The clover has been planted!

It took a while.  I correct myself, it took a very long time to prepare the field.  I spent most of Saturday and Sunday on the tractor for the final preparations.  It is only a three acre field, but the ground was hard and the old tractor is small.  The following picture was taken after the final harrowing just prior to planting.

I purchased 50lbs of sweet yellow blossom clover and the inoculant (bacteria that promote root growth and nitrogen production) and rented a three point rotary broadcaster.  Everything was all planned.  I already had the seed so I picked up the broadcaster at 8am (opening time) and I expected to be finished in about an hour and a half barring any disasters.  The plan was to beat the heat and finish mowing the rest of the place after the final harrowing (to give the seed a little cover).  Well as soon as I tried to connect the broadcaster to the tractor I realized that the PTO shaft provided by the rental company was too long for my PTO with the overrun clutch (ORC) attached.  So, after deciding it was better to just remove the ORC than run back into town to get a shorter shaft, I went to work.  The ORC has two grease fittings exactly opposite each other that, when removed, reveal a hole through which a roll pin is used to securely fasten the clutch to the tractor's PTO.  I removed one fitting without a hitch (7/16's wrench worked as advertised).  The second one wasn't so easy, so after applying release agent and thoroughly rounding the corners of the fitting, I finally decided to just grab it with the "JAWS OF ETERNAL GRIP OF DEATH" (this last bit only works if you say it very loud with reverb), which is a trusty vise grip.  The fitting can cheaply and easily be replaced.

After removing the ORC and attaching the broadcaster to the tractor I calculated my seed rate, estimated the tractor speed and set the broadcaster.  One and a half acres later the hopper was empty.  I didn't want to have an acre and a half of weeds and I didn't think I could overseed it, so I drove back to town to purchase another 50lbs of seed and the inoculant.  Well, by the time I was finished with planting I had just enough time to return the broadcaster to the rental company (noon deadline for a 1/2 day rental).

I expected to be completely finished by noon but had only just managed to broadcast the seed.  Now I had to do the final harrowing to put a little cover onto my seeds.  Next year the clover will bloom, assuming it gets established this fall with the right temperatures and precipitation.  Yellow blossom clover can yield from 60 to 200 pounds of honey per acre.  If we only yield the low number of 60 pounds I will recover more than I have invested in this field including most of my labor.