The girls had a fairly difficult day today. I planned to clean up the barnyard using the slip. There are a couple old rotted manure piles from previous years and previous management and animals. The gate post was rotted off, though, and things didn't go as planned.
I did eventually run the slip across the barnyard once, after finally getting the gates open, but I'd never run one before and I wasn't at all graceful with it. We did scrape up a scoop full of compost / dirt, but when I went to dump it I flipped the slip over...
3. And the handles whacked the girls on the butts, which scared them, and they started to run. I called out an apology to them and the accepted it, and stopped, but I'd messed up the handles some, and the fence was broken, and the girls were upset. I unhitched them from the slip.
4. Here's a real short vid of hitching them to the slip and dragging it to the work location.
5. When we got up to the barnyard, the far gate was buried in the mud and its gatepost was rotted off below ground level. First I got the girls to unstick it for me, but it jammed in a different way. (Remade video to show treats.)
6. I'm editing these video clips while I write this. Sorry about the slow.
7. What's happening now is, they got the gate open for me but now it's stuck against the building on its broken post, so they have to pull it the other direction. Video uploading now.
8. This one's uploading slowly, so I'll hang it on the end of the thread.
So anyway - after we got the gate out of the way, I fumbled the slip, like I told you at the start, so then came the part the girls didn't like we well.
The part where mostly they had to stand.
So anyway - after we got the gate out of the way, I fumbled the slip, like I told you at the start, so then came the part the girls didn't like we well.
The part where mostly they had to stand.
9. After I fumbled the slip, I decided what I really needed to do was fix this stretch of fence. They'd pushed one piece of it down already, and the rest of it was rickety.
So I hooked them up to the work cart, which they are comfortable with.
So I hooked them up to the work cart, which they are comfortable with.
10. We had to go round up a post driver, post puller, some more T-posts, some wire, other tools. They were good with that. Then (here that heavy music?) they got tied to the fence where I was working, and had to mostly stand for about an hour and a half.
They don't like standing
They don't like standing
11. We did get a break in the middle, had to go to one of the buildings down on the east meadow near the creek and get a 16 foot x 4 foot cattle panel. That's a hard pull for them - dragging load - which still beats standing around.
12. But then they had to stand some more while I finished it up. Sorry, no pics or video. It was hard labor & heavy lifting for the old geezer, and I wasn't having a lot more fun than my standing girls.
We got it all done, though. Next time maybe we can clean up the barnyard.
We got it all done, though. Next time maybe we can clean up the barnyard.
13. Here's that last bit of gate video. You'll observe Clara being a teenager in her full radiant teenage glory, but she's still a good girl.
G'nite, all.
G'nite, all.
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