Our friend and neighbor Vince, one of the biggest and best men in trucks that I know, came with his son today and a tractor and two big trucks filled with gravel and several hours later, our pasture had changed.
Our manure pile was gone, a ton of clean and soft stand had been carefully laid out in the pole barn.
The weeds and shrubs and manure droppings around the barn were gone, the hay feeder had been righted and fastened firmly to the ground with drilled rebar through holes and would not move around any more.
The ground was flat and clean and smooth. Vince had dumped another ton outside the pole barn to create a slope so the rain and melting snow would run downhill and Maria and I and the dogs would not have to slog through it in the winter or after rainstorms.
The barn said gets packed down and hard, and we scrape a lot of it away when we shovel out the manure. The pole barn is a sturdy and secure place, it stays dry in the worst weather.
It is amazing to me how this men can rearrange landscapes so quickly with their tractors, which they manipulate like a violinist his violin. They are maestros in their own way. Vince is coming back tomorrow, he’s going to dig out a wider garden for Maria’s Three Sisters project, she wants more corn and vegetables, we are drowning in zucchinis.
Thanks to Vince we are ready for winter, a project here that begins in May and ends just before October. The winters have changed for sure, but they still have plenty of bite, the season is warmer, but the storms are bigger and more severe. Our barn is full of hay, our shed is full of wood, the wood stoves have been cleaned and polished, the heater in the basement has been checked, we are, for the first time in our lives, installing a generator, a used one, along the side of our house to keep our refrigerator, water heater, computers and living room lights on.
Planning for winter is a lot of work and planning, done right. Farmers can run out of hay, people like Vince get very busy, firewood supplies can dry up. I have a strong network of farmers and big men in trucks backing me up.
We have lost power a half dozen times in the past few months, I’m getting the message. Ours is a gasoline operated, hand cranked thing that has barely been used, and it will give us about a day of power if we need it.
The donkeys and the sheep were left out in a side pasture while Vince worked, the donkeys were quite annoyed with us for that, they like to get in out of the bugs and sun at mid-day. I saw Maria ferrying them snacks and treats all day.
Red and Fate were quite bewildered by the changes, they just looked around for the sheep. Gus seem unimpressed. Vince returns tomorrow for some finishing touches. I like being ready for winter, I am not a farmer, but I love the science and strategy that comes from owning a farm. I’m getting pretty good at it.
Bring it on.