Senile Texas Aggie - comic relief for the rest of you

[Devonviolet]

Welcome to BYH! Senile. So nice to have you join us.

You have a wonderful journey ahead of you! Albeit lots of work. It definitely isn’t for the lazy or faint of heart.

You have already gotten some excellent advise. Just keep asking questions. We have some amazing homesteading people here on BYH! Some of the best have already chimed in. I don’t have much to add, except one of our awesome goat people (goatgurl) has some awesome goats, when you are ready to buy. I was blessed to be able to buy two of them. She raises LaManchas, which are wonderful dairy goats. You can’t go wrong with LaManchas.

When you are getting more serious about getting livestock (goats), you should seriously consider at least two LGDs. Goatgurl has two Maremmas, which is what we have. She and I are in agreement, that Maremmas are amazing LGDs. Goatgurl has been known to breed her two. The puppies go fast when she does, although I’m not sure if she is planning to breed them again.

Now would really be a good time to start looking into getting a couple LGDs, although its a good idea to have at least a couple animals, when you do get them, so they can begin training on guarding animals right away.

Well, tomorrow we are setting up our booth at farmers market, so I had better hit the hay. Morning comes WAY too early!

 

[Senile_Texas_Aggie]

Thanks so much, Miss @goatgurl and Miss @Devonviolet, for your encouraging posts and for welcoming us to BYH. My wife and I have been looking for some dogs but have yet to find any. I have been more focused on getting the place in better shape, with the back pastures and the pond being overgrown. Eventually we think we will get some goats, as that has been a dream of my wife's now for several years. So we will probably reach out to you two and the others on this forum when the time comes. Our problem right now is that we have no fencing worth a crap, nor do we have a livestock building to help protect them from the rain, predators, etc. Once we get all of that figured out, then we will see about getting some goats.

All,
Yesterday was an expensive day for mowing the pasture and around trees. Early yesterday I decided to cut down all of the overgrowth around 3 trees at the back of the pond. I knew I would need my lopping shears, my hedge trimmer, and my reciprocating saw. Not having a place to put my tools on the tractor, I decided to put the tools in the front end loader bucket. I had a Dewalt 5-tool set and some extra batteries in a handy tote bag, I decided to bring the entire bag, carrying it and the lopping shears in the FEL bucket. I then went to the pond and proceeded to clear out the brush and small trees from around the 3 big trees. Once I finished, I then mowed around the grassy sides of the pond. Once I finished with that, I decided move the dead brush pile from in front of the pond to around the side. Forgetting that I had tools in the bucket, I leveled the bucket and lowered the FEL to the ground and pushed the front-most brush pile to where one of the other brush piles was. Then I forgot to tilt the bucket back, so that it still pointing down a bit. I saw some tall Johnson grass near the pond and decided to mow that down. While going through the grass, I ran through a hole that caused the front end of the tractor to bounce. Soon after that happened, I heard an awful racket coming from the brush hog. I stopped the tractor and looked back. That's when I saw the Dewalt tote bag torn to pieces. Then I realized what had happened. The tools that survived the shredding unscathed were the reciprocating saw and battery, the hedge trimmer, and an extra battery. Completely shredded to bits were the hammer drill, the impact wrench, the circular saw, and a light. The lopping shears were nowhere in sight (I suspect they fell out at the brush pile). So $400 worth of tools was lost because of my forgetfulness! I guess I will need to make me a place on the ROPS to carry tools, otherwise mowing pastures could get quite expensive.

After that expensive mishap, I decided to take a break. Once I finished the break I decided that it was time to mow the overgrown back pastures. The grass and weeds were so thick that in places I had to use the lowest possible gear to keep the mower from chocking! I had hoped to get at least half of it done, but I was only able to make 3 passes through the pasture before I ran low on diesel fuel and had to stop.

So thanks to my Senile Texas Aggie I/Q, I managed to tear up $400 worth of tools and only got a small part of the overgrown pastures mowed.

Senile Texas Aggie

 

[frustratedearthmother]

That is a tough lesson learned - and most likely will NOT be repeated. Those really hard lessons seem to stick with you - like walking into an electric fence. (don't ask me how I know!) Good luck with the rest of your adventure!

 

[Latestarter]

All in good time. We've all done "stupid" things/made mistakes/forgotten important stuff that has ended up costing valuable dollars but in the end, I guess they are valuable lessons. I wouldn't be too concerned with the "time" factor involved with doing all that you're doing. You are learning as you go, and you'll find it's easy to underestimate the amount of work really involved. Sorry about the financial loss though. Congrats on getting started with your new toys... ummm I mean machine/tools (tractor)!

 

[Bruce]

except one of our awesome goat people (goatgurl) has some awesome goats, when you are ready to buy.

They are very good from removing hoop shelters, just ask @Latestarter

So thanks to my Senile Texas Aggie I/Q, I managed to tear up $400 worth of tools and only got a small part of the overgrown pastures mowed.

Good plan, get the screw ups out of the way right off!
Sorry you lost the tools, hopefully they didn't also damage the hog.

 

[Mike CHS]

I use the FEL to carry a bout everything but it's easy to forget you have things in there. If I'm using it to transport something I make it a point to take whatever it is to wherever it's going to be used and dump it.

That being said I have dropped all kinds of things from the bucket until I finally got in the habit of not letting myself get side tracked until whatever is in the bucket is dropped where needed.

 

[greybeard]

Worst bucket fiasco I had was when my brother dropped me out of the backhoe bucket from about 12' up, with a running chainsaw in my hands. (pushed the lever instead of pulling it) I was already in my early 60s but a still a lot more spry than I am now.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Wow - that could have ended badly! Worst thing I did was drop a dead pig outta the bucket lol. Turns out it wasn't even me - the valve or something like that wasn't working right and the bucket tipped down every time it had a weight in it. But, I dropped that pig 3 times before I figured it out!

 

[Baymule]

I had to smile reading that. I haven't dumped and ran over tools, but we have all had our mishaps. Nothing makes you feel stupid like doing something stupid. You'll make mistakes, but you won't make THAT mistake again.

 

[farmerjan]

Sorry to read about the tools in the bucket disaster. We have all done something very stupid and forgetful. The important thing is; yes it is money but it was not a human or animal life lost or damaged. GB's was close enough to horrible disaster for me to read. You will probably NEVER make that mistake again, and you will figure out some way to remind yourself that there is something in it. We are forever losing chains, bouncing out of a bucket when we have gone to pull something. Or the chain saw or something, it happens. Do like Mike and when you get to where you are planning to work, make it a habit to remove anything in the bucket before you do anything else.... you will figure out the best way to establish a routine and once you do, it will become automatic.

None of us has the money to throw away on lost or damaged tools, but it was not the biggest disaster. You will replace them as you go along at an auction or something.
I was afraid you were going to say you drove the tractor in the pond or flipped it over on the bank or something.