Mow Mow Mow

Today was kinda milktoast as far as normal days go.

I got up for chores and fed the bucket calves the last of the milk we had on hand (they were not super impressed). Then, got ready for the day's work. Merle was gone most of the day to Rapid for an apt. so we kinda planned it out in the morning and went ahead with the afternoon. Dean had an apt in Martin this morning as well so he wasn't around until after dinner.

So...Ross and I loaded up Joe and Nelly and took off towards Scott's pasture to go find our seven steers. We got in there fine and I parked my pickup at the well and we unloaded and started riding the draws and heading north. In the end I think we rode them all - it's always interesting to ride someone elses pasture that you don't know at all!. We met up at the end ... both empty handed (no steers). We decided that they must have crawled back through the fence but we would ride the north fenceline to find the hole. Well, we came over the hill and standing in front of us was our seven steers. They were right at a let down in then fence so we had to do a little moving around and holdinb but we managed to get them pushed through and later found a let down futher down the way that they may have gotten out at. With that job done (thankfully) we loaded back up into the trailer and took off for home. I am still mildly concerned that there is a bigger hole in the fence along the east side that they could have come out of and through a gate- but I guess we'll find out if we see more steers!

As we were headed on the trail back home, a cow stepped in front of me and wouldn't move fast enough so I had to stop. Well, then of course she moves and I go to take off and the one ton pickup has no power. I could put the pedal to the floor and the tac wouldn't move. After killing it enough times it finally decided to get some fuel to the engine and take off, but in the process the engine light came on of course. We managed to get the rest of the way home and unloaded and unhooked. Then, I parked that pickup until we figure out what exactly went wrong. My preliminary guess would be a fuel filter but it could be a lot simpler or a lot worse than that. Guess we'll have to try to take a look at it tomorrow. When we got home I played musical corral and got everyone back where they belonged. Meanwhile, Ross was up fighting with the windrower. When I got up there I saw what was going on. It has been a reacurring problem that was supposed to be fixed but apparently there istn' much more fix to it. It's a HW320 New Holland swather and it has to drop down into nuetral to start it. Well, when it gets parked it doesn't always get left in actual nuetral- the light might say it is, but they lie. There is a plate off the drive shaft that has to line up just right in order to get it going and of course, it wouldn't line up and drop down in today. After messing around forever and trying not to get frustrated with Ross who was already about ready to throw in the towel, I called the mechanic from the John Deere where he bought it. Long story short, he explained a couple things to do to get it going and I tried them and they worked. Then, everything in the world of Ross was better. He told me he thought we would never ge tit going so I'm happy to prove him wrong!

After him and Dean got off on their way to some little draws around here to cut hay (you could say we oficially started haying today) I hopped in Ross's pickup and took it to town to get an almost-flat fixed and a much needed wash. This all took a little time, the pickup looked a lot better and probably ran a lot smoother without the huge bolt that came out of if tire. After I got back they were just switching fields So, I went down to the yard, fired up the lawn mower, and started pushing. I was supposed to mow laws today and that is sure what I did. I started around 3:30 and went until past 8pm That's some pretty good time considering I mowed two fairly good sized yards and trimmed. I managed to get away with mowing without any breakdowns or accidents...minus nailing my knee on a handle on the mower once. After cleaning out from under mowers and whatnot, Merle told me to come in and join them for leftovers- so I did and I got to see Rylee Jo again- she gets cuter all the time!

That about sums up the day...now I'm totally shot and headed to bed- guess it wasn't very milktoast after all.

"The grass may be greener on the other side of the fence but you still have to mow it."