Tiller Testing

It's amazing how much things can change in just a week of not being around much. It was a nice day today and time for me to get back to work around here, however this morning I had to go check out yet another farm auction. 

There were a few minor things I was interested in but no implements on my acquire list were mentioned. A couple of implements listed might have been good for my side business but as it turned out I would have had to sit on them a while unless the price was super low. Looking at the crowd that had gathered I decided the odds of that happening were slim so I decided to just come back home and get some work done.

After almost a full week of doing very little around here and letting my Son and Mother take care of the feeding it was hard to get kick started.

I searched around looking for a new hidden egg nest and found nothing then decided to unload last weeks firewood from the trailer. Mind you I was taking some frequent breaks today.

The chickens were out almost the entire day. It seems we basically have two flocks now. Rocky appears to have about seven hens that follow him around religiously. He watches over them and leads them to eating spots and digs the ground up for them. His harem flock consists of three Reds and three Barred Rock hens that are young and one of the older Buffs. The remaining eleven hens which include most of the old hens and a few others pretty much keep to themselves and do as they please. They don't seem to be much impressed with Rocky. If they are within ear shot though and Rocky calls his harem in for something good to eat all the hens come running.

Still not getting much as far as eggs go though. Maybe two a day now for seventeen hens. I must say the hens have visibly grown a lot over this week too.

After unloading the trailer I finally got around to hooking that little 3 point tiller I bought back in May up. I then tilled the failed Pumpkin patch and was surprised how well it worked. The picture was kinda bad due to the light and the fact that it had a thick layer of cut weeds over it.  The 861 Ford worked well with the tiller. I was afraid the ground speed would be a bit too high but even with the extremely dry ground it worked it up pretty good. The slip clutch helped a lot though.

Using the 3 point tiller and the tractor I was able to till this patch up in a fraction of the time it took me with the walk behind model and I didn't even work up a sweat. I did say more than a few choice curse words while hooking the thing up though and the patch would have worked up better if we had some real moisture in it. We did get a little rain yesterday but not enough to make a dent in the hard, cracked ground.

While I didn't get a lot done at least I am back at it once again. Tomorrow is another firewood run, hopefully the last one down that way. Oh ya I got the truck fixed already. One of the metal brake lines had rusted through and another small cross over rubber line had collapsed so the truck is good to go once again.

At least this dry period is making Winter wood cutting a much easier job than usual.

Keep Prepping Everyone!!!!!!!