drawing straw(S)

Hm. Where to start...how about the same way I always do.

Chores went as normal as usual. It actually takes a lot less time now that we have no fats (sent to the local butcher) and no extra bull (took him to the sale barn yesterday). Dean went and got the horses while I was feeding everyone else and we saddled up and loaded them in the trailer with a four wheeler for Adrienne.

We headed out to Tech's with three pickups so that we could pick up the panels and tub chute when we were done. On the way there I guessed where they were set down at wrong and had to cut across a wheat stubble field...haha if you ever see those tracks- it wasn't me!

We got the chute set down and corral panels set up and took off. I was the last one to finish panels so Ross and Dean were way ahead of me looking for bulls. I just did my own thing. We ended up all meeting in about the same place with just one bull. Dean held him back while Adrienne and Ross and I scoured the pasture for the other one. Finally, after covering the whole thing probably more than one time, Ross found him just across the fence and got him back. We got them both in the tub chute but had trouble with them fighting and one managed to load by himself. With bulls, it never works unless they load together...we didn't want to take the chance so we just loaded them up in separate compartment and tied the horses up there. Adrienne and I hopped in the pickup with Rylee and took the bulls down to the bull pasture at Dicks. Meanwhile, they rest of them picked up corral panels and the tub chute and got going towards home. Merle stayed there with the horses and four wheeler.

We got down to Dicks just in time to notice two yearling bulls on the wrong side of the fence. So...after we unloaded I uncovered Johnny's fourwheeler and fired her up. I had to do some ring around the rosie but I got them back into the right spot. We are guessing there is a hole in that fenceling along the hayfield somewhere since they found a bull in there earlier this week. We'll have to look into that soon. But, for the time being we got going back towards the horses at Techs. This whole time Rylee decided that she was content as long as we moved. I have never seen a baby that likes to be jiggled to sleep like that one does because believe me- the trails are anything but smooth.

So we head back towards Techs and here comes a strange looking object down the road. As it turns out it was Merle on the fourwheeler ponying three horses behind him...I thought that was pretty impressive and rather funny! We loaded them up and went on home. After feeding the baby while Adrienne cooked, we ate an early dinner and Merle headed back out to move the tractor and square baler and started baling straw southwest of hisle.

Adrienne adn I took off for town and she dropped me off to get the older red pickup after they replaced the leaf spring in it. Our trip in was less eventful than usual because her sister is around for a week or so and babysat Rylee for the afternoon. I think that was nice for Adrienne to have a break! While I was in town I grabbed some groceries and mail and then headed back home. I unloaded groceries and tried to lay down for five minutes to give my back a rest but it didn't do any good so I just took off again. I was going to help Ross unhook the chisel and hook up the disk but he beat me to it so I just went to the shed to find a new task.

I decided to blow the radiator out on the fire truck after our wheat field excursion the other day. And boy did it need it...half a wheat field came out of the darn thing! After that I started cleaning out the other half of the chicken shed because the chicks have gotten big enough that they just go where they want and are not staying on their side of the coop! ...turds.

I didn't get too far with that when Adrienne pulled up and said it was time to go pick up bales. We hooked on to all three trailers that are around and went to the field. When we got there I said heck with someone driving lets just let it drive itself. So, we seatbelted the steering wheel in and put it in low. It worked pretty slick adn Adrienne adn I were pretty darn proud of ourselves. Lol- I think Dean thought we had lost it. I was laughing as Merle drove by with the baler and saw his shiny red pickup driving itself! After throwing a few bales Merle pretty much demaned that i come over to the baler. I was then sentanced to baling for the rest of the evening for fear that I might mess up my back more than it already is.

It's probably a good thing that someone forces me not to lift everything I see- cuz I can't get comfortable on 500mg of Tylenol right now and I didn't throw hardly any bales compared to the rest of them. Anyway, they filled three trailers and I almost finished baling when we shut down. We each took a pickup home and parked them. Ross had finihsed disking the wheat stubble on the bottoms around home and done chores so I just went down and filled the grain pails for tomorrow morning and then headed to the shed. Merle wanted to get some haying in before dark since it's supposed to rain so we did that for an hour or so and then turned in.

We got a few things done today anyhow- it was more productive than yesterday for sure. But now, I'm going to go find a way to be comfortable because this is ridiculous. And yes, (for all you worrisome ppl out there) I do have an apt with the chiropractor that comes to Martin once a week tomorrow morning.

"Cowboy Up"