Chronicles of the Long Shot Farm

Installing Drain Tiles

Posted on

While Tina was in Boston for a few days, Lars and Jeff made huge progress with laying drain tiles near the lower pond, where the overflow turns into a small stream.  We had already installed a “running” bridge, so we could walk – and run – around the pond, but there was no way to take the four-wheeler or even the tractor from one field to the next. 

They cleaned out the small stream bed and made space for 2 sections of drainage tile.  Each section is about 18 inches in diameter, and 8 ft long.  After they placed the tiles, Jeff used the tractor and back-filled against them, making a path across.  It is certainly very efficient and a lot cleaner looking.

Posted in DIY

Plowing Another Patch

Posted on

Today, Jeff plowed nearly another acre, right below the first Chambourcin grape patch.  He plowed all the way down to where the “wetlands” start, near the little pond.    The plan is to plant sweet corn, followed by a cover crop and then – hopefully – planting more grapes next year.  For right now this means that we have a lot less grass to mow.  After the ground dries out a bit, Jeff can start disking the new field.

Spreading Lime – Manually

Posted on

We recently bought 3 tons on lime (that is 6000 lbs, which sounds a lot heavier).  We intended to use our lime spreader, and pull that behind the tractor between the grapes and blackberry rows.  Turns out, the lime spreader does not really work with the lime we got…it just plugged up.  So this weekend we shoveled lime onto the small wagon, which Jeff then pulled slowly with the tractor between the rows, while Lars and Tina shoveled the lime back off, “flinging” it along side the plants. (Some of us were better “flingers” than others)  One wagon load of lime was enough for 4 rows at a time.  We could manage 2 wagonloads, then we needed a break.  At this point, we are nearly done, just more more wagonload to go – what a great upper body workout!

Tree Stump Removal

Posted on

Today we had someone come with a small backhoe on a skidloader to help remove 6 large tree stumps.  We had tried to see if our tractor could make the stumps budge – but there was no chance of that.  After the stumps were removed, Jeff used his grader attachment to smooth out the holes and to grade the slope from the road.  The reason for doing all this is to get safer access from the road into our grape fields.  It will make it much easier to pull off the road before making the turn into the field.  Not just for the tractor and the four-wheeler but also for a car.  Definitely a safety improvement!  We’ll get a load of gravel next to finish this off.

More Useable Space Outside

Posted on

It only took 2 hours for Jeff, Zach, Lars and the tractor to annihilate the last messy, overgrown corner of our property.  Zach thinks we gained half an acre (it is probably more like a quarter of an acre), but most of all it looks CLEAN!  This has been nagging at me for some time and I am so excited the “boys” tackled this project today.

Before
After

Since the back corner is now clean, I got very motivated to improve the area around the yellow bench by the pond.   I decided to move three juniper bushes, which were growing alongside the house and had gotten way too large for that spot, and planted them behind the bench. This provided a sort of backdrop for the bench, which is bordered by a cornfield.    Now I just need to fix the missing board, give it a fresh coat of pain and then I can start planting flowers…