The Sprayer

When I was a kid, my dad had one of those old metal can type pump sprayers. He would mix up a batch of smelly stuff in the can, put the pump lid on with a twist to lock it in place, and pump the handle a few times to build up pressure to spray the mixed up smelly stuff on whatever the target of the day was. Sometimes it was the fruit trees we had in the back yard, other times mom's flowers or vegetables in the yard or garden, but dad always had bottles of stuff he used to improve his yard, garden, and fruit trees.

When I got my first house, I wanted to spray for bugs and such outdoors so I went out and bought a pump sprayer of my own. I might as well have thrown the money out the window and saved the trip for the good I got out of it. It worked fine the first 2 minutes out of the box, but the plastic tanked sprayer sprung a leak the very next time I tried to pump up the pressure, so back to the store it went. My replacement idea was one of those hose end sprayer attachments that you put the chemicals in the plastic jug, set the sprayer on the desired amount of mixture, and hook a hose to the works and spray away. I use this type of sprayer a lot, but I quickly discovered that it takes a lot of hose to get around 5 acres... and I don't have that much hose anyway.

Now farmers have got this spraying stuff down to an art form. The sprayers they use around my place resemble a bird in some respects as the long folding boom spray arms resemble birds wings, and the extremely high clearance machines move across fields so fast that they resemble a huge slow flying bird to me. The summer follow in front of our place was attacked by one of these mechanized sprayer birds yesterday, and it didn't seem to take more than a half hour or so to cover the field. I mean this thing moves!

To add to it's appeal to me, it's got unreal ground clearance, and it's much quieter than I expected. I don't know what they use for a power plant, but I expected pumps for spray and the engine noise would be much louder than they were. One of these years, I'll get a chance to see one of these machines up close and learn about what their real capabilities are, but when I compare them to dad's old hand pump, they still do pretty the same thing only on a much larger scale.

Farming and gardening would sure be a lot different today if it were not for chemists and mechanical engineers. Between the chemicals we use to enhance our organic output/harvest and the machines and devices invented to distribute the products that control bugs or fertilize, advanced technology makes life much easier.

Now all I need to do is find the perfect sprayer to go after some of the bugs and weeds I'm trying to keep under control around the farm(stead). Maybe one of those ATV sprayer attachments modified to fit the Jeep would work...

Cut From The Herd

Margie and I have spent a good amount of time working in the yard the last couple days. I came to the conclusion yesterday that some of the brush piles around the place should be left as "wildlife habitat". Whether or not I want wildlife habitat is not strictly based on the amount of work required to move the piles... but it was taken into consideration. We moved a couple old lawn chairs into a sheltered area out of the wind for a break and decided we are certainly not part of the herd anymore.

For us, gone are the days of sitting in rush hour traffic jams wondering if we will make it to work on time. Standing in line seems a distant memory when we go to the county offices for business and step right up to the counter without having to "take a number". We don't have much experience with drive up fast food windows around here, but it seems to us that you drive right up to the window and don't sit in a long line of cars for long around here unlike the city.

We don't play golf anymore, but I'd bet I can get a tee time just about anytime at the golf courses around here. UPS and FedEx seem to be just as fast with their delivery around here in the country as it ever was in the big city. There isn't much we could want that we can't get nearby or order delivered via the internet.

We're sure glad we cut from the city herd. City excitement isn't for us, and we sure found the perfect place at the opposite end of spectrum. As we watched a half dozen deer running across our neighbors winter wheat field, we were reminded that the type of herd you run with is just as important as where.

The War Continues

Much of last winter, spring, and summer were spent on the weed war as long time readers recall. We've knocked down, chopped through, burned, and sprayed our way to having the majority of the farm(stead) cleaned up. So yesterday was nice and we decided to get back to the reclaim the wilderness project we started around here and fully intend to complete.

For whatever reason, just north of our house has been the most time consuming area to clean up. There were several down limbs from old trees that had to be cut up to be moved. There was a stack of 1/2 length railroad ties that had been neatly stacked that had been used under the jacks that supported the house when the basement was put in sometime in the past to get rid of. Lilac bushes had been neglected for a while and needed to be cleaned out, a broken down shed and other stuff that needed to be moved. The old chicken coops had their fences removed and the buildings painted, and just a general clean up of some neglected area was required.

Margie had made quite a big stack of Lilac brush we needed to move and we thought we could see the light at the end of the cleanup tunnel, so yesterday we played pack mule and moved the pile, raked the area of down bark and small branches left over from our previous chain saw work in the area, and knocked down the remainder of the left over weeds in this area we had not gotten to until now. We collected all the mulch branches, leaves, and bark and moved it to our burn pile from the area... and we're still not done!

I look out the window this morning and there is still one small pile of mulch and leaves to pick up, plus the stack of rocks we placed by a tree as we've come across them around the area, and a complete railroad tie to move. I've got to get the shovel fired up and move a little dirt to level out a couple places to make mowing easier, and wah-la! We'll be done!

Only problem I can see with this plan is that the dang stuff wants to grow back all the time. It won't be long until the weeds start their Spring offensive, but we're a lot better prepared than last year for starters so bring it on weeds... we're ready for ya!

Kittens & Calves

Ah yes, the population explosion going on around us lets us know Spring is close at hand, even though the low this morning at our place was +6. Cattle folks around here appear to have a goodly amount of new blood in the herd as there are new calves everywhere you look. I want to find out how these cold snaps and light snow storms effect the newborns. Dang... baby cows are cute!

Speaking of cute, our barn cat had kittens. Grandma Margie nursed mama cat and the 4little ones through our last cold snap, but this time mama cat moved them to our hay mow. Looks like as good a place as any to me. Lot's of old hay for them to stay warm and dry, and with Margie feeding them, I think they will likely live.

To say that I'm a cat person would be a lie. I really don't care much for cats as I'm much more a dog person, but Margie has adopted the cats, and I have to admit the little ones are pretty cute. It should be fun to watch them play as they continue to grow through the Spring. We may just help the mouse and rat population diminish while we're at it. I gotta look for the positive of having a bunch of cats around the place.

Machines

Moving day came and went for my daughter and her husband over the weekend, and we were there to lend a hand. Those U-Haul trucks are pretty handy moving vehicles with a built in ramp to make loading and unloading much easier, and now-a-days they even come with a two wheel hand truck/dolly. That simple machine can sure make moving a lot easier.

As we were heading out of town on our way to Colorado Territory for the scheduled move, we passed Cambridge High School and the line up of tractors in the parking lot. I'm not sure how I missed it, but Margie knew it was take your tractor to school day. Those tractors were lined up about as perfectly as I think you could line tractors up.

We were were quickly reminded that Denver seems to be the Jeep capitol of the world as we saw what seemed like hundreds of highly modified off road vehicles all over town. Every time I go to Denver I recall that I used to think the traffic around town was reasonable. Wow... what was I thinking? I'm spoiled by our light traffic after living in southwest Nebraska for sure!

On our travels through Denver we did spot a couple more interesting machines. The first was more about the guy riding the motorcycle than the motorcycle. I didn't get to see what kind of bike it was, but it had saddle bags and a fellow in a brown suit with high leather boots and wool cabbie style hat. I've never been to Paris, but this guy was the spittin' image of what I would expect a motorcycle rider in Paris to look like. Oh yes... his curly handlebar mustache definitely added to the scene.

The last machine I really noticed was one of those old style bicycle designs with the huge front wheel. I've never seen anyone ride one, and I still haven't as the owner of the the bike was stuck waiting for a traffic light. I've always wondered how they got on and off, but I missed my change by not getting caught at the light.

Passing through some the sparsely populated country of eastern Colorado, you can't help but think of the old timers that moved across this country by Ox and wagon. I guess I'll stay happy with smooth roads and a 65MPH speed limit.