This past was a trying week here on the farm. As I mentioned in my previous post our computer crapped out Monday night. Being a busy farmer I didn’t do the types of things that we all should do — brush your teeth twice a day, drink plenty of water and backup your hard drive. Actually I do the first two things but I stopped doing the third about four years ago as I discovered when I went looking for my back-up copies.
Thankfully we have a number of members who have computer skills and volunteered to take a look. Michael was the first in so he was selected to take the first shot and he was successful getting the files off the hard disc (we farmers use discs for rearranging dirt not storing pictures) and getting the computer working again. Of course I still need to implement a backup strategy and replace the hard drive as a precaution but at least I still have all my pictures of frogs and toads and tomatoes and fennel.
Of course the week wouldn’t have been complete with just one major failure. Other than the computer our most important tool here on the farm is our tractor. We don’t invest in the latest and greatest tractors. They cost too much and parts are expensive. So we go with the old stuff. Our Ford tractor is from the 1970s and our Allis Chalmers is from the 1940s. The Allis has had a few problems over the years but since it is used only for cultivating it isn’t critical to running the farm on a daily basis. The Ford on the other hand is used virtually every day for long periods of time. And unfortunately one part just gave up last week.
Most tractors these days come with a three point hitch. That is how we attach implements to the tractor. There are two lower “links” and one upper “link”. The lower links are lift arms which allow the tractor to pick up the implement. But without the top link the implement would spin on the pins and not lift very well. That is where the top link comes in handy. By having three points of contact we can lift the implement in one direction without spinning.
Unfortunately the top link on our Ford broke. Of the three this is the best one to break since it is the easiest and cheapest to replace. But it surprised me that I was able to break it. The Ford has a category-II hitch. Cat-II hitches are rated for tractors with 40-100 drawbar hp. Our tractor has 44 drawbar hp — at the low end of the specification. Plus the plow we were pulling is a cat-I plow. So our tractor and specifically the three point hitch should not have had a problem — except for the close to 50-year-old age of the tractor.
Fortunately three point hitch parts are pretty standardized so finding a replacement part was straightforward (thanks to the internet) and relatively inexpensive. But of course the replacement part isn’t quite the same and will take a bit of practice getting used to the minor differences. For now I am thankful that it was repairable.
This week we will have more garlic scapes (scapes keep for a very long time in the fridge or you can chop them up and freeze them for later use), some lettuce, some radishes (these are about done for the spring) bok choi (this is the last week), chard, green garlic (last week as well), green onions, snap peas, snow peas, some broccoli, kohlrabi, summer squash/zucchini and basil! As you can see this is a transition week from the early spring crops to the later spring crops and just touching the summer crops.
We also have CheeseShare, EggShare, and FruitShare.
MeatShare comes on Friday.
FlowerShare should start next week.
That is all for now. Feel free to send in questions, comments suggestions, 1-terabyte backup disks and anything else you think would be helpful!