Author: Steve Hardin

Chicken coop done

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Saturday the boys came out again at 0800. I had worked the night shift and told them to start in on the barn when they arrived.  I had gone to work 30 minutes early, the previous evening, so I could pick up some wood pellets for the chicken coop. I showed both boys what I wanted done in the coop: vacuum walls, wipe walls down with bleach water, dig out right hand side of floor and toss outside, fill all feeders and waterers, move old pellets from left side of coop to under perches and put new pellets on left side, clean out nest boxes, vacuum feed area and move all feed bags around to clean up floor. I went back out 30 minutes later to drop off the cooler with lunch when I was approached with the burning question of the day, “Mr Manners cannot figure out how to set the mouse trap” per his compatriot.  Now don’t think for a second I don’t know that the two of them had been screwing around for 15 minutes trying to figure out how to set an old fashioned mouse trap. I demonstrated the technique twice with the warning to not hold the trap incorrectly or your fingers would pay for it. What are we teaching our youth?  Where are the valuable life skills needed to survive on your own coming from? 
 

 

I told them when they were done with the coop to finish the barn. I reinforced to them I thought it was possible to do both that day. They agreed, and when I went out to feed the horses that evening they had gotten close. There is about two hours of work left in the barn. The chicken coop is done and looks much better. The coop windows still need to be cleaned but the rest is good enough. 
The next big thing is to build the alpaca shearing table then actually shear the alpaca. 
 

  

Teenager solution

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I had help out on Friday, 2 teenage boys. It was their first day working for me this year. “Mr Manners” had worked for me one day last year. I like the money hungry teenagers. They tend to work harder and it allows them some perspective when putting up with me. 
My real goal was to get the barn and chicken coop dig out but as I was only going to supervise the boys during the morning I decided to work on odd jobs around the place first. Since the first step in their work ethic trial was to arrive at 0630, they passed, it was before the trash guys arrived. So the old grill from the front yard is gone. All the trash from the old house is gone. All the trash from the chicken coop is gone.  All the trash and old drip hose from back yard/garden is gone. 
 
I needed to finish vacuuming the tile in the library so I could bring the shop vacuum out for the old house and chicken coop cleaning so I vacuumed. I then sorted all the tools and supplies spread all over the house and had them taken out to the old house (shed/shop).  I also had them move all the hardiboard I no longer needed to the old house porch. We cleaned up the old house porch. I “forgot” to take before pictures. It was so bad I did not want it documented for posteriority. We picked up the inside floor as it was totally obscured by all the tools, bins, bags, trash and buckets laying around. I only found a couple of things I was missing but I do have tools again!!  

Being able to walk around in the old house is amazing!!  We took all the yard tools and put them away in the wood shed. All the trash and leaves were removed from the back yard. I even hosed off the house on two sides and the back yard concrete. It looks good! I had one planter that had quit draining. The one with our tomatoes. So I had one of them take a pitchfork and drive it into the soil from the top and a long screwdriver in the bottom drain hole.  It had six inches of standing water. I also removed the drip hose. In a few days I will put the drip line back in the container. 
I had them take down the temporary sheep fence from the front yard then tie the two strings I used from that fence onto the side yard in preparation for a new fence along this side. I looked out and they were trying to untangle the string. The string was straight and stretched tight before they removed it, fifteen minutes later it was still not done. Both of them were screwing around unraveling their respective string mess. We then discussed the benefit and loss ratio of labor cost as a function of time vs $4 roll of string. Two minutes later a string was up with new string and the old was in the trash. 

I always feed anyone who comes out to help. I had Mr Manners grab all the sandwich fixings from the fridge and some grapes and then they sat at the table while I fixed sandwiches. I asked Mr Manners to hand out grapes and he proceeded to ask for scissors. SCISSORS?!!  I asked what they were for he replied “To cut apart the grape clusters”. He received much ribbing about “using your hands” and lost man card points. I told him he truly was his mother’s child. 
  
After lunch I went out to the barn with them and had them start in on it. I was sure it would not be finished as there was too much left. They did very well while being directed and passed so I asked them to come out the next day. 
 

Tile headway made

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I made a note to myself of all the things I need to do in the two weeks AnnMarie is gone. The fact that I have about six weeks of work on the list is meant to motivate. Sarah came over Monday night and watched the puppy so I could work on finishing getting the tile glued to the floor. I finished!! Now I need to let it cure for two days and get the grout spread out. 
Today, while at work I got a call from Donna about one of the alpaca getting some wire wrapped into its fur. I thought it was just a little piece. When I got home I looked at it and it was a large strand of barn wire wrapped around a brown alpaca’s neck. It was trailing about ten feet of loose wire. I went to the old house and grabbed a pair of wire cutters. I tried to catch the alpaca but it stayed just out of reach. Running it down was not going to work. I opened the gate on the hay end of the machine shop. Despite acres of green grass all of he alpaca ran towards the hay. It makes no sense that they would do this.  The one I wanted plus two others ran inside and I shut the door. I chased the brown alpaca around the hay until I managed to get a rope around its neck and tied it off to a railing. I then cut the wire in two places and managed to pull it out of the hair. It was not deeply embedded in the skin or hair. It was laying on top and had not hurt the alpaca.  As I walked between the three alpaca they started to spit on each other!  I was hit in the crossfire. I hollered at them to stop and managed to get the gate opened so they could spread out and quit spreading their stomach content onto me.  
I have arranged for help to come out on Friday and Saturday. I have some hard manual labor lined up for them.  I want to shear the alpaca on Sunday. It all depends on whether I can get the table built. I picked up the pipe parts and plywood today. 
 

Killed mower again.

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I got AnnMarie to the airport bright and early and after breakfast and puppy play time it was time to work. I wanted to get the upper prime pasture finished. After that the only thing to mow was the upper hay field that didn’t get planted. It’s super tall and full of weeds but as wet as it’s been there is probably running water out in the middle. Tractors sink in the mud!  
I mowed the fence lines and my T post line from the fence I did not get installed. There is a lot of water still out there!!  I tried to mow around the muddy parts to give some indication of where it was safe to drive a tractor. Almost 50% of the “upper prime squared” field (new name for the part I started fencing in last year) is swamp and running water. I couldn’t get close enough to mow as I was getting stuck with my little light tractor. If not for being able to push the tractor 8 inches at a time by planting the bucket and rotating it. I never would have gotten out of the mud. As it was I still almost didn’t get out. I just kept finding more swamp. I spotted the baby deer again today. 

I really think I am going to have to dig some more trenches and subdivide the upper prime squared field. Create one side for hay and the other side for animal grazing.  Even with that the animals won’t be able to graze until late July. This will require me to put in another gate into this new pasture. I like having a late pasture available. I liked the hay more but not being able to actually run a tractor over the ground is a real problem. 
 
See the standing water in most of the above picture?  Swampy ground. 
 
I had to push myself out with the bucket a few inches at a time. 
 
The upper prime squared pasture is very tall. This is mostly grass, volunteer wheat and barley. I tried to knock down some of the ten foot weeds.  After mowing around the water I went up along the upper hillside fence line. I was clearing a section of fence that needs to be repaired. This is not an area I normally mow. I hit a hug rock pile and the tractor started to shake and mower made horrible noises. My newly repaired and rebuilt mower. I got out and tried it again, same horrible noise. I figured I had a bunch of barb wire wrapped around the blades. Nope!!  I somehow sheared off one of the two blades. It looks like I can just remove the metal disc and replace the one blade. The other blade needs to be bent back into shape also. Damn mower!  So now my mowing days are done. I will have to get the disc off tomorrow. 
 
The completely mowed upper prime pasture. 
It’s Father’s Day today. I have been trying for over a year to get AnnMarie’s grandfathers zippo lighter to work. I gave it a shot again today, my fourth attempt. I had to ream out the flint chamber as it had clogged up so much the flint could not touch the roller. This made me very happy!  It will only hold one piece of flint in the flint holder.  I stored two more in the bottom of the lighter just like my grandfather used to do. 
 

Weed mowing.

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Its obvious from this picture that my mistress needs some TLC. She is dirty and it just keeps getting worse. I am trying to get the field mowing done. But there is a lot of it!  I have all the area around the houses and all the way down to the school house done now. I just need to get the upper prime pasture. It’s not very exciting, round and round we go. Friday, I had a baby deer jump out of the grass just before I ran over it. It was little and kept trying to get through the woven wire to get back into hiding in some other tall grass. It was fine. I have seen hundreds of vole. I also saw two rock chucks.  They had snuck down off the hillside to come down to the waters edge and eat. Of course I had no rifle as that is something I don’t carry on the tractor. Zeke had snuck out of the yard so I sicced him on them. He caught one and shook it a little bit but it got under a rock crib and he could never get at it again. I am always surprised when we can call the dogs off of something like that. 
I had another coworker’s son out yesterday helping me clean out the barn. I got the tractor in there and pushed it out one end and had johnathon shovel it out the other. The hardest part is getting it loosened. I did as much of that with the tractor as possible. One more day to get the barn totally cleaned out. 
AnnMarie is off at Berkeley and I have a honey do list long enough I am not sure I could get done if I had vacation for the next two weeks!  The new puppy is dragging me down. Someone has to entertain him in the evenings.