Agricultural Plans and Equipment

This year I am trying to get a lot of things done. A big one is getting a small farm going.

In that spirit we have been planning and taking some actions. The farmed area will be fairly small. Less than 5 acres is what I think we will end up with this year. One acre tilled will be a success. It will have to be very low maintenance.

Making gardens and land improvement are the orders for the year.

The heart of the plan is a small tractor. We signed the papers for a Massey Ferguson 1528, it is a hydrostatic drive ,28hp compact tractor, with payments.

Necessary accessories are:
-5' tiller,
-12" post hole digger
-5' 3pt hitch rotary mower
-5' 3pt hitch finish mower

Items on the wish list (pretty much any attachment that would fit our tractor):
-cultivator
-disc harrow
-fork lift attachment for the front loader
-weight box for the 3 pt hitch (to counterbalance the fork lift etc.
-backhoe w/ thumb
-3pt hitch round bale mover.
-logsplitter
-generator

I am planning on tilling up as much yard as possible to convert to garden;-). To put that into perspective, our house lot is 2 acres and I mow about an acre besides to put a path to our small pond and the area around our animal shed (goat and chickens)

If I convert 2 acres of that to garden, it immediately reduces my wasted time on lawn maintenance.

I am going to try to rotary cut as much as I can, we have 5 acre area that is becoming overgrown but I think I can get it cleared, and we have about 10 acres of woodland with swamp in parts. That will be a chainsaw challenge as it is is wooded with a 20-30 year old stand of trees, it was clear way back. Also there are many, many rocks. I am hoping I can manipulate them with the loader. I really wanted a backhoe with a "thumb" attachment to pick up smaller rocks (ones small enough to grab with the thumb but big to move by hand. The thumb is a arm that is either fixed or moves that is positioned to pinch things you want to pick up with the backhoe bucket. It sticks down so you basically have a "jaw".

This weekend I am trying to do yard cleanup and work on the bikes a little. Sarah and I got a pair of bikes yesterday to use as parts for a 3 or 4 wheel bike and scavenge to fix her bike and build Nathan one.

I am ready to test drive one of the 3 speeds I got last weekend, did a hose off to clean the dust and debris from it. I think it was stored in a dirty garage for the
last 30 years. The tires are cracked so I will have to get "new" tires. I think it is cool because I have not seen them for so long. I don't know if they are cool now or not. My guess it not, but you never know.



If it doesn't rain this afternoon I will take it out for a ride with S.