Archive for the ‘Equipment – All’ Category
February 5, 2010 – New Tiller!
We’ve been thinking and starting to prepare for a while about a new way of growing our crops. We want to get rid of the monolithic blocks and instead garden in four foot wide beds separated by grass/sod strips. The mental and physical energy to manage 4 foot wide steps seems easier in terms of ...Read more.
November 17, 2009 – Corn Caddy
Here’s the latest piece of fun farm equipment – a corn caddy – essentially a small silo on wheels. We can use this unit to get chicken food from the co-op and move it where ever it needs to be – whether it needs to be by the layers over the winter or broilers over ...Read more.
November 17, 2008 – Can Anything Else Break Today?
I’ve had these kinds of days before. The day usually starts out on good footing. Today, for example. I was able to get the to get the town job work and other minor things done in the morning and started on the day’s farm work. After about an hour of steady getting things put away ...Read more.
July 21, 2008 – Red Green Alive and Well at High Hopes!
Today’s creation is inspired by Handyman’s Corner from the Red Green TV show. To many of you, this might look like an old, tired gas grill that missed trips to the dump over the last two years. But sometimes keeping things around too long pays off. We also have an old cooktop from the kitchen ...Read more.
April 2, 2008 – Old Silver Maple Makes Way for Wind Turbine
I got a call a few days ago from the wind turbine guy saying that dependent on weather, April 11 was the day to pour the foundation for the wind turbine. Amazing as it may seem for an Iowa farm, we had a difficult time siting the turbine on our property because of all the ...Read more.
December 21, 2007 – New (to me) Camera!
I used to have a nice SLR camera (Canon AE-1) that I bartered for a bunch of Christmas trees back in college. I loved that camera – while climbing a mountain in Utah, it became separated from me and bounced down a snowfield in its case a couple of thousand feet and lived to tell ...Read more.
November 26, 2007 – Winter’s Coming
It’s nearly December, so serious snow can come anytime. Rather than dig the blade out of a snow pile to mount it on the tractor, we attached it yesterday. I have attached it by myself, but two people make the job much simpler. This beast is very heavy. Â Let it snow! one year ago…
November 14, 2007 – One Step Closer to Wind Turbine
We are one step closer to getting a residential wind turbine at high hopes gardens! We had a site visit by an installer and now are waiting for a more final estimate. If all goes well, it could be up in late spring/summer. The following bit of information was very interesting to me. It shows ...Read more.
August 6, 2007 – Step into Another World
There’s a place in downtown Melbourne that hides its secrets well. “Vern’s Implement” always has a yard full of old farm equipment along with an accesssory lot along side the road on the way to our place. In the past, I’ve bought a thing or two from Vern. He’s also got a small retail store ...Read more.
August 5, 2007 – And So It Goes…
Yesterday (doesn’t really matter what day!) brought a common occurence on the farm – something not going according to plan. This isn’t particularly compelling story, but typical. Had some weed-trimming to do, so in the more relative cool of the evening (if 85 degrees and 75 degree dew point can be called cool) I set out. I ...Read more.
July 16, 2007 – New Tractor Tire
Usually 9 days away fror the farm leaves A LOT to do upon our return. However, we are getting better at it, by working extra hard the weeks beofre we leave to get as much done as we can. We were fortunate (or not) that there was not any rain while we were gone. Very ...Read more.
June 6, 2007 – Corn Transfer
Lots of little projects were completed today. In getting ready for a couple of tons of chicken food to be delivered, we had some leftover corn from the corn-burning stove season in the gravity wagon that we needed to move to make room for the chicken feed. The gravity wagon is the easiest to get ...Read more.
June 2, 2007 – Most-Used Piece of Equipment on the Farm
The humble garden cart gets my vote for the most indispensable piece of equipment on the farm. We bought one of the Vermont Carts new and picked up another at an auction. They are the best money ever spent on the farm. We’ve had one ten years and it is still works as well as ...Read more.
June 1, 2007 – “New” Equipment
Here’s the “new” belly mower for the farmall cub. Well, “new” is a relative term when you are adding bling to a 1947 tractor. Having a green mower under a red tractor will add a certain festive color aesthetic! The Farmall is in need of some shop time, so the functionality of the new mower ...Read more.
