A second chance - Yet another farm blog - Where noone else dared to farm

[humbe]

Nah.. Stephen.. This isn't working.. I have no use for the JD when it doesn't have a 3pnt, and the old Ford isn't usable for field work either. Didn't any of the other farmers leave some half decent tractor around? Hmm.. Stephen suggests maybe Ray is willing to sell is old Case.. We'll have to hear about that.

But it's been a long day.. Lets get some sleep first..

	Haven't tested the Ford on anything but that cultivator, but got tired trying to get it to work, so getting rid of both and introducing a tractor that is hopefully a bit more useful, and might be a step between the tractors that should be in a museum and tractors approaching modern ones.

[humbe]

Just as mom returned back home with the deeds for the new plot, dad sent her away again, looking for potential buyers of our two new museum attractions. He got so mad trying to cultivate with that Ford, that he couldn't take it anymore. We need to look for an alternative.

I went back over to the settlement to talk to Ray, and he said that he may part with his old Case tractor if I would be willing to give him a fair price. It had not been used the last year anyhow.



This is more like it.. A Case 956 XL Ray had bought brand spanking new in 1988. Quite a few years ago, but compared to the museum pieces we already have, this is a lot more modern. With 95 hp it is as strong as the old JD, and this should have a working 3 point connection and PTO in the back at least. It also got a roof, a radio and a front loader attachment. I think even the motor can possibly be boosted a bit if we figure out how. Hoping it doesn't have any glaring design flaws, such as the Massey's front axle that gets out of position if turning too hard.

We agreed on a price of $18.600, which sounds more than fair for a very usable tractor. We can't afford currently, with our it though. We've got $7.570 left, but hopefully mom will get a few bucks for the old JD and Ford which we have no real use for, and when we get to logging a bit in the new forest, we should earn enough to pay for this fairly quickly.

	This is the Case IH 56-series V1.0 FS19 mod from http://www.farmingsimulator19mods.com/c ... v1-0-fs19/ There seems to be several mods with this series. Picked this on random to try. Looks good so far.

[humbe]

Mom eventually came back. She have found a museum willing to pay $3200 for the old John Deere, and a scrap metal dealer that's willing to buy the Ford for $300 for the metal. In the end we thus only lost $1000 on the attempt to get a new tractor into the farm.

Me and Kent went up to the forest section we bought, and cut down 3 of the larger trees. Well.. We think we did at least. Need to stay at distance to see what trees are tallest, and when running into the woods we're never really sure if we ended up sawing down the intended tree or not.



Here is what happens then using the pickup to do fieldwork, driving trailer during harvest. It's full of dirt again. Hard to look out the glass. We should get something to wash our cars at some time.

The three tall tree log haul ended up being wood for $9.923. This forest section will be our gold mine. That puts our balance back at $20.939 and we can afford the Case if we want to. Do we dare? With the income from the forest, we will eventually afford buying a new tractor, but we definitively wants to save up for a harvester for next season, so the less we can get away with spending to begin with, the better it is..

Lets go for it. It would be nice to have a second usable tractor that can help the logging effort while the other is busy with fieldwork.

[humbe]

A lot of the forest behind here is ours now, so we should have plenty log for a good while. We've cleared some smaller trees in front here, to get to the bigger ones further into the forest. Gonna try to leave the smaller ones there, hoping they grow further, at least while we have a choice.



The second load here was worth a bit over eight thousand dollars. With that amount per load, we'll quickly afford a harvester. What should we shoot for before spring? Harvester, seeder, and a land plot I can carve into new fields would be awesome. We're not loggers, and would prefer farming, but this income is way too good to pass up. It is tempting to try and save up to some machinery that could simplify the logging bits.

Kent is driving lumber to the drop off area, while I'm using the chainsaw. I'm a bit worried about his speed across here, and I've told Kent to slow down while driving. I know it's fun, but 100 kmh on a muddy road with a huge weight strapped to the back of the Ford can quickly become a terribly accident.

	Bought some land areas temporarily and painted mud in tire tracks in mud roads to wood sell point from here. The mud roads are almost invisible as they are covered in grass. A bit annoying that the mud roads don't lose the grass by normal driving back and forth automatically.

[humbe]

Asked Sandra to take her drone for a ride again, so we could get an overview of our forest. Tried to paint in the borders, around where they are to show the size of the plot. I think the plot might extend a bit further back than my line shows.



While saving up money for the Case, we drove up on the left side there, and hauled out 3 big trees, but loading the trailer when it wasn't on a flat surface seemed unnecessarily complex, so we moved the operation down to the flat area just in front here. The clearing there is two trailer loads of wood I think. It looks bigger than I expected, but then it's closest to the camera. Seen from the other side the clearing isn't visible yet.

In the meantime I hear dad is done sowing oilseed radish in field 1 and have started field 2.

	Really annoying that the in game map doesn't update with changes done to the terrain. Especially in maps like this one that are going to be heavily modified. Roads will be moved. Forests will be cut down and maybe resown elsewhere, and many new fields will be carved.

[humbe]

Surprise visit from my mad cousin Terrence, who is a demolition man up north working for the railroad. And guess what, he had some dynamite we could play with in his truck.



Yay.. Finally blew those stones to smitherines. Had a bit of an operation to get rid of rocks from the field afterwards, and driving away some gravel, but now all that is left is fairly flat plot with gravel and dirt, which we can possibly clean up, fill with some soil and plow over at some point. Not worrying about that part now, but not having boulders to hit with machinery will be a big plus.

	Dead mans land map has some special post we can saw down to get rid of all the stones on the map, which sadly is impossible to touch with any landscaping effort. We decided to saw it and get rid of the stones and rather just add placeable stones where we'd want them and we can possibly get rid of them later. Replaced the rocks in my farmyard with placeable stones.

[Dairydeere]

	I really like how you mention the mods in your posts, just keep them in spoilers so they don’t interfere with the realism

[Dziwny85]

I really like what you are doing Keep Up The Good work

[humbe]

Thanks..

Me and Kent have been logging and logging. It's not even December yet, but we've cut down enough forest to afford to buy the plot of land east of the farm. After buying that plot we've been cutting down the trees on the little hill there, and preparing the meadow for plowing. Now mom and dad is splitting the work of plowing up the new field. The only plow we have is the plow that Fergie has been using. The plow would fit our other tractors too, but for some reason, Fergie pulls this plow as if he hasn't been doing anything else.



I'm thinking we'll divide the area into two. One grass field and one field for other crops. Then we don't need to mow grass outside our land again, and the evidence of last time has been buried long time ago, so we should be safe there.

The logging is amazingly lucrative. It's tiresome work and we'd rather work the fields, but we can't say no to this type of income that will boost the farm miles ahead. After buying the new plot we've already made more than enough to buy the Bizon harvester. The money is so good we can consider buying a new harvester instead. Well.. We're not going to start buying harvesters in November, so we have some time to see what the situation will be. We're definitively buying a harvester next year though.

[humbe]

Not exactly a clearing anymore.



I estimate we've cut down the 25% of the forest we bought. So we can still extract a lot more money from this forest. When and if we manage. Right now both me and Kent are exhausted. Maybe we should take a break and plan what we could invest in.

Currently our bank account has $150.495 in it. Amazing..

[humbe]

Mom and dad has done an enormous job on the new field in November.



Tomorrow is December though, some snow is expected already tonight, and below zero temperatures, so dad is doing the final bit of work to get oilseed radishes into the ground before it freezes.

Dad's worried that we won't have enough money to fertilize the new fields, and that it might be a stretch to afford a harvester next year, but do me and Kent have a surprise for him. We've been working our asses of in the forest, and it's been insane. Due to the insane profits, we managed to stay at it, and we're waiting a bit to let mom and dad in on how much money we've earned to see how shocked we can make them

[humbe]

Dad worked late last night to sow before the snow, and we picked him up when he was done. Back to fetch the tractor today, and as you see, we cut it close. But all fields have oilseed in them, which should survive the winter, giving us cheap fertilizer.



Me and Kent have finally finished our logging operation in the forest. We've taken down all the big trees, but left a few smaller ones to the south and west ends which we hope may grow taller in time. It was a massive effort, but it paid of massively too. We're about to shock the rest of the family.



450 liters of eggs and the coop was full. Mom is driving over to the settlement to sell them and buy some groceries.



Looks nice here in winter. Time to do some recreational activities and recharge our batteries before spring sets in.

[humbe]

After having finished the entire logging operation in the forest plot we bought, we finally presented the accounting numbers for the rest of the family.



We've got a hard time believing it ourselves. $1.005.970 in logging income !! We forgot to check what income was from the forest plot and what was from the few trees we cleared where the new fields are, but we think that was around $30.000-50.000, so if we say $40.000 we got $965.970 income from the forest plot we bought for $85.000.

After the shock has risen, mom and Ira is talking about selling the farm and living of our fortune closer to people. Dad is in shock. It might not be all the money in the world, for someone wanting to build a big farm, but from our point of view this is all the money we could ever dream of.

I let it sink in for a day, but the next evening we were talking about how to invest the money.

Giving up and moving back home is a good option with all this money in the bank, but me, Kent and Dad are more interested in investing and continuing. We're now landowners and farming and especially logging seems hugely lucrative, and we gotta do something with our lives so why not farming?

We were talking about saving up for a harvester and a seeder, and with this kind of money, we could get the ultimate seeder and harvester. To pull that seeder we'd probably need a great new tractor, which we could also afford, but then we've just about spent all the money I think. Our farm isn't that big yet though, and wasting all that money on very expensive gear doesn't seem like the best option.

Me and Kent are pondering whether to invest quite a bit of it into logging tools. We've seen how lucrative logging can be, but it's a pain in the ass with a chainsaw, log fork and a small log trailer. If we're to log more, we should invest in it to simplify it. Modern logging gear costs a whole lot so dad is sceptic about investing too much into that, but as we earned the money, we have a big say in how to use it.

We decided on going on a trip to visit some dealers and check out both new and used markets and see what's available, and invest in good logging gear and another forest plot, and the rest to upgrade our current equipment.

	Urk.. This massive logging income wasn't really what I had expected. I guess logging needs to be ruled out, if one is to try to have a battle for survival going on for some years. But as I'm here, and I have no experience with modern logging gear, and all the forests here are simple to cut firs, I guess I will invest in some logging gear and test out more logging bits, while I extend the farm. I didn't intend to get this amount of money into the game this early though. Hope it doesn't ruin it..

[humbe]

We found a dealer for modern forest tree cutters and saw what he had in the shop.

He had a big Ponsse Bear machine, which looked good.. But he also had a Ponnse Scorpion King which looked to have better visibility to what you're doing. He also had a Komatsu 931XC and 951 models. All of these are extremely expensive though. Around $440.000 for each one.

He also had a simpler model, the Sampo Rosenlew HR46X, which cost $275.000, and the price is a lot easier to chew, but it cannot handle as big trees. But are the trees in the area too big? It would be sad if we failed to cut the larger trees which after all pays the best.

The salesman couldn't help us. He don't know the exact size of what's max, and we don't know how big the trees in the valley get.. But to calm us down and get a deal he made us an offer.

- If we buy the Sampo, and find that the trees are too large, if we come back within a year, he'll buy the Sampo back for full price if we buy one of the bigger models.

That sounds like a good deal. Then we can get the cheaper version, and save the extra cash until we have verified whether we need it or not.

We end up buying the Sampo. We also need a bigger log trailer, and he has a Fliegl Timber Runner that looks like the obvious choice, being fairly cheap. It is a truck trailer though, and we don't have a truck. Would be nice to get a truck, but to save money for now, we'll buy a dolly and see if we can pull it with one of our tractors. If we can't we will likely buy a stronger tractor, which we may need for other activities on the farm anyhow.

Just one more thing left. It's tiresome to cut down stump for stump with the FSI ST 65 T stump cutter. Does he have anything better? He shows us a Rabaud Xylor 1613 model which have a wide blade making it a lot easier to hit the stump. We end up grabbing that too..

So for the logging investments, here goes nothing:

Code: Select all

      Fliegl Timber Runner                28.000
      Rabaud Xylor 1613 stump cutter      38.000
      Sampo Rosenlew HR46X               275.000
      Money stored for possible upgrade  165.000
      Dolly                                9.000
      New forest land plot                85.000
      ------------------------------------------
      Total                              600.000

600.000 is a massive amount of money, but it'll make us able to keep getting more logging income, and we can at least if we want to make an effort to at least pay back the investment. In addition we'll clear land which we can make fields of later. Hopefully we can also free 165.000 if we manage with the smaller Sampo. We might need to invest in a bigger tractor to pull the timber runner though. We'll see..

[humbe]

Measuring tree girth in the forest, we see that the processor head on the Sampo is too small.. We end up getting the Scorpion King instead. It looks awesome to use, with good visibility, and some weight is probably good to have when cutting the larger trees.