Saturday work and play

Peaceful Saturday morning...

...at least for the cows and sheep.

I had other plans for my boys. First stop was across the road and up the hill to retrieve one of my chains from our neighbors. K7 enjoyed a brief conversation with his buddies.

We needed our 2nd chain because today we were pulling a big rock out of the corner of our chicken paddock. We have been planning to build a pig pen in this area and raise a pig every year for the freezer. The short chain gets wrapped around the rock and the long chain pulls it.

I had time on my hands while the boys worked, so here are some photos of my view. Looking east toward house and barn.

Looking southwest across corner of corral, out toward paddock #3 and the hill. Our goat Percy is eating a vine I cut down off of this tree.

Looking due west across paddock #6 toward paddock #5 in the far background. It looks as if the boys are ready for me to crank up the tractor now and do my part.

Yep! Ready, set, and...

...Go! Tractors sure make life on the farm a lot easier. We also got three old tree stumps out today, which will make it easier to mow in this paddock.

After we finished with that project, we headed across the stream to move and cut up some more down trees and logs, and build another big burn pile (our eighth). K7 was our chainsaw man.

K8 used a machete to cut down some nasty, thorny brambles along the stream bank. Sorry, no snake sightings today - probably because the temps are getting down into the 50's at night. Autumn is almost upon us.

K7 and buddy Zach dragged the last of the fallen Sycamore tree along the road and added it to the growing pile. When work was done, they asked to go play airsoft wars with the neighbor boys. I said yes, but only for one hour because they had to take showers and get dressed and drive an hour and a half away to St Roberts for our monthly "Super Saturday" church youth activity. I didn't see them again until 1 3/4 hours later. Sorry boys, but no time for showers, we gotta go NOW! I wouldn't even let them have a drink of water until they got to the church in St Roberts...maybe they will learn to manage their time better?

All of our church youth from a 4 hour radius gathered in St Roberts to hear a talk and music by Jenny Phillips. Afterwards they had supper and a dance. Doesn't look like they are dancing much.

But they did get out on the dance floor occasionally. The dances are usually restricted to youth 14 years and up, but due to our guest speaker, 12 and 13 year olds were invited. The rule was they could only dance with family members or during group "line" dances such as this one: hence K8 out on the floor (but not really dancing - not even sure he is moving!)

I occasionally found our boys out in the hallway, but they fled at the sight of my camera.

They had a good time, which was the point of the evening, so, in the words of the bard, "...all's well that ends well".