Ellen came down off the ridge the other day and held her hands up wide, exclaiming, “I saw a moose!” Of course, she saw a huge big buck in velvet. She said she had also been startled while walking along a field. She stooped to pick up a big rock when a wild turkey burst out of the alfalfa a few feet away. She also saw a doe in the Christmas tree plot. She checked out kiddie pool turned watering hole pools in the Grouse Hollow and at the Oak Stand. Both were holding water, as much as 5 inches in one. She said that the clover was recovering nicely in the food plots I mowed last week. So were some thistles that just got knock down @#$! After last night’s two-plus inches of hard rain, I imagine those pools are running over. Anyway, if the rain ever holds off, I’ll try another run up the ridge with the John Deere soon to mow again.
Speaking of the John Deere, this powerful little diesel tractor feels a bit tippy when mowing or working on any kind of incline, so I thought maybe some tractor weights might help. Our friend Will Beitlich said he had some I could use, so his son, Andy texted me he had them so I drove up to pick them up. Hmmm . . . pick them up might be a bit of a stretch. Grabbed ahold of and lugged and swung the chunks of iron up into the back of my truck is more like it. Anyway, Andy and his son Austin had just stopped to have a popsicle, so we discussed the problems of the world for a bit. The biggest right now for them - and most area farmers - is finding a window in the rainy weather to make hay. There is hay down everywhere, but that doesn’t mean it will dry to bail. Thirteen-year old Austin asked me if I wanted a pet. Huh? His “pet” sow was about to farrow. This required another hmmm . . . I told him we’ll talk when they are thinking about butchering. They also have a cow that’s ready to calve they wanted to get in a trailer and move to the other farm. No matter the weather, life goes on at the farm as always. Back at our ranch, the tractor weights worked to keep the front end on the ground, but they are too tall for my machine as they drag in places and catch on stuff. This may take some jury-rigging to work.
Mark Manske brought us some gravel for our driveway last week. Proksch Coulee Road is under a major repair upgrade so we took advantage of all the trucks coming and going to spruce up our driveway after so much of our gravel disappearing in recent storms. We raked some and I used the bucket on the tractor to even out the road some. That night the heavens burst and I had to use the tractor and blade to recover some of the $300 worth of new gravel trying to escape down the coulee.
Ellen and I drove up Oak Ridge to get some strawberries from the Byler family on County K. El was worried they might not be very nice what with all the heat and rain, but we got eight quarts of beautiful, sweet stuff for making El’s amazing jam. She and Pearl Sikora made a couple dozen jars together. Pearl labeled them Ellen’s Famous Strawberry Jam. Anyway, her brother Jake and I got to be quality control.
Until next time, get out - I should be spinning a tale about Canadian lakes, big perch, walleyes, bass, northerns, muskies, crappies, moose, bears, and some great fish fry feasts by then, eh. Enjoy.
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