Submitted by Kaare Askildt, former Preeceville area farmer in training. This is the seventh of a series on getting settled in Hazel Dell.
My wife has opened up Troll Riding Stables again, and the first rider Jordan Lowe, arrived this morning. She is one of the very first young ladies to enroll in Troll Riding Stables, and she has become a good little rider over the years. Jordan and my wife saddled up a couple of horses and set out to explore some new trails. I was standing by the main gate of the pen, when all of a sudden all the horses started running around in a circle, kicking up some dried compacted horse manure and sent it flying.
I noticed one in particular that was coming my way in a high arch, and I was wondering how the horse had been able to do that, then it hit me!
While Jordan and my wife were on their riding excursion, the wind picked up and blew over our nifty little vinyl shed that we had put together for our broiler chickens. Good thing that they have not arrived yet! We’ll be picking them up tomorrow! Jordan’s dad Harvey was sitting in his pick-up truck waiting, and if the wind would have been a little bit stronger, the shed would have blown right into his truck bed!
After the horses were unsaddled and put away, we set about to righting the new shed and getting it ready for the broiler chickens. We had to find a way to get an extension cord from the electrical outlet in the layers coop into the shed for the heat lamp, spread straw on the floor, set up the feeder and the water dish. We didn’t really want to drill a hole in the roof, so we had to “McGyver” it.
We had recovered a large coil of ground wire left by the previous owner, which we snaked through the roof corners right under the eave and criss crossed the wire inside, so that it would be strong enough to hold the heat lamp. Then we cut off what we needed and fastened each end of the wire to the layer coop fence, thereby securing the top part of the shed. My wife screwed the floor of the shed to the plywood base, and now the little broiler coop will not take flight and end up on top of Mayor Bill’s house, the Mayor of Hazel Dell! The extension cord was inserted through the top air vent of the shed. The heat lamp was hung, the water bowl set in place next to the feeder, and we are now ready for the tasty little critters!
And wouldn’t you know it! Annie the Jersey cow walked through the fence again! Yes Annie, the grass is indeed greener on the other side, but we haven’t completed the perimeter fencing yet! Our initial search for her was totally “cowless” as in not finding her, so my wife decided to saddle up our gelding Spur, the old penning horse, and went looking for Annie. She found her sauntering through the bush, without a care in the world! Annie just looked at Spur, licked her nostrils and kept on walking with her milk compartment swinging gently from side to side looking udderly ridiculous. My wife decided to put her in the far pen all by herself. A pen that is fully fenced has a large pail of water and lots of nice green pasture grass. That should keep her happy for a while!
After Tim Olson had advertised his farm for sale, he had a few “tire kickers” come to take a look. One such dude was obviously not used to domestic animals, and as they were walking through the yard the dude said: “Say, look at that big bunch of cows!” “Not bunch, but herd!” replied Tim. “Herd what?” asked the dude, “Herd of cows,” answered Tim. “Sure I’ve heard of cows!” said the dude, “there’s a big bunch of them right over there!”
We have a nice little deck just by our front door, and I decided to spend a warm night there. After a good long nap I woke up and was wondering what the sunrise would look like, then it dawned on me!
