The Haps

We started the day at a ward pioneer day breakfast. It was good times; the kids learned to jump rope and play tug-o-war and Ginger delighted the crowds dancing to live fiddle music.
I spent most of the day pulling the head gasket on the metro engine. It was definitely blown. It looks like the block is in good shape, so with any luck and a couple of hundred dollars, that engine should be better than when we got it.
Jessica went off shopping with her friend for the evening, so her friend's husband and I were kicking around on the farm and he seemed willing, so I enlisted his help for a long-overdue shearing, worming, delousing and hoof-trimming on our Shetland ram. It was a lot of work and it is hot here, but we got him all done and had energy left over to trim the hooves on the two ewes and worm them too. Wow, what a bunch of stinky work.
Feels good to have accomplished something though...

Can anything good come out of Chicago?

Listen folks, I know there has to be someone with half a brain in Chicago. I mean, my aunt/uncle live there and are fantastically intelligent. Where are all the rest? If I sound bitter, it is because I just got back from there last night and already today, my manager has quit on me leaving me with no choice but to return for next week to get things back in order. I need to hire someone and fast, but after two failures in a row (each lasting less than a year) I am starting to think that either:

1. The job is undoable by human hands
2. I have no idea how to hire good employees
3. Chicago sucks

OK, that third one has nothing to do with it, but I had to throw it in there. Please y'all, if there is anyone out there who knows anyone who knows someonein the Chicago area who has half a brain and is looking for a job, please let me know. I'm thinking that this time I will go with intelligence and ambition over experience and technical skills. Seriously, there has to be someone who can coordinate a small team of maintenance technicians without alienating the customer and constantly getting me in trouble.......right?

Sending em home

It's been great having kids here to visit (since Sunday?) but it is
also great to be back to regular. We finished off with a bang w/
tractor rides, swimming in the lake, feeding grasshoppers to a
gigantic spider, building "fireant hills" in the dust, watching a
water snake eat a rotten fish, etc.

Party

It's been non-stop here lately. We've been rotating nephews/cousins
with the mob over at the grandparents and the farm has not been
dissappointing.

Yesterday, we shot a rabbit for the dog, caught crawdads, saw/chased
an armadillo, played with farm animals, etc. Cousin Christopher (from
DC) had his first ride in a pickup truck and was generally just
totally blown away with the nonstop farm action.

Today the kids watched the cat eat a fresh rat, we petted the cattle,
caught bass (Logan hauled in a really nice one) shot at rabbits (no
kills) and we had a visit from Kelly and Angela.

It's been busy, but tons o fun.

Update on Sterling

Sterling is looking fine - swelling gone, but a fantastic color. Luckily today was our homestudy where the adoption agency comes by to make sure we have a suitable home for a state-child. It is always nice to have some nice color in the kids eyes when they come by :rolleyes:

As far as farming updates; I used my new angle grinder (the old Harbor Freight one imploded on me the other day so I bought a Skil-brand one - it is heavier, but has way more torque) to take all the rust off a section of pool fence (in the shop) which I had previously cut out and welded in new sections to replace the heaviest rust; and then coated it with Rustoleum primer for heavily rusted metal. It took forever to paint it (since I was using a 2" paint brush and all those little railings just take forever to paint) but it should hold up for another 15 years after I get the finish coat on (tomorrow?)