Pictures From Elsie

I love the bright, vibrant colors 

that Elsie captured in these pictures!

100* and Baling

It was hot today.

Ugly hot.

But cattle needed moved.

And hay needed checked.

And cattle needed fed.

Elsie, Hannah, and Molly filled the skid steer bucket 

that Ben lifted to the loft door.

Then he dumped it in the feeder.

The weather was checked 4,638 times.

It was unreasonably hot for May 28th.

The decision was finally made to go ahead and bale.

So the raking got underway.

Last second adjustments were done 

on the square baler.

Hannah hooked Ben up.

And they were off!

Both balers were going 

in hopes of beating the impending storms.

Within seconds of backing the wagon into the shed

the rains came.

We dropped 31*

and got .4 of an inch of rain

about a half hour after we were 100*!

The round bales are still out,

 but the squares are safely in the shed!

First Cutting

Saturday was the day.

The forecast looked favorable,

with enough rain-free days,

so the decision was made

 to cut the alfalfa.

Ben cut some.

Luke cut some.

Jack laid in the alfalfa and took cool pictures!

After the Rain

This is how our hard work looked Friday morning.

Ben, Elsie and Jack tried to pump it out.

 But the pump didn't work.

So we wait.........

Back At It Early Thursday

We were out there and back to work before 6:00 Thursday morning.

Time to dive in and get dirty.

A short conference.

Paul drilled holes in the existing concrete for the rebar to go in.

Wednesday started out warm and got hotter and hotter.

The new waterer location will be about 10 feet further north.

Everyone took turns tamping.

Teamwork

Jack and I left for baseball at 5:30 while everyone else was still working.

I kept watching the sky and radar on my phone.

It got ugly real fast.

We ended up losing electricity 

and getting 1.28" of rain.

A Continuation of Wednesday's Concrete

 Wednesday's lunch was sandwiches in the pasture.

Some preliminary elevation measurements were taken.

Luke came home with the mini excavator

around 5:00.

Ben was digging veeery carefully in search of the water line.

Everyone was fairly filthy by the end of the day!

As the hole got deeper

it was easier to catch a ride down

rather than jump down.

Paul and I left around 8:45pm

to go borrow tampers from a couple of different friends.

The kids were still working.

When we got home at 10:00 

the kids had just finished showers and supper 

and headed to bed.

A Concrete Start

Luke dug the mud and grunge 

out of the drain tile 

Wednesday.

That looks like a yucky job!

Paul took a couple of days off

so Wednesday was the day to start 

the prep work to pour the new concrete pad

by the shed

and move the waterer.

The area in the circle is where all the work is being done.

The fence line will be moved 

and the waterer is being moved a little further north.

Ben dug out the east side of the fenceline

up to the existing concrete.

Then it was time to remove that part of the fence.

 We had to move the barbless wire and the electric wire.

I love the days we are all able to be home and working together.

 It started out very nice

 but quickly heated up to very hot!

A deep discussion about the water hook-ups.

The waterer was moved to another place in the pasture.

The day was not done.

But the post is getting too long.

I'll start another one.

Cute Cattle and the Sign

Elsie got some cool pictures.

Miss Kitty needs to lose the rest of her winter coat.

Marshal, Clem and #16

were playing King on the Hill

I freshened up the paint on the sign on Monday.