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Saturday, May 2, 2009

The Weekend Is Off To A Rocky Start....

Since it was a nice morning - and I had the tractor up on the hill already - I decided to finish the job of picking rocks out of the pasture.

I had shoved most of them together with the loader, so it wasn't too bad of a project. I hooked up the trailer to the pickup, and headed out. It ended up being two loads on the trailer, and a pile in the pickup.

Like I posted before, the "head size" and smaller rocks will go either on the driveway, or around the water tank for the goats. A couple of the larger ones (probably 700-800 pounders) will go at select spots around the yard.

The rest of the bigger ones - including one that will weigh in at close to 1000 pounds - will be tossed out in one of the goat pens for them to play on - unless we need them elsewhere.

To load them, I scooped them up with my loader, then dumped them onto the trailer. Unloading them was a matter of pointing the trailer down hill, then lunging forward....

Here is part of one load of rocks still one the trailer. The large one in the middle (on top) will weigh about 750 pounds, and will live next to our driveway:

Rocks On The Trailer

I had already unloaded a good sized pile for around the water tank:

Rock Pile Number 2

There is a lot of weight on the trailer. Here is a shot of the "goat pile" after I was finished. The one in the top left corner is the largest one. It doesn't LOOK big in the photo, but it is pretty good sized.

Rock Pile For the Goats

To finish the job, I went back up the hill with my back blade on the Ford 4000 and filled the holes. I then took my 8N and the homemade tine harrow out to 'smooth' the areas.

It was interesting in that all but one of the rocks we removed were on the top of the hill in an area of about 1 acre. An old fence line was the dividing line. There are still 5-6 rocks up there, but they are "just poking through", and won't hamper mowing any, so they get to stay.

Here is what it looks like now:

All Buried

I have one more pile of small rocks that came from this area. I think I'll move the water tank (again) before I pile these up around it. One of these days, I'll have it where I need it.....

Yesterday afternoon I found the first mushrooms of the spring (for me). I gave half to my neighbor, and I'll have some for lunch today.....MMMMMMMMM.

We decided to drive around the countryside after that, so Deb could take a few photos. We were only gone a couple of hours, but she took over 200 photos. Good thing it's digital, and not film.....

We weren't back more then 10-15 minutes when a good friend drove in. I was in the middle of milking, so he had to stand and watch me finish and then feed the youngsters. He ended up staying for a couple of hours, and we had a nice visit.

This morning, I found out we have ANOTHER con man in the barn. Another of the older "bottle babies" got his bottle, then decided to sneak his face into the pan for extra. It's ok, though, that means I have one less to bottle feed! He won't get a bottle next time. It's odd, they drink water from a pan, but equate milk to a bottle (nipple). Sooner or later, the 'light' comes on and they "get it".

Deb took some good photos of the youngest kids playing when we let them out in the morning. To see more of her photos, click HERE. You might have to go to the next page for goat photos, though....

I keep the littlest ones separate at night because they are a lot smaller then the other ones. We've lost one baby to "piling", and don't want to lose any more. They pile up in a stack to keep warm at night. If you're the guy on the bottom, you better hope that you are also the biggest, so you don't get squished....

I have found out one thing about bottle feeding. If you use the little red and yellow nipples that screw onto a 16 ounce pop bottle, I've found that not all bottles will work. I know that Dr Pepper bottles do not have 'deep' enough threads, and the nipples will leak. Sprite bottles don't seal well either. Mountain Dew bottles are the best. Since they work the best, and that's what I drink, I'm happy.....

Deb likes Dr Pepper, though.....

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