Cattle Working Facility – Part 2

(To see part 1, click HERE.)

We’ve got a lot done in the last week.

The re-bar was put into the concrete forms early last week:

Cattle Facility (1)

Cattle Facility (2)

After Gerald and Ramona built the forms, they cut the rebar to fit, put it in its place, and then wired all the rebar at the intersections. Then the rebar was put up on little plastic risers so the rebar isn’t resting on the ground but will be suspended in the middle of the concrete. It’s labor intensive and back-breaking work.

Cattle Facility (3)

Cattle Facility (4)

Cattle Facility (5)

Cattle Facility (6)

Cattle Facility (7)

Cattle Facility (8)

Cattle Facility (9)

Then on Wednesday, the concrete trucks arrived to do the pour. When I got home that night, I took pics. Nothing prettier than brand new concrete, right?

Cattle Facility (10)

Cattle Facility (11)

Cattle Facility (12)

Cattle Facility (13)

Cattle Facility (14)

Cattle Facility (15)

Cattle Facility (16)

On Saturday, Harland and I worked all day setting steel pipe posts. These posts are hollow steel pipes about 7-8 feet long, and weigh so much it’s all I can do to lift one end of them off the ground.

Harland dug each hole about 3 feet deep with the auger attachment on the skid steer loader, and then we both shoveled the dirt and rock out of the hole. There was a lot of rock and gravel, and even a few large rocks we could barely move.  Then Harland picked up the post and dropped it into the hole. I held the post vertical as Harland emptied four 80 pound bags of quickcrete into each hole. The dust…oh the dust…clouds and clouds of it. Then we sprayed water into the hole, mixed it up, and then moved onto the next post.

Early in the day it was in the 40s and I dressed in multiple layers to keep warm. As the day wore on into the afternoon and the temps rose into the upper 60s, I peeled several layers off. By late afternoon, I started adding the layers back on again. Periodically through the afternoon, I looked up the Royals baseball game on Harland’s phone to check on the score. (We’re Royals fans)

Finally, the sun set and the wind that had blown dust around us all day finally stilled. I checked on the Royals again and learned that they had won. Yay! We finished up and put our tools away.  Then we stood back and admired our handiwork. We had set about 15 posts, the majority of what will be needed for the project. We headed home, ate supper, took some ibuprofin, showered all the dirt and dust off, and sank into bed.

More concrete will need to be poured soon in the area that will lead into the tub. It wasn’t poured with the rest of the concrete earlier as this pour will go around some of the posts too, so we had to set them first.

Soon, we’ll put the alley and tub onto their concrete pad and bolt them to the concrete. What’s neat about this set-up is that if we at some point in the future stop raising cattle, we can unbolt the alley and tub and sell them.

More pics to come soon! Stay tuned……

(To see Part 3, click HERE.)

(To See Part 4, click HERE.)

(To see part 5, click HERE.)

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo

Suzanne

Cattle, corn, wheat, beans, mud, snow, ice, and drought. Plenty of fresh air and quiet. Our life is sometimes heartbreaking, sometimes joyous, but never boring.

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18 Responses

  1. Alica says:

    You guys are busy, busy, busy! It must be so satisfying to see all this getting done! Didn’t you just want to make your mark in that wet concrete somewhere, just for fun? 🙂

  2. Vee says:

    What is the red building in several of the pictures?

  3. Linda says:

    It’s true — there’s something so tempting about wet concrete. But what wonderful progress you’ve made. You’re really making life easier, in so many ways.

    You may enjoy my rebar story. Yes, even city gals need rebar now and then. I was having trouble with someone stealing my pots of plumeria. BIG pots. Since I was renting, I couldn’t put them in the ground, so anyone with a trailer could whiz in at midnight, grab a few pots, and make a quick buck at a flea market.

    So. I went down to the place where they make trawl doors for shrimp boats, and got them to cut me some 4′ lengths of rebar with a 90 degree bend in one end: about 12″. I came home, emptied all the pots, drilled a hole or two in the bottom, and pushed the rebar down, with the bend inside the pot. Then, I put the dirt and plants back in .Solid? Oh, my.

    I never lost another plant, but I do hope the thieves got hernias!

  4. Nancy says:

    Somehow the background in your cattle project part 2 looks very familiar. Particularly the tool shed and the brick house. By any chance could this be the old Miller place? I grew up about 2 miles from there.

    • Suzanne says:

      The old Miller place lies about 2 miles south on the same road. Our farm, before Harland’s folks bought it in the early 1960s, was the old Dick and Mildred Livingood place.

  5. Mary in Idaho says:

    Beautiful work and great progress. Several others asked my questions. Thanks for taking the time to answer them. I love that you were available and able to work with your hubby. Hard work but good times. That’s how I grew up and live even today.

  6. Nancy says:

    Thanks, Suzanne, for the reply. I think I came upon your blog from seeing a photo of sunflowers somewhere on the web. When I subscribed to your blog you were writing about a trip to Squaw Creek so I knew you had to live somewhere near where I grew up. Next you mentioned Pony Creek so my excitement grew. That brought back sweet memories of the hours I used to play along that stream. You can’t imagine how my heart skipped a beat when you mentioned Morrill, my hometown. My childhood home is now the S. Roush farm, my cousin. Yes, I knew the Livingood’s. Love your blog, brings back such wonderful memories of life on the farm, the happiest time of my life.

  7. Nancy says:

    I forgot to mention the cats. I am an avid cat lover and love hearing about them. They are beautiful.

  8. Jeanne L says:

    Suzanne, it’s very interesting seeing how this project is all coming together! And I do enjoy reading all the comments from other readers. Vee already answered one question for me! I can hardly wait for your video of the first working of the cattle in this new set-up!! 🙂

  9. katie says:

    It was so sad to see the beautiful old house in the pictures. I know the expense to fix them up is prohibitive, and they are not “convenient”, but it is still sad to see them deteriorate. They were so lovely in their time, and they are a part of history. Would you consider sharing some pictures with us?

    Good luck.

  10. Rebecca says:

    You guys work so hard!
    So impressive.

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