Monday, May 3, 2021

Putting the Seed in the Ground is the Easy Part

 We just finished the third day of drilling spring wheat and clover; Dad makes a pass with the disk to kill any weeds as well as smoothing out the chisel plow furrows from last fall and I follow right behind him with the seed drill.

For the most part it's gone well: 55 acres done and I still have about 35 acres to drill. Dad disked that today and its still a little wet so I'll wait until tomorrow to drill the final bit.  The only real question at this point is if I've calibrated the drill correctly: am I going to run out of or have extra wheat seed? The drill settings shown in the charts of the operators manual are only a "suggested starting point".

The not so good things - from the perspective of the guy doing it - getting the drill stuck (twice) and having to dig/yank a giant rock out of the ground with a shovel, chain, and truck. (The adapter plate that will allow me to use the rock bucket on the big loader to dig out some tough rocks is sitting in Eau Claire, WI, waiting for me to pick it up.)

I'm learning how to improvise.

When I got stuck the 2nd time (shown in the video below) it was at the end of a long day. It happened at the end of a 1/2 mile field and from there it was another 2 miles back to the truck. It was starting to rain and getting colder; I only had a t-shirt. If I couldn't get the unhitched tractor unstuck from the muddy ruts it was in, I had long walk to my truck.

 
 
(Click on any picture to make it bigger.)
 

In order to hitch the tractor back up you need to support the heavy tongue so you can back the drawbar on to it. I was pretty proud of my 2 board, 2 rock prop.

 
 
The exposed part of this rock was the size of a football. Tip of the figurative iceberg. It probably weighed 150 lbs.  I ended up getting a chain around it, pulling it out of the hole I'd dug and over to the edge of the field.


 
p.s. The next morning I pulled the stuck drill out.


3 comments:

  1. great pics! keep blogging.
    Chris Jones (@riverraccoon)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi! Twitter works!
      Thanks for the reply. For what it's worth I love what you put on your site/blog/online. Any one else who sees this - go check him out. https://www2.iihr.uiowa.edu/cjones/scientific-insights-into-improving-water-quality-in-iowa/

      I used to be in the "big picture world" and got frustrated; now I dig out rocks and stuck tractors while trying to keep my head in the larger world.

      Delete
  2. Hi Bruce!
    No matter how hard it gets I see you still enjoying farming😀 I like the pictures.

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