[AT] today in the snow - also Harvest machinery trip

[Mattias Kessén]

Thank you for the story Grant. We also had no rain in six months and
nothing is growing, irrigation wouldn't help either ;-)
Den 11 apr 2013 16:32 skrev "Grant Brians" <sales at heirloom-organic.com>:

> This reminds me why I like living here in coastal central California. This
> morning when I got to the ranch to load the truck out at 3:30 it was 47
> degrees and right now at 6:55AM it is 44 degrees. These cold temperatures
> don't even need a jacket when moving around.
>      On the downside, we have not had a significant rain since December and
> won't get one until winter rolls around again unless there is a tropical
> storm that tracks 200+ miles of normal AND packs rain. I have already used
> a
> significant portion of this years pipeline water allotment irrigating
> Spinach, Lettuce, Turnips etc. at my home place and will have to switch to
> all well water there like the other ranches.
>      On Sunday morning I had driven down to Westmorland in the Imperial
> Valley to check out operating Potato and Carrot harvesting machinery. When
> we were there it was about 80 degrees, with a forecast for Monday of 97
> degrees. Watching those big Carrot harvesters moving through the field at
> 7mph and filling a set of doubles (a bit over 25 tons of Carrots) at what
> seems like warp speed was bizarre and impressive. It was also amazing to
> see
> the number of Carrots left on the ground after digging them out. They would
> run three machines simultaneously through the field with big articulated 4
> wheel drive tractors pulling the trailers. I was told that between Grimmway
> and Bolthouse (the two companies that account for over 80 percent of the
> carrots produced in North America) they are hauling hundreds of truckloads
> a
> day out of the Imperial Valley right now. I know that in the space of 10
> minutes I saw 11 truckloads of Carrots go by on highway 86 heading for the
> Border Patrol's station heading north toward Bakersfield.
>      I am going to buy within the next week or so a Potato harvesting
> machine as I need to do this with the labor shortages and costs. I hope to
> get this year a Carrot or Root harvester too as I desperately need the
> labor
> savings there too if I wish to make a living this year and in the future.
> LOTS of costs. I will not be getting one of those 700+hp units they use
> though, mine would be a single or two row unit pulled by one of our
> 80-100hp
> tractors.
>      Returning to the trip down to Imperial Valley, I drove over 1000 miles
> and even with the severe traffic on Sunday coming back Northbound made very
> good time and was impressed how bad drivers are now versus 30 years ago. I
> had my sidekick with me (my now 10 year old son) and we had a good time and
> talked a lot about history, machines, crops, fields, geography, soils and
> so
> much more. That was actually probably the best part. Especially since I
> have
> had a sever leg pain on my throttle leg for two weeks or so. The trip was
> hell, but at the same time very good. My F350 burned a lot of money but
> good
> mileage considering that I climbed the Grapevine at 70mph in 6th gear! 4200
> feet elevation coming up from 500 feet in less than 7 miles.
>      The potato harvest machinery will come to me on a Semi-trailer
> though....
>           Grant Brians
>           Hollister,California vegetables, fruit and nut farmer
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: at-bounces at lists.antique-tractor.com
> [mailto:at-bounces at lists.antique-tractor.com]On Behalf Of Ralph Goff
> Sent: Tuesday, April 09, 2013 6:15 PM
> To: Antique tractor email discussion group
> Subject: Re: [AT] today in the snow
>
>
> On 4/9/2013 3:39 PM, Richard Fink Sr wrote:
> > Ralph did you get that much snow from the two storms or is it drifts.
> > It has been good here in central PA weather this week so far above
> freezing
> > to hit 69.
> > R Fink
> >
> That is actually the whole winter's accumulation of snow you are seeing
> in my photos. We have not had a thaw since it started in early November.
> So every time I open the driveway it gets a little deeper. That photo
> link I posted was actually a bit extreme. I was opening up a path to get
> to a grain wagon parked in the hedges and the snow was literally deeper
> than the 13x38 wheels on the old 40. It took a while to chew through
> that pile but I got there.
> Glad the link worked for the photo as image shack is being a bit hit and
> miss for me the past day or so. Here is a link to the real driveway. The
> "bigger view" out in the open spaces.
> http://img577.imageshack.us/img577/4922/snowblowingapril8.jpg
>
> Ralph in Sask.
> >
>
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