Why did I start TractorTrack and McIntosh.Farm?

Intros

Hello all and welcome to McIntosh.Farm - aka… where I’ve been kinda hiding for a long while. I set up McIntosh.Farm as a website long ago to help with stuff on my hobby farm. I use home automation to shut off lights, do random tasks, and help mix my passion for living out in the country - but also controlling my OWN stuff from my photos of family to taking care of my own equipment. Having my own website made this easier, and what started as a hobby I’m trying to turn into a business.

I’d STARTED on some applications around tracking my farm - but it was all pretty rough stuff. It worked, but not what you’d call great, and over the last year with weekends and various random starts and stops, that I finally started REALLY putting together something that I felt was usable by a wider audience. Particularly when I couldn’t find anything I liked.

The exact dates are a TOUCH fuzzy - It MIGHT have been when I was working on a 318 and trying to recall when we’d last had the blades sharpened. Of course it MIGHT have been before that when I had yearly maintenance done on the Kubota I run for the little farm work I do… and couldn’t find the records around what had been done. Then… there’s that “OK what hours did I grease that loader” moment. OR “How old are the tubes on that 8N”. Well, all of those moments over the last few years pushed me from a “side project” on tracking this stuff into releasing what you see today - McIntosh.Farm with the first (and currently only immediately planned) app for tracking maintenance and when I need to do maintenance - TractorTrack.

TractorTrack was the answer

I started several years back trying to find some way to track all of this… and not really liking much of anything. I recall pitching the idea to my old boss about 4 years ago, and even doing a simple demo app, but not taking it beyond some internal personal use - and even then… rough was an understatement. I never did much with it until I said enough was enough, built a second, much better app, had things running, and used it. But then I paused, as I wasn’t doing AS much work on the equipment as I wanted - too much day job not enough farm job fun, until these last 6 months. Then I found no one had created anything that I’d like to use STILL (tried a few, just… didn’t like any of em - all of em felt too complicated to even get started with). It was at this point I said OK if I don’t like what’s out there, it’s time to take my idea, and run with it and REALLY build it - not just for myself.

This led to what you see now - TractorTrack - my first public app to help track and keep equipment maintenance consistent and done. I just used the “release” version this weekend! I had to replace my ancient auger when the gears blew - most likely my OWN fault… danged tree roots, and then there was the “OK, when did I add lubricant?” moment. It’s that “when did I add lubricant” question I hope this new app will help with!

Thanks Tractor Supply for the nice sale you had this last week btw! I added my first record to my OWN farm on the new site over the weekend, and stopped using my internal tool - so I’ll be using the same thing any visitor uses!

And here we are…

So TractorTrack started off as a tool/idea I wrote for myself, but I’m hoping that others might find useful and MAYBE just help pay for a bit of my hobby farm enjoyment (and also help others avoid things LIKE auger replacements).

Some final notes

Like a lot of others - I don’t like ads. I don’t like intrusions into my life. I prefer to be simple, on my own, and not depend upon anyone, and that’s the principle I took here. Something that was just common sense and WORKS. Something where you own the data, but can help you make better use of it, track it, and keep you updated on when things are coming!

But the key is something that makes things easier not tied to some proprietary system, where you can’t get what you need, or locks you in. Something for REAL farmers OR hobbyists, and even LARGE farmers with older equipment who DON’T fit in with the big world of telematics might need help keeping records and getting alerted when it’s that time yet again to change the oil or change filters, or figure out on that old mower when they last greased the fittings. So please give it a go, let me know what you think and what you’d like to add!

And welcome to McIntosh.Farm - we hope to hear from you soon!

PS: Here’s the new auger for those interested - was cheaper than even used ones on the marketplaces, so no complaints and I already had a couple of bits!