A Busy Wednesday

I went over to the youngest son's place early this morning to get the youngest grand son off to school. This was followed by coffee time with the boys and gals at A&W. 

After that, it was home to do some horse refreshing. Alpine did not want to be caught, but I kept after her until she quit. To make a point, I lunged her for about 20 minutes then proceeded to groom her well. The majority of the winter coat is gone and she is now shiny and looking like a horse. I put the saddle on her and spent about 15 minutes in the corral. She was very well behaved so we proceeded out onto the roadway.Other than not wanting to leave her herd, she was good. Up and down the road for half an hour was enough for the day. She got a 45 minute treat of being alone in the paddock with fresh grass. Can that gal nibble!

After the play time I went and loaded 26 wheelbarrows of pre- compost from the horse wintering area. Man, that was a time I could have used a tractor! There is still a little bit to do, but tomorrow is another day. I will save you from the view of the pile. It ain't pretty!

After that, it was off to the raspberry bushes to get rid of all of last year's dead canes. I got 50% done before my back said "Enough"!  By the way, I am still waiting for a call from a Neurologist. If the pattern matches, I still have 5 months to go.

On the positive side, riding did not affect my back at all. I wish I could say that about shoveling and pruning canes. Maybe there is a lesson here. Ride more, work less?

I suspect that I will repeat the scenario tomorrow, but with Biz as the unwilling victim.

In the meantime, the bees are busy in the honey berry bushes. 

Family Effort..Cleanup

This was a great day to be outside cleaning up! +7C  (45F) and sunny. I got to supervise due to a wrenched back while trimming Alpine. That's why I have no shovel in my hand. Instead, I took pictures of other folks working. After all, age must have some benefits.

 Myself and son Mike. Mike is the one working. :-}

 Elaine, AJ and Mike. Me, behind camera.

 We had Mad max checking up on things.

 Ah, yes, work! I could watch it all day!

 Noah (5) decided it's more fun to roll down the drifts.

Brooklyn found a sunny spot in the hay loft. " I don't do work!"

Ha, ha, there is lots more where that came from!

Help Much Appreciated!

The warm, spring like weather has caused a whole bunch of land mines to grow in the field. I cleaned up 8 wheel barrow loads the other day, and that pretty much did my back in for a week. I am due to go in for an MRI next Monday to see what is going on. In the mean time, my youngest son and oldest grand son came up to help clear the field.

 This was much appreciated, and reduced a 4 hour job down to 1 1/2 hours.

Another 7 barrow loads went on to the big pile for composting. Now if I could just train the horses to do their thing on the pile, life would be excellent! I heard Llamas do that. Nice Llamas!

We have another tentative date to clean up again next Saturday. This is much better than going to the gym!

OOPS!

Just when I thought things were going well with the hay run, wouldn't you know it, I had to hook a trailer bumper on the fence posts when backing the rig out of the place! There was no damage to the trailer, in fact, I didn't even notice that I'd hooked the post.

Guess what I did on the day that I had planned to vegetate? You got it! unstring the wires from the broken posts and replace the posts. It took about 3 hours! The cross wiring was good as there was no other damage to the fence.

OK, tomorrow I'm going to vegetate!

Carrots and Hay

It was another beautiful day! My hay collection trip fell through and I figured with a free day, it was time to dig up the carrots and process them.

It was only two rows of carrots, but they produced real well, enough for 17 big feeds! They are now residing in the freezer.

The topping and tailing was not so bad, nor was the blanching. The irksome part was peeling those gawsh darn carrots. There must be a better way than using a potato peeler on them. It did a great job, but talk about time consuming! That is a bushel basket, by the way.

Anyway, they are all processed, and my short term memory loss will take care of that issue by next year. As long as I don't plant 4 rows.

The balance of the day was lining up a big truck and trailer to go and get the winter hay supply. My supplier for the last 5 years, decided that they didn't have enough to sell this year. I found that out Friday after talking with her since July. It looks like they waited too long and the hay went brown and moldy, which is a big no-no for horses.

A few phone calls rounded up an alternate supplier about 40 km away. More work and more travel, but by the looks of it, better hay. I will be hooking up a borrowed Ram 3500 and 18 foot trailer and hauling for the next few days. The trailer looks big enough to get 150 bales on ( I hope) then I will only have to make 2 trips. The tough part will be getting it into the hay shelter since it will have to be double handled. It might be worth while to relocate the hay shelter for next year. Nope, bad thought!

The weather looks like it will hold for the next 10 days.

A Lazy Wednesday

The leaves are really starting to turn colour and thin out. As long as there is some grass left, the horses are happy. It was my intent today to ride, but I looked at the grass and figured it was time for the last (I hope) cut of the year. It is not a small job and takes about 4 hours to do.

Alpine is turning into a real hayseed. All she needs is a straw hat. Nope, she'd probably eat it!

 Tucker is always looking for food, any food. There are two pastures full of grass, but she chooses to stretch my fence wires.

What else is there to do on a nice, sunny, almost fall day?

Project for The Day

When I went out the other day, I saw that my shed had dropped down about a foot and a half on the front side. Once I got it jacked back up into position, I got a look at the cause. The original owner had just laid some lumber down and set the shed on top of it. After 8 years on the Acreage, i am still fixing stuff that he did! 

 The temporary cribbing got it roughly into position. Don't worry, I wasn't getting underneath it! The 6 ton bottle jack made short work of getting it up, although I had to take it up in 3 stages.

 One of the two final cribs in place with a full load on it. For some reason, it looks slanted in the picture.

I managed to get it level both ways. Now, do I take a nap, or saddle up a nag?

Child Labour...

is a good thing!  This allowed me the time to clear out the raspberry canes from last year and to do a few odd jobs around outside. At 12 (Sunday), he is getting old enough and big enough to take on more responsibility.

When his thumb got sore (hand throttle), little sister took over. They both have been dying to run the quad for quite a while. It is my acreage work machine, so is not a toy. With 2 diamond harrows on back and flat terrain and strict instructions to keep the speed way down, it worked out OK.

There are only a couple of spots that need to be touched up. It is surprising how much green stuff was hiding under the horse poop. Another month and the horses will be back in this field munching away.

Beware!

Old thoughts do not necessarily come from an old person. I have met a lot of folks generally 30 to 50 that say “ I’m too old for that”. With that mind set, guess what happens? The person doesn’t do whatever it was that he thinks he/she is too old for. And you know what? In the majority of cases, the person could probably still do it.

“When I was younger, I could....” Now that you’re older, how do you know you can’t? Get out there and try!

“How I wish I could retire!” And do what? If work is everything, and everything stops, so does the brain, the body and you risk retiring to a wooden box. Man was meant to work. Nowhere in the Bible does it say that it’s OK to retire.

Old thoughts are not like New Year’s  Resolutions. The latter is likely broken the next day or for sure, within a month. Old thoughts tend to start the downward spiral and once a person gets used to thinking old thoughts, every action that person does, tends to make him/her behave older.

I have met a few people over the years that are active into their 80’s and beyond. How do they do it? No old thoughts. Keep working. Stay positive.

My first boss was 84 when I was 13 and he worked me into the ground day after day. Up at 6:00 am, get the lunch ready, out on the lake by 7:30 and back by 5:00, then clean the boats, clean the fish, clean up and repeat 7 days straight. About every second day, we would be up at 4:00 am to go and lift the fishing nets. The man was a dynamo. Did I mention that he lost half his stomach about the time he was 70? Positive attitude!

Another fellow (out of many) that stands out was a shift foreman in the local paper mill. He was forced to retire at 70. That was the earliest a fellow could retire with a full pension without penalty. Did he have negative or old thoughts? Not many! The last I saw him he was in his 80’s and up to his neck in church volunteering. I had to run to catch up with him on the street.

Now, before you say “But, we all get old”, let me say this. Yes we do. It is inevitable. There are many people due to sickness, accident or whatever that get old before their time. I am not talking about those few. I am putting this out to those that just give up, lay down and wait for the grim reaper.

I have a few rules that I try to follow:

1.       Be aware of your thought process. Banish “Old Thoughts”.

2.       If after a hard day in the field various parts of the anatomy hurt, get over it! No Pity Parties.

3.       Exercise daily. It is like canoeing, once your legs go numb, the sport is enjoyable.

4.       When necessary to vent, try to do it in private. Bad thought are catching to other people.

5.       Be thankful for everyday on earth.

6.       Lift up, not down.

My Favourite Tool!

I love it when a tool stands the test of time and actually works as it should


I was using a pick ax and a 6 pound regular ax to remove stumps and roots and to level about 600 feet of bulldozer refuse left over from when the developer pushed a road into the acreage. The mounds of dirt were generally piled up on top of the trees that they knocked over. I bought the closed road from the County and started out to clear up the mess. I was browsing through the local supplier store and came across this baby. Does it work! It cuts roots, levers out the old stumps and also levels the ground, just as advertised. I can now think of many other uses such as drainage ditches, road improvements and other things that need to get done. At $26 it is about 15 minutes of bulldozer work, less the set up time, and is on call anytime I need it. It's also cheaper than a gym membership.



Here is what Wikipedia says :"  Mattocks are "the most versatile of hand-planting tools". They can be used to chop into the ground with the adze and pull the soil towards the user, opening a slit to plant into. They can also be used to dig holes for planting into, and are particularly useful where there is a thick layer of matted sod. The use of a mattock can be tiring because of the effort needed to drive the blade into the ground, and the amount of bending and stooping involved.



The adze of a mattock is useful for digging or hoeing, especially in hard soil.

Cutter mattocks (Swahili: jembe-shoka) are used in rural Africa for removing stumps from fields, including unwanted banana suckers.

As a simple but effective tool, mattocks have a long history. Their shape was already established by the Bronze Age in Asia Minor and Ancient Greece., and mattocks (Greek: μάκελλα) were the most commonly depicted tool in Byzantine manuscripts of Hesiod's Works and Days.

Mattocks made from antlers first appear in the British Isles in the Late Mesolithic. They were probably used chiefly for digging, and may have been related to the rise of agriculture. Mattocks made of whalebonewere used for tasks including flensing – stripping blubber from the carcass of a whale – by the broch people of Scotland and by the Inuit.

Getting Caught Up!

The great weather continues and although I didn't get any riding in yesterday or today, I did manage to get some projects done.

A Round To It

As "The great Procrastinator", I have managed to postpone some jobs for several years (or more). One job was to fabricate a welding table. I had all the material for about 8 years but never seemed to get a round to it. That changed today! I completed it!

The next job was a recurring one that involved trimming some horses feet.  Tucker was the first victim candidate and she did well. I took off about 3/4 inch of nail, trimmed up the frog and pared out the sole. She was real good about all the attention. Tomorrow is Biz's turn.

Tomorrow's job has been on the honey do list for 8 years, namely replacing some screens that have holes in them. I can't see the urgency, as I haven't seen a mosquito in months. Ah, well, She Who Must Be Obeyed, should get some consideration, mosquitoes or not. I was kind of hoping to hold off and make it the project of the decade. Guess I should just bite the bullet and do it.

My helper stayed by my side and gave a certain amount of encouragement. She also enjoyed a feast of horse nails and sole. Dogs!

Men's Shelter II

 It's coming along. This is 1/2 of the fire wall between the shelter and the church ready for insulation and dry walling.

 Here is the first half of the fire wall almost completed. It needs 2 layers of 5/8 inch drywall per side. 12 foot panels are real heavy.

Hopefully the second wall of the fire wall will go up at 9 am tomorrow. It gets dropped down 4 feet into the crawl space, then glued to the layer of dry wall then moved out to give 1 inch of air space between the walls. The contractor figures on 15 people to lift and slide into position. The design is such that it will give a 2 hour fire protection. Hopefully, that will never be used! Ideally (in my opinion) it would be paneled on the ground and then lifted, but the 60 foot span is too flimsy to allow that to happen. Who am I to argue with the experts. In the mean time, at 09:00 early, we will do it the hard way.

Bits and Pieces

This is what happens when you are a three year old visiting the Acreage. You build a nest in the middle of the floor and crash for three hours.

 On the way home today, I spotted the deer that has been at our salt lick all summer. This time she is in the second cut of alfalfa, enjoying a good snack until I came along

 Then there are her twins from this year, minus their spots. I could not get all three in the frame at one time.

Turning into the driveway I surprised a roughed grouse and her family of 7 chicks. The young ones are fast and disappeared into the brush before I could get a shot.

The chickens are starting to lay again. This shows a "normal" egg beside a not so normal egg and a penny for size comparison. I guess you can't fault a hen for trying! This has to be the smallest egg in three years!

The days are getting busy with the Men's Shelter being started (finally, after three years). The footings are poured.; the gravel spread; and the pony walls scheduled to be poured tomorrow. Being retired, so to speak, I get to volunteer labour against the construction grant. It keeps me busy and tired. Hopefully, I will get some pictures for the next blog.

A Typical Day

The Easy Life!

1. Feed the chickens
2. Water the chicks
3.Feed the horses
4. Water the horses
5.Cut the lawn ( or equivalent), 4 hours
6. Have coffee
7. Dig, hoe, weed the garden
8. Play with the dog
9.Play with the horses
10. Have lunch
11. Fix something
12. Run errands
13. Clear out the deadfalls from the last storm
14. Have supper
15. watch  the news
16. go to bed!
17. Repeat next day with some modifications!

I was watching a guy on the news yesterday who was cutting back to only working half days in his retirement. No more than 12 hours in a day!

Primitive Times!

Once again we are learning on how to survive without well water. We got up Thursday morning and found that the water was gone from the taps. I figured as it was about -30C that the well had frozen below surface again. Not so. After dumping about 3 gallons of boiling water down the well head there was no improvement. I checked the pressure switch. It had current and was calling for the pump to start. The lines above the well head were nice and warm. After 2 hours on the phone, I found an electrician that would come up and check things out. He found no current going down the well and no resistance, meaning that the wires had separated or that the pump had blown.

Two more hours on the phone got me a well pump service guy that maybe can show up Sunday or Monday.

The fix involves pulling the 170 feet of pipe up the hole to get at the problem. Maybe the weather will cooperate as pulling pipe at -30C is not fun.

I would anticipate the cost for the service and pump replacement will be in the order of $1000. Hopefully, the pump is OK, but that is unlikely as it's been pumping for 14 years.

In the meantime we are showering at our son's place, melting snow and ice for the chickens and washing dishes. The water trough heater for the horses is melting ice about as fast as the horses are drinking it.

Hopefully, I will not have to haul water from town.

Meanwhile we are sort of learning what the pioneers went through.  Fun stuff!

It Never Stops!

Caution! Work related graphics below! Please use caution. It may not be suitable for all audiences. Parental Guidance recommended!