I was looking forward to yesterday with anticipation and trepidation. Not because it was my 33rd birthday (thanks to David and my mother for cash infusions against my vet bills), but because the snow finally melted. For the first time in three weeks I mucked the paddock with a manure fork and a wheelbarrow instead of a spade and a make-shift sled. And for the first time in three weeks I could see all the manure that had been hiding.
It took three hours and eight or nine (I lost count) runs to the manure pile, but the paddock is almost back to normal. Now all I have to do is move the stuff that I have been piling in the pasture up into the manure bins. Have I mentioned how badly I want Henry to grow a front-end loader?
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8 comments:
Happy belated birthday!
Have you considered tying a flat-bottomed sled onto Henry? Might be easier to get a big load onto a sled and drag it out to the pile... but it might be more trouble than it's worth to trundle around the paddock with Henry in tow.
Happy Birthday!
cedia- a personality disorder that makes you uncouth and shady
Happy Birthday! ...from one overachieving Capricorn to another. ;-)
Oh! Are birthday wishes in order? Happy, happy!
You might better let your other half know that the front end loader is what you want for a present (since Santa wasn't paying attention). ;-D
Our little 30 hp New Holland, with it's loader and other implements, has been such a blessing. We refinanced a couple of years ago, and splurged on new, as I've had several friends who had nothing but headaches with their older "refurbished" tractors. Besides the loader, (which we use for everything from snow removal, to compost pile turning, to lifting things up to the barn loft), we got a blanket harrow for dragging both the arena and the pastures, a back blade for leveling and snow plowing, and a bush hog mower. Last year we got the manure spreader (with a partial grant from our local conservation district). Next I hope to get a post hole digger, though if I can find one to borrow (or even rent, cheap) I really only have about 15 or so more holes to dig (mostly to upgrade the last side of my arena from 4 X 4's to 6 X 6's).
After being in horses for 45+ years now, I don't know how I ever lived without the little workhorse! (Though I've never had quite this much property to take care of before).
porph = 1) what happens to your paycheck that changes it to horse-keeping expenditures; 2) what happens to horse owners on their way to the poor house
Sorry I'm so late, but a very Happy Birthday to you! Wonderful to have a little help with the vet bills. You have crazy energy, woman. Three hours of wet manure removal topped with, I'm sure, some soggy ice and other debris. Here's hoping for that front end loader!
Thanks for the birthday wishes -- it was a good one. My 31st was the best ever because we took possession of Farcical Farm the day before and woke up here for the first time after camping out in the living room. A dream come true.
All the manure is sitting out by the pile, it just needs to get up into the pile. EvenSong is making me very envious.
No need for jealousy--you'll get there! Remember, I said it's been 45 years (and 5 years of graduate school, and two husbands, and...) that I've been working on getting to this spot in my life. To have your place at 31 is WAAAY ahead of me!
happy belated b-day! hope your tractor magically sprouts a front end loader soon.
you are a much better farm owner than me - i haven't mucked out a paddock since the fall and don't intend to until spring! and if i'm feeling really lazy i might just hook up the drag... i know, i know, it's bad :-\
the next piece of dream farm equipment for me is a hay elevator. we buy hay and shavings by the tractor trailer load, and i always feel like i've just constructed the great pyramid after stacking all of it.
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