Busy Country Morning

Things were pretty busy around here this morning!  The day started off nicely watching a bunch of trumpeter swans on Two Squaw Lake around 6:30 a.m.

Here are 9 of about a dozen trumpeter swans on the lake this morning.   They can be pretty noisy, but they are such beautiful birds. 

Then around 8 a.m. Harold had our neighbor Frank over to help him with his tractor.  Yesterday Harold was busy moving dirt and doing landscaping with the tractor/loader.  The clutch had been acting up on his tractor for quite a while now, but it finally went out.  Harold asked Frank to help him get the loader part off the tractor so he could take the tractor to the shop for repairs.   So Frank brought over his tractor/loader to help.

Harold attaches a chain to Frank's loader to steady the loader on our tractor, so Harold could take off the loader part.

While Frank holds the chain taut and steadies the loader on Harold's tractor, Harold un-bolts things.

Frank keeps the loader supported while Harold backs out of the loader on his tractor.

Harold's tractor is now free and clear of the loader attachment.

I asked Harold how come this loader thing had to be placed right in front of the beehives?  This will certainly be a challenge to mow around!

This is the area Harold will be working on!  He needs to replace the clutch plate, pressure plate, torque amplifier, and throw out bearing (all Greek to me, but the neighbor guys know all about this stuff!).  Harold needs to take off all the housing in the middle and some of the hydraulic lines.  Looks like a real challenge!  This is a project he does NOT need!  But he will have help from neighbors Frank and Don.  Harold estimates the repairs will be around $300 for parts.

Before Harold can continue any kind of work around here, he has to fix the tractor, as it is an important item here on the farm.   We use the tractor for so many things - tilling, wood hauling, dirt work, and moving heavy objects.
     Before the tractor broke, this is what Harold was doing.  We still have one side of our house to finish.  It has been a real challenge because that side of the house is steep, the ground is uneven, and there are several huge piles of dirt still left from the original excavation when we built the house.  Shortly after building the house, Harold was diagnosed with bone marrow cancer, and so any future projects were put on hold until he went into remission.  Harold doesn't work as quickly as he used to since his cancer, but we are making progress anyway on home improvement projects!

Harold got about half of the biggest dirt pile moved against the house before his tractor clutch went out.   When he gets the tractor fixed, we will continue moving and leveling the dirt so we can put scaffolding up to finish the siding, paint the house, and also build a retaining wall at the corner.   The tree in the middle of the photo grew up out of the dirt pile in the past 10 years.  It has to go.   This side of the house is one BIG project!!

Later in the morning, about 10:30 a.m., we went to the potato field to dig potatoes for market and for our own use. 

Some nice red potatoes hanging off one of the plants!

A variety of sizes - some big and some small.

Harold did all the digging, but I get to pose with the bucket of potatoes!  We dug up about 25 lbs of potatoes.  We still have maybe 50 lbs left for ourselves.

After all this work, we went home to a nice lunch of meatloaf, corn on the cob, baked beans, sliced tomatoes, and fresh cantalope.