Paddock blade gets a workout

At first I thought I heard no wind upon waking but I was wrong ;( S made coffee as I pushed to the plants and fed the dogs and J. A bowl of porridge and S was off to church. I worked on catching up the blog, publishing a staging wall tutorial and getting my pay sheets completed and sent to the paint company. Next I wrote a Hometalk post for Amanda's stool redo. The wooden planter was up next. I sanded the painted stencil sides then added butterflies and flowers in a coral color. I was just washing up the stuff when S arrived home from church with a tea.

He scrambled up eggs and toast for his lunch. Seeing I had a late yogurt I only had a few eggs. It was then time to head outside and get yard work done. S hooked up the dump trailer and parked at the house paddock shelter. I planted another edition of peas in a raised bed and 2 areas in the in ground garden. S jumped in the skid steer and we emptied the compost from the bucket in different low areas on our grass around the yard. I raked it all smooth. S then took the skid steer to the house paddock to load the poop in the dump trailer. 

this was the poop just from the house paddock

The garden and south planters were watered before I took the quad out and hooked to the paddock blade. The trailer was moved to the winter pasture along with the skid steer. S took a few loops around the winter pasture with the blade while I picked rocks along the fenceline. We came up with a new plan of efficiency. I drove the quad set in a 1/4 of the pasture pattern looping back to the dump trailer. S scooped the pile into the dump trailer then as I stopped he would dump the blade. Some of his pile required hand pitching as it was edges and loose stuff. This worked really well.

me trying to video and drive... sorry :)

Around 3 I took a loop to the house and grabbed us a cold beer and protein bar. We were about1/2 done the winter pasture. The weather was mostly cloudy and blustery but occasionally the sun was out. It was sunny while we had a short hydration break then back at it. After the 3rd 1/4 was done S took the dump trailer to the pit to unload. 

A FULL dump trailer so far. I started the 1/4 closest to the pit so would dump my loads every couple of rounds. After he was done dumping he was going to take the truck/trailer to the house but it turned out the guy was at the gate here for his 2nd hay bale. That is it, we are out of all hay bales from 2023. S went and loaded him up while I moved to the far paddock we forgot needed the dump trailer anyway.

S brought the rig there and started hand bombing the pile I had made. He then went and got the skid steer as the poop was thick behind the shelter and not picking up easily in the blade. The temperature dropped, the wind picked up and dark clouds rolled in. We kept going and the dogs stayed patiently watching. Britt rolled in at 5:30 so Cooper was off to meet her. We wrapped it up before 6 for the day with almost another full trailer of poop loaded. This unit is a good little addition. Plans are to use it going forward to keep the paddocks tidy every few days. That and more hand picking too.

when picking rock I found this pretty fool's gold rock!

I fed the dogs, pulled in my planters and got started on supper while S finished moving the truck out. Britt was now riding Roo in the much tidier fields. The last GF meal was super tasty too. It was Tuscan chicken over bulgar, Brussels sprouts and spinach. Of course hockey was on but the hot tub called S as well after our big workout day. Britt was now feeding Bird who can take forever to eat. We were done our soak and showered by the time B headed off. Without even stopping to say hello/goodbye ;(. I am sure she enjoyed her w/e in Fernie.

Of course it was back to hockey for S so I wrote today’s blog in bed. He moved in there to watch the last game. I finished the season of Buying Beverly and started new season of Blown Away.