We got a most of the MUST DOs done today. That makes our third day in a row of working as long as there was daylight and we are bloody exhausted.
It seems like such a minor thing on the to-do list, but moving the livestock trailer is often tricky. This time, it was mired in mud, and had to get moved across a very narrow road over the culvert in the ditch (what is that called? It’s not a bridge. Hmm.) I didn’t even manage to jack knife it this time. (Why yes, I have done that before, and it’s so very not fun.) But we have a date with the butcher for a few of the pigs on the 18th, and now it’s smack in the middle of their area, so I can just feed them in it so I can catch the right ones and it’s all going to go very well, yes it is. I kept dreaming that it got frozen in the mud and we couldn’t move it, or that when I was backing it up over that road, I’d put it in the ditch. Go me.
We sort of got the shed moved. I somehow got a flat tire right in the middle of the move, then Frank couldn’t get the tire off to get it fixed. So driving on the wheel left very little control, so turning the beast was really sloppy. It is at least out of the middle of the road, but it isn’t really where we wanted it, only vaguely in the general area. It will be usable, though, and there wasn’t much else we could do. The theory is that we will be able to make a quick paddock between where the pigs are now and where the sheep are and that’s where the horses will over-winter.
We hadn’t been to the food pantry in a few days, so that had to be done as well. Lots and lots of stuff, so the pigs will eat for free for a least a few days on this haul alone. I had to go to town anyway, to buy grounding rods, which Frank got pounded in, sort of, but it did enough to get the fence zapping nicely. Which is good, because that makes it far more likely that the horses will actually stay where we put them if we can string the wire around the right spots tomorrow. In the snow.
We also ran around and drug in all the electronet that was still up, brought in hoses, extension cords and that kind of thing. I know there will still be stuff out there that will be buried until Spring, but we did okay.
We still need to get all of the electricity hooked up to the water troughs and we have some big huge logs for firewood that are in really inconvenient locations. But winter will arrive for sure tomorrow. We are forecast to get about 8 inches, and then the dreaded freezing rain to finish. Ick. Snow I don’t mind, but just the thought of freezing rain reminds me of the horrible storm last year, where we were without power for so long.
Looks like you guys accomplished quite a bit – good for you! Amazingly, no matter the size of your plot in life it comes with a list of to-dos. 🙂