Yesterday Will was hauling manure out onto our new pasture on the new forty acres and after seven loads, the clutch started acting up. Will just got it back up to the house when it started smoking. (He almost ran over our manure spreader!) A black day on the Clay-Atkinson ranch as haying season is just starting and we bought that tractor primarily to run our big round baler! Will says he thinks it started out as the throwout bearing going and that it probably took the clutch out as well. He can repair it but has to pull the radiator, fuel tank, and engine! OMG!

First-beam

Leveling-beam

Monday, he and Christian started working on our front porch framework of logs. They had peeled the logs and Will notched them to fit, lifting them into place with our remaining tractor, the Ford 660. That went well at least.

Honeyberry-crop

This morning Will went down and picked our “crop” of honeyberries from our two more-mature bushes. We got 16 berries. They weren’t quite ripe but the birds were starting to sample them. We’d never tasted them, so Will split them up and we all got a taste. They were a bit tart, tasting like a blueberry-plum-apricot mix, depending on who commented. We’ll definitely plant more. And net them to keep the birds out next year. — Jackie

6 COMMENTS

  1. suggestion to liz:
    1- put net over tree
    2- get 4 golfball sized smooth stones
    3- put one in a corner of the net and pull the corner of the netting over the stone back toward the center of the net.
    4- wrap an end of some baling twine around the netting on the centerward side of the stone and knot it tight. the golf ball should be encapsulated int the very corner of the netting. take the other end of the twine and tie it to the base of the tree.
    5- do the same to the other 3 corners of the net.

    fwiw

  2. Holly,

    Will agrees with your husband; it could have been worse. It only took him 4 hours to get the engine/transmission out onto the ground. He figures 8 hours to get it back on.

  3. Liz,

    Unless your tree is very large, making a set of hoops to put over your tree works pretty good. Drive re-bar stakes in the ground and slide PVC pipe hoops which cross each other over the top of the tree over. Then use poles to work the net over the top of the hoops, which do not touch the top of the tree. Use heavy wire “staples” to hold the netting down to the ground. This USUALLY works! Congratulations on your crop!!!

  4. I just commented to my husband what happened to you. He said he didn’t know what parts would cost, but it is not that bad of a job compared to other tractors he has worked on…. :) ?

  5. Equipment always seems to break down when you use it or need it. At least yours does not have a cab on it that you have to removed too. We had something that has been running fine not start this morning….and it is not the battery or lack of gas…..Good luck!

  6. We just had our first crop of cherries from a tree we have been nurturing for 4 years. Woohoo! What do you use to net your trees? We tried a fine black net purchased for that reason (I can’t remember the brand) and it just fell off the tree. No matter how we tried to wind it around, toss it over, snag it on, it just kept sliding off. It ended up looking like a Keystone Cops moment. I thought we finally had it on last night, and went to check it this morning. The net is all laying around the base of the tree, and the tree is covered with every bird in the county! Any tips or suggestions are greatly appreciated.

    We so much appreciate benefiting from your years of experience. My family is so used to me saying “Well Jackie says…” that they ask me now. What does Jackie say?

    Thanks,

    Liz from rural Montana

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