Gardening season

When boredom sets in: I serviced some trailers yesterday and decided that I should get ready for spring planting. A major overkill for my small plot next to the house, but figured what the heck!

This is the old 6U (changed to wide by previous owner) that I revived some years ago, which was owned by the nice gentleman that I had written about some time ago.

Sparky2010 stopped by the shop and between some supervision and small cursing, we swapped from the vee ditcher to the chisel. Toolbar units can be a pain! Thank goodness for modern tools and forklifts!

Ught-oh- Juiceman is looking for a bundle of "colored spaghetti" working around the house and yard with that machine. The utility company may be the next visitor? Maybe he is intending to go "wireless" and off grid? -- CTS

I was thinking he was being so careful only putting it on a D4 instead of his favorite D6 so could put it all the way into the ground.

Hi, Folks.

Well, he does have some reasonably substantial depth wheels on it. If'n he kin figger out how ter set 'em proper, that colored spaghetti MIGHT be safe.

Just my 0.02.

Oh wow, if I didn't know any better, I'm getting my ration of cr*p from you guys LOL.

No colored wires or gas lines here. Ray, you are spot on, I WAS going to hook it up to my little 8U; don't know why I didn't! The D4 lived here since 1947, maybe it is time to bring it home sort of speak. George, the previous owner was pretty smitten that I got it usable again. The neighbor wants the small parcel nextdoor to me ripped, so I may have an excuse to bring my 47A back this way and have a go at it.

I used my trusty OLIVER OC-3 to push burn piles, as it was already here (yard ornament). TractorDon schmoozed me into buying an IH offset cultivator tractor from him;when I fetch it in March (BBQ remember?) it will be close to planting time. Less work is best for a lazy old guy like me, so I will create some long planting beds and start off with asparagus crowns and artichoke plants. Heck, I might even plant some flowers!

CR: I can remember we had some January's that were tee shirt weather/bone dry and I was out with a flail mower. It was nice enough for me to get a D2 and Goble drag disk out to knock the weeds down and air things out.

Since I have accumulated several push arms, I have decided that I will put one together with a straight blade in case I want to use the D4 to push dirt with. Had the big pins on the TB bracket not been so tight, and having to re-set the wear bars on the trunnions, the swap over would have been much easier. Still learning. JM

Since starting farming in 1962 I have seen many a dry spell mid winter. Although I recorded 4" of rain January 4 the ground is nice and dry and works up good. It an ideal time to prepare soil for later spring planting. The weeds are short and no problem.

I have been plagued with rototiller problems for working up the stupid little patches I have to plant here. I long for the big open fields and steep side hills of the coast where I grew up . Here garden areas have to be fenced with 5 foot deer fence. At the coast we would work up a big piece of land, plant extra for the deer and be done with it.

I have Cats and tillage equipment here but there is not enough room between rock piles to plant much. We looked at 25 acres that came up for sale across the road, I thought maybe some farm land there but just a little bit of topsoil smeared over a big chunk of rock that goes clear to China.

NickyWalnuts sent this in. Another ritual in our area: Digging bare root nursery stock. He went to great lengths to overhaul the D6 engine.

Years ago, there was a D4 tree digger at an auction. The scary part was that it was based on an orchard model. Sorry, no photo.