·:[ high hopes gardens ]:·
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There are some good things about small towns and knowing your neighbors.  This tiller exemplifies one such experience.

We share a small tiller with a colleauge of Linda’s at work.  He acquires the tillers and we store and maintain them and he comes out once a year to pick it up and use it.  He just got us an upgrade and it needed some work as the pull rope was broken and it hadn’t been run for a number of years.  I brought it to the neighborhood small engine man and he got it “back to good.”  I arranged to pick it up at a certain time, but when I arrived, he was not home.  So, I checked the shop, it was opened, the tiller was done and I poked around a bit and found the slip showing what I owed and left the money and took the tiller.

The car also needed new tires, so the neighbor down the road works at the goodyear shop in town and he just drove our car in to town in the morning, put the new tires on, and drove it home - saving us numerous jockeying back and forth with two cars and drivers and just leaves the bill on the front seat.  Likewise, we have the same trust with our customers - if we deliver when they are not home, like clockwork a check is in our mailbox within a few days.  It’s nice to have some relationships that are based on a handshake!

one year ago…”One BIG Local Meal Prep”

After going through two different brands of food vacuums, this year we upgraded to a slightly more substantial model.

So far, so good - here are some dried cherries and dried shiitake mushrooms just off the press!

one year ago…”Hops Progress”

I’ve been looking for a few months for a car for the girls to drive (very soon I hope!) and finally found one that looked like a good deal! I thought I’d use it as an opportunity to get a 4wd vehicle as we don’t have any all-wheel drive cars, and sure could use one on occasion (like all of last winter). My top choice was a Subaru Outback as they are all-wheel drive and get 30 mpg on the highway and will be easy for the girls to maneuver.

This 1996 model was purchased from Rochester Ford within the budget and I have 7 days to check it out.

one year ago…”Memorial Day 2007″

Late last fall the old electric fence charger gave up the ghost.  I didn’t go to great lengths to investigate why it stopped working as it looks as though it dates to only a few years after the invention of the incandescent light bulb. 

I didn’t go to great lengths to investigate why it stopped working as it looks as though the charger dates to only a few years after the invention of the incandescent light bulb. 

Here’s the replacement tucked away inside the chicken coop all rewired and ready for action.

one year ago…”Portable Fencing”

I don’t have a long trailer, so when I fetch cattle panels (16 ft long), I usually put them on racks on top of the pickup and topper. It’s kind of a pain to load and unload from such a height, but it was the only way to get them home. When I went in to get the wood pellets, I saw them loading some panels in a truck without a topper by arching them in the box of the truck by pushing them in with a forklift. Of course, the problem is getting them out, as they are under much force and could really cause an injury if you just opened up the tailgate end watched them spring back.

I thought I’d try it. But I had a better, safer, and quicker idea than racheting them together before opening the door - I’d have them rest against the tractor loader and slowly back up to release the pressure.

It worked like a charm.

one year ago…”New (old) Bookcases”

The last cleanup from the March ‘07 ice storm is taking place. I saw the utility trucks picking up some old poles that have been laying in the ditch and asked if they could bring some over (you never know who or when you could use some 20+ foot poles)!

They dropped some poles off at the end of the day and just left the truck parked at our place. It gave Martin a chance to see what it feels like to be behind the controls of a cherry picker.
one year ago…”Wendell Berry/Barn Burning”

After a day and a half of cutting, dragging, and hauling, I had removed all the portions of the tree g that are reasonable to handle for firewood.  I was left with a big long stump.  Since it is a soft silver maple, it is not good for lumber, so I needed to drag it away.

This is one of the invaluable tractor tasks!

I was able to drag it down to the near the burn piles, where we can sit on it for many years or throw it in the pile, however we see fit.  It was nice to get the site cleared and lots of wood added to the shed.
one year ago…”Cold!”

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.  Let it snow!

one year ago…

Today was a catch-up day.  We missed the window of opportunity to plant garlic and fall bulbs early in the month, and it has just been way too soggy up to now to get in the garden.  So today we got the garlic in and some purple allium, and three kinds of peonies (Duchesse de Nemours -white, Sarah Bernhardt -pink, and Red Magic - red).  We also collected a bunch of seeds from flowers and beans, among other things.

A few days ago, I wouldn’t have bet that I’d be able to dig this trench with the tractor.  Our neighbor filled our two wagons with corn and I went out after I got home from work after dark to haul them back home.  On the way home, the tractor seemed like it was running a very rough and might not make it home.  In my paranoia, it seemed like the exhaust had a white tinge to it, but it was night, and I hadn’t yet run the tractor at night, so I wasn’t sure what it looked like normally at night.  My fear was coolant in the combustion chambers.  Or, I thought maybe the heavy load was straining it because one of the wagon wheels was nearly locked?  But when I got home and stopped the tractor, it still was acting up.  I turned it off and a few minutes later it wouldn’t start.  So I went and got the 2nd wagon with the truck (I felt some urgency as rain was possible in the forecast) and felt lucky not to get stuck in the soft waterway with a two wheel drive truck and gravity wagon full of corn and a dead tractor unable to pull myself out.

Over the night, ruminating about how much a cracked head or other major repair would cost, I remember an old mechanic telling me that if I ever put gas that had a mixture of ethanol in an engine that had not run it before, it would dissolve and break loose all kinds of gunk that might be in the gas tank/fuel system.  I may have grabbed a gas container that had ethanol in my rush to get out in the field.  So in the morning I thought I’d drain the carburetor and check out the gas, and if necessary drain the gas tank and start over.  But after draining all the gas out of the carburetor, it started up and ran just fine - so I am attributing the problem to a fuel line problem that has worked it self out.

Having the tractor to dig trenches to plant garlic, gladiolias, and potatoes is a huge back and time saver.

one year ago…

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 complete with the old general store type wood strip floor, big wooden entrance door, and a couple of aisles of different size bolts, nuts, etc. in old wooden bins. A while back, I had a hard time finding a certain length bolt in a 5/8 width - not at big box stores, not at True Value - all the while, the right one was sitting at Vern’s.

Back in the shop it really changes.  I swear Vern doesn’t like to work on equipment made much past 1950.  I thought I might get him to work on my ‘47 Cub, but he has other work he evidently enjoys more and said he didn’t have time.  (I don’t think he likes mundane repairs.)  He also has an older solar array on the front of his house - probably from the 70’s - so he is obviously a tinkerer.

Here he is, looking at a steam-powered, steel-wheeled tractor from the early teens.  He has fabricated missing parts, rebored what needs to be re-bored, and finally painted it.  It’s a massive hunk of machinery - you can see the back steel wheels are about 5 feet tall.  It takes about two hours of burning before the engine is ready to go.

This shows the back of the tractor and some of the gears - there is one “gear” - forward and back. This is in the way back of his shop and to get there, is like traveling through a tractor graveyard, with all kinds of other tractors in various states of repair/restoration - it’s got the feeling of an old blacksmith’s shop.  I’m sure there are other places like this (at least I hope so) but they are getting rarer by the day.

one year ago…

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 had previously outrigged the weed whip with a head that was a chain, so it really cut tough weeds and nascent mulberries, and lasted a long time - over a year by now.  It finally needed to be replaced and so I tried to turn the screw that kept it in place and it wouldn’t budge, even with penetrating oil and some time (as it is getting dark and no work is getting done).

Finally, the head breaks off the screw, so more extreme measures are needed.

Between a bench vice and a vice-grips, I was able to get the shaft of the screw out and replace the head.  The replacement head had a better design, which didn’t rely on a single screw to come out, but used the whole cutter head assembly to tighten onto the shaft. I guess the good news was I had a replacement head on time, but it was still not until after dark that the repair was made.  But at least it is ready to go for another day.

one year ago…

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 few weeds grew and no need to mow the brown grass.

The first order of business was to take care of a leaking tractor tire. When I bought the tractor it had one new tire and an old one. The old tire finally started leaking a few weeks before vacation, and required frequent filling. It also had the fluid in to give the tractor weight and not freeze in the winter - that was hard on the rim (rust) and I don’t really need that extra weight - so I called the on-farm tire service - they came and sucked out the fluid and replaced the tire. It sure beat trying to jack up the tractor, remove the lug nuts, get the wheel off…

one year ago…

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 might not immediately be known.  The good folks at Morning Sun farm alerted me to this mower, and I was able to get it from a retired John Deere guy who now spends his time buying and selling equipment.

It’s a lot heavier than it looks - it sure was nice to have the 2510 and loader to lift it straight up out of the pickup and onto the ground.

one year ago…

Here’s this week’s Thingamajig Thursday entry.

Also check out the last thingamajig answer - (I missed last Thursday - forgot, or something like that, when I was at SXSW).

Move mouse over this sentence to pop-up answer.

As always, put your guess in a comment below.

one year ago…