It is September now, I would like to say that it is still summer but the leaves are already turning. Fall is just around the corner. Annmarie has started walking in the mornings with the dogs. It’s not hard to see why we like it here. It is very beautiful. 

Mouse still has not caught onto the whole jumping thing. He watches Zeke do everything but he hasn’t figured out how to jump. So when they get to the cattle guard Zeke just leaps over but Mouse has decided to take his instructions from Annmarie. He walks over the cattle guard just like her!!  I have never seen a dog do that before. 

The weather was perfect for the quail this year, they were able to hatch two separate batches of babies. The current batch is pretty young but our quail population is on the rise. 

This is a picture of the farm from the opposite hill. The two huge trees hide the house pretty well. 

It’s been 36 hours since I recovered from a three day bout of the GI Bug from hell. I spent the first day sleeping on the bathroom floor and ended up having to be sent home from work and missing two days of work. It was tough. Unfortunately Mother Nature is not cutting us any slack and that hay needs to get put in the barn. 

I asked the daughter’s paramour to find more help and show up at 0545. It was supposed to get to 100 degrees that day. Now ideally I would schedule the work day for one when it is not so hot. Unfortunately, I have to schedule the work days around my paying job so I don’t get to choose them. 

I was up and ready by 0600, no helpers. So I texted the daughter then called and woke her up. Nope, still asleep so I jumped on the tractor and started leveling the area in front of the machine shop. I had a dirt pile from last year when I installed the gravel drain field in front of the shop. So I spent an hour moving dirt while they woke up and came out, by 0700 three young men were ready to do some work. They all forgot to bring gloves. Luckily I had three sets kicking around in the cab of the pickup they even matched!  I had every intention of being done by 1100 so we had 4 hrs to bring in 7 loads for a total of 210 bales or just over 36 minutes a load. The hard part of this time frame was the more bales we collect the harder it is to get them in the barn. The stack is 8 bales high and the bales have to be lifted/thrown/dragged to the top of the pile. It becomes much harder to unload as the pile grows. I drive fast and helped unload to speed up the process. 

We were finished in 3 hours and only six loads!  That left one hour so we reorganized the sheep side of the barn, tossed out straw and loaded all the supplement feed into the grain hopper. We are ready for winter for the sheep!!  I just need to get the large bales of alfalfa for the cows loaded into the machine shop. 

We managed to sell one of the pieces of farming equipment, the drill sets. The money will be used to fix up the old Ford 9N tractor. Once I get it running I will be able to lift the large hay bales. I will be able to stack them myself. We are looking forward to this!!  There is more old equipment for sell. 

This is the upper small wheat field 7 acres that produced 4.7 ton/acre of barley hay.  That’s pretty good. 

Last week I decided to catch up on something I think needed done, the bridge needed a tuneup. It’s been five years since it was installed. We tore the old one out completely and started over. I went through and tightened all the screws and bolts in the whole bridge. I had to install one new bolt in an upright railing support that stripped out. Initially it looked like the left side of the bridge was lower but a level only showed a slight difference. When I poured the four concrete pillars I put 3/4 inch thread all in them and 4×6 in braces on nuts so I could adjust the bridge height. I was expecting to have to use a four foot cheater bar and some WD-40 to move the nuts. I was able to do it with just an 18 in wrench and some Steve arm power. It was surprisingly easy. 

Next year I need to recover the pressure treated beams and paint it the same color as the fence. I really like the way the fence turned out. 

See the left side is slightly higher but the naked eye thinks it is right. Sometimes how it looks is more important than actual level. 

Front to back the bridge is dead on, the part by the fence has sunk 1/2 inch on the left corner. It’s a piece of newly poured concrete and not adjustable. 

After all the rain we had to go turn all the bales 180 degrees so they could dry out. 

We had six pine trees just outside the yard. For years Annmarie and I always thought they were cedar trees, so despite their deformed appearance and leaning tendencies we were letting them alone. Well once someone told us they were pine trees two months ago we have been jonesing to cut them down. Well, maybe only me but it is a real problem. 

First the chain saw had to get fixed again. Last week I was able to pick it up all ready to go and with a new chain. A new chain always guarantees sharpness as long as it is not dulled on installation. 

I came in from picking up another 33 bales of hay and the chainsaw was just outside the fence. It’s naked bar a siren call for my testosterone poisoned brain. I picked up my baby and headed for the trees. Now the real challenge is there is a parallel fence running alongside two sides of the trees. I only wanted to drop the trees in the same direction in a 90 degree arc. The trees are severely deformed and leaning toward one fence. 

As a kid my father used to drag me to the mountains every summer to cut 10 cord of wood, we left for the mountains at 0430.  We had to be next to the trees as the sun was rising. No daylight could be wasted. My father taught me how to fall trees. We used to cut tamarack only so we usually had to fall a lot of trees. There is a true art to making a tree go where you want it. Also, it’s not safe. Every once in a while the tree doesn’t cooperate or its rotten in the middle or the wind suddenly gusts so you must always be wary.  I dropped the first five right where I wanted. The last one was the smallest tree and leaning the farthest over the fence. Despite my notch and angles cut the tree came back and pinched my saw blade. I had to go get the tractor and a rope to pull the tree off my saw blade and provide tension while I finished the cut. The tree fell where I wanted it. 

Some things bring back memories of loved ones surprisingly you cannot always tell what those things are like the roar of a chain saw and the smell of wood chips 

Well I couldn’t move the hay in because it was wet, but I still needed to get stuff done. So I had the daughter’s paramour out first thing and we finished the skirting around the old house. We did not run out of skirting.  I used the last board and needed three more but on my way to get a tool I found a pile of boards on the front porch and was able to finish. I only needed three more boards. 

We even managed to get the little rock wall finished. I am hoping it helps slow down erosion on the hillside. We left a couple of piles of old boards that will need to be moved to burn pile.  

It took three hours and I was exhausted, I went back inside and fell asleep. I am not healthy!!  The plague lingers!!