Ten days ago, I arrived back to the farm, jolly, clean and eager to do some damage to some apple suckers. Oo, oo, it was a quick start to the dirt as a visit to the rental shop brought us this little beauty.
The newest Deere in my life.
Our new toy came equipped with an earth moving bucket in the front and 2, 2 foot shanks in the back. Oh my, what a marvel! So, it was done, and the John Deere 450 was to be delivered that afternoon. We departed the rental shop to the words “Good luck. You’ll find things you never knew you had.” Hmm. I thought I heard that one somewhere before. No matter. Off, to the site.
With the intention to shank all ten acres, our first day ended by carefully staying to the west side of the new road made in July.
Why?
Well, “you’ll find things you didn’t even know you had” turned up a six inch water main, we didn’t, well, even know we had. Darnit. All that work tracking down information about the previous orchard water system in July certainly didn’t prepare us for this mondo pipe! It was as if the PVC pipe had been born from the stars and birthed from the earth beneath our eyes.
What was that?
Zoiks!
So, our first eager day of shanking ended with sun down at seven pm. Phew!
WG
 John Deere 450 |
 The Challenge |
 The Enemy |
 Lunchtime |
 The Challenger |
 Lowering the Shanks |
 Future of Chelan Terroir |
 Nothing's too big for the Shanker! |
 A tangled web we weave. |
 Getting Rid of Junk |
 Can we list "old iron pipe" on Craigslist? |
 The Super Shank Damages |
One Comment
I sympathize with you. When I ran a tractor over the Mansfield wheat fields, I was always in a cloud of Hot DUST. I was caked in it all day long except when I washed for lunch. I had to keep blowing off my glasses because they got so coated I couldn’t see. I looked like a black man. I really enjoyed a bath at the end of day, dinner and bed.
The tractors and equipment kicked up a dust cloud that looked like a dust devil and much of it settled back on me.
I would take a gallon Purex bottle (cleaned out), wrap burlap around it, fill it with cold water, get the burlap soaked with cool water and drink gobs of water. By noon, I had to fill it again. So I drank over 1 gallon of water a day, even if it warmed up. Most of it left as sweat. Most days were in the 90′s or even above 100 with engine heat raising it even more. I sure appreciated an umbrella I got the second or third summer and the shade of trees at the ranch house.