[roll-bar Bob]

With having a 3 day weekend this weekend it was the perfect time to rent a tree chopper. I got the last 600 feet of my North property line trail to clean and 4 + acres of 1 to 4 inch saplings to mow down in my north future pasture. Despite only running on 5 cylinders the Ram dragged this thing like a champ. 50 Feet into Saturday morning I came across my first BLUE SNOW on my property this is going to cost me. So for the rest of the weekend I froze my ass off with the Bluetooth front window. I ran out of sun lite this weekend and did not finish everything I wanted, but I did get a ton done in a short time frame. I can now wrap that 4 acres with fence and turn the cows loose on it.

SHIT!!!!!!

Still weighting on the rental company to get back with me on the window cost.





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[shawn]

Those things are bad ass.

 

[roll-bar Bob]

Quick update just got off the phone with the rental company, they are only charging me $655 for the window, no labor, or downtime. I have rented from them a few times, great people to work with. I thought this was going to cost me a couple K so when she said "$655 do you want to make payments? I said, "hell no throw it on my card"



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[roll-bar Bob]

Just a Boy and His Bull

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[roll-bar Bob]

Moved some stuff around and set up this nursery for the sheep this weekend, Momma is about ready to pop.

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[roll-bar Bob]

Apparently Momma still has some time, but Laney surprised us with this little bundle Sunday Morning.

Hard to believe that this was Laney less than 10 months ago and now she has a little one

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[roll-bar Bob]

Woke up to 2 new Rams bobbling around this morning, Momma had twins around 5:30 and they are full of piss and vinegar.

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[greygoose]

That's awesome!

 

[roll-bar Bob]

And just like that "No Nuts" is off to the butcher. It took some doing to get him in there but he went. I am so looking forward to Lamb Chops, we had about a hour Runner ride yesterday afternoon. After he bounced around a few times he laid down and we didn't even know he was back there. Our butcher got a kick out of are transportation setup, he said the best one he ever saw was a guy pulled in with a 5 year old convertible Mustang with 4 full size pigs in it, he said that one was entertaining.

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[roll-bar Bob]

Rain Rain go away Please !!!

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[SHARPMACHINE]

No joke, our field is a lake right now.

 

[susankschutz]

They make a lot of racket when coyotes get ahold of them.

Donkeys are great for taking care of coyotes.

 

[roll-bar Bob]

Do to some recent flooding, I have been spending lots of time wandering around out back looking over our drainage system. Only to find, about 7 years ago when my neighbor to the south built his barn he shoved all the topsoil and junk from his lot into the outlet of one of my drains. Causing the water to backup and flood, around 4 of my acres in a wooded area, once the water got to a certain elevation, it would sheet flow across my barn yard making one hell of a mess. So, yesterday the boy and I started our day out with running a laser level loop through the woods and checking grades, confirming my suspicions. Then back to the house for some saws and Chet, Mis joined in and we cleared the ditch out. It is not the prettiest ditch but the water is now flowing, and the water level in my back yard has gone down 11" so far. It turned into a long day but was so rewarding when I took that last scoop out and the water went rushing down the drain.

Now, I know this is not my only problem but it should make a huge difference in this area.

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Oh Yeah, all that shit they stacked in my ditch I piled up in a nice neat pile back on there side of the property line.

 

[roll-bar Bob]

I got a chance this weekend to repurpose some of my neighbors old sidewalk, and fence in one of our wood lots giving the cows around an acre and a half of woods to play in.

George is loving this little patch of grass

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[roll-bar Bob]

Last Friday we loaded up our 6 month old calf Vidalia and took her over to a friends house for the next 6 months, she is to little to get bread but George our 6 month old bull continued to ride her. So we worked out a trade Vidalia went over there and we are getting one of our friends cows that is ready for George to visit with and we will trade back 6 months from now. It is a simple cow swap. Meanwhile my kids have been milking V's mom twice a day. I think they have collected around 4 or 5 gallons so far.

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[roll-bar Bob]

Introducing Peanut the newest addition to the Funny Farm

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[roll-bar Bob]

It has been close to a 2 year journey but last night the water was flowing. I installed the hydrants last fall but the water line in the shop was exposed to the cold so I could not charge it, now that we are past freezing temps I was able to fire it up last night. For the past year + every other day we have been shuttling water out to the cows with an IBC tote in the back of Rusty, I am so excited for that circus to be over.

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[roll-bar Bob]

Well, the farm journey continues the Little Man, and I got the Southwest pasture fenced this weekend. We ran 2 strands of high tensile with 3 gate locations for accessing this paddock. We had a little over 12 hours invested in this project that included cutting down all our post as, we were reusing random scrap signpost ranging in length from 8 to 16 foot long, our cheap HF Portable Band Saw got a workout. Our first few hundred feet was a tough learning curve but once we got in the swing of things we started moving right along. We would set the corner post, stretch a string, space the post, push them in with Lou, install the insulators, and move on to the next stretch. The Spinning Jenny we built could not have worked better we used a little under 4000 feet of cable which cost around 150 bucks, our insulators were pieces of 3/4 inch HDPE water line that we cut down to about 6 inches long and zip tied to the post. I had around 35 bucks in cable ratchets so in total I am into this fence for around 250 Bucks and a ton of time with the Little Man and now I think I owe him a fishing trip.

The blue spots are cable gates

Cable gate

RLB

 

[roll-bar Bob]

The Little Man and I hauled close to 40 thousand pounds of concrete blocks home this weekend, I thought Chet could handle them on his own but when we hooked on the first one, we quickly learned this project was going to take team work. Once we got it in the air with Lou's help I could then track it and place it slowly. With these first two loads we had enough blocks to build a retaining wall between the chicken coop and the garage. Then we moved on to using them as a foundation for the cow barn it is currently on wood skis and the cows have been shoving it around, so we are going to drag it up on top of a layer of these bin blocks and red-head it down.

The Ram was putting in some work this weekend, each one if these blocks tips the scales between 3,800 and 4,000 Lbs depending on the mix and air voids.

Team Work

We got better at it as the progressed

I don't know if I want to try stacking another layer under the barn or just use what I have but the supplier closed at 1:00 on Saturday and dad's trailer now has plans for the next few weeks. So for now this project sits until we get back at it later.




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[roll-bar Bob]

Hay hauling season has started 10 home 50 more to go

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