Welcome to the farm!

Hi,

All these images off the John Deere website, where you can have loads of fun configuring your own.

JD 9R 490

That is a small version of a large machine by current standards.

They get larger

9R 640

And even larger: 9RX 830. The X meaning tracks rather than wheels. Need more grip for all that HP.

The three digits at the end are the horsepower.

Mine would be called a 6D 100 using the current numbering scheme. Cost would be in the $90k range. That tracked one is around $800,000.

Stan

Amateur Photographer
Professional Electronics Development Engineer

Hi,

So Spring is here. Time to get back to work. I will post some shots as we go. Growing gourds is the name of the game here. Most of this is done by hand, but there are some jobs for machines.

First off would be breaking ground for the rows. Gourds have long vines, and the larger the variety, the longer the vine. So the rows are as much as 30 feet apart. To break ground, use a Moldboard Plow:

In between rows, cut up whatever is on the surface with a Disc Harrow:

Then pulverise what the mold board plow ripped up with a powered Rototiller:

Finally, rip down deep within a row with a SubSoiler. This goes in 2 feet down and cuts thru the hard pan to allow water to drain down deep:

The mold board plow and rototiller were used in the fall as was as the disc. More discing here in the Spring.

More to come.

Stan

Amateur Photographer
Professional Electronics Development Engineer

Hi

And what the end result looks like:

This was disced twice then raked to bust up dirt clumps.

The next shot is down a row.

You can see the slit from the subsoiler.

Stan

Amateur Photographer
Professional Electronics Development Engineer

Hi,

The first of the gourds have sprouted. These are indoor and on a heat mat under grow lights from 7 am to 7 pm.

Next they move to the greenhouse for a while before the field.

This got new roof panels last week. They are of a corrugated plastic. They last about 6 years and then you have to make new ones. Or buy another greenhouse kit to swipe the panels from. No one sells replacement panels for these. Kits come with cut panels. Replacement material comes in 4x8 foot sheets and you get to cut them yourself. Helps to have a machine shop and a shear.

Further updates as events warrant.

Stan

Hi

Oh, and today the new-to-me big tractor and my existing 8 foot smooth-cut flail mower got used together for the very first time. I cut the scruffy grass mixed with onions out front. About 4 acres worth. I now have a 110 HP lawn mower with an 8 speed powershfft transmission which can run from 1.5 to 19 MPH. I was mowing from 4 to 6 MPH.

Stan

Hi,

What I am going to do is follow the first group of gourd plants thru the year and not entire crop.

Here they are in the greenhouse. They move into the Gourd Patch (field) next week. We have a, hopefully final, frost possibility. Monday night. Once it warms back up, in they go.

Stan

Amateur Photographer
Professional Electronics Development Engineer

Hi,

The next step is to put some compost down onto the row. Prior to that, I tilled in the cover crop of rye grass and clover. That lowers the hill down and makes it easy to shovel the compost right down the center.

The cover crop adds nitrogen and the compost organic material (aka carbon) to the dirt. If you look to the left, you can see row number two with the cover crop still there. These rows are where the gourd plant main roots will be.

The step after this is to rototill again to mix the compost in and then re-hill.

Stan

Amateur Photographer
Professional Electronics Development Engineer

Hi,

The tractor used today is the 45 HP Utility Tractor. It has the larger of the two front end loaders I have here. Takes two bucket loads to do one 200 foot long row.

Used to be this machine did all of the jobs around here until I grew tired of constantly changing what was on the back end for every task. Now we have additional machines as I retire from the electronics business and expand what goes on around this farm. For example, from 5 to 11 gourd rows.

Plus, my wife likes to help out on a tractor, farm girl that she is. But her left leg is bad enough now where her using a clutch pedal can be an issue. So, a 25 HP Compact Tractor for her with a hydrostatic transmission (vs the gear transmission in the utility Tractor. She even gets her own front end loader which is good for about half the capacity. But enough to get by with.

So this smaller machine gets to keep the 5 foot rototiller on. This way, we can till every few days without having to drop it off for a different implement all the time.

Stan

Hi

I probably couldn't imagine doing farming in retirement, either. Not after being professionally into electronics even before graduation from High Scbool. However, our family business growing up was a farm equipment dealership. My one uncle owned it, my other uncle was the salesman, and my dad was the machinist.

Plus, the shop was literally across the road from the school. So, after school, I changed clothes and worked on something which had been traded in. That meant I got to know all the farmers, and that meant being able to hire out for jobs here and there all the while I was in school. There was the boon in that I knew the mechanics of all the equipment.

Not something I wanted to do for a living, but a whole lot of that stuff rubbed off on me, besides the dust and fertilizer. :P

We bought this little piece of farmland back in 2004. First thing: put in a garden. Second thing: put in a fence around the garden! Then I wanted to make a little hay. I always liked haying more than any other farm job. Mostly due to the smell of drying grass.

And then Mrs. Arts and Crafte here wanted to plant a few gourd seeds. So, one Saturday when she was off to a gourd group meeting, I stuck the one-bottom moldboard plow on and started here and went to there. That looked pretty good. A measly 200 feet long. But now I am at the far end, so I moved over 30 feet and plowed back the other way. Then, I switched to the rototiller and beat the dirt and sod into submission.

She got home and was floored. Big. Long. Rows. And two of them! She said: "I am gonna need more seeds!".

Anyway, two became three, then four, and then five. I fenced it in. Then we sprouted a weed problem. My answer: Make five more rows then plant those and not the original five. Alternate years. The fallow side got continual weed hacking when I had time to deal with them. Now I have a better weed management system since I have more time to dedicate to it. So down with the in-between fence and make an 11th row.

And, then, of course she needed her own tractor. And, I decided I needed what I had used as a teenager. My second childhood. Not a car, but a tractor larger than I really ever would need.

Stan