It's WAY to Hot already...

So, last night the weather gypsies were forecasting today was going to be windy, like yesterday. We were SUPPOSED to get 20-25 mph winds and gusts to 35.
Instead, we get 5 mph winds and nearly 80° temps!

Last night the LOW was 54°.

I'm a FIRM believer in - if it gets above 70°, then it's too hot. I was out working on fence for part of the day. I don't know which is worse - fighting the posts or fighting the sweat dripping on my glasses....

I DID manage to get 7 wood posts in their holes, though. Yesterday, I laid out all the posts and drove in a few steel T-posts (8 of them). The howling wind made it difficult to keep the string line I was using straight, but it worked well enough.

I usually use a string line to lay out the fence line. If it were barb wire, then I'd just run the first wire on the ground and use it as a line. With woven wire, I use the string. I have the piece of PVC pipe cut to the correct space between posts, so laying out posts goes pretty quick.

My neighbor has a son who works for a large seed company. Every year he does "test plots" on his dad's farm. This involves marking out several plots and keeping track of LOTS of things. Last summer, after he was done with his plots, I asked for some of the small orange stakes he had used to mark his plots. I took about 50 of them, but there were LOTS more. I have used them for tons of things around here, but they work EXCELLENT for marking out posts.

When I drill the holes for the wood posts, the orange stakes make an easy target for the auger on my post hole digger. MUCH better then the spot of marking paint I used to use! I end up breaking a lot of them, but they served their purpose well.

Yesterday, while I was working on the fence line, I was nearly run over by "El Pollo Loco" - actually about 7 of them!

Anytime I do just about ANYTHING outside, I have 4-5-6 "Inspectors" follow me around in case I kick up something tasty. I was out there, minding my own business, when a small Garter Snake zipped between my legs. The thing was about a foot long and about as big around as your little finger. I had time enough to BLINK and the "Thundering Herd" was upon me! They came out of the woodwork - they were EVERYWHERE! I BARELY managed to escape with my life as they chased down their prey and then played keepaway with it. I ALMOST felt sorry for the poor snake, but there was NO way I was gonna get in between it and the crazy chickens - I would have been lunch, instead of the snake!


I walked into the barn this afternoon and found Thomas (the Tomcat) lounging. This, in itself, is not unusual. What WAS different about it was that he was receiving a "sponge bath" from 4 of the 5 female cats we have. All at the same time. All that was missing was one of them feeding him grapes while another fanned a palm branch over him. He looked REALLY content...

A neighbor wanted to get a few pieces of scrap metal out of his way (one being an old golf cart), and I had a few pieces, so we decided that today would be a good day to load them up in his trailer. Some of the stuff I added was "left overs" from building the barn last summer. It will be nice to get it out of the way.