Yes, I did give this consideration, he could be reacting this way to my health situation. I must say we just got back in from our walk and he was much more his normal self. Either way I stand with him to get through whatever is troubling him. I just wish he'd talk more rather than brooding about things..............

Wow do I miss my Z06 on mornings like this!! At the same time I can't wait to have the nice longer duration camshaft rumble too!!!

Off the farm soon, hopefully a solid productive day. Getting the tractors ready will be a huge boost so I'll start by finishing the drill greasing. I have some pinched mainline hoses to see if I can do something with them........................

Cheers,

Garry
 
Garry...I had a young man job shadow me for a few months. During that time I gave him some tough love and advise. I am not a morning person....when his time was up with me he emotionally thanked me for what I did for him and told me his father never had a use for him. It blew me away and taught me the lesson you learned from your young man. He gave me a parting gift...a coffee mug that said “Bring me a coffee and a donut and back away slowly”...25 years later I still have the mug and use it most days and think of him often.

Gary ....Wishing you all the best life has to offer

Cheers
Kevin
 
Good morning Kevin,

Do you know what he is up to right now? I wonder how you helped to mold his life? I had a number of summer students at work and one girl I remember was a had nut to crack. Nothing was ever her fault, she was rude even insolent at times. I remember writing up a 5 page list of things she needed to improve on and having a talk with her and telling her she had a week to show significant improvement. She didn't and then quit. Two days after she started her next job she was fired. That Christmas I got an email from her and she told me that she'd thought a lot about the things I'd told her. She quit going to bars and parties, focused on her school work and when she graduated got a job with Alberta Agriculture, subsequently married a good man and started a family. We don't get through at the time it seems but with luck we can still impact someones life down the road! As I had some of the best mentors in my professional career I hope that I can also play that role for as many others that I encounter in my life. How wonderful is the knowledge that we can make a difference???

Good on you for making the effort to help someone out. That mug would be a sweet reminder for how you changed a life................

Cheers,

Garry
 
My son lived with me after my divorce but still has issues that i believe stem from the experience. It does get better.
Thank you Garry for sharing all the emotions you experience. Praying for you.
 
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Great stories Garry! What a neat kid. Glad your son is getting back to his old self. I'm impressed with the patience people have with others who don't deserve the patience. Glad there are people who have the energy to show tough love instead of either buckling under someone that is difficult or just getting rid of them.
 
My son lived with me after my divorce but still has issues that i believe stem from the experience. It does get better.
Thank you Garry for sharing all the emotions you experience. Praying for you.

I actually thought that my son would want to be with me full time as he had expressed this desire before I moved to Fairview. But this never happened. The draw of the gaming console is strong in him it seems and unlimited time at his mom's trumps good parenting at my place it seems.

How old was your son when you got divorced? My son was under three and I give thanks that it happened then. I'd rather that it not have happened when he was older and his sense of family was stronger. The current situation is almost the norm for him.

I actually think that I have had a harder time with the divorce than he did. I am so embittered to my ex for having stolen 1/2 of the time with my son from 3 until 13 years old and counting............maybe that would be a plus were the divorce to have taken place when he was older?? All that extra time I could have been parenting him these past 10 years...........

Today is the day that I live for when again he is with me. Nothing can ever top an "Aidan Day" in my life!!!!!!!!

Cheers,

Garry
 
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He was 13. He and my daughter say that it was the right thing because all they saw was arguments. I know as teenagers they pull away then it varies from child to child when we as parents start to regain our brains, so to speak. Aiden will come around, just be there for him and don't quit what you're doing. It pays off.
 
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Good morning,

Aidan made the Honor Roll at his school! Oh so much pride! Especially having to work against his mother who kept telling him that "70's are good enough to get you into university"............

I have chemo today but am thinking of postponing it if I can as the ceremony is at 11:15 today - Aidan just told me yesterday after school he'd made the cut.

He may not make the grade in the future and I may not be around............

But good for him! I am a good single father and all my pushing/support and time helping him study and with his assignments did pay off. Good study habits rule!

Lesson learned - never give up doing the right thing by your children.

Cheers,

Garry
 
Yeah Aidan!
... should your Dad like to pass along ...
So happy to hear of your Awesome Honor Roll Achievement Aidan, it does reflect a valued effort on your part :thumbs:
 
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So some news, maybe farming wise anyway.

I have 270 acres north of my parents place that was in wheat two years ago and never got harvested. So it was flatter than a pancake last spring and I knew that I ould not be able to seed it unless I burned it or disced it, neither were options I wanted to do.

So I looked around and found a machine called a Salford RTS - believe it or not which stands for Reduced Tillage Specialist. It is basically a cultivator frame with a set of wavy coulters on it. Just imagine something with giant pizza cutters on it. It did, I'll have to admit, a pretty good job. I've done some lodged crop before and it was never fun, plugging all the time and so much time lost lifting, turning around and waiting for the mound of straw to clear. Then hitting the pile in the fall with the swather or combine. I'm pretty confident that I won't be plugging after using the RTS. Not a fan of multiple field operations so the plan is to take the coulters off my old Haybuster 8000 drill and mount them on my airdill.

Otherwise, attended the Honor Roll ceremony at the school on Friday. So much pride! But a little PO'ed when they called his mom three times to invite her and never called me once and of course I show up and his mom doesn't..............

So back to working on tractors. We're taking some time to do some things, replacing the stack on my 1150. VERY hard to find 6" exhaust stack. None even in Edmonton or Calgary, it had to come from Saskatoon. Hey Riley are you hording the stuff?! Had some challenges hand flairing the bottom but got it done and it fits. Now to add some braces. My cousin John came over to help his son Brad do the AC on both tractors too and they are at them moment working! Nothing worse than having uncomfortable working conditions unnecessarily.

So got my gf's rig ready first and sent her out to the field. Accidently hit the master shutoff on the monitor so the metering rolls were not turning at first. I like the sort of problems that can be solved by the flick of a switch. Then the poor girl got too close to a wet area in the NE corner and got the tractor stuck.

First day seeding issues. All normal.

So this morning we'll go out and pull her out and get her going again, finish the exhaust on the 1150, get the drill hooked up again and filled with seed and fertilizer and I should be joining her and the acres should start to fly.

Excited that Steve and company should be starting the Z06 this week! Hopefully all good things and no surprises!

A Happy Mother's Day to one and all, don't forget to let her know how much she means to you!!!!!!

Cheers,

Garry

Image #9 shows the matt of straw on the ground, #7 after the RTS was used.
 

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A nice day mostly. Got my gf unstuck which was an easy pull for the 1150. Unplugged some shanks and then made a round around the field to look for any more wet spots and then turned her loose again.

Back home and worked on the exhaust stack on the 1150. Then hooked up the drill, NH3 tank, filled with seed and fert and out to the field. My gf was waiting for NH3 to be delivered so she helped me calibrate the drill. Off to the west side of the field and the NH3 would not turn on! The last thing to prevent me from seeding! Thankfully Garry the Idiot had tried to plug the connector in upside down!! Easy fix!

It was nice to have the two drills running and it is such an emotional boost to see another drill in the same field. Kudos to the drill as I was using as it had not be run in two years and had not problems I could find.

We didn't finish the field but maybe have 30 to 60 minutes to get it done and then onto my canola north of the house. Hopefully that we have both drills going the fields will fall like dominos. Huge plus having working AC too - hopefully it lasts for a week!!

Cheers,

Garry
 
All good news Garry. My lessee has my crop all in and my other lessee is tightening and fixing fence in prep to bring cattle to my pasture. That won't happen for a bit yet. Grass needs to get some grow time first. Sorta nice just kicking back and watching someone else in the fields... I could get use to that... Oh Wait! I already am....
:rofl:
 
Good day Garry,
In all that news of your dedicated progress in farming,
in regard to your Son's awesome Honour Roll achievement ...
not lost is your caption stating ...
that they called Mom three times and you not even once.
You can be assured that the understanding of that statement is
that they had to call to ask/remind someone three times and that
come hell or high water, they already knew that Aidan's proud Father would be there.
:thumbs:
 
The sage continues...............

Out to the farm, fill with fertilizer. I have two rounds to finish the field and my gf had one. I notice that my NH3 is sticking on which is odd. But I shut it off at the tank, we fold up the drills and head to the next field. I get my gf going first, set up the fert rates for the next field then let her go. I look at my NH3 nitrolator and can't find the problem. It has power and so the solenoid should be in the off position when there is no power. So back to the yard (adjacent field thankfully) and get dad (electrical engineer) with the voltmeter and start taking some measurements. Voltage and current are correct. We confirm that we can feel the solenoid activating too. One of those WTF moments. So dad wanders off to do some other things and I took the nitolator apart and cleaned the two screens in there. A small one that was plugged with some rust and a larger one filled with bits of metal and a broken o-ring of some sort - or maybe a seal?

Put it all back together after climbing under the hitch so many times I lost count, banging various body parts in the process.

And for some reason it works. I don't understand how it works and due to its age I was not able to find a cutaway on the web either. The company while still in business doesn't make nitrolators anymore either.

I lost 4 hours, an easy 100 acres missed. Thankfully my gf just sails along with her drill.

So I head back out to the field and start seeding and as I'm started the headland on my side of the field I have about 1 1/2 miles to go. Reach the end, shut off the NH3 and the pressure gauge drops to zero! Turn around and hit the switch and the pressure goes up. It is indeed working!

Send dad to town to get more granular fertilizer.

Cousin Brad calls and says he can come out and I ask him to replace me as I am just whacked. Dad comes out, stalls the grain truck in the field so we can't load with fertilizer until we get it running which takes 15 - 20 minutes. Then after that Dad stalls it again taking the truck to the edge of the field. Then dad somehow decides that while we have three pickups at the farm we can use he wants Brad to replace the wheel bearing on a forth pickup instead of him seeding!

Even my gf was stunned at this. But we left and headed home to rest up.

Talked with Aidan, no medals at the track and field competition but he said he "talked with lots of girls". Good he knows what is more important!

Spence, regarding that the school may know that "Aidan's proud father would be there" is very true. IF AIDAN"S PROUD FATHER KNEW WHEN THE CEREMONY WAS! As they never called it was not until the day before that Aidan told me and then he told me that he wasn't sure if he had made the honor roll or not. What I found funny was when he was elementary school they had no difficulty when he won the Advanced Reading aware for four straight years and a phys-ed award one year in calling me to let me know. The secretary did say she was sorry and it would not happen again. I asked her which - me being called or Aidan being on the honor roll again - we had a good laugh!

No word from Steve yet if they started the work yesterday.

Off the farm, both drills filled, should be an easy day. We should finish the 2nd and 3rd fields if we have no issues...................
 
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Really enjoying the farming stories Garry! As for the 6" stack. I need to keep my supplies up for all the coal rollers in Saskatchewan because 5" stack, just isn't big enough for a 3/4 ton truck. I would check Fort Mac. I bet they have lots of 6" or 8" stacks for all the trucks up there! :rofl:
HUGEstacks.jpg
 
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