The new bale wagon…. had to lengthen the ecentric arm that closes and opens the arms so there was more power from the cylinder and then I put a bigger cylinder on.. it ruins a bit slower, but I have more power.. Now, to get some weight to put on the front to help hold it down on them bigger bales…I have to run the pump with a battery powered drill, so far. something about these pumps., you must have to spin them pretty fast to get them started… might have to think on that a bit and come up with something else. sure would be nice if I didn’t have to rely on anything but muscle power.. me and the horses…

Well, another year has passed for me since I was born.. time to think back and maybe learn something….

Dang.. I hate when I go to sleep like that!

Paul Larson and I met in Belle on Friday afternoon and went to Buffalo to perform for the Harding Country Stockgrower meeting.. good crowd, Rod Hoffman had some great food and Bill Johnson did a bang up job actioning off some kids for a fund raiser. After wards we followed part of the crowd to a local watering hole and stay and visited, sang and played until closing time.. pretty hard to get up the next morning, but we did, with a stop off at Ty and MJ’s for some coffee and cookies.. we called that breakfast.. I fed cows when I got home and even got in a wee bit of a nap before Mass at 4:30… Thanks Kass and Tate for watching the boys while I was gone..

Me and Sam and Gus fed the cows in and around the corral this morning, I am going out in a bit and do some sorting on them.. coldish, but not much breeze…

Chance called and said they were headed back fro the a sunshine… supposed to warm up the next few days.. be ok with me..older I get, the less I like cold weather…

If it was made reeaaallll strong!

Gust to 45 or 50 mph, they claim.. temp is dropping, but not a lot of snow, thank goodness.

Fed the cows real good… I got tired of having two bunches and trying to get every thing and the horses watered so turned them all together for a few days, when the weather moderates, I will sort the thinner ones off to baby and kick the rest back out too graze and just eat bean…

Worked on my guitar every day so far and leather almost every day.. got some DVD’s from Cary Schwarz and they are really worth the time and cost and they are not that expensive… in one, he draws out patterns and you follow along and do what he does.. dang he goes fast! LOL but I am starting to catch up with him… no horse work today, to cold and windy…

Finally got my bale unrulier all set up but I don’t have enough power to pinch one of these real heavy bales… back to the drawing board…

This keeps up and I will start to think it’s winter!

Hope’s Grampa is not doing good, so Chance ands her and her sister and Dad are going to make a quick trip to Arizona to see her. They will take Addy Bear and leave the 2 boys with us…

Tate got me another pump for my bale wagon in town yesterday, so hopefully I can get it hooked up this afternoon.

I fed cows and put out bean, it’s snowing lightly..

Did get in my guitar and leather work this morning..

Why? Why do we do this to ourselves!

I resolved to attempt to work with my guitar, leather and horses every day… I think I would have been better served to just pick one a day! I have played the guitar everyday and worked with leather or learned more about the craft, everyday, but the horses things hasn’t worked out so well.. I got some instructional video’s from Cary Schwarz, a man who I admire for his ability with leather and am finally finding tome to watch them.. on the second one I watch, he draws patters and has you follow along.. man he goes too fast! Just got down with a half hour session and I am tuckered out.. even paused it a time or two and still had a hard time.. he sez that if I follow this every day for two weeks I will see a lot of improvement and I think he is correct.. I may have to buy more paper!

For anyone interested in this stuff, i would advise you get these DVD’s.. they are very good…

2015.. who’d a guessed we’d live this long! If I’d have suspected it, i think I would have taken better care of myself… Cindy and I went to Mass last night and then home for a steak I’d left cooking in the smoker.. it was good, but a bit over cooked. need to run it on a lower temp next time I do that…I got up about 5:30 this morning, no hangover, no aches and pains (other than the normal).. sure seems odd., I remember when if I wasn’t hungover and hurting I would have figured I watsted New Years Eve… I am content with this feeling!

I decided for my New Years Resolutions I was going to attempt to work on my guitar and work with a horse or hotness and do somer leather work, every day.. well, at least until it gets to busy in the spring… so i did work on my guitar then this afternoon I went out and harnessed and hooked up Ron and Wren..hooked to the wagon and away I went.. Wren was better than the last time but still green.. Ron is about as bad, all he wants to do it trot or jog.. I got half a notion to just let them trot until they are tired and want to trot and then go trot some more.. but I’m afraid then they will think that is the normal way to go.. need to hook on to a steady pull and go until they are ready to calm down, how ever long that takes and then go do it again the next day and the next and the next, etc.., they are obviously getting too much to eat so they got left in a corral with no hay, but they do have water.. we’ll see how they are tomorrow and then hopefully I can keep them separate and just give them enough hay to fill their needs and not let them pig out like I have been doing.. at least until they learn to walk.. need to hook up Roz and her green mate, Rill too, but after one session with these my hands are cramped up… guess I need to get that bob sled rebuilt!

Hope everyone reading this has a fantastic 2015. Hope we have as good of grass and hay and the cattle prices stay this good or get even better! And I hope them boys get that house built this year! 🙂

Amuse the heck out of me… coldish and a wind so it felt much colder out there this morning.. Molly went out to do chores with me and rode in the tractor and followed me around and chased cats, kind of, and what not, anyway, she put in a lot of exercise, and now we are in the house and she needs a nap.. but Fidgett? Oh no, he’s been sleeping all morning! So now Molly wants a nap and Fidgett wants to play.. He attacks Molly and she just shrugs it off, kind of.. he’s got her mostly woke up and she is starting to come back at him… Fidgett launches himself onto her head, biting and scratching and Molly doesn’t make a sound…these two amuse me…

And this is what they want to do….

Not sure how cold but somewhere between o and 10 above… just a slight breeze out of the northwest… on bare flesh you can feel it.. I bundled up and went and harnessed Ron and Roz and went an hauled there news cows a couple bales of hay, supposed to get below zero the next couple nights.. they probably can get by without it, but there are a few train ones I worry about… took all my parts for the hydraulics on the new bale unrulier to Punkin Center on Saturday and Lynn was kind enough andy smart enough to get them all rigged up for me, Tate came along and helped me get them all hooked on to the wagon, when we got the ATYF fluid in it, we could make it work if we used an electric drill and spun the pump real fast, and then it would work by hand for awhile then quit.. use the drill again and it would work, but soon it wouldn’t work by hand.. talked to the local mechanic this morning and he said it might be the relief valve build into the power steering pump.. Thanks to Matt and Lisa, I have a control valve that works great.., I was going to work on it when I got done feeding, but didn’t want to get ATF, all over my new warm gloves.. I will go back out later, after dinner and see if I can take it apart and figure it out… if I don’t post again until next year, I hope you all have a wonderful New Year!

On a sad note, Tate and Kass’s dogs got into a porcupine real bad last night and they had to put them down.. sad… we give our hearts to dogs to tear, I read one time.. it’s sure true…