kitty kitty kitty

Another really nice day on the ranch.
I did morning chores this morning with no problems and met with Tina and Merle when I was done. Jeff has the rest of the week off and Ross wasn't around until later. Tina started off the day by heading to Rapid in the rental car to get the pickup and trailer picked up- everything got fixed and will be really nice to have back- we've missed both of them!

Merle and I started things off by opening the coon trap. This thing was fast, and I think he hit him on the first shot, but it's hard to say. The little fart ran into the tall tall weeds and dissapeared. We followed him around for a while and Merle did get another shot, but we were never sure if either hit or not. I would guess so, but with the smaller 9mm bullets it seems to take more to slow them down. But, whether we did or didn't get him, we finally gave up the hunt and kept on moving. The plan was to go and pick up the square baler at a shed south of Martin where Merle stores it over the off season. We loaded up some leftover seed and took to town on our way out. As we were just a mile or two north of Martin, Merle pulled into a driveway and said that we might borrow some twine (because that particular baler takes twine that is hard to find). We pulled up in their driveway and got out and none other than a bobcat come pouncing off of the porch to greet me. Yep, a bobcat, it was sooo cool! It even purred when we pet it- I totally want one- we found out later that their dog drug it up last year sometime so they raised it...neato. But, no one was there so I marveled at this really cool cat and the poor dog who was totally jealous and left to drop off the seed. After we dropped that off and stopped at the post office we kept straight on to pick up the baler. This shed is rented with another person, and when we got there there were two combines in our way to get the baler even hooked up. So here we are climbing in this Gleaner and JD 4400 series trying to get them running and moving. Kinda entertaining- between my combine knowledge and Merle stearing capabilities we got it done and got the baler out. But, it was a nice slow ride back- those square balers really get to bouncing so we had to keep it pretty slow and easy. We stopped at the grocery store so I could restock on my milk and bread on the way out and then headed home.

The driveway has so many ruts in it from all the rain and we haven't had a chance to grade it yet so we just unhooked the baler on the hill and went in for dinner. After we ate we just went back up and hooked up, then headed out to the field. It took a while to service it, string tiwne, and hook up to the baler tractor. Once we had it ready to go there was some trial and error with RPM and horsepower because that baler has always been pulled with the 560 and now it had a whole lot more ponies hooked up to it. But, it actually ended up working pretty good. Merle headed down the field at about 2 mph taking one windrow at a time and I headed back home to hook up to the trailer and do chores. I got them done and met Tina as she was coming back from chasing some of the neighbors cows out of our bales- terds. We had to change a flat on the trailer she brought home from Rapid and pull trailer mats out, then headed out to pick up bales. We started in just putting the truck in 4 low and letting it steer itself but that didnt' work too well. By the time Merle came around he kicked me in the cab to drive (my ribs don't seem to appreciate bale throwing and I was pretty much told to get in adn drive before I was put in) and Tina and Merle stacked. They stacked the big trailer and little trailer both full, which was about half the bales. Then, we all headed home. I put everything away and weeded my garden until dark. Then, ate dinner and watched the news- how exciting. So here I am, definitly need to go to sleep. We are rounding up spayed heifers tomorrow morning, it should be a good time.