21 February 2011, 1030, Monday, Liberty GCEC

Still no calves.  I haven’t spotted any buzzards or any sign that the cows are aborting, so it is probably just that they haven’t started having calves yet.  In fact, counting 283 days from when they were first exposed, they shouldn’t even start until tomorrow.  Tomorrow, I will go check again.

Saturday, we put out hay.  Only one more time before we get to start putting out from the Hay Storage Place.  Life will be considerably easier at that point.  I also took the John Deere down to the mechanic to get the flat fixed, but he couldn’t find the hole.  The cap had come off the valve stem, so it is possible that the flat came from that.  I’ll have to keep an eye on it.  We also managed to take a load of scrap tin to the recycling place in Liberty.  That earned us a bit of money and it helped tidy the place up a bit.  I loaded up the back of the truck with some more tin and scrap.  It is amazing how much you can pick up and it doesn’t necessarily look better.  Or rather, you have to remember what it looked like before you did anything.  I was so proud for picking up some old barrels and water tanks on the side of the road.  I pointed out to Anna where they had been, but she couldn’t remember what it looked like before.  Oh well.  I’ll have to take some pictures next time.

18 February 2011, 1043, Friday, GCEC, Liberty

Not much has happened agriculturally since yesterday.  I fussed and fussed with the darn master bedroom toilet, but only made it worse.  Now, we will just have to use the guest toilet until we can get a plumber to look at it.  I confess that I have no idea what is wrong with it.  It used to leak around the bolts, so I replaced those.  It was holding water, but when I flushed it, water would gush from between the tank and where the tank meets the seat.  I took it off for the 12^th time and put the old seal back, thinking that maybe the new seal didn’t fit.  No luck.  I guess it just didn’t seat correctly.  In thinking about it, I might try again.  However, in all my messing with it the tank fell off the counter and it has a hairline crack.  There may be something that will seal it, so I’ll have to look on line.

Tomorrow will finally be a ranching day.  Those are fewer and further between and I grow frustrated at my inability to do the thing that I came here to do.  I will enjoy tomorrow as much as I can.

Today, I am still watching “The Patriot”, but I brought in some reenacting weapons to help them understand how the technology worked.  That’s an attention getter.  It’s also been interesting walking around in the discipline problem school with a rifle and pistol.

17 February 2011, 0734, Thursday, GCEC Liberty

Not much has happened since my last entry.  I have been subbing every day this week, which is good because we need the money, but I have not been able to do any ranching.  Subbing has been hard recently.  I got word that several students hate me.  I guess this shouldn't be a surprise.  I make them do boring work left by their teacher.  If I do my job, then they will hate me.  I'm just not used that.  When I taught before, I was well liked by my students, so this is a bit of an adjustment.  Oh well, can't be helped.  I will continue to do what I am paid to do.
A student actually locked me out of the classroom the other day.  That was really humiliating, but I take no small satisfaction that he rides people's horses for money and that I was at one time thinking of sending him some business.  Not any more.  Is it wrong to take pleasure in that?
The weather has been nicer.  I am anxiously awaiting the birth of some calves.  On Saturday, we will go take a look.  I will post a picture of our first.
I'm showing the movie "The Patriot" in Social Studies at the alternative school.  Some of them are pretty interested in my reenacting experiences.  One kid asked me what my weirdest reenacting experience was.  After class was over, I remembered it.
We were galvanized (playing Yankee) at a national event, Raymond, MS.  This was a tactical event, with no or few limitations on when action could occur.  In layman's terms, we were not playing to the crowd, but for fun and we could be attacked at anytime.  Anyway, we were making our breakfasts one morning and noticed that we had gotten a lot of flat biscuits (tortillas).  Someone commented that they figured they could throw their tortilla further than anyone else.  That's how it started.  Before long, it escalated into a fight between companies.  Horses were tugging on their leads to avoid the strange white discs flying through the air.  Company commanders were forming their lines to present the maximum firepower to their opponents.  When we were done, it looked like the wilderness that the Hebrews passed through with manna all over the ground.  We retired to our camps, laughing and joking.  Suddenly, a group of riders appeard across the field.  Confederate Cavalry was riding in fast.  One of our Vietnam Vets yelled, "INCOMING!!!" and we grabbed our pistols and returned fire as best we could.  However, amidst the fray, I saw confused Confederate troopers being pelted with Yankee flat biscuits.

14 February 2011, 1024, GCEC

You know what?  It's been too long to even try to explain my absence.  So I won't.  Suffice to say that I've been busy and distracted.
The weather has been cold up until yesterday.  I have gone to putting out 6 rolls of hay every 5 days, just to get them through the cold.  They will still have hay through most of April.  What I am really excited about is that I only have to go out to the New Hay Field twice more and then all the hay we have left will be at the Hay Storage Place in the Old Field.  This will make putting out hay much easier.  I have also decided that 6 rolls at a time is about right.  This will give every cow room at the buffet.
Dad was down Saturday and we looked around a lot.  The cows look good.  They are not fat, but they are not skinny either.  They look like cows in the winter.  I had finally started entering the cows into my management software and realized that we need to start having calves right now.  At least, according to the vet, they should be having cows in the next week or two.  Or maybe a week or two ago.  I took some pictures, which will I will enter into the computer as well.
We also spent a lot of time looking at equipment and trash and supplies stacked around the Cathedral Oaks.  There is a lot of scrap that still needs to be taken off.  Also, we need to start stacking stuff in the red barn.
Over all, things are pretty smooth.  I will enter another post soon.  Not like last time.