tractor

Bull fence

Steve HardinLeave a comment

Today I finished painting the downstairs! I even considered starting in on the wood trim downstairs but I really want to do the windows first as the bugs have started coming around. I have the caulk to seal the wood trim to the window and the walls so no bug can sneak through. But the wooden shims have not arrived yet. I purchased a box of them and they will be here this week. I wanted cedar shims and I am going to leave the cedar closet lining boards I put up in the windows temporarily in place and just put the trim over them. They have helped keep the bugs out.

So instead I went out and started working on the Bull Enclosure. It will house the rams also when we are not using them. We have decided to pull the male species off of their respective herds at least a month prior to anyone having a baby. We don’t want the mothers to be stressed or harassed. I marked of a pen in the barn lot that will allow us to use the old lamb shed and lean to out back as shelter. The shed will be off limits unless we allow access. I have set it up so I have opposing gates that will allow us to block off the shed or allow them access to the shed and no where else. I broke out the hot pink paint marker and a tape measure and put a T sign every 8 feet. I will need to dig 57 holes! I think if I reuse what is present and use the old cedar posts I think I can come up with 40 posts maybe 45. I will buy the rest. I want to use railroad ties in the corners and two next to each gate side. I am going to install a 10 foot gate near the shed and another 8 foot gate on the back side of the fence past the lean to. I am contemplating one more near the culvert, but I don’t think so. Each gate is a weakness to be exploited by the bull. I managed to get 11 holes started tonight. I was unable to drill a single hole down to the depth needed even as wet as it has been.

The mistress was working hard and I had to replace one bolt on the auger and just as it was getting dark the shear bolt for the auger gave so tomorrow I will need to replace it before I can get started. My goal is to get all the holes started this week and then take a five gallon bucket of water and put it in each hole. I will do this every day and then drill it out the next day until all the holes are the right depth. I will start setting posts as soon as I can get a hole down to the right depth. I will set all the posts and put woven wire and smooth wire on the outside of the fence and I will line the inside of the fence with 2×6 boards. I will have to go 4 boards high to provide a sufficient barrier. So I will need to buy 2000 linear feet of 2×6 which also happens to be 2000 board feet. I want to buy 16 foot boards as I put the spacing at 8 feet apart, this means I need 125 boards. I will also need a saw and a whole bunch more wood anchors, another 500. This is the expensive part. That will cost me around $400 just for the metal screws.

I have the 10 foot gate, I will have to go scrounge around in my gate pile to see if I have another 8 foot gate. I may need to use a 6 foot gate.

The sheep have been hanging out on the back hillside. The gate nearest the creek is so badly damaged that it is not useful and needs to be replaced. I have simply not gotten to it and the sheep needed to go out on the back hillside anyways. We have had so much rain in the past few days that the back creek is up about 8 inches and running muddy.

Squirrel!!

Steve HardinLeave a comment

I was supposed to be fencing all day today to keep the bull away from the heifers he is not to breed. He has a different plan and it starting to become highly annoying. I spent two hours yesterday with the dogs moving him away from the heifers. It was an exercise in patience. I finally started tossing dried cow poop patties at him. He didn’t like that and it seemed to move him better than anything else I had tried.

I started out fine, went and got my drill so I could install the gate hinges. I found all my fencing tools in the pickup and needed the tractor to move rocks. So I chased the sheep into the front yard to finish mowing the lawn and then alternated driving the pickup and tractor to get them both through the gates into the barn lot. I did get Zeke to load up in the pickup, he always wants to ride and then on a fluke I told Mouse to load up. Damned if he didn’t do it on the first try! So I had both dogs ride in the back of the pickup through the barn lot. We then unloaded and took the tractor up to the far upper bottom pasture to get the smooth wire dispensing bucket and some wire. Well there is a lot of water running on the wheat field side of the bottoms. Usually, there is not very much water on this side. I ended up digging out the ditch in a section in the upper prime pasture. When I got into the next pasture it was even worse. I had to clean up two sections of the ditch I dug earlier and then tried to dig four channels in a swampy area. All the dirt I take from the swampy area I put on the edges of the swamp. I will try and build up some of the low spots in an attempt to keep them from getting so swampy. I am going to have to dig a couple of small ponds. They will only be about 18 inches deep and 6×10 feet across. I just need the water to settle someplace and then evaporate. I may have to see if I can find some used grape poles to build a visual ring around the water so we don’t accidentally drive the tractor or equipment into the water or swamp.

I then drove up unto the middle pasture that has not been burned yet. WOW! There is at least 2 acres of swamp. There is running water through the middle of the field. It looks like a ditch may end up separating the field in the middle. This isn’t such a bad thing we just need to be able to get by the ditch on the upper and lower side. I think I am going to have to install one of my new culverts up here to ensure cross field access. There is no question that we will not be doing anything in these fields in the spring after we plant them with alfalfa. Not even spraying the first year until we can see how the field and alfalfa does. I am hoping it takes up some of the water. I managed to get stuck again in the upper pasture and could not get out. I have only ever pushed myself with the tractor bucket backwards in an attempt to get unstuck. I had about a 30 foot liquid mud trail in front of me and i was pushing myself further into the swamp. So I figured out how to pull myself with the bucket! Its not as easy as pushing but it is possible. I then went to load up the wire and realized I needed to drill some post holes for the gates up here. I had the auger on the tractor and ended up digging 7 holes. Which made me aware that I need to dig holes in the barn lot ASAP. This was nice all dirt bottoms and each hole took me 5-7 minutes to dig. I cannot let the barn lot dirt get any harder or I will never get a hole dug. No hole means more rock cribs!I managed to get started on the fencing at noon. The dogs got to terrorize the hillside, the CRP, the creek and occasionally the chickens. Mouse had a thing for chasing the chickens today, I had to call him off three times. Zeke ratted him out every time by perking up his ears and slinking toward the sound of distressed chickens. Zeke either runs away or stays close, he never does anything halfway.

Mouse loaded up into the pickup a second time on the first jump. I had to talk him into it and make Zeke jump out and show him how it was done. He was a little light on the jump but managed to scramble in without assistance. I got the upper gate installed. I had to create a chain that is attached to hold it open so you can drive through. Otherwise the gate is angled such that it automatically closes. I managed to get the tractor to finally hold a roll of wire such that I can just walk away and it unrolls without any problems. I have been trying to figure out how to do this for four years. The trick is the bar has to touch both sides of the tractor bucket and the chains hold it level. The horseshoe is one of my gate latches. I am running out of them again. I usually have them welded ten at a time and I keep using them up. I didn’t get all the fencing done. I still have the lower gates to install. I had some gate posts hooks but they are too big for the ones already installed on the gate. So I will just buy smaller ones it is easier. I need to fill one rock crib, so three hours of hard labor with the mistress doing all the heavy lifting. I have one spot just to the right of the rock crib on the right side of the picture that needs a rigid panel installed to keep the animals from crawling through the gap. I am pretty sure I can use a piece of scrap from the horse enclosure that is still propped up in the front yard. I keep using those scraps in an attempt to get rid of them.

The sheep finished mowing the front yard! I will now have to get out a hose and wash down the sidewalk, bridge and our front porch in the morning before our Easter guests come for brunch. This takes care of mowing and fertilizing all at once. The only problem is we have to watch the dogs go potty for a week or two as they love to rub sheep poop all over themselves. I thought about this today as Annmarie kept hollering from the back porch to get my opinion on Iher attire for tonight. I enjoy doing this stuff, its hard to explain to people why I have a full time job that pays so I can have a full time job taking care of the farm. The farm is always there and forces you to constantly change and adapt. When you think you have it figured out, someone or something changes to prove that you do not. It keeps you moving, there is no time to sit around and be lazy. I get to work with animals and fix stuff. I love doing the 90% on projects and most farm projects are complete at 85%! Not the ones inside the house, I know dear. I love to reuse and cobble things together. The farm keeps me healthy and whole.

Thank goodness my paying job starts again tomorrow!

Steve HardinLeave a comment

I finally managed to do something I had not done yet and get the tractor high centered. This doesn’t seem like a big deal at first but I was going downhill and pushing a huge rock so I was not paying attention to the rocks in front of me. I ended up getting both back tires off of the ground! I had to use the bucket to push me back and four wheel drive to let the front tires push us off the rock. The mistress yet again came through for me.

I really wanted to get the last two rock cribs filled up with rocks today. Surprisingly, I did not wake up with my back feeling like I had been kicked repeatedly. My butt felt like i had hiked for 25 miles and was sore all over, so i must have been lifting right. I was attempting to maintain perfect posture while lifting. I started around 0900 and only took a light coat and light hat. Yesterday, I started out with too many clothes and had to keep taking them off. I just decided that to stay warm I could work faster.

My goal for the day was to clear the rocks from one side of the new fence line so I can drive the pickup down the fence row to work on it. This proved to be harder than I anticipated. The rock cribs hold a lot of rocks but the hillside is littered with them. I hardly made a dent. There are a couple of patches where I got all the rocks. Looking up on the hillside you really cannot tell where I picked rocks. I stopped for a lunch of Gatorade, granola bars and hot coffee from the back of the mistress. Some people wonder why I work so hard at home. The above picture is why, it was an absolute beautiful day, no wind, not too hot, sun was shining and spring is coming. I sat there and drank a cup of hot coffee from a thermos I had in my tractor canvas bag. It was an amazing cup of coffee.

I also got the road cleared of rocks almost to the top of the hill and graded out a spot for a six foot gate to be installed next to the vehicle gate. This way we can open the small gate for animal only access.

I now need 35 T-posts, 35 wooden stays, four railroad ties and two horizontal supports for H braces. The real question will be if I can drill four holes with the tractor. If I cannot do that then I need to build two more rock cribs!!Ready for double gates

Rock cribs contain rocks

Steve HardinLeave a comment

I realize that this may seem like an obvious statement but have you really thought about it? I had lots of time today to contemplate this reality. The panel would normally cost $24 and the post around $14. Then after filling a couple of rock cribs I can say it takes three hours to fill one! Three hours of knocking rocks out of the ground with the tractor and then hand loading them into the bucket and dumping them into the circle with the mistresses help. She is as hard worker and really needs a bath. After said bath I need to take a hammer and beat out some of the dents and spray a little green paint over her rusty spots. She deserves to be pampered a little every once in a while. I only had one close call today. I had managed to get this humongous rock into the bucket then felt it necessary to throw in more rocks until the bucket was full. I backed down the hill to the rock crib and then lifted the bucket high in the air as I approached the metal circle. Just as I was attempting to tip the bucket forward the tractor went onto three tires and tired to tip over. I managed to keep the three tires on the ground but could not empty the bucket. I finally managed to back up enough to dump the bucket out onto the ground. I had to make three loads with the tractor to get it all into the rock crib. I am now only grabbing one rock when it fills half the bucket. It’s just too hard to control the tractor with that much weight on one side of the bucket. This is exactly why I keep the roll bar up on the tractor and wear a seat belt.

I had Annmarie do the math, there is 84 cubic feet in each rock crib. That is a lot of rocks! A whole lot of rocks. I am hoping to get the last 1.75 cribs filled. Once that is done then I can go put the hole post auger onto the mistress and see if she can drill two holes up on the very top of the hill for the upper gate. If I can get both those holes in I can install two railroad ties and build a H brace. Once the H brace is in I can run fence the entire length of the hillside. This will then let me install the upper and lower 12 foot gates. This will then just leave a ten foot open section on the bottom of the fence near the house. I will need to add another 4 foot circle and fill one more rock crib. If I can get the cribs filled and the H brace built tomorrow then I will be on schedule with the work. I need 35 T posts and 34 wooden stays. There is one more spot I am not sure I can drive in a T post.

Gotta get out of the house

Steve HardinLeave a comment

The little tractor that could! I have a culvert on the bucket and pulling a small set of discs for the upper field. The dogs are giving the cows the stink eye after moving them away from the gate. This way I don’t have to worry about them making a break for it to get back to the bull. It’s a two way street, both parties would go to the other if they could figure out how to get out of their respective enclosures.

The culvert is for the upper spring, this way we can drive over to the back half without having to go all the way around. I have three more culverts left and need to install two more in the lower bottoms so I can easily get the tractor in and out of those fields even when it is fairly wet. Driving through the irrigation ditch when all the surrounding dirt is muddy is a good way to get the tractor stuck in the ditch.

The moving water in the upper prime pasture is half way through the trees now and starting to cut a ditch in amongst the trees. Its pretty slow going and I don’t know that it will make it to the fence. I can really tell in the front creek that there is a lot more water coming out of the spring than we have had in the past.

This is the upper prime squared field before I did anything to it. I had burned it off and it had a disc drug through parts of it once by someone else. My real goal is to just knock everything down into the dirt so that it can start composting and breaking down. We will then keep it down and sprayed with roundup so that it has some forced idleness this year and plant it in the fall. I had only taken my outer coat shell and it was just not enough to keep the wind at bay. I had to zip it all the way up and put the hood on to stop the wind on Saturday. I am getting stir crazy in the house and I cannot paint because of the baby chicks.

One of the things I noticed dragging the disc set around was that the back part of the disc was not digging in enough. It needed some weight. I backed the discs up and changed the angle on them so that helped but the soil is still very wet and I had a hard time getting any traction with the tractor. I had to make the discs easier to pull a couple of times until I got the right amount of earth movement and tractor traction. I was glad when my alarm went off to go feed the animals as I was cold and ready to be done.

Today I went out early in the morning after a freeze last night. The real problem with this is I added some weight to the discs today. I knew I had some old tractor weights kicking around the farm. Every time I have found one on the farm I have tossed it into the machine shed or in a pile over by the grain bins. I found eight 50# solid metal weights and tossed them into the bucket. Once I got to the discs I ran a chain through the weights and chained them to the disk over the second set. There was a welded piece of steel there already as it looked like someone had been piling up rocks for weight before. This added weight caused me to have to adjust the disc angle a couple of more times as they were now digging into the ground better. I failed to take into account that when the ground thaws it becomes super slick on top! I had a couple of times where I thought I was going to have to unchain the disc set just to get the tractor unstuck but I managed to get it out every time. I got almost the entire field done and only found one 30×40 yard patch that still has standing water. I need to mark this area and the couple of spring heads that are visible. I think I can dig trenches and connect this waterway up to the spring ditch that is already running. If nothing else, I may have to create a small pond to corral all the water. I will try some ditches first.

It was a beautiful day today and it only hailed on me once. I remembered an extra layer and a neck warmer and had to take the neck warmer off it was so pleasant.

The tractor is the perfect time to just contemplate life as you go around in circles. The ground is so rough that I over tighten the seat belt so it holds me in place and I don’t get thrown from the tractor. I also eat the pickle flavor sunflower seeds. They are the best, except the seeds are too small unless you get the Biggies!

I had plans on getting a overall picture and hiked up to the top of the bluff, looked out over my work and went to take a picture and my phone died.

The written word of my awesome job will have to suffice as testament to my hard work!