Friday, May 29, 2009

Barn Raising 101

And, yes, boys and girls: the quickest way to get yourself nominated for this year's Darwin Award is, in fact, to put the pregnant lady on the peak of the barn securing the trusses!!

So, we're building this barn (we being my dad, myself, Todd and an occasional brother conned into it whilst stopping for some totally unrelated subject). The barn will be magnificent when we're finished - it just seems like the never ending project. And, to tell you the truth, most days we'll get home from work and my dad's already been working on it most of the day.

The funniest part I think came while sitting atop the rafter peak. My dad and I were running 2x4s across the trusses in order to screw the metal to the roof and had sent Todd to the hardware store for more screws. So, as I was sitting there I was thinking to myself, "ya know when you read the stories about stupid people doing stupid things? And then you think to yourself 'what were they thinking? Like, what were they even doing there?'" Right. Stupid people.....

So, as I was perched with hands and legs spread between trusses, no safety gear to speak of (lanyard, harness, fall protection, etc.), holding myself up and looking directly down at the ground 20 feet in the air, all while wrangling the skill saw and cordless drill I couldn't help but think to myself what the rescue workers would be talking about at break time...

1. "Who put the pregnant lady on the roof?"

2. "What was she doing up there anyway?"

3. "Where was her husband?"

Then, jostling me from my daydream, was Todd looking up at me, "Honey, do you need more screws?"

Thursday, May 21, 2009

Welcome to Farming!

After a long and laborious fence building session that involved a tank-like hole drilling apparatus, the help of my entire family and long, long days...we finished fencing in the back 5 acres of our property. In an attempt to raise our own hormone/antibiotic free beef cattle Todd searched and searched for just the right set of cows to come check out the new digs. I didn't have the heart to tell them they won't be staying too long (they're slated for slaughter this fall), but that's another story....

Todd found an amazing set of 2 steers and 2 bull yearlings. They were delivered early last month. Our first order of business was to turn one bull into a steer. How does one do this you ask? Well, it started with us hitting the "elasterator" aisle of the local farm store. After our repeated questioning of, "Don't they come any bigger? I mean, these are almost full grown cows.. they're junk is, well, a lot bigger than that." we called the vet out. I missed the show, but apparently it went something like this:

Step 1: Place halter on bull in question

Step 2: Lead unsuspecting bull into temporary holding cell

Step 3: Distract long enough for vet to put not one, but TWO, surgical bands around a very sensitive area and then administer a tetanus shot.

Step 4: Release newly formed steer to the field, never to come close to humans again.

Right. I must say that night of practicing putting the halter really paid off, because when the vet arrived Todd already had #84 (we refuse to name them and only call them by their ear tag numbers) haltered and tied up waiting. He walked right in and with a little squirming did alright. He was hard to approach for a while (especially from behind - go figure) but I think has made a full recovery! My dad came to watch the festivities but was seriously let down by the lack of entertainment.

Note to self and others: buy them already made into steers. They cost the same and you don't end up with and elasterator you're too ashamed to return to the store because it "just wasn't big enough."