The day started out beautifully.
A wonderful Sunrise shared with Charlie on the ridge.
It was warm and muggy at dawn so the day promised to be ... hot.
Charlie enjoyed his new car seat.
I guess he can see where we are going!
He was subdued but didn't act sick at all.
Slow and steady improvement!
On to getting the hot stuff out of the way right after chores.
Blanching carrots, corn, and green beans.
I gave away a bucket of green beans to the neighbor just because.
Mid morning found me putting up fence posts and wire to make an electric lane to move our Bull named Bart from one area to another. He is getting shipped on Monday to become our winter meat and hamburger. My good neighbor Jeff the dozer man will take him for us.
Justin came down and worked on the ash trees to cut them up for his winter wood.
I worked on the 'electric lane'. The challenge is to walk a bull from his paddock to another paddock that has a paneled 'catch pen' and a gate in it. He will be loaded from the catch pen into a trailer this evening and Jeff will take him to the processor. I guess process is the politically correct term.
I look at it this way. Bart has done his job and now it is time for him to complete his task and feed us through the next year. I cannot go back to grocery store burger for the life of me.
Anway, I ran into a problem. I have to run the lane across a portion of the driveway and door yard. It has a hardpack gravel and sandstone base and unless you have a drill, there is no way a post will go into it.
Remember the glider I took apart? Well, I haven't gotten to the dump yet, and I pulled a heavy piece of 'something' out of the weeds and used that also.
As of Monday morning, one less Dexter to feed.
I am leaning towards shipping the rest too. I'm not sure how the hay situation will be if Rich isn't able to drive to get round bales. I'm having an internal discussion as to whether the cost of the cattles' feed all winter justifies keeping them just for whatever break on taxes we get.
After the fencing job was done and tested, I moved on to mowing.
Over the years I've had a pony who is very good at doing trimming in some of the areas of our farm. The problem is, he poops and unless I rake it out, it just sits there and eventually dries out. However if I rake it, it dries out quickly and fertilizes.
I found a chunk of cattle fence in the junk pile.
I used a rope to tie it to the back of the 4 wheeler and then I put a weight on the fence and used the 4 wheeler to drag over the areas of manure. It did a fair job, but the weight kept rolling off.
I've gone back to the drawing board on this and I think I can use a bit more rope to keep the weights on.
I told my neighbor what I was doing and he kindly smiled and mentioned that they 'made' drags for just that purpose.
I smiled back and said I was having fun by doing it with materials I could find.
A chainlink fence chunk would work even better than what I am using now.
However, it worked pretty well!
I don't know if I am inventive or just odd.
But I think I am on to something. Now to get at the poo piles in the meadow.
Hey, at least I am having fun on the 4 wheeler. I'm am making it into a useful tool for my farm work!
Love it! You are being inventive which I think is half the fun of getting tasks done. :) Up here old metal bedsprings are used for drags in lakes but I'm not sure how that would work for pony poop. :)
ReplyDeleteI have to agree about the grocery store hamburger, it just seems like it's not fit to eat as is most meat from the grocery store. I'll do without rather then eat what passes for beef at the store.
You have been busy! An old bed spring would probably work also. You make things work for you and that is great! Good for Charlie and his new seat!! :)
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