Friday - We started the weekend early. We found a deal on a tractor on eBay that was available in Lyons, NE. We won the tractor at an amazingly low price considering it came with a mower deck, snow plow, snowblower, and a tiller. All at least 3.5′ to 4′ wide. Also had wheel weights and chains, and a vinyl winter cab enclosure. We rented a U-haul trailer in Omaha, picked it up and delivered it directly to Two Barn Farm.

Saturday -A few errands to start the day. We returned the trailer, signed Reagan up for the Peoples Trust and Savings Bank Triathlon in Grand Junction, Then found the town of Perry. What a neat town. The old downtown had a metropolitan feel, and we found a great coffee shop, the Highland Elk. The John Deere dealer is in Perry, and we needed a new mower belt for the tractor. Finally we were able to get to work. I mowed the driveway, the area in front of the shed, everything around the corn crib, and a path to the barn. Man, that grass was tall. After blowing the grass outwards for 4-5 rows, the clippings were bogging down the mower. I’d skip a row, then make 2-3 counter-rotating laps to create a large row of clippings. Reagan and Mason did a lot of cleanup by picking up more sticks. I helped by using the truck to haul a dead tree, and two large branches over to the brush pile.

Sunday -OK, I have to admit the next part of the story sounds odd. One of those new city boy things to do. Any old farmer out there would have said “That is not what we mean by plowing a field.” I put the snowplow blade on the tractor, and used it to push the rows of clippings into a large pile. I was pushing piles of clippings as tall as the mower hood, and it was rolling over the sides of the plow like snow would. Laugh all you want, I’d do it again it worked so well. At least I wasn’t raking and hauling it all. I made a large pile near the East side of the property, then also cleaned the clippings from the path to the barn and the small area we cleared over there. I also had a large pile of hay from when we cleaned out the hay loft a few months back. I did have to loosen parts of that pile with a pitchfork, as it was already starting to compost. Before long, I was working that plow forwards and backwards with that blade and had it scraped clean and made a huge compost pile.

I had already picked a location for the pile. There was a small drop off that ran from the front of the barn to a few trees several yards away. So the pile went under the drop, and over by the trees. Two Barn Farm will have compost next year, lots of it.

While I was doing this, Reagan took some hand tools into the corn crib, and began removing some of the crib walls. The rest of the ladder chute is gone, and she removed one of the bin walls. I think the space of two combined bins looks quite large, and gives me good feelings about the size of our living room and kitchen areas. The highlight of the day, Reagan went to pry off a board, and the corner of the board over the crowbar splintered and a large piece went flying directly into Reagan’s forehead. Reagan said it was “like a 3-D movie effect.” She felt it for bleeding, which it never did, but she says she could feel the knot grow. The picture of this is a laugh.

Monday -Somehow, we managed to sleep in a bit. Chuck Offenburger was excited about the fact that we were the first people to stay the night at that farmstead in years. And our first night on the property was also a historic moment. Did I not tell you of our sleeping arrangements? We car-camped, and I mean it. The nice thing about having a huge truck - space. Mason slept on the front seat, Reagan took the back seat, and I used a few camping mats and slept in the back of the truck, under the topper. We never replaced our tent after it was destroyed on RAGBRAI last year.

So anyway, after lounging in the truck and planning on what we wanted to do this morning, or more truthfully, how little we wanted to do. The morning mist parted, and out came the Offenburger SUV. Our hero Chuck came jumping out with two cups of coffee and invited us into their lunch plans, which we accepted. This also meant we had to stick around and do a bit more work to pass the time.

We do subscribe to the idea that healthy soil can be built by not tilling. In Colorado, the ground always got too hard to not till, and we did not have any present way to control the weeds on a swatch of farm that had previously farmed. We hooked up the tiller to the tractor and Reagan got to work chopping the weeds into the dirt. I spent some time testing the generator by using the Sawzall to trim down those large branches a bit. I also cleaned up the shed some, then finished up the tilling.

Our old tiller, which is the style most people have. Two wheels, a few tines, and a small motor on top. It would shake the life out of you after 30 minutes. The tractor mounted one, you had to look back for flying dirt to make sure it was working. It made for slow forward movement, but took no effort. I feel so spoiled now.
We had a great cookout at the Offenburgers along with a few other friends, then we headed back to Omaha. We have not done much of anything today. Mason and Tieta did get a lot of hair removed. Mason’s last day of school is tomorrow.

Don’t forget the Gallery, with more pictures of the weekend.