Archive for the ‘Equipment – All’ Category

June 30, 2006 – Martin/Daddy Matching Tractors!

Today is Martin’s 5th birthday. Many of his loved ones went together to get him a battery-powered scoop tractor, just like dad’s!

He’s having great fun helping around the farm – moving mulch, carrying tools, straw, or whatever else needs to be hauled.

He has not yet mastered the art of backing up with a trailer – maybe another day.

We also got for more lambs today.

Here’s Emma with one of the lambs. Now we have a total of six.

June 28, 2006 – Grain Grinder

A few years back I bought this grain grinder on E-bay.

It works great for small quantities and grinds a range from coarse to flour. We use it occasionally, like today when we need some creep feed for our bottle lambs and all the feed in the farm store was laced with anti-biotics. So, we have to make our own.

Here’s a sample of the coarse grind. It takes about 15 minutes to grind up about 50 lbs of corn.

June 21, 2006 – Longest Day of the Year

Well, it’s over now – from here on in the days get shorter! Neighbors had a summer solstice gathering with potluck, fire, singing and everybody was invited to share a piece of poetry or other thought.

I’m hoping to save a bunch of time on wood chips this year. Rather than driving to pick up and load and unload by hand – the utility trimming truck came to the farm, I can load them with the tractor loader.

 

I saw these guys last week and asked them to dump at my place, but they never showed – they came this week and to entice them back they got a carton of freshly-picked strawberries!

June 13, 2006 – Martin Behind the Camera

I gave Martin the camera the other day and let him click away. Here’s a few of his photos.

We’ve got an old granary that was dragged out into the pasture – this is a piece of metal that was tacked on the corner at one time that the wind has seen fit to detach.
One of his favorite subjects is the “scoop tractor.”

I think one of dozens of pictures of the tractor will be sufficient!
There’s hardly ever pictures of the cameraman so Martin took this picture of me.

June 10, 2006 – Auction Day

I went to an auction for the first time in a long time today. It was a tough call as it was really cool (in the 50′s after a week of 90′s), so putting up ceiling insulation in the attic (without windows) was also calling. But I decided to go, in part, because it was raining and I thought the crowd would be a bit thinner. The auction is an annual event to raise money for the Mid-Iowa Antique Power Show. I can get there on all gravel roads, so it is good to drag things home. Most of the morning there were three auction rings going at once until they got to the big machinery.

I thought this old guy was a character (he was driving the auctioneer’s truck around). I don’t know how I managed to get a picture of him without a cigarette in his mouth!

There were hays racks full of treasure or junk, depending on your perspective. Here they are showing the merchandise up for bid.
The bidding gets hot and heavy as the ring men point out who has high bid. I ended up spending most of the day there and hauling things home at 15 mph.

Here’s a nice collection of burlap and seed bags – all bags $8.00. These were my favorites. Good local color from a Grinnell company – the town where we go to Farmer’s Market. I think one could more than pay back my entire bid price.

A nice pile of Dekalb seed corn bags.

More local color with these seed bags from Lynnville, Iowa.

I couldn’t pass up these metal emblems ($10) from John Deere tractors. They came along with a couple of side rails for a John Deere 2010 (whatever they are!)

This is an old animal chute. I bought it for the wheels and frame to make another trailer type. (A steal at $5)

Here’s a classic old wagon for whatever. Just needs one new tongue and groove floorboard on the bottom ($100).

Finally, a 6 foot blade that is VERY heavy, ready for use on the tractor ($30). I’m very pleased with this piece and especially the price.

After the auction it is off to Bruce Springsteen. More about that tommorrow…

May 28, 2006 – Cleanup Begins

We spent a bit of time cleaning up this afternoon. We put the tractor to good use. The limb that fell on the machine shed was to big for me to budge, so… loader tractor to the rescue.

A chain, a tractor, no problem. We loaded a hay wagon with branches from the yard. Here is a photo Martin took of Linda unloading the wagon.

Stay tuned for pictures some day soon that Martin took today.
Here is the little guy on the biggest limb that we loaded on the burn pile.

It is probably not noteworthy to all you long-time farmers out there, but having the ability to lift up and move a log like this is just a treat and saves the back!

May 22, 2006 – No Flame Decals on that Tractor!

Today, the tractor was ready to be picked up at the John Deere Dealer after they fixed the problem that filled the crankcase with gasoline. They didn’t have the ticket written up, so they let me drive it home without paying for it (yet).

They drove it out of the shop and noticed some gasoline was leaking around one of the newly installed parts. They went to fix it and the service man was fiddling with it for a few minutes, when he suddenly runs away from the tractor and grabs a fire extinguisher to put out the flaming engine block! I’m sure that flaming tractors in the lot are not good for advertising! It was extinguished in moments. The gas that was leaking out was ignited when a wrench arced across a wire that was missing its plastic coating.

After it was all fixed, I had a 12 mile or so tractor ride home. I lost my fondness for ever participating in the “Great Tractor Ride Across Iowa.” Twelve miles was enough.

I’ll leave you with one picture for today – the minty new growth on the concolor fir.

The last 2 weeks, the trees have really taken off with spring growth – some of the black cherries and bur oaks already have grown 4-6 inches.

May 20, 2006 – Saturday on the Farm

It’s another keeper of a day. Lots of little things today. Planted a dozen peppers, spent half the morning in town getting lumber and running errands. Built a waterproof top for the gravity wagon that is storing chicken feed. We had some makeshift tarps over it before and a few leaks in the shed found their way in, so it was time to make a permanent solution out of leftover pieces of steel roofing.

Also got some planting in -

Martin is helping Mom plant her Mother’s Day flowers. Linda made three batches of soap – among them what looks like a better goat milk effort than the first time around.

May 15, 2006 – Bye-Bye Tractor

The tractor ran strong and without any hint of problems until the last time. Now the crankcase has filled with gasoline and is dripping out the dipstick hole. Time for professional attention. Here it is getting loaded on the semi for a trip to the local Deere shop.

I wished I had a picture of the red Farmall Cub pulling the green out of the shed! Having this is a little like children, whatever happens, you’re stuck with them.

Today was a good day. The weather held off. Our first bulk order of broiler feed arrived – one ton loaded directly in the gravity wagon. I was able to get all layers of light-affirming goodness to the hardwoods planted last year in the pasture. Round one was with hands, pulling weeds around the trees. Then the weed whacker to a bigger distance, then the riding mower for between the rows, finally the push mower for the spots the big mower can’t get to. It was good to get something started and completed in one day. Also got about 1/3 of the raspberries weeded.

This evening a student from Grinnell College called wanting to bounce ideas about starting a co-op to provide food for the college food service. It’s a struggle to create a new food system and it was good to hear a young voice working so hard to make it happen.

May 11, 2006 – Thingamajig Thursday #23

Here’s this week’s “Thingamajig Thursday” entry. It’s the green thing, not the pick-up truck or gas cans! Also check out last week’s answer.

As always, put your guess in a comment below.

Answer…
The “roll bars” for the tractor. Props to Brad Bachelor who guessed “pallet holder-downers” – best wrong guess of the year!

May 10, 2006 – Things that Need to be Fixed

I heard a saying this week. There are two kinds of buildings/equipment on a farm. Things that need to be fixed and things that need to be fixed now! Today was one of those days. A few days ago the pipe between the muffler and catalytic converter dropped off, today the tractor started spitting black smoke and misfiring and leaking gas, and the riding mower hydrostatic transmission seems stuck. There are better days, but this is not one of them!

April 24, 2006 – Boys and Their Toys!

Today was a day long in coming – the arrival of a scoop tractor to high hopes! Isn’t it a beauty? It’s a 1967 John Deere 2510 with a nearly new Westendorf loader, a category 2 three point hitch, and wide front end. I’d been looking at tractors for a while and finally found this one. The arrival of a tractor ranks in importance somewhere between a new car and new house.

The next three pictures are a story of three photographers. The picture above was taken by Emma.

Mark took this picture.

Here’s Martin’s picture! As a young boy, he made sure to get all tractor and cut the people off the top!

I’m excited about the tractor for a number of reasons, not the least of which is my back. Lots less lifting and moving of heavy things with the back. Able to move a big bale when the time comes. Many folks made the tractor possible – “financing” by Grandma Jo, pre-sale inspection by Linda’s Uncle Wayne, and finally driving the beast home by Two Friends Farm. Curiously, the tractor was for sale about 16 miles away alongside Hwy 330. As we were driving it home, Claire was coming home from Des Moines with her TAG teacher, Grandma Jo and her partner for History Day competition at the State Historical Center in Des Moines and they passed us and waved wildly!

Also got five new apple trees grafted from the old near-dead tree in our yard onto new rootstocks courtesy of Two Friends farm. I just put them in the garden for this year to get established. It’s a very early apple – mid-July and makes great sauce and is in the right season to make raspberry-applesauce.

April 17, 2006 – Fence Repair

Neighbors Don and Phyllis came over today to check the fencelines after winter. They cruise around the pasture in this nifty ATV. Martin was lucky enough to get a ride for part of the trip.

We had just a few places to shore up along the farmstead.

Here’s a place where a corner post wrapped in woven wire cracked at ground level.

After I pulled all the fencing staples, Martin singlehandedly drove it down to the burn pile, dumped it, and pushed the empty cart up the hill!

Here’s the fix. Now, I know replacing a wooden post with a steel one is not generally good practice – Don did offer to come put a new wooden post in, but this entire fence needs to be reconfigured, but the steel post was an 8 footer, and it leans on a couple of feet of cement at the base, so I tried to cheat a little. By the end of the day, the cows were over.
In continuing signs of spring, the “automatic waterer” for the chicken coop was hooked up (a 55 gallon barrel of water outside, hosed into the coop), the fence between the shed and barn put up and the last of this round of R-board stub wall pieces cut and pushed up in the attic.

April 12, 2006 – Flamer!

Late today, the wind finally stopped blowing enough to try out the borrowed flame weeder.

Here, I am trying to fry the border between the sod and the new raspberry patch before the new berries are planted. I’m not too sure how it will work on grass, I imagine it will need a few treatments. Hey, who says organic gardening isn’t thrilling. The thing sounds like a jet plane and you don’t need a big budget Hollywood action movie to use a flamethrower! Many people use them to knock down young weeds before their crop germinates or in the case of corn, even after the corn has germinated. I also got some cardboard and mulch spread on part of a garden and weeded around some of last year’s Christmas trees.

Martin and Linda work on the raised beds in the herb garden. If you look behind them, you can see I also started putting in the patio blocks around the future raised beds.

Finally, here is another shot of spring – this shows last year’s cranberries along with this year’s new growth.