Not if you make it into charcoal.
Bob
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The first dairy barn we saw with the automated system was in the early 80s. complete with a lagoon. 
Instead of knifing in the fertilizer they used an aerial irrigation system. I donât think they can do that anymore because of nitrate run off is checked which may be why he is going to try to do fields 3 miles away.
The fine in michigan is pretty hefty, and they can make you get rid of your cows.
I think the new systems the cows basically decide when they want to milk and just show up. and it is all tracked with tags, as well as feed. then you know exactly how much milk is produced and making sure every cow is eating, etc.
I never want a dairy, it is way too much work, but with the large 600 head dairies, you hire 10 people to help, and everyone can work regular hours and have vacation time.
I know people who really enjoyed it⊠If I recall the story correctly, our steam engine show actually started because local dairy farmers could take a week off by camping 10 miles away. Then if they were needed at the farm, they were close enough someone could get them, but it was supposed to be an emergency. Then of course, they canât just sit around and do nothing, so they started hauling their old tractors down. 
I am kind of with you on the cash crop thing.
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These little mattress blowers are so light Iâm thinking about making a small 18650 cell battery pack to glue on the side. No fussing with wires etc just pull the blower out of a toolbox and have at it.
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more visitors, hoping to see some babies soon from these guys
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Yes Goran, we have the same tradition.
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Kristijan, Göranâs bonfire pics made me think of you just minutes ago. Wondering where you went. Miss your posts.
@Göran, not only do they have last of April bonfires in Slovenia. They also have our tradition of raising debarked spruces for couples about to marry. Who would have thought 
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Steve,
I thought you meant
- 19th century board and batten
- 20th century plywood
- 21st century plastic
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Here we call it âwitchiesâ, because birch broomsticks are burnt for the sake of good growing season. But usually the feast goes as usual anywhere else: make fire bigger than any other and drunk yourself more then you ever have been. 
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Not really my style Bruce but when I was building, a lot of our houses were higher end and usually used Trex for decking and Azek for trim. Rich people like to minimize home maintenance. I cut so much fiber cement siding that Iâm lucky I can still breath.
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In Michigan you are not even allowed to burn trash in a barrel. Canât imagine what kind of hoops you would have to jump through to get a permit for a fire like that. One time on a job I got fined for burning framing cuttings in the middle of a dirt driveway. Some neighbor of the owner ratted me out. If I would have put a row of stones in a circle and burned it in there it would have been OK, the fire marshal informed me. He agreed that it was nuts, but rules are rules. Couldnât just give me a warning because the wack job neighbors were going to check and see if I had been punished. Donât get me started on how politicians on both sides of the aisle in Michigan have tried to regulate the small dairy farmer out of business, pandering to the big corporate producers who design and then push the regulations that only they can afford to implement.
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Silicosis is no fun, Tom. Iâm always paranoid of breathing junk in. I melt my bullet lead outdoors with a box fan blowing, I never realized how spooky lead poisoning is. Like how CO bonds to your hemoglobin more than oxygen can, Lead bonds to your bones more than Calcium can.
Crush my charcoal with a dust mask, cut any stone stuff with a wet saw or with a mask. Weld galvanized outdoors always. Iâve caught Black Booger/Zinc Fever once and it was the sickest I had ever felt.
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I was just blabbing about the cement dust Cody. I always wore a respirator. I had to get out of Ironwork after testing positive for asbestosis. Down to 80 per cent lung capacity. A lot of the work was in steel mills, foundries. Iâm sure the fire proofing they spray on structural steel buildings was just as bad. After years of breathing nothing but clean country air and deep breathing exercised I have just about full capacity now. Never think that the body wasnât designed to maintain itself given proper nutrition and environment.
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Happy May Day everyoneâŠ
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Ha! Yes TomH,
Upscale housing âneedsâ are not so much about less-maintenances but about the keeping-up-with(exceeding!)-the-current declared-must-haves.
My wife and now my next door living sister both anger with me when I catch them watching home-improvement shows. One after the other, after the other.
I tell this is House-Pornography.
Meets all of the definitions of pornography:
Make you unhappy, unsettle, with what you do currently have. Throw it out. Turn your back on it.
Desiring more, and more newer, better.
Here out of a recent novel I just finished.
An overseas sent French Army General to an overseas sent French deployed Admiral. Wanting the Admiral to take then all back to France to battle instead for the soul of France:
The Admiral, âYou really think we have a country, Bernard? A country is just a people; and our people could hardly wait to sell their sovereignty, their nationhood, to the xxxxx Union.â
Janier the Genral sat silent for a long minute, then, âDo you know what our national flaws are?â
Admiral Teste answered, âOur people are Fantastics. They act out their dreams. They refuse to face realities.â
General Bernard interuupted, âNo, no; that is not it, none of that is quite it. We give too much unearned and undeserved credit, to the intellectual(s), and we have too great a taste â amounting, even, to an addiction, to the appearance of elegance in everything.â
The French just had hundreds of years jump on us to evolve to this.
Well, we are there now. In the US and Canada.
My wife, my sisters say they are still o.k. as Formica counter top girls. Lasts 20 years. Then you can easily top layer style change. No expensive, needs special care, newest latest rage counter tops for them, they say.
I mutely think. Eh? Formica. Can you make it? Can I make it? Can you grow it? No. No. No.
Why I insist to all my admired intellectuals, priests, leaders, prophets: show me your vegetables gardens.
I will only respect those able, and willing to humble themselves down on their knees growing some of the things that they will eat. And eat the inelegant, imperfect portions too.
Steve unruh
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Steve, I love the way you relate the truth.
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Cody,
Some of those small mattress blowers are battery powered. They may not be as powerful though.
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When I was building and needed a fire to burn some clean trash, I always had a couple of hot dogs and buns with me because we were allowed ârecreational fires.â 
Got away with it more than once.
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I do the same thing Don, like when I am making charcoal. Dana loves to cook over a fire of any kind.
I Love eating the food she cooks over a fire any time. Life is good.
Bob
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You know what is the best part about working at a car dealership?
Itâs the calendars you get to nab before they sell them.
Itâs May, or 1972 El Camino SS month.
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That reminds me of the 1971 elcomino i had back in 1979. The rear quarter was side swiped, i bondo,ed it back smooth contour, and repainbted the car white.
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