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As usual, got up early this morning. Decided to skip the gym and take a ride on the tractor. Of course it wasnt a joy ride. I wanted to do our poop-patrol in the paddocks and spread lime etc. So, off early this am I was to accomplish this task. Farmer Steve has been tired lately, lots of time at the shipyard has kept him up early and home late. Not much motivation to do all this hard work. Unfortunately, I thought I was going to get this task done so he had one less thing to help me with this afternoon.
Tough luck! I ran into the gate separating the girls from the boys this morning. Completely tore the dang thing off. Practically broke the fence post, definitely broke one of the cross members. Yes it was a corner post...
So, here I am trying to do the farm a favor and now I end up spending an extra amount of time trying to fix the dang fence. It is not as easy as one might think. The gate is a 10-footer. Typically you have one person on the other end holding the non-hinged end up so you can set the pins on the hinges on the post end. I had to find something to raise up the other end while I set the pins in the post, then set the brackets from the gate to the pins. The first set up I was lazy and used to feed bcukets on top of each other. that didn't work and the end of the gate kept falling off. Finally I realized I just need to go hunt down something more substantial. I settled on two scrap pieces of four-by-fours. That did the trick.
The whole time I am fixing the gate, the girls and boys are looking over my shoulder, tails in the air, snorting at the boys. Giles is in the mood for lovin, which made it a little more difficult as the 245 pound male was pacing the worksite of the broken gate picking out which open femail he would like to bed first. *ugh* With the tractor strategically placed and a few hand tools, the rake and shovel, I created a temporary barrier. That and a few times of me standing up, waving my arms and grunting and yee-hawing at them to scatter.
I finally fixed the gate, although temporarily. I had some extra 'green-gates' lying around that I set up on the boys side of the gate. Giles likes to rub up against that gate and section of fence throughout the day. I know it could not withstand his mass, so I decided to cordon it off with two 'green-gates'. I will keep my eye on it, but am proud that without Farmer Steve I was able to temporarily fix the problem. If I did not have to report to my office this morning, I would have gotten out a drill bit and redrilled the hole for the pin that was ripped out. Maybe I would have even tackled setting a new corner post. awe heck, who am I kidding, I am too chicken to run the post-hole auger.
I already called Farmer Steve at work to give him the good news that poop-patrol was not on tonights list of things to do...but we had to mend a fence. He took it well. Afterall, I have only run in to two fenceposts since we got htis tractor, he has managed to tear down a great deal more...next anniversary present idea - tractor driving lessons?
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