Craft Updates

My Faux Fabulous project is growing a foot to go along with that toe.

This project is being done on 25 count Luguna 1 thread over 1 square.

My other project is this birth announcement for the new Jackson baby. 

I had a 50/50 shot on boy or girl when I started. 

Hence the flowers to go along with the soon to be cute animals.

Turns out there will be another boy in the house.

He will like it anyway. Or it will make him tougher.

Rolling the Sub Soil

One of FabHub's latest projects is using a subsoiler to loosen up the bottom of the pasture.

It is an experiment to see if that helps with grass hay production.

It looks messy, but when it rained the day after he did this the water pretty much stayed in the field. 

When it rains quite a bit our driveway tends to get washed out as the water from the field runs across it. 

That didn't happen this time and there was enough rain do it.

Why isn't the whole field done? FabHub hit a rock and broke the subsoiler.

We don't have many rocks out there. He found one.

Here is the crew headed out with the roller to do the job. The roller is filled with water and should weigh about 900 pounds. That won't close the soil up completely, but should level out the lumps.

HA! I just noticed. Do you see the fence and flower bed at the top of the picture? 

That lump of dirt on the other side of the fence? That is where he hit the rock.

Here is proof that the roller is working, which makes it safer to walk around down there.

Now we just have to wait for proof that more grass grows.

If it would rain some more the rest of the lumps would settle back down.

The new part for the subsoiler should be ordered soon. 

When he does the next section the roller will be trailing along behind the tractor as it digs the trench. 

That will save some gas.

The other project has been the hilltop from the previous post. 

The road up the hill is looking good now. I really like the gravel.

There is a whole lot more space up there. 

The next project is fencing off the road. The cows would break down that edge pretty quickly.

So we are going to keep them off of it this time.

My second red Angus cow Apple had her baby today.

It's a Girl!

Meet Pie 2. 

My other red Angus cow Cherry had a Pie a few years ago.

It is only appropriate to carry on the name.

The two oldest Grands, Emily and Sean with Pie 2 and FabHub. 

That is all for the day. 

Poochy says Hey!

Changes to the Hilltop

FabHub decided he needed to rearrange the top of the hill.

It was hard to get around with the hay and cattle trailers.

The loading chute was set up awkwardly.

The head chute didn't quite work.

The corral needed adjustment.

So we called in the heavy equipment.

This is where the old loading chute and corral were located.

Sorry, I missed that picture.

Now all of that dirt is gone and some trees were removed to make more turning space.

The bank where the loading chute was located just to the right of those branches.

Now it is all cut way back for the turn.

There should be plenty of room to move up here now.

From the bottom of the hill it used to look like this.

Sort of narrow and hard to navigate.

Now it is like an avenue through there.

That space by the garage used to be dirt bank out all across the front of the truck.

Now that it is open maybe FabHub's project stash won't collect there so much.

We can hope. At least now there is a better space to work on equipment.

I don't think that gate is going to reach across the road anymore.

The truck is parked in its normal space. It didn't used to be in the way of anything.

Across the top of the hill there was a path.

Now there is lots of space.

This was just a cow lounge.

It is not much different now, other than the pile of trees that need to be cleaned up.

The biggest changes here will be coming this summer.

The new corral /loading chute /head chute will be built here.

That should be interesting to watch grow.

Oh, and yes the equipment is stranded up there because of rain and snow.

This is the second of two gravel loads for the hill.

YES! No more sliding up and down the hill when it is wet.

I have been trying to get gravel on that hill for about 15 years.

Looks like a lot left in the bed as he gets to the top right?

It will disappear soon.

The road up is mostly shale bank where the gravel should settle in nicely,

 but here at the top there is lots of dirt that the gravel will sink into over time.

And then we buy more gravel.

We also got a load of smaller gravel for in front of the garage.

FabHub made it home just in time to see it getting packed around.

AND We had the contractor fix another road in the woods.

See the horizontal and angled lines with the cows on it in the woods?

FabHub started the lower part of that with a tractor a few years ago. 

It connects the front of the woods with the back of the woods.

Over time the guys discovered they needed a better and gateless connection between the two fields.

So we had the contractor cut that angle while he was here.

That is the project to date. 

Building the corral will be next.

Update on my Frog Project

I made a Faux Toe.

And have a long way to go.