Plan "A" comes together

 Plan A was the first idea for hauling the trailer with a roll of hay out to the horse pasture. It had to be modified before we could try it because the trailer ball didn't fit through the hole in the back bumper of the tractor. The roll was put out with Lisa's wheeler instead. It was warm today, so I got the shaft of the ball ground down to fit and a hole drilled in it for a retaining clip.

 Next came the normal assembly of the tire chains and studs for the weights-

 followed by the installation of the weights. Two studs per wheel and get both weights put in and tightened up. Allen was right about it being a lot easier to put the chains on with the wheels off the ground -so thanks for the tip!

 Add the ball and retaining clip so you don't lose the ball along the way. That happened with the 4 wheeler last time. The trailer just kind of stopped following me. The old nut is most likely somewhere out in the pasture, never to be seen again.

 

I did hook up the trailer and tow it around the driveway to be sure it followed all right. We'll try the whole set-up in another week or so when the horses finish the current roll of hay.

And in another calf update, Diana got a case of bloat last week and didn't make it through that, but Rocky is still doing fine.

calf update

 Both Diana and Rocky are doing well. They have both about doubled in size.

Diana's fur is coming in black underneath the brown  Her coloration resembles a buffalo if you look closely at her head.

New calves

 This is Diana. We got her a couple weeks ago, but weren't sure she was going to make it. Her mama had abandoned her out in the field, so she was cold and hungry when she was found. The rancher didn't have time or inclination to bottle feed her, so Heather took her to Lisa.

 This is Scotty or maybe Rocky. His name is not fully settled yet. He belonged to one of the vets from the clinic who could no longer bottle raise him due to surgery. So we bought him and put him in with Diana. Cows do better with companions.

Even though Diana is several weeks older than Scotty, the two are just about the same size. Her fur is also a little sun bleached. Both calves are black angus. Lisa is doing a good job with these two.

Walkway is capped

 This past Sunday, Heather picked up some concrete and we got her walkway to the barn capped.

 Allen finally got to help with a concrete project. He has missed the last few we had for Lisa. He was excited about this one.

Walkway is covered and (mostly) smoothed out. I did not have a trowel, so it was smoothed with the back of a shovel. Heather needed a slightly rougher surface for slip resistance, anyway.

Walkway rebuild AGAIN

 The rain we got this past Thursday washed the walkway out again. I had ALMOST finished filling it in from the last time it washed out.

It took the truck to work today and got another 9 buckets full of fill. It got pretty close to where it was before. I still need a couple more and then we'll concrete it in next weekend. That should keep it from washing out any more.

Back from New Hampshire

I got back from my trip to Allen's in New Hampshire Wednesday night. This was our progress at the end of our work session Wednesday. The sub-floor is assembled, the front and back walls are assembled, and the long walls are each 16 ft long, but need another 8 ft. added to be complete. We couldn't attach anything to the frame because they still haven't issued him a building permit, so we were " pre-assembling" everything we could. Allen has a lot more detail and more pictures on his blog.

Becky's visit and lake visit

 Becky was here for a short visit and really enjoyed playing with Kimmie the lamb. Poppie plays a bit rough for the lamb so we have to keep an eye on them.

 Heather and I took the boat up to Cave Run Lake today. We had a beautiful day, sunny and warm.

 We caught a bunch of fish. They were all little, but still fun to catch.

 Heather drove the boat back to the other end of the lake. She had fun. It's been a long time since she drove the boat. She had to get used to the steering being less precise than a car's steering.

She did a fine job and we had a great time. I got to go for a swim, too. The water was 80 today.