The Roto-tiller is fixed!

At the farm thursday was Kate and Ruth, her med school classmate.  Mike Anderson also came to help me fix the clutch on the roto-tiller, a project long in the waiting.

Over the winter the roto tiller was stored with the clutch in.  Because of this, a thin layer of rust formed around the cone, essentially locking the clutch in gear permanently.  To fix it Mike and I had to take the engine off to remove the clutch.  After spraying lots of WD-40, we put the cone in a vice and squeezed it until the layer of rust of broken.  A very loud POP audibly signaled the clutch was fixed.  People who use the roto-tiller can now enjoy the luxury of stopping!

Also, we fixed the hitch on the cultivator so that we can rip up the south side of the field (next years garden patch).  The only problem is we need more to somehow put more weight on the cultivator so the shanks dig into the earth.  Mike and I (and later Ruth and kate) stood on it for the day, but something might have to be done for later to apply the weight.

In the meantime, Ruth and Kate were weeding machines.  They essentially finished the weeding for the rest of the field. Nice work!  Everything looks great now.

At the end of the day, we planted a row of pie pumpkins, one over from the other squash rows on the south side of the field.  We applied compost and laid mulch over the seeds and we were thinking the same should be done for our tomatoes.  Apparently, most of the diseases tomatoes can get are from the leaves touching the surface of the soil, so the mulch really helps prevent that.  Also, a little compost could go a long way in getting our tomatoes up to size.

We noticed that the east side of the field is going to need some work in the area of irrigation.  Maybe that could be done Sunday?  Also, good luck with the tomato trellising.