Rotary Cutter

We bought a rotary brush cutter yesterday from a guy in Berea. He had a used farm equipment business and we got a pretty good deal on this. It’s a Woods Cadet 60, I think it’s an EM60 Towing Cutter. The EM60 comes in 3pt lift type and the pull type. We wanted a pull type so it would follow the contours of the pastures since we have so many contours.

The guy put it on the trailer with a front end loader. I don’t have a loader so unloading was interesting.

It needs paint. We’re going to paint it Ford Blue to match the tractor. I lowered the top u-joint so the shaft would be straighter. It’s too high in this picture.

Grow grass, grow!

Watch the video of me unloading the mower.

Lansing Kentucky

Kent Lansing called last night and said he was in West Virginia and would be coming right by us on I-64. He was ready to quit for the day so we told him he could come stay the night here. It was great seeing him and hearing all his stories of being a long haul trucker. Well, I’m sure it was only some of his stories. For those who don’t know, Kent is my cousin from Florida. He is Mom’s brother’s son.

We took him out to visit the animals this morning.

Horses too.

Heidi was being friendly.

His next stop was Salt Lake City and then ending up in Washington.

He let us climb up into the cab.

His bed look cozy.

Tractor Supply had their augers on sale. Those are snowflakes.

This is the kind that goes on the tractor’s three point hitch. It has a twelve inch auger bit.

Gardening

We got the garden tilled so Lisa picked up some onions and lettuce to put in it.

She had to rake up the rows and break the clods.

This was Wednesday, it was nice and warm out. Today it’s in the 40s.

She picked up a couple of apple trees too. This is a red delicious and the other one is a mcintosh.

She planted them too.

Seeding

We got some things accomplished this past weekend. Nelson let us borrow his field seeding rig so we got the horse pasture seeded. The horses will be over in the old sheep pasture for 8 weeks while the seed grows. We got the garden ready for tilling. Lisa cleaned out the creek so the water would go through the fence. The hen house got cleaned out. Saturday we had planned to go to the farm equipment auction but Paige had to go to the doctor instead. She hurt her foot and was limping badly. One of her claws had an infection so they gave her some medicine.

The seed rig.

The seed is broadcast over the chain drag. The drag breaks up the soil and spreads out the horse poo.

The horses in the small pasture. That’s Heidi in the sheep shed. Heidi is somewhat larger than a sheep.

After the seeding. Notice there are no huge piles of horse poo.

We started the tilling yesterday but only got two passes then the tire came off the wheel again. It wasn’t holding air so Lisa bought an inner tube and had the tire shop install it. They tried remounting it first but the air was leaking through the side walls which had dry rotted.

I went back and forth about four times. The last time was fast with front spinning tines to break up the clods.

Lisa was bringing over compost to add to the garden as I tilled. She had lots of help.

Hutch Construction Complete

We got Kate’s new home finished today. Lisa started painting because it was actually above 50 degrees for the second straight day.

Kate’s hutch probably won’t stay in this location.

It sticks out into the yard too far. We’ll move it after it’s painted.

Lisa tending the bunny complex.

Kate calmed down. She was chewing on the PT wood so Lisa sprayed it with bitter apple.

  The babies have discovered the food dish. Not sure if they discovered the food but the dish is fun.

Kate’s House

Kate is the New Zealand rabbit Heather got for Lisa at the rabbit show last week. She has already been bred to the same male as Rosie so she needed a hutch. We are building it the same as Rosie’s only it has the house on the opposite end. We’ll need to build a cage for the offspring next. They won’t be breeding so it will just be a stock cage.

Kate has spots.

Her name is Freckles. Kate is her nickname.

The frame before the walls.

In my defense, it was really windy today.

Walls are up.

It still needs the doors finished, the roof and the poo pan rack.

Rosie’s babies are getting bigger.

They come out in the cage area now too.

Darrell

I started calling the rooster Darrell so I guess that is his name. Kathy gets the credit for coming up with it. I spelled it differently than Kathy did. This is how Darrell Waltrip spells his name and he’s DW so enough said. Darrell has started crowing. He doesn’t quite have it down yet. It sounds like a teenage boy with a changing voice. Instead of “cock-a-doodle-doo” it’s more like “cock a do duh”. He’s trying though.

We’re hoping to get some chicks this spring. We saw him trying to get some action from the hens so he knows what to do.

He’s pretty tame. Lisa had him taking corn out of the cup. Here he is with all but one of his hens.

All the snow melted from this morning and turned to mud.

It snowed last night. The forecast was for a few flurries.

We got about an inch.

I had to make a new feed trough for the sheep. We had been using that old one from Andy’s barn but the holes in it were getting bigger and the food was falling through.

We think Mr. Sandpaper tongue was digging at the holes in the old trough.

New trough in action. Louie gets his bucket first, it’s good and high so no one else can reach it. Then the boys go in the stall for their buckets. The sheep eat last. You can’t dump the bucket directly into the trough. When you hold it low they just jam their heads in it. That’s Moe climbing on the other’s backs. Usually it’s Daffy’s back.

Ok, Now They ARE Cute

You were right, they got a lot cuter. They look like their mommy.

That one is Jenna, and there is Mark.

 

Freddy is on top, Sue on the right, Geordi is on the far left, you can just see Lance in the back.

 

That’s Mustafa sticking his face out.

Cute.