My Workshop

Among the very best improvements we have ever made on our farm is building an enclosed workshop in 2007. By most standards it is quite modest—30×30 feet, with unfinished walls and a bare concrete floor. But it does have workbenches, lots of shelf space, good lighting and enough floor space to work on two trucks or tractors at once if need be. And most importantly, it has a place for everything—(although everything isn’t always in its place).

In a system of shelves, bins, buckets and boxes that probably only makes sense to me, I can keep all of our tools, spare parts, fasteners, lubricants and general supplies somewhat organized.

One of the things I have learned over the years is that the easier you make something to do, the more likely you are to do it. This is especially true when it comes to maintenance. In the old days we would find a relatively flat place, throw down a tarp, haul the necessary tools out of the garage and do maintenance and repairs outside in the yard. Not only did the extra steps involved mean that we were more likely to defer maintenance on some things, it also meant more lost or misplaced tools and when it rained we were out of luck.

We always end up with a long list of repairs and improvements that we have little time for during the season. And during winter, when the rains keep us out of the fields, it is invaluable to have a clean, well-lit, dry place to catch up on things.

Another major advantage to having a workshop is that it also serves to house my modest metal fabrication set-up. Welding is an essential skill for farmers not only for making repairs, but also for making or adapting equipment for use in the field or packing shed. Because we farm on such a small scale relative to the farms that surround us, it is hard to find used equipment that is suitable for our scale. One option is to buy large scale equipment and alter it to fit our needs. An example of this is the lister-bar I bought in 2011 with my cousin Josh who was also in need of one (these are tractor drawn implements that we use to make our “raised” beds with). We were able to cut it in half to make two listers out of one 20 footer, and as an added bonus, with a little cutting and welding we also made two sets of line-markers out of the single set we bought it with. (Line markers stick out from the end of the bar and mark a line in the soil a bed’s width away. When we turn at the end of the row and come back to raise the next set of beds, we follow the line we made during the previous pass to keep the rows straight.)

(When Steve told me he was going to buy some used equipment with his cousin Josh and they were going to share it by cutting it in half I thought it was a lame joke. Then he came home with this monster (picture on left). This ridiculously long lister bar was cut in half (picture on right) and now both Steve and Josh have one. – Jeanne)

(This article, or something like it, originally ran in 2011.)