I'm my own Hero

 Ahhh, the skid steer saga once more. I am mechanically dis-inclined. If things don't work, I toss up my hands and walk away. An engine is a mystery to me that I'm not even curious enough to investigate.

Since we had the episode last week of the skid steer not starting again, hubby said that he wanted me to go out and put the battery charger on it and to hook up the engine heater thingy.

I did find the battery and I did hook it up though it was a scary place inside the battery compartment. It is hard to see in there and basically I'm rather afraid of batteries.
My father always told us they'd blow up. Guess that stuck with me.

I recall the tech guy saying that I should charge it on the slower setting rather than the fast one.  I should put it on a maintenance trickle charger or just make sure to use it every so many days. All this I explained to hubby who said I was full of bunk.

So I went out and did it the way the tech told me to. It took two days [I didn't leave it charging overnight ~ it is parked near our huge bales of hay]. 

I got it started! I let it run long enough to warm everything up and then shut it off. I plan on using it this week to fill the bucket with manure from the two nights Little Richard spent in his stall and to fill it with the goat's old bedding. Once the driveway is no long mud-mush, I'll dump it in the huge compost pile.

I've run this thing before but it has been a while. I'd rather hubby feel good enough to use it. I really think it is too much machine for the piddly jobs I have around here. 

However, getting it running was a huge relief and I crossed off one big worry for the moment.

To celebrate, I put on my YakTraks and decided to see what the rain, snow and freeze did to the creek area.

The water did flow from the neighbor's pasture and run into the creek. In some places small dams were created by dead leaves.

I decided to sit and listen to the forest. What could I hear? I heard a chickadee, a bluejay, a hawk, and something walking on the land above the creek. It wasn't a human, perhaps it was a squirrel, coyote, or deer.

I just waited.

Now I should have had a long lens, but I didn't. But there was a deer! 
[Click on the picture to enlarge it]

Can you see the doe? She is almost so well camouflaged that I put an arrow on the photo pointing to her face.

It was a doe and a yearling! They must have smelled me or seen me move and off they went.

So happy little dance for me. I got the scary machine started and I saw some wildlife.

I think I need to make myself a superhero cape.
 

The Buck Moon provided

The photo above was at 3:30 in the morning when I had to get up and help hubby with a few things.

I went out just before dawn to check on my mules and see if there was a fog moving in. There usually is after a hot humid day and a cool but damp night.

I think the Buck Moon was tired, so it rested on my dead pine tree.

The sun is still blood red in the mornings or orange depending on the smoke, clouds, and haze.

But the valleys provide for mists and fog which make it interesting.

And then...

This Buck showed up as the fog began to move across the pasture. Another young buck wandered into the area too, but I couldn't get a clear photo of him. They look like the ones I've been catching on the trail cam.

A doe jumped the line fence and stopped. She obviously saw me but it must not have bothered her much as she went on to graze and wander off into the woods.

I glanced towards the woods and...
there was a hawk watching over the meadow.

I had promised to let my neighbors' dogs out into their fenced yard for a potty break. I walked up there and took another walk out the ridge.

I guess it was my morning for wildlife.

I watched the moon fade away to the western sky and headed back home to start my day.

That's it. 

The Buck Moon.