Hi I’m Mike.
Although its haying season here on the ranch, we still are at the mercy of the weather and
a half of inch of rain that fell last night has stalled out haying for another day, the
grass is too wet to cut this morning but we can’t waste anytime and we always keep projects
in our back pocket for days just like today.
Today we get to build a new drying rack for Erins vegetables and hopefully surprise her
and gain some brownie points on the project list.
On our Wyoming life.
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In a perfect world, today I would be out here, working on haying.
Cutting, raking and baling.
Stockpiling the hay that will be the cows feed for the winter.
But rain overnight has created a delay in that process.
Cutting wet grass will clog our mower and will dull sickle blades so this morning we
are going to let it dry naturally for a few hours, and while we wait for that to happen
we are going to head into the shop and work on a project that I have had in my mind for
a few months, one to surprise Erin with and hopefully make her life a bit easier when
it comes time to wash vegetables for farmers market.
Erin harvests tons of vegetables each year from the gardens and high tunnels and takes
all of that to our local farmers market to sell to our local customers.
Its part of the diversification of the ranch, we cant count on cows alone to support the
operation and everything we do, from farmers market, vegetables, beef and pork to youtube
is part of that diversification.
As we grow, time becomes more and more important.
They always say land is very important because they aren’t making anymore of it, we for
me the same goes for time.
There are only 24 hours in a day, you have to sleep sometime, you have to spend time
with your family and anything we can do to make work go faster is worth it.
Everything Erin harvests from the gardens needs to be washed, after it is washed it
is usually placed on a table to dry until it is refrigerated in preparation to take
to market I call anything that takes time that could
be spent better a time sucker and drying vegetables seems to fall into that category, it can slow
the process down but we have a solution.
Bassically what we are going to be building is a table.
That table will have two levels to it.
An upper level that is going to house two fans that will blow straight down, below that
will be a level with a mesh grate or screen that the vegetables can rest on while they
are drying and the water will drain through.
We will add some casters to make sure the thing is easy to move around and we will be
done.
A quick and simple build, for which I have neither the fans, lumber or casters for.
So that calls for a trip to town, and a 20 minute drive to home depot.
This whole project is just in my head, I haven’t done any research online about what kind of
fans to use or how to build it.
In hindsight, that might have been a good thing to do but we are committed now so lets
just see what we come up with.
First things first we need the fans, the size and shape will dictate the rest of the rack
and luckily these 20 inch fans are on sale, along with the fans we will need a switch
to turn them off and on and a small powerstrip should work just fine for that.
When it comes to casters, I’m not quite sure how much this thing will weigh but its
only going to be rolling around on concrete in the shop, so 2 inch casters will be perfect.
Elsewhere we find our grate to use on the vegetable level, and then we just need lumber.
A majority of this framework will be built out of 2x4s, so we will grab a few of them.
Any extras will be used around the ranch eventually so I’m not afraid to grab more than I need.
With around 100$ spent and everything loaded up, we can head back home.
Where hopefully the grass is drying nicely and were able to get into the field this afternoon,
but not until we get this thing built and working.
The size of this thing is going to be based of the size of these fans, now that I look
at it, I should have gotten three and made a bit bigger table but that’s ok.
We will call this a proof of concept and make sure it works.
After getting some measurements a majority of the work on this rack will be done on the
saw, cutting boards to length and then screwing them together to make the frame for the fans.
They are going to be held in place by making a shelf using 1x4 material, cut and placed
around the frame.
With the fans in place, we now build the lower shelf for the veggies to rest on, basically
the same way.
I never said this was going to be complicated but here we sometimes have to worry about
function long before we worry about form.
The metal screen, used because it can be sanitized, is going to be held in place using screws
and washers The excess is cut off.
Figuring out how tall to make the table is a bit of a trick but we are going to go for
about a 40 inch table top, making it easy to not only load but unload once the veggies
are dry.
Our legs are cut, and screwed into place.
Then we can stand it up.
To make sure everything stays square I’m going to add supports on the bottom and then
its time for caster wheels to go in place.
Electrical is next and I don’t know about you but I hate attaching power strips to wood,
they always have those few holes in the back that you have to get lined up perfect, therefore,
I am a fan of Velcro for these types of applications.
And there we go, the powerstrip is on.
Up out of the way of any moisture and easy to get to.
After a quick test, everything seems to work and we can get the surprise ready for Erin.
I have been working hard to keep her out of the shop this morning and a sheet should make
for a nice reveal.
Now get Erin over here.
With that done, we move on to our task that is really pressing on us and that is haying.
I’ll hopefully be in the tractor for weeks to come to get it all done.
We hope that you continue along with us in this adventure.
Please subscribe and come along for the ride as we continue to explore the ranch life and
escape the ordinary.
I want to invite you come and join us on Thursday for our bi weekly live stream.
Erin and I will get a chance to sit down with you and hang out for a while.
Getting you some behind the scenes footage as well a chance to get your questions answered
in real time.
Its a lot of fun and I do hope you can join us Thursday at 7pm mountain time.
Thanks so much for hanging out with me today but now its time for me to go.
We will see each other again soon though, until then have a great week and thanks for
joining us in our Wyoming life.