I have
to be blunt it was a rough afternoon. I
had a bit of a blowout. These are
usually caused by one of two things and that is either a lack of money or
things not working properly. Today, my
trimmer (purchased last year) was not working.
Part of the problem when these kinds of things happen is that I am
ill-equipped to deal with mechanical problems.
Oh, I guess I am learning, but there is still an element of mystery when
it comes to engines and I get a little overwhelmed. Two-cycles are even worse. I have gone through about three chainsaws
before finally settling on a Stihl that Dad gave me for Christmas. I’ve even had some trouble with that, but it
is working great now and I am using it a lot.
The trimmer however, is another story.
It has worked well so far this year, but wouldn’t start last week. I finally deduced that the spark plug is
fouling. I took it out, saw some crud in
the gap, cleaned it, and put it back.
Great! Problem solved! It worked fine for about 45 seconds. I took the plug out, same thing. Okay, I put in a replacement plug. It proceeded to work for about 2 minutes
before it quit. I am now out of
ideas. The problem with two-cycles is
that any one that knows anything about them will instantly assume that you are
an idiot and that you did not mix the fuel properly. I was very careful here. It is a 40:1 mix ratio (the chainsaw is 50:1,
just to make things fun). I put in 3.2
oz. of oil and put in a gallon of fuel.
Of course, like the ‘experts’ I am beginning to doubt my mix. I guess tomorrow, I will try it again,
dumping out the old fuel and mixing again even more carefully. I suppose I should keep the old fuel.
We are establishing
our routine. I have a pretty extensive
daily task list. This includes, feeding,
getting exercise, writing, email, Bible study, household chores, etc. Once these are done, I start on the weekly
list. These are things like cubing and
counting cows (usually do the counting part a few times), writing the blog for
my fine readers (thank you very much), riding Scout, burning trash, checking
the oil, preparing a Sunday School Lesson and the like. Then, of course, there is the actual
work. Mowing pastures, fixing fence,
branding and tagging.
A day
kind of goes something like this. We get
up feed and work with Silver and Patriot.
While they are eating we may tidy up the pens. Today we cubed cows (weekly). Then, we will exercise. The good thing is that there is plenty of
exercise to do that is actual ranchwork.
Lately, we have been focusing on cleaning up the piles of limbs that
have collected in the course of us clearing.
This involves a lot of picking up, but I also have to cut some trees
up. We try to get this done before it
gets too late in the day. This all takes
us till noon almost and by that time, we are drenched and beat. The afternoon becomes the time to do indoor
chores, write, clean equipment, etc. We
get back out anywhere from 2 – 4 in the afternoon and go until about 6 or
7. Today, I spent the afternoon outside
work messing with the trimmer and lawn mower, which doesn’t work either. So, I have put in a request to the Lord about
solving our yard problem. I hope to hear
back soon.
Silver
and Patriot are doing well. I have been
perusing some websites for horse training ideas and am trying to implement some
of Pat Parelli’s techniques. I saw his
book at the store the other day and almost got it, but it didn’t address the critical
moment of horse training, the first ride.
So, I delayed getting it. I will
keep up with some of the website ideas, though.
I will give more details as we go along, but Silver is getting back to
his old easy going self. I was going to
train him to not pull back on the lead.
When tied, he hits the end of the lead rope and panics. Parelli suggests holding him by the lead,
then hazing him, causing him to back up, but rather than cease hazing him, just
go with him until he quits pulling. I
was anxious to try this out with the blanket that he has been spooked about,
but he messed me up by letting me throw the blanket on him without even
flinching. Oh well, that’s not a bad
problem to have. I will have to get a stick
with a flag on it Buck Branaman style and try that.
We
branded another three calves a couple of weeks ago. My Sunday School crew all suspiciously had
other plans that day, so it was Anna and I alone. This would not be enough. I’ve always said that most of the jobs in
ranching can be done with no matter how few people you have, but any job you do
will use everyone you have. Branding is
kind of an exception. You really need
three folks minimum. One to hold the
calf, another to hold the foot rope, and another to draw the brand. So, Anna’s sister, Melissa came over and
became our foot rope gal. They both did
really well. Anna had to hold the
calves, which was a little stressful for her, but she still preferred that to running
the irons. She even threw one! I was proud of both of them and maybe a
little proud myself. I figure I can make
a cowboy (or girl) out of anyone. We
only have two calves left to work, a bull and a heifer. This means that there will be no confusion
about who belongs to what cow. Our whole
herd is identifiable! This is a first in
many years.
So, here
we are. Battling the heat, mechanical
problems, and trying to figure out the horse training. We can use your prayers. Thanks!
