Barn floor

I came home last night and spotted a raccoon running up one of front trees!  I could not believe the audacity of the critter.  Mouse treed it and I ran inside to arm myself against the invasion.  There was a brief internal struggle as to what type of weapon should I bring.  Do I go for the shotgun?  I wasn’t sure where in the tree it would be and didn’t want to damage the tree.  Do I just grab the trusty Walther P22?  If it is way up high in the tree this might cause me problems.  I opted for the standard Ruger 10/22 but I have left the bolt action at mom’s house so I had to get the one out of the zip up case, loaded it and then grabbed the Walther P22 because one can never be really sure about which weapon is truly needed.  It took me a while to find it in the tree.  Then all I could see was its face looking out behind a large branch.  So the rifle was a good first choice.  As it came down out of the tree I had to switch to the pistol.  One more chicken killer down. 

We had to take Mouse into the vet for cheat grass removal between his toes.  He got an abscess.  This happened to Zeke as a puppy also.  Puppies are too stupid to clean out their own feet.  Zeke is really good about it now.  So Mouse is on antibiotics and we now have to clean out his feet every day.
 



Barn floor

Heath is cleaning out the barn and making good progress.  I am hoping it gets done by the end of the week.  After the barn the next big thing is to clean out the chicken coop then to move the hay around in the barn to get ready for this years hay. We have to restack the old stuff so it gets used first.  It is so dried out we may just feed 50% old and 50% new till we run out of old. 

Sarah talked me into helping her create a chalkboard for wedding party names for a friend’s wedding.  She supplied all the painting labor and I supplied the cutting and assembly.  She helped me hold during the assembly part.  It came out nice but it took me almost 3 hours in labor without doing any painting.  It does seem like Pinterest was invented as some fancy Man Torture, just saying. 

 

Wedding board finished

Maybe sand will do the trick

I spent Sunday afternoon playing catchup. Our front gate keeps getting loose.  I set the post in gravel but the constant opening and closing causes the post to sag.  Instead of digging all the gravel out and pouring concrete around it I just poured sand over the top and slammed it in with a large breaker bar.  It is pretty stiff now, time will tell if it actually worked.  I may have to dig it out and set it in concrete yet. 

My nephew is digging out the barn and doing a few odd chores around the place.  I started him on the barn and took the tractor out to mow the grass again.  We have had so much rain that the cheat grass needs to be mowed a second time! 

I did walk around and pick up scrap metal all around the machine shop.  I cannot stop myself, its like a compulsion.  I had to use a pickaxe to get some of it out of the ground.  I just keep after it, I doubt I will ever get it all in my lifetime.  I pick a few hundred pounds out of the ground every year. 



Back deck ready for furniture and steps

I needed to spread out more paver sound on the back deck.  I used a whole bag and ended up with a full second bag.  The bad part is it cannot get wet.  I still need to put together both outside chair sets and get them stained. I also need to attach one of the grill wheels, it fell off and needs to be reattached. 

We have had the bull penned up in the corral for the last week. He is not happy about the arrangements.  We need to get the baby calves sold so he can mix with all the other cows.

I did it, I got the water running!!  It took a bit but it is spraying where it is needed. I needed a new discharge hose and had to go to three businesses before I found one that had it. The real problem was I was in a time crunch and was afraid no one in Pendleton would have it. I ended up buying it at the equipment rental place.  I only needed 15 feet but they had 50 & 100 ft rolls with attached connectors. I asked about bulk hose but it would take 2 days and cost $17/foot!!

I bought a pre made 50 ft roll for $135 or approximately $2.75/foot it was “slightly used”. It looked brand new to me. I hacked off one end when I got to the farm. This summer when we run out of water I will get a real quick connector welded to the pipe so I can use fittings instead of hose clamps on the discharge hose. It will make it much easier to replace in the future. I left both end caps off and am hoping that the water pressure cleans out the mud and debris in the pipe. Annmarie told me yesterday that four more sprinkler heads had cleared themselves. We will run the irrigation until there is not enough water. I have no idea what the electricity bill will be. The guy on the phone tried to explain it to me, but it was quite convoluted. So much so that I closed the conversation with “you will send me a bill?”  Once I was assured that the billing address was correct I gave up on caring how much it costs we need to run the pump and we are being billed at irrigation rates. Once the bill comes I will have an approximate rate. I am told that at the end of the summer I get an extra bill based on my peak draw rate I.e. Startup of pump. So in all reality I have no clue what it will cost. 

I out an add on Craigslist for the sheep. So far I have only gotten one email and she wanted pictures. I sent an email with the blog link but I do need to go take some more pictures and link them to the ad.  

My dog proofing of the yard has failed already.  Zeke has figured out how to get out. No one has seen him in the act yet so we are not sure where it is occurring. I am going to have to install woven wire across the entire front. On a plus side, Sprout has not been able to get out of the yard since the update on the fencing. 

Stupid trailer won’t go through the gate

I went out this afternoon to get the pump up and going and water on the ground.  I changed out three gaskets, shortened the flexible hose about 16 inches and reattached it and found a hole in the aluminum pipe near the pump and changed it out.  I also installed six more sprinklers, risers and valves.  I was ready to make rain!  I fired up the pump, once I figured out to close the discharge valve (12 gallons of water utilized in an attempt to prime a bottomless pump tubing).  I got soaking wet but it started to work, no major leaks, looking good when 20 seconds in the 20+ year old flexible hose ripped wide open in a foot long gash and sprayed water all over the pond causing the whole pump to tip.  I quickly hit the power supply.  I was dead in the water.  I decided to go back to the house and load up more pipe for the orchard onto the pipe trailer.  Now I didn’t want to take all the unusable pipe off so I just added more to the pile.  I have had some issues getting the trailer through the narrow gates. 
Annmarie blames this on me hooking up to the trailer with the bucket and a chain.  I have been unwilling to unhook the mower and use the back hitch on the tractor.  I am a firm believer that this would not make a difference but she is not so convinced.  So I got the back axle stuck in the fence and had to use the pickup to pull it sideways 1.5 feet so it would go through the gate.  The really big obstacle is the culvert in the orchard.  It is not very wide and the trailer is 35 feet long.  I swung really ride and thought I was gonna make it!  Annmarie started to holler at me to stop, I figured the wheel would drop into the ditch and I could just pull it out with the tractor.  Nope!!  It got lodged in the end of the culvert and would not come out.  There was much mud on my face as I apologized for not listening.  We finished laying sprinkler line in the orchard and then I picked up the trailer end with the tractor.  There was a new bend in the pipe joining the two axles. I am going to have to get that fixed.  Tomorrow after work I will get a new flexible hose and fire up the pump again!  Hopefully this time everything works properly.

When the wife says stop,  you wave and keep on going!

I did say she said to “stop”?

Found this on the pipe trailer

Two smallest victims

I spent my Sunday communing with the cows.  While Annmarie and Sarah went to church I decided to get the cows all done.  I headed out to the corral without the dogs.  I did not want the cows riled up any more and they had all night to calm down from the move.  Of course all the water and food had been eaten during the night and the cows were all at the far end of the barn lot.  I went into the barn and got a shaker stick for each arm and started herding the cows into the corral.  It only took me five minutes and a few swats with the shaky stick when the noise was not sufficient motivation to move toward the corral.  with the four different pen areas I let the animals sort themselves out while I went and grabbed tags and the banderator.  I could tell at least one of the calves was a boy.  The bull went straight for the food and everyone left him alone so I opened the chute and let him wander out.  This opened up another pen to sort into.  I managed to sort off both little calves and one of the older ones.  I didn’t need the older one but it just would not easily leave the pen.  This helped me when I crowded the calves into the corner, more warm bodies slows everyone down.  I grabbed the girl first as I only had to tag her left ear.  I could lift her off the ground and set her on her butt however when I let go with my right hand to grab the ear tagger from my right back pocket she got away! I had to catch her again but this time I was faster and got the ear tag in place. 
I needed a five minute break to apply the boy tag to my ear pliers and a double set of rubber bands to the banderator, I was ready!  I was making some short work of this task, almost like I knew what I was doing.  It was a short lived feeling.  I caught the boy calf (the bigger of the two) and set him on his butt, while reaching for the ear tag I ended up draped over his body while he ran around the pen.  I only went about eight feet before I slipped off.  I caught him one more time and could not hold him down while attempting to use any set of pliers to do anything!  I simply do not weigh enough to just pin him down to the ground.  I stepped back and decided that I needed a third hand.  So I went into the barn and got an old 1 inch lead cloth strap for a horse and proceeded to catch the calf again and again.  On the third try I got him down and got the lead knotted around all THREE feet and kept him on his side.  I was able to tag his ear and after playing pop the weasel, got both testicles inside the rubber band before letting the tension go.  Start to finish it only took me 15 minutes to get both calves completed.  I will not be setting any records but I did get it done!  I sorted off the two oldest calves and their mothers and placed them in the upper prime field with our two steers.  We don’t want the bull to get at the female calves and they are already 4 months old. 

Hogtie necessity

I spent the rest of the day working on the irrigation pipe.  I got new valves and sprinklers installed.  I put in some new gaskets.  I have a mud plug in the last five sticks on the run.  I am trying to blow it out but the last four stem pipes don’t have valves and are blowing water everywhere.  I have two really leaky joints that need new gaskets and there is a leak in the flexible hose coming off the irrigation pump.  The hose is cracked near the end so it looks like I can cut off a foot and reapply the connector and be good to go.

Job done