Things out of place, falling behind

Mama went out in the late evening to check on her chickens and asked me to go with her. I told her I would rather not since it was so muddy. Her thoughts were that since I lived on a farm I should not be worried about the mud. I do have foot ware to compensate for those conditions but they are in the old farm house and I really did not want to make the extra effort.


While she went to the chicken coop I walked over to the apartment – it is nicely graveled between the mobile home and the apartment. Mama, however, unwilling to do anything by herself found a reason to call me over to where she was attending to our farm animals. She could see the pig building from where she was and noticed that Jazz had figured out a way to open the door to the pig building and had gotten inside. He was happily helping himself to the hay we have stored inside.

The little building is not set up for horses and it could have been a bad situation if the floor in the building was not able to hold him, but she was able to get him out without too much effort. I then had to go and rig up something to latch the door that opens into the attached area where we have the horses set up for winter shelter; so much for trying to keep my boots clean for work today. Honestly, I did not get too muddy; the ground here dries out very quickly.

Today is the last time another group of calves will get two feedings from a bottle. Grandpa is beginning the weaning process for another six of our last batch of little bulls. Somewhere in the middle of the month we will get the vet to come and steer the little guys. From then on they will be in the pasture. He will give them grain every evening, but no more milk. That takes a lot of the daily work out of having them. We will still have the little heifers and four little bulls on milk for two more weeks so we are not done with this batch but we are getting close.

I should be looking forward to the weekend but I am not. There is so much work to be done and I am not sure I will be able to do any of it. I am still hurting badly and I am not sure if I will be able to maneuver in the way I need to continue with the construction projects. I gave up last weekend to take care of the horses so I feel like I am falling behind.

I really have no reason to feel that way; no one is aware of the schedule except me. Even though I may not be able to get on the scaffolding or ladders I am still moving ahead with the power company. They came out Wednesday and looked at what we will need to get the shop wired into the grid and I will go today and pay the hookup fee. We should have a meter placed by mid next week. We will run the wires underground from the pole. In the windy conditions we have here, having the wires buried will be a great advantage structurally and it will eliminate some of our safety concerns.

I am thinking about taking a half day vacation today. Mama and I had originally talked about taking the time so Grandpa and I could go and get the metal for the roof but I am not ready for the metal so I may postpone any vacation until next week. I do not know if the little truck has been rewired so it could be used to pull the trailer. That is something I could help with this weekend.

Besides, it is not like there is a shortage of things to do at work.