Leverage

Andy came over on Tuesday to help Lisa load out the lambs for auction. They had thirty of them in the trailer. 1600 lbs of lamb. The auction went okay. The price was lower than previous years, but we usually go in October. 

Meanwhile, Lisa got the mower tire fixed. The mower was still up on the trailer so Andy put the tire back on for me while he was here. Tonight when I got home the plan was to mow around where the trailer goes then park the trailer with the 4-wheeler. The truck is hard to maneuver in the tight spaces and I was only going a short distance. When  I first tried it the angle was too steep facing down hill and the deck got caught on the ramp corner. I pulled the trailer across the driveway to get a better angle. The angle helped, sure. Apparently, the mower with me on it weighs more than the 4-wheeler. Being parked in front of the surveillance camera was just lucky. I didn't get the mowing done after all. When the mower deck got caught it bent something and the blade was hitting it. It was too dark to see by that time so I'll have to fix it tomorrow.

Mower Flat

I waited around but the grass didn't mow itself. I got most of the mowing done and took the mower into the lamb pasture barnyard. The weeds were pretty high in there and I wanted to mow it since Andy and Lisa are loading the lambs on Tuesday. It looked so nice I went into the ewe pasture to mow around their water tank and the hay rack. The weeds were high in there and after the first pass I was going back over it from the opposite direction and I bumped into the end of a corral panel. That mower is a heavy duty commercial grade mower and I bump into stuff all the time. This time the receiver for the corral panel pin caught the wheel rim and ripped the valve stem out. I didn't want to drive it with a flat tire so I walked up and Lisa came with me in the truck. We loaded it on the trailer and I pulled off the tire. She's going to take it to the tire shop on Monday to get it fixed. 

Flat tire.

Closer view

Hole where the valve stem is supposed to be.
See the scratch where the pin receiver hit in just the right spot.

I looked for the stem because I thought if it had just popped out
I could shove it back in.
It was broken.

I didn't want to drive on the flat tire so we brought the mower
up the hill on the trailer. Lisa is going to drop it off at
Paynter's Tire shop in the morning.

Tinks

Dung Heap

      You may recall from previous posts that I maintain a compost pile back behind the barn. When we clean out the stalls, barns, run-ins, and cages it all goes in the pile. The compost requires regular maintenance so that's what I did this afternoon. I rake up all the material that the chickens spread around. They love scratching through it. They find all kinds of bugs and worms in there. Their scratching helps with the health of the compost but it still needs regular work. To turn the compost I shovel it from one side of the pile to the other then form it into a nice stack. After that I shovel all the chicken scratched stuff onto the top. The scratched material is dry and fluffy and makes an insulating layer over the heap. It usually heats up pretty good after I first turn it. You can feel the heat if you lay your hand on it and it steams on cool mornings. I must be doing it right, the vegetables in the garden love it.

The heaping pile of dung.

While I was playing in poop Lisa was in Lexington doing home visits for Heartland Sheltie Rescue. She found Shadow a home. Shadow is a sable and white rescue who has been staying with us.

Shadow.

Poppy did manage to get a few rounds of ball chasing in before and after I went composting

Poppy resting in a sunbeam after playing ball. I was watching zombie shows. 

We had to get new tires on the 4-wheeler this year. The old ones had dry rotted and didn't hold air anymore. We went with and aggressive agricultural profile instead of a sport tread. We need the bite in mud and snow.

New ATV tires.

Fetch Jim Fetch

I worked from home today and Poppy took full advantage. She must think that since I am sitting around doing nothing I should be throwing the ball. The first time, I was working on a report with information that management needed before an afternoon meeting with the customer. What good is some report? How could that be important? It doesn't fling a ball across the yard. The next time I was deploying services for another customer. I mean, it's not like it was going to make our company much money. It can wait, there was a ball on the shelf with my name on it. It really got bad after lunch.

Could you say no to those faces?

I couldn't say no.

The Color is "Coral"

I got a new job working in Lexington. After more than nine years at IBM they decided they could do without me. I like where I am now. I'm working as an IT consultant with a mid-sized Managed Service Provider. My main role is Vmware Engineer but I do other system admin stuff as well.

My cubicle. I need some cat pictures. 

The network login there requires a two part authentication. One of the parts is a random code generated by an app on your smart phone. My phone was a stupid phone so I had to get a smart phone. Luckily the guy in the next cubicle had an old iPhone 5c he sold me for $10. I put a bring-your-own-phone card in it and I was geared up.

Since I now have a smartphone I had to take the
obligatory selfie in the bathroom mirror.

Luna.

The Lambs of 2017

I'm sorry you all have missed the last few years of the bloody reality that is lambing season. This year's batch of lambs have done really well. We only had two bums and I don't think any of them died randomly. Maybe next year I can bring back all the gory details!

We had them in the catch pen for their final worming.
You can see the spotted llama in the background. That's "Freckles".

It's hard to tell but I think there are 30. Two of them are getting
promoted to breeding ewes. It's the two on the right next to the weeds.

They don't like the crowding but it is necessary for worming.

In case you had not heard, we lost Leo. He stowed away on Heather's
truck and was never seen again.

He may have been the worst lap cat ever, but I miss him.

New Trailer Floor

It was past time to put a new floor in the old livestock trailer. It was mostly 2x8 pressure treated but I added a 2x10 and a 2x4 to get the numbers to come out even. That way I didn't have to make the long rip cuts. I worked on the lights and did a little painting too.

The trailer backed into the loading pen.

New pressure treated floor and plywood walls.
Lisa painted the walls and stapled the welded wire.
The wire is so the livestock hooves will have traction.

The welded wire. We had heavy rubber stall mats in there before.
They work okay but are difficult to move so they tend to stay put.
Another problem is they never dry out underneath, which is bad for the wood. 

This is Chance. He's the one that got to go for a ride.

This is the trailer after Chance's ride.
To be fair, we did load him the night before, so he was in there quite a while.

You May Have Noticed

It's possible that you have noticed I haven't been posting here for a while. I had my reasons and I think I'm over it. So, let's see how this goes.

As usual, Andy is finding downed trees and cutting them up for us. The latest load was a big tree that fell off a cliff at the quarry.  I met Andy at the quarry and picked it up. He had already cut it into pieces ready for splitting. There was more there than he originally thought so I took the trailer. Good thing.

The logs were quite heavy so I rolled them off the end of the trailer and split them right there. The un-split logs were to big for me to stack by myself. I'm glad the log splitter has a vertical position. 

I finished splitting that load yesterday. It filled the 8'x5' rack in the wood shed. It's a little mounded but they settle sometimes.

It is some beautiful oak. We probably won't need to burn it until next winter. It should be nicely seasoned by then.

It was hot today and I played ball with the girls this afternoon. Poppy got worn out. She likes to sit on the floor vent when the AC is on.