Lisa and I went over to Danville today to help Andy salvage lumber from an old barn. The farmer said it blew down when the big wind storms came through. He finally got tired of looking at it and put an ad on craigslist. He’s been offering the free used lumber for a while. He said that a lot of people called to say they were coming to get it but we were the first ones to show up. He’s going to burn the rest if no one else comes out.
We got the car out today. We had to go into town and pick up some things so I cleared out behind the Kia and got it turned around. Once it was pointing down hill we figured we should be able to get it down to the road. I have to go to Lexington tomorrow so at least I won’t have to deal with it in the morning. The really cool thing is that it made it back up the hill when we got home. Nelson didn’t get over today with another round bale so when we got back I took two square bales down on the four wheeler for the big horses.
For a blizzard the sustained winds have to be over 35 mph. It was close to that today. All the snow that is falling is piling up in drifts. Some places you can see the ground and others its three feet deep. The sheep ran out of hay so we called Nelson to bring over another round bale. The drifts were too high to get the truck out and I didn’t have time to get the four-wheeler started. So I walked down with the feed bucket to meet Nelson. He knows where it goes but we have to put the critters in their pens so he can get through the gate. I could actually get them into the pens without a bucket of feed but that would be mean on a day like this.
It is a lot of fun to chase the snowballs. Finding them in the rest of the snow is not as fun. This was last week after it snowed. It warmed up so the snow got wet enough to make snowballs.
The snow was done by late this morning. It was breezy and cold the rest of the day but the humidity was low so the snow stayed powdery. We went out and made our usual rounds. They never got around to clearing the roads so they stayed slippy. This afternoon a guy ran off the road into our fence, the new fence in the bottom pasture. It didn’t break but it has a couple of dents in it so it is un-stretched and needs repairing. I went down and got his insurance information. I was in a hurry to get down there before he drove away, I forgot to grab the camera.
I was pretending to be Bear Grylls. He does this angle a lot on “Man vs. Wild”. I didn’t bring my rucksack and paracord but I did have a big knife with me. I opted for the peanut butter sandwich for lunch instead of looking for grubs to eat and I drank a Coke Zero instead of my own urine. So basically my imitation of Bear Grylls began and ended with the camera angle.
I attached the camera to the front of the four wheeler so you could see what I typically do after work most days. I did some editing for time. As usual for January it’s cold and windy so the sound is garbled by noise.
The tour begins with the ride down the hill. I was going so slow because I had the camera tied to the front and the buckets of grain on the back. You get a good sense of the front of the property, it’s downhill.
The first stop on our tour has a visit to Larry, Louie, Daffodil and the ewes. As you remember from previous videos, they like feeding time. Larry likes it a little too much.
This portion of the tour is a drive across the lower pasture. I had to check the fence across the creek. The flooding from two days before had receded so I could inspect the barrier under the fence. I had wedged three pallets in the gap and put some rocks down to help hold them. Two were gone.
It’s clear what I’m doing here. I think I got it plugged fairly well. The big rock weighed over 100 lbs, it should stay there no matter how high the water gets.
This leg of the tour is just the ride back over to the gate. The ATV is four wheel drive so every now and then a rider must allow it to prove itself by going through rough terrain. I backed up at 0:35 because I dropped one of the wheels over the edge of the cut and didn’t want to flip.
We continue with a ride out to the front gate to pick up the mail! This is one of the highlights of life in the country. Don’t worry I edited out all the boring stuff. Heather brought the garbage barrel up the next morning. Thanks Heather! She’s good people.
The last part of the tour has a ride across the bottom pasture to inspect the fence in the usual high water wash areas. It looked okay so I headed back to the garage. Just one little trip through the creek to make sure the four wheeler was okay.
The cold and snow gave way to the fog and mud. It has been warmer, at least our furnace hasn’t been working so hard. The horses already used up that first large bale of hay. Nelson brought over a second one yesterday. Larry, Louie and the Ladies haven’t finished theirs yet.
