Saturday, July 19, 2008

A Relaxing Day at the Ranch

07/19/2008 - This was another of those regular days at the ranch today. Where, mostly you just relax. That was after the morning walk with the dogs. And then, I needed to sharpen the chainsaw and refuel some things. That meant a quick trip to town to get diesel. While I was at it, I also got some basic food supplies. So, back at the ranch, it was time to swath down the last of the pasture grass. While doing that, a doe and her fawn wandered through a nearby pasture(video and images were of poor quality, so, sorry, no images to post at this time). They were probably coming over to the creek for a morning drink. When the swathing was complete, it was time to start the daily chores of picking up after the horses. There was just a short break when a neighbor came over to see if he could help with fixing the baler. I had improvised a fix so that the grass pickup reels were working, so, I decided to try baling in the pasture I had cut yesterday. The pickup worked fine, but when it came time to eject a bale, the plunger pushed, but the twine needles were not in the right place, and they both broke (in several pieces actually ... this was a show stopper for the baler!). So, the baler was pulled back to a resting place. The neighbor and I talked about the extra work that will be needed to fix the problem. He left, and I hooked on the grass rake to continue the relaxing day. I raked for a couple of hours to combine the wind rows I had cut yesterday. After that, I finished the daily chores. Still, relaxing a bit more, I walked out to see how the wind rows I cut this morning were doing. They were dry now, so, I decided I might as well drive the rake around in them for awhile to group them for baling. All went well. Now, it was time to get back to relaxing. I decided to hunt gophers. But, as I was going out to the pasture, I noticed the 'resident buck' was near the west hill (sorry, no good images or video of him either. The video was shaky and the images not well focused). I went through the arena building and watched him for a bit of time. Since he was walking around by the baler and swather, I realized I hadn't cleaned out the swather after cutting this morning, so I took some time to just clean it up a little. That done, I walked out to the pasture and gave a couple of gophers some sand in their eyes as they watched me try to shoot them. (Zero confirmed body count). But that was it. I headed back to the ranch and decided it was time to bring the horses in for the evening. Since they were out of munching hay, I walked down to the old barn with the hay cart and brought a bale up for them. It was bad and moldy, so I took it to the burn pile and went back down to the old barn to get another. It was bad, too, but I checked it in the old barn and just loaded it into the muck trailer to be disposed of tomorrow. I located a good bale and brought it up for the horses. They liked it! And, everything at the ranch was good. I walked up to the ranch house, played with the dogs. And relaxed. Ate a little supper, had a little wine. Later in the evening, a neighbor called to say I could use his baler tomorrow to bale my hay. What a great relaxing day! Come on tomorrow!

Orpheus, Just Relaxing (like me) This Evening
Orpheus with Raked Wind Rows Behind Him

No comments: