Sunday 1/6

The boys have settled down to there new pasture and spent the night under the cover of the cedar even though the calf house is just down the hill.
I got the barbed wire side re stretched and put electric around the right side to the large maple in the background. I left electric off of the barbed wire as it is covered with honeysuckle in a lot of areas and I want them to clean it off. 

On Thursday it started off cold with the ground frozen but I went to work at the spring house where there was a low place sinking in up hill of the spring. Put in a culvert pipe and built the are up with rock and gravel hauled from the creek. This is where I haul wood so it needed to be built up as it was turning into a mud hole. The surface water needs to be kept away from the spring to keep it from getting contaminated.

My afternoon project was to dig up some small Chickasaw Plum trees that have come up from the roots of one that I had planted several years ago. I thought it was going to die after being stomped by dusty and being so small to start with but it came back from the roots and was creating a plum grove in a bad spot.

I ended up planting 8 of them along the west garden fence beside the trail. On Friday I moved some various grape vines that had sent out runners and taken root right beside the drive and also in a bad spot. So I put 16 grape vines interspersed with the plum trees. I realize that I am probably creating a grand mess but maybe they will do well for a few years.

Saturday morning would have been another clear sky mornings if it weren't for all of the aircraft painting the sky with contrails.

After being in fresh grass for several days, the boys have quit craving hay but still run down the hill to get the beef feed, no missing that.
I hauled over 2 wheelbarrows full of horse manure from the stable today and worked in the garden as it was a pleasant afternoon. Cleaned up the garden and stacked the poles for next seasons pole beans. 

For supper I got creative and made the world's largest sausage and cheese biscuit, or at least the largest one that I have seen, it is pizza sized. rolled out the biscuit dough and put on the cooked sausage, cheese and egg then rolled out the top and stuck the edges together to seal it. Baked it as I would normally do biscuits and it came out good, we sliced it like pizza and it was really filling.

A slight disaster at 2am Sunday when I went to fire the wood furnace. There is a steel panel that rests at the top of the firebox on 2 shelves and I think the purpose it to cause the gases to flow over it and being red hot, a second burn occurs which makes everything more efficient and wonderful. The problem was that a hole has burnt in the steel after 5 winters and the flat metal warped and fell down into the wood burning area. Luckily there was a light rain during the night and I was able to put the wood hook in the hole and take the hot metal outside and let it cool on the walkway. Loaded more wood in and tried to go back to sleep but kept thinking of ways to fix the hole.

First I put it on pavement and beat it back flat.

Next I scrounged a piece of steel to patch the hole. I remembered seeing a steel bracket that was a foot step off of one of the farmer's pieces of equipment. It has been laying out at the barn for several years and I had been admiring it for being a good piece of steel that was going to waste so I recycled it.
Drilled holes and used steel nails as rivits. Cut off most of the nail and hammered it on an anvil to where the nail tightened up and pulled it all together. Installed it back in the furnace and happy day, it fit and we were back in business.

Brought in a couple loads of wood and so far have been using about a wheelbarrow load per day this month. By the way, using steel wheeled ones requires a bit more thought when loading wood as they ride rougher over stone and pavement and will jar the wood out. The best way that I have found is to load from the front to back with the contour of the front causing the whole load to be at an angle. When the wheelbarrow is raised the load is then level and won't jar off. It doesn't matter on soft surfaces and you can load one like a rubber wheel version. Just a tip that I finally figured out after picking up pieces of wood for a few days, duh.

We try to let Dusty eat fresh grass on his way from and to the stable, he doesn't have a lot of grass in the pasture because he ate it all so his main meal is my hand cut clover hay at night and what he can eat along the way. He isn't wasting away from what I can tell. I probably forgot a lot of things over the last few days but not having internet at home give me time to forget lots.