Preparing Your Homestead for Springtime Chores

Preparing for the next season is important, whether you’re running a ranch, maintaining a small farm, or simply working on your suburban yard. While it’s still too cold (and wet) to mow or garden, there are things you can do right now to make your life easier, and get your chores done faster, this coming spring.

An Ounce of Mechanical Prevention

Most springtime chores involve machinery. Giving your farm equipment, mowers, chainsaws, and rigs a once over a few months before spring is a good idea. Running to town for parts when the grass is growing faster than you can mow it can be a real bummer. Here are a few things you can do now to save time later.

Change the Oil: Check your farm equipment handbook first, but generally, it is smart to change the oil right before the busy season starts. If needed, send a sample of your machinery oil into your local dealer for an analysis.

Check the Engine: Tuning your engines (tractors, rigs, mowers, etc.) keeps things running smooth. Check all the belts, hoses, and chains. Also, change out your spark plugs if needed. This will ensure everything starts right up (as long as your batteries are fresh) when you need them most.

Check the Batteries: Idle batteries in ATVs and other farm equipment can go dead fast in the middle of winter. As long as you winterized your batteries, your equipment should start right up in the spring. But if you did not, give your batteries a quick test. Charge any batteries you can and replace those that are beyond saving.

Sharpen and Clean Blades, Attachments, and Tools: Give your mower blades a good sharpening and clean any attachments. Don’t forget about your yard and farm tools as well. You’ll want to sharpen your axes, shovels, pruning tools, and more. You can do this by hand or use a tool, like the Work Sharp knife and tool sharpener available at Coastal. These American-made machines take the guesswork out of sharpening your knives and tools with flexible, abrasive belts and precision sharpening guides. We also carry handheld guided sharpeners for quick and cost-effective sharpening in the field.

Mulch

Winter is the perfect time to mulch your garden and flowerbeds. Adding wood mulch around shrubs now can help add nitrogen to your soil, improving growth. Additionally, adding garden mulch now could boost your garden’s bounty this summer.

Remove Moss

Even if you don’t live in a rainy valley, moss can grow and cause issues on homes, out building, and livestock areas. Physically removing moss works great on asphalt and other walking areas. Or try Monterey Herbicidal Soap available at Coastal. For the roof, try diluted bleach or other moss killing agents. Just be aware that these can damage plants and shrubs.

Kill the Weeds

Even in colder climates, weeds can take root in the winter. As things warm up, they’ll begin to pop up all over your yard, along fence lines, around trees, and in fields. The next time you have several days of dry weather, get out there and spray those weed starts with your favorite herbicide, or try a Big Max Propane Torch and burn the weeds into oblivion.

Mend Fences and Clean Fields

This is the perfect time to repair fences and clean up debris, such as tree limbs, from your fields. You’ll thank yourself this spring when you don’t need to stop mowing to move a branch or take hours to fix a bit of fence and replace several posts.

Just What the Country Needs

You’ll find everything you need to prepare for your oncoming springtime chores at your Northwest owned and operated Coastal. That includes lawn and garden supplies, power tools, trimmers, mowers, blowers, chain saws, fertilizers, seeds, sprayers, and weed killer. Take a trip to Coastal and grab what you need to make your life in the country and the suburbs easier and more enjoyable.