4 - 22 - 12: Dirt Dragging and Electrocution

So, today I managed to electrocute myself, which is just melodramatic talk for saying that I accidentally pulled a metal gate back such that it was in contact with an electrical cable. After shocking myself three times within ten seconds, yelling "my metacarpuses are burning!" (internally), and panicking because I was holding a non-electrical gate, I figured out what was afoul in the Alamo. Luckily, the remainder of my gate-holding enterprises for the day did not involve current or voltage. I spent the rest of the morning stacking hay bales on the tractor and helping feed the cows hay. Today was a blissfully sunny and balmy day, which I spent the high noon hours of harrowing in the field directly north of the field in which I harrowed on Friday, and so I got a monstrous sunburn and a truckload of vitamin D. Thus, I shall be peeling like an onion for the next few days. But, on the bright side (pun absolutely intended), during the three hours I spent harrowing and blistering, I got to introduce funk and the fabulous decade of the 80s into my singing repertoire!

Devin and I discussed the merits of Pixar and Dreamworks Animations films today, as well as held an informal compare and contrast session on their various films, which was educational. Also, when dropping hay into the trough from the second story of the barn, we decided that, just as "TIMBER!" is the appropriate word to shout when a person should be on the alert for tumbling trees, "HEY!" should be the golden standard for hooting and hollering if someone should be wary of getting bonked in the noggin with a falling hay bale. I believe the cows appreciated the heads up. Mimi lent me a copy of the marvelous book Pastured Poultry Profits, by Joel Salatin (which I have read before through the Kitsap Regional Library and was happy to get my mitts on again), in preparation for the baby chicks who will be arriving in two weeks (and residing in the freshly cleaned turkey pen). I am looking forward to getting buckets of hands-on experience with portable chicken pens and rotational grazing soon!