Farmcation 2012

[Mr. Whippy]

I am 3/4 of the way through 2 weeks vacation.    I'm spending the time on the farm working on projects that have needed to be done.  Plus, there were a few new projects that came up.

First up was mowing ALL the lawn and weedwhacking the the fencelines and buildings.  In the process, I needed to fix the mower  but all is well now.  Next up, the old tractor needed the radiator cap (and bottom hose) replaced. 



Next up was cleaning up the storm damage from the fall, and cleaning up old fencing.  That is the beauty of the polesaw.  Everything trimmed up meant renting the 15 inch chipper powered by a Cummins turbo diesel (88 HP).  Saturday and 1/2 of Sunday were spent chipping the daylights out of stuff.

Here's just one of five piles of chips:


However, Sunday morning was spent competing as Team Rocking Horse at the Father's Day 5k race with the kids.  I turned in a respectable 24:09, not bad after a Saturday of chipping. 

The Sunday finished with Maryland Surf n Turf: Crabs and Ribs

More to follow:

[Grant Lamontagne]

I wold have been more impressed if you'd chipped all that wood with a SwissTool, but I suppose anything with a Cummins can't be a bad thing! 

I look forward to reading the rest! 

Def

[Logrus9]

Is that big green thing in the left of the picture the chipper? 

[ducttapetech]

Looks like a John Deere Planter.

[J-sews]

You rented a chipper?! Dang, give a guy a little heads up next time please! I've got a couple bodies here I need to dispose of.

[Mike, Lord of the Spammers!]

Is that a bicycle I spy behind that tree by the chippings?

[Mr. Whippy]

Looks like a John Deere Planter.

Frontier Seed Drill, yes.

You rented a chipper?! Dang, give a guy a little heads up next time please! I've got a couple bodies here I need to dispose of.

Don't worry Bob, just bring 'em.  I work in a pathology lab.  We can dispose of parts, no problem.

Is that a bicycle I spy behind that tree by the chippings?

Yes.  I don't know how old it is, but it IS an old single speed, coaster brake.

[Gareth]

Looks like a John Deere Planter.

Frontier Seed Drill, yes.

You rented a chipper?! Dang, give a guy a little heads up next time please! I've got a couple bodies here I need to dispose of.

Don't worry Bob, just bring 'em.  I work in a pathology lab.  We can dispose of parts, no problem.

Is that a bicycle I spy behind that tree by the chippings?

Yes.  I don't know how old it is, but it IS an old single speed, coaster brake.

Enjoy the rest of your holiday mate and don't work too hard.

[Mr. Whippy]

Part of the materials to be chipped included a couple hundred feet of fencing that had to be removed.  Here's the area after the fencing has been remvoed.  Basically, it ran along the ridge and down to the arena.



So, the next project involved cleaning out an outbuilding that had been used for storing leftover lumber from projects over the last 20 years. 

Good lumber was kept, but warped, partially rotted or odd dimensioned went to the pile for the dump:



It ended up being 3 truck loads like this:



During the clean out, our manure spreader returned from being repaired, but it came back with a flat tire.  .  A bit of time and $40, and the tire was back ready to go on the manure spreader:


On the plus side, the County seed drill became available MUCH faster than we thought and so  we picked it up.  The Bosslady spend a little over a day re-seeding the fields with a mixture of orchard grass and Kentucky bluegrass.



We did have a lost day however.  My son called to say "The car's been stolen."  I asked if it had been towed.  He said, "No, I checked online."

The Bosslady did a little calling and found out it had been towed after all (a major revenue source in DC), and 4 hours and $300 later, we had the car back home. 


Finale to follow

[Bensasupertool]

Nice Ford Tractor. Whats the Model #.  There a dying breed in this county. This is the last in our town. Sheffer Farms Ford 7610

[Mr. Whippy]

Nice Ford Tractor. Whats the Model #.  There a dying breed in this county. This is the last in our town. Sheffer Farms Ford 7610

Awesome!  We have its little brother, a Ford 5600.  The tractor in the picture is a Workmaster 55.  Great tractor.

[Bensasupertool]

 5600 is a good oldie. always some old 5000 series at county fairs as show peices all done up.sort of a shame. its good to see them anywhere roaming the fields. Good luck luck with the rest of your farmcation.

[J-sews]

Part of the materials to be chipped included a couple hundred feet of fencing that had to be removed.  Here's the area after the fencing has been remvoed.  Basically, it ran along the ridge and down to the arena.

(Image removed from quote.)

HEY! I've got the "before" photo for that one!

[Mr. Whippy]

So let's recap:

Lots of lawn mowing, polesawing, chipping, crab eating, seed drilling, outbuilding cleanout, and vehicle bailout.

There were a few vehicle repairs that needed doing: Rear brake master cylinder on the 996, a couple oil changes and a flat tire on the little dirt bike.

Of course, I got a lot of gardening time in.  Nature came through and gave us a little show last night.  In a 2 hour period, we received a LOT of rain:





Our little creek became a riverlet, with a couple new "islands":




Here's the same area this morning:




Today, is jump building day.  Power tools all day!  Should be fun.

[Mr. Whippy]

Part of the materials to be chipped included a couple hundred feet of fencing that had to be removed.  Here's the area after the fencing has been remvoed.  Basically, it ran along the ridge and down to the arena.

(Image removed from quote.)

HEY! I've got the "before" photo for that one!



(Image removed from quote.)

Nice going Bob!