The new forest plot is chopped down and sold. Tree stumps remain, as the snow is covering most of them. Sounds like a tedious job when spring gets here. Now we count around $1.5 million dollars in the bank. Getting all the logs down from the slope was tedious work, but we managed at the end, largely helped by the fact that the logs skid downward just as much as our tractor did trying to get to them, so starting on top, we got some logs and sent others further down.
We had another family council to talk about what to do with all the money. Me and Kent are eager to invest in the farm, while mom and Ira wants to move back home and retire farming alltogether. Dad is in between. He would like to continue farming, but don't want to put all eggs in one basket. After all, our farm is currently small, and we don't really need large new equipment to handle it. And we have no clue what circumstance might occur a year from now, so having some safety would be good.
For now, we agreed that dad should take a trip around the area and see if he can find some equipment to make farming a bit more bearable, but try to keep expenses down. Apart from that we'll use some money to buy a bit of land to extend to, but otherwise save the rest in a savings account for rainy days if everything goes haywire.
The list of wanted upgrades is long. Some highlights:
A better harvester option. A self-propelled harvester that harvest in front so it's easier to harvest without destroying crop would be great. Bigger grain storage in it is really wanted too, and a bigger working width would also be nice. Probably just buying Stephen's old Bizon for now. It's cheap, and it'll do for the fields we currently have, and when we do get noticeable bigger we're not taking a massive hit by replacing it with a better one.
A better seeder. One with considerably more than 100 liter seed storage, and hopefully a wider working width. Ideally one that also cultivates, but getting a separate improved cultivator also works.
A bigger lime spreader. A lime spreader with 600 liter capacity is way too small. While 600 liter is doable for a fertilizer, it would be nice with a bigger one there too.
A bigger mower. Would be nice with a bit wider working width for the mower, and also one that still has curtains so grass doesn't fly everywhere.
A sprayer. The family is tired of raking weeds away. We need a sprayer to more easily be able to kill of the weeds. Stephen's got some old ones, so if we get any of those working, I guess that'll do for now.
Washing gear. And last, mom is tired of looking at all our muddy gear. We need some gear to be able to wash our vehicles and tools, and if we have money to spare, it would be good to fix some of those botched paint jobs too.
Any limit to how many pictures I can stuff in there and how long they will last? Will they last as long as the thread I'm linking them from?
