4120 tractor again. That tractor has R1 tires and a loader on it, that I could use to pull myself out with, if I ever did loose traction in the mud. That JD 4120 could easily handle a 10 foot disk, but again, a small implement is way better in wet conditions. My 8 ft JD disk has good cleaners on it, so it does pretty good in wet conditions. I’m still aiming to get half of my sweetcorn planted, and maybe my fieldcorn ground plowed, by the end of May.

I have my camera under the deck never see him at night , always in the day and always just one i caught him in a rat trap today and thought I had him caught him right around the neck ! bastard pulled out !!! wonder if he will die ?? or will he come back

Wipe peanut butter on a fence post when he shows up shoot the bastard. The peanut butter will keep him still.

Pretty much any politician for that matter.

I seen a big buck in my yard, last evening. He doesn't seem to mind it.

Not to rain on anyone's parade; Past generation farmers use to say, if you see one rat, you have ten.

Don't poison the rat . It could die in the house or under the deck and then it will stink as it decays . also , if the cats decide to feast on it , they might be poisoned .

Well the trap isn’t working too well

I rutted up some areas of my property with tractor. My Farmer was going to mix up plantings in the fields this year. Talked to him 2 days ago and decided just to go with corn in all of them. Said the weather was to shitty this spring to change things up.

try mixing corn meal and baking soda...they eat it and die

In our old house, we had a rat from hell. Chewed holes in between cabinets in a island and chewed the drain tube for the washer. The water on the floor was how I found the holes from cabinet to cabinet. Traps set upstairs and in the basement. No luck. Few weeks later, dishwasher wouldn't work. Prick chewed wires. Added hardware cloth under and throughout the entire dishwasher. Still couldn't catch the bastard. I was home during a rainy day, and heard him in the dog food bag. Set up with the pellet gun, and a hr later I had my chance and missed. Left one chewed hole under the cabinets open open, and left a trap there, finally after almost a month of trying to kill this thing, he messed up and the trap got him. Called him Rat bastard. Thing had a PHD in pissing me off. But I won't the war.

I have a rat I’ve seen go under my deck a couple times Set a snap trap and between feral cats and skunks I Can’t catch the rat Tried live trap too ,,, nothing I have my pellet gun loaded but he doesn’t stay in one place long enough I think it’s time for poison

I’m hoping to get half of my sweetcorn planted on the last day of May. I’ll try and get all of my fieldcorn planted thru June, and the other half of my sweetcorn in around July 1. It’s been a long tube since we had this wet of a spring.

Same here and I agree with everything you said Doc, the weather this spring really stinks! Al

We are only a couple weeks from June, and the next week looks like some kind of rain everyday with highs in the 50's. I've got standing water in 4 spots on the lawn where I cannot take my zero-turn mower without getting stuck. Of course the grass loves it and is getting close to a foot high. The lawn looks like crap. And usually we have the garden in by now, but right now it is a mud-pit. With rain every day and night it is never going to dry out. And with temps staying below 60 degrees, the soil temp is not going to allow anything to germinate anyway. I have experienced this once before and almost all of the seed rotted because of the cold and rain. There I feel better now having got that all off my chest.....Ha-ha-ha-ha. Anybody else finding this weather to be challenging?

Bees have settled in. Carrying pollen into their new home, this morning.