The "Field", Part 1 - April/May 2008

Big (little) Sis came to visit a couple of weeks after the birth of FBS. As well as support us, giving us lots of valuable experienced mother tips and help with FBS, she was also put to good use outside.

The field concept started when I began to see the advantages and neccesity of mechanised farming. It has become clear that a minimasation of pyhsical effort is a must if we are to succeed with the production of "bulk" vegetables needed, such as spuds.

Naturally enough, if one is to drive a tractor one needs an open, flat(ish) area to do so on. The area I had chosen, happened not to be flat and had a tree in the middle of it! What better job for b(l)s than aiding with the removal of said tree


With a quick zip from the chainsaw and a helping shove from the tractor, the tree was down in no time.


The tree was quickly dealt with, chopped up into 40cm long logs and split as required,


giving b(l)s the oppurtunity to see the advantages of hydraulic, reather than axe, powered wood splitting.


B(L)S also had a chance to try out the DB, a step up from their Fergie 20, dare I say, whilst we worked on splitting and stacking some more wood. An excellent weekend, many thanks to b(l)s for the help. A big step forward.

Saw Modifications Part 4 - Just needs a lick of paint now.

Here, as promised are the photo's of the finished saw modifications. It will get a clean, rust treatment and a lick of paint at some point in the coming months. Now that it's inside and in the dry, that can wait until a suitable time when it's a bit warmer out.



The stiffening piece, probably totally unneccesary, was welded on at the end of the last session, before attaching to the tractor for the first but after it was too dark to take photo's.



All in all, I'm very pleased with the result and it's turned out pretty much exactly as I had hoped. I am not yet sure if the DB will be able to lift it high enough, I havn't tried. Yes, it does stick out a long way to one side. I had to make allowance for the off-centre weight distribution. I will just have to be careful when I move it around, not exactly as though I'm going to take it far.

Saw Modifications Part 3 - Over Engineering

The pathetic 10 Amp fuse which all lights and sockets in the garage are currently connected to isn't man enough for the welder on full power so I had to place the saw within extension lead reach of the Sockets in the car port.



Positioning and welding on the already produced frame for the bottom hydraulic arms went easily and quickly.



The original "sketches" drawn up with London Son had a very simple rising vertical piece from the middle of this frame for the top arm. Having slept on this for a few nights and seen that most other equipment has a triangle arrangement I was beginning to have doubts. When I measured and found out that I had enough steel I changed my plans. After a few hours of semiconsious thought during the nights leading up to the weekend, the construction details were clear in my head.



One problem with building from a design which is only in my head and not thought through on paper is that angles are rarely correct first time. It took me a coulple of cuts to get this triangle to sit squarely in the correct position (I had to allow room for the belt gaurd (taken off in all but the first photo). No major problems, but with the thickness of the steel I did get through a few 9" cutting discs on my big angle grinder.



More cutting and many Km's of welding wire later and it was starting to look the business. I did more or less complete the job that evening and the saw is now in the top barn attached to the Zetor, but as it was too dark to take pictures at that time you'll have to wait for Part 4 for the final photo's.

Saw Modifications Part - 2 Moving

I had a very successful day with the saw on Sunday, but due to time constraints now, I'll blog it one bit at a time!

The original plan was to work on it in situ, but after some thought, considering gas, extension leads, wet grass and all the rest I decided to move it. As you can see from the photo's, with the right equipment the task was easy.

One!



Two!



Three!



And an "In-Tractor" Shot for good Measure.

Two Tractors

From my observations of the real farming community, it's become apparent that whilst most jobs can be done with just one tractor, the vast majority require at least 2 tractors to be completed in the most effective manner possible.

After our success of getting the DB working we were keen to put it to use and find out if it really made all the difference having a second tractor. After a little manouvering and sliding about on the ice outside the top barn we had the wood cleaver connected to the DB and the trailer, still full of the unsplit logs that our parents help load up during their "Christmas break" hitched up to the Zetor.



As you can see we carefully placed the cleaver and trailer to give minimal transport distances of both unsplit logs to the cleaver and spit logs to the stacking place inside the car port. The only way it could have been better was if the DB fitted in the carport, then the chute from the cleaver would have dropped the split logs right beside the stacking place. Sadly it's to tall, saying that I do know of another tractor.....



Yet again, I got to spend realatively little time operating my new toy, London son was very quick to take the controls. Mind you, he did his fair share of the hard work, so he deserved to have a bit of fun!

It turned out that we had plenty of spare space for 40cm logs, so once we finished that lot we set to work on the unsplit logs which have been lying in the pig house for the last year or so.

To our pleasent surprise we found out that the chute from the cleaver is just higher than the trailer so we were able to set up as shown.



The job was finished in no time with minimal handling of the wood. As promised, here's a little video of the system in action

Mechanised farming, phase 2.

My first "Mechanised farming" attempts were my highly successful Potato harvesting efforts. Driving the tractor on that occasion and watching hours of digging being done quickly and effortlessly in my wake made me realise that if I was to manage to get control and produce to the full potential of the small holding I was going to have to drop my town house kitchen garden mentality and go mechanised.

Another huge and one of the most essential parts of keeping this place going is the production of large quantites of fire wood. As you can see from the first photo's many of our visitors have helped with this activity and since we have been lucky enough to recieve the great wood piles of 2005/6 and 2007 from the real farmers next door we have not gone short, all without having to chop down many trees ourselves.

The whole process is quite time consuming, involving the following steps. Harvesting, moving to saw (or moving saw to wood), cutting, splitting, moving to stacking position, outside stacking to dry, moving to final stacking position, stacking again, moving to fireplace and burning. The above procedure, in effect, means that you handle each piece of firewood 7 to 8 times before it's in the fire and producing heat. It's clear to me that some cycle time reduction is required. I have plans to modify the saw such that I can attach it to the back of the tractor and move it to either the location of the uncut wood or the location of the stack, removing one of the moving steps. I also have plans (hopefully I will soon have the front end loader on the David Brown working) to come up with a smarter stacking and transporting method to remove the loading/unloading of a trailer and multiple stackings of the wood.

One of the slowest and most pysically demanding steps, when done by hand, that can not be engineered out of the cycle is splitting the wood. If the logs are too big to go in the oven you've got no chioce but to split them into smaller bits. Quite a lot of the wood that we have stored and after a large Birch was cut down outside work an amount recently processed needs splitting. As you can see from the pictures, our New years purchase by the wonders of hydraulics takes the axe out of the equation, saving a huge amount of time and effort.

It's so easy that my dear expecting wife stepped in and promptly took over after I had had about 3 tries, leaving me to cart the wheel barrow back and forth and stack the wood.

I had hoped to use this for the first time on the freshly recommisioned David Brown, but as you will see from the pictures and blog post (coming soon) on More-Power, getting the hydraulics working on that has taken a little more than a simple oil change. The trailer is full of dried wood, ready for moving down to the car port, splitting and stacking. I had hoped to have the trailer on one tractor and the splitter on the other, we may well run out (yes the pile that Our Parents helped us move early in the new year is nearly used up) before that is possible

The great wood pile of 2007.

I got back from Southampton to find that I had recieved a delivery of firewood. For those of you who remember the great wood pile of 2005/6, I'm pleased to say this is not quite as daunting but I've got some work to do...

The wood in the trailer is the final bit of 2005/6 where it's been waiting all winter to get chopped up.

Looks like we're covered for another couple of winters.

Light in the Darkness

Monday night, as I had borrowed a chain saw the day before, I continued working on the eternal wood pile, with which a number of you are acquainted.

I had hoped to chop up the trailer load that I had dumped by the saw, the trailer load I had in the trailer and load the trailer one more time before it got dark. This proved a little optimisitic in the 2 hours of daylight that were left.

Not detered by the darkness I backed the tractor and trailer up to the saw and continue to work away with the rear spot lights on full blast and I also rigged up a couple of 500 Watt work lights for good measure.

Now, it can be eerie out here surrounded by trees and little else. The addittion of nearly 2000 Watts of lights only made matters worse. The darkness behind the lights was an impeniterable blackness and between the rumble of the tractor engine, the scream of the saw and ear muffs, wild horses could have been approach at full gallop and I would have been none the wiser.

Focusing on my work prevented my mind running wild with chilling fantasies. Matters were not helped by the sudden appearence of a brilliant light through the trees in the distance lightning up the surrounding area nearly as brilliantly as my own lighting arrangement. I had to walk away from my work area to cofirm that after such a dull evening, the moon could be so unbelievably brilliant, just in case they had finally come to get me.......

Oh, btw, the sharpened saw is a revalation, not a single trip of the thermal overload and straight through those extra tough knots. Many thanks to JN for his paitience with a metal file.