PLANNING
From page 11
And while on the subject of
painting, the quiet winter
months, after the cutting,
raking and baling has been
done, but before the plough-
ing season starts, is a good
time to repaint your imple-
ments. For a really profes-
sional job you will want to
spray paint, but if it's simply a
case of preserving them,
hand-painting will work as
well.
Wooden posts and beams,
etc, will also benefit from a
coating with a preservative
such as creosote (if you don't
mind the smell) or tanalith.
With most of the land-work
out of the way, and the
ploughing season still a way
off, now is also a good time to
service your tractor. At the
bare minimum this should
entail checking the fluid
levels, and replacing or
cleaning the air, fuel and oil
filters. Every couple of years
the gearbox/diff should be
drained and refilled, regard-
less of how much or how little
the tractor is used, because
the oil absorbs moisture,
rendering it opaque and
causing possible damage.
The same applies to the
engine oil and radiator fluid,
which should be replaced
periodically even if the
machine spends most of its
time idle.
Finally, on a smallholding
tractor, one aspect that is
often neglected is to ensure
that wheel bearings and other
moving parts are properly
greased and lubricated.
In a couple of months' time
you will be hard at work
pruning your fruit trees and
roses, so a workshop task for
this month can be to clean
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and sharpen your pruning
tools.
The cold nights will have seen
to it that you are heating all or
parts of your house. Maybe
this is done in the most
ecologically sensible way,
namely by burning old, dead
timber. This, however,
requires you to maintain a
woodpile, so one of your
tasks may be to cut up and
split felled and fallen trees on
your property.
Any tree felling exercise
results in a mound of scrub,
some of which will make
kindling for your nightly fire
but most of which will simply
be in an unsightly pile, which
is firstly a fire hazard and
secondly a wonderful hole to
snakes and vermin.
Another winter task, there-
fore, can be to run this stuff
through a shredder, to make
mulch for your spring and
summer plantings.