Saturday, November 14, 2009

My Head is Spinning


Wide awake at 6. Got up to make coffee, feed the inside kitties and spin, spin, spin. What a treat. I've got a giant bobbin of my latest natural colored roving plied with a tiny thread of yarn from a cone of sock yarn. It's just gorgeous and will make fabulous socks. I want to knit some boot socks for myself but it will have to wait 'til January when the shows and Christmas is over. Too much to do before then. Have to get to Waterville this morning to Louis Gale feed mill before it closes at noon. I get 100 pound sacks of chicken layer mash and cracked corn for the same price at 50 pounders at the feed stores. Worth the effort to get there, but OH, my aching back. Matt is going to work on my new 1946 Ford 8N tractor tomorrow. It should be ready to bring home in a couple of weeks, just in time to plow snow with the rear blade. Yes, you can plow snow from behind, a new concept to me. We are VERY excited about our first tractor, a long time in coming. It's old and needs a lot of work but Ron, a trucker friend who hauled in up from the South somewhere, is helping Matt fix it up. We'll paint it next summer. There are some terrific YouTube videos of people working on 8N tractors and doing things with them that we didn't realize was possible, like pulling balers and hay wagons. Tough little tractor, the 8N is well-suited to my hilly land with so many dips. It's almost too thrilling to think about, but I might be able to make my own hay next year. Unfortunately the only land left when I got to this farm was the worst for hay. Jan got the best hay land but it's not within their comfort zone to buy equipment. We'll go to auctions and find cheap equipment to fix up. It will be interesting and fun. Speaking of the outdoors, I better get out in it. The day is just beginning.

3 comments:

Anna said...

You finally got a tractor. That's exciting and will hopefully make lots of tasks much easier for you guys!

Trish said...

We plow with a back blade on our tractor. Everyone finds it hilarious that I can manage the gears, raising and lowering the blade, and handling the bucket (we use this also)-but I can't drive a car with a stick shift! You'll find this will really hep in the winter-we did find though we can't let the snow get much over 8 inches, so it sometimes takes multiple sessions while it is snowing. Looking forward to seeing you at MD-I missed both Hemlock and Rhinebeck-work got in the way.

Cornerstone Fibres said...

HURRAY a tractor :) Just what Maggies farm needs.
HUGS to all
Kim and crew