Getting the gardens ready - kale, potatoes, and garlic

First, the raised beds and the new starts

I got busy and turned the soil in the raised beds at the "city" house.  Soil is looking much better!  I planted some kale from the seed I gathered from last years plants.  I also planted some potatoes that I saved from last years crop.

There's kale planted in the back 2/3rds of this bed.

All 4 beds turned and ready

This bed is planted full of potatoes.  It has the best soil I think.

The little ones are coming along!  Still no sprouts from bok choy, peppers, or eggplant.

Some barbed wire removed

I really wanted to take more out, but this is a good start.  Maybe I can get more down in the coming weeks.

Removed a good section from down along the road.

Would really like to knock these raspberries down a bit.  They are a bitch to mow around and they are invading my field too much!

OUCH!  I might even get in there with a hand mower.  It is just too hard to get to with any of my machines.

The view from beside the "big patch"/  I would like to plant some forsythia along the road here like on the other side of the driveway, but time is running out this year and I have a lot of trees and things to plant when my order comes in next Friday!

This is where I stopped this weekend.  I got pretty far!

Looking back toward the "big patch"

Deer used to cross here because the fence was down.  They can cross anywhere now!

Potatoes and garlic in the front patch

I plowed the front patch (the fenced section) and tilled it this weekend.  Even though it is plenty early I decided that it should be ok to plant the potatoes and the garlic.  I was upset that my only saved sweet potatoes from ;last year went bad.  I did put one in some water to see if it will form suckers, but I doubt it.  I will have to buy some to sprout I guess.

The white potatoes that I saved from last year are fine!

The sweet potatoes molded! I put the one on the upper right of this picture in some water to see if it will form sprouts.  Its a long shot...

I plowed and tilled this patch this weekend.  Also planted a row and a bit more of potatoes and most of a row of garlic.  I saved the garlic heads from last year!

I put the black plastic down so i knew where the rows where.  Besides, it helps heat the soil and keep the weeds out.

I also weed wacked the weed heads off the strawberry mounds on the left.  I did not see any signs of life in the strawberry patch.  I hope they make it!  I saved some space in this patch for another 2 rows of strawberries that I have on order for next weekend.

There is actually 2 rows of strawberries there - one on each side of the plastic.

New toy!  I got a metal cutting bandsaw!

I have wanted one of these for a long time!  I stopped at Foltz in Hagerstown on the way up on Friday afternoon.  I also got some extra blades and some drill rod for Katherine to make some tooling with. Their prices are actually very good!  I check out this band saw online and the prices were comparable. Of course , buying it local is always a plus - but this one was preassembled and they help load it!  getting it mail order would have taken me awhile to put it together and manhandle it by myself.

I tried it out - OMG!  It is a dream!  I cut off several pieces of scrap angle iron with it.  It cut through them like butter!  Nice cuts too - straight and accurate and clean!

You can also set it up to run in verticle mode if you want to do some fancy cuts, I guess.

Details on the motor.

I like it!  I foresee much use of this baby!

Wait, I thought it was spring...

I was working outside without a jacket on Saturday, and sweating my butt off too boot.  Then the winds picked up Saturday night and I woke to this...

Good thing I got the garden ready! lol

At least it was a pretty sky though.

Not much metal work, but I got a little in.

I managed to get out to the shop Sunday morning and bore out the thread protector a little more.  It's almost to 2" bore now.  It needs to go to at least 2.115" (I think).   I had to readjust the clutch on the apron feed.  I hadn't touched the powerfeed since the big apron cleanup.  I am still not 100% happy with it, but I will keep fiddling with it.  At least it works!  Getting close to doing an internal threading here.  Kinda anxious about that.

Thread protector coming along.  The bore is almost to size.

I also brought up some stuff I ordered for the mill.  I got a wiggler/edge finder and a drill chuck that will fit in a 1/2" collet.  The drill chuck will let me do precision drilling on the mill.