WAY COOL TOOLS BROADFORK.
Tools are truly lifesavers (and back savers) in this business and I perhaps love no tool more than the broadfork. This is a large, full-body implement that can be used for anything from plowing fresh sod to harvesting root crops. It's a very physical tool that, if you don't have a tractor, is an intensive gardening must.Last month I bought a Diamond Point Spade from Way Cool Tools, a company I've admired for some time for their commitment to American made, long-lasting products, as well as their supply of more esoteric farming tools. The next day I received a call from the owner of the company, Charles, who wondered if I would like to try out one of their broadforks and give him some feedback.You see, a couple years ago I reviewed some other broadforks and remarked that, though I loved my Meadow Creature Broadfork, I would still love to possess a lighter, more all-around version. The Meadow Creature is my moldboard plow, I needed a re-breaker, too. Charles saw this post, and was hearing similar things from many broadfork enthusiasts, so he designed one and hoped I would try it out.To get an idea of its full potential, I used the Five Tines Model Broadfork from Way Cool Tools for just about everything I could think of. At first I plowed with it, the task for which I originally fell in love with the broadfork, and the 10" long tines did an excellent job of flipping the sod without going too deep. Next, I used it to "rip" some ground from which I had just pulled crops and needed to prepare for re-planting. I enjoyed the lightness of the tool, which weighs 14 lbs––several pounds lighter than many other all-steel broadforks––and does not exhaust you in long projects, or projects in which you hope to accomplish quickly. I even found I could till slightly with the Way Cool Tools Broadfork by piercing the flipped clods and twisting the tool in the soil. For carrot harvesting, again it was the weight that came in most handy, and the tines slid nicely underneath the carrots allowing me to pop them up and pull them out with ease. For comparison in this task, I used our neighbor's broadfork which has thinner tines and wooden handles, and one of the handles immediately snapped, which would have left us without a tool in which to finish the project. I have nothing against the wood handles, per se, but I was glad to have the steel in that moment.Lastly, I want to point out that the Way Cool Tools Broadfork is the type of tool you will be passing on to your grandchildren and an unreal value at $185. Made with heat-treated steel, it's not only strong, but durable, and will last a lifetime or three. And like I told Charles over the phone, Hannah and I would never boast on our site about any tool, or a company, we weren't one-hundred percent behind. But in this age of planned obsolescence, Way Cool Tools is exactly the type of refreshing, quality-over-quantity company we should all get behind. If not in the market for a new broadfork, look through their tool catalog and expect the quality I described with this tool to translate to every one of their products.Five Tines Broadfork Specs:23" wide Cross Bar10" tines (2.5" tapering to a point)19.5" Handle Spacing14 lbs$185
A TUESDAY IN THE LIFE.
A couple of weeks ago I quickly jotted out a post about one arbitrary day in the life at the farm. I rather enjoyed it and got some good feedback, so I thought I'd make it a regular occasion––randomly selecting a day from the week, and writing down what happens in real time. So here is last Tuesday on the farm, June 24th.4:30 a.m. – 4:45 a.m.I awoke to our rooster crowing which was odd, as he usually crows much earlier, around 3:30 a.m.. Laying in bed I thought about the day before, where we had our biggest turkey loss to date: five turkeys dead to what I fear might be a disease called blackhead––caused by raising turkeys where you raised chickens––the first sign of which is often, well, death.4:45 a.m. – 5:15 a.m.Dreadfully, I went out to check on the turkeys. But somehow no deaths. At least not yet. I then built a fire in the wood stove, which seems counterintuitive during the summer, but as I told my farmer friend Pavel the day before, actually burns off the humidity and ultimately cools the house while keeping mold from growing. If you can't beat the heat, join it.5:15 a.m. – 6:45 a.m.Started writing this post, finished an article, worried about the turkeys some more. Breakfast was pork sausage, eggs and toast. Since Hannah's supposed to eat an unreal amount of protein right now, I have been likewise eating an unreal amount of protein. Pregnancy is pretty tasty.6:45 a.m.First dead turkey of the day. Hopefully the last, though the sick one next to it makes me think probably not.7 – 9:30 a.m.Got Hannah ready to go to market. Moved turkeys as far from the old chicken yard as possible, where they should have never been to begin with. Stupid farmer.9:30 – 10 a.m.Our RAM pump sits prominently in the living room which means that we're still hauling water. May and June are just not months to get anything extra done––these are months you are lucky to be able to simply maintain. All of that to say I spent this time hauling water from the Spring. I saw a crawdad, though, which was fun.10 a.m. – 12 p.m.I joined the Smiths in the garden to continue on our garlic harvest. We planted about a quarter acre of the stuff and have spent several days pulling it out. We smell awesome. The sick turkey took this opportunity to die.12 – 2 p.m.Lunch (tomato sandwiches with jalapeño, butter and fresh garlic), nap and animal upkeep. One more turkey sick, or more accurately, a dead turkey to-be.2 – 3:30 p.m.Went back to the garden to harvest more garlic, and I would have finished entirely if it hadn't started raining. I only wish the rain had lasted longer than the amount of time it took me to get all the way back to my house. We need it something awful. But at 3:30 p.m. it was barely a'drizzle.3:30 – p.m.I called Hannah while it was raining (and because we're dorks and can't go a few hours without talking) though the rain quit shortly after I got on the phone, and I felt compelled to get back to the garden and finish the garlic.4 – 5:15 p.m.Finished the garlic seconds before it started raining for the second time. Again I sprinted back to the house and, again, the rain pretty much stopped. The sick turkey I'd seen before must have somehow got better as I cannot tell which it is. This is either a good sign, or a trick.5:15 – 7:00 p.m.I read about saving corn seed which is a whole other blog post, but I then got the gumption up to start cabbage and brussels sprouts in soil blocks. We will have brussels sprouts this year, by God.7 – 9 p.m.I build a fire and make dinner (pasta with kale, broccoli and carrots) then Hannah gets back around 7:45 and we spend the rest of the evening recounting our days to one another. Hannah had a good day at market, me a productive day on the farm, only two turkeys died, got some rain, good day in all.9:15 p.m.Bed.
FATHERHOOD AHEAD.
I have struggled to come up with much new to post over the last couple months because all I've been able to think about was the one thing I couldn't actually write about––BABY. In fact, as I write this, we are still two weeks away from telling anyone––two weeks away from the end of the first trimester––but I had to get it out of my system.My own father was such a unique figure in my life. I have never viewed anyone with the same reverential awe that I viewed my father (save for my mother, of course, who received the maternal version of said awe). But around Christmas this year, I will become that figure, enigmatic to my child, yet still somewhat a child himself. I will become the voice of authority and reason and rule. Me, a Libra.In my child's childhood recollection will be his or her father somewhere in the cloudiness, doing whatever it was that defined them as "daddy" or "papa" or "dad" or "Pa"––whichever gets chosen. For me, when I travel back to my childhood, I see my father playing guitar. It's not the only thing he did, but if you were to ask me to draw a picture of my father at forty, he would be holding a guitar in his office, shirtless. I also see my father studying, reading, or talking too loudly at the movies. I remember how he once told me "You're old much longer than you're young," nudging me to take advantage of it, and the next fall I was living in New York City, getting everything I could from my youth. Then later living on a farm, meeting my wife. My father had a profound effect on my life, and in a few months time I will begin to have that same effect on my own child.Soon I will be elevated to the position my father's in now, like many boys before me, and my father will soon be a grandfather, like many boys before him. I can hear it when we talk that he's extremely excited, and I'm excited for him. For us. For everything. As overwhelming as it feels to consider my potential influence over my child, influencing him or her is part of it. I love my father with a love reserved only for fathers, thus I look forward to being that for my son or daughter and doing everything I can to be a good figure amongst his or her childhood memories, writing, playing guitar, and probably talking too loudly at movies. Part of me is definitely intimidated, nervous I won't do a good job, but the rest of me is celebrating too loudly to care.- Jesse.
