Tractor tag team

Posted on February 9, 2015 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

We had a snow day last Monday. A free day. Such a luxury.

Another luxury? Not having to shovel our own snow.

Wiley has his snowblower, but he wasn’t feelin’ it last week. Fortunately, on days when we get a big snowfall our farmer usually comes by to plow us out.

Now I love our little tractor, but I’ve learned that I have an appreciation for true heavy equipment. Any time our farmer comes by is an opportunity to admire a new tractor. On our snow day, it was a huge double-bladed grader.

This thing made quick work of the snow. Quick that is until it tried the bend at the end of the turnaround.

The curve is deceptively tight and there was an icy layer under the snow. The grader ended up stuck. (No tractors or hydro poles were harmed in the plowing of this driveway).

No worries though. This was just an opportunity to admire another tractor. Mr. Front End Loader pushed Mr. Double-Bladed Grader back into alignment, and then FEL finished off the driveway for us.

As of yesterday morning, Wiley is running again. He tidied up the top of the driveway and then pushed back the snowbanks at the bottom of the driveway. We’re all set for the next snow day. There’s another coming, right?

Have you had a snow day yet? How do you handle shoveling at your house?

#ALSIceBucketChallenge country style

Posted on August 28, 2014 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

Matt was challenged by one of his co-workers to be part of the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge.

Of course, we put a country spin on our interpretation of the challenge.

I think this is a great campaign for a really good cause. We will be making a donation to ALS as well.

Have you taken the challenge yet? Share a link to your video in the comments.

Service call

Posted on July 14, 2014 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

Wiley has come of age. Our little Kioti tractor had his 50 hour service. Sniff.

Now, lest you think this is a how-to-do-a-50-hour-service-on-a-Kioti-CS2410-post, let me correct you.

We dropped off the tractor manual with my extremely obliging, mechanically-inclined cousin. He studied it for a few days and provided us with a list of materials to buy.

Matt spent nearly $200 on fluids and filters at the tractor dealership.

Then, my cousin and Dad came up and did the service while Matt, Baxter and I watched.

Well, we helped a little bit.

Matt blew the dead grass and dust off the engine screen with my cousin’s air compressor. My Dad and I greased all of the fittings. Matt was responsible for detaching the grease gun when the nozzle got stuck on the first fitting.

Then Matt and my Dad cleaned the battery terminals with baking soda. Another use for baking soda. Who knew? (My Dad, that’s who).

Our little tractor is two years old. We probably should have done an oil change by now, but we were waiting for the 50-hour milestone as instructed by the dealership. Most people would have gotten there sooner than we did, but we apparently don’t use the tractor that much.

However, after making multiple comments about how black the oil was, my Dad has now guilted me into taking better care of my equipment.

Besides, my cousin volunteered to come up and do it for us any time. He even took our push mower home with him and got it running again (yeah, we’re not at all mechanically inclined and we pretty much abuse our equipment).

Who out there is mechanically inclined? Did you know you could clean a battery with baking soda? Anyone else have a handy obliging family members?

Self revelations

Posted on June 18, 2013 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

I can be a bit snobby sometimes. I’m somewhat prim.

So when a caricature artist showed up at the very fancy restaurant where my sister was having her wedding rehearsal dinner, ready to draw all of our portraits, I may have sniffed a bit disapprovingly.

Matt and I were up first. There was no way out. After all, it’s not proper to insult my sister or her soon-to-be mother-in-law.

The artist—a large man who looked a bit like Steven Seagal, with a long ponytail wearing a Samuel L. Jackson beret—asked us in a loud raspy voice to tell him about ourselves. Matt said, “Well, we live on a farm.”

And that’s all it took.

Perhaps it because the farm has become so central to my identity, and I love it so much. Perhaps it’s that Wiley was included in our family portrait. Perhaps it’s because Matt and I are obviously having really, really good hair days.

I love our caricature. The artist was amazing. He captured us well (although I absolutely do not have those cheekbones IRL, and I don’t recognize that chin that Matt’s sporting). He was very friendly and obviously very skilled at his craft.

This picture is being carefully protected until I find a frame and hang it in the basement. I think it fits in perfectly with the fun atmosphere I’m trying to create down there.

So lesson of the caricature: loosen up, have a little fun, be open to new experiences, don’t worry so much about what’s proper. In this simple caricature, I found a bit of extra happiness, both in the moment of the portrait and now whenever I look at it.

Thanks to my sister, her mother-in-law and our amazing artist, Cartoon Bob.

Manure manouvering

Posted on May 26, 2013 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

So how was your weekend? Mine was crappy–as in filled with manure.

We’d made some progress on the turnaround so far this spring, picking up the rocks and rubble and flattening out the piles of dirt. However, I wasn’t very confident in the quality of that dirt, so before I started to plant anything, I wanted to give it a boost of nutrition. Like any decent farm, ours came with that barnyard fixture, the manure pile, so we have lots of natural fertilizer.

The turnaround is the size of some people’s backyards, so a decent quantity of manure was required. Likewise, there’s a decent distance between the pile out behind the barn and the turnaround at the front of the house.

My Dad left his trailer here a few weeks ago, and with the help of Wiley and his front end loader–my skills are much improved over last year–I brought three full loads of manure up to the garden.

The manure isn’t smelly anymore, but the lesson of the weekend is that it can be a bit slippery. I had a couple of close calls standing in the trailer shoveling it off.

This probably wasn’t quite what my Dad had in mind for his trailer when he left it with us, but he’s a good sport. So good in fact that he brought his rototiller up to the farm and went back and forth over the turnaround mixing the manure into the soil. My Mom pitched in too spreading the soil around the edges and picking out the rocks–lots and lots of rocks.

Thanks to my parents, our tractor, the trailer and our convenient manure pile, the turnaround is now ready for planting, so I guess my weekend wasn’t that crappy after all. Pretty productive, in fact.

How was your weekend?

Odds and ends

Posted on March 11, 2013 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

Thanks everyone for all of the comments, likes and hits on last week’s posts about our one year farmiversary and blogiversary. I have lots of updates and projects on tap for year two. Today, some smaller updates all at once.

To start, some very exciting news:

Yes, the woodstove is finally sold. In the end, kijiji came through for us. My roadside sandwich board probably generated the most inquiries, but no one followed through. The saga is not over though. The guy who bought it didn’t want the chimney or the heat shields, so we still have those to get rid of. Will we ever be done with this woodstove and its associated parts?

A year into farm ownership, and we’ve finally had our first overnight guests. I won’t say the guestroom is fitted out particularly well, but we do have a bed. That it was set up mere hours before our first guests arrive is just SOP for us. Oh, and I did patch the hole in the wall from where we fished the internet wire. I didn’t paint it, but it’s patched.

Poor Wiley had to do a balancing act for a few days while we had his tire repaired.

You may recall he came up lame while plowing the driveway after our snow day. The tire was extremely flat–and folded and frozen. Matt’s Dad took care of the repair for us, and fortunately was able to just get a tube to go inside the tire. We reused the original tire and rim, which saved some money.

And in news unrelated to farm living or home renovating, I’ve started sewing another fancy dress. My youngest sister is getting married in two months, so that means I need another bridesmaid dress. If this one goes anything like last year’s, I may have another most-read post coming up.

In the course of writing this post, I’m realizing that what I originally thought are little accomplishments actually highlight tasks I still have to complete. For the year two to-do list, I need to add

Sell the rest of the woodstove parts
Fix up the guest room to be a little more hospitable
Finish sewing my bridesmaid dress

Well, at least Wiley’s good to go… although I’m not sure how proficient he is with a needle.

The party after the storm

Posted on February 12, 2013 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

The morning after the snow day dawned bright and sunny and mild–perfect for our winter party. Outdoor activities were the plan for the day, and we were well set with the weather… if only people could make it up to the house.

First on the list was to clear the driveway so that it was passable for a car.

Matt went to work with the tractor, while I dug out the walkway and our cars with the shovel. A flat tire (beyond repair) presented some challenges, but Wiley managed to power through.

Second task of the day was to prepare the pond for skating. My plan had been to send everyone down to the ice with shovels, but, with the huge amount of snow that had fallen, that probably wouldn’t have been the most fun. Thankfully my cousin had offered to help, and he showed up with another snow blower mid-morning and went to work clearing the pond for us.

By early afternoon we were all set, and a couple of hours later people started to arrive. Arrivals for the most part consisted of people opening the door, handing me the food they’d brought and then turning around to head out to the pond or the fields.

It was good that we’d cleared the ice, because nearly everyone had brought their skates–including my Dad with his vintage pair.

The rink was a huge hit, even considering the cracks that opened up around the shore. We’ve come to the conclusion that our pond does not like to freeze. The ice held Matt, my cousin, me, the snow blower–and later two small hockey teams. It was solid. However, a few fissures along the shoreline and the water that bubbled up between them resulted in some soakers when people went for out-of-bounds pucks. It made for a unique and memorable hockey game.

Away from the rink, a large group with two four-legged scouts headed out across the fields thanks to a bunch of snowshoes supplied by another cousin.

The final piece of equipment that arrived–albeit a little bit late–was another cousin’s snowmobile. (Yes, I have lots of cousins).

In addition to providing hours of entertainment, we also provided food and tours (for most people it was their first time at the farm) when they finally made it back to the house.

I have a fairly large extended family on my Dad’s side, and most of us still live fairly close. We don’t get together as regularly as we used to though, so it was nice to see everyone and catch up.

The morning after, hockey sticks, pucks, snow shovels and Matt’s GT in the snowbank in front of the driveshed are a reminder of the fun.

Wiley gets blinged out

Posted on December 4, 2012 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

Remember how I said Wiley likes to accessorize? Well, our little tractor is in heaven with a brand new bauble that arrived last week. And it’s a big one.

Subtle is not in Wiley’s vocabulary.

In case anyone doesn’t know what they’re looking at here, this is our new snowblower.

The sales rep from our tractor dealership goes for the first test drive (normally we will not be blowing 2 inches of snow)

Over the weekend, we got Wiley all set for winter, disconnecting the mower and hooking up the blower.

The mower deck has been scraped and scrubbed and tucked away for the season.

We even broke out our new grease gun and lubed up all of the fittings. Wiley’s affection for accessories became even clearer when he grabbed onto the grease gun and wouldn’t let go. After wiggling and jiggling and yanking Matt and I were starting to envision plowing snow with the gun dangling from the side of the tractor. However, through a combination of vice grips and pliers Matt was able to detach the gun from the fitting.

Sorry, Wiley, but sometimes less is more.

Growing free

Posted on November 1, 2012 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

When we had the nephews at the farm two weeks ago, the tall one and I went to work on task #10 on the fall to-do list: remove stakes from established trees and stake the new trees that we planted this spring. The first step was to unshackle the trees from the cuffs that were wrapped around them. Some were tied with rope, some had sections of garden hose, some had wire. All were snug. Some were strangling. It was quite an arboreal torture chamber we were running here.

No tree emerged unscathed. Some are simply scarred.

Others are permanently deformed.

We cut the wires and hoses and ropes out of the trees as best we could. Where we ran into trouble was the stakes. The nephew and I did fairly well on the first few trees rocking the stakes back and forth to loosen them up and then pulling them out in a coordinated effort. However, after he left and it was up to Matt and me, the rest of the stakes held strong.

We must have been missing the magic touch, because no matter how much we wiggled the stakes we couldn’t get them to budge.

In desperation, Matt went and got Wiley, and I found a rope. We tied the rope to the stake and attached the other end to Wiley’s loader. Then Matt raised the bucket, the rope snapped, and the stake stayed where it was.

I went and got a chain. We hooked everything together, and Matt raised the bucket again. And the front wheels of the tractor lifted off the ground.

We spent a while adjusting the chain, adjusting the tractor, tugging on the stake and only succeeded in bending it.

The conclusion I came to is that the stakes have been in the ground so long that the tree roots must have grown around the metal. I don’t think we’re going to get them out. Above ground, the trees are free. I can only hope they survive their ordeal and continue to grow. Matt, however, is a bit traumatized from his wheelie on the tractor, so we’re calling this job good enough for now. The rest of the stakes–removing them from the older trees and adding them to the new trees–can wait until spring.

I’m missing my front-end loader gene

Posted on September 11, 2012 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

You know when you see those large machines working away, effortlessly moving large piles of dirt, easily scooping massive rocks, bopping along over the roughest terrain? I’ve discovered there’s a lot of skill that goes into this mechanical ballet.

Skills I apparently don’t have.

Wiley’s been getting a workout over the last little while, cutting, hauling, scooping and carrying. He’s a great partner when it comes to managing the property. Me, however? I’m not such a good teammate.

My specific issue is with the front-end loader.

I just do not find the front-end loader intuitive.

I raise when I want to scoop, I dump when I want to raise. It’s all kinds of awkward.

Please ignore the long grass and the basketball net. Landscaping is next year’s project.

The front end loader is controlled by a joystick. Move it up to raise the bucket, down to lower the bucket. Move it to the left and the bucket curls up. Move it right and the bucket tips to dump.

Maybe it’s because I never played video games growing up, but I just can’t master the joystick. I’m forever moving it the wrong way and end up digging the blade into the ground or prematurely dumping my bucket.

We finally got the new waterline trenched into the driveshed last week, and I decided to backfill the trench. While the job did go quicker with Wiley than it would have with a shovel, I was not efficient by any means. Poor Wiley must have been so confused. “Why is she dumping the dirt here when the hole is over there?”

Yeah. It wasn’t pretty.

Every so often I’d hop off the tractor and grab the shovel or the rake to deal with a random pile by hand.

Matt, Mr. I-love-video-games, has no such issues with the loader. Allow him to demonstrate.

This is how you position the bucket to carry a load. This one happens to be one of the many piles of rocks that exist around the property.

This is how you dump a load out of the bucket.

So is my lack of front-end loader ability an actual genetic deficiency? Or do you think front-end loader manipulation can be learned? Should I hook up Matt’s old Jump Man game for some joystick practice?