The Inverted Cow: April, Easter breaks

Hello Friends,

This weekend marks Easter weekend, or Passover, or the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus. So happy whatever you are calling it. The kids got out of school here for spring break the week before last. For the most part I have had a chance to get loads of yardwork done plus a bunch of trapping with Kyle. Did have some fun with the bus on Monday, and have been watching everything return to life here. In case you missed it I love springtime. Even the odd woodtick is not able to dampen my spirits now!

Stories from the Cheese wagon

As I said the week before last was the spring break for the kids, Sunday Kyle asks me if I am driving on Monday (the 2nd). Now doing the math Monday is the second of April so Sunday is... Yes all fools day. I am thinking he is joking with me because, before the spring break, I was asked to drive on Monday the 9th after the kids get back from spring break. No he was not joking. I fired off a Email or two to confirm, and Monday morning rolled around with me still thinking I was to drive on the following week.

He asked me on Facebook at about 7:10, I told him I did not know, he started a phone call firestorm by calling the other driver to see if she was covering the route. In 5 minutes I was running my butt out the door. I got to the shop already a full 20 minutes late for the route. They came in at 7:30 and started calling parents as they had a bus sitting there and no driver to be found. 7:45 (now after my first pickup time) I got to the bus, got the pre-trip done and was flying down the road. They had managed to bounce all the stops I was late for. I got to my first student who was on the bus. None other than the Hero of the day himself, Kyle, and was only 5 minutes behind. One more pickup and then I was back on schedule as one pickup takes ten minutes off the route when he is not on. The kids were less than happy when I pulled into the school only 3 minutes behind the normal drop off time.

I got back to the shop, I still was convinced I was driving on the 9th not the week of the 2nd. I had a chat with my boss and it appeared that the numbers were confused. The 2nd was a yes for certain and they MAY need me on the 9th. So it made for a rather hectic Monday morning.

Lesson here: Write it down! Then Write it Down again in another spot where you will find it. Oh the fun that never ends.

Fish hunting

One evening over the spring break Kyle tells me the fish are in the ditches. He invites me off for a day of fish hunting. That is correct we were hunting fish. He grabbed the 22 and a net and off we went. Here is how fish hunting works: the net guy (me) stands downstream in the ditches with the net ready. The gun guy (Kyle) then walks on the culvert and shoots the fish as they swim around. The fish we were hunting were Northern Pike (Jack fish to those around here). You shoot one the bullet stuns them and you net them, and into a bucket they go. When we went out the ditches were not as full of fish as he had said, but we found a spot further upstream then he figured the fish normally would go, and caught about 18.

Even after being shot and scooped up these guys are still alive,
Well the majority of them are.

His mom is not so fond of fish so we shipped a couple to a neighbor, a few were given to some folks who stopped by to chat, I took some in to the shop but the boys already had a load of fish. So I ended up with about a dozen fish. I got to spend the next day trying to figure out how to make them fit into the freezer.

In the oven they go

All ground and breaded
ready for freezer.

Yard Work

I mentioned on the last post that I was working on the driveway again. I managed to get a few wheelbarrows full of gravel out of the garden and on the parking pad. It is starting to look good again.

New gravel all ready to spread

All spread out, Kyle came by and drove all over it before I got a picture.
Still need to finish the driveway in, and touch up the corner
but it is a work in progress.

I also pulled the old Datsun wreck from the back corner and have that up on blocks now. I am hoping to cut the box off and turn it into a utility trailer. The motor may be salvageable depending on if the fire melted the heads or just the head-cover and carbourater.

Datsun on the way out of the corner where it has resided
since the fire destroyed it back in the 80s

All up on blocks waiting the loving touch of a blowtorch or angle grinder

I also started to turn the location where the truck was sitting into a garbage storage bin. Hopefully by next post the remainder of metal and glass and aluminium garbage will have a new hidey hole. With any luck by the end of the summer this yard will look less like a scrapyard and more like a home.

First two posts up

All the posts up
and the first bit of gravel
on the ground

The grass fire incident I had last post also allowed me to attack a couple of other small cleanup projects, namely the removal of the chicken crap pile and the cleanup behind one of the sheds.

All the trash here is now gone,
Using Kyle's tractor I was able to scrape the gravel
down into the hole and make it a lot more safe to walk around.
Now for the last side...

Before this was a mound of old chicken poop
the grass would get so thick I could not cut it .
I dragged the poop out and filled in some of the potholes on the yard.
2 projects done one afternoon.

Life returns to the yard

The other main thing that is happened here is all the life is back. I did a recording with the camcorder of a sunrise, No I am not going to play all 20 some-odd minutes of it but I did splice a few choice seconds together to give you a taste of all the life out here waking up and saying hello to the world.

The kids also finally got a chance to go play outside. Midnight and Hope were all for it. Mitza would not go outside for anything. So If you are looking for her she is hiding inside pouting.

Midnight and Hope getting ready to venture
outside for the first time since last fall

Other life in the yard, the snakes are making a rare appearance now, almost all the birds are back. I have not seen any killdeer nesting but they are making their presence known. Red wing blackbirds robins and waterfowl of all sorts are back. As are some of the other pests, the beaver made a few new dams on the road but Kyle and I made short work of them again. But, unfortunately, the woodticks are making an appearance as well. But thankfully I have the grass short enough that the robins, blackbirds and a myriad of others are helping work on thinning the populations out just as quickly. The cats have not thought to attack the birds yet, so we will see how everyone gets along.

Sure sign of spring:
the first garter snakes
are making an appearance
in the snake dens.

This little fellow was tormenting
the cats

The robins were all over the yard,
They eat woodticks and other bugs so I love to see them everywhere.

Kyle and I visited it with the little blue tractor,
The next day there was no dam to be found.

The beaver made a new dam
across the roadway

The beavers went and made another dam further down the road and are now washing out the roadway in another location. At the end of this road is a gravel pit I want to be able to access. Every inch of progress towards that pit I make they find another way to slow me down. It may be some time before I can get a tractor in to tear that dam out so we are back to square one.

Midnight watching everything on the yard.
What will he do when I tear the building
he is sitting on down later...

Last thoughts.

So once again I draw to a close this chapter of things here in never never land. I wish you a Happy Easter, or whatever you are calling it. From us here at the home of the inverted cow to you.