I am pooped! Literally!

Can you guess what I have been doing lately?

Yes, cleaning horse lots!

Tractor with bucket and blade is ready!

Other tractor with the manure spreader is ready.

One horse lot is clean!

Now for the large pile that has been composting since last year. We didn't get this spread out in the fields last year, and then we added this year's manure. 2 years worth to spread on the fields this year!

Imagine this pile twice as long! This is going to take forever!

Especially when you only do one load every 15 minutes! The neighboring farmer allows us to spread our manure, but this year, it is 2 fields away!

Imagine that the manure spreader holds 6 or 7 loads from this bucket.

  The horses are wondering when we will be done!

We worked since last Thursday! Thursday and Friday, we only did 5 loads each day, as something needed to be fixed on the manure spreader each day. The chain broke. Some boards broke. The smaller chain broke yesterday, but luck was on our side. Hubby had ordered that chain 2 years ago and the old chain was replaced within the hour!

 

Hubby only spread a few loads, when I went to the restroom or made sandwiches. Do you know how many loads there were? 60!!!  I counted the rows out in the field!

I had a lot of time!

Imagine what else I thought about. Post to come on that! LOL

Tractor is Loaded

The Case tractor is loaded onto our flatbed trailer. That is the good news.

The bale spear fit under the loader. We put the spare tire up against the spear and neither will move.

Hubby is checking to make sure the chains and straps are tight.

The tractor is chained on, and just fits onto the trailer.

But barely. There is no extra room for the tires on the left.

and only a very tiny gap on the right.

The front tires are a little wider, and the tractor had to be "shimmed with the front end raised to get the tractor on.

The tractor is ready to go.

Hey, wait for me. I'm still taking pictures!

We're on our way to Nebraska. The bad news is that our truck started leaking transmission fluid about 3 hours after picking up the tractor, at 5 in the afternoon. We stopped at a GMC truck dealer and they got the truck into service early the next morning. Parts need to be ordered. We were able to rent a truck at the dealer price, and we were able to come home.

Then we get to make the 11 hour trip to pick up the tractor and truck next week.

Our "New" Tractor

Not a brand new tractor, but new to us. And boy, do we need it! We will keep our other tractor, a John Deere 2010, as it can still move round bales. But I plan on hooking up the arena rotatiller to the JD and leaving it hooked up to work the arena anytime that I need to!

1998 Case International c50. 4 wheel drive. I just love that it is 4 WD! Loader model 1027.


Look at those tires! We shouldn't get stuck! The tractor is 4WD!

This tractor has a wide front end. The bucket appears to be wider than the tractor.

Look at the size of this bucket. That will move manure into large piles easily. And it should be able to push the snow out of our driveway. You know, the snow that the road grader puts there!

We will NEVER be snowed in again. Well, never say never. At least we won't be snowed in if the tractor is running well!

We can easily unhook the bucket and put the bale spear on. We'll be able to lift the bales easily to take them to the round bale feeders.

HT Photo Challenge “FREE”

MANURE



This week’s Horsetales Photo Challenge is “FREE”. My first thought was not much is free if you have horses. But that’s not true.



The total enjoyment of having horses is free. Watching their frolics in the pasture, running back and forth, chasing each other. Watching my children enjoying their horses, preparing them for competition, riding them with excitement.



Riding my horse for the pure joy of riding is free. Going to the field, the feeling of the warm sun on my face, the feeling the cool breeze against my checks, and the wonderful views of the changing colors on the horizon as the sun sets, is free. The smell of the warm horse scent that fills the stall after a workout, the sights of horses resting and laying in the sun, the sounds of their soft nickers as they see me come with their evening meal, the feel of their soft coats after a rain, and talking to them as if they understand my concerns are all free.



Another wonderful aspect to horses is all of the manure. Piles and piles every day. Overnight, there could be 6 piles waiting at morning chores to be cleaned from the stalls. At least 6 more piles could be cleaned during the day, and that much more in the evening. I really should count some day!



So…with the bobcat work that I had to do the past week and a half, the manure pile was gigantic. After 10 horses in a lot for the past year, you can imagine the mountain. This photo is only a 1/5 of what it could have been, as we kept loading some into a dump truck as the pile continued to grow.

And, this is what it started with….many, many piles of these turds.



And this is what started the turds.



I wonder what each pile of manure costs? How many piles of manure come out of a round bale? Then break that down into each turd? Any guesses? I can feed 4 horses a week on a round bale. Each horse makes at least 15 piles of manure a day. How many turds in a pile? 40?
My best estimation to the cost of each pile is….
$.13,
making the cost of each turd …
$.003, 1/3 of a penny???

Maybe manure isn’t free after all.



But the enjoyment of watching Tom having fun on the bobcat is free. And the looks he gave me as I took his pictures are priceless. I could see him thinking, what are you doing? And I laughed at him. Laughs are totally FREE.