Last week, I told you we were going to have one more push to get some tillage done. As it turned out that was only half true. We did have that push and did get tillage work done that we wanted to do. However, we then moved straight into drainage work and pushed for four days this week.

We installed about 17,000 feet of tile this week. In reality that isn’t all that impressive, but we were able to complete the top job on dad’s list and the top job on my list. Right now, most of the jobs on the wish list are smaller piecework jobs targeting a wet spot here or a few acres there. After research is done, the bulk of the time is spent making the connection into existing drainage.

When the tile is hooked in and the plow is moving, it doesn’t really take much more time to go 1,000 feet than it does to go 200 feet. So, these small projects are less efficient and time-consuming. These smaller jobs were also often left for a reason, most of the time grade is tight or a deep cut may be needed. We still try to get them done because of the benefits of doing a better job farming (ie getting better yields and having less hassles doing it) when it is time to plant, spray, harvest, etc.

We had to make a couple of repairs before we got started Monday. After that we made a couple of short runs to test everything out. Then we spent the rest of the afternoon ‘researching’. Tile delivery was also running behind, so we had to go pick up a couple of rolls so we could run Tuesday. The semi load of tile came Tuesday afternoon. Wednesday we were off to the races.

As we were finishing Wednesday it began to snow. Lake effect bands can set up and sit anywhere without moving much, dumping a lot of snow. We’re far enough from Lake Michigan it rarely happens to us for an extended time, but Wednesday evening was an exception. I’d say we had a solid 5-6”, I heard one report nearby that was 11”. With a frigid weekend forecast, Thursday we pushed ahead with temperatures in the low 30s. The ground is still warm, so melting snow made the job a little slippery, but we got the job done and moved home.

It was a good week. We’re taking Friday and Saturday off (from outside work anyway)!