Welcome

So I’ve decided to through my hat into the ring on starting a blog. I’m hoping you will find this interesting and worth a good laugh or two.

My name is Stephanie. My husband and I farm in Northeast Kansas. We raise corn, soybeans, cattle and one son.

My goal with this is to show you a different take on farming, from a moderately involved farm wife’s point of view that is. I also hope that you will be able to impress people with your new found knowledge of the farm and farm work.

So here we go….

(Boots on the Ground and in the…) Shop.

Yes I’m a woman and yes I know the difference between a wrench and a ratchet. I also know the difference between metric and standard sizes. This also means I get my hands dirty, sometimes to the point where they don’t come clean. Especially under my finger nails, so if you see me with dirty hands it is not because I haven’t washed them about five times it’s just because they are temporarily stained or as a friend suggested I just might be on the forefront of the latest trend in manicures. J

That being said my husband and I have been working on tractors as of late. You know simple things like taking the rear axle off of a large front wheel assist tractor (those tractors with the large chunky tires on the front and back) and splitting a smaller tractor in two. (Okay so the not quite so simple stuff ;-).)

To spit this tractor we had to undo all of the lines, wires and bolts that hold and cross over the center of the tractor. Not to mention figure out a way to hold up both sides and roll them apart. I took off the sheet metal (the stuff that covers the engine) on the left side (that is the side the un-split picture is looking at), unhooked the steering lines (yes tractors have power steering just like cars), and the fuel line. All of this was to get to the clutch in the center of the tractor (the area where my husband’s hand is in the split tractor picture).

The clutch on this tractor is shot, meaning it basically didn’t have a clutch that worked for anything. If you have never driven a standard transmission vehicle a clutch is one of the most important parts. You have to push the clutch pedal (to the left of the brake pedal) in the car to the floor to start the car, same goes for some tractors like this one. Then to put the car into gear or change gears once you get moving you have to push the clutch pedal each time. When you push down on the clutch pedal in the car it activates the clutch which is connected to the transmission which enables you to start the car or change gears. So without the clutch your car, or this tractor, has no way to start or go anywhere. Thus the clutch is a very important part of the vehicle, and this is why we had to split this tractor.

As a side note, while we have the tractor split we decided to take the steering motor off and have preventative maintenance done to it. This was a very good choice because taking the steering motor off of this split tractor took me all of five minutes. When I took the steering motor off the front wheel assist tractor earlier this week it took three hours!!! Oh and I had to nearly stand on my head for half of the time getting to eight small and hard to reach bolts. And of course that doesn’t include putting it back on, ugh. Sometimes doing the hard things in life really make you appreciate the easy stuff.

But back to topic of working on our now split tractor, the other cool thing about doing things like helping my husband split this tractor is getting the double take from others, especially men. The funniest is when a guy who doesn’t really know you over hears your conversation about doing stuff like this and then cocks his head to the side when he looks at you the second time with a slightly confused look on his face, priceless. J

I also like doing things like this because it’s pretty cool to know that you can take something apart, get a few new parts, put it back together and have it work like new. It’s kind of like taking that really difficult recipe of that really cool dish they made on a cooking show and actually being able to make it taste and look as good as it did on TV or in the picture of the cookbook.

And yes working on a tractor inevitably means getting dirty and stained cloths no matter how hard you try to keep clean. It also means new calluses cuts, scraps and gashes caused by a slipping wrench or an off kilter screw driver among other things. However, all those calluses, cuts, scrapes and new scars on my hands are from working; working hard and not just living life but experiencing life on the farm. Something I want to pass on to our son.

I hope you’ll stay tuned to hear more about things I’ve mentioned already (like the difference between wrenches and ratchets), our crops, cattle and the not so normal day to day life on our farm.

Later,

The Moderately Involved Kansas Farm Wife