Plan A results

 Plan A is a success, but with limitations. The last attempt ended up with the mower buried in the mud out in the middle of the pasture. We got it dug out and learned a lesson. The lesson was " do not attempt when pasture is a muddy mess". Jess and I got started early this morning because it was below freezing last night, but it is supposed to warm up nicely by afternoon and that temperature swing will make a lot of mud.

The tractor doesn't have much trouble when the ground is firmer. I drove it out, separated the trailer and dumped the roll, re-hooked the trailer and dropped the ring around it. Done.

Mid - winter cleaning

 Today was fairly mild, so I cleaned the truck up. It had a lot of dirt and salt film on it from the last couple of storms. I had to bring the water out a gallon at a time from the kitchen sink, so it took longer than normal to get it washed off.

I also used some more of my jello wax. This can wasn't as bad as the last one was, though. It went on and wiped off a lot easier.

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.