Wednesday, April 29, 2009

My wife has left me ...

but she'll be home tonight. Sue and a car load of others went to Lincoln Christian College Ladies' Day. I think she set the alarm clock an hour earlier than she intended, but she was up and ready!

OK, so what is "all that GPS crap" (as my friend Karla puts it) and how do you use it? Installation of a basic systemis simple. You put a box in the tractor cab and an antenna on the roof. Oh, and the tractor is RED, not pink. That's a phone camera for you.



You set the box for how wide your implement is. When you start your first pass you set an "A" point, go to the other end and set a "B" point. It then calculates where every pass should be across the field. When you are in the correct place the light in the row across the middle of the box will be lit. If you ar exact the vertical lines will light. If you are off the vertical lines show you which way to steer to get back to where you should be.
I'd show you what that looks like but that would mean I made an error ...

Something interesting it allows you to do is skip passes It isn't an issue for us, but let's say you were pulling a small mounted implement and your tractor didn't turn very tight. You could skip a pass across the field so turning was easier and then come back and get the skips.

This is straight line mode. There is a curved line mode which follows around curves and such. I've not played with that mode, I don't know if it keys off the AB line or follows the last pass. The problem with the straight mode is if you are off 2 feet on a pass the next pass doesn't correct for that. it just shos where you should have been relative to the AB line. And that may be feature you get for spending more money than we did.

Gotta run. We got one field of corn planted before the rain. I think we are down for over a week the way the weather man is talking.

Sunday, April 19, 2009

Stalking the Wild Mushroom

Let's start with something you probably never saw before ... Mom with a grease gun. Notice the disposable glove on her right hand (couldn't waste 2 of them). Oh, and guys, be sure and comment on the new hairdo.


OK, so we are off in search of the wild mushroom. Now a true mushroom hunter scales mountains ... well at least hills and valleys, tromps through the woods to remote spots, and NEVER reveals their secret location. Proper equipment includes a walking stick and a couple empty bread sacks. Wal-mart bags will do, but true connoisseur's use nothing but a bread sack or ice cream bucket. So off we go...


I however just stop the lawnmower in the front yard and start finding these (Note my phone camera handles light strangely. These are white not red)

Successful? Well, Sue and I found 44 in the front yard.


Now if y'all will excuse me, we're having mushroms for breakfast.

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