Stinking unrelenting rain

[Doc]

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?

[airedale]

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

Al

[wolc123]

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.  

[First-light]

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. 

[landtracdeerhunter]

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

[wolc123]

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.  

Edited Wednesday at 12:31 AM by wolc123

[landtracdeerhunter]

Looks like another inch today.

[GreeneHunter]

I'm on a well and all this Rain is making me change my Whole House Filters more often ... Sheesh !

[New York Hillbilly]

Coming off a long, hard winter, with the honey bee population already suffering huge losses, this freaking rain is making beekeeping life miserable. Urghh!  The efforts I put into getting my 4 hives through winter beat the odds, and resulted in all 4 making it in great shape. But the success has had its drawbacks.  I am now feeding a greatly expanding population of bees because they cannot fly out in the rain and cold to forage for themselves. It also keeps virgin queens from being able to complete their mating flights. There is so much more to beekeeping than sticking a box of bees in the backyard and sitting back and enjoy seeing them out there. With that said, as strange as it may sound, even with the expense, work, stress, and worry, I’m glad I got into this. If I have any regret, it would bee (pun intended) I didn’t start many years ago. 

[wolc123]

19 hours ago, New York Hillbilly said:

Coming off a long, hard winter, with the honey bee population already suffering huge losses, this freaking rain is making beekeeping life miserable. Urghh!  The efforts I put into getting my 4 hives through winter beat the odds, and resulted in all 4 making it in great shape. But the success has had its drawbacks.  I am now feeding a greatly expanding population of bees because they cannot fly out in the rain and cold to forage for themselves. It also keeps virgin queens from being able to complete their mating flights. There is so much more to beekeeping than sticking a box of bees in the backyard and sitting back and enjoy seeing them out there. With that said, as strange as it may sound, even with the expense, work, stress, and worry, I’m glad I got into this. If I have any regret, it would bee (pun intended) I didn’t start many years ago. 

This is looking like it’s going to be a tough year for apple tree pollination.  We used to have quite a few Cortlands, in an orchard my grandfather had planted on our farm right after WW 2, but they’re all gone now.  I’m not even sure what kind of apples the two trees I have now are, but at least one of them (that I bought from tractor supply) is a later ripening variety and not as tasty.  
 

I think I got the other one from Walmart, and it finally produced its first apples last season.  I trimmed both of them early this spring and they were both loaded with blossoms.  I’ve never sprayed either of them, but I planned to this year, after the blossoms are gone.  
 

I probably will spray them, at least up to “June drop”, anyhow, since I’ve already bought the spray.  If all the apples on them drop off, I’ll stop.  They both look pretty good and should soon be getting into the prime years of production.

Quite a few years ago, when our kids were still young, my wife coaxed me into killing all the honey bees, that had made a hive in an old whiskey barrel, that was outside next to the barn.  We still had a few Cortlands then and they produced much better on the year those bees moved in. There was quite a drop off the year after she got me to kill those bees.  
 

I’ve got neighbors with hives on both sides of me now, so if the weather would just cooperate a little, we should be able to get at least some halfway decent production from those new trees.

 I’ve never eaten an apple from either one of them (just took a bite or two from the buggy ones that were never sprayed from the first one).  The deer definitely seem to like them though.  Unfortunately, they are right next to the road.  A nice buck got killed by a car and laid right under one in the morning a few years ago.  
 

I didn’t see it in the dark and someone stopped and cut off its rack while I was at work that  day. Not sure how big the rack was but looked to be at least a 3.5 year old, based on the size of the body.  

Edited 16 hours ago by wolc123

[landtracdeerhunter]

3 hours ago, wolc123 said:

This is looking like it’s going to be a tough year for apple tree pollination.  We used to have quite a few Cortlands, in an orchard my grandfather had planted on our farm right after WW 2, but they’re all gone now.  I’m not even sure what kind of apples the two trees I have now are, but at least one of them (that I bought from tractor supply) is a later ripening variety and not as tasty.  
 

I think I got the other one from Walmart, and it finally produced its first apples last season.  I trimmed both of them early this spring and they were both loaded with blossoms.  I’ve never sprayed either of them, but I planned to this year, after the blossoms are gone.  
 

I probably will spray them, at least up to “June drop”, anyhow, since I’ve already bought the spray.  If all the apples on them drop off, I’ll stop.  They both look pretty good and should soon be getting into the prime years of production.

Quite a few years ago, when our kids were still young, my wife coaxed me into killing all the honey bees, that had made a hive in an old whiskey barrel, that was outside next to the barn.  We still had a few Cortlands then and they produced much better on the year those bees moved in. There was quite a drop off the year after she got me to kill those bees.  
 

I’ve got neighbors with hives on both sides of me now, so if the weather would just cooperate a little, we should be able to get at least some halfway decent production from those new trees.

 I’ve never eaten an apple from either one of them (just took a bite or two from the buggy ones that were never sprayed from the first one).  The deer definitely seem to like them though.  Unfortunately, they are right next to the road.  A nice buck got killed by a car and laid right under one in the morning a few years ago.  
 

I didn’t see it in the dark and someone stopped and cut off its rack while I was at work that  day. Not sure how big the rack was but looked to be at least a 3.5 year old, based on the size of the body.  

I wish I would have grafted some of the old time apple trees like Spies ,Cortland,  Greenings, Baldwin, and Red Delicious  onto these new fangled trees, they call apples, now adays. Apples have lost their flavor, for the most part. I don't enjoy eating local grown ones. I also think, they have priced themselves way out of the market. I know costs are way up, but when does an item get to be not worth the money to purchase?

[landtracdeerhunter]

1 minute ago, landtracdeerhunter said:

I wish I would have grafted some of the old time apple trees like Spies ,Cortland,  Greenings, Baldwin, and Red Delicious  onto these new fangled trees, they call apples, now adays. Apples have lost their flavor, for the most part. I don't enjoy eating local grown ones. I also think, they have priced themselves way out of the market. I know costs are way up, but when does an item get to be not worth the money to purchase? I'm also fortunate to have my own maple syrup and honey, which are way out of sight on price.