Vacation: Rough Start

We worked and worked and stayed up late on Thursday so we could get out of here Friday morning. We planned to leave by "10 or 11" and pulled out of the driveway at 11:05. Typical! We left separately, me with the horse trailer and a ewe we were going to drop off at the breeder's and Brian with the pickup we were dropping off to be worked on while we were gone. I went to the bank, he made a few stops, and we met up at his uncle's (he is our mechanic).
I parked on the road and got out to check the ewe. I opened the side door on the trailer and was surprised that the ewe didn't startle and jump up. It took me a few seconds to realize why. She must have put her front feet up on the manger (4ft tall) and got her left front foot stuck in a big gap where the manger had rusted out. To make it worse, she tried to get down and ended up in an almost sitting position, essentially hanging from her foot with it way above her head and her toe pointing at the ground, thus make a hard angle at the last joint. I jumped in a straddled her, trying to pick her up so she could free her self. I started yelling for Brian to help and when he got in he was able to pull her foot out.
She would not stand and was shaking, obviously traumatized. I petted her for a few minutes and tried to calm her down. We were only 2 miles away from our next stop so we continued on. At Brian's stepsister's house we stopped. I was supposed to trim her pony's feet. Turns out the pony didn't want to be caught so we didn't get it done. We opened up the trailer and got the ewe to stand but she would barely put weight on her injured leg. She was in no condition to go see the ram so we headed back home. We parked the trailer in the shade, left out some bute (pain medicine) for our neighbors to give her, and put food and water in with her. I hated to leave her but we were running way behind and like Brian said, there really wasn't much I could do at that point. I will say that a newer trailer just moved up on our list.

Our next stop was Wind Racer Farm in Charlotte, Michigan. The farm's co-owner, Violet Hickey, had contacted me recently to say that she had some Blue Slate and Bourbon Red turkeys ready to go to a new home. The turkeys look great and we really enjoyed visiting the farm and talking with Violet and her family. If you're looking for local food in her area I would look her up for sure. We still have not decided if the turkeys are right for us. It is a wonderful opportunity for us to branch out in to heritage turkeys with the hope of breeding our own. On the downside we would have to feed and house them all year. I'd love your thoughts on this!

Oh and pictured here is one of Violet's Buckeye hens with chicks that she hatched herself!


On to Ohio! We rolled in to the Fulton County Fair just in time for the truck and tractor pull. Our friend Rob Foster runs Simply Red so we had fun cheering him on. Of course Brian likes it a little more than me but I finished up one sleeve on my latest baby sweater while I was watching! :)





Next stop: a dairy farm! :) Stay tuned for less talk, more pictures, and a lot more fun!!

Brian's Project: A Tractor Post

"So... since you're always looking for interesting pictures for your blog, you should come outside and bring your camera" says my husband when I arrived home last night.

"Is everything alright!?" I said, a little worried.

I went out to see what he was talking about. Turns out his project for the day involved tearing apart our main tractor, a JD 4010. We put a lot of money in to this tractor last year and had joked that it was not allowed to break down ever again. The only thing left to break was the hydraulic pump and it really needed to be replaced awhile ago. It died out in the hay field the other day so Brian hauled it home. He had to take off the entire front axle to get the pump out. The pump itself costs $1200 so any money we can save on labor is great. I'm so glad Brian can do stuff like this!

Here is the tractor where it sits until the pump is replaced. That red thing in the picture is The Bone Creeper. Brian asked for the creeper as a Christmas present last year and he uses it a lot.


Here is the front axle!


What kind of projects are going on at your house?