Disking done, ready for seed

Work in progress

Today I woke up at 6AM.  It was still dark outside, and my body sure didn't feel like getting up.  I fought my bodies desire for a few more hours of sleep, and thew on some clothes and wiped the sleepers out of my eyes.  This must be what it was like to live on a real farm.  My goal today was 2 parts:  Pasture cleanup and disking.

First things first though.  First thing to do was to call the horses up and give them a big scoop of oats.  The girls loved this part of their morning.  With the girls up eating, and the gate closed to keep them in my small "paddock" type area, it was time to clean the pasture up a bit.

I had a few areas on the fenceline where tree's had fallen.  I made a full sweep of the fencline of my 3 acre pasture with my truck and flatbed trailer.  As I went along, I took the time to cut out a few small mesquite tree's that were starting to grow near the fencline.  Most my time was spent cutting down some limbs off a HUGE bodark tree.  I really hate these trees.  They're hard as rocks, and so it takes some serious effort with a sharp saw to remove them.  My chainsaw died, so I was left working with a hand saw and pruning shears.  This tree is in my neighbors field.  It used to be about 3-4 feet in diameter, but last year, after a severe wind storm, it split in 2.  One part, came over the fence and was probably hanging 20 feet into my pasture.  Luckily, it didn't take out the fence.  I expected the tree to die and slowly fall to pieces, but instead this tree showed it's hardy nature, and is thriving.  I trimmed it back so that I could get access to more of my pasture with the disk.  I didn't think I had much to clean up, but I ended up with a full trailer.

When I got back from cleanup, it was about 7:30.  I took a quick breather, and then it was time to get the horses ready.  I figured they were going to be difficult to catch today.  2 days ago, I worked them harder than I ever have, and so I figured they would be leery of me.  Boy was I surprised.  I walked in the pasture, and called them, and they both just looked at me with "what the crap are those halter's for" looks.  I stuck out my empty hand and made a few kisses and Rachel walked right over.  I was quite surprised.  Once she was haltered, I turned to Pam, and she had retreated to the far corner of the paddock.  I took a few steps towards here, with my hand out and she came right to me.  Wow ... things were off to a great start!

Sometimes, when working horses, you have a small victory that means a lot to you.  I love these.  Just small things that only you know about, but that mean a ton to you.  I have been working with Pam for a long time on just letting me push the collar over her head.  Rachel lets me do this and it's just so much easier then messing with the dang buckle.  I've been taking Pam's collar off this way, but putting it on by unlatching the strap, and putting it on that way.  Well this morning, after I slid Rachel's collar over her head, I looked at Pam and she was watching us.  So I asked her if she wanted to try that, and I pushed the collar up over her nose.  I then positioned myself right in front of her nose, so that she could see me through the collar.  I then slowly pushed it up, talking sweet to her the whole time.  I was prepared for her to jerk her head back, like usual, but she didn't today.  She kept her head still, and as it covered her eyes, I was fully prepared for her to jerk back, but she didn't.  So I used my hands to stretch the collar so it would squeeze less and she actually let me slide it up and over her head.  WOW!  I love little victories like this.  Things were definitely off to a good start!

Harnessing the girls went with no problems.  While harnessing Rachel, I noticed that she had an area right on her rump where the speider had rubbed off some of her fur.  I was almost proud of her.  She's showing harness wear!  She's a work horse for sure now!!!  :)

To hitch the girls, I did something different today.  Keep in mind, that I do all this stuff my by myself.  I had parked the disk at an angle against a fence and so I was going to just tie the girls to the fence in the same place and hitch them up from there.  Usually, I actually put their bridles on, and then drive the girls over and then work them into position.  For some reason, I didn't feel like doing that today.  Instead, I threw the bridles over their hames, threw the lines over Rachel's hames as well, and then I led them both over.  I had a horse in each hand, holding the lead line right at the connector.  I walked them in just like I drive them in, and asked Rachel to step over the pole.  She did this great.  Then I tied them, put their bridles on, put the lines on, and then hitched them up.  This went great, and I had no problems.

After they were hitched and ready to go, I ran back inside for a minute to get myself ready.  I had my straw hat on, I got my bandana wet with cold water and tied it around my neck, and then I put on my camelback.  I had filled the camelback with ice water.  I was getting ready for a long disking session.

A Teamster's view:  this was my view while disking

Then we were off.  Things went awesome.  I started off doing clockwise circles around the pasture.  This went so well.  Rachel is a pro and she does turns like any teamsters dream.  Since she is on the right, going clockwise basically has her pulling pam around the corners by the pole strap.  It was so easy to drive them doing this.  I also found that I was a bit better at keeping my tension good.  Also, Pam was actually stepping out and matching Rachel.  It was awesome.  Stepping out and Geeing was nearly perfect.  But what about those Haws?

I decided that it would be good to change directions and let Pam work on her coming around skills.  I swapped directions and started going counter-clockwise.  Ummmm ... yeah ... Pam was not happy about this new direction.  She does a gentle left turn wonderful, but the minute she needs to start side stepping, she get's a little clumsy.  Rachel, who was all about working today, ended up just pushing pam around with the pole.  It was pretty neat to watch.  It was great experience for Pam, and a few more good sessions and I expect her to really get the hang of it.

SUCCESS!  3 hours after we started, I was unhitching the girls.  They were very happy to head back towards the house.  I think they were even more relieved that the disks were straight and so it was easier for them to pull the disk.  :)  The rest of the event went without a hitch.

So now my fields are disked.  Tomorrow I hope to get my seed and fertilizer mixed at the co-op, and then I'll use one of their buggy's to spread the seed.  After the seed is spread, then I just need to disk things one more time to really disk the seeds into the ground and cover them a bit.  If I didn't know better, I'd think I sounded like a full blown farmer.  :)

I think I have an official team now.  If the rest of the disking goes without a problem, I may have to invest in a nice set of team harnesses for them to look pretty in.