A Day in My Life by Paty Jager

Last Friday was an interesting day. It started the night before when hubby went to check on the irrigation pivots before dark and him returning after I'd texted him to see if he was okay. It turned out one of the pivots had stopped and when he drove the pickup out to shine lights to see if it was stuck, the pickup became stuck. His words to me before he showered and went to bed were, "I'll need your help in the morning."

Friday morning I crawled out of bed when he woke, asking if he needed me now. He replied, not yet. I slid back into bed for another hour of sleep. ;)

After breakfast we doctored Apollo the pony and we all, Tink, Mikey, hubby and I, climbed into the backhoe, which hubby had loaded with small rocks while I was sleeping, added a pivot drive box, and headed to the alfalfa field.

Mikey and Tink in the backhoe

Twisted drive line

At the pickup, sunk up to it's back axles in a deep pivot track, I jumped in the pickup and hubby pushed with the backhoe bucket against the tailgate of the pickup and that vehicle was out of the track. We dumped and tossed the rocks into the pivot track to not have a repeat vehicle sinking since that was the route used quit often to un-stick the pivot. (forgot to take a photo of the stuck truck)

What he'd thought was a worn out drive box on the fourth tower from the end turned out to be a twisted and snapped drive line. A bolt had worked loose from one end, making the drive line bind up and eventually twist apart. We took off the broken drive line and headed back to the shop for a new drive line. Back at the field we installed the new drive line. While out there the farrier, the vet had called expressing that our pony needed his feet tended immediately, called. He wanted to know if we'd be home around noon. I said, yes.

new drive line installed

With the pivot back moving we returned the backhoe to the shop and brought the dogs and pickup to the house for an iced tea break. Did I mention it was hovering around 90 degrees at 9am on Friday?  During our tea break as we sat on the porch facing the alfalfa fields, two covey of quails came up over the slope and crossed the other end of the porch.

While waiting for the farrier to arrive, I cleaned the inside of the Dodge one ton. We were using it the next day to haul hay to Central Oregon and bring fertilizer and bluegrass straw back.

Noon rolled around and we were still waiting for the farrier. We had lunch and hubby hooked up the Dodge to the flatbed trailer.

George

The farrier arrived. He was new to us and we had several conversations while he worked on Apollo's hard as rock hooves. He suggested we water down Apollo's pen a couple days before he comes back so that his hooves will be softer. George also had his hooves trimmed and he was one happy burro! The farrier was also please with how polite George was and easy to trim.

The farrier was talking construction with hubby, who, invited him up to see the house. Finally by three, I had alone time but I was hot and not in the mood to write so I worked on the business side of things, with promotion and updating things. I forgot hubby had told me to come pick him up at the shop in 30 minutes. An hour later, he text asking if I remembered to pick him up. oops! I jumped in Sami and rattled down to the shop. Then we went out to the North pivot's control box and he sped up the pivot so it would get by the area in the field it tends to get stuck over night and he wouldn't' have to worry about that while we were in Central Oregon on Saturday.

I cooked all of dinner outside on the barbecue to keep the house cool. It was sirloin steak, roasted potatoes and roasted brussel sprouts. Turned out pretty darn good!

After dinner I packed the clothes we'd need for one night and the reunion dinner and went to bed early.