The last two days have had at least a few hours of a respectable drizzle. This morning this "respectable drizzle" was quite substantial for a little while, but we really did need the rain, so I don't imagine anyone is really complaining just yet. While it would be nice if we could get into the field to finish planting our corn and start the soybeans, we can be comforted in knowing there is enough moisture in the ground to sustain the seeds. The good thing about rainy/muddy days is that we can catch up on other projects. Yesterday morning, mom and I took the three cull ewes to Tampico to sell. This establishment doesn't have a livestock auction like the sale barn we use for our cattle. Instead, we call ahead of time, list the number of animals we are bringing, and we will get the market price for those animals on the specific drop-off day. We have until 10:30 a.m. to get our animals to the drop-off point because a semi comes to pick up the animals and ships them to marketplace (probably a slaughterhouse somewhere, though I don't know where). After I got back, I helped dad feed and bed the stock cows and then we worked on the skidloader again. The Big Mac skidloader is officially in running condition after being out of commission for several weeks! After dinner yesterday, dad and I went to Stark County to sign up for the government program we have been a part of for the last ten years. We also went up to the Bradford farm to check how much rain it got (.6). When we got back from our errand, we treated all the lambs for overeating and we wormed the weaned lambs. Dad caught the weaned lambs while I handed him the medicine, but I got to catch all the younger lambs. I can actually catch lambs; it's the grown ewes I still have trouble with.
Today, we fed the south and west yard in the rain, then worked on our spray coup in the machine shed. We had to replace the gas tank because water leaked in if it sits outside in the rain. It wasn't as painful as it could have been, though dad did have to chisel through a few of the bolts because we couldn't get the socket wrench around them. After dinner and short siesta, we went down the road to buy the bolts, nuts, and washers we needed for the coup. We also had one of our 55 gallon oil drums refilled with high transmission oil. When we came back, dad finished replacing the gas tank while I started reorganizing one of the many tool boxes in the machine shed. I could spend a week straight in that shed sorting bolts, nuts, washers, etc., and not even make a dent in the sheer amount of stuff in there. I think dad wants me to organize the work bench and the tool boxes as one of my projects. I'll certainly try, but it will be quite a task. I was thinking, when I was little I LOVED sorting bolts. I actually really loved going with dad when he bought bolts and nuts because they were shiny and pretty and it was a very satisfying, tactile experience to reach into the bins and run your fingers around the hardware. I sure was a weird kid. We also moved Big Mac to the other farm, cleared a path in the cattle yard so the rain could drain and fed the feeders. Then we mixed feed for those feeders for tomorrow morning. Despite the rainy start, the afternoon was sunny. It definitely felt like early summer today with all the...lovely humidity (in case you didn't catch the sarcasm, I'm NOT a fan of high humidity). It's supposed to rain late tonight and possibly tomorrow again, so we'll see if we sort bolts tomorrow.
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