Memorial Day Work Days

We are in Cullman today. David and I put in a good afternoon of work to get most of the grass cut. We took MawMaw to the store to get another lawn mower. The old Murray has gone kaput. So she bought a new John Deere. We also got the right color paint. If the rain stays away tomorrow morning, we can paint the front of the shop.

We went out early Tuesday to begin work on the shop but as we were preparing, I noticed the weather radar was getting very close. We just had enough time to get the stuff back in the shed. It started raining and continued thru Wednesday.

Mawmaw bought a new John Deere mower. I put a part on the old John Deere which seemed to fix the belt coming off problem. Her hoe handle had come off so we did a little work to get it fixed again. All the old shotguns got a cleaning. We took the down time to hunt varmints on the farm. Managed to get a few.

Perhaps we will be ready the next time we go up.

Another work week at the farm...

We came to Cullman to have another work week. The boys and I painted the shop but the color came out wrong. Probably need to apply a second coat. A lot of grass was cut. We did some minor work on the mowers and tillers. I even let the boys hunt the groundhogs. Max put a bullet in one of them. 

Mawmaw brought out all of the guns that Pawpaw has collected over the years. Most need some attention so I'll bring my cleaning stuff and get it done next trip.

The things to do list seems endless, but the constraining factor is how much time we can spend. We are beginning to see what that is.

Changing times

On April 3rd, Bev's father passed away. He was taking immunotherapy for metastatic renal cell carcinoma so it wasn't completely unexpected, but it was actually a bout with pneumonia which lead to this end. Just prior to his hospitalization, he spoke with me about the many projects that were necessary to keep the farm operating. He was concerned that Bev's mom had what she needed to continue to live there. We spoke about what needed to be done to maintain the equipment. He would speak about each tractor or area of the farm and what needed to be done with them. After a portion he would conclude with, "Now this is yours". I realized he wasn't giving them to me, he was giving me the responsibility for each. It was touching. I was reminded of a similar time with my own dad back in 1984 when he was dying with cancer.

The isolation required by the pandemic made visiting him and attending to him so much harder for Bev and Mom. They were taking turns with one staying all day and the other all night up until the very end when they were both there most of the time. It was exhausting for them. Then there was the funeral arrangements that had to take the COVID 19 restrictions into consideration. Finally there was a grave side service with just the immediate family. The community came and stood outside the fence at the graveyard.
 I'm making a log of my activities here so I can search them to see what I've done and to be able to reference what was done when.

So now I've taken on the task of keeping the grass mowed, the fields bush-hogged, and tools working. There are a lot of things to keep running.We drove up this Monday and started putting the mowers and tillers in order. I aired up the tire on the big trailer and transported the Big Country 6 wheeler to get new tires. The belt replaced on the John Deere. The blade removed and sharpened on the Murray. Next the Troy Bilt carburetor cleaned. Then the reverse gear sorted out. The pond grass was sprayed with Triclopyr. Then attention was turned to the shop. Years worth of accumulation were taken out and sorted. Years worth of sawdust was vacuumed up. Shelves put up. Peg board put up. And the process of reorganizing begun. We found boxes and boxes of assorted bits that evidently were purchased at the auction. The shop is down to a couple of corners that need sorting.

Next time I'm there I need to get the auto ramps for the zero turn blade changes cleaned up. Sharpen the blades on the old zero turn. Bush-hog some. Change the oil in some of the mowers with that new tool I intend to make and the 55-66. And perhaps get the boys to help me paint. I also need to collect the waste oil and take it up to Ricky Baker's. If all the grass in the lake doesn't die, I need to get it sorted out.

Meanwhile, I've ordered a part for the mower deck on the John Deere that I hope will keep the belt on better. Also still looking for those covers for the pulleys. Oil changing is something of a problem with so many small engines so I'm ordering a vacuum device to make it easier.