Catching up.

Front ditch cleaned out with backhoe.

chute gate #1

Friday, I got a phone call telling me the backhoe was fixed!  I was at work but I made plans to get the ditch finished on Saturday.  Saturday rolled around and we had to go yard sale exploring.  Our local town has a community days one weekend a year and everyone in town has a yard sale.  We went to over 20 yard sales in four hours.  I love to get yard tools but this year it was mostly clothes and none my size. Last year I found five pair of newer blue jeans!  I am still wearing those but they are starting to show farm wear.  After we ate an entire plate of fresh fries and some barbecue pork we came home so I could fire up the backhoe and dig out the ditch.  I dug out the ditch and knocked down the berm alongside the ditch.  I want to flatten it all out so I can use my little tractor to clean it out.  The backhoe is so large I had no luck using the bucket to flatten out the dirt.  It was mud in places and I kept trying to get the backhoe stuck.  I finally gave up and figured I would use the small tractor.  I am pretty good now using it to level the ground, lots of practice. I will let the mud dry out a little so I can drive the little tractor on the mud pile safely.  I parked the backhoe up by the driveway so I could hose it off. 

Monday after cleaning the mud off the backhoe I tried to start it.  No go, it just beeped at me and no lights came on.  I called for advice and was asked if I left the key on.  I said no, then was informed the ignition switch is very sensitive.  I asked where the battery was and three bolts later had the charger plugged up to the batteries.  It was the batteries.  They were sucking juice down as fast as they could.
 

Chute gate#2 painted

 That left me with wire brushing the two corral chute gates, priming them and then painting them.  They cut down each end of an existing damaged gate from the scrapyard.  Gate #1 will be used for the loading end of the chute.  Gate #2 will be used inside the chute as it has an opening mechanism on the top of the gate, making it safer to manipulate with animals in the chute.  I used green because that was the color the hardware store had.  I really wanted red but no luck.  I am sure they will get scratched up soon enough, but they look mighty good now.  I did not spray any clear coat on them.