A Work Filled Day

This morning I went up to the farm and opened up the doors and fed the cows 2 bales of hay. I fed Margie a scoop of grain and then I fed the cats. I then looked around for some stuff to do and ended up stacking a load of split wood into the metal crate. I got the 784 started and picked up the crate and brought it up to the house where I set it down by the tin barn. I unloaded the wood that was on the rack and stacked it next to the burner, and then I got it moved out of the way. I put the crate under the lean-to and then unloaded and stacked all the wood next to the wood burner. I brought the crate back up to the farm and filled it back up and then brought it back home. I brought up 4 loads in total and while I was stacking wood, a Consumers Energy guy stopped by the farm and hooked up a new power line from the road to the house. It separates the house electric use from the farm itself. After I had brought the last of the split wood to the house I took the metal rack up to the farm and put away the tractor. I came home and then I walked around the field next to our house with a shovel and I filled in all the woodchuck holes and leveled out the mounds of dirt they made. I filled in over 50 holes in 1 1/2 hours which had me exhausted. I darkened the photo to make it easier to see the holes. The sand you can see best, there were about 10 that were dirt which is hard to see here.

Most of the Woodchuck Holes

Later I went back to the woods on the mini bike to check the conibear in the woods. I caught another woodchuck, so I buried the hole again and then carried it up to the house in the trap. I got the setters and got the springs compressed and took the woodchuck out. I got the other trap I had down by the crick and went for a ride on the mini bike with the two traps through the field west of our house to see if there was any activity in those holes. There was nothing, so I went to the back hay field and found a dug out hole, so I set a trap over it. I came up to the farm for a minute and fed the cows some more hay. Dad was splitting up a bunch of wood for the house now that he has room to do it again. I came up to the house and put the bike away and walking to the house I noticed in the field some dark hill. I got the binoculars and saw a woodchuck was digging its hole out which I filled in today. I drove down there with the side by side and it had already dug it all out, so I waited for it to pop back up. It never did, so I went and put the dirt back in the hole and I sat there waiting for him to start digging it out again so I could get him. I sat there for over 30 minutes, but it never showed itself, so I came back to the house. Dad had finished his wood splitting because he ran out of room again. He went back to the woods with the side by side and worked on some stuff while I went up to the farm. I began to make piles of branches and shrubs dad had cut last week so I could fork them up with the loader and bring them over to the burn pile. I brought over 5 fork loads of branches from the fence line and put them on the burn pile.

I then drove up the lane and picked up all the railroad ties dad had laid out which were broken or rotten. I pulled into the driveway with the 784 and then fed the cows 4 more bales of hay for the night and fed a scoop of grain to the cow. I looked at the weather for tomorrow and saw that it was going to be cold and possibly snow, so I got the 584 hooked up to the old sap wagon and brought it up to the house where I began to fill it with water. I came back up to the farm and pressure washed out the 5 water tanks and cleaned them up. I came home later and had dinner after 8:30. After the sap wagon was full with water, I came back up to the farm and began to fill the tanks. While they filled I put away the 784, put away some stuff, closed up the barn and shop doors, and got the air hose hooked to the water hose. In between filling each tank I got stuff done, and once I had emptied 450 gallons of water into the tanks, I blew out the water hose and then took care of the pressure washer. Dad took care of the fire tonight for me. I closed up the tin barn and hung up my wet stuff (from pressure washing) inside for the night.

Margie and Her Calf Eating Grain