kubota tractor

Spring is here

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I managed to get the first wave of weed spraying completed on Friday. I have done every fence line but the one down by the schoolhouse. Now we wait 7-12 days to see what happens. It is the only real downside to using Roundup, there is no instant gratification when you drive by a few hours later. I was able to get done by 1400 and it didn’t start to rain until after midnight. In a week or two I will need to set the sprayer up to start laying down 2-4-D and Milestone to get ahead of the thistles. We have been battling various types of thistle since we returned. There are four different kinds of thistle present on our property.

Saturday first thing I helped unload concrete from the progeny’s house. My contribution was driving the tractors! I got both tractors and as I dumped one the Gingerman loaded the other one. It was pretty quick to unload six buckets of concrete. I have been using it to stabilize the embankment. After those two horrible floods our bank got seriously eroded. We just built the dirt back over the culvert and now something was needed to keep it in place. So I have been systematically alternating dumping on each side to widen the coverage along the embankment. It doesn’t look the best but it is a lot safer now crossing in that area. It was getting too soft to cross with the pickup. Now I would feel confident that the pickup would not just slide down the embankment. It is deep and steep enough that getting the pickup out uninjured might not be possible.

We are still feeding the cows. They are supposed to have babies in April so as they transition over to green grass I want to keep them full of nutrients. The sheep are going up and eating the grass every day. They put themselves up in the barn every night. If the weather is nice they sit right outside the barn on the small hill. This makes it very easy for us as we don’t have to do anything with them now. I will need to go out and count lambs again eventually before we move them anywhere.

It is just past the middle of March and the trees are starting to bloom, one is an apricot and the other is a peach I think. I was out adding gravel and fresh compost to the blueberry bins. Annmarie tested the sheep compost piles for me this weekend to see if I can use them for filler. Nope, they are smoking hot and filled with a bunch of nitrogen. So much that not a single weed will grow on the piles. I am going to have to get the manure spreader up and running so I can spread it out this year and not pay for fertilizer. Fertilizer is very expensive currently. I did order diesel for the farm but it’s over $5.75/gallon at the pump currently so I have no idea what it will cost. I figured I just better get it done now and when it needs it in August/September again maybe the price will be lower. I have to have the 150 gallon tank filled twice annually. It is only used for the two tractors.

I took a couple of hours on Friday and Saturday to work on the rock wall. I am starting to make progress and want to get it done so we can start planting bulbs on the left side and getting ready to place the new small metal fence on top of the wall. I am finally starting to see a difference. It took a lot of work to get there. My exercise plan is working!

Greenhouse project started

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Friday was a solid day on the farm. Mr Rainman came out to help this weekend and we were able to work on the base of the greenhouse. This took about three hours to level and set. We filled the middle with gravel and there are four earth anchors screwed into the ground almost three feet. I tried to find bolts anywhere on the farm that were long enough to go through the anchor and into the frame. No go, I had to run to town to get four eight inch 1/2” bolts with washer and nut cost $6/each! We were going to turn the greenhouse more toward the South but due to trying to protect the door from wind we went with this orientation. The greenhouse door will be on the old house side of this foundation. It was time to get the greenhouse up as we have had it in a box for several years.

Once we had that base done, we started to haul dirt to cover the culvert crossing. The dirt has been flushed away several years ago and I had not corrected it yet. So we hauled over a few yards of dirt and flattened it out with the tractors. This should make the crossing much easier now.

Mr Rainman drove out a large bale of hay out to the momma cows. We still have the last calves in the orchard. They still hide as far from us as they can in the orchard. They do walk around even if we are outside but they are still crazy.

I decided to work on the tractor gun mount. Mr Rainman pointed out that the tractor had two bolts on the roll bar and I could just bolt the support up instead of welding it to the bucket arms. It was going to be in the way visually if I mounted it to bucket arms. It was a great idea so I went with it. I cut the channel iron to the correct length, then proceeded to clean up the metal with a grinder.

As I was grinding on the rifle rack my wire wheel kicked back and sucked up my pants! I let off the trigger as soon as I realized it but the damage was done to my pants. I ended up with a couple of small superficial scratches from the wheel. Pretty good.

I painted it, then mounted eyebolts on the ends. I figured I am always trying to hang more stuff off the tractor since I don’t have a tool box that is very big and the eye hooks will let me hang a bag or just clip stuff onto the rack. I mounted the locking arms and then tried to bolt it onto the tractor. I was off by 1/4” on one of my holes and had to scoot the hole over. This is much harder in a piece of steel than it is in wood! I got it all done and now just need to use a piece of closed cell foam cut to the barrel shape to keep the front of the rifle from bouncing around. I ordered non lubricated condoms so I can cover the barrel opening with a condom and a rubber band. I am ready for predators now! I might have to put in some practice since I only get one shot! I wanted minimal parts and movement that could get mucked up from all of the dust, dirt and rain.

We had some friends bring out 16 laying hens. They are getting out of the chicken raising gig. I had to go out after dark, find them and toss them all into the chicken coop. They were all roosting outside the coop on the fence by the old house. Chickens are not that bright. The nice thing is their chickens are used to people and being handled so they are super tame compared to mine. I hope this does not make them easier food for the predators. We now have 24 hens.

Working cows is fun…

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Well, our second batch of cows needed to be sorted off so they could go to butcher. The plan was for me to sort them out Tuesday after work so they could be picked up first thing Wednesday morning. I was busy at work and did not get back to the house until 1600, still plenty of time to get the calves in and sorted before it got dark. As an added bonus all seven cows were in the pasture directly above the house. I just went up and shut the gate and locked them into the pasture. I then went and opened up the gate in the middle of the fence by the creek so they could run through the creek into the next pasture and then I could just push them around to the corral, simple.

Having chased the cows around on the upper hillside before with Mr Rainman I decided I needed to bring the border collie, Chance with me so I did not have to walk up and down the hill. Within 30 minutes I had no voice, I was screaming, not relaxed, tired and pissed off at the psychotic cows who kept running past the open gate. Annmarie was supposed to go to a Shrove Tuesday (Fat Tuesday) celebration but instead had to come out and help me with the cows. After hollering at the wife, apologizing and going to open the gate I had calmed down enough. The next plan was to allow the cows to go out the gate they wanted and then push them into the orchard field. By this time it is starting to get dark. The cows knew this is what we wanted to so they ran all the way down to the schoolhouse and then proceeded to keep running in circles from the bottom of the field to the top, over and over again! We only had one headlamp and all of the gates going down into the creek were shut so after running around in circles for a while Annmarie had me go check on the “open” gate. It was wired shut. I opened it and then we had the dog chase the cows down into the creek. We could hear them but not see them. So we walked up each side of the creek and sent the dog ahead to push the cows into the corral. On the way to the corral Annmarie asked me if we had all of the cows. Of course we did, even though we could not see them. By the time I got them locked up in the corral and counted them there were only three cows! It was dark and already 1900 so Annmarie went and got chicken strips for dinner while I finished with the cows in the corral.

We ate dinner, we were cold and tired and Annmarie wanted me to call the butcher and tell them there were two cows in the corral. I finished dinner and then proceeded to get the tractor and drive down to the schoolhouse. I was done chasing the cows around on foot. I did find the four cows, all the way down by the schoolhouse, three went the correct way and four went the wrong way in the dark and we could not see them.

I proceeded to spend an hour chasing them with the tractor until they went into the corral. Once in the corral I sorted them by headlamp. It was slow but I was making good progress until three decided to just run around the pen and not go down the chute. I went into the corner as they had “trapped” themselves into the corner and I had to push them out. The pretty dark brown calf from last year jumped sideways and caught me just above the knee in the leg. I spotted a 2×4 in the corner from the last time we sorted cows and I used it to persuade the calf to go into the chute. I was not brutal but I was limping as I persuaded the calf to go in the correct direction. I ended up with the four for slaughter in the corral and the three 8 month olds in the side pen. I was done chasing them. I let them out into the barn lot with the horse and tossed out hay for them in multiple places so the horse could not guard them all. I was done chasing cows.

I did warn the people coming the next day to be careful and vigilant as they did not want any of those cows getting away from them or they would not be able to catch them. We will be keeping the three young calves in the barn lot this year! I am done with crazy and wild cows. They are now hanging in an industrial fridge aging.

Winter is here sorta

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Every year I transplant a bunch of houseplants as gifts for the staff at work. I have taken over the breeze porch as my indoor garden area. I share the space with the dog kennels which actually works well for me as I have covered the roofs of all of the kennels with plywood to make more space to put out plants! I have been cloning my basic plants for a few years so I have decided to branch out and start to grow a more diverse selection. To that end I have started to buy seeds online and have been trying to get them started. I am using a heat mat and now I have a grow light and I am still having trouble. I bought some mini greenhouse and that has netted me two plants. So far I have managed to grow four plants from seed. The tallest plants are three inches and fairly spindly. The smallest one is the size of a pea. This is a problem for me as I have taken it on as a challenge. I am up there every couple of days now nurturing them. I usually just water 1-2 times a week under normal circumstances. The wife got me a new DeWalt shelf system for Christmas, the kind of present where I ordered it and it arrives after Christmas. So I will now have two four foot wide by four feet tall three high shelf system on each side of the door. This is good as my other shelf has 50% of it covered in planting paraphernalia. I may need a four foot wide grow light for the new one but I am going to hold off and see what I can do with my little grow light.

I have almost 15 plants started for the next year. I am trying some plants that require a frequent amount of water to grow. I am putting water absorbing crystals into the soil in an attempt to get the plant to have a continuous source of water and not my normal up and down watering quantity. I also got a better quality soil and have been mixing my own batches for the type of plant I am growing. My goal is to have 35 plants ready to go in a year. I have freed a variety of Jade plant that I have had for years and just recently discovered that it was a Jade plant. So now I will be trying to get it to grow another foot tall in the next couple of years. I don’t actually know what I am doing, I just keep trying different things until something works.

Our daughter and paramour got us the perfect farm gift for Christmas, they got us a cast iron boot scraper! I put it out in the yard near the back gate so we can scrape our boots off before we go into the gravel area of the back garden. So far we have not had a chance to use it as it is now freezing most of the time but its potential usefulness cannot be diminished by its lack of participation. We have great hopes for the future.

The cows are now needing fed about every ten days. The second feeder we brought home from the neighbors is a little small for a full big bale to drop in. Mr Rainman broke open a big bale last time and forked it into the feeder with the tractor. I decided to one up man ship him and opted to try and get the bale into the feeder from the top. The problem is the bale is at the top weight capacity of the Kubota tractor. I got the bale directly next to the feeder head on and then dropped the three point box of horseshoes onto the ground then I started to make the front end lift of the tractor to bounce. Every time the weight bounced upwards I got the bale a few inches higher. I kept doing this until I was level with the top of the feeder and was able to dump it inside the old feeder. I had three of the tractor tires on the ground by the time I dumped the bale. If the bale had weighed another 20# I don’t believe I could have done it for fear of tipping the tractor forward. I made sure to take a picture so that prowess with the little Kubota could be immortalized.

Annmarie had me go out and swap out bee food. We are feeding concentrated sugar syrup to supplement the honey. We would like to harvest a bunch of honey in the spring. It was warm enough for the bees to move around and even fly out of the hive box. They are still pretty dang calm when it is this cold outside.

The table saw is now covered on the old house back porch and is ready to ride out the winter weather. I have covered the grain cracker on the end of the porch with the same tarp. I still need to crack more grain. I have been saying this for the last six weeks but Monday night I used up the very last bit of cracked grain and will need to fill the feeders in a couple of days, my procrastination days are about to end.

I have been looking at various spray on insulation foams for the inside of the old house. I am only going to spray it on two walls in the old house for my craft room. What I really need to do is find an old external door with intact seals and a frame to install inside and on the back door. I don’t want to spend a fortune on doors and I need two to finish this space. But I am not installing door or windows until I lift the room up a couple more inches on the outer wall.

Sunchokes for the win

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On Sunday Mr Rainman came out again. We are now starting at 0900 so it is a little warmer when we are working. It was quite pleasant, I was able to work with just a long sleeve shirt and a wool cap on my head. There were still a few get ready for winter items to clear up before we could work on the garden and lavender. The plan on Saturday afternoon was to work on the lavender. It needs trimmed up again. But the longer I worked on the berm the more time I had time to think and prioritize. So we went out to the barn first thing and finished setting up all of the chutes and feeders. They were still outside and in the hay rooms from when it was dug out. There are no sheep on the property but we will have to bring them back in three weeks and then they will need to be sorted so I can take some to the livestock auction. We also tossed out food into all of the feeders and then tossed out bedding. The barn is all ready for the sheep. There are a couple of overhead lights that do not work, the ones in the hay rooms being the most needed. The damn raccoons have torn some of the wires out by crawling up and down the walls. I need to put in more zip ties and anchors that I screw into the walls so the wires cannot be pulled. I am not running conduit for those 12v wires. I will add that to my list but honestly it will not happen until I get the raspberries, blackberries and trees all trimmed up. I need about another month for all the leaves to finish falling off of everything before I can do the trimming.

We then filled the feeders for the pregnant cows and the two feeders for the feeder cows down below. We used all of the round bales from the second cutting at the neighbor’s. There were still a couple of moist ones but there was no mold and none of the bales were warm/hot. We managed to get the truly wet ones fed out immediately and the cows just ate them. So in a couple of weeks I will have to actually feed out some of the large bales of hay we purchased. I am super happy that we are not having to touch the purchased hay until mid December. That bodes well for maybe not having to purchase any hay next year for winter.

We now Winter is near when the quail start moving down towards the houses. We feed them during the winter and there are more buildings/shelter down near the houses for them to wait out the bad storms. So there is a large covey hanging around that we see every day. They are super noisy! You can always hear them usually before you can see them.

Once we had all of that done we had to see how our Sunchokes did. I planted them for the first time this summer. I planted about 30 small tubers. The plants got almost twelve feet tall and the sunflower bloomed very late. It was the very last flower we had available for the bees. I am not sure if it was due to the time I planted the tubers or if they are naturally late bloomers. I am unsure but we will know next year. Mr Rainman and I started to dig up the tubers after cutting off the dead stalks. I had read that you needed to be careful with sunchokes as they can turn into a weed and can be very invasive. Wow! We dug up almost 80# of tubers from a single 15 feet row of tubers. I planted one tuber about every six inches initially. It was crazy! We just kept pulling them out of the ground. There was no way we got all of them when we were digging despite going over the area several times. All of the wield small or shovel cut tubers ended up being the ones we replanted into the same row. I sent a three gallon bucket home with Mr Rainman and we put the rest in the root cellar. I did plant a row in the yard near the newly installed side fence. I want to plant a six by six foot patch on the other side of the fence gate but I was running out of steam. I will do that in the spring. I will need to put in a couple of posts and some wire to hold up the tall stalks so they don’t fall onto the house. Annmarie and I have not eaten any of the Sunchokes yet. The plan is this next week to peel and boil a batch and see how they taste. If we like them then we will probably plant some more. I have read online where people mix them in with potatoes to add texture and a nutty flavor to their mashed potatoes.

Once Mr Rainman left I took the Kubota tractor out to work on the culvert crossing in field #4b. The spring ditch is so deep now that you can no longer drive a tractor across it. The back half of the culvert was torn out in the last flood. The reason it got torn out was I did not install a rock wall face on that side. It was one of those things I was going to come back and finish later. The side that had the rock face survived the flood but the other side did not. It took a lot more dirt than I thought it would to get the back half built up. I did bring in two loads of very large rocks to place near the culvert. I need about eight more loads to complete that entire side but my chest was not going to allow it. The nice thing about the weekend was it was the first one in ages where I was able to work the entire weekend without stopping early to rest. Things are improving.