Tractor Repairman

Mar 23 - April 4 -- The tractor project!

One clear blue day, our tractor died.  Just like that.  Wouldn't start.  It wasn't without warning - we knew it was having trouble from a few weeks before this event.  What we also knew was that it was most likely the started and going to cost us a pretty penny.

Enter JL.  He had told me that he had planned to work on the tractor himself before we even bought it.  This was just a perfect opportunity for him to hold true to his word!  Of course he could replace the starter!  All he had to do was unplug the batter, move a few cables, life the engine out, unhook the starter and then put it all back together again.  Uh huh.  Sure.

Here he is on day 1.  Just about to life the engine out.  And let me just say - it's not light.

Got it!

Now what?

Enter a few YouTube videos, an order for a new starter from Amazon, and a little bit of confidence and viola!

Now....where did that red wire go again?

Low and behold - he did it!  He replaced the starter and got everything back together just fine!  And now the tractor is working better than it ever has!

Guess he's earned his hat and rancher status.

Chores

One of James' new chores on the ranch is tractor driving.  He's great at it!  A couple of Saturdays' ago he was out helping JL trim up a tree.  After the trimming, he loaded all the branches into the back of the tractor and then drove them (and JL) over to the brush pile.  I hadn't witnessed just how good he'd gotten at driving that thing!  I was amazed - and so proud!

James hauling off a giant branch

And off he goes!

He's great at driving that thing around!

Bonfire

Remember all that pruning JL did a while back?  Well, last weekend, the time had come to dispose of the clippings.  How does a person go about doing that when you have a pile as big as your pickup and no where to put it?

Start a fire of course.  You may be saying: but I thought you were in a drought and isn't burning wood the LAST thing you should be doing?  Nope.  Turns out, since January, we've had 15 inches of rain.  Almost 3 of those inches coming in this month alone.  More specifically, during the week that JL selected to start his small fire.

The ground was super wet.  The day was overcast and very humid with a 60% chance of more rain.  Conditions were perfect.

I must admit when I first stepped outside and saw the little fire, I was alarmed.....

Heat.  This sucker was so hot I had to sit WAY back from it.

And LARGE.  I got use to it after a while and my concern faded.  That and JL had a live hose running, a big pile of manure within easy reach of his shovel, and the air was very wet.

Still, it was impressive!

Whole trees were being added at one point!

After a bit, the huge looming pile of brush was gone!  The fire died down to ashes and embers and then about an hour later it rained a half inch!  Perfect.

Planting Time

Last week was Spring break. JL was able to take some time off work, so we decided to have a staycation and do a few chores around the ranch.

We'd been talking about putting up a screen on plants along our back fence. Something to help drown out the neighbors and what little light peeks through the fence. So, we purchased 6 Wax Myrtle bushes. We also picked up a few Leland Cypress Trees. They look like little mini Christmas tress - and they have to be my favorite find of the season. (I am seeing decorations going up on them right around December time... hehe) Plus, they make an excellent screen and are suppose to grow fast!

In addition to the screen, I wanted a bit of color added to the front of the house. I chose 2 Red Buds to flank the front gate. I can't wait until they grow a bit so the entrance can be showered in pink color! JL also picked him up a Pecan tree. Never can have too many of those.

Our project. Seems like an easy task, but have you ever dug in TX soil?
It is mostly ROCK! Solid limestone! There is about 2 inches of dirt and then plates of rock. JL was out there doing his best to bust up the rocks (see them piled to the right of the plant? Those are the SMALL ones!)
While I supervised, I took the opportunity to take this lovely picture of our grass! I told you we had some. :)
I wasn't the only one that noticed this lush patch...
Buffy, back on her feet and taking advantage of the green food.
The beautiful part of the week was having James home from school. What an amazing help he was! He was outside with JL EVERY day! With his shovel and his work gloves. Ready and willing to help with every plant!
Here they are putting in my sage. Did I forget to mention we had 2 of those also?
By day 2, the boys were putting in planting soil and applying root stimulator. This was probably one of James' favorite parts. He loved the pile of dirt!
I'm so pleased with what we got done. Now we just need the rain to continue and hopefully things will start to take off!
Me and Big Wy helped out by delivering dirt and shovels! :)

The New Toy

We have been so grateful around here lately. Since January, we haven't gone more than about 2 weeks without a rain storm. Quite a contrast from the summer! And it's been amazing. Just in a short 3 months, the needed water has brought about a major change to our ranch. We've gone from a dust bowl, to having green stuff growing all around! Some of it is grass, but most of it is weeds! And when I say weeds ... I mean WEEDS!

Do you think your weeds are out of control? Ours were starting to swallow up the children!

James enjoyed plowing tracks down through it, but Wyatt was too short for this kind of thing. He could nearly disappear completely!
JL with a thistle of typical size!
At first, we were just so glad to see green stuff growing, that we didn't really mind the weeds. Besides, some of them were pretty! We had some with white flowers, some with yellow, and some with purple. It was a regular garden of color around here!

But, after a while, the weeds started to take over and bury my flower beds, my sidewalks, and my house in general! From the road, there was a huge sweeping pasture of weeds that made it impossible to see the lower half of our house. Not that this is a problem for me, necessarily, but after a while, it became a problem for walking around and trying to spend time outside with the kids. So, we bumped up a previously talked about purchase:

Behold! Our Green Machine!
Moments after it was delivered, each kid had to have a ride!


Then it was time to see what could be done about our lawn...
Even I took a turn plowing through the hood-high brush. The tractor went through it, no problem!
Afterwards, there was grass and weeds all over our new toy!
By day two, we had a dump bucket which naturally meant more rides!
That night, we celebrated with a cook out! Complete with smores!

Time to Prune

A few weeks ago, JL dedicated a Saturday to getting our trees ready for Spring. His first object: the fig tree. Ours resembled a bush, really. So JL carefully pruned it until it was transformed into a really pretty tree! I'm really liking the shape, especially now that the leaves are starting to come out. (I'll update my pictures and post them soon.)



He also took after our oak trees that had suffered a few years of pruning neglect! He cut away all the low branches so the trees look tall and pretty now!

All this cutting and shaping left him with this:

The brush pile to end all brush piles!

He can't wait to burn it all. But that will have to wait for another day...

Goat & Pig Shanty

This past Saturday, JL and I built a shelter for the goats and the pigs. They have been kinda pouty lately with all the chilly weather we have been experiencing, so we bumped this project up the priority list and took a Saturday afternoon to devote to it.

Since the chicken coop, JL and I have been a little burnt-out on building projects - but this one wasn't bad at all. We finished the shanty in just about 4 hours.

We saved some time and $ by using the black stage out of our old movie room for the floor. It was the perfect size and it was already cut and assembled!
I'm pretty sure Pancho thought we were building him and Fergus a dog house.
We added a 1/2 door to one side of the shanty so the animals had a small 4 wall section to get out of the wind and rain.
This goat decided to try it out first!

The goats love it so far! They cozy up each evening and sleep late in the morning. I have yet to see the pigs in it, but I think that's simply because the goats won't let them in!