My sister wanted to take the little orange kitty home, she had named it Cheese. Unfortunately, Saturday night something decided that cheese was on the menu. I went out Sunday morning to feed the kitty and found a head, skin and some intestines, the rest was gone! It was on the feeding ledge. Needless to say I was a little shocked as we had not heard anything, disappointed as we had been working on taming the kitty and fairly angry that something ate our kitten!
So I spent the morning moving our ring camera from watching the chicken coop to watching the cat feeding area. I have moved the shotgun to the back porch and we have an alert set so it will wake me up in the night. It is game on and I am going to win! I used the mint planter to put in a post and mounted the camera on top of that. It has night vision so we should be able to see anything that comes in. I even took the dinner bones and put them out to attract any predator that likes meat. This is such a stupid problem.
When I went out to the woodshed to get a shovel I opened the door and a bat fell down off the top of the door! The bat was not happy. I tried to right it several times but it kept rolling over onto its back. I used an old cat dish to scoop it up and try and put it on the ledge. It rolled off the ledge. I finally just left it alone. It kept making this clicking sound and my hearing aids loved it so they kept amplifying it! I did get the shovel.
The Gingerman and I have been talking about changing out the blades on the old mower. He brought over a 3/4” socket and wrench for the job. We decided to tack weld the bolt to the old blade so I could hold onto the blade and keep it from turning. We broke the tack weld twice so the third time it was more of a weld than a tack. It still took a board to pin the blade and Gingerman on a five foot cheater bar on the wrench to get it broke loose and taken apart. I had to grind the bolt off of the old blades and then reshape the head with the grinder. When we put them on we only put them on snugly. We did not put them on with the cheater bar. This is the first time in 15 years that the blades have been changed out. I actually broke one of the blades so they had to be replaced, the thing was so lopsided that you could not use it. When the PTO was engaged it felt like the entire tractor was trying to leave the ground for outer space, the shake was so bad.
I took some extra time and welded the cracks from both sides as we had the mower turned on its side. I tried to hit all the cracks and then paint over them so the welds don’t rust as easily. I use whatever color is on the shelf and works!
I then dug out the barn for an hour or so. I had to do most of it by hand as I am getting into the tight spaces. I only have the feed area left in the main part of the barn. I am not feeling it but it still needs to get done.
I filled the water area in Alcatraz with 2-3” rock in an attempt to keep the mud down. This should allow the animals to walk right up to the water and not have to get into any mud. I need to drag the ground in Alcatraz and remove about two inches of soil off the top. There is so much organic matter that nothing will grow. If I put all of that onto the compost piles I can get it moved out to the fields as fertilizer.
Stewart Creek Somethings 