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Post by Bryan83 on Mar 7, 2021 3:08:54 GMT -6
Hello fellow farmers. Nels Wickstrom here, and I have finally made it to America. I moved here from my original home in Sweden after I tried to make a go at carving out my own farm in no man's land in Europe, which was none too successful. After talking it out with a distant cousin I had here in the states who financed my initial endeavor, I decided to sell what I had and move to the American "corn belt" to try one more time at farming. Welcome to Lone Wolf Farms here in Lazy Acres, Iowa.
The setup- a fictional town in Iowa named after the map (Lazy Acres Farm) in which a farming magnate has retired and has either sold off or rented out everything and all the land he owned. I, as Nels Wickstrom have bought the main farm complex with 2 fields and whatever machinery was left after most of the good stuff was sent off to auction. US Midwest GEO with 9 day seasons at the start, but may increase later if gameplay demands.
Bryan had a customer out here who retired from farming and sent a lot of his equipment up to auction, but had a few pieces he didn't think were worth all that much so he sold them with his farm, along with a couple newer things needed to make it ready to work. Well upon arriving I got a ride from the airport to the farm and found a Rodeo pickup and Lizard 500 livestock trailer I had ordered online when I flew out of Stockholm.
First things first, I decided to go through the yard and see what I have to work with. It's not an impressive list, but it looks to be enough to get running. Here's a list of everything I found;
Harvester
John Deere 9650 with a JD Draper Stream (Lizard) 900 and an 843 corn header with trailer
Tractors
JD 8960 and 8760. Seem to be the main work machines and of the two, the 8760 appears to be older with higher hours.
JD 6610. Set up with narrow tires, this seems to be the sprayer rig.
JD 4240. This little guy is the utility player, with a JD H480 front loader for shuttle work and help with animal tending.
New Holland 160.55. An antique from what I can tell, was retrofitted with a front 3 point and a silage leveler attached. Found parked in the cow barn, so I'm guessing it also works feeding the animals.
International IH460. Grain truck, pure and simple.
JD 2280 mower with a 300 twin knife head.
JD 90 skidsteer with bucket and bale spike.
JD 6x4 Gator with a dump bed.
Everything has quite a few hours built up and I'm sure I'll have to be fixing them soon. Now for the tools;
JD 2410 plow with 200 seedbed finisher, CCS 1990 seeder, newer DB60 24 row, Kuhn Deltis sprayer and aux tank (that he painted in JD colors!), JD 650 grain cart, JD 2510H and tank anhydrous setup, Bredal K105, chain harrow, Seed Runner 3755, 2 nurse trailers, 466 baler, TPW bale trailer, Anderson RB580, A700 and Pro-Chop 150, Joskin Aquatrans and a F146 flatbed trailer.
The farm itself includes a house, chicken pen, hog stable, cow barn, sheep pasture, 21,300 bushels of bin space, 3 sheds, a quonset shop, fuel, fertilizer, herbicide and seed storage, hayloft, and a three pit silage bunker.
Up by the house is a nice little vegetable garden nestled among the trees. A quaint but lovely little place. I came to America with $612,307, and the entire setup sold for $650,000. So I put down $400,000 and took a loan of $250,000 on the rest and now we will see what I can make of it all. I've got a good feeling about this...
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Post by Bryan83 on Mar 7, 2021 4:32:13 GMT -6
My new home is nice and I met one of the locals here, a man by the name of Philip Elder. As it turns out, he's the gentleman I purchased my farm from. I invited him in for tea and a chat and was filled in on the rich tapestry behind the farm.
His family left their small farming community just outside Antrim in Northern Ireland in the potato famine of the "Hungry 40's." They landed in Philadelphia but soon moved west as city life just didn't suit his forefather. After a few years searching, the came into what is now Lazy Acres and actually homesteaded the farm in 1851. Six generations later, Philip was raised on the farm. Their home grew as new farming technologies came about, making it possible for them to work more land. In 1991, tragedy struck when his only son William came home under a flag from Desert Storm 3 months before his 21st birthday. He said of his son that Will always wanted to be a Marine, and while he misses him, he is proud that his boy served his country with honor.
As Philip Elder had no other children to leave the farm to, and realizing that every year it was getting more difficult to run his day to day operations, he made the difficult decision to sell the family farm. The livestock all sold, and a large chunk of his machinery auctioned off, Philip kept most of the land which he now rents out to other farmers, save for the parcel I bought which contains part of the original homestead. I sure have quite the legacy to uphold.
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Post by Bryan83 on Mar 8, 2021 0:12:14 GMT -6
Spring of the first yearAfter going through everything and getting it up to good condition, the first thing I did was order a fuel delivery. And before I knew it, I had 10,500 gallons of diesel in my tanks on the yard. Next I hooked the 4240 to the Bredal and limed the fields. After that I paired up the 8960 up with the plow and seedbed finisher to prep the fields for planting. The finally I took the 8760 with the 2510H anhydrous setup and treated the corn field. Fast forward a couple of weeks for the nitrogen to work its magic and we're back to work again. With the 8960 on the CCS and the 8760 pulling the DB60 and I've put in one crop of corn and one of soybeans. After which I got the 6610 out and put down some preventive weed killer and the first round of fertilizer. I spent the time in between doing some contract work for other farmers in the area, thanks to some word of mouth advertising by Mr. Elder that I wasn't aware of. But I sure appreciated the extra money.      Had the mobile mechanic from the dealership come out to help me with a few things.  And the contracts...   That's right, old school ridge markers! Until next time...
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Post by Bryan83 on Mar 21, 2021 0:58:32 GMT -6
Summer
Summer has seen some extraordinary times at the farm. Not only has word been getting around town about my farming skills, thanks again to Mr. Elder, but a most welcome new addition has arrived on the farm. Is it a tractor? No. New Planter? Not even close. So what is it already? Extra man power. Living in America I'm finding out more and more about my family. You see, as I haven't explained to you the reader, the "cousin" situation between me and Bryan is a little complicated. Bryan's Great Grandmother and my Great Grandmother were made cousins by marriage a long time ago in Sweden. Bryan's Great grandmother would later move with her husband to America and start a family in a new country and my Great Grandmother stayed in her home country and started hers. Anyway, that's the short version. Fast forward to today and I met Bryan's First Cousin Chet. He arrived on my farm in a green flatbed pickup quite unexpectedly. Of course had I opened Bryan's last email I would have read all about it, or so he told me when I called him a bit confused by the situation. Anyway, it's good to have the extra man and definitely good to have the extra truck. Sometimes I swear my Rodeo isn't anywhere near as good as my old '78 Lizard I had before I moved. So I got Chet inside, and got him settled in the spare bedroom and then we sat down to a nice dinner of Köttbullar with some Knäckebröd and got to know each other. I told Chet about my attempts in No Man's Land to start a farm and how that didn't go according to plan. My Story pales in comparison, as Chet told me about buying a farm in a place called Westbridge Hills, running it deep in debt ($1.5 MILLION American dollars, I can't even begin to imagine!) and how Bryan helped to save him. He said after he lost ownership he continued working on it for a man named Chester Eely, who was hired to take over the operations. He said he learned a lot about the business side of farming from Chester and things were going great. That was until a tornado struck Westbridge Hills. It was horrible, all of the farm's buildings were destroyed, what livestock the storm didn't kill couldn't be saved, just awful. Lucky for Chester, Chet's place he was renting only sustained minor damage, and he was able to stay with him while everything got sorted out. At the end of the day, all Chester had left were the clothes on his back, A Big Bud tractor, a small Fendt (which he gave away) and a special lorry, I mean, Semi truck. I have to get used to these American words if I am to blend in here. Anyway, Chester moved on to a new town, and Chet came here. Said it wasn't on bad terms, in fact Chester had some people where he was moving to at Eureka Farms. But that's enough rambling, American Farmers seem to be a pretty tight knit community, so you've probably heard the story already. On to new business, with Chet here we've been knocking out contracts like no tomorrow, Chet is a very good operator, by the way. Making some pretty good money, so I've decided to start paying $20,000 a month on my loan as right now together we're bringing in around $60K a month in contracts income, before expenses. I've been paying Chet and hourly rate for his help, which he said I didn't have to because I'm letting him stay with me without charging room and board. I just wouldn't feel right though if I didn't. I got some pictures of us, but I don't have them on me, so those will come later. Right now our soybeans are coming in and now we're waiting for the corn to finish so we can bring that in too. Getting close to time to put the 9650 to work!
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Post by PrincessJessi on Mar 21, 2021 2:16:01 GMT -6
Back in my hometown there is a whole family of Elders INCLUDING one Mr Philip Elder... not even lying.. sorry for the intrusion but that made me smile.
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Post by Bryan83 on Mar 30, 2021 0:50:54 GMT -6
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Post by Bryan83 on Mar 30, 2021 10:44:35 GMT -6
Fall
The soybeans are in, a little over 55,200L in storage. Going to sell those next summer when the price spikes. My corn came in a little later than I hoped for, and though I missed the spike, having over 143 tonnes is nothing to be sad about. Plus, with Chet here we took on a few harvesting contracts and hauled some grain. One man, Leo Thompson, paid us a decent price for our work, but in addition to that, he cut is in for a percentage of the grain sale on top of it. He said being as old as he is, it's worth it to pay us to do it for him.
We brought in some good money this season and I'm pretty happy. Chet thought I should take a big loan and maybe try to buy one of our neighboring fields. I said to him, "Chet, number one, nobody's selling right now and 2, I don't want to get that deep into debt." I kind of worried about what I had said for a second, not meaning anything bad, but then Chet cracked a smile, laughed and said "Oh yeah. I guess if I would of had that thought, I'd still own a farm." I can't fault him for thinking big, though. Someday, when the time is right and the money is there I'll do it.
For now, my plans are to put an ad in the same online dealership where I bought my old Bizon, except this time I'll be looking for a proper American combine that will keep up with these big fields. Not saying that there's anything wrong with the 9650 I got from Philip, it's just a bit small for most of these fields. My cousin Bryan is a die hard Case IH fan, but I'm kinda liking these John Deere machines. Perhaps something from the S700 series with the big headers would be nice. That way I could start to take on harvesting contracts using my own machine.
On that subject, a funny story. Chet came back to the house one afternoon, grinning from ear to ear, said he got us a corn harvesting job on a 40 acre field. I asked him where we had to go to pick up the stuff for the job, and do you know what he tells me? He says, "Oh I told him we already have our own equipment. No sense spending money to rent what you already have." I have got to keep working with this guy. Well, he fired up the 9650 and I got in the Transtar, and with the little 843 on the front, we went to work. It took a really long time, but we finished the job.
Lastly, we've bought a few animals to try out. I bought 50 chickens, 30 White Leghorns and 20 Rhode Island Reds, 4 Merino sheep, and 4 cows, 3 Ayrshires and one Limousin bull. This spring I might buy a rooster, too.
Well, that's the story from Iowa. Coming up this winter I'll be repainting the Transtar, and buying a new combine, as well as putting my old one up for sale. Plus all your standard annual maintenance stuff. Until next time.
To those of you who have already seen my combine thread, just know that the blog is running a little behind the gameplay. I thought I'd try adding a new dimension of my roleplay to simulate real life in which the farm tubers take their videos, but don't get posted 'til later because of the business of the farm and editing time.
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Post by Bryan83 on Apr 4, 2021 0:19:57 GMT -6
WinterWell things have slowed down a little around here, but not much. Where I come from in Sweden the ground freezes early and it freezes deep. Here fire there first month of winter I was still getting contract work. Field work in November! Well the ground finally did freeze up and I started in on my maintenance projects. The first order of business was repainting that old grain truck. So I brought it into the shop, and Chet and I first did the oil change, greased all the zerks, and then we sanded. Took it right down to the primer. Then I sprayed touch up where the paint had worn to bare metal, shear which I did a complete coat to smooth it out. I chose to do a new black and white scheme on it and now she looks good as new. Then, add I was rising all my other machines through for their annual checkups, I got notified. Seems a nice fellow who goes by Dairydeere had just the harvester I was looking for. The only thing it didn't check off was the folding pipe, but it was everything else I wanted so I jumped on it. I now own a beautiful S790 with a 45' draper and a 716C corn head. She sure looks beautiful sitting in that shed and I can't wait to get it out on the fields. Yes sir, no more renting combines on big jobs for this farmer! Chet is pretty eager to get out there too. After taking delivery I put the 9650 with both headers up for sale. Then I realized I have this new corn header and no trailer to put it on. Back to the online dealer where I picked up a genuine John Deere 300 cutter trailer, and for $1,000 less than retail. Thanks PrincessJessi! Another surprise addition to our lineup, one of the gentlemen I have been working for has sold us his old semi. It seems Mr. Leo Thompson bought a new truck and trailer, so we picked up his old PT 474 with a Lode King tandem twin hopper. Only cost me $60,000 for the set. Well that's all I can think of for now...winter gets pretty slow around a farm. Still never seen a winter in my life without snow until now.         
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Post by Bryan83 on Apr 11, 2021 0:11:25 GMT -6
Spring, Year 2
Well, time to gear up again. This year I'm putting corn on the bean ground, and sunflowers on the corn ground. Waiting for soil temperatures to come up a bit before I start planting, though. Been busy with a lot of contract work, which is good because I need to refill the bank account after buying that harvester. We have worked field 8 all the way through for Mr. Elder, and plan to do it again this year. He says he can't get anybody to rent that field from him, but between you and me, I think he wanted to keep just one working field, otherwise he'd start to miss the farming. I'm ok with that. It's good for him, you know, to stay busy. This year we're putting in some barley for him.
This spring or summer I'm going to sit down with Chet and talk about equipment. Now that the old combine has been replaced, I need to decide what's next, or if we're just going to keep running what we have. Eventually I want to get more land and contracts and stuff, but sooner or later I'm going to need bigger, more efficient machines to really turn a profit on it. Oh well, I've got time. Though I need to get that 8760 in the shop again, it's kind of hard to put in reverse, and I'm hearing some noises while I'm roading it, but I don't hear them while I'm working the fields. hopefully that's something I can put off until things slow up a bit.
Bull finally did his job, and I'm expecting 3 calves by the end of fall. That means I need to put up a separate pen for the bull while the heifers are calving. New rooster has been added to the henhouse, so we'll see if we get some chicks. Still the same 4 sheep, though. No males yet because I want to make sure I can keep up on the animals I have coming now before I go adding more. But that's alright, I'm perfectly happy just getting a little wool that I'll be able to sell for extra cash.
So there it is, see you in the summer update. Sorry I don't have pictures this time around, should be back to normal for summer.
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Post by Bryan83 on May 1, 2021 20:21:15 GMT -6
SummerWhat did I do to deserve this? This summer has been fraught with problems. First, the sunflowers failed, I think it's because the soil was too cold when I planted. Then the County said that due to budget shortfalls they were levying a farm tax on operations. Secondly, the 8760 broke down. When Chet and I went through it, we found that the transmission blew. I called the dealer to ask about getting a replacement, but they told me my only options were to rebuild it myself or find a used one from a similar tractor with the same engine. Well since I don't have all the know how to rebuild it, and there aren't any used ones in the area, I chose to list it for sale and I bought a 7250R to replace it. Well when I was at the dealership placing the order, another farmer told me he had a 7290R that he could sell me. I decided to get both so I could put the 8960 in the shop for the rest of the year. Eventually I'll either sell it or do a full restoration on it, because with 2 new tractors in that 300 hp range, I can take my time and learn how to do a few things amd not have to worry about not having it available to work. That and newer machines are more efficient anyway. Had Mr. Elder over to the house for supper the other day. He's been a big help to us and we wanted to do something nice for him. Chet grilled us steaks and made mashed potatoes and asparagus. It was delicious. After dinner we took a walk around the farm yard with Philip so I could show him all the new construction we've done. As we were walking out, he stopped right in his tracks and then walked right up to the 7290 I had just bought. He looked in a few specific places on it and started to laugh. I asked him what was so funny and he said simply, "she came home." He then told me that the 7290 I had bought from this fellow was one he had sent off to auction when he retired. Only thing different was that when it went to auction, it had dual tires all around, and the guy that sold it to me took the duals off the front. He identified it by certain repairs and modifications he made. He said to me, "That's good, because at least she'll know the farm." One day, Chet came up and asked for the afternoon off. I told him to go on, we only had a couple fertilizing contacts that day anyway. I jumped on the 7250, hooked the Bredal up and headed out to field 5. As I was leaving I saw Chet taking off in his truck for town. When I got back I saw why he'd taken the time off. See I recently traded in my Lizard Rodeo for a new TLX 2020 Trailboss one ton dually. And there in my driveway where his TTHD had been parked was a green and silver TLX 2020 Flatbed that I had seen at the dealership. I guess after Chet drove mine he just loved there truck and wanted one of his own. Well that's what I got for now, I'll get you all some pictures soon. In the meantime, here's one of the house before we traded in trucks. 
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Post by DEERE317 on May 1, 2021 22:27:07 GMT -6
To funny/cool 😃
If he remembers anything else that went through that auction I may know where it went/own it as I (Medicine Creek Elkader Equipment) bought a bunch of stuff on that auction since it didn’t sell.
Also we want pictures of the 2 new Deere’s on their new pastures.
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Post by DEERE317 on May 2, 2021 10:58:32 GMT -6
Should’ve added (you can disclude this post from the competition) that reading that brought a big smile to my face.
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Post by Bryan83 on May 2, 2021 10:59:26 GMT -6
To funny/cool 😃 If he remembers anything else that went through that auction I may know where it went/own it as I (Medicine Creek Elkader Equipment) bought a bunch of stuff on that auction since it didn’t sell. Also we want pictures of the 2 new Deere’s on their new pastures. Anything and everything JD that went to that auction came from Mr. Elder. And I'll get some pictures up next time I field them. |
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Post by DEERE317 on May 2, 2021 11:14:46 GMT -6
So pretty much everything from that sale is in my possession if he/you would be interested in any of it.
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Post by Bryan83 on May 2, 2021 11:22:33 GMT -6
Can't pull the trigger just yet, but there are a few pieces I may be interested in.
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Post by Bryan83 on Nov 2, 2021 0:43:26 GMT -6
Disaster. A violent storm blew through the region. The house is damaged beyond repair, the bins are all flattened and the crops gone. Although there is a bit of good news, me, Chet, all the livestock and most of the equipment survived. The only 2 vehicles that were destroyed were my Transtar grain truck and my semi. Insurance has paid out on the losses, so we're headed out to find a new start. I've sold all the livestock and I'll be putting my Lode King tandem up for sale as I have no truck to haul it out with. Insurance company is going to let me keep my remaining equipment on the old yard until I can get a new place established. I hear there's big fields and big money to be made at a place called Fox Farms down in Missouri. Might go check it out...
Finally, Mr. Elder has also decided to move. He's says he's going to South Dakota, apparently he's got some extended family there.
Well, until next time fellow farmers.
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Post by Bryan83 on Sept 13, 2022 19:06:35 GMT -6
Nels Wickstrom had found a new home, details to come soon...
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Post by Bryan83 on Oct 3, 2022 5:55:09 GMT -6
Hello, fellow virtual farmers, Nels Wickstrom here. I've promised you an update and I was trying to wait until I had pictures to go along with, but due to some technical issues, I'm going have to paint pictures with my words. As you all know, Chet and I survived the storm back at Lazy Acres with quite a bit of the equipment intact. Chet has had some issues dealing with it, though, it brought up a lot of bad memories from Westbridge Hills. He's powering right through, though.
After many meetings and hours with insurance adjusters, attorneys and government relief workers, ended up with fair compensation for the loss and relocation assistance to move out of the area. Also, after many apologies to Mr. Elder, I sold the land to a developer for a nice bit. Philip assured me that it was alright and that in my place he would have done the same. But still, I could tell there was disappointment about it all. I guess 7 generations really means something to a man. Well, on to happier news.
We were able to pick up a farmstead with 2 fields out in Middle Grove, Missouri. The place is called Fox Farms, apparently in honor of a Mr. Ezra Fox, who settled the area in 1820. Bit of interesting history, apparently the first store in Monroe County was opened right here in Middle Grove by one of it's earliest settlers. Sorry, I just love history. The area is now primarily a farming community with 2 mills, a livestock yard that buys local produce, a biogas plant and what I call the all in one dealership, Middle Grove Ag. There, you can buy machinery, supplies and they also have a transport office where they'll buy whatever the local farmers have to sell and ship it out to other buyers.
The place I bought came with a house, a chemical shed, 3 grain bins and 2 sheds, one metal and one wood with a basic workshop on the main yard. On the secondary yard, there's a large cattle/dairy pen, milking gear, 2 open sheds and 2 open silage bunkers. I also got 3 fields, 2 large and one small. The first year out I put in corn and soybeans and they turned out alright.
I got a subsidy from the county farm bureau for what they call "modernization." Basically they're giving me money in installments to upgrade equipment and buildings to more environmentally friendly ones. So I've been having even more meetings with the board of trustees, planners/architects, builders and the like. Eventually the yard will be completely redone with modern, energy efficient buildings. I'm also going to get a new bin site that doesn't rely on diesel powered augers and conveyors to fill and empty.
Equipment wise, I tracked down the fellow I bought the 7R off of and with some of the insurance money, bought another of Mr. Elder's tractors back, a 9570 RX along with a 2680H tiller. I also saw a truck out in Montana when I dropped by to visit Cousin Bryan that I fell in love with and just had to have. They call it a TLX Phoenix Black Belle. So I got that and worked a deal with the dealership network to where they took my old trailer I left behind in Lazy Acres and I got a brand new Demco double bottom like my cousin has. And I'm only getting started! More to come.
Well, that's the short version and as I said, I'll get pics once my technology problems get sorted. Until next time...
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