Should I?

Wakey Wakey...
to yet
another significant snowfall...

The front open pasture with the bale ring ... view off the porch before I started chores...

The mules. They were moving around to the different hay piles and later, took snow baths.

At 11:30 I walked up the driveway to the neighbor's house to bottle feed Sven. So named because they have a white goat named Elsa. The movie Frozen, seems to have a pattern here this January and February.

Sven is doing wonderfully. I am in current negotiations with the neighbors...well...actually with trying to approach my husband about keeping Sven to do the weed clean up work that Little Richard won't do.

Besides. I think pulling a kid goat and holding him and clearing his airways...and being the first thing he smells in life...may have done something to me..and to him.
Just call it silly, but I feel a special thump in my heart when I see him.

He is small now, but will be a full sized Lamancha [goat with the itty bitty ears]. As he is a male, they will whether him and sell him. They have offered to let me have him for free.

Could you say no?

I've raised goats before and know what a pain in the ___ they can be. And I also know how fun they can be, as well as useful.

Hmmm.

PT appt for Rich today. Our driveway is plowed, but I'll have to do some clean up work later today.
And prepare for the next 6 inch snow fall predicted to come in tomorrow evening through Wednesday.

18" of snow since last week. Well. I guess I could go enjoy a snowshoe adventure this afternoon? Or ski?
Make snow fun while the snow lasts...

Sven.
Hmmmmm.....

Edit....
I don't know if Rich knows that he just agreed to let Sven come and live here or not. I sort of was vague and indicated that Sven would be excellent for clean up of weeds with Lil' Richard. Lil' Richard doesn't it noxious weeds, but Sven will.

Yes to Sven.

Not much

I went for a hike yesterday mid morning. It looked like rain and I just wanted to wander around a bit along the creek and see what all the heat and rain had done.

It sure has changed!

And I found where the flea bane had begun to bloom...

I was surprised to see that I'd missed the bloom of morel mushrooms by a few days.

I found a few dozen but they were beyond the picking stage. I wonder if they will be in the same area next year?

I spent the early morning hours replacing some electric gate handles. They should have been replaced last year but I never got around to it. I must admit, I was pretty impressed with my work. Rich used to do all of the fence work, but I have watched over the years and learned quite a bit.

I solved the issue of that horrible hard place to mow behind the shed that is full of holes and stumps. I used our automatic self propelled weed eater/fertilizer pony to do the hard work.
Yes, I'll have to rake out his piles but at least he did the hard work for me. He isn't quite as good as a lawn mower or gas driven weed wacker, but he is less noisy.

Our neighbor at the top of the hill mowed alongside our driveway and cleaned out the end of the culvert that was plugged up. I had planned on trying my hand at using the weed wacker to clean that up.  Our farmer friend will be coming over sometime soon to fix the driveway for us. He rebuilt it in 2007 just before the floods and it has stayed reasonable good. The 2016 floods and rains made it deteriorate. Well, that and all the normal wear and tear a gravel driveway has to take on a hillside.

Here is a shot from the before and after work from 2007.

After supper I thought I'd saddle up Sunshine and take her for a ride. She is a good little go getter mule. Daughter of my very first horse.

I intended to ride to the Ice Cave and back but we got turned around by the booming of an incoming thunderstorm.

We got to the old electric fence in the 'Merry' Meadow -- it was not on. And I took down the lines so we could beat the storm home.  I leave the lines up because those folks with the 4 wheelers don't cross it and tear alongside my fence line and terrify our animals.

Today, the mules are due for their worming and then I'm going to transfer them to one of the rotation pastures. The Dexters that stayed on the farm are going to rotate to the pasture I would like them to clean next.

I think I should just label my pastures with numbers, it will be less confusing for Rich.

Then I start planting the veggie garden.
Hmm. I said Not Much.
But I guess I did do a few things.

I hope today is more on the boring side...

Weed Eater Adventure

I have always shied away from the Weed Eater Machine. It is noisy, it flings grass bits everywhere, and it just is plain intimidating! Plus it uses gas, is smelly, and works with this string thingy that hits weeds and flings them everywhere.

That is...

Until I watched my son Ed use one last year. I was amazed at how quickly he cleared areas under the electric fence. 

Grass and weeds flew. And he made it look easy. 
[Oh yes, he did sweat profusely and get green bits of 'stuff' all over himself.]
Here is a shot of him working last year when he helped me replace and re-fence an area.

However I decided then and there that I would conquer the fear of the WEED Eater!

Well, I would figure out how to get my hands on one and use it anyway. Certainly it was easier at cutting weeds than using the corn knife as I'd done for so many years. 

I could get weeds blasted into oblivion in minutes versus hours, right?

Modern technology is good right?

Normally we don't have many weeds or grass impeding the fence, except when that pasture is out of rotation for a while. This summer we've had an abundant weed/grass issue. June, July, and August have been rainy months.

Normally we have a very dry July or August, but not this year. We can mow the yard and it seems we have to do it again only a few days later or suffer the shaggy yard syndrome.

[Well, we have suffered that, seems this year it has been especially hard to keep up with the yard work while all of the remodeling has been going on.]

I asked my husband this spring for a Weed Eater for my birthday. He was surprised and picked out a Weed Eating thing that he liked. He said he could use it if I didn't. 
I also got a face shield and ear protection. I cannot stand the thought of weed and grass bits hitting my face.

I've used the Machine a few times, but tonight I got after a rather large area that is impossible to mow. And dang it all, it just looked shabby near our nice new looking house.
I'm really not that great at using the weed whacker, but practice makes perfect. 

Hubby stopped me and took the machine away then proceeded to demonstrate the proper method of weed whacking. 

The perfect angle, the perfect pitch, how to angle the head and slowly sweep back and forth while watching the grass and stuff...get chopped up.

I tapped my boot and put my hands on my hips.

I flipped my mesh face shield down and made a 'Gimme' sign with my gloved hands. 

I explained that I needed to practice. I needed to use it to get comfortable with it. 

He demonstrated a bit more and when I started jumping up and down and flapping my arms...he finally got the idea.

...and let me loose with the grass/weed munching machine.
I didn't do a perfect job but I annihilated the weeds near the big shed and around Lil' Richard's Winter paddock. I was happy for the face shield as I even found smeared slimy slug parts on it.

I finished up after about 45 minutes. My arms are not used to holding a weed monster.
And then I looked down at myself.

I was covered head to toe with grass/weed parts. I even had green stuff in my hair. My neck and shirt were plastered with it.

Note to self. Keep the same old crummy pants and shirt for weed eating. Also swap the newer glasses for the older glasses.

I am less concerned about the flying bug smeary parts that get through the mesh with my old glasses.

I looked over the job I had done after putting the Wonderful Birthday Gift away in the shed. 

Hubby looked at the job. He didn't say anything negative so I take that as evidence that I did 'okay'.

He mentioned that he'd have to get out his commercial weed eater to get the really tough stuff. He could put a blade on it and it would cut through small woody weeds.

He did mention at the time we were getting this machine for me that he would not get me a blade. I was simply too dangerous. The string trimming would have to suit me.

Tomorrow? That pasture fence line that has been annoying me with a growth spurt of weeds.