dreams and 2-plate slip clutches

I am back from a wonderful weekend in the city.
Wonderful indeed.

As I left right after work on Friday I was not able to post about the day.
Quick recap:

As Thursday was total "onion"ation and stiff muscles were a direct result, we were "semi" promised an easy Friday. That easy Friday didn't happen so much...

In the morning we sat down, planned out our day (which initially involved some errands in town and general tractor implement maintenance) and proceeded to ignore all the plans.
First, we covered all of the beds we seeded the day before with HUGE 200'x30' pieces of floating row fabric which is like very heavy cheesecloth.
Then around to all of the fields to pick up sandbags that were left from last season.
To the office...
The weather was to be rainy, etc., but alas, no rain. So...we quickly researched cover crops for several beds that needed to be seeded days ago. Seeding of actual cash crops in those beds will be happening in 40 days so cover seeds need to go in now if they have any chance of growing and getting tilled under. But what to plant last minute while the weather is still relatively chilly? Why 10 year old fava beans and rapeseed (canola) of course. We hand scattered them after D rototilled. Then pressed them in using the Brillion...



which we then used (as it was intended) to seed 5 other rows of a different field with cover crop.
Some real fun followed.



We raked/burned/spread all of last year's "leftovers" that were in the large flower bed and the asparagus/raspberry bed. I must have a little "pyro" in me as I really enjoyed that part of the day.
To close the day we washed the remaining dirty harvest bins from last year. Cold wind, cold water, brrr!!! For real.

--Weekend--

The first few hours today felt rather dreamy as I was transitioning from the craziness of the city. My mind was not completely present and somewhat vulnerable to mistakes.
E was busy most of the day spreading compost on our Z field (which she did rather well I must say).
My first task today was to replace 8 tynes on the rototiller as hitting rocks at 540rpm has a tendency to wear down even the most hardened steel.



Old tynes are the shiny ones.



This I undertook without a hitch.

My NEXT task? Hitch central...
In summation, when servicing your rototiller's 2-plate slip clutch:



If Step 5 of your 2-plate slip clutch disassembly instructions



says to remove the thrust plate with the Belleville Springs and lug rings (all at once and not piece by piece) to access the friction disks and hub for inspection... then you best believe it is probably a good idea to remove the thrust plate with the Belleville Springs and lug rings (all at once and not piece by piece) to access the friction disks and hub for inspection!! If you don't you just might snap a bolt off the base plate that holds the Belleville Springs rendering the entire 2-plate slip clutch useless unless... D tries to weld said bolt back on, then snaps it again, then goes to the neighbor to drill out the old bolt in the base plate after having gone to the hardware store to get new bolts, then measures out the length of the new bolt, welds it back into place, cleans all the other bolts and you both attempt another reassembly of the damned Bellville Springs... successfully. The whole ordeal eats up half of our/his day.



Otherwise I spent 2 relaxing enjoyable hours in the greenhouse seeding for Lettuce, Bok Choi, and Leeks. Definitely needed after my morning/afternoon.

Closed up the greenhouse, corralled the chickens, chopped and roasted these



for what was a delicious dinner.

Happy and relaxed now. Looking forward to tomorrow... as long as slip clutches aren't on the "to do" list.

Dig.