Move The Rock........

Back a few years ago, I had the misfortune to work for a company who used "Move the Rock" as their slogan. Every day we would hold hour and 1/2 meetings where we would try to think up ways to "up production".

I was chastised for suggesting that we could be out on the floor WORKING instead of going to meetings......

I am sure glad I didn't work there very long.....

Today, we moved a rock of a different sort. A REAL one!

The Southwest corner of our farm is on what is known as a "Correction Corner". There is also a small hill just to the south of the corner. Since this has always been a fairly well travelled road, there have been several people over the years who have "missed" the corner.

What the correction amounts to is a "jog" of about 50 feet in the road. If you don't know the road jogs, or forget, or are just going too fast, you could end up going off the road and facing the obstacles of small trees, a telephone pole, a fence, and then ending up in our pasture.

There have been 3 people miss the corner and doing damage to their vehicles in just the past 7 years. One came CLOSE to totalling their car - if they didn't.

It USED to be worse.

Back when my Dad owned the place, there was a large rock on the outside of the fence. There were a few drivers who TRIED to "move the rock", but the rock always won.
Dad finally decided that HE had better MOVE THE ROCK before someone got seriously hurt (or worse), so he shoved it inside the fence a ways, so it would be out of danger.

Today, my wife and I decided to load it up on a trailer and bring it home to use as "yard art".

We thought about hijacking somebody with a Track Hoe to do it for us, but decided we could accomplish it ourselves.

I got on my IH tractor and Deb drove the pickup with the trailer hooked on.



I don't know how much this rock weighed in at, but the Minnesota Rock we already have in the yard weighs in at 2063 pounds. This stone is a denser material and is larger. I would GUESS it weighs about 2600 pounds. I didn't figure to move a whole lot with it in the bucket, so I picked it up from the high side and Deb parked the trailer about 3' away on the "downhill" side. It wasn't much of a slope, but enough to help.

We got it loaded with surprising ease - along with two smaller rocks - and headed for home.

After a little debate, we decided to unload it at the "bottom" of our drive, right at the end of some Lilacs, and across the driveway from our apple tree.



It is a nice sized rock and looks good where it is at. There is another one out there, but it is a little smaller. We MIGHT try to get it in the next few days.

We came back into the house and Deb was in the kitchen when I heard her "squeak" and run for her camera. She said that there was a "really small Walking Stick" on the patio door. I went in and looked. He turned out to be a small Praying Mantis. He was only about 1" long. Most of the ones we see are at least twice his size. He was "folded up" pretty good - making him LOOK like a walking stick.

After his "Photo Shoot", I picked him up and tossed him outside to hunt bugs.



It was a nice COOL day, today - only in the 70's - so it was a nice day to move rocks.

Now, if I just had a lawn mower......