Chainsaws, chippers, dump trucks, grain drills..farm work taking ya see...good livin!

hey doggies let's go it's a beautiful morning for farm work guys today is gonna be one of the busiest days of the year so far here on our farm we've got to make hay while the sun is shining as they say I'm gonna take you around I'm gonna show you all the various pieces of equipment that we're going to be using we're going to be prepping some land over here across and I'll show you some land and we've already prepped if you've seen that video if you haven't seen that video right here scrolling across will be a link to it check that out before we start this it would be pretty cool for you we're gonna get busy we've got a lot of pieces of equipment to work with we've got a lot of things to do and I'll take you around we also have a new tractor that we leased for the farm so come along on the farm vlog today we're gonna have some fun we got to get busy get the drone in the air get the GoPro is going and show you guys what we're doing all right aren't the dogs good they know when I had the camera they just go chill out it's pretty cool so let's talk about all the equipment that's going on right now here on the farm we have a grass drill seed driller it's called the hey buster 107 see I guess that stands for 107 inches or something like that it's a 10 foot grain drill it's a 3 bay grain drill I'll show you how it works right over here we have some solu cow and some grassy this is a contractor mixed grass seed this has 20% rye grass annual rye grass and 80% fescue Kentucky 31 fescue grass seed and what we're trying to do is get grass to grow on this land quickly set in and not wash that's the immediate goal right here now we're going to climb up here I'll show you some of the features of this machine before we get started so you know what's going on so we've got the truck backed up basically here there's a step right there then I'll step up on the tailgate of the truck there are three hoppers one hopper for fescue grass seed one hopper for grain one hopper for clover we only have the grass seed one filled up right here and we already filled it up this is about six 50-pound bags of fescue grass seed and ryegrass mix we're gonna see this at about 28 to 32 pounds to the acre with this seed drill if we go back here to our last hopper we have Ladino clover this is clover seed white top medium Ladino clover now the reason we're planting the white top medium Ladino clover is we want to fix nitrogen to the soil without put and fertilizer the whole goal on our farm is to keep from using chemical fertilizers we're gonna have to use fertilizer to get these seeds started after that the goal is no fertilizer probably put down some lime or solute Cal well I explained a little bit of that stuff later on as we get to broadcasting that out on the farm so let's talk about the various pieces of equipment that we have over here so we've got some logs that are down in the field we've got to cut those logs up into sections about 10 or 12 feet long and we're going to be loading them on to a dump truck gets down there we're going to go down and look at all that stuff here in a second we have a ventrac so we rented or leased a ventrac machine for one year to help us clean up the farm the ventrac machine if you haven't seen it today will be your first introduction we'll talk a whole lot more about it we'll just show you how it works and what it's doing today we won't go into detail we're just going to be working the crap out of it basically all these little attachments down here are for the ventrac and that's part of our lease with ventrac we have a tiller we have a 72 inch mower we have a brush cutter and we have a bucket so we're going to be using this thing a lot on the farm it's going to serve as a compact tractor for the farm and yes the little Kubota tractor that we had from everything attachments that we borrowed basically we've basically used that for what we needed and we've taken it back and we're going to be using the ventrac as the compact tractor here on the farm pretty cool so the hey buster has a step right here and this is a leased piece of equipment also and then you have a great right here you step up on the grate you have 3 hoppers grain grain and a clover seed so inside hopper number one we already have it filled up with our fescue and rye grass mix and the reason we're drilling down fescue and rye grass is that ryegrass will hit in other words it will sprout within about 48 hours or so then this hopper right here that's what it looks like empty that's empty we would have some sort of grain in that also this hopper right here is our clover hopper and we're planting medium Ladino clover along with the fescue grass seed and the reason behind planting Ladino clover in with our fescue is that clover fixes nitrogen to the soil and it will lower our fertilizer burden on the farm hopefully we won't have to put chemical fertilizers at all on this once it gets sprouted once it sets in and gets a good start now let's take you around the front of the machine I'll show you how it all works so this is your first time to the channel guys be sure you pound that like button subscribe the channel I appreciate you being here and I hope to teach you a whole lot today I hope you'll enjoy this farm work slash fund I think it's fun but it is hard work so here is how the grain drill works these are little gears as you move this machine as you turn this wheel on the ground drags the ground turns this shaft which turns that which turns this chain this chain rotates everything in the machine so as you're rolling it's constantly rotating this is the tube where the seed drops down these little grooves right here catch the seed as they turn and drop a predetermined amount of seed down these tubes same thing with these tubes so each section each hopper hopper one two three has a set of tubes that runs down into an output device right here so the seed comes down here drops through into this disc there are two discs right here that open it up about that far it drops a seed in and then this big round wheel comes rolling back over top of it and covers it back up and that's just how simple a no-till drill or a grain drill is if you want to drill down pasture in your local area and you live in the United States check out your local USDA office and you might be able to lease or rent one of these we're paying $15 per acre and there's a little meter on there that reads every acre that you trip this is not leased from the county this is nicer the one that the county has this is the workhorse of the farm this is our John Deere Gator 825 I I am constantly grumbling at my Gator when I started up in the morning smoking that's got like around 700 hours on it something like that and evidently it just can't take the abuse that I'd give it I don't know we're gonna head down the hill here here's a dirt pile I've got to spread that out pretty soon too there's a washed out place down there we had several loads of dirt and gravel brought out recently so here we are down on the creek this is a John Deere 5065 tractor got my six foot tighten attachments rake we call Reiki Bobby there's a coupon code in the video description for Reiki Bobby we've started working with tighten attachments and they're going to give us coupon codes for every piece of machinery that we buy pretty cool this is my neighbor's f-350 dump truck and we're filling it full of logs and you can see there's some maple logs in here we're gonna load this thing up with logs and you can see I've got some prepared already he has a wood-burning boiler system and he burns firewood year-round so any firewood he can get is a definite plus for him this is the ventrac tractor and we have the rake attachment on the ventrac tractor this thing is like a little bulldozer a little 24 horsepower bulldozer for us there's a whole lot going on today guys so we're going to show you everything we have behind us so we've got a bunch of trees that I cut we're getting ready to build fences down through here we got to get these trees out of the way we have the chipper hook to the 240 tractor going to take the ventrac over above the pond and take the 5065 over above the pond we're going to get busy working there then we basically have to drag all the stones and all the brush out of the dirt right here so we can drill it down with grass seed my goal is to be on the grain drill by 6:00 p.m. this evening fingers crossed I got a neighbor coming to help hopefully we can get all this work done cold start John Deere 50 65 okay so if you guys aren't familiar with what a ventrac tractor is it's basically a compact tractor that can go up a steep angle in other words it can most steep embankment sits very stable it has eight tires eight wheels and this is the rake attachment similar to what's on the John Deere 50 65 so this basically articulates in the center you'll get to see it working here on the farm in just a second cold start ventrac this is like a lawnmower a skid steer and a bulldozer and a brush cutter all built into one so I have controls to raise and lower the bucket in the front or whatever attachments on the front and basically I just have one single handle that I move back and forth to move the bucket I can also move this handle to rotate the bucket in a different direction and then I drive it by pulling back or pushing forward we'll get more into the ventrac specifications later on as we use it more and get used to it I've got to make sure I can get used to this machine before I start showing it to you so it's back on up here and we'll roll over we have picked up probably a dump truck load of rocks and stones and sticks off of this piece of property right here and it's really smoothed out I hope you guys got to see what the before looked like what we're going to use the ventrac for is to clear spots that we can't get to with the big tractor and we're also going to use it as a broom basically we'll set the bucket down and use it as a broom to push debris into the bucket on the tractor so we don't tear up the land like I've done right here cool on a farm this big why are we getting a smaller landscaping tracker it's because it's so SuperDuper capable I'd never use this tractor before yesterday and it's a little bit of a learning curve I used it for about five hours yesterday let me tell you this thing is going to be an indispensable unit to have on the farm especially for getting our landscaping and our farm smooth nice and beautiful now you might be wondering what all this debris is and what all this mess is well this is what we scraped up with the Titan landscape rake back here off of this pasture so basically we pulled to each corner there three corners one two and three we've already cleaned up the first two corners and we've got a big hole over here right behind this oak tree right there that we're dumping all the debris so that we fill in that big old hole over there so what I'm doing is scraping all this stuff up putting it in the bucket taking it over there dumping it in the hole come back sweep up with the ventrac and then move on to the next section of pasture this will be pasture in three months there will be grass growing on this it will be beautiful luscious and green [Music] now you might be saying well Josh why don't you just plow the bucket right into the power right here and pick it up well because it hits rocks and sticks and prevents me from filling the bucket up without gouging into the earth that's already there and I don't want to go in and take any topsoil all I want to take is this mess away so that's why we're using the ventrac right now as a broom to sweep up smooth out and move on to the next spot to me one of the most important parts of starting a farm this is going to be a first generation farm is making the land beautiful and making it a beautiful places you can be proud of that's where landscaping machines like this come into effect you can't do it all with just a farm tractor you just can't do it all [Music] [Applause] we got how many more hours a day like we have four and a half more hours if they like we've got about eight hours worth of work to do he's get busy fired the wood chipper horsepower chipper like a champion man I like that chipper that thing it just never ceases to amaze me this is the third time I've used it and it is just eaten up some good I wish I had time enough to chip that whole big pile over there this stuff is really good for the soil we'll go back over it with the rake spread it out a little bit and it'll help the soil retain moisture rad so with all three vehicles down here we've got some shuffling to do because it's just me so I'll get mrs. Stoney Ridge to run me back and forth just a little bit once we get done drilling the first section will probably run out of grass seed will reload it and hit this really good and the real goal here is we're on a hillside and I don't want it to erode it's washed out a couple times and I don't want it to do it anymore we got to get a grip on this gotta get it taken care of I can't make the Sun Shine any more than that right there guys you got dark on me nothing I can do but go up drop some implements have everything ready to rock and roll in the morning the rain supposed to sit in somewhere around nine or ten o'clock in the morning I got to be up here I got to be out running this thing a daybreak so we'll see you in the morning day two Sun is up guys we've got all of our equipment staged out here we got the truck got the Gator it's got some grass seed on it we've got the 240 tractor let's just walk over here and check out everything we've got laying around here so this is a truck grass seed right here 240 tractors ready to rock and roll this was my grandfather's cedar and a tree fell on it just in the right place for you to lay a bag up there cut it and let it fall in so that's pretty cool we've got the grain drill out here after I said goodbye to you last night I did two rounds around the field with the grain drill you can see the little slits in the ground and then I wanted to check it and make sure we're dropping enough seed and we're gonna get busy today it's posting rain in about four hours probably got three hours of work to do so that's awesome let's get busy so let's talk about what we got in the back of truck here and the orange bag is a contractors mix which is again 20 or 30 percent annual ryegrass and the rest of it is fescue this is pure fescue and we've got a couple bags of pure fescue leftover from last year that's Kentucky 31 fescue I've got some millet seed that I'll be seeding over in some areas that I know stay pretty dry plus we're gonna be doing a little dove hunt later on in the year so I want to feed the wildlife a little bit what we have in the plastic bags here is solu cow and that's the first thing we're gonna spread is we're gonna spread four bags so that's 200 pounds to the acre of solute cow it's to help bring the pH of the soil to a more neutral level so that the grass takes you can't just put grass seed on the ground expect it to grow the pH has to be right it has to have nutrients and there are no new transit there is no topsoil left on this land this land has been farmed to death we cut the trees on it we roll the stumps out there probably Topsail on 10% of it which means nothing really so our entire goal here is to mow and build topsoil over the next couple years so we won't be able to cut hay over here we'll just be able to take care of the land and make topsoil grow so over here there's another area needs to be seated and a huge area behind us hopefully I get the drone up in the air the sun's coming up here in North Carolina it is beautiful out here so let's start loading up our hopper right here and the way this guy works is there's a little apparatus it spins down in there and it slings it out with these blades in other words those are big cups so I engage the pto on the tractor that thing slings and just broadcast spreads everything so you'll be very surprised it'll only take me 25 minutes or so to spread all of that and then we'll get on the seed drill the seed drill is ten feet wide so being a 10-foot wide seed drill I'll overlap a little bit and that won't take long and all either it just moves on I can throw the tractor in high too and rock and roll with it while we're doing this you'll see that my lip is up high it's up high the PTO shaft will be turning it'll be slinging a bunch of this stuff we're gonna go out in the middle of the field and get started there's a pull cord I'll pull which opens a chute which allows us stuff to flow and shaping right there so we are in second gear high range we're getting on up the red and let's say we're hitting that at about 12 miles an hour 13 hours like that protect the specs on the jacket this is I believe in the 86 Massey Ferguson 240 please excuse the bad audio so we've had our first breakdown I'll show you what happened this is the clover hopper clover is expensive it's around 250 bucks - 300 bucks per 50-pound bag it is expensive okay so these tubes right here and I didn't know this but these tubes they drop the seed and I did know that there's a little window right here I'll get you close up in a second there's a little window right there and it fits full of seed you've got a clogged tube whether it's this tube here or one of these tubes down here well what we didn't know is we had a clogged too so one of the tubes got clogged up now what the guy didn't tell me what he didn't show me and we went through all this we went to top to bottom on this machine this is a third time I've used it never even known this there is an adjuster right here for how much clover you dropped we put it on setting number one setting number one we'll set the right amount the clover seed out for me to finish my job well we didn't show me and we walked around this machine yesterday so lessons learned guys if you're gonna grant one of the you need to look it over really good read the manual I don't know I can only blame myself really but there's another adjuster over here and this adjuster doesn't have a knife oh it's not holding it in place it's not holding it on the number one plus somebody was renting some other kind of seed through it and they had it set on number twelve so we're gonna hop up on the top of the seed drill here if I don't fall in the pond we'll hop up here real quick and we're gonna take a look in our clover hopper almost empty over here plenty of clover over here almost empty mistakes cost you money that's just it mistakes on the farm cost you money that probably cost me about 40 bucks right there that's stupid little thing and I've got to run back to the house the equipment wasn't functioning properly and I guess what stupid hurt right the the equipment was not functioning properly I feel like before he handed it off to me he should have handed me a piece of equipment that if it looked over and when we went through and adjusted it we should have adjusted both sides like I said I only have myself to blame you learn you live you learn if you're not living and learning everyday then you're not doing anything so and if you're not messing up you ain't doing nothing so let's run over to the house I've got some little vice grips I'm going to clamp a little vice grip on there make sure it's set on one and I thank goodness have some more clover seed over here a lot of moving around today let's show you what I did to fix the problem here little bitty pair of vice grips clamped it right in place I'll just leave those on there they're like a dollar-fifty vise grip I don't have the right wing nut to tighten it down and that's going to get the job done so gotta improvise let's get to work [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] we're getting it done guys the rain has started it's sprinkling down a little bit of rain the last thing I need to do as you can see vehicles are…