Moving Mountains

I've had to put the building project on hold in favor of the gravel project as that has to get done before the weather changes for the worse.  The new shed is at a point where I can leave it for a while, but the gravel will set into immovable heaps if I let it sit too long. 

Lucky for me, Dave (Ben's former person) took pity on me and loaned me the use of a back-blade for my tractor.  We have kept in touch and I have become good friends with him and his wife.  Dave is an expert tractor mechanic and we have worked out a deal:  he helps me with my mechanical woes and I take care of the farrier work for his herd.  They are two very different, but valuable skills and it has worked out well for both of us so far. 

Dave has helped me find several new-to-me pieces of equipment including my spiffy blue tractor and the little manure spreader.  The best part is that they actually work.  This deal worked out especially well for me this week as, otherwise, I would have been moving that mountain with these:

instead of this:

We all know Connor would rather climb mountains rather than move them. 

The tractor and the back-blade made short work of that load of gravel, (the massive mess behind the gravel is part B of this project.  It takes a mess to fix a mess right?)

If the weather holds, I may even spring for another load.  In the short time the herd has been climbing over the gravel every time they enter/exit the barn, I have noticed improvement in their feet.  If I had buckets of money, I'd put a layer of gravel all the way around their track and their feet would probably maintain themselves. 

I was doing well, working hard on part B, when everyone came in from an exhausting day of eating to take a nap. 

They somehow managed to suck all the ambition right out of me.