Sorting Bolts - Pump House Rehab #2

On a related note, I have about 100 pounds of 5/16 - 18 x 1.75 inch bolts, with a black oxide finish, for sale. Also about the same amount of M12 - 1.75 x 40mm bolts.

I'm picking up these assorted bolts to get ready to, first, take off the roof, and second, to take down and rebuild the block wall that is next to the pile of bolts. Unfortunately the wall is leaning out about 5" over it's 8' height and needs to be repaired before continuing on with the rehab of the building.

Laundry Day

Pre Covid-19 I'd go to the laundromat in town about once a month to do my laundry, as my "laundry room" has been under "construction" ever since I moved up here. It's on the list of things to do, slowly making it's way toward the top.

Once I have enough dirty clothes to fill an eighteen gallon tote I'll do laundry. I'll fill the tote with warm/hot (colors/whites) water and a generous amount of Oxiclean. That soaks for 4-6 hours, then I drain the tote and hang the clothes on the line. Once hung, I spray them down with my hose. This seems to get rid of the Oxiclean and the dirt.

It's a little bit like camping here on the farm. It suits me.

Pump House Rehab - #1

The roof on the pump house has been ready to fall in for the last five years. It doesn't matter right now, as all we store in there is oil, grease, lube, but I want to be able to make a small welding area out of it. That means keeping the water out. Eventually I'll replace the windows and try to make it a spring, summer, fall space so I can work out there in all but the worst winter weather. Maybe put a wood stove in it.

Right now that's a long way off. Here's the before pictures.

I started moving things from the pump house into the machine shed today. I hope that work on the roof can start this coming week.

Mid July Update: Oats that Were Underseeded with Medium Red Clover

They are Morton Oats, drilled at 2 bushels/acre between May 7th and 9th, on a total of 102 acres. At the same time the grass seed box was putting on 10 lbs/acre of clover.

We will swath the oats in a couple of weeks, then run them through the pick up head on the combine. The clover will continue growing this year and next, getting mowed to keep it from going to seed. In 2022 this ground will be ready for it's first certified organic cash crop, probably soybeans.

Row Cultivating Organic Soybeans, Third Pass

I've owned this field for 5 years and it has always had heavy weed pressure - foxtail, thistle, pigweed, lambsquarters. With my crop rotation I've been able to reduce the weeds by about 75%, but it's still a challenge. I tined weeded this twice, at the "right" times, but still have some weeds in the row. They will go to seed.

I would like to modify my cultivator for next year by adding two more sweeps on each row tool bar,/tube for a total of 5. Even with wider sweeps on the three existing shanks I don't get enough coverage.

Next year this will be in oats, underseeded with alfalfa.

For this pass the cultivator sweeps that are closest to the plant are about 10" apart, as I don't want to get too close to the roots. The 1st 2 passes those sweeps were 5" apart. Going as fast as I am (4.8 mph), autosteer is a must.

Garden Update #2

(Click on any picture to make it bigger.)