Weekends are made for catching up. I am trying to get all ready for winter. Winter is Coming.  I realize it’s a book and show motto but it’s the truth. With one of the horses needing a dry place due to some weird hoof issue we need a second covered area. The amazing thing was getting the hoof fixed on a horse was cheaper than fixing one dog. It’s no wonder there is no money in large animal care. 

I had a friend send her youngest son out to help me on Saturday. Now I do pay them but sometimes I think my various friends send me their children to motivate them to seek a higher education plan. So far I am batting over 75% heading to college after working for me. I am known to not stop, no breaks and if you let me lunch break will be at 1500 every day. I am not a fan of taking it slow and easy. I try to go at it like I am killing snakes every day. The only problem with this is I am no longer in my 20s or 30s.  

Plus, my back hurts!!  I had a known party bring her husband out to look at the old tractor. It’s gas not diesel. It’s an International not a Ford. It will not start or turnover, it needs a new starter and battery first. Then some filters and oil plus more hydraulic fluid. I asked about a new seat and was laughed at.  The farmer rule applies in this instant and I was told to just get it running. So I will order a few hundred dollars worth of parts and then we will see. 

The young man arrived via “his mother’s horseless carriage with her as the chauffeur”.  He is a young padawan and his mother is hoping he molds into a productive member of society.  We went out to the barn to clear out the old milking wooden floor.  I supplied the work gloves but he wore blue jeans and tennis shoes.  I was amazed he never stepped on a nail, but his mother is a nurse so I figured his vaccinations were up to date.  We ripped out the floor and stacked all the spare wood from the room onto the top of the horse hay room overhang.  I had to install some wooden brackets so we could make the stack higher.  At one point I misstepped and ended up falling four feet after sliding down the straw stack.  The young palawan tried to catch me but just managed to touch my arm on my decent to the wooden floor.  I managed to turn to my side so I didn’t land flat on my back.  Not one of my smoother moves but fairly typical.  I also managed to not hit my head!  My beautiful bald head seems to attract a lot of wear and tear.  The milking area needs to be dug out but before I can do that I need to put an end piece on so I don’t push the dirt under the last little bit of flooring we left.  The flooring is so you can walk out and feed the horses easily.  The padawan ripped out an entire inside leg seam on his jeans fairly early in the work process.  He kept after it, at one point I asked him what his older brother had told him about coming to the farm.  He said he cackled and stated “YOU are going to WORK!”.  We got a lot done in a few hours.  I was very pleased. 

It has been one of those weeks, i just barely get something done and then there is something else waiting that needs to be done yesterday.  I have been frantically trying to get our high speed internet pole and guy wire supports installed.  I managed to get the anchors all attached to the roof.  The hardest part was getting all the new supports installed under the roof so they would not just tear out the old roofing.  The walkway worked great and made it a lot easier to get around.  I ended up having to move the 32 foot ladder by myself and then extend it out alone.  I do not recommend that, the ladder is very heavy and incredibly awkward once you start extending it out.  It works great once you get it in place but not very easy to handle while getting it there.  I tweaked my back and have been walking crooked and hunched over for the last three days.  The only thing left is to actually insert the pole and attach the three guy wires to the anchor bolts.  The problem is it takes a second person, I will need to stay on the roof and use a level to make sure the post is upright and to connect the third anchor.  We need to tighten all three at the same time to make sure the post doesn’t get tweaked.  My helper has to be able to move the ladder by themselves and the tin roof needs to be dry for my safety.

Just when I think the farm cannot surprise me something else does.  I was in the rafters of the machine shop installing the anchors and there are several pieces of loose wood in the rafters.  One of them kept drawing my attention.  The board was very long, wide and curved on either side with a flat bottom with these tiny pieces stapled in even intervals.  I had to stare at it for three days before it dawned on me it was the old stair rail top from the farmhouse!  Had I known it was there I would have used it when we rebuilt the stairs.  I had no idea it was even there.

We have sheep babies everywhere!  The first batch has been tagged and banded and now there is a second batch in the baby area that are ready to go.  This weekend we will tag and band all of them and get ready for the next wave.  Annmarie made a program to track them on our iPhones and it is super fast, super easy and super quick.

The horse, Mika had to have some hoof thing cut out and filled with plaster by the vet.  Its sad that all that on a horse cost less than an overnight spay on the family dog.  It was very affordable.  So now we have to work on keeping Mika’s foot dry, this has necessitated the need for me to start cleaning out the old milk shed area of the barn.  I had been storing all the old lumber there.  I will need a different spot now.  So tomorrow we will be moving the wood out and then cutting up the old floor and storing it for reuse!  I will need to make a new handrail to keep the horses out of the barn.  I just plan on reusing all the old wood from the floor.  I have several small metal gates so I am going to see if I can get two of them to use as new doors.  We have a metal panel bungied across the opening.  It is not the best setup, but is currently working for us.

Center mount for pole installed

old handrail from the farmhouse!

Walkway and supports installed in roof

Babies every where!!

The light works!

Today was a good day!  I really feel like I got over a large hurdle in the last few days working on the farm.  Getting power to the machine shop was a big project and took me almost seven days of work to get it all done.  I crawled under the bridge and installed conduit and two junction boxes.  I had Sarah help me by guiding the wire into one box while I pulled to the other box.  Brian came out this morning to mow the lawn and chew the fat.  We had this discussion about home improvement projects.  He was telling me about burning up a drill on his last project.  I broke one of my battery Makita drills trying to get holes through the pressure treated boards under the bridge.  There is a reason I have a spare drill and impact hammer.  

Our first triplets of the year.

While I was attempting to finish the power our sheep started to have more babies.  I was pointing the new babies out to Brian when he spotted triplets on the hillside.  I only saw two and told him twins.  Annmarie went out into the field and he was correct.  We have live triplets and they are all doing well and momma is nursing and paying attention to all three.  The little white and brown one is a girl so we will be keeping her.  This ram is throwing nice healthy babies and the colors are amazing.  Those triplets are bigger than some of our twins last year.

I got all the wiring done and then flipped the breaker.  I walked out to the machine shop and turned on the light, it works!!  I was amazed.  The next big test was to measure the voltage at the outlet to see how much drop there was with all the distance.  I could not get a reading, I remembered to reset the GFI outlet and still could not get a reading, but the light works!  So I trudged back to the house blaming the outlet, it was a used outlet that I had written a note to myself on the box, “may work”.  Half way to the house it occurred to me that I should look at my voltmeter and see if it was setup right, the selector switch was right but I had used the meter to check continuity last so I had to unplug one of the probes and put it in a different hole on the voltmeter, a whopping 118.9 V.  Pretty dang close to 120, that I am betting it is good enough.  Most electrical items will work on a small range of voltage as it is not consistent around the country.  We like to think it is but it isn’t.  The next big test will be tonight when it gets dark, will our old walkway lights work?  They have been out of commission for five years and I did not change out the lightbulbs.

I had to wear my outside slippers all day today as the top of my right foot is still very swollen and sore where I connected to the ram’s ribs with the top of my booted foot.  My foot still hurts a lot, but he is totally unfazed.  Today he did not bum rush either one of us.  Maybe he is learning, or else we are.  

Another single

Probable right broken foot. Courtesy of the ram

The light really works in the dark!

We came back from the movie and I had left the machine shop light on so we could see if it is enough light to get hay and feed.  It is plenty of light for that simple task!  I wouldn’t do brain surgery but for getting hay it is perfect.
Both of our walkway lights work also!  It was amazing to come home in the dark and not have to use our cell phones to get down the concrete stairs to our bridge.  After five years of rest they still have some lumens left.  The next big thing is to get the three guy wire anchors bolted into the machine shop roof so we can get the tower installed.  Once that is done, its high speed internet time!!

Annmarie and Sarah moved the momma and babies into the baby area.  We want to keep them separate until they are tagged and banded.  Annmarie made a tracking program for our iPhones so we can instantly update it with any babies and their mothers.  It is very handy, much better than the paper notes I used to do.  

I was raking leaves again today.

I am almost there, I finished the conduit in the ditch today.  I was of course one piece short and had to run to town.  I bought six sticks.  I was not making another trip and the more I thought about the power under the bridge I realized that there might not be any conduit in place.  When I tore out the old bridge I took out the conduit and we have had nonfunctioning walkway decorator lights for the last five years.  I got the ditch all filled in and smoothed out, the new wiring all in place to the edge of the driveway.  I headed back to the bridge and crawled under it and discovered no conduit.  I am going to have to install two electrical boxes and a few pieces of conduit.  I was short one box so requested it from the child who was going to town with Annmarie.

Earlier in the day Annmarie spotted another baby lamb.  Our second one, it is all black with a white spot on its forehead.  We are incredibly happy with the coloring and health of both babies.  No twins yet but hopefully that will pick up.  Annmarie and I went out into the ram pasture and Oreo came running over for scratches.  Annmarie obliged him and then turned to go see the baby.  He snuck up behind her and head butted her.  She was not amused.  If this has never happened to you before it is very funny if you are not the one getting head butted.  If you are it is very painful and can put you on the ground.  So she gave him the boot, he tried a few times but neither of them could connect.  He finally gave up and walked over to me for scratches.  I obliged and then as Annmarie got closer to the baby I quit paying attention to him and was trying to see over all the other sheep when I got this huge slamming head into the middle of my left thigh.  I had an instant charlie horse hence the reason they teach this move in self defense courses.  I was quicker and the ram was closer, so my right foot connected with his ribs.  He hardly noticed but the top of my right foot started to ache instantly.  We managed to get out of the pasture without any more instances.  For those of you that don’t know this behavior is bad.  It puts any human who goes around the ram at risk.  Its because he is so tame that makes him a risk.  We like the fact that we can pet and handle him, he just needs to learn that he cannot head butt us for attention.  I talked about sanding down an old broken shovel handle to put out in the barn just in case.  At one point while looking for tools for the bridge job I found an old handle about 18 inches long with a flat cut on one end.  I sanded it down on the sander and set it down in the shed.  I thought I was overreacting and it would all work out in the end.

I cleaned up some of my tools, then mounted an old cast iron bell from Grandma and Grandpa’s front porch onto the porch of our old house.  I decided I was done for the day and would put the sheep to bed in the barn.  All the sheep but the two mommas and babies went into the barn.  I took the dogs out but Mouse got excited to see the babies so he had to stay on the hillside.  I went down and ended up carrying the new little boy to the barn.  I locked the barn door and started to feed the sheep.  I was being cautious and watching the ram but he was not trying to head butt me.  I was about 60% done distributing the hay when all of a sudden I was rammed in my right thigh!!  I turned the pitchfork around and smacked the ram up alongside the head.  Now both thighs were burning!  He didn’t try anything else, I went to the old house and grabbed that sanded handle and tossed it next to the barn so it can go inside the barn.  The handle is so short that the ram can only get smacked if he is purposefully trying to get to you.  He needs some negative reinforcement.  I like him and would like to keep him for at least three years but we cannot have him sneaking up on us and head butting us randomly.  It’s not safe, wait until there is mud on the ground or ice and he head butts you, it will not be a pretty picture.
The top of my right foot is killing me, I may have to not wear my boots tomorrow.  

Helpers, they were holding the ladder.

I drove to town first thing to buy those mounting screws for the light.  I went right to the section of the store where they sell the lights and no mounting screws.  I asked for help, no mounting screws.  He took me over to the screw and bolt section of the store.  Nothing fit, he asked two more staff members, no mounting screws.  They gave me two small self taping screws so I could attach the light to the mounting base.  As soon as I got back home I mounted the light.  I then wired the light switch and installed the waterproof switch cover.  It manipulates a normal light switch with an external lever while making it waterproof.  Its pretty cool.  I then decided to start gluing conduit together.  I needed a wire tape (fish tape) to pull the wire through the conduit.  I had to go up into our attic to find it.  This meant I had to move the dresser we are giving away from the hallway first.  Finally, wire tape in hand I head out to the shop to get the conduit completed.  I had figured the ditch was only 125 feet long. This was a rough guesstimate.  I was off by almost 35 feet.  Since my wire tape is only 125 feet I only glued 110 feet of conduit together.  I ran the fish tape from the end by the machine shop then ran out the wire alongside the ditch to get an accurate measurement, added some more and cut the wire.  I then drug all the wire back behind the starting point of the conduit and laid it out so it would not kink.  I taped the fish tape onto a center wire.  The tape makes for a friction point in the conduit but I had already done 10 feet when I realized I should have used some lubricant.  I had wire pulling gel leftover so I squeezed some of it into the far end of the conduit.  I had a hard time pulling the wire and holding onto the conduit.  I needed all my strength to pull the wire.  I ended up sitting on the ground with the conduit lip up against the bottom of my right boot with my left boot pushing it from the top to hold it in place.  This only allowed me to pull about one foot of wire before having to regroup and try again.  It took almost 45 minutes just to pull the wire through that conduit.  It was very painful and I need to remember the mantra “lube first”.  When I pulled the wire to the switch I did not use any tape, I didn’t think it was any easier.  I had to climb up on the wall and spread my legs to either side of the electrical box and pull as hard as I could.  Once I had the wire in the box, I wired the outlet, the light and a spare set of wires for our internet providers!  I left them half the box so there was room to work. 

2/3 of conduit laid and covered

Once I had 2/3 of the conduit done I laid it down into the ditch and backfilled it.  Unfortunately, I had to toss the first few inches of dirt into the ditch by hand.  Large rocks can wear a hole into the conduit so I sorted through the dirt to put dirt only next to the conduit.  I used the tractor to fill in the ditch, drove over it several times with the tractor and then drug all the excess dirt away with the box blade.  I figure once it settles I will use gravel to fill in any low part of the ditch.
Tomorrow I want to finish laying the conduit and getting it wired into the system.  The real problem is that when I tore up the bridge five years ago I never put the wiring back.  We have had light sensing lamp posts next to our walkway for five years as mere decoration.  I think I will have to wire some more stuff up under the bridge.  I need to go check and make sure the power is off. 

Power, light switch and outlet done ready for internet.

The cows needed fed so I went to the barn and got some of last years hay.  It looks like straw, but it really is hay. I managed to get five bales up onto my little tractor bucket.  I called the college last week and left a message with the diesel tech instructor about letting them work on our old tractor to get it up and going.  I have not heard back so I will call again next week.  I need the old Ford 9N up and going, it can move the 800# bales that my little tractor cannot.

I am frantically trying to get everything done before winter gets here.  

Cow feeding time