Rain.....

Since it is finally Spring, I have been wanting to do some fencing. Well - maybe not WANTING, but more NEEDING to. I have a run of about 500' and 4 gates to do, before I can let cows out into a new pasture.

I hope to have it done about the time the grass is nice and tasty.

I have most of the posts put in except for a few wooden ones that I have to drill the holes for. This time of year, they drill pretty quickly, using the PHD (Post Hole Digger) on my tractor. Later on, the ground gets pretty hard, and it gets tough to drill - sorta like concrete.

I've found that a good set of auger teeth helps IMMENSELY....

Yesterday afternoon, I managed to get everything finished up so I could actually start adding wire on about 350' of it.

Then, it started to rain.

Not TONS of rain, but just enough to make things annoying. Besides, I'm sugar and I WILL melt.

Today, it was "misting" most of the day, with a few scattered rain showers mixed in. I decided to do a few things in the barn to keep from melting.

One of the things did was to use a funnel I found, a metal downspout, and an elbow for the downspout, to unload corn from a wagon into a couple of barrels. It was the perfect setup - I tied it to the wagon so it wouldn't move, then kept filling the funnel with a small bucket - gravity did the rest.

It worked wonderfully - until the crazy cat decided it was just TOO interesting to ignore. She jumped into the barrel, then worked her way up the spout, "chasing" the corn rattling inside. When she couldn't catch any, she came to the top to "help" dump the corn. After being shooed away from that operation, she chased the moving corn around the inside of the wagon, and generally made a nuisance of herself.

At least she wasn't riding the cab of the truck again....

Yesterday, I had to go to a neighbor's to use his "chop saw" to cut braces for the fence. I was zipping down the road at about 40, when I heard the most disturbing screeching noises coming from the roof of the cab. You know, the same sound a tree branch makes as it scratches down the side of your pickup....

Unfortunately, I was out on the open road - not a tree within yards of the truck.

About 3 seconds after the sound started, I look out my rear-view mirror and see a cat dangling from the plastic trim around the rear window. She hung there for the 5-6 seconds it took me to slow down to a cat-manageable speed, then dropped into the bed.

My mind's eye could see her, crouching against the wind, on top of the truck, thinking like Rocky Balboa - "Ain't so bad, ain't...so..bad, AIN'T.....SO.....BAD..."
Then sliding with the air pressure, all the while, scrambling to find a finger hold (imagine Tom Cruise in MI:1, only with fur).

That crazy fur ball is going to drive me nuts. These are some of the scratch marks she left on her little "joy" ride:



Oh well, I'm sure she annoys everyone else in the barn, too. The goats wanted to get outside this afternoon - probably just wanting to escape the cat - but are even more susceptible to melting then I am. All they could do was stare out the door, and hope the rain stopped before they starved.



They got their wish - about 4:00, the clouds finally went on to the east, the sun came out, and the cat settled down.

All is peaceful again.