Ready For The Next Step

Yes....Here lately, I have spent entirely too much time thinking about and talking about farming...

But, it's almost over!!

I spent all of last week, re-prepping the acreage for land planing and planting. I knew I had dirt work to do, I just didn't realize HOW MUCH work it was going to take to get the headgates cleaned out and then removing all of the silt build-up that had accumulated in front of the headgates. There was like a 2 foot 'hump' between the headgates and the rest of the field and ALL of that had to be removed before it could be land planed. I wasn't entirely sure I knew what I was doing...But water runs downhill and I just kept removing dirt until I was pretty sure that would happen. LOL

Right when I first started working on this headgate...

And after I was done...

This one was already partially dug out...

And after....

This was taken, after I had already done a significant amount of silt removal and refarmed the area with my little spring harrow...

You can see there is still a significant 'up slope' going from right (where the headgates are) to left (toward the open field).

I had to come in with the skidsteer again and continue to remove soil...

It took all week and dang near 40 hours in the skidsteer, but I got it done. I was so tired and sore after the last round of harrowing the scraped areas, I totally forgot to take a picture of the finished product. I was thoroughly sick of moving dirt. LOL. But it's ready for the farmer to come in and do the rest of his work. All I have left to do is, go buy irrigation pipe and lay it in after it's been land planed.

Oh...I did remember to get a pic of some of the big, mud-pie looking rocks that came up...

The farmer moved these. Most of them are so heavy I can't lift them. I had to slide the skidsteer bucket under them to get them off the field.

The last day of trying to get everything done was difficult for me. My back and hip was killing me and no amount of anti-flams was making the pain stop. I had to work for a little bit, then go in and alternate heat/ice on my back for a little bit. But I had to get it done because I was supposed to be at a car show with MH. He and several of his friends went early Friday morning and I was going to finish up doing what I had to do and join them in the afternoon. It was a LOT later than afternoon before I made it. :-/. MH knew I had to get the field done though and he knows how difficult it is for me to function when my back decides to flare up, so it was okay. The car show didn't officially start until Saturday and I was there for that.

Of course, it had to start raining early that morning. Isn't that the way it always goes? Can't get rain when you need it, but it won't hold off when you would like it to. LOL. Luckily, the rain dried up for most of the day while the car show was going on. The turn-out was huge this year, both in numbers of cars and people who came to look at them.

MH took three of his;

His '73 Camaro

His '63 Cadillac Limo (I am probably wrong on the year of this one. It is early 60's though)...

This car reminds me very much of the 'Deathmobile' off of Animal House. LOL

And his 'new' baby, the '56

MH just got this car back from the shop. The car show was it's maiden voyage. LOL. MH was very happy with it. It turned out to be everything he had hoped for and more. Unfortunately, we didn't get to cruise Main in it though. It started raining again and the open blower means you can't drive it in pouring rain.

I really need to make myself little 'cheat sheets' for the details on MH's cars. I listen to him describe everything about them to other people and I just can't keep all the details straight. It's the same for him with my horses though, so it's all good. ;-).

It was unfortunate that the rain put a damper on cruise night after the car show, but we still had a good time. I finally got my back spasms under control and got some rest. And I was most happy to see, when I got home on Sunday, that we had gotten a fair amount of rain at our place too. PERFECT!! The pasture needed another shot of rain.

Best of all...I finally got Flashy's papers from the AQHA in the mail!! It's been a bit of a pain in the butt to get his papers. First, his dam wasn't listed on the breeding report and that had to be fixed. Then, the AQHA said he was 'born outside the normal gestation period'. Flashy was premature and his survival was fairly miraculous, but according to the breeding dates provided by breeders, he was born nearly 2 months premature and that is just too early for foals to survive. The breeders had to go back and double check their records and make corrections to the breeders report before the AQHA would issue his registration papers. But, it all worked out and I got the name I wanted...

Whew!! I wasn't getting worried that I wouldn't be able to get him registered, but I was getting tired of waiting for the papers.