A Summertime Scorcher...
I chose the icon I'm using for this post in an attempt to think cool, refreshing thoughts... It's been a scorcher of a day, and trixstir and I spent most of it outside, clearing up more of the yard. We have finally cleared the last of the debris from the destroyed garage, a process that has taken close to a year. Of course, we really couldn't work on that during the winter with the -40 temperatures, so I don't know if you can count that block of time. In any case, the point is that the mess has been cleaned up, and we've managed to salvage a great deal of the wood from the wreckage which can now be used on other projects. I wouldn't use this stuff for any critical construction, but there are thousands of uses for this sort of material on a farm. The same sort of thing applies to smaller items; Nuts, Bolts, Washers... Little bits of this-and-that... Every farmer I've ever met who's got half a clue has a bolt-bin; Some of the bolts may be new, but many of them will be perfectly good bolts that have been salvaged from something or other. Unless it's FUBAR'd, stuff like that just isn't thrown away; You never know when you're suddenly going to need it. This is especially true when dealing with older machinery!
Anyway, as I was saying, it was (and still is) a scorcher of a day. We got some important things done though, so it was a day well spent. Clearing out the last of that debris field means that we can now drive vehicles around the old pump-house, making manuevering a truck and trailer a lot easier! I also mowed down a large patch of overgrowth, so that's also helping the yard look more cared-for. I hope to have the tractor's hydraulics working again in a day or two, and then I'll have to see if we can get the hay-baler working. The swather is too large to fit into the areas with the best grass (of course) but the tractor and baler could fit it. If we were to cut the grass down with the Swisher mower, or the sickle-bar mower and manually rake the fallen grass into swaths, it could be baled.
Nash (our new dog) is settling in more and more. He had a bit of an accident during the night as he was too skittish to come up the stairs and ask to be let out, and he wound up piddling on the floor at the base of the stairs sometime during the night. Ironically, there was a package of "Puppy Training Pads" not three feet away. :/ I was up at 6:30am, and took him outside to "take care of business" in the spot we want him to start using for such. He seemed to get the idea right away, which makes things a lot easier. Around 10am he finally worked up enough courage to come up the stairs, and now he's content to join us wherever we are. We have set a limit though; The one place he's not allowed to enter is the kitchen/dining area, as I don't want him (or his fur) getting into our food, or have him mooching at the table. He set off a mouse-trap by accident, and then stole the peanut-butter bait from it! Bugger! Ginger (the cat,) of course, is thoroughly disgusted. ;)
We shall see if he spends the night on his mat downstairs, or on the mat in the kidling's bedroom. Ginger decided a few months ago that our bedroom was safer and more comfortable than the kidling's, and we're going to put a kitty-door into the door so that she'll have a place to retreat to when she wants to avoid Nash. The kidling took him out for a long walk this afternoon (taking a water-bottle along for each of them) and they both seemed to enjoy it. He's definitely a lot happier when there are more people around; if he's just with me, or just with the kidling, he's still a little skittish. If we're both around (or with Trixstir) he's a lot more comfortable and relaxed. He's definitely associating us as his Pack, and he seems to be pretty happy with that.