Fall is Prep Time for Spring
. . . Oct 26, 2011 | posted by randy r.jpg "Paul and I working on the Cub")
WOW! Things are moving right along at Tubby creek Farm. The transition from summer to fall has been quick, yet pleasant with warm dry days. We badly need rain yet the dryness has helped us do more prep work.
We have already sold a couple of our CSA shares for next year and have begun collecting deposites. For information on our CSA's check out our CSA page.
In the big field there has been all kinds of action. We mowed down the Sorghum Sudan grass cover crop. I should clarify, Jo mowed it down then spent all afternoon disking the 2 ½ acres. All of this work will help the soil be more productive next year. We waited a week then disked again then after another week of waiting we began marking off and making raised beds in preparation for next year.
In the field by the house the carrots are looking good. We definitely need to work on the weeds, but the carrots are looking good. We also just planted turnips, spinach and chard.
Besides field work we have been working on our Farmall Cub. We have wanted to widen the wheels on the tractor since we bought it, but needed to have a window of time where we didn’t need the tractor. Just in case there were any problems and it took longer to fix then planned. We finally had the opportunity last weekend and we had help from our friend Paul Shaffer. Remember, our Cub is a 1949 model and when you go to widen axles and such sometimes things don’t want to work the way they should. Boy did we get lucky. The front axle slid apart without much hassle at all. The hard part was the tie rods would not slide out to adjust to the wider axles, they are totally stuck. We will probably have to buy new ones.
Then we tackled the heavy work of swapping the rear wheels and weights. The weights alone are 150 pounds. John was a huge help! Jo and I could not have done it without his help. Things went smoothly and the rears have been swapped and we now have 44” clear space between the wheels. The reason this was so important is that we can plant three rows of certain veggies in a 44” bed verses only two rows in a 34” bed (the width between the wheels before widening them). It will save space, time with cultivating and help with watering.
We have a busy fall ahead as we prepare and plant for the early spring veggies and our big move in January.
Yawa.
