The good was that Will had gotten the clutch back in the tractor and David brought our neighbor’s big tractor over to lift the motor and clutch back in our tractor. It was too heavy for delicate placement by our little tractor; it barely got it out of the tractor, having a hard time lifting over the Oliver’s loader arms. But despite misty rain, the weather broke at just the right time and the guys got the beast into place. Hooray! And yesterday, Will started hooking everything back together. Boy, there are a lot of rods, wires, hoses, etc.! And today, he’s just about got it finished.
The bad? Yesterday, they put frost warnings on the weather radio! Eeeek! Hey, this is JULY! But I remembered July 27, of the first year we were here, when it froze my tomatoes dead. And our garden is way too big to cover all of our sensitive plants. The peppers and melons are in hoop houses, so they’d be okay, but the corn, squash, potatoes, tomatoes? The only thing we could do is run the sprinklers if frost threatened. So three times last night I got up (who could sleep?), went outside, and checked the frost potential. There was a heavy dew and it was in the high thirties, but no frost. I’ll bet the wildlife got a laugh with me out in my underwear with a flashlight, feeling the grass and squash leaves! Thank God very much, NO FROST!
And the ugly? There was this growl in our Subaru that was pretty nasty and getting worse. We took it to our mechanic/friend, Curt Langevin, and received the sad news that the trans-axle (basically the transmission), was about to go. Repair would cost about $1,500 and I’m sure Curt was helping us a bit there. Sigh. Luckily after a day of depression (where would we get that kind of cash quickly?) Will hooked up the big trailer and went over to Curt’s shop to pick up the big load of scrap steel he had accumulated over winter. (Curt doesn’t have time to haul scrap himself.) There were several tons. And that check sure helped flesh out the amount of money we had to come up with. So the ugly is getting better and the ‘Ru will soon get fixed.
Ah, life on the homestead. We also had a litter of eight pigs from a new-mom gilt. We lost one last night to unknown causes, but the remaining seven are up playing in the sunshine this morning. It’s warmed up and looks like summer again. Boy, last night it sure felt like FALL. No! No! We aren’t ready! And it IS still summer, isn’t it? — Jackie
Jackie, even though I am not a homesteader, I can sit for hours and just go through your pages on here and read. I am into home canning and have found some excellent recipes on your page in the past couple years. But just reading about your life there somehow makes me smile. It’s something I probably would like to do if I were a younger person.. but alas I’m not. I am just happy to read your page and find lots of tidbits of canning info. Thank you so very much for being YOU.
Andrew S,
Our Subaru is an automatic. I’m sure Will could do the transaxle; he just doesn’t have time as we’re behind due to the late spring. He’s about going nuts trying to haul manure, hay and build the barn. We just did the timing belt etc., including the water pump last year as a precaution and are hoping this preventative will extend the ‘Ru’s life to 300,000 miles, plus. We really love it!!
Is your Subie a stick or automatic? Just curious, I have an 03 Legacy wagon (stick) with 179k miles, and I use it to tow my 5×8 utility trailer and have hauled countless cords of firewood (1/3-1/2 cord at a time), compost, my Ski-Doo, and all sorts of lumber and building materials. Clutch was replaced under warranty at 30k miles (along with head gaskets), then made it to 170k miles before needing attention again (gaskets for sure, since the engine was out, I did the clutch too since the friction disc was almost tissue paper thin.
Not to take business away from your trusted mechanic, but If you can do the clutch in the Oliver tractor at home, you could DIY the transmission on your Outback (stick or auto). That’s what I did. Aside from having the flywheel and heads machined at a shop, I did all the work myself. It’s really not that bad.
Then again, $1,500 to have somebody else do it including a used transmission is a pretty good price. I’d change the timing belt AND all the tensioner/idler pulleys every 100k miles. Water pump is debatable, but I think the kit including the water pump is the same money as buying just the pulleys and belt.
Best of luck to you!
PC
Our good old ‘Ru has over 224,000 miles on it right now. Our mechanic says that faililng to change the timing belt every 80,000 miles kills more Subarus than anything else.
Zelda,
Yep, we know about FarmTek’s big high tunnels, but we’re low-tek here. No government loans for us; sorry! No loans, period. Not even “grants”. We don’t want to cover our entire garden. We have three small, cheap hoop houses over our peppers and melons and that’s fine. We’ll gamble on the weather. We don’t have enough garden, nor the desire to grow commercially and certainly can’t justify the expense of a huge high tunnel for our entire garden. Besides, there are a lot of crops that way-over heat in one, even with shade cloth. No, for us, it’s gamble on the frost and can up all we can on good years. We haven’t starved yet. And besides there are all those cold weather crops out there like cabbage, broccoli, swiss chard, carrots, onions, etc. that always see us through.
Jackie, sorry to hear about the Suby. How many miles does it register, I’m sweating on our old Subaru, wondering how far it will go before transaxle fails? Thanks.
Here in the copper basin in alaska we are still having unusually warm weather with lows I the upper 40’s. Our tomatoes, squash, beans, and cucumbers are in hoop houses. Last year we had to fire up propane heaters in the hoop houses several nights in july. This year it’s trying to keep them from over heating . We have ripe tomatoes, are making pickles and canning beans the earliest ever. I wouldn’t want a huge house over everything. Some crops don’t like the heat, you have to water everything even after it rains, and large hoop houses can be damaged by heavy winter snow and wind.
Yes, here in Michigan in the lower part of the lower peninsula, our weather has been pretty unpredictable too. This morning Tuesday 7-30, about 10:30 it was only 58 degrees. We have had about 5 or 6 ripe tomatoes though but they were about half the size should be. They are heirlooms too and oh so good. My son grows them – has about 300 plants out on the farm. We had a church picnic scheduled for last Sunday and it rained all day. Needless to say the picnic was cancelled, boooo hooooo. I pulled out an extra blanket and put on my winter socks when I went to bed cause I was cold. This just isn’t right. I’m so glad it didn’t freeze on your garden Jackie. What would you do if it did? I have your caning book out andon the counter where it will probable stay until November when caning season is over for me.
We too have had cooler temps this week. Which has felt good as last week it was very hot!! Can’t work in that kind of heat. So now we are getting some things done that are needed to be done. Can’t believe that in 2 or 2 1/2 months we will be using the wood stove again.
My family lives in Maine. While visiting one summer we all went to an outdoor cafe and had to sit under the heat lamps because it was so cold. This was on the 3rd of July! Brrr…sure hope you get no frost. I think my city “wildlife” laughs at me when I run around in the middle of the night checking traps. At least your neighbors can’t see you.
Record lows here too. I dug out our comforter and a long sleeved nightgown! My neighbor said her furnace came on in the middle of the night.
The state weather person said that this was good people weather but not so good for the crops.
Eastern Nebraska had a record low at 49 last week. No where close to freezing but very cold for this area in July. I sure hope things will warm up a bit. I’m not ready for fall either. I haven’t even harvested a single tomato yet. The cool weather doesn’t help with ripening at all.
I hope you get your car fixed real soon.
Have the best day that you can.
Jackie, FarmTek has grow houses that would cover your entire garden including your hoop houses if you want. And cheap USDA farm loans. Do it once, and done – your very own 10 month growing season forever. Chickens can roam free in them. Fruit trees can grow. And talk about income for your homestead!!! You’d have people lined up for miles to get your fruit and produce. The weather is so unpredictable and unfriendly and seems to be getting more so each year that I sure think about doing that.
Oh, frost warnings in July! Scary!! I sure hope the frost stays away, and that you get to harvest all of your garden.
It feels like fall here too, the last few days and the 10 day outlook is forecasting more of the same. We didn’t hit 30’s but low 40’s yuck. My garden is to big to cover too. It doesn’t help that this weather is making Lyle work on his snowmobiles. I don’t want it to be fall.
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