This is the truck that I'm running. It's a Ford, eight thousand.
It hauls about 11 to 12 ton on it. It's got a Cat in it. I'm not sure what the horsepower is.
It's a 10-speed, kind of fun to drive. It's been a while since I've been into a truck like this. I used to
work on this kind of an operation, oh, when we were down; we spent three years in Kansas and I was
in a research feed lot where I was responsible for doing the the feeding of the feedlot there.
So it's kind of fun to be back in the, back in the seat, back in the saddle, again.
So that's what this week's video is about, is just some time on the farm, running the corn truck.
So you can kind of see the field in the background. This is where we've been chopping.
This is the largest field. We can make one round, oh, in about an hour, and it probably takes what,
eight loads, ten loads maybe, to make a round. So we're hauling in about,
what are we doing? If we did 25 loads, and we got 12 ton to a load, we're hauling in what, 11 or 12 (tons),
100 ton a day. That number sounds right. Anyway, it's adding up. They put up, I guess, close to about 15 hundred
ton of silage a year, for two different feed lots that they operate. So anyway, this
kind of gives you some of the bird's eye view of where we've been spending most of our time.
We're at kind of a lull here today. The chopper had to go back to the shop. I'm not sure what's happened,
but we've got four trucks running and all four trucks are sitting here kind of on idle right now,
waiting for things to return. So I had a little minute and I thought maybe I'd kind of update
you what we're doing. We're working for the Schlemmer Farms here out of Fromberg Montana.
So we're hauling in between a thousand and 1200 ton of silage a day. This might be the last day.
Things have been going pretty well until this kind of showed up, but it's really kind
of fun to work for a farm. You know, all the farms have their own personality; the crews
that work with them, the owners. Well this is run by, it would be the third generation. I knew the
grandparents of the operator now, and his dad, and well the son operates it now. The dad,
and now the grandparents, the grandparents are gone. I met them back probably 15 some years ago.
Really nice folks and they're really fun to work with. Pretty smooth operating
and it's kind of the typical farm. They're trying to manage expenses as well as manage your income.
So the chopper we're using is, he said, it's a 98 model, so it's got some time on it. and he sticks
a fair bit into it every year to maintain and keep this thing operating, but it's about
a million to million three, he said, to replace it, so it's worth kind of keeping it going.
So anyway, that's what we're doing this week. I should be back in the shop, I think maybe next week.
Then I'll get back to hopefully doing the the typical Friday video, and some of these videos of
the after work program, I think I'll include maybe, I'm thinking maybe on a Tuesday. Kind of
split some of these oddball things up. Anyway, so just a quick update and we'll kind of catch
you on the on the comeback when we get back into a normal routine. I appreciate you following along.
Well I really did enjoy the time out driving this corn truck. It was kind of a nice break
from the shop here. You know, all of my after work projects are kind of that way. They give
me a mental break, and a little change up, from concentrating just on wagon work all the time.
So I just thought maybe I'd share some of this with you. You know, out of the four trucks, I ended
up being the youngest driver. I'm 68, the next one up was 71, the next one was 81, and the fourth
driver was 84. So it's kind of a old-timers group that were driving these trucks, trying to keep this
chopper going. Really pleasant. I enjoyed visiting with all of them and enjoyed working with the
whole crew. Anyway, I hope to be back maybe a little more normal next week. Like I mentioned in this
video, I think I'm going to try to put this "after-work" projects up on Tuesdays. It's not a 100%
guarantee, but I've got a few of them that I'll put in there. So, well either keep an eyeball out for
them, or you know, if you have your notifications turned on you'll probably get a notice too that
they're up. But we'll see how it goes. Anyway, I appreciate you following along. Thanks for watching!