Picking out irrigation parts to bring to Denton with our Irrigation Manager, Temo. Photo by Carrie Kenny

Earlier this week, I was busy preparing for a trip up to our farm in Denton, TX (check out the Facebook page and "like" it so you can see what's going on in Denton!).   This farm is run by our employee, Ryan Crocker, who, like me, started with a small garden plot.  Now, thanks to a new land lease we have, this little plot has grown to 10 acres!  That's quite a jump, so I decided to drive up to there to see if I could help out.   This got me thinking about my own transition from a backyard gardener to a farmer and how hard it was.  Even though our property on Hergotz totaled 20 acres, I only farmed one acre at first.  It's funny to think about it now, but back then, one acre felt like a lot to me!  Given my experience, I thought I could lend Ryan a hand with laying out a new irrigation system.

Oh, and there's one other thing - I had a tractor I needed to bring to Denton, too!  For a tractor, it was on the smaller side (a Massey Ferguson 245, 45hp with a loader that we found on Craigslist last week for just over $5,000).  We got it loaded up onto our goose neck trailer and attached to an old '93 Ford diesel 4x4 we use on the farm. When I got behind the wheel, I felt like a true Texan.

All loaded up and ready to go. Photo by Brenton Johnson

The good news is that old '93 Ford was no problem at all.  In fact, I even stopped in Belton to pick up a new roto-tiller for Ryan.  This piece of equipment gets used so much I wanted to have a new one that would hold up.  It was after I got to Denton that things got a little difficult.  The problem, it turned out, was the tractor.  For one thing, it needed a new key; luckily, Ryan knew just the place for this.  He took me to a little shop tucked away in the middle of an industrial park that, when you walked in, truly was like going back in time.  It was pretty dimly lit in there, but it was amazing.  They had about ten antique tractors crammed into a little space, and there were people hard at work restoring these machines.  The owner said they'd been in business for twenty-plus years, and it looked to me like everyone loved working there.  Personally, I just loved seeing those old tractors!  I took in all the details as they tried out a few old tractor keys until finding one that fit.

Antique tractor at Dentex Tractor Repair. Photo by Brenton Johnson

Another problem happened when we took the tractor off of the flatbed in Denton.  It ended up getting stuck in the mud three times!  This tractor, in addition to being small and over 30 years old, only has two wheel drive, so it makes getting out of the mud a challenge.  By the end of it, I was really frustrated.  My anger at the limitations of that piece of equipment had no effect on Ryan - truth is, he couldn't have been happier with the tractor.  To him, having it meant not having to do everything by hand anymore.  Watching his reaction made me realize how spoiled I have become!  I'm so used to the newer, more capable tractors we have in Austin that I was blinded to how much of a help this tractor would actually be to Ryan.

Ryan and I came up with a plan for the new irrigation system, and as soon as I got back to Austin, I showed it to Krishna, our Operations Manager.  Krishna immediately put his mind to it and came up with an even better layout!    Now, Ryan is hard at work getting this new and improved design installed as well as planting for Spring.  Luckily, he now has a little red tractor to help him get it done.

New irrigation design for Denton.