Wednesday, August 27, 2008

The tractor man cometh

There comes a time in the life of any dirt-floor barn when you need more dirt. The wind blows, the rain flows, the horses move in and out, and there goes the dirt.

I thought about getting out my shovel and wheelbarrow ; I thought about renting a tractor and figuring out how to use it; then I thought about hiring Tractor Man. For once, I took the easy way out and the Tractor Man cometh.

He didn't have the newest John Deere on the block.


But his old Ford had alot of personality.


Tractor Man dug some diversion trenches outside the corral to prevent the dirt from washing away, he filled in the low spots in the arena, and he dumped bucket after bucket of dirt around the edges of the barn and in the stalls to refill them. Note to self: next time you build a barn, make the gates wide enough for a tractor so that you don't have to level the dirt by hand.



The boys missed out on all the activity, as they were sequestered on the back 40 for the day. Wynonna was quite perturbed by all the ruckus and complained quite loudly when awoken prematurely from her afternoon nap.



Rancher-woman got more than her share of exercise and is going to bed early.

15 comments:

  1. Looks beautiful! A good job to get done before winter hits. Wynonna, my love, she has the cutest face ever!! She does look perturbed to be disturbed, lol

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  2. I want Tractor Man to come to my barn. Good to get this done now before the bad weather returns this winter. Can you even lift your arms to pick up your coffee cup this morning?

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  3. OOoooohhhhh! I'm going to have to remember Tractor Man! I need a HANDY MAN!

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  4. Wow! So much going on there to beautify the 7MSN as of late.

    Awww, are you preparing for a royal visitor?

    Nah! Just me!
    hehehe (I crack myself up!)

    Poor Wynonna. With everything disturbing her precious porcine schedule. And losing her beauty sleep, too. Nope. We cannot have that!
    I've been working on a little something special in honor of Wynonna. I hope she likes it :)

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  5. Hmmm....I just noticed something that made me laugh:

    Yesterday, your post said "Stick a Fork in Me, I'm done" and then today's ShoeBox Greeting said:
    "When you come to a fork in the road, don't pick it up.
    God knows where it's been."

    And then I keep remembering all of the directions you were giving me to get to your ranch...and all the forks to take.

    WTF?!
    ("What the Fork" Get it? hehe)

    How funny is THAT?! :D

    ~Lisa

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  6. I am sure you are glad you had a tractor man come do that work, what a job that would have been.

    You should have showed Wynonna a water hose, can you imagine what a great mud hole that would have made to add water to that pile of dirt!?! Pig Heaven.

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  7. I think that hiring Tractor Man was a wise decision. It sounds like he's had a bit of experience with this and think of all the extra work you'd have had to do if not for his mighty machine.

    Poor Wynonna, the little diva. She certainly can express herself well.

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  8. poor lil wynonna ....

    i bet the boys and wynonna loved their new digs when they returned!
    fresh dirt!! yeeehawwww!!!!!

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  9. Tractor man was a great idea. Too bad you had to level by hand though. By now you must have some muscles and could probably take on just about anyone at arm wrestling and win!
    My poor little princess, how is she ever going to make up for her lost beauty sleep? Not that she needs it she is just cute as the dickens.

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  10. Well I think you should give it a day between to rest up. From mowing for two days to leveling the dirt. Oh your aching back. Oh and poor little tiny Wynonna.

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  11. Poor Wynonna. I don't blame her. A girl needs her beauty sleep and Wynonna needs all the sleep she can get. ;)

    Dan

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  12. Awww, look at Wynonna's poor furrowed brow...she has a headache because she didn't get enough sleep. Keep it down, would you?!!
    You must feel good getting so much done these last few weeks!
    What do you put down on top of the dirt for bedding, if anything? I'm just wondering how you clean it out (urine, etc), I'm guessing you don't hose it down, right? That'd just make mud. I'm wondering because I have kind of a challenging situation in my own barn that I'm trying to solve.

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  13. Danni, I don't use any type of bedding on top of the dirt. The stalls are used primarily at feeding times. It's real easy to keep them clean because the boys are all pretty good about peeing elsewhere, and they're rarely confined for more than an hour. This post has some pretty good shots of the stalls.

    http://the7msn.blogspot.com/2008/07/grass-is-always-greener-in-other-stall.html

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