O, the luxury!

No sooner fixed than in the field! This combo of little riding mower and old snowmobile trailer is possibly my favorite tiny farming tool, a decadent* alternative to walking up and down the garden plot.

Around here, you can walk miles in a day, especially if you forget things and have to go back—although, walking around, taking different routes each time to check stuff out, is one of the big pleasures, too… What a simple life. :)

Anyhow, after trying a couple of different garden utility belts, overalls with 50 pockets, and a pull-along garden cart, nothing has come close to being able to toss all the stuff you need onto the trailer and go.

I use it whenever there’s too much to carry. Here, I’ve just finished the second seeding of mesclun and spinach, four beds each (on the trailer: Earthway seeders with plates in the coffee can, my most used rake, measuring tape and stakes for marking new beds, a pail for rocks, and seed in the green trug; the empty trays just happen to be there).

Up until I took this pic, it was a gloriously sunny day, after three days or so of cloud and drizzle (which added up to 20cm of rain). Little luxuries.

*The mower is actually pretty energy efficient: it uses maybe 30 gallons (114 l) of gas in an entire season, and that includes mowing paths and hauling harvests.

Greens machine!

Surprise! I feel like a kid with a new go-kart. I plan to learn how to weld this year, and I’d been discussing with Bob this specialized harvest cart as a first project. Well, he went ahead and whipped up his own interpretation, using parts that were hanging about. Voila! The cart sits over a bed of mesclun, spinach or other low greens, wheels in the paths, you lean forward to cut, and move it a foot or two at a time with your feet. The minute I sat on it, the improvement from crouching or straddling the bed and bending over was clear. Cutting in comfort, and it’s supposed to near double your speed. It moves easily even in pretty wet soil, and the height seems right, but it’s still a prototype, to be harvest-tested and refined. Over the season, I cut TONS of greens (maybe not literally, but feels like it), so I’m excited!

Horse back in action…

The Troy-Bilt Horse walking rototiller is back in action for the first day of tilling in the field. I prepped a 50’x50′ section for snap peas. The Horse is noisy and uses a fair (though not unreasonable) share of gas, but it’s also a very handy machine for larger areas (in fact, I would’ve used the rototiller on the tractor, but the ground is still too wet to take the weight). All things in moderation on the way to becoming a fully-rounded, taking-it-slow, hand-laboring farmer! (Gear note: This Horse is c. 1995, from the original Troy-Bilt line, before the company was gobbled up by a bigger one and the construction got more lightweight. I bought it used, at half the price of new, and in near mint condition. It should last a long, long time—in my first farming year, I borrowed a rusty 30-year-old Horse that did just fine.)