Tuesday

I worked the farm this am. I was supposed to be third and help move some second cut hay from a barn down the road, but P didn't work, so that left R and I. After the Hill, R was bringing in firewood and I headed across the pasture for some hemlock branches for the bucks. They have been logging the lot next door, and we are scavenging brush for the herd.

The bucks especially need it, since we bait them out of the fence with the brush so we can clean- without a bunch of bucks fighting under our feet.

The main herd is getting hayed down back under the pines, but there is a rail gate down that allows access to the upper pasture. Over the weekend, S and I hauled some hemlock through the gate for the main herd, but today I was only concerned about the bucks.

I walked across the packed snow, hopped the fence, crawled over the slash, and found a huge hemlock top. S broke the loppers so we have been trying to scavenge what we could drag, and I thought I could handle the top. Well, I tugged it through the slash, dragged it over the fence and two stone walls, and headed across the snowpack. About halfway I had to stop for a breather, and then I heard a sound and looked up.

Yep, I had stopped across from the gate, and the wethers had seen me. All of a sudden it was a race-me dragging a twenty foot hemlock top and 37 wethers and does chasing me across the snowpack. R saw me and helped me haul it over the fence just as the herd caught up to me. PHew! A few of them nibbled the needles that had been stripped, and the rest looked around and headed back across the pasture...en masse, leaving one greedy wether all by himself until he realized he had been abandoned and let out a cry and went off in hot pursuit=back to their hay.

I wish I had it for You Tube.

The next big event was something sad. Boss had asked R's Dad to cut off Lar's horns, and he couldn't do it, so she said, just give the saw to R, he can do it. Well, R was horrified. He had been taking care of that buck for four years and he confided it was like cutting up your pet dog and strewing him around the yard.

Before we left, Boss asked me if I was ready to help R with the task, and I said fine, but R is freaked out since he liked Lars. R was determined to get the job done, and told me to go out when he started-I am not sure if he was trying to spare me, or if he didn't want someone watching him commit the heinous deed. I heard the saw quit and stuck my head in and asked it he was through, and he said yes, but I am suprised he didn't throw up. He pulled the rack away and was horrified it still had an ear on it and plunked it down outside the gate, and Boss, just returned from the Post Office, whisked it away to the Subaru.

Then R feverishly started digging into the manure pile, and he had brought two forks, so I helped him dig it out while he sniffed=due to the cold or not, I didn't dare look at his face out of courtesy, and tried not to stab him in the foot or face as it was tight digging.

R had trouble getting Lars just so in the hole, since he had frozen with his legs extended and they were sort of sticking up, but I positioned the sheet over the legs and told R once the pile started to heat up again, the legs would soften and fold right down. Then I said goodbye to Lars and Boss said goodbye, and R said nothing, and R and I covered him back up with the pile and left him.

We finished up and I combed Hjalmar a bit on his neck, and then I asked R if he wanted to take the cap off the truck instead of waiting until morning, since it was warmer near noon. He agreed, so we went back to the farm and pulled the cap off the truck and R seemed in better spirits when he left, but I feel bad for him.

Now I have agreed to work tomorrow and try and get the hay then. I had other plans, but strike while the iron is hot, as they say...