The carry-all

With the field officially deep broken, we moved our attention to collecting several pieces of recently acquired farm implements. Now we love Craigslist but transporting newly-purchased farm equipment is a wee bit more complicated than a few simple clicks on the Fedex website.

Hence the need for a carry-all. We've also heard it called a camel back. No doubt there are countless other terms for this rather large contraption Nathan introduced me to yesterday.

The carry-all--the red piece of equipment below--hooks to the back of a truck and can pick up wide pieces of machinery, toting them sideways down the highway.

With the carry-all hooked to a truck, you back it over the piece of equipment you want to haul. In this case we were picking up another mole board plow (the green thing), manually hoisting it up so it hangs securely . . . ish . . . for the ride home.

What never ceases to amaze me is (1) that Nathan knows about such things like carry-alls, including how to use them safely and efficiently, and (2) how stinkin long it takes to accomplish what appears to be a simple task.

After one disintegrated tire, two cans of fix-a-flat and an entire day of driving 45 mph back and forth on a foggy highway, we arrived home with the plow.

One implement down, three more to collect. Too bad there aren't any Starbucks out here.

Our winter wonderland today

 

Snow day

I've been getting some (well deserved) flack recently about not posting frequently enough. Thought I'd give a sneak peak as to why. 

Behold the beauty of uploading photos from our small town.

Pretty, isn't it.

The verbal recap for the past few days is that we've received enough snow and below-freezing temperatures to put a halt to much of anything. It will finally climb above freezing today so work resumes.

The cabin-be-fevered among us are so darn thankful. Perhaps the photo uploading gods will be kinder tomorrow.

Deep breaking

Since the completion of harvest, Nathan has been largely focused on deep breaking what was the peanut field. We're using a 49" Towner disc. Yes, you read that correctly--just the discs are 49" in diameter. The contraption as a whole is taller than I am. 

The purpose of deep breaking is threefold: (1) to bring up the clay buried beneath the sand, (2) to loosen the soil and (3) to chop up the roots lingering beneath the surface.

Using Big John to pull the plow, we're getting a depth anywhere between 20 and 24 inches.

It is a slow process and one full of surprises. Take, for example, what the Towner accidently hit as it was plowing away: an old rusted sand fighter (shown below). It seems it was left in the field, forgotten for decades and covered by sand dunes. Until now. Took three guys to dig it out.

Apparently we need to invest in a good metal detector before further plowing.

Happy Thanksgiving from Santa Fe

Family vineyard tour

Last weekend we had the delight of hosting a few beloved family members at the vineyard for a brief tour.

We started the way any self-respecting Texan would: with a tailgate party. Featured were Texas wines made from several of the grape varieties we grow, including viognier, sangiovese, tempranillo and muscato giallo. (The wines were not made from our actual grapes, of course--just from some of the same varieties we're growing. We're still two to three years out from any wines made with BSV grapes.)

The sand served as our dump bucket.

The dogs were especially intrigued but were not allowed to imbibe.

After wine and cheese we played with guns. Always a good idea.

Any nearby deer hunters were inevitably peeved by our ruckus, but we had a most enjoyable time.

We did find a few minutes to actually tour the property and then it was back to the caliche mound for additional target practice. The afternoon ended all too quickly. John, Sara and John R., y'all come back soon!

Some days

Some days it's just easier to do things the old fashioned way.