Stumped

The day started by removing pine stumps from another future 3-acre pasture.  The stumps have sat for about a year and with the help of our Kubota skid steer and a heavy-duty stump bucket I can remove a hearty stump in about 5 minutes but it always leaves a pile of dirt and a hole to be filled in later.  Little did I know that I would be filling it with a 12,000 lb machine with the help of a low *friction coefficient on my tracks and the never-ending tug of gravity.  Time for Susie to rescue me with the 5,500 lb John Deere tractor and a HEFTY chain.  Well, that friction coefficient was not in my favor once more and the Deere simply spun its wheels. I actually pulled it up the hill by lifting the Kubota bucket.  Time for plan B (There’s always a plan B even if plan A does work).  We get out the shovels and start moving the dirt in front of the Kubota by hand.  This attempt to reduce the upward climb out of the hole was the key but reminded me how heavy dirt really is.  You forget as the hydraulic assist throws dirt and stumps as if they were cotton candy and twigs.  Plan B was a success and the Kubota was freed from its stump-induced snare. 

The tracks on the skid steer had failed me and it was becoming clear that another lesson wasn’t far behind. I’m going to have to change them out.  They weigh 600 lbs apiece and so this looked like another job for the trusty John Deere and this time pallet forks were here to help.  After completing one side, a method was developed to persuade neighbor, Mark and son, Aaron to help with this endeavor.  Remove the tension on the track, remove the track with a 4-foot Johnson bar (thanks, dad), remove the track from the rear idler, and then remove it from the front idler.  Use the tractor to haul it away and bring the new track into place.  The new track is like a new pair of cowboy boots that take a little stretching to get in place.  A three-person operation and three different ideas later we had a good installation.  Not a piece of cake, but patience and some help led to the front idler, sprocket, and finally the rear idler installation with no broken parts or bones.  Teamwork makes the dream work.

*The coefficient of friction (fr) is a number that is the ratio of the resistive force of friction (Fr) divided by the normal or perpendicular force (N) pushing the objects together. It is represented by the equation: fr = Fr/N.

Time to Wine Down

Finally, it’s time to bottle 6 gallons of Sauvignon Blanc that have clarified to a beautiful golden yellow.  Amazon delivered half of the bottles and broke the other half so it was time to improvise and gather as many odd wine bottles as we could scrounge.  After a while, the bottling was going well. Too well, actually, so we waited for the other shoe to drop and make this simple task into a Tac-L-Box moment. 

Almost on cue, in comes baby goat screaming its head off as my daughter, Allie, collects a fecal sample. Yes… gloves, finger, and well you can guess the rest.  Granted, that’s probably as good a reason as any to run into a room, screaming. In the end, little man was diagnosed with Coccidia, treated, and sent back out to the herd. 

Oh, the wine samples were incredible and an old half-gallon apple cider jug wound up saving the day.  Wanna know what happened to that wine? Follow me in the next installment.  Time to relax, rinse, and repeat.