Still Going!

I left for work today, and the fire was still burning! I came home from work... The fire had leapt from the manure to some scrap wood. That ended up burning till the morning of the 27th. I can only imagine what my neighbors are saying.

Manure

Ang has been given the ultimatum from Vera about getting Hershey to our farm. We have been fortunate to this point to have him boarded at another farm. She wants him at our house in at least 2 weeks. So, with this in mind... I got home tonight and was looking forward to relaxing. When I pulled into the driveway, I saw my fate for the evening. Ang was scooping manure from the stalls! Great, just what I wanted to do. To add even more pleasure to the experience... One of the "Thing-a-ma-bob's" where the chickens roost in the coop was sitting outside the barn door for the last few days. It has been raining on it, and saturated the ancient chicken poop. You can not believe the odor! I just about barfed when I got near it. I am not a wimp about these things! I cant even remember the last time I "ralfed"... Maybe my 21st birthday? How could I forget! Friday night I got to "drive" fence posts! I couldn't move my hands, and I am still picking away the blisters. I had bought a pole driver at "Farm and Fleet. It is a pretty arcane device by today's technology! I almost thought it was a joke. I am out there pounding away, up and down, up and down! Ang did it once or twice (Just enough to humor me!), I think I used to laugh at people when they told me about being sore.... But I can now attest to the pain that is left over. On the music front. I am totally digging the new Bare Naked ladies tune, "Pinch Me". They are over commercialized, but I should not criticize anyone's success! Check it out. Back to the scooping manure. Ang piled it into the utility wagon and made a few trips to a burning pile. We lit that pile at 6PM this evening... I am sitting here at 11:30 PM, and I still see flames! I hate going to bed with that going on.

Beer Tent Alert

We went to Chicago on Saturday to visit our new "Favorite" store... IKEA. The store is based out of Sweden or something, and everything has a cool look to it. The Europeans have been doing "more with less" for a long time, so the solutions for shelving and such are great. It was also nice to go someplace other than "Menard's"! Beer Tent Alert! The official small festival season is running out of time. Events like the Tremont Turkey Festival, Pekin Marigold Festival, and Havana Octoberfest are now over. While the wives did cut me and Jeff off from going to Octoberfest, we did manage to hit the best beer tent outside Fairbury. That tent is at the Morton Pumpkin Festival. We even got to keep our commemorative Festival pitchers. If you ask nice, I might show it to you! Add another friend to the list of "With Child"... Justin, my buddy who has been married for 8 years, just told me that they are expecting their first child. Jeff called and announced that he is getting married the second week of November. He asked that I be a Groomsman, so I will get to come to Florida for a few days. More stuff from the back 40. Nobody believes me when I say that junk disappears off my roadside. Well, let me tell you the best one yet. A fiberglass fishing boat that has been sitting upside down behind the barn for 20 years was dragged up. With-in 12 hours it was in the back of a guys truck. He said that it would be great for his Grandkids. (Once he fixed the cracked hull!) Junk, Treasure.. Its all perspective!

Yard Cleaning

It seems like every free chance I get... I go outside and do some yard work. I have been cruising the acres on the "Cub Cadet" with my little cart looking for "Rogue" bushes and trees to cut down. I chopped down 2 trees out by the barn that were too big for me to drag to the burning pile! So I got the truck and hooked up a chain... And pulled it across the pasture! Talk about a farmer! While I was pulling things... I started finding things in the yard that needed moving. By the time it was over, I had dragged up a hog feeder, some timbers, and an old basket ball hoop pole. Now they all sit by the road side waiting to be picked up. This is no lie. every time I throw something out that the trash men wont take. Somebody else picks it up! I don't know who they are, or what they do with it (I don't care), it just disappears!