Early Spring Cleaning in My Equipment Barn
There's always lots to do on a working farm - even when the weather doesn't cooperate.
With spring officially starting in just a couple of weeks, my gardeners and outdoor grounds crew will soon be busy with a new list of seasonal chores. Over these last few weeks of winter, the weather has been quite erratic - snow and ice with below freezing temperatures as well as milder days with lots of rain and mud. Whenever it's stormy outside, I encourage everyone to take stock of the equipment, clean everything, and then organize all the tools and supplies. My large Equipment Barn is about 40 by 120 feet, with a substantial amount of height. It is where we store mowers, blowers, tractors, tools, and other pieces of important machinery. Not long ago, we cleared the space, swept the floor and inspected every item before returning it neatly to its spot, so everything is organized and ready for use. Keeping everything well maintained and properly stored will always save time in the long run.
Enjoy these photos.
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- I built this Equipment Barn soon after purchasing the farm. There are two giant sliding doors at each end for accessing equipment. This structure is located just down the carriage road from my main greenhouse and close to my vegetable greenhouse and hay barn. To clean it thoroughly, everything is brought out, the floor is cleaned and then everything is returned to its proper place. At night, this barn accommodates all our farm vehicles and equipment.
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- The Equipment Barn is well lit with these big overhead lamps. I use very utilitarian lighting and fans where I can on the farm.
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- The rugged cement floors are all blown of debris and washed.
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- Ladders of various sizes rest against one wall close to one set of large barn doors.
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- Near the ladders, we keep all the wheelbarrows. These are very helpful for carrying mulch and tools to various gardens. I always remind the crew to use the right tools for the right jobs and to bring everything they may need to complete specific tasks.
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- Here’s Chhiring checking all the hard rakes. Some of the tines of this one were slightly bent from use, but Chhiring is able to hammer it back into proper shape.
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- All the tools are brought to the sink for cleaning. Here are some of the spades and shovels. Do you know the difference between a shovel and a spade? Shovels are broad-bottomed tools for moving loose materials, while spades tend to have a flat bottom edge for digging.
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- Pasang looks up and smiles as he washes all the tools.
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- Once cleaned, all the gardening tools are hung on sturdy hooks.
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- The tools are hung on these flip-up holders – they’re made of steel with a vinyl coating, and can hold up to 50-pounds each.
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- We keep like items together, so we always know where to find them and how many we have in supply.
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- On this section of wall, we hang all the leaf blowers and weed-whackers, or string trimmers. Our blowers are made by STIHL. We’ve been using STIHL’s backpack blowers for years here at my farm. These blowers are powerful and fuel-efficient. The gasoline-powered engines provide enough rugged power to tackle heavy debris while delivering much lower emissions. The long handled tools are STIHL’s telescoping pole pruners. These come in very handy and are extremely lightweight. Plus, with an adjustable shaft, the telescoping pole pruner can cut branches up to 16 feet above the ground.
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- This is STIHL’s backpack battery and hand blower. The backpack battery eliminates the cost of fuel and engine oil and can be used with several other useful accessories.
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- STIHL’s most well-known tool is the chainsaw. STIHL designed and built its first electric chain saw in 1926 and 94 years later, it is still one of its best pieces of equipment. The chainsaw has soft grips for comfortability and secure maneuverability.
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- All the STIHL batteries are returned to their charging stations, so they’re ready to use the next day.
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- On this side of the Barn, we keep our fleet of Kubota mowers. They are all parked by the back entrance to the barn during the summer season when they are used daily. Here is my Kubota SZ22NC-48 stand-on mower. We use this to mow areas where the riding mower cannot go.
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- This is my Kubota ZD1211-60 zero turn riding mower. It has a 24.8 horsepower diesel engine and a wide mower deck.
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- We keep our big Kubota tractors parked in the Equipment Barn also. This is my Kubota model M62 tractor. It is used every single day for transporting soil, mulch, heavy pots, multiple tools, organic debris and so much more. A tractor is essential to any working farm. It also holds our Kubota backhoe for big digging jobs.
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- This is our Kubota M4-071 tractor. It’s designed to use auxiliary equipment such as the L1154 front loader that helps us transport so many things around the farm – potted plants, mulch, wood, etc.
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- On the back is our Land Pride PR1690 Power Rake. This piece of equipment has a 90-inch rake to work on large properties. We are using it to rake and grade the carriage roads, but it is also capable of windrowing soil, rocks, and debris in a field. When it is lowered onto the road surface and tilted to the proper angle, this attachment moves the gravel and road dust to the center, creating the proper crown for the road.
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- The wood chipper is another important piece of equipment at the farm. I am fortunate to have this machinery to chip fallen or cut branches and then return them to the woodland for top dressing various areas.
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- And hung up on this wall is this clever contraption. This tool is used for raking the four-miles of carriage road at the farm. We attached four soft rakes to pieces of wood that hook up to the back of our Polaris ATV. The roads are neatly raked as one drives.
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- Finally, all the safety equipment is counted and placed within close reach. The Equipment Barn is clean and organized once again and ready for the busy spring season ahead. What spring cleaning and organizing goals do you have?
Martha Pins
Martha Tweets
