Puppies are so dumb!  Just look a cone of shame shows the results of some serious IQ challenges. He was supposed to get neutered on Tuesday morning. Instead when I drop him off I have to ask the tech to point out his left eye to the vet and the two sores on his belly by his scrotum. The vet calls me an hour later to tell me he has a foxtail in one ear, a foxtail under his left eyelid, and two abscess that needed to be probed. I authorized the sedation to remove all fox tails. The vet didn’t want to do the neuter until his abscesses are cleared up. She called back an hour later to say that every location had a foxtail!  So now he wears the cone of shame. He has four different medicines, one antibiotic, one eye ointment and two pain pills. He has to stay on medicine for the next two weeks. If he is healed then we can move forward with the neutering.  

He is so pathetic we now have to put his food on an elevated pedestal so he can eat it. Annmarie had to help him up the stairs the first day. He could not figure out to lift his head to move the cone out of the way.   He is becoming the most expensive dog we have ever owned. It’s a good thing he is the best working dog we have ever owned. 

Johnathon told me yesterday he had to leave at 1100 on Friday. So I changed the start time to 0500!  Sounded reasonable on Thursday at 1300. By Thursday night at 2200, I had worked for another 5 hrs and was tired. Annmarie had to wake me up at 0500. My subconscious brain had refused to turn on any alarm. Luckily he was running a little late, we got started at 0530. We finished the side fence post installation. It took on average 20 strikes with the post hole driver to sink a T post. Going across the field it only took 9 whacks. 

I left the tractor at the house. I needed a safer day. We spent the rest of the time repairing the old fence and tightening it up.  Installing wooden stays as the T posts are 16 feet apart. There is one 16 foot gate I need to install and for now I will use our temporary woven electric fence to cover the gate area. We made the gate 32 feet wide between the fields. 

When we were done I paid him, went inside and fell asleep on the living room floor for a half hour nap. I was tired!!  Now I need to put in another 32 wooden stays and string new wire on the waiting posts. I was amazed at the number of voles. One every four feet all over the field. 

Well as in all things in life there must be some adversity. We started marking T post locations with a string and marking paint.  I brought the tractor so I could mow more weeds. As we started driving T posts it dawned on me we were going to have to fix the old fence also. The only problem with that is the old fence is buried in the weeds. So I left johnathon to mark the next run of new fence and went to mow the old fence line. I kept finding old metal pieces next to the fence. These are found by large clanking and banging as I attempt to mow over them. The weeds are so tall I cannot see the ground. 

I was doing great until I wasn’t. I was almost to the end when the hillside just started to get steeper. When you are holding on with one hand and your seatbelt is the only thing keeping you in the seat you have issues. I tried to back up. No go.  I tried to turn the front wheels and the tractor started to roll over!  I quickly dropped the front bucket and stopped the roll over. I crawled off, uphill side of course and both uphill tires were off the ground a few inches. I got a shovel and a breaker bar and we dug into the hillside about 10 inches down in an attempt to let the uphill side touch the ground, 45 minutes later we were ready to give it a try. I do have a Lifeflight membership, I did put on my seatbelt and did cinch it down.  As I raised the bucket the uphill tires dropped down into the freshly dug area and I was able to drive out. Another great save!!  I just paid off the tractor last month. 

The old fence line did get mowed. There was no way to get in next to it without clearing the debris first. I had to make a couple attempts at creating a metal T post H brace. This one uses two posts driven into the ground at an angle then wired to each upright and wired together at their crossing point. It’s surprisingly sturdy. 

We ran out of used T posts so we quit for the day, it was 1300 anyways. My help left so I went to the scrapyard and snagged 119 used T posts. I usually buy them at least twice a year. There was a big stack this time so I sorted through them and took everything I thought I would be able to drive into the ground. Then I went home and finished mowing. I wanted to be ready for tomorrow. 

I would love to be able to label the pictures but our computer died also.  Annmarie is working on that problem, looks like a new computer will have to happen. 

The hay is all baled and ready to come in the barn, so Mother Nature has decided it’s time for rain. It rained every day for a week!  When I went to go look at the hay there were several large sections that did not get cut. The weeds and hidden ditch and soft ground stopped this harvest notion. I also did not go up and spray weeds this spring. I would have had to drive over the green barley.  This has caused the weeds to grow unchecked. They are out of control. So I did the only thing I could think of and fired up the tractor mower. You know it’s bad when you need four wheel drive just to push through the thistle patch. It’s quite healthy. 

This was really my wake up call to get this area fenced in. It serves two purposes. One I can delineate a spray zone to keep weed free outside the fence and two it lets me turn the animals loose into the area after the hay is cut to forage for a few weeks. It will round the corners off in the fields but overall it will help. Mowing was the first big step. I took a good crack at it after work one night but had to stop due to a lack of fuel in the tractor. Of course this was the day our instant hot water heater took a nosedive and quit working. Mowing in July in eastern Oregon is a very very dusty prospect. I mowed alongside the barley hay field. I have some teenager help coming tomorrow. He had asked if I had any work a couple of weeks ago. I asked him if he was busy on Thursday and Friday, and he replied in ear,y afternoon. So I made our start time 0530!  We can still get in 8 hours on Thursday.