Building a Hobby Farm- from woods to eggs

[tony123]

Originally Posted by mopacman

You keep putting that black stuff on your garden you will turn all of that pritty red dirt black.

I can't find red compost!

[tony123]

Originally Posted by jtlee

tony about the hole not big enough in draw bar will a 3/4 inch shank work
heres one for 7 bucks if it will

2" STD Hitch Ball

Thanks! I didn't look hard enough. I assumed that the larger shank was standard on the larger ball in order to get the load rating. This should work nicely. I still have to find a way to keep the draw bar from spinning. I might have a local guy fabricate a bar from the draw bar to the top link. That's got to be cheaper than the ready made units.

Rain, rain, rain last night. Why don't we get all this rain in the growing season?

[jtlee]

tony if the hitch on the trailer is not totaly worn out that drawbar wont spin at all when coupled to 2 in ball. i use same setup to pull my wagon simalar to yours all through the woods tending foodplots.

or it may be all the horsepower of my 1958 ford dexta that keeps it from spinning. (lol)

[tony123]

That's good to hear! I still have to believe it is putting stresses where they don't belong. I'll give it a shot though before fabricating anything else. I'm going to try and find that shank size locally before ordering.

[Tororider]

Tony, any news from the farm? Have you ordered your chickens yet and if so what breed? I think I am going to order mine soon. Hope all is well, need my farm in SC fix.

[tony123]

Toro, I need my SC farm fix too! Life has gotten in the way of all these "hobby" activities. But, I'm making a comittment to make some progress and have an update posted this weekend.

Have not ordered my chickens yet. We'll be away from the house for a few days in April and don't want to get them before that. I don't think day old chicks would fend for themselves very well.

Today we're going out as a family and finishing up the yard hydrant install and laying out all our new soaker hoses. I haven't placed my seed order. Actually, when at the big box yesterday, I looked at all their seeds. They aren't the exact recommended varieties, but will work out cheaper. I wonder how important it is to have all those specific varieties?

[tony123]

Alright then, we're back inside. The kids were less than cooperative so it was a short day.

I've got the waterline in place, post in place, and put it all together. We ran all our soaker hoses for a test run. Here's my helper getting the hose in the right place.



We have a PEX line running from the house to the farm (about 200') and then about 180' of soaker beyond that. The test results were marginal. It ran about 5 minutes before the first water started at the end of the run. And after a half hour, the water only spread about 8" either side of the hose. Is this typical, or am I having a problem?

Here's a shot after 20 minutes of running.



I'm pretty sure I'm going to have to break it up into two separate runs.

I had also bought an electronic timer, but if I go to two runs, I would need two timers, and that's getting more complicated than I had hoped for.

Getting that yard hydrant installed was a bear. I trasitioned from PEX to PVC with a push on fitting that was threaded on the PVC side. I got home and put it all together and the push on fitting justed crumbled in my hand. So I went and got another and got home and it did the same thing again! This time, I felt like maybe it was the PVC glue that was having a reaction with the fitting. So, I went and got ANOTHER one. I put it together this time with no glue, and it worked fine.

I do have a small leak where the PVC goes into the threaded brass of the hydrant itself. I knew I should have used plumbers tape. So, I'll run out to the store AGAIN!!! and pick that up. Pull it all apart again, and use the tape this time. I sure hope that fixes things, as I'm bored with the water project!

Here's a shot of my helper at the hydrant, and another closeup of the fittings.

[tony123]

I also found a ball with the 3/4" shank. Hooked that all up today for a trial run with the trailer. With the drawbar swiveling, I was uncomfortable, but it never came off. Still, I need to resolve that before I have a heavy load, or "precious cargo". I'm going to go to a local welder and get a piece of "L" bracket welded on either side so as to hit the swing arms and stop the swinging. I've seen more elegant solutions, but for much more money than the $10 or so this solution is likely to cost me. I may get that done today if he's around.

[tony123]

Another project in the early stages, is the fencing. I finally found my last iron pin, with the help of a friend and his metal detector. I couldn't find it because the builder had put the driveway about 6' over the neighbors property in that spot. It's not a big deal, and the neighbor is aware and has said don't bother shifting the driveway.

Anyway, I was able to pull a nice tight string between pins. I was pleasantly surprised to see that the line was several feet further up the hill than I had thought.

Now that its marked clearly, I may yet get a fence in place this year! At the very least, to get the fence in between my neighbor and I.

[tony123]

Got the plumbers tape, and it did resolve that small leak.