Well, November is nearly gone, winter is just starting, and the perma-cloud already feels as though it has been here forever!
The shop heat update turned into a bigger project than we expected. We’re going from geothermal to propane. Even though we ran a line to the shop during construction 15 years ago, it was never hooked up.
Dig this new line
Long story short, while investigating we discovered the line was cut twice and the line to the house that we planned to tap off of did not have enough capacity to supply the shop. We ended up running a new line to the shop from the tanks 400 feet away.
The backup generator requires liquid, so we ran new line there while the trench was open. (For several years, we had the generator hooked to a “temporary” 300-gallon tank.) Fortunately, the temperatures are still mild. That trend hopefully continues until we can install a new boiler. At this rate, I don’t expect it to be up and running until after Thanksgiving.
The propane line project had our driveway torn up for the better part of last week.
Taking care of stored grain
But after taking a delivery break, we are hauling grain again. We also plan to core all the bins. Generally, there are more fines in the “core,” or center, of the grain bin. Taking a few loads out allows us to check the condition of the grain and the remaining grain in the bin usually holds its quality better.
So far everything has been pretty good. Grades have been coming in right where we want them. We will keep truck drivers busy for several weeks.
Seed salesmen are showing up already. I’m not ready for it, but we need to start thinking about hybrids and varieties for next year.