Meanwhile, Back at the Ranch

Time to re-tire.

     Lots of things happening at the ranch, mostly related to the wind farm business.  But first, some unraveled ends to clinch.

    The new tires for the Ford tractor arrived, were mounted on the rims, and picked up on one of our trips to Limon for ice during last week's fair.

    Half done,

     And completely done.  The reason for new tires for the Ford tractor was to get usable tires for the drill.  Twenty years of neglect haven’t been totally idle.  The pocket gophers have been busy.

     And the birds.  We have these current bushes around the place.  Dad said the family who lived here before us back in the 40’s, the Kollaths, planted them originally.  The birds love the berries.  Just below the birds favorite roosting place, current bushes spontaneously erupt.  The birds found the drill a convenient resting place.

       The tire scheme worked half way.  The problem:  the tractor tires were 16 inch.  So was one of the drill tires.  Apparently, the two drills aren’t Siamese twins, as one has 16 inch wheels, the other 15 inch wheels.  The 15 inch wheel posed problems.  I have a 15 inch tire, but three attempts to install an inner tube failed.  Temporary solution, take a wheel off the plow.

      With a little trouble, the drill arose from its resting place and parked in front of the shop where it underwent a lot of neglected maintenance.   The seeding shafts and the sliding mechanism that controls seeding rate had to be freed from rust.  That took quite a few hours.  Drive gears are cleaned. The “walkway” on the back of the drill has to be replaced.

     Having decided it will not rain, I made a tough decision to “work” the summer fallow, as some weeds escaped the last operation and have gotten quite big.  But the real concern was what we used to call “persley” weed. (Correct name purslane, I think.) It has a corpulent vine and a shallow root system.  If you pull it up roots and all and set it back down, purslane considers itself transplanted and keeps right on a-growing.    

      Well, out to the field on a Saturday morning with the “new” Miller Weeder, this one 21 feet instead of the 15 feet of the old Miller Bar.

     The Miller Weeder sat for a few years, too.  It provided the backdrop and hazard for Hole 6 of the golf course.

 

It took a little work to get it field ready.

                  The “wings” folded down, a few teeth replaced, and we’re ready to go.

       My old nemesis the wind soon found me out, shifting to the northeast almost immediately upon my laying out the land.  Pretty dirty going southwest.  But there was good news. 

   
      It turns out that purslane has a nemesis, too.

      My color-blind eyes find the worm right-away first thing smack dab in the middle of the picture, but you inflicted with normal rods and cones may have trouble seeing the little fellow.

     Those vines should be covered by small leaves, but the creepy crawlers have denuded them.  The vine is still juicy, somewhat like a bean sprout, but I don’t see them doing much growing without their leaves.

     The worms shouldn’t get too fat and sassy.  Mother Nature has another link in the food chain waiting in the wings:

                           Please Mr. Hawk, don’t eat them all.  They still have a job to do.

            Well, back to the tillage operation, conducted in the shadow of old number 119.

    Coming up:  Towers up, traffic down.