Today was devoted to ranch work.  We loaded up the little utility trailer with something like 25 buckets of rocks, various tree trimming equipment, a post puller, the barbed wire pliers, a cooler of beverages, and Millie.

The rocks were for laying the the road tracks to reinforce the road.  The tree trimming equipment is a must — we never know when a tree has fallen across the road and must be cut up so we can pass.  It’s unusual NOT to have to cut something up.  If nothing else, we trim foliage back from the road, but today we had to cut up a tree.  It was a large tree, but fortunately, the part that fell across the road was and easy clean up — only about half an hour with the nippers and the chain saw.

We brought Millie so she could run.  Millie is seven or eight years old now, and she’s less interested in running at the ranch and more interested in sticking by our sides.  When we stopped, we raised the tailgate on the Navigator so she could get out, but about half way through the day, we were looking for her, and she was sitting in the back end of the Navigator.  She stayed there most of the rest of the afternoon by choice.  That’s fine.  We think she enjoyed being out with us, and we enjoyed having her with us.

We finished clearing the path at the house site of the massive tree that fell across the road several months ago.  Last time we went out, we cleared about half of it.  This year, we finished the job.

On the way out at the end of the day, we stopped and loaded firewood from the first tree we cut up today onto the trailer.  That will be handy in the fireplace down in San Antonio this winter.

Finally, as we exited the hayfield, we stopped to remove a few of the posts in the cross-fence.  Our neighbors could probably get an extra large roll of hay out of the hayfield once we get the cross-fence removed, so we want to make some progress on that project.  Hubby removed two posts, and I rolled up the four strands of barbed wire that was strung between them.  I haven’t counted how many more we have to go yet, but that was a start on that project.

The shower felt good when we got home.