During the month of September, we hired ourselves out to clean a few cow corrals for some people we go to church with. It was a lot of work, but a lot of fun.
These corrals only get cleaned out every few years. The years they aren't cleaned out, they are still cleaned, but the manure is piled in the center of the pens. This gives the cattle a dry, comfortable place to lay down even in the harshest of fall and winter weather. This year was one of the years the manure needed to get hauled out of the pens.
Before
Mr. H secured the stubble fields next to his property for us to spread manure on, so we didn't have to haul it very far. Ironically, these fields are farmed by a man who works at the irrigation office in town and knows my kids very well from all the gopher tails they cash in (#smallworld).
The problem we had to solve before we could even get started was to find a manure spreader we could use. The spreader we usually rent from my Dad for this job was broke down and needed a new floor put in before it could be used again. We either had to fix that spreader or try to pick one up at a farm auction. We finally decided on the former. We parked the spreader on the lawn next to our house and tore into it.
We removed the floor chain and turned the kids loose with wrecking bars to pull out the old floor. After the floor was out we cut off the old bolts, replaced some rusted out crossbeams, and repaired some broken welds. Then we put in the new wood floor.
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| Breaking the drag chain tightener pulleys loose |
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| G & R removing the old floor |
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| Cleaning all the dirt and manure off, getting ready for the new floor |
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| Finishing up bolting the boards down |
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| Re-assembling the drag chain; and the dog wants his ball thrown |
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| Everyone needed to climb under the spreader to help |
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| A. tightening up the drag chain |
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| Already a little dirty, but this is the finished product. |
The whole repair job went much faster than we anticipated. Once that was all done we hooked it up to a tractor and it was ready to go.
We dusted off my old Case 580 CK loader tractor and put it to work. Using the loader bucket, we chiseled out the 3-8 inches of dry packed manure that blanketed the corrals and loaded it into the newly repaired New Holland manure spreader. During the week I would go over after work every day for about 3 hours and haul manure. On Saturdays I spent the whole day there. If I was really moving I could get 10 loads hauled every evening after work, and on Saturdays I could usually get between 25 and 30 loads hauled out. It took about 2 weeks to get each of the corrals cleaned.
My helpers weren't able to come with me every evening, but as often as they could I would take one of them to help me.
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| A helping load the spreader |
While we were doing this corral cleaning job, my kids became good friends with Mr. H. They really won him over when R (the 4 year old) correctly diagnosed the ringworm on one of his calves that he hadn't noticed. They were overjoyed at an opportunity to help feed the cattle and do whatever other work he needed to get done.
Mr. H would come out to do his afternoon feeding right about the same time we'd show up in the evenings to work. Every time I'd get on the loader to fill the manure spreader, whoever was riding with me right then would ask if they could go help with the feeding. The first few times I was hesitant, but seeing that Mr. H appeared to enjoy having helpers, that became our routine. Every time we'd come back from hauling out a load, G or R would run back over to the barn to be the twine collector or floor sweeper or kitty feeder until it was time to take out another load. G even discovered that he was strong enough to wheel around the bales of hay on the little hay carts.
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| Helping with the feeding |
It even got to where coming and riding on the spreader with me was a bother for them. Whichever boy was with me would ask him to wait and to 'please not do anything until they got back'. Then we'd come back into the yard to find Mr. H waiting on a bale of hay until his helper came back. Then they'd go back to what they were doing until it was time to take out another load.
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| Branding & Vaccinating |
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| Branding & Vaccinating |
The last Friday and Saturday we were working there Mr. H had the water on his pasture and was cleaning out the corrugates with a shovel to get the water to go down. Friday, R saw him out there and immediately wanted to go help. It just so happened that we had his irrigating shovel in the back of the pickup. I handed it to him and he ran out and started shoveling. The next day G did the exact same thing.
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| R helping shovel out corrugates |
Along the way to getting the corrals cleaned, this manure spreading job became the medium for generating some great experiences and creating some fond memories that my kids will never forget and will be talking about for years to come.
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| Littlest helper trying to pet the barn cats |
We finally finished this project on Sept 27th. After 18 days of work we had loaded, hauled and spread 210 loads of manure.
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| Before |
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| After |
In the end, life is not about the money we earn or the things we spend it on. Life is about the relationships we build, the people whose lives we touch, and the service we render.
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| The kids with their new friend |
Other notable events that occurred in the midst of completing this job:
-R got his finger shut in the tractor door and required a trip to the emergency room to get stitches. When he returned home he had lunch and insisted on going back to work.
-One Saturday evening R and I hit a pheasant with the pickup on the way home. Thanks to Idaho's roadkill salvage law passed in 2012, we ate it for dinner the next day. It was delicious. The kids keep asking me to hit another one.
