Picking rocks

Yesterday was a beautiful day.  One I would have much rather spent pruning roses or planting garlic instead of picking up rocks in one of the fields that we farm!  But.....if we did have to pick rocks, it was so nice to have pleasant weather in which to work!

Usually when we are picking rocks, it's in July and it's hot and dusty and just plain dreadful!  Yesterday wasn't so bad and we were both happy to check something off our list.

The rocks we were picking up yesterday were what we call caliche (klee'-chee).  David asked why there were rocks in the field.  One reason there are rocks in the fields in our area is because of the Great Missoula Flood.  Another reason is the formation of caliche.

David's question made me wonder more about caliche, so thanks to the internet and google, I found out some interesting information on caliche!   I will leave it up to you, if you desire further information, to do your own search.  I only read the Wikipedia version, which made sense to me so I stopped there!

Anyway, as always, I have a few photos of our project from yesterday.  And can I just say, that I am almost too old for this kind of work!  The rocks, caliche or otherwise are going to have to be picked by a younger, stronger version of human.

So this is what we were looking at yesterday.

This rock is relatively light, and very crumbly, so it wasn't necessary to pick up every last crumb, just the big chunks.

Some of the slabs were still partially buried, which made it a little more work to get them out.

This is a fairly representative sample of what we were throwing on to the bucket of Kenny.

Kenny was fully loaded and on his way back to unload in to the truck.

Scotty is our faithful rock hauling truck!

Dumping the load in to Scotty.

This is two loads emptied in to the back of Scotty.

And here's Scotty at the end of the day, and the end of our energy level!  A productive day on the farm!

Wandering Tank repair

Remember that black water tank that decided to take a trip this winter?  It left home from behind the shop and ended up in first one field and then another?

Well, all that rolling around caused some damage that needed to be repaired before we could once again fill it with water and use it this spring.

I took a few photos of the repair work.  But, before I got myself over to the shop to help, I was distracted by spring!

It was such a lovely day, that I moved these few plants outside so that they could get used to being out.  The four little oak trees came from acorns I collected last fall in Boston!

My cousin started these rose plants from cuttings that she took last spring.  I have planted several already. These guys are waiting for a little warmer weather to find a permanent home.

Daffodils with swollen buds!

And crocus blooming happily in the sun.  

So, here's the wandering tank, back at home, but full of dirt from traveling! We tipped it up so that we could rinse it out.

This is a piece of the broken fill valve.

Reynald is surveying and evaluating what to do next.

Remove the damaged piece,

And put the new one on....

Now attach the fill valve.

Rinse out the tank and everything is as good as new!

A few days ago one of my farm projects was to change the tips on the Flexicoil sprayer.  These tips are some kind of new, low drift, technology.  They were kind of expensive, and honestly, I can't see much, if any difference between these and the old ones.  But, someone thinks they are a good idea, so we are trying them.

Here's Indy hooked up to the 114 foot Flexicoil sprayer.

These are the tips that I replaced.

A much easier process than in the "old days".  Now you just twist them on.

This is a pretty cool invention.  There are actually three different tips on this one manifold.  If you want to change the rate of product that you are applying, you can just twist the manifold and get a different size tip!

There were 67 tips to change out!

Here's Bertha, ready to go to work! 

And look!  She has a new Honda engine and water pump!

And the best thing is, this electric start!  The old engine and pump gave us a good long run.  It had a rope pull, which, for the last two years, was rather finicky!  

We also did a little repair work on the harrow.  Last year we bought and installed these new drag harrows.  There's a bit of a design flaw on how they are attached to the main harrow. so we decided to fix it before it's time to use it in a few short days.

The fix required the tonner and the welder and someone that knew how to use it!

So here's the design flaw.  If you can make out the hook that has a clevis attached.  Then on the hook there is a floppy piece of metal that was supposed to seal off the hook and not allow the clevis from bounding off the hook.  Seemed like a good idea, but it didn't work.

Last year I spent almost as much time re-attaching the drag harrow, as I did harrowing!  So, here's the fix.  You can see that I am holding a thin piece of metal with the pliers and Reynald is getting ready to tack weld that piece of metal in the opening of the hook.  

Here is is finished!  I shouldn't have any trouble this year, with that clevis hopping out of the hook!

Reynald insisted that I take a photo while he was welding!  Looks kind of ominous!  

It's too early for it to be this nice, but we're taking advantage of the gloriously warm days and brightly shining sun, while it's here!  It feels so good to be outside in the fresh air.

Still working...

on the drill project!  At least we are starting to put things back together again.  Spring is sneaking up on us, and more pressing projects are presenting themselves, so we may not finish the drills before we have to turn our attention to spring work, but we're going to get as much done as we can.

So, here's one of my projects for today.

Working on this darling project that involves wool, and pumpkins!  Two of my favorite things!

I'm almost finished with sewing the pumpkins to the black background.  I plan to make this in to a pillow.

And here's another one!

One of my other jobs today was to assemble these pieces in to "straw pickers".

This is the finished "picker" part.

This is what they will look like fully assembled on the shaft.

Another view.  These came off the drills that we bought from Gregory, and will go back on the set that we are currently working on.....eventually!

You may remember the photos of taking the packer wheels apart.  These images will be very similar as they go back together!  This is just the beginning of re-assembly.

Packer wheels going back on the shaft!

They actually slide along on this shaft fairly easily, once you get them started.

"Fairly easily?" he says?!?

Figuring out the exact spacing is a bit of a mathematical challenge.  Reynald has this figured down to the 1/8th inch.

These are some of the pieces that make the spacing precise.

This is the metal band saw that we use to cut the square tubing spacing pieces.  This faithful saw is about 25 years old.  When we bought it, we never thought it would last this long!

This is a closer look at the square tubing and the blade that cuts the metal.

Spacing piece on the shaft.

There are four of these bearings on each shaft.  They are a sealed bearing so never have to be greased!  YAY for no greasing!

Reynald is always a happy worker!

The bare frame, waiting patiently for a set of freshly spaced packer wheels.

It's kind of hard to tell in this photo, but every thing lines up very nicely.  Imagine that!

Every now and then you have to bring out the heavy artillery!