Frank

This is Frank, our neighbor, a retired farmer who still has plenty of farm toys. He repairs lawn mowers, snowblowers, chainsaws - and other stuff with engines - a very convenient neighbor for newbie farmers who are not mechanically gifted.

I asked Frank if he might rent us one of his little yard tractors with a blade to clean up the old bedding, manure, and sodden wasted hay around our loafing shed. He offered to  do it himself with his impeccable, shiny Kubota front end loader.  (Truth be told, I think he was itching to have an excuse to use that machine! )

His loader just barely fit through the gate and  between our loafing shed and barn- kind of puts our little farm in scale.

Every morning and night after chores I had been forking a bunch of this stuff into a pile but never could get ahead.   I had no concept the pile would end up to be this big! (Actually, this is about half of the final pile) It would have taken me forever to move all that -and I would have needed several professional massages!  For lack of a better spot, I had Frank pile it next to the loafing shed where it will compost and eventually get spread on the gardens. This was obviously the manure pile site before we moved here and I recall wondering why they put it there. Now I know: sheer convenience. Any other spot would have required many trips with the loader.

I herded Lariat and her newborn calf to a quiet spot at the the far end of the pasture while Frank worked. LaFonda was very curious and  kept getting in the way, so I gave her a pile of hay out in the pasture to keep her distracted.

Now the small middle pasture is bare and flat.  It's also quite muddy with today's rain, but at least now the ground will have a chance to dry out.  This yard ends up being the sacrifice area while the main pastures revive, but I plan to spread a mixture of pasture grass seed on it. Hopefully the grass in the large pastures will be tall enough soon that I can move the cows into them and let the new seed take hold.
Thanks, Frank!