Author: Steve Hardin

Gazebo progress

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Monday was the day I was going to finish the barn clean out. The trouble with that is I needed to go help the Gingerman unload the flat bed trailer with the hay on it. We fed one bale to the alpaca as they had been helping themselves to it while it was on the trailer. The second large bale went out to the cows and momma sheep. There is plenty of grass still for them but they are lazy. Once that bale is gone they will have to go back to working for their food. We are trying to get the sheep pregnant so some extra calories will not hurt them a bit. It had rained just over half an inch in the last week. But 2/10” was last night so I decided to run the land plane over the gravel road to refresh it and knock down any holes. I love the land plane, it does a great job on the gravel road. I have to wait until the road has had a good soaking or I cannot work it easily. I then switched over the arena groomer and smoothed out all the ground I had disced up for a fire break. I also used the arena groomer to clean up the field that I had plowed. I made a burn pile of all the weeds. I will need to do the other field next and it needs a burn pile also. I can burn those in December/January.

I went inside to have some lunch and another cup of coffee and told wife I did not want to dig out the barn. So she convinced me to just work on moving rocks for the Gazebo instead. I know that sounds counterintuitive but I did not want to shovel in the barn. Instead I loaded big rocks and some smaller ones. I need 50# plus rocks for the base of the support wall then all rocks above those need to be at least six inches or larger. I am told that is what is needed to stabilize the pad to prevent it from sloughing. The amount of rain we are getting has caused part of the pad to slough. So it has moved up the priority list and cannot wait until winter. I had visions of just piling up the rocks but once I picked up a shovel to mark the base layer I just shoveled the entire thing and called it done! I am going to bring over a hand truck so I can just scoop one large rock up at a time and wheel it into place. I will start working on this after work for at least 30 minutes so it can be over and done.

Regardless, I managed to escape digging poop out of the barn today. That is a joy for another day.

Our new back door Ring camera placement did not detect anything last night. We even reviewed all the footage. We had a hard time seeing so Annmarie asked that I move the camera closer. I moved it over to another closer planter bin and the focal length for the camera is much better. We get a clearer picture. Now it is just a matter of it alerting me to a predator and I can do my part and avenge Cheddar!

Predators out of control

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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.

Cows tag and banded

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I had big plans for Saturday, I thought I may be able to finish the barn but the skunk Friday night had other plans. We had a skunk come into the front yard and Chance took umbrage. She ended up getting sprayed so badly that her neck turned a yellow color from all the skunk spray. She stunk so badly you could not get within ten feet of her. The skunk got away and we were unable to dispatch it. This meant that my priorities had to change. So Saturday morning I went to D and B and purchased some skunk stink free liquid and some soap that supposedly did the same thing. The liquid worked pretty good and then after rinsing that out I went for the skunk soap next. She smelled so much better after those two treatments that I figured I had gotten it all off of her. Nope, my nose had just been so abused during the washing process that the improvement had me believing I had it all. I did not and especially after she got wet again in the rain. I am going to have to wash her again. Skunks suck. I think the skunk had been eating my chicken eggs.

I messaged the nephews and Gingerman to see when we could arrange tag and band of the one male calf and tag the one female calf. Mind you the calves are four months old. Gannon wanted to do it right away as he was just coming back from helping someone else with cows. So the Gingerman and I went up and herded the cows back down to the barn lot. We got the calves separated into two pens and the female calf just kept smashing into the gate and fence trying to get away. We had to get a rope to tie her up so I could tag her ear. She made a cut on her forehead. The boy was worse, he was bigger and the bander would not fit so we ended up cutting him. Only the Gingerman knew how to do that so we held and he cut. Nope, I am definitely going to be tagging and banding way early from now on, that was fairly barbaric and traumatizing to Gannon! Luckily, the temperatures have dropped off and the fly population is low. We cleaned it up and put blue goop on it. It should heal fine but it was brutal. The pigeons currently number over 50 and the doves are everywhere. I am going to have to take some time next weekend to try and cull the population some.

Barn dig out initiated

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The big question of the day, will the new tractor fit into the barn? Before I could answer that question I had to go out and pick tomatoes from the back garden. The onions have been ready but with the party we just left them in the ground. I pulled them all out and hung them over the edges of a bin to dry out and form a skin. We had two bins worth of onions but one of the bins had some volunteer tomatoes come up so I am going to keep watering the tomato plant in the hopes of getting more fruit. I also planted beets in the old pea bin. I will probably plant some carrots this weekend in one of the other empty bins. I need to chop off some of the low growing branches on the back tree as it is starting to get in the way again. I will just add that to the list.

I need to work on the greenhouse again. Mr Rainman told me if I watched some YouTube videos I will need to caulk the panels in certain places to hold them in. I have had two panels pop out this last week. But the next thing after the barn dig out is moving rocks. I MUST get the rocks on the hillside below the gazebo put in place. The plan is super large rocks at the base of the mound and then at least 5-6” rocks all over the hillside to stabilize the gazebo base. After all of the effort to get the gazebo up and build the pad I do not need it washing out.

I was able to find my manure forks for the tractor bucket and install them. I was actually able to drive in and out of the barn without moving any fence but I had about three inches of clearance on each side and that is not realistic for hours of in and out travel. So I removed distal half of the fence on the left side of the entrance. I am going to move the entire fence over 12-18” when I rebuild it. That will be the last thing I do after cleaning out the barn. I put in a few hours today moving dirt and muck and have the barn over 50% done. I was able to hand dig out the entire sorting chute and did not have to remove it. This saved me about an hour of labor. I find that the labor gets a little harder every year. I was even able to turn the tractor around inside the barn. That is the real test of too big. The hydraulics are a little touchier than the John Deere so I am still getting used to them. My hope is to get the barn and gate all completed this weekend then I can switch gears and start hauling rocks.

I moved some water into the chicken yard and the chickens have started to lay in the coop again. I am getting at least four eggs/day now. The dog eats 2/day and the wife 1/day so they are at least out producing our daily consumption. I still have not gotten the roof on the yard but that project keeps getting pushed out to a later date.

I was thinking today in the shower about a seating area outside the gazebo. I may create a level gravel area outside and below the gazebo. There is a section of the hillside below the gazebo that has shallow soil and a rock bluff that not much grows there but cheat grass. I would need to build a retaining wall out of metal panels like I did for the horse area. This would make a nice gathering area. It’s a thought. If I do it I will need to put in some subterranean drain pipe to allow the gazebo roof to drain appropriately and keep the bank stabilized. I will keep musing on this idea to see if it is doable without too much work. Annmarie talked to me about putting in a water feature on the other side and I will want to do that before anything! I love a good water feature. My last one looked like a pair of breasts, it was accidental but everyone said the same thing when they saw it. It will be shallow so there will be no fish but I am hopeful that the birds will use it to bath in and the bees will be able to easily and safely get water.

Party success

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We have been spending the previous week getting ready for our grandson’s 1 year old birthday party. This means cleaning up the yard, the house, organizing and trying to get everything presentable. We did manage to get the front deck, yard and house pretty much ready. I did not get the old house porch cleaned off. It has a wide variety of items living on it. I really want to build an extension off the old house deck for the saw but that is more work and money! Currently I am out of time and money so instead I need to clear out a spot in the old chicken coop so I can move the saw down there. The party went well, the attendees consumed 20# of smoked brisket, 19# of smoked turkey along with a lot of salad and beans. Everyone had a great time. As we get older I understand how and why older adults love screaming kids. It is a nice sound to hear them being happy even if it does cause some chaos.

I was even able to pick up a lawnmower for $100 so Mr GolfPro is no longer using the weed eater on the yard. The yard looks great! I will need to stay on top of this next time the mower dies.

We have been trying to protect our two porch kittens from our older working dog. He has always been a terror around kittens and tends to off them on sight. He got loose Friday night and dispatched one of the two kittens on the back porch. So we only have the little orange one left, that kitten is tougher and has been living outside the fence more since the event. He will crawl amongst the chickens after I feed them compost looking to see if he can eat anything. The chickens totally ignore him but it is kinda weird looking as he is not very big. There is hope that he may survive to adulthood. Mouse had to spend the party out in the orchard. He cannot be trusted around that many adults or any strange kids. He is a true farm dog.

The next big project is to get the barn dug out. I still have not tried to get the new tractor into the barn. I am afraid I am going to have to move three posts and rearrange the entrance to make it about 18” larger to accommodate the Kubota. I will know this weekend what is required.