A New Tire on the Grain Drill

One of the rear tires, a 11L-15SL 12 ply, on my John Deere 750 Drill was badly worn and needed to be replaced. I jacked up the back of the drill and took out the lug bolts, but unexpectedly it wouldn't come off. I'd hit the rim with a hammer/block of wood - nothing. Finally I warmed the rim up with a propane torch and I was able to knock it off. I'll take it to the tire shop and have them put a new tire on the rim.

I'm glad I took care of it now, where I have all my tools and I'm on smooth flat ground.  Changing this tire on tilled ground out in the middle of the field would have a been a challenge.

Seed Starting For the Garden

Last minute seed starting rack. COVID-19 made my decision to grow a garden this year an easy one.

I might have to till a few more strips so I have space to plant everything. The ryegrass roots are so thick that I need to turn it all over with a shovel before I can use the rototiller on it. Otherwise the rototiller just rides along the surface of the ryegrass.  Running it in reverse/backwards gives me the most bite into the soil.  In order to break up the large chunks of sod I end up going over each strip 3 or 4 times.

I'll also need to repair the deer fence in a few spots.

Things to be direct seeded are:

Potatoes
Onion slips
Garlic
Radish
Lettuce
Spinach
Turnip Greens
Collard Greens
Peas
Beans
Corn
Squash/Pumpkin

Things started inside, under lights:

Lettuce
Basil
Lavender
Cilantro
Mustard Greens
Broccoli
Radish
Tomato
Peppers

There might be a few more varieties that I'm forgetting about.

Kaya

New Equipment

Here are the new pieces of equipment that I recently bought. I still have a few more to get. A gravity box/seed tender. Three headers for the combine: corn, beans, and pick-up head for grain. Header carts for the corn and bean heads. Maybe a new grain cart.

Most of this will eventually be stored/over wintered in the new 50' x 80' pole barn that should start being built in 6 weeks.

2007 Deere 9560 STS Combine

Deere 9560

John Deere 590 Pull Behind Swather

2011 Krause 8200 Disc Harrow - 25'

Krause 8200 Disc. Case 7140 and Ford F-250 in background

2019 Hatzenbichler Tine Weeder - 30'. M&W 1815 Rotary Hoe in background

I bought a second Deere RM6 row cultivator. It's the one closest to the camera in the pic above and is in better shape than the first one I had. A couple reasons for having two. One is that new replacement parts are expensive and used are hard to find, short of buying the whole thing. With two of the same model I can "borrow" parts from one to get the other to work. More importantly is that I can adjust one cultivator to cut closer to the row and the other one to stay away from the crop I'm cultivating. They are time consuming to adjust.

Seeds

Spring is coming, despite it being 18º F last night.  A little over a week ago I took delivery of the all the seeds I'll be planting on the farm this spring: Oats, medium red clover, and soybeans. About 15,000 pounds.

Walking the Dog in NM

(click on any picture to make it bigger)

Percha Creek