Cleaning the Equipment Barn on a Rainy Day
Here at my Bedford, New York farm, even rainy days can be extremely productive.
Whenever it's stormy outside and my gardeners and outdoor grounds crew are unable to work in the woods or gardens, I encourage them to take stock of the equipment, clean everything, and then organize all the tools and supplies. After I bought this property, it became quickly apparent that I would need a large building to store equipment. The structure is about 40 by 120 feet, with a substantial amount of height. It is where we keep our mowers, blowers, tractors, tools, and other pieces of important machinery. Yesterday, while it poured for hours, we cleared the space, washed the floors, organized and inspected every item before returning it neatly to its spot, so everything is in good order and ready to use. Keeping things well maintained and properly stored will always save time in the long run.
Enjoy these photos.
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- The soaking rains started overnight and lasted through most of the day. The skies were an ominous gray and we did have some thunder and lightning, but fortunately, no high or damaging winds.
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- I built this Equipment Barn soon after purchasing the farm. I wanted it to be an attractive structure in an easy access location. This building is just off the carriage road next to my hay barn and vegetable greenhouse. I also wanted it to have a comfortable room for the crew to have their breaks and lunches. This is one of two giant sliding doors – one at each end.
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- Here is a view of the inside. To clean it thoroughly, everything is brought out, the floor is cleaned and then everything is returned to its proper place. At night, this barn accommodates all our farm vehicles. Above, the space is well lit with these big overhead lamps. I use very utilitarian lighting and fans wherever I can.
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- Chhiring is using our STIHL battery-operated blower to get any dust or debris off the walls.
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- And here’s Moises sweeping all the debris on the floors – soil, leaves, dust, etc. These rugged cement floors are then washed and blown dry.
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- The wood chipper is an important piece of equipment at the farm. I am fortunate to have this machinery to chip fallen or cut branches and then return them to the woodland for top dressing various areas. It has a special parking spot in one corner of the barn.
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- And, I also have this vintage Allis-Chalmers tractor from the 1940s. It reminds us how much these farm pieces have evolved over the years.
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- Do you recognize this? It was our Martha by Mail truck, but was repainted last year to be our Martha.com truck. It originally was a postal delivery truck from the 80s, which I bought years ago. Phurba gives it a good power wash.
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- Domi and Pasang fold all the tarps neatly, so they can be gathered in a pile and stored.
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- Chemicals and oils are always kept in this storage cabinet specifically designed for flammables.
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- All the garden tools are hung on sturdy hooks. It is so important that each tool is wiped down thoroughly after every use. These hooks store our spades in all sizes for different jobs.
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- We keep like items together, so we know where to find them and how many we have in supply. Here are some of our shovels. Do you know the difference between a shovel and a spade? A shovel is longer, angled, and its blade is curved into more of a scoop with a pointed tip. Shovels are better for digging up, breaking apart, and lifting soil as well as for scooping and moving loose materials. A spade has a relatively flat blade with straight edges and the blade tends to be in line with the shaft, rather than angled forward. Spades are good for edging and cutting.
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- And these are forks. This hook is for our spade forks used for bulky material such as hay or straw, manure, leaves, or compost. These are sometimes also called pitch forks.
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- These are long handled cultivating forks which are bent at the end in order to turn the soil.
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- These are long-handled garden hoes – they’re lightweight and designed for close weeding and cultivating, while the point is ideal for making seed furrows in the garden bed.
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- And here we store bulb planters – manual tools that are used to press into the soil, cutting a two to four inch hole for planting bulbs.
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- We also have hard bow rakes and soft rakes. Bow rakes have a number of other names as well, including level heads, soil rakes, and ground rakes. These rakes consist of a long head that is straight with stiff, short tines that are very rigid and don’t bend or flex. They are ideal for making planting rows and breaking up hard clumps of soil. We also use them to shape our raised garden beds. A soft rake or leaf rake is a lightweight rake that is shaped like a fan with flat, springy tines radiating outward. This type of rake is designed to be light enough to glide over grass without damaging it.
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- Ladders of various sizes rest against one wall close to one set of large barn doors.
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- And here are our handy Martha Stewart Multi-Purpose Garden Totes – all in one place, so they’re easy to grab when needed.
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- I have thousands of these black granite bricks that I bought years ago. We use them for raising garden planters and to line the footpaths in my flower garden and pergola. Unused bricks are stored neatly in one corner.
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- On this section of wall, we hang all the leaf blowers and weed-whackers, or string trimmers. Our blowers are made by STIHL. We’ve been using STIHL’s backpack blowers for years here at my farm. These blowers are powerful and fuel-efficient. The gasoline-powered engines provide enough rugged power to tackle heavy debris while delivering much lower emissions.
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- On this side of the Barn, we keep our fleet of Kubota mowers. They are all parked by the back entrance to the barn during the summer season when they are used daily.
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- Everything is now back in the large holding area ready to use. The space in the foreground is earmarked for our Kubota tractors, which are still out being used. It is so nice to know all our equipment can fit neatly in this Equipment Barn.
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- And look, by late afternoon, blue skies returned overhead – making it a most pleasant evening here in the New York City area. Tomorrow is expected to be much cooler with temperatures topping only in the 60s. Fall is here, and we’re ready for the next season’s tasks.
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