After a year of hard hand labor, we decided that some mechanization would enable us to keep at this endeavor for the long run.  So we ended up purchasing a small compact utility tractor.  It’s not big, but has enough power to handle some tilling and materials moving.  In the picture above, I was using it to disk in a section that had recently been plowed.

Tom of Lone Hawk Farm has graciously offered the use of his rototiller and disk, so our expenses were less than they might have otherwise been.  We’re still working out exactly how best to incorporate this machine into our production system, but it’s already provided quite a bit of value as we’ve been able to start preparing the field in a fraction of the time it took last year.