Relationship Building Exercises - Ranch Edition

 "How big a deal was it for you to be home today?" asked my boyfriend over the phone the day after Christmas.
Immediately concerned, I asked why, and was informed that he got stuck while feeding and doing his rounds upon returning from my family's Christmas celebration. Since we had left my car in the town he was scheduled to deliver hogs to, and his other pickup was in the shop, we literally weren't going anywhere until we got him un-stuck.
I called home, and found out it was no big deal if I stayed. He walked back to the house, gathered me, his tractor, chains and two hay bales up, and off we went, with me suspiciously calculating how big of a predicament he had gotten himself the entire time he was adding to the gear pile.
We arrive to this:

Well, not this exactly, but pretty close. I didn't snap a picture at first because it's always important to gauge a man's temper level before you start snapping photos of something like the truck he got stuck. Experience talking on that one.
The story was that he had needed to drive to the bottom and check on his heifers because he knew his sister had been making them walk to the top of the hill (I was thinking his sister got some serious points for intelligence on that decision).
The thing with a ranch guy is, while he would never leave his place in the hands of someone that wasn't perfectly capable of doing whatever needed doing, it's also inevitable that, upon his return, he will see the need to check every-single-thing, and thus assure himself that while whoever was left in charge did fine, it was a good thing he got home before any more time passed and anything went wrong. It's just how they are, and what makes them so good at their work.
So, with this line of thinking, he determinedly drove off South Dakota's Mount Everest, which was covered in a little coating of ice and a couple inches of snow. Then, he couldn't get back out.

We arrive on the scene with the tractor, and put the front bucket down to prevent us from sliding down the hill, after he backs his truck to the bottom.
I was less than comfortable with the situation because I was raised with men who also got into such scenarios, and required my help to get out of them. As a result, my nerves go into overdrive when exposed to things like ice, steep hills and embankments, and mud combined with speed.

Upon reaching the bottom upright, he proceeded to place one bale in the back of the pickup. Attempt one was for him to drive the pickup out, which I fully supported over me being pulled out in it.
At least the heifers all showed up to watch, so he knew they were all fine and dandy, and accounted for.

 We chained up the tractor, and discussed me driving it, for the first time, up the slick hill. Again, with the usual rancher jargon of "you just have to watch for...." we soon agreed that should he make it out, perhaps it would be in his, mine and the tractor's best interest if he walked back down for it, and we saved the driving lesson for at least level ground.
Good call.
Halfway through chaining up, as he's watching me, he laughed and said I sure know how to chain up a tractor. At which point I reminded him of my male relations, and the history I have with such situations as the one he is in now. This is met with more good humor, and I decided that taking pictures will be fine.

 Off he went in another attempt to get out without being pulled.

 Without success. My heart fell when he undoubtedly got good and stuck, halfway up the first steep part of the hill.

 So we prepared for Plan B, which included towing the pickup up the hill with the tractor, in hopes of finally reaching the top and getting on with our day.

 This is the view after his attempt with the haybale in the back. We maneuvered the tractor into place, got the chains hooked up, and proceeded up the first steep stretch to a level area. He continued on, heading up the second steep section of the hill, me being pulled along behind in the highly recommended gear of choice, helping as much as possible when not spinning out.

It's what happened before this picture that would be considered the climax of our story. As he continued up the second steep section, and I began up it, the hay bale came off the back of his tractor, right about where you see the hay on the ground in front of the tractor in the photo.
I was understandably, instantly concerned as a four-foot round bale bounced directly in front of my windshield, and my boyfriend unknowingly continued pulling me right up the hill to meet it.
Fortunately, he looked back and stopped, then slowly backed up, and the bale, which must have had one string on it, kind of exploded and reduced its bouncing to a slow role by the time it bumped into the passenger side of the truck's grill guard.
Ok, bale off, lets get out of here.
Except, he said he was going to spear the bale again with the back of his tractor. I thought he was just teasing me, but soon realized he was serious.
My good humor dipped, a lot. I mentally considered walking to the top and watching him mash his own pickup with his own hale bale. But, that's just not what you do, so I got back into the line of fire, and prepared to save my camera while wondering, not for the first time, how a man's mind works. I mean, the hay bale coming off once was clue enough to me as to the likelihood of the setup to work...

 But, it did work the second time, thank goodness! We arrived at the top, me with a rapid heartbeat, but otherwise none the worse for wear. Then, we proceeded to drive over where his sister had been feeding and give them the hay bales, getting a good chuckle out of our morning experience.

The cows, in true bovine spirit, watched the whole thing.
Then, the following evening, we continued our bonding process when I got the flu, which lasted three days.

The Hay Buster

We purchased a hay buster this winter. This is a machine that grinds up hay and feeds it onto the ground, or into a bunk, for livestock. The benefit of grinding hay is livestock can better consume and digest hay if it's already been ground into smaller pieces. We are utilizing this machine to make some of the poorer quality hay we have on hand more palatable to our calves. If we didn't grind it,they would pick through it and consume less of the total volume of hay we fed them due to its coarseness. It still has nutritional value, but in its whole form it's not as appealing to the calves.

This is what it looks like. You back up to each bale, and pick it up with the arms on the back that are holding the second bale in place. We don't have the right mirrors on our tractor yet, so there have been some pretty humorous attempts at getting backed up to a hay bale the driver couldn't see.

Here are the controls, which run the hay buster.  The lever with the blue tape and handwriting on it is used to run the arms, and pick up hay bales and drop them into the grinder. The red-handled lever next to the blue one, and the lever on the right side of the photo that slides back and forth are used to feed the bale once it's in the grinder. Just ignore the rest of those controls for this job : )

Here is what the inside of the hay buster looks like. When you adjust the levers in the cab appropriately, the chains in the bottom move, and the whole unit works to tear the hay bale into smaller pieces, and shoot it out the side on the left in the photo.

As the feeder, this is how it looks to drive the tractor. The calves love their hay, and often start heading toward the house when they hear the tractor start in the morning.

When you reach the feed grounds, there is a specific order to things. First, you get the tractor, which is a manual and has two gear shifting knobs (technical terminology at its finest), and a lot of gear choices. You need to get into a relatively low (slow) gear.
Second, you have to turn on the lever that slides in the photo of the controls, and let it get up to speed. I apologize for those of you that know all the accurate terminology. I am not that mechanical, I just know how to run the stuff.
Third, you let out the clutch and start moving, while pushing the red handled lever forward, which turns on the actual grinder.
The result is that the hay bale starts spinning as the grinder chews it up and spits it out on the ground. You can manually adjust how coarse or fine it will chop the hay, and how wide of a pile it spits out on the machine. The size and width of the pile on the ground is also impacted by how fast or slow you drive.

The second bale just rests on the back until you're done feeding the first. Then you run the arm control to dump it into the grinder.

Here's what it looks like from outside the tractor.

Feeding, like most ranch tasks, can be a dirty, dusty job.

But the calves don't mind.

Then, when you're done with the last bale, you pull the red handled lever back, turn off the one that slides, and head for home.

This is what the hay looks like after being run through the buster. We don't have it set to chop the hay extremely fine, partially because we're feeding on the ground. But, the difference in palatability is noticable, and my dad is just tickled with his purchase.

Cleaning Corrals

Since returning from Canada, most of my time has been spent typing typing typing. But, I have been out and about to help with a couple summer ranch projects between articles. One of my tasks this summer was to clean out our corrals.

Cleaning corrals removes manure and hay and anything else that has built up while livestock are held and/or fed in them. Keeping them clean is done for both sanitation and efficiency reasons. If you don't clean all this old manure and cellulose matter, it makes a big mess to drive and walk through, and can hold organisms that will make your livestock sick.

Another perk to this mixture is once you put it in a pile, and let it set and do it's thing, it's the equivilant of a giant compost pile. Considering we live in an area with an inch or less of topsoil, we get really excited about things like composted manure, and use it on our lawns, in our windbreaks, and in a variety of other ways.

Ranchers that live near farmland often put their manure on their crops, as it is a natural form of fertilier. We're all about recycling, and efficiently using everything possible on our operations, even manure.

Kyle had already pushed some of the manure in this pen into a pile. I made another pile, then hauled it all out of the corral, one bucket full at a time.

Here is our compost pile, where I dumped everything. My dad also mentioned leveling it out in this location, and planting a garden next year if my mom is interested. Gardens like topsoil too!

Then you back into the corral, turn around, and do it again. Repeat until the corral is down to bare dirt, then move on to the next pen. I also used some of this to fill the washed out areas in the corral from all the rain we've had this year. Like I said, you have to be efficient and resourceful every day as a rancher.

My dad was kind enough to grab the camera and snap these pictures for me. Did I mention that tractor has AC?! Not a bad job on a hot day.

Here is the pile after day one. It's about eight feet tall. Once everything has settled, and we get around to it, we'll pull those boards out and throw them in our dump, if the Termites don't eat them first.

Here's the correl after. Nice and smooth, without any mucky manure/old hay to sink and stumble through every time it gets wet!

Gates are back to swinging like they should, and next on my list is moving this feeder I welded during my 4-H years out of the way. Then I'll continue with my cleaning in the rest of the correl.