TnF Farms – The adventure never ends

I went to bed knowing Friday was going to be a busy day. My lovely wife, being clairvoyant about me awakening to sunrise, asked me to let the livestock out to graze the far side of our property. Like most 40 something men, I lack the ability to sleep like I could when I was a teenager and am often up before my alarm.

We have a policy at the TnF Farm, no coffee until the morning chores are done. I get up with the dogs and taking them out is the extent of my morning chores most days. I’m re doing electrical and automating the farm stuff in my spare time so eventually chores will be even more minimal. At 6:30, kitchen lights are programmed to come on and the coffee pot brews. After I come in with the dogs, I pour a big cup of glorious coffee, add some cream and sip it taking in the morning news with the dogs.

Extra morning chores today

Today had the added step of letting livestock out. I wear slippers with the dogs but livestock usually has that added element of poo. Being marginally awake, I found a pair of flip flops and was off and going in underwear and a T-shirt. Open the gate, goats and pigs – so begins the crescendo of whining that they need treats and tattling that my wife has been starving them. I see the feed store charges on the bank statement… and their fat bellies don’t lie!

The whiners quickly realize they have to settle for scratches and fight for priority before being released to graze. Our pigs like behind the ears and around the shoulders. Goats like on their chins and around their necks.

For those of you that don’t know, pigs and goats will eat almost anything and what one doesn’t eat, the other does. So we’ve been having them mow the further boundaries of our property and they have been clearing the scrub under our forest trees. Then they leave fertilizer behind all without burning a drop of gasoline. Goats love poison ivy. I’m convinced ours roll in it. Me being a big sweaty bag of histamines, I have learned that after any interaction with goats, I need to immediately wash up like I’m going in for surgery.

Chores are done …so I thought?

Scratch session completed, the livestock are off and mowing. I come in to wash. No water. Huh. My foggy brain starts to troubleshoot. We’re on well water. Lights are on. That wonderful smelling pot of coffee is brewed from yesterday’s water. So we have electricity. I wander into the garage to check breakers. Nothing is tripped. Somethings wrong at the well. I gather some basic tools and mutter about stuff not being put back as some items are more difficult to find.

We have a sit down mower and it cuts grass at full speed. Faith LOVES mowing …trimming not so much. The well sits on the groomed part of our property and it is waist high with weeds and grass. Getting a face full of banana spider webs, I wade my way in and it start opening junction boxes and disconnect panels. 3 wasp nests in the disconnect and fire ants in the contactor box. All the bugs are pissed! They must not have had their coffee yet either. Looks like the pump contactor is full of dead ants and can’t close. (It’s a spring switch that turns the pump on when you need water).

Good thing this isn’t a job site

Knowing what I need to do, I journey off to locate our weed trimmer, insect killer and more tools. I’m the kind of person that has a place for everything. My free spirited wife leaves stuff where she last used it. Her thinking being that she’ll need it there again, and its already there! Eventually I locate everything and head back to the well. The trimmer makes quick work of the dewy overgrowth and I fog the area with insect spray. Disable the disconnect, go to clean the contactor (fire ants biting me) and get hit with 240 volts. YAHOOOO! NO COFFEE YET, BUT I’M AWAKE NOW! (I’m still in a T-shirt, underwear and flip flops.)

We live on a farm. Like most farms, nothing is done to code and nothing is labeled. To add insult to injury, some of my well’s wiring is done with trimmed pieces of orange extension cord. I haven’t had time to re-work the well’s electrical yet. I just discovered I disconnected the pump motor, not the incoming electricity. Locating that in more overgrowth, I correct my mistake, I clean out the pump contactor, connect power and the pump starts filling our tank. I reassemble everything, take stuff back to the garage and head in to finally wash off the goat cooties and I just claimed my victory cup of coffee.

Have a great weekend!