In Part 2 of his notes, Saten reminisces on the faithful machines used for all farming chores
Hawaiian Prasad played such an integral role in our Surdas truck farm. He found and adapted equipment to work in our permanent raised bed system of organic farming we used.
There was almost no equipment available on the commercial scale we were operating at (54 inch permanent beds on 50 acres), so we bought our cultivator (a Befco) from Italy, our air seeder (Nibex) from Switzerland, our air blast sprayer (for organic formulations) from Washington state apple orchard suppliers, our on-off transplanter from Peaceful Valley Farm Supply, as well as other stuff we found at farm auctions like our potato digger.
Prasad relied heavily on old yellow school bus parts to modify and create our equipment. He even built an industrial-strength compost turner from a picture on the cover of a whole-earth magazine. That was pretty hilarious because it took him quite a while to build it from scratch.
In the meantime we had built long windrows of organic matter made up from Magdalena food scraps, manure from the chickens and dairy, and food scraps from the wash-house at the food prep area at Surdas.
The windrows had all been sitting for weeks before the machine finally showed up to trial – it was hooked up to our International 1486 cab-enclosed tractor. I slowly pulled up to the first windrow, gently eased on the PTO and increased the RPMs up until it was spinning at the required velocity – and then with much anticipation I entered the pile. Immediately thousands of pounds of rotting organic matter were thrown up and painted the cab of the tractor.
It was an easy fix: he had the gear box from one of the yellow school buses in backwards. So he turned it around and the machine worked beautifully from then on – making lovely compost for our truck farm from all those various sources of organic waste.
At the end of every row there was usually just a small track before the 6ft deer fence and so to maximize the planted bed we would wait to the last possible second and the tractor driver would let out a yell and all the crew would grab onto their seats as the driver simultaneously stomped on the right hand break, advanced the throttle and lifted the whole superstructure on the back into the air so that there was a carnival ride as everyone swung around in a fast arc before being gently lowered to the adjacent bed to continue it all over again.
Sandesh (1956-2018) at the helm of the salad planter.
A specialist tractor where the blades were in the middle of the tractor so that the driver could carefully avoid the seedlings while weeding.
Who’s who from the comments: The tractor’s name was: Ambara. The people, from left to right, Gulamo (Aria), Sanghamitra, Gyano. Then Rupesh. Rupa is the one in the far distance. Navina on the tractor. In the first summer at Surdas.
One of our first tractors – I believe it was a 1948 Farmall H. We got it as at auction in Eugene and it always started and was a great workhorse.
Prabhat’s comment: Nearly killed it one time. I was loading the shit spreader, the tractor was hitched to on top of the hill above Surdas when it started to slide downhill gathering momentum as it went. I jumped off the other tractor and ran alongside as fast as I could and somehow managed to jump on it and stop it before anything happened and anyone noticed.
And the compost turner Prasad made was similiar to this one.
These notes were first published as Facebook posts in a closed group for Ranch Residents, and are being re-published in Osho News with Saten’s permission. Photos: all shots in this article are by the author
Related articles
- Dryland Farming in Oregon – Experiments and innovative ideas thanks to brilliant minds coming together in Dadu farming on the Ranch. Part 1 of Saten’s notes
- Alfa-Alfa / The Enlightenment Saga – Two chapters from Arjava’s memoir, Still… Here and Now: Growing Wings in Osho’s Garden, this time from the Oregon era
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