Been awhile since my last post and not because there has not been almost daily articles about accelerating melting of permafrost, Greenland and Antarctica’s ice. No, I have been busy working on my Washington project and getting ready to spend more time up there.
I decided that since the project’s timing is such that we can’t move up there from the San Francisco Bay Area until 2025 due to family requirements, I can start prepping the land for growing crops such as soybean, wheat and corn that will create bio-diesel, human and animal feedstocks. To do so, I needed to acquire several things: First, a truck that is simple to repair and can run on bio-diesel, a tractor with attachments to prepare the soil and a place to lay my head since there are not structures on the property other than the old barn.
Turns out that Dodge made very rugged trucks powered by a Cummins 5.9L diesel engine from 1989 to 1998 that is nearly indestructible and will run for 500k miles. It also turns out that everyone wants these trucks, making them hard to find unless your willing to pay a premium (nearly what they cost new even though they typically have 250k miles on them). After many hours searching, I found one in Iowa and flew out to drive it back to Washington which was something of an adventure. This is definitely a farm truck and shows its wear, but the engine is strong and running gear sound.
Next, I needed to find a tractor and identified that a Kubota M5400DT was the right model. Luckily, I found one in the Portland area and will fly up there to trailer it (using the truck!) to bring it to the property. It came with a front loader and tiller attachments but I will need to buy a lot more attachments to start my soil preparation – many hours of tractor driving ahead in my future.
Last, I needed to find a travel trailer to put on the property so I can stay there comfortably. For that I found a used 31′ bunkhouse model trailer that will meet the needs of the whole family when they visit. Again, the truck will tow it down from north of Seattle next week and provide a base of operations when the family visits at the end of July.
A million things need to be acquired and get done to make all this happen seamlessly but I am confident that this is doable and I will be sleeping on the property by the end of next week. Let the adventure continue! SZ