Lately…

19 Wednesday Aug 2015

Posted by thegentlemanfarmer in Gentleman Farming, Living, Seasons, time, Totem Hall

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

chores, farm boss, farm chores, field mow, fieldwork, hay, kubota, taylor pittsburgh mower deck

I’ve been spending time on the back of a tractor, contemplating all the mysteries…

From the Old English writha…

01 Saturday Nov 2014

Posted by thegentlemanfarmer in Living, Nature, Passages, Seasons, Totem Hall

≈ 12 Comments

Tags

crowns, daydreaming, doorways, entries, etruscans, fieldwork, greeks, harvest, old, olympics, owls, power, romans, tractor, wealth, wikipedia, wise, wreaths

harvest wreath…

I came back from the Woodberry Parents Weekend to find the front door of Totem Hall all decked out with a brand new wreath, courtesy of my mother in law, celebrating the best of fall.

one view up close…

Later on my tractor, working a field, I started thinking about wreaths, the whole who, what, when, and where.

another view up close…

So I turned to Wikipedia; I mean, after all, who doesn’t? Did you know that wreaths appeared during the Etruscan era, worn as crowns? After that, the Greeks and Romans appropriated the wreath concept, wearing them to celebrate, for instance, Olympic achievement, or to designate wealth and power.

wise old owl up close…

Of course, wreaths on the head are all good and wonderful, but how does one get from the dome to the door? Well, by way of Wikipedia, one again turns to the ancient Greeks. It turns out the Greeks enjoyed hanging a harvest wreath by their door, just like mine.

one more look…

before you come on in…

And there you go…

Adjust This, Cowboy…

19 Thursday Jun 2014

Posted by thegentlemanfarmer in Gentleman Farming, Totem Hall

≈ 8 Comments

Tags

adjustment bar, bad innuendo, field mow, fieldwork, frozen, nuts and bolts, taylor pittsburgh mower deck

My bar needs adjusting. There, I needed to say that, just for laughs and giggles, and well because my bar really does need adjusting.

the adjustment bar…

For those who just can’t get through the day without knowing, the adjustment bar helps with a mower deck’s angle of attack. You see, most folks tend to have the front of their deck too high in relation to the back. This will lead to backside dragging (a problem whether you’re a human or a machine), which results in blown out, abused, and otherwise perfectly trashed back panels. A little adjustment here, a little adjustment there, and before you know it, the front side has the most is the perfect pitch to the back and you get the most loveliest of mows.

no saggy back end here…

At least that’s how it works in theory. In my reality, I adjusted too hard, cranked one too many times, which, as you can see by my ruts in the dirt, led to a not particularly aesthetic finish. Adding insult to injury, my nut froze to my bolt. The only solution: saw it in two.