Woke up to the smell of coffee drifting into my room. That aroma just makes it feel, all's okay. Today, was my ranch day. It should be everyday, but with my schedule at work, the college, the academy, and client training rooms. I'm wall to wall busy. So I had no choice but to start working the ranch on the weekends, after class on Saturdays, and all day Sunday, until my schedule clears up.
Sun was up...when I jumped out of bed this morning, chowed down some breakfast, then made my way to the back of the house into my makeshift barn shack. A gray 20' x 20' canopy that I use as a barn. Need me one of them metallic 60' x 40' x 20' warehouse type barns. I'll get that when we move to the back property.
I got the lawnmower, a green mulcher, serviced and ready to go. Started cutting the trails by the house, then noticed I was balding the ground. My wheels were to low. Aiii, somebody used my mower and adjusted the wheels. A quick readjustment to get them high, soon got me on my way. Then I noticed the mower wouldn't start. So I primed her up again, and she started up just fine after the 2nd pull on the rope.
I mowed the trail from the back of the house towards the North Side, got past the wall. I'll have to cut down some saplings to fit and cut through on the next lawn day. After I was done mowing the North Side. I went South. My intention was to keep mowing the grass until I ran out of gas. Unfortunately, some big rocks had other things planned for me and my green mulcher. After my rocks delays, I was finished just a bit after lunch. Took a small break just to catch my breath. Big difference between my mower and my bushcutter - my back isn't hurting.
After a quick lunch, I was back out in the barn shack. I grabbed my chainsaw, a 16" Poulan Pro, added some fuel and bar/chain oil. When I started her up, the chain wasn't rotating on the bar. I hit the kick back device...nothing happened. I turned off the chainsaw and tried to move the chain. It was frozen to the bar. I figured it was just tight. So I loosened the chain tightening device, started her up again, and still nothing. I opened up the sprocket cover and was surprised to see all the gunk inside the cover and all around sprocket. A closer look to the chain...it was rusted frozen.
Somebody had used my chainsaw and didn't clean it up. There was mud and sawdust all gummed up. I took a stick broom and cleaned up the inside the cover and all around the sprocket. I took the chain off the bar and applied, some Water Displacement # 40 to all the links. Then I manually loosened up each link to get the oil inside to clean up any rust. Reassembled everything, primed it 6x's, started up on the choke 5x's, then at half choke...she fired up nicely, gunned the engine. Still nothing! Had forgotten to reset the kickback device. After gunning the enginet, the chain moved. Again I gunned the engine and the chain started purring on the bar. NICE!!!
At the South Side with chainsaw in my hands, it was firewood making time, of all the trees that were felled a couple of weeks ago. I cut the limbs and trucks down to 2' lengths. Some of those trunks were a good 6' to 8" thick in diameter. Have to start planning a barbecue soon to use the wood. After I was done cutting up some firewood. I felled one of the trees that I planned to cut down months ago. It opened up the tree canopy nicely. Now the sun's rays will be able to get to the ground and provide some solar energy to my grass. Looking forward to cutting down the bigger trees in the up coming months.
After I had finished using the lawn mower, I let the goat herd out on their own. No leads, no ties. They just roamed around the immediate area eating their favorite grasses. My herd sire, Fluffy, didn't give me any problems. He was easy to handle when he's loose, compared to when he is tied out on his lead. When I whistled, they all came running back into the pen, except the lamb rams. Those two think they're so special. So I left them out of the pen for a little while longer.
When the hens were fed, I worked on the big empty fly pen next to their coop. The tin roof went on easy. Then came the thick branch for the hens to roost on. I'll need to get some nest boxes attached to the inside wall before I move any hens in there. I'm dividing up the hens in the next couple of days. It's too crowded in the fly pen that they are currently in. Moving 6 of them to the new coop will be good for the flock. Just until I get the canopy for the bigger coop for them to lay their eggs in.
My last check today was looking in on Gera, our karabao. He was just relaxing when I approached him earlier this evening. Next weekend, I'll be working on his side of the ranch, the North Side.
ESTA
KEEP SMILING
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