BUMP IN THE ROAD: REPLACING THE CLUTCH IN OUR WHITE TRACTOR. One day this Fall we had got to the end of one field digging our crop of Organic Seed Potatoes. Then Caleb babied the White 135 with its ailing clutch into the shop. You can see the Lockwood Potato Harvester – beyond the garage door – still attached to the White.
Almost every ‘new’ used tractor we buy ends up needing a new clutch sooner than later. The need for a new clutch appeared during harvest despite purposefully having deploying the 135 for previous Summer and Fall tillage work to try and expose the need for any repairs ahead of Potato harvest.
So, it’s akin to buying a used car in Maine. Dollars to donuts you’ll need to buy a new battery before Christmas when the first early cold exposes the worn-out-condition of the old ‘Summer’ battery.
In this photo, Caleb is using a Clark forklift to lift out the engine, guided by Justin. Justin’s son, two-and-a-half-year-old red-headed Jack (with blue Logger sweatshirt) is happy to be included in the action.
Once the engine was removed, the boys could determine exactly what clutch-assembly parts needed to be replaced. A quick call to Andy McConnell, across the line in Canada, confirmed he had in-stock each and every part we needed . Once we had the parts, it took only half a day to put everything back together.
Then we were ready to go and move on to dry ground when it finally arrived. Caleb, Megan & Jim
Category: General
CALEB CHECKING CONTROL PANEL CONNECTIONS ON ‘NEW’ WOOD PRAIRIE ‘LOCKWOOD’ POTATO HARVESTER. Sitting in the cab of our 1
CALEB CHECKING CONTROL PANEL CONNECTIONS ON ‘NEW’ WOOD PRAIRIE ‘LOCKWOOD’ POTATO HARVESTER. Sitting in the cab of our 135-horsepower ‘White 135’ Diesel tractor, Caleb troubleshoots a connection on the intricate two-row ‘Lockwood 4620 Aire Potato Harvester’ control panel.
For a late 1990s machine, this Lockwood has relatively low hours. It’s first two Aroostook County Potato farmer-owners both kept this Harvester in reserve as a backup should the Fall turn wet and nasty.
Fred, the third owner and the retiring seed farmer we bought the machine from, was a careful and meticulous grower who only grew a moderate acreage of Potatoes. So, the machine is in good shape.
In exchange for the Lockwood’s added operational complication, as compared to our much simpler one-row Finnish ‘Juko Potato Harvester,’ we receive superior mechanical separation of Potatoes from rocks and clods – that means less human labor – thanks to the powerful and ingenuous Air-head vacuum separator.
This behemoth Lockwood is 28-feet long and utilizes a color-monitoring-screen in the cab, linked to three cameras, which ascertains Potato flow at three key locations not visible to the operator in the cab.
That expanded-metal sheeting attached to the Lockwood, through which this shot was taken, prevents an overly-enthusiastic worker from crowning Caleb with an ancient glacial rock.
Caleb, Megan & Jim
THIS YEAR’S MAINE POTATO HARVEST ON WOOD PRAIRIE FAMILY FARM. This shot of our Potato Harvest we took on a so-far-rare
THIS YEAR’S MAINE POTATO HARVEST ON WOOD PRAIRIE FAMILY FARM. This shot of our Potato Harvest we took on a so-far-rare dry day last week.
Caleb is driving the White 135 Diesel tractor (note the added
Justin drives the International truck with the 140-Barrel ‘Bulk Body’ which is fed by the hinged-boom coming from the Lockwood.
Jim (blue t-shirt) and Adam (out of view) give a hand sorting and separating the rocks from the Organic Maine Certified Seed Potatoes on the ‘Lockwood Green’ Harvester.
The “airhead” on the Lockwood takes advantage of the difference in density between Potatoes and rocks. By creating a vacuum the airhead successfully performs most of the separation work, reducing materially the role of human beings.
Caleb, Megan & Jim
THIS MORNING: PUTTING AWAY ORGANIC MAINE CERTIFIED SEED POTATOES. We bottomed out with a low of +35oF at first light.
THIS MORNING: PUTTING AWAY ORGANIC MAINE CERTIFIED SEED POTATOES. We bottomed out with a low of +35oF at first light.
Last night we worked until dark so we could finish digging one seed lot of Sarpo Mira,
Here (from left to right) is Justin (on the forklift), Megan (green cap), Caleb’s sister Amy (pink Hoodie, with no classes this semester on Fridays she drove up from college last night so she could help), and Caleb (next to the 70-Barrel Bulk Body trailer. Caleb’s Rottweiler ‘Ralph’ supervises, hoping someone will toss him a stick.
Pulled by a tractor, this smaller Bulk Body trailer is working better in this Fall’s wet Maine ground.
We’ve had over 28″ of rain since it turned wet on May 21. Crop quality looks good but the yields are smaller – thanks to too much rain & cloudy days – than in recent years. Caleb, Megan & Jim
NEW POST SHARED FROM ‘SOUTHERN AROOSTOOK SOIL AND WATER CONSERVATION DISTRICT.’ Originally posted by Angie Wotton who us
NEW POST SHARED FROM ‘SOUTHERN AROOSTOOK SOIL AND WATER CONSERVATION DISTRICT.’ Originally posted by Angie Wotton who used to work for us. For many years she has now been the manager of SASWCD in Houlton and
with her husband, Ryan, has a farm in Hammond Plantation.Last week Caleb bought a couple of wheels for our International Bulk Body truck from Sam Dunbar’s equipment business. He’s now 18 years older than he was as the muddy red-hatted boy at right in the photo. Jim
https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=711604914344883&set=a.465384295633614
Resurrected this photo from 2005(!) when yours truly worked at Wood Prairie Family Farm and hauled several kids each fall to pick potatoes. I thought of this rained-out day photo as the beginning of this year’s
potato harvest is looking too similar. Be extra kind to farmers! It’s been a tough growing year and lots of rain before potato harvest doesn’t make it any easier. Here’s to the weather turning around and a successful harvest for all of our growers.
POST-TROPICAL-STORM-LEE EXITS MAINE. As was the prediction we received a couple of inches of rain from Lee. The rain e
POST-TROPICAL-STORM-LEE EXITS MAINE. As was the prediction we received a couple of inches of rain from Lee. The rain ended overnight and its still breezy, though the 50 mph gusts never materialized. We never
lost our power.We’re almost 150 miles inland and that distance usually provides Northern Maine with adequate protection from Tropical systems.
When our boys were young we all took a Hunter Safety course taught by a local lifelong hunter. It was his opinion that anyone going into the woods should carry three compasses. The theory was if you have only one compass you can’t know for sure that it’s working right. If you have two and have they conflict, you won’t know which one is correct. So, by having three, you benefit from majority rule.
In Aroostook County, there’s an expression, “If a little bit’s good, a lots gotta be better.” Folk wisdom distills itself down in mysterious ways.
Jim
UPDATE. CURRENT EXPECTED PATH OF ‘HURRICANE LEE.’ The path has shifted slightly eastward and is now expected to pass th
UPDATE. CURRENT EXPECTED PATH OF ‘HURRICANE LEE.’ The path has shifted slightly eastward and is now expected to pass through Yarmouth, Nova Scotia.
Biggest impact in Maine will be the Downeast Coast.
Wood Prairie Family Farm is located almost 150 miles inland. Our Town of Bridgewater is expected to receive 2+” of rain, sustained winds up to 26 mph and gusts up to 43 mph.
Away from the coast, for most of inland Maine, forecasters are advising Mainers to expect the equivalent of a strong Northeaster (‘Nor’easter’) storm.
In Northern Maine we don’t need more water. Since May 21, with our wet Summer continuing, to date we’ve received over 24.5″ of rain. It takes 14″ to grow a crop of Potatoes.
While Potatoes like water, too much of any good thing becomes a problem.
Caleb, Megan & Jim
MEGAN’S KITCHEN RECIPES. “Whole Grain Rosemary Bread.” Now that Fall has arrived in Maine it’s baking time. Do you al
MEGAN’S KITCHEN RECIPES. “Whole Grain Rosemary Bread.” Now that Fall has arrived in Maine it’s baking time. Do you also bake more during Fall and Winter?
JIm
Dry ingredients:
3/4 c spelt flour
1 1/2 c whole wheat flour
3/4 c sugar
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp sea salt
Wet ingredients:
3 eggs
1 c olive oil
3/4 c whole milk
1 1/2 T fresh rosemary, finely chopped
5 ounces bittersweet chocolate (70% cacao), chopped into 1/2-inch pieces
1 T sugar for top crunch
Preheat the oven to 350ºF. Rub a loaf pan with olive oil. Sift the dry ingredients into a large bowl, pouring any bits of grain or other ingredients left in the sifter back into the bowl. Set aside.
In another large bowl, whisk the eggs thoroughly. Add the olive oil, milk and rosemary and whisk again. Using a spatula, fold the wet ingredients into the dry, gently mixing just until combined.
Stir in 2/3 of the chocolate. Pour the batter into the pan, spreading it evenly and smoothing the top. Sprinkle with the remaining chocolate and run a fork along the length of the chocolate so that the batter envelops it just a bit. Sprinkle with the second sugar.
Bake for about 40 minutes, or until the top is domed, golden brown, and a skewer inserted into the center comes out clean. The cake can be eaten warm or cool from the pan, or cooled, wrapped tightly in plastic, and kept for a maximum of 2 days.
Serves 8 -12.
Megan
MAINE TALES. “High Crimes and Misdemeanors.” Bridgewater, Maine. Circa 1998. With the benefit of hindsight it
MAINE TALES. “High Crimes and Misdemeanors.” Bridgewater, Maine. Circa 1998.
With the benefit of hindsight it would have just been a lot smarter to just pay the foolish $300 fine. However, following age-old tradition, organic farmers are afflicted with a condition in which they seldom choose the easy route.
Thinking and acting outside of the box has its costs. The title of one farmer-written book hints at the dilemma: “Everything I Want To Do Is Illegal.” It’s not that farmers are trying to be ornery. It’s just that our ideas aren’t always in sync with laid-down law. Or maybe the law hasn’t caught up to where farmers function.
Back in the early 1990s here in the East, Colorado Potato Beetles, the bane of Potato farmers worldwide, were out of control. When you figure that CPBs have co-evolved with nightshade family member Potatoes for thousands of years, and they like nothing better than to feast on poisonous Potato plants, it has evolved into one tough customer. Scientists have determined it takes as few as 10-12 generations for voracious CPBs to develop resistance to any new farm insecticide thrown at them.
In cool Northern Maine in most every year, we endure just a single generation of CPBs. But in Southern Maine – with their longer growing season – CPBs usually will produce two generations. And way down on mild Long Island, New York, the historic early Potato growing haven, farmers suffer through three generations most years. By 1991, CPBs in Long Island had developed resistance to every insecticide in the conventional farmer’s chemical toolbox. There were actual reports of Potato crop failures as the masses of yellow CPB eggs hatched, and the pinhead-sized larvae rocketed to adult size in a matter of days or weeks – depending on weather and temperature – fueled by voracious consumption of poisonous Potato plants.
In that crop crisis extremity, Riverhead, Long Island Potato Extension agent Dr. Dale Moyer dove into action. Working with local beleaguered Potato farmers, Dale invented a tractor-mounted Potato Flamer, powered by propane gas and designed to speed through the field at 4 mph. The Flamer was deployed to singe-kill egg-bearing female CPBs as they sunned themselves atop newly emerged Potato plants, while inflicting minor burn damage to the rugged Potato plants. Since each female is capable of laying up to four-hundred eggs per season, a timely takedown of female CPBs proved remarkably effective in lessening the hatch and decimating the numbers of hungry larva. It’s the insatiable appetite of the fast-growing larva which causes the most CPB defoliation in a Potato field. After experimenting with system variables such as distance between Flamer burner and plant, gas pressure setting and tractor ground speed, an effective system was invented and it proved invaluable in saving Long Island Potato crops.
Soon after, Dale was invited up to Winter Potato School in Aroostook County, Maine, to tell the tale of his new CPB flamer. Intrigued by the Flamer design and its possibilities, after his presentation I pestered Dale for component details and the phone number of his propane burner fabricator in Michigan. Wood Prairie then ordered eight burners, enough for a 6.5-foot solid flame curtain. That Spring with the valuable help of an open-minded local propane expert we fabricated a Flamer unit and mounted it on the front of a tractor. We mounted the fuel tank as far away as possible onto the rear tractor hitch. As promised, the Flamer did a nice job killing female CPBs. As an added bonus we learned it was also giving us excellent in-row weed control. Not long after, we were hearing reports of other New England organic farmers adopting the Flamers and after making minor modifications, successfully using their Flamer to topkill Potato plants ahead of harvest. We adopted this practice of ‘flaming tops’ in order to arrest Potato plant growth during the juvenile stage, locking-in extra vigor into seed tubers. That vigor enhancement resulted in better performance, stronger growth and higher yields in the next generation of Potatoes.
Some years later, on a misty Sunday afternoon I was pushing hard to finish flame-killing our field of Organic Seed Potatoes ahead of a heavy rainfall forecast to begin that evening. As I drove the Flamer approaching Kinney Road, I noticed a dark green pickup truck that had driven up and parked opposite the Flamer on the road. Turns out it was our friend, local Maine Forest Ranger Dana Beals. The first words out of Dana’s mouth were, “Jim, I hope you’ve got a permit. They radioed it into Island Falls.” Translated, this statement meant: I hope you have a Fire Permit. The spotter airplane (a newer, less expensive technology which put the final kibosh on mountaintop Fire Lookouts) making its north-south grid pattern flight saw the smoke from the Flamer and radioed it into the Maine Forest Service headquarters in Island Falls. Then Island Falls sent me out here to determine the source of smoke.
My reply was, “Dana, I’ve been flaming for five years without any problem. There’s no wildfire risk, so no, I don’t have a permit.” And I was telling the truth. Religiously and frugally, I shut off the Flamer fuel supply before I got to the end of the row. Where I turnaround on the headlands there was twenty-feet of bare-soil-buffer before there was any adjacent grass or trees which could theoretically catch fire. I did my best to explain to Dana the well-established Long Island Flamer technique and the safety of its operation as he had just himself witnessed. Unmoved, Dana said, “They know about you in Island Falls. I gotta write you up.” My reply was, “Don’t get yourself in trouble on my account, do what you have to do.”
As he attempted to write out my summons on his pad, the steady and increasing mist had so wetted his paper that his pen wouldn’t work. I bit the inside of my cheeks hard to abort a growing involuntary grin over the ridiculousness of this fire-safety-theater. Dana was a good man and a dedicated public servant. In no way did I want Dana to possibly think I was disrespecting him.
After handing me my summons, Dana drove off. The mist had morphed into rain and under the circumstances it was an easy call to end the flaming for the year. Next day I called our lawyer. Tom laid out the likely sequence of events going forward. Soon, I received notification of the day and time of my arraignment at the courthouse in the Shiretown of Houlton. It was to be in the middle of potato harvest. Back in those days we still dug with a John Deere- 2-Row Digger and picked Potatoes by hand into buckets. Since I was Diggerman, I went out extra early that morning and dug up enough rows so the pickers would have plenty of Potatoes dug ahead to keep them going.
I drove down to Houlton and entered the courtroom inside the hundred-year-old Courthouse. In the front row of seats sat a phalanx of a half-dozen burley, stone-faced Maine Forest Rangers, green pants, tan shirt, arms folded, Dana among them. Sober and grim-faced they sat motionless and stared straight ahead. Dana was the only one of them who had ever seen the Long Island Flamer in action. I was being charged with “Open Flame” without a Fire Permit. The objective reality of minimal fire risk had been replaced by officialdom’s wild imaginings of reckless usage of a renegade flame-thrower. Overreaction, face-saving and the official desire to make periodic public examples all came to mind. When asked by the judge I stood up and pled Not Guilty. And when he offered me a choice, this populist opted for a jury trial of my common-sense Maine peers.
Eventually a March trial date was set. All winter long, our lawyer attempted to negotiate with the District Attorney to try to get the case dismissed. Tom tried to argue the Flamer was just a new agricultural technology, developed and advocated for by the government. He argued campers are allowed a campfire in the woods without needing to first secure a Fire Permit for their “Open Flame.” And getting back to the topic of agriculture, in the entire storied history of the State of Maine, not one single farmer out of the 8000 who remained in the late 1990s had ever stopped to pick up a Fire Permit before they drug out their acetylene torch to make an “Open Flame” field repair on a piece of broken-down farm equipment.
At one point I provided Tom with a Cooperative Extension Service cassette video which Dale Moyer had commercially produced in order to educate farmers about how to construct and use this new and safe Flamer technology. Tom got the DA to sit down and watch the video with him, all to no apparent avail.
Finally, after months of meetings and negotiations, March had rolled around, and still there had been no movement. Then, just days before the trial was set to begin, the DA finally relented and indicated he would drop all charges if I were to promise going forward to get a Fire Permit before I flamed. Deal!
In the end, we spent way more money on Tom’s billing, despite his being an old school, generous, non-pecuniary kind of lawyer, than would have been the financial outlay for pleading guilty at the outset and paying the fine.
If age has generated any wisdom at all in this farmer’s life, it is to be more careful in picking my battles and to let go of the little things.
Jim
POURING CONCRETE ON A HOT MAINE DAY ON WOOD PRAIRIE FAMILY FARM. We began pouring at 7am this morning and finished up o
POURING CONCRETE ON A HOT MAINE DAY ON WOOD PRAIRIE FAMILY FARM. We began pouring at 7am this morning and finished up our work by 230pm.
Because our local Redimix supplier is running short of Concrete Truck Drivers, we had been on an 8-Day waiting list to get today’s 33 yards of Redimix delivered in three trucks @ 11 cubic yards each.
It just happened to work out that today was a hot day in a hot week in the mid-80s. During our cool Maine August, we had ZERO days that even reached 80oF. Only once before – in 1972 – has that ever happened in an August since weather records began to be kept at the Caribou Weather Office back in 1939).
To add to our fun, Trombley Concrete is using a new & improved cement from the Dragon Products mine in Thomaston. The new cement is “more sticky” that the old formula. Between the hot Sun and the sticky-cement, the concrete set real fast today and we had to work extra hard to keep up.
In this photo, Megan mists the Redimix to keep it workable. Caleb (straw hat) in sweat-drenched shirt is running the Power Screed. Adam (left, blue t-shirt) and Justin (right) work their concrete rakes ahead of the Screed.
In the background are killed rows of Organic Seed Potatoes awaiting their turn to get dug. Beside them is a colorful ‘Beneficial Insects’ Flower refuge which all-season-long offered protection and nourishment to Beneficial Insects which prey upon economically-damagng Potato Pests like Potato-Virus transmitting Aphids
Concrete done, tomorrow we go back to digging Potatoes.
Cale, Megan and Jim
