100 lbs. of Potatoes?

April 16, 2006

This weekend I put in the first of my crops. 50 lbs. of Yukon Gold and 50 lbs. of Red Norland potatoes that my wife ordered from Johhny's Selected Seeds. I picked up a Middle Buster last week at Tractor Supply so it was quick work to lay off some rows for the potatoes with the tractor. The hard part was cutting the seed potatoes into pieces and spacing them out in the rows. After that I pulled some soil back over them with a hoe. All in all I have ~ 700 ft.rows of potatoes. If the weather cooperates and we get enough rain I should be looking at harvesting somewhere around 1000 lbs. of potatoes. Guess who has already been tasked with building a potato bin for the basement?

Trailer Fun

This past Saturday my wife was away for the day at a conference so it was just me and the kids. I had been playing around with rehabing an old boat trailer that I got from my neighbor for some time and figured this was as good a time as any. I picked up a cheapo 4 inch grinder and some cutting wheels at Harbor Freight and had at dismantling/reworking the trailer. I removed the fenders, boat winch and all the boat rollers/guides. I cut off the ball hitch then cut a groove and drilled some holes in the end of the main beam so that I can easily attach it to my tractor draw bar. I moved the axel forward and took the two rails (which used to extend back to hold the boat) and bolted one in front of and one behind the wheels to create a rectangular platform. The kids and I ran up to Home Depot and picked up some 8 ft long pressure treated decking lumber to finish off the platform. All said and done I have less than $75 dollars in material invested in this 8 ft x 6 ft trailer. The first thing the kids wanted to do was to go for a ride around the property to test out our handy work. We did this but stopped off to load up the dead evergreen tree I had cut up earlier in the day. After two trips to the burn pile and a cruise around the back pasture the kids, myself and our dogs relaxed on the trailer and enjoyed a snack while we watched the sun go down. All in all an enjoyable day on the farm.