Rock crib down by road, after equipment snagged it last year.

Today was a big day.  Annmarie was home sick so I got a late start after actually reading a book for entertainment this morning.  I did check on her throughout the day but she slept most of the day on the living room couch.  I decided to install a temporary panel fence out by the cattle guard so I can move the railroad tie two feet closer to the cattle guard.  Once that is done I will restring the old barbwire and woven wire fence on the inside of both wooden ends and put up metal T posts.  This will let us stack the wheels between the posts and then wire the wheels to the fence to hold them in place so they can be welded together. It is like a huge jigsaw puzzle to get all the metal rims stacked into a wall shape with minimal gaps.

After I repaired it.

After that, I went down to the corner to rebuild the rock crib that got snagged by a tractor pulling a disc set.  They wanted the opening larger but the rock crib was on an elevated rise.  I tore the old one out and then used the tractor to level out all the ground.  I got the rock crib all reassembled and filled with rocks.  I ran out of rocks and had to start finding piles on the edge of the field to finish up.  I think I still need about two more tractor buckets full to finish the rock crib.  I used the same wood so one would think if I used all the rocks from the original rock crib that there would be enough rocks.  Its kinda like the extra engine parts that appear after a rebuild, but in reverse.  While Zeke and I were out working he got run over by a neighbor.  The guy stopped and told me Zeke had just run out to the road and he slammed on his brakes but still ran over him.  Zeke was next to me favoring his back right leg.  I didn’t feel any broken bones and he was able to bear weight on it.  I told the guy it was not his fault as my dog ran out into the road.  I had to give Zeke a bath when we got home as he was covered in cow shit.  That dog loves the smell of fresh cow manure on him.  Once he was cleaned up we found a few abrasions on him and he still favors his leg.  I gave him an aspirin in some cheese.  He is on light duty for a few days, which for him means house arrest.  He only gets to leave the house for supervised potty breaks.  This will not make him a happy camper!  I need to shove the roadside fence inward and tighten one strand of wire so I can go along and drive the 65 metal T posts that are needed to repair the fence. Unfortunately, this all has to be done in one day so I don’t leave a bunch of new fence posts alongside the road. 

I was able to go to the metal scrap yard today and get 360# of woven wire and 40 metal T posts.  I heard bad news while I was there.  Someone else is buying T posts from the scrap yard!  So now I need to go a little more frequently.  If I can snag another 60 this summer it will be great!  I need another 400-500 probably to do most of the fencing left.  Could be even more if I put them all around the outside of the property. One day at a time.  Next month I will have to start in on the barn roof, but the rain is still coming and going and I will not get up on the roof if it has rained recently or is going to rain, too easy to fall. 

Soon to be other side of Iron Tire fence by cattle guard.

Cast iron pan for chain tripod.

Wiss 607 flower pruners.

Jason came over to the house yesterday to take a load of scrap iron to the recycler.  He showed up bright and early with a deadline of 1100 to be done.  I had told him there was a lot of stuff out in the old chicken coop that we had not gone through or dug out yet.  So we headed out there to do a little collecting before going to the junkyard.  Four hours later we managed to get most of the scrap iron out of the chicken coop.  I need to make a burn pile out there from all the scrap wood that was left over.  We did score some cool things.  I found another cast iron pot.  This one is designed to be hung from a chain over an open fire.  I may have to sand it to get a smooth finish inside the pot.  I found a pair of old Wiss flower pruners that had some rust on them.  I spent an hour cleaning them up with steel wool and a file and they are as good as new, incredibly sharp.  Jason never did get a load taken to the scrap yard.  He did fill up his flat bed with old parts.  I have an old gas stove that I am going to take out to the fruit stand to see if she wants it.  It is only really good as a yard decoration.  Gannon and Sarah got the cows separated and now the boys are in the barn lot and upper prime pasture with the horses.  They seem to be cohabitating well.  Gannon started digging the old straw out of the barn.  My compost pile is huge!  A ton of straw plus all that animal poop makes for a big pile.  I am hoping to get it spread out this year.  It is really a time issue.  Annmarie and I are talking about a manure spreader.  We may need to get one. 



Some dirt cleaned off, still needs a lot of work.

I washed out the old cast iron pan.  It needs to be bead blasted and then I may have to take a grinder to the inside to smooth it out.   I won’t be able to tell until after the bead blasting. 

First baby of the year!  4th ever.

Upper prime old fence repair.

It was a long weekend.  The grass and weeds are very green!  I spent half a day spraying 2-4-D on the rest of the front pasture, the orchard, the barn lot and about a third of the upper prime pasture.  I stopped for lunch and came out to go back at it and could not start the mule.  I had left the key on and drained the battery.  I had to go get the charger and charge the battery in place.  Luckily, I was parked out front and in reach of the power extension cord.  Since spraying was out of the picture I went up and used a fancy iPhone app to GPS calculate the acreage on the upper secondary pasture.

  I did my first four corner points in a square and got 9 acres but still had a portion of the swamp in that 9 acres.  I ended up utilizing a straight Z shaped pattern to get acreage that can be tilled and hayed that is not part of the swamp or active spring system that is popping up.  I need to recalculate the acreage but I am betting it is right at 9 acres again.  This will make the fencing more difficult as I will have to put in two corners.  Off one of the corners I will put a gate.  This will let me trench up the upper secondary pasture and build 3-4 more small 4×8 foot ponds.  I wanted our animal side to have the running water.  There is also another spring right next to the fence even farther up the pasture.  I am truly amazed by the water just coming out of the ground and forming a running stream. 

When I was spraying the orchard the new baby calf was right by the gate.  I opened the gate and drove right next to the baby, less than three feet away.  The mother started huffing and pawing at the ground and shaking her head at me.  I totally ignored her and jumped out of the mule on the calf side.  She charged me!  I hollered, waved my hands in the air and scrambled to get to the other side of the mule.  I caught a horn to my left forearm, no blood just a small scrape.  I was more careful after that to heed her warnings.  The baby is a little girl, our first heifer.  This has necessitated me to get back on the fencing.  I want to separate the bull and the steers away from the female cows.  So I installed two more gates and drove the metal T-posts in the old fence line along the wheat field.  Gannon helped me tighten and restring that fence.  I have run out of the horse shoe chains I had made for gate latches.  At the rate I keep installing gates I am going to have 10 made this next time around.  I already need two for installed gates and have four more gates on hand that need to be installed.  Maybe 15…

Jason is making great headway on the old granary.  It will be done tomorrow, no more demolition necessary.  I will dig out some of the old dirt that had settled through the floor boards and then put up a temporary fence to keep the horses off the foundation.  I tried to put the boy cows into the barn lot but they did not cooperate and Zeke was not very helpful.  Today, Gannon and Sarah pushed them all into the barn lot.  Now I just need to finish tagging the sheep and sorting out the ram and a couple of wethers as buddies so we can regulate the ewes.  We need to sell off 60 sheep this summer!  I don’t know if I can do it without making a run to the animal sale.  The trouble with that is the sale can be very low dollar.  We have cut the price to $50/animal.  Dirt Cheap!  I will be posting them on Craigslist this month.  Time will tell.  Tell all your friends! 

Upper prime corner and front spring crossing.