Fixing things around the Farm

August has been an interesting month. I had a friend ask if I needed a "hired man" around some. We had a email discussion about the possibility. My friend, Greg, has a full time job but wants to get back on the farm a little. I grew up with two of his Aunts & know the family pretty well. Greg sold Dennis most all of his farm equipment.

It has been working out well so far. I'm getting caught up. Willie is helping Greg and Greg can give Willie guidance, direction & work well. Greg has helped re-stack some hay & then load hay that I sold on the trailer. He has helped work on removing much of the metal fencing and putting portions back up. He has helped with Dennis' raised beds in his garden. When Dennis put the raised beds in, he put down the wrong kind of barrier in the rows where you walk. Grass has been awful & continually we have had to dig out the grass to use the garden. This year it was too much for me to even start to deal with. The raised beds were full of grass, thistle, & white top. The raised beds are now gone. I'm working on killing the Canadian Thistle & getting rid of the grass. We will see where things go from here as far as a garden next year.

Greg has been a tremendous help with the physical things. He is also pretty good working with Willie (when Willie works). It actually makes me feel like I have accomplished some major items this August. I'm still working on spraying for thistle. We did not do this in the past due to the sensitivity of the alpacas to various poisons. But now I really need to work on getting rid of the stuff. It is awful.

I've about sold all the first cutting from my hay. My cabin is almost done up at Hermit Lakes. So far so good!! I can smell fall in the air.

Fixing things around the house

Willie has been using my Grandfather & Grandmother's bedroom set. It was probably made in say the 30's or 40's. It is a nice set & he has been using it since we moved here. Well two days ago he broke a slat that goes below the box springs. Finally last night I did some measuring, how long a piece, how thick, how wide...........then out to my barn I go to see if I have a piece anywhere close to what is needed.

I could find no piece of wood 5/8 inches thick. This morning I ask Burlin (who does the watering & all the farming for me) a little about it. He said they probably don't even make wood that thickness any more & to go with 3/4 inches. Sure enough I had quite a few pieces that thick.

So we tore apart his bed. I made him measure what was needed. Then out to the shop we went. He had to measure how long & we used the saw to cut the wood. It was a bit wider than the old pieces, but with his weight gain, wide is good for support.

Now he has 4 nice big slats below his box springs & hopefully the bed will hold up a while longer. Now for other projects that need to be done!!