on the road, tools, urban plot

Bertha – on the road

Posted on by annabel
19
Oct

Since we purchased the Grillo Tractor with the Berta Rotary Plow attachment (now affectionately known as Bertha), we’ve been contemplating how we can use this to help other small farmers, while at the same time generating income for our farm venture to keep it sustainable. One idea is to turn the plow into a service offering – you want your yard dug up? Call us, we’ll handle it! Just gotta work out the logistics, costs, timing, etc and this could become a great revenue stream for BBF. A couple of colleagues became guinea pigs for this experiment. For a nominal fee and in exchange for other services, we worked on some small jobs today with promising results. We are keen to explore this opportunity further, though I think Spink might have to bulk up a bit if he’s gonna do this on a more consistent basis (he’s got that cushy office job that exercises his mind, but not his other muscles!).

Job #1 – Backyard garden bed

Size: about 100 sq. ft.
Time: about 20 minutes
Lessons learned: Tight spaces are tough to do. Turning around is a real challenge. Guide works well for keeping soil in place.

Before - they had done a bit of shoveling to try to get it ready to plant garlic, but too much clay in the soil had them calling for help!
Before - they had tried shoveling to be able to plant garlic....too much clay in the soil had them calling for help!
Getting Bertha ready - we used the guide to prevent dirt from being thrown into their yard.
Getting Bertha ready - we used the guide to prevent dirt from being thrown into their yard.
The results
The results

Job #2 – Urban Growth Farms

Size: about 500 sq. ft.
Time: about 2 hours
Lessons learned: If terrain is not level, the job can be more challenging. Clutch is tight and difficult to use.

Before - Bertha eying up the challenge!
Before - Bertha eying up the challenge!
After first pass through
After first pass through
Pulling a metal pipe from the ground - you never know what Bertha will uncover.
Pulling a metal pipe from the ground - you never know what Bertha will uncover.
After 2 passes, some leveling, and a bit of sod removal....
After 2 passes, some leveling, and a bit of sod removal....
Soil is smooth...like butter.
At the end - soil is smooth...like butter.

0 thoughts on “Bertha – on the road”

  1. Victoria says:

    Baybranch Farm to the rescue!

    NIce Job you guys!
    Thank you for hauling Bertha all the way to Richmond Hts. Once the garlic is planted I will share the photos.

    V