Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Wednesday, July 22, 2009
It feels cooler this morning, but then I left one of the sliding doors open all night to help the upstairs cool down, so I could sleep better. NWS is predicting weather in the high 70 to low 80s, so I expect it to stay warm today.
After my coffee and computer time, I put on the work clothes, played with Zack and then went out to finish the road work so I can install the cattle guard.
I wanted to work the road to make digging the trench for the guard a bit easier, but also because I had two humps in that area that allowed water to collect between them during runoff and after rainstorms. It took three bottles of Gator Aide and two of water, plus three energy bars to finish it. I parked the dozer and walked back to the cabin to load the guard and tools necessary to install it.
It took me until 7:30 to dig the trench, place the pieces and attach all of them. As I was digging, Zack let out with several loud barks, but didn’t move from standing by the dozer. When I finally looked up, I heard something shoot by me in the creek bed, and caught a glimpse of a furry black butt headed up the other side before I could even think about grabbing my gun. Zack had warned me and then scared off the black bear that has been in the area. I gave him several rewarding words, but he stayed next to the dozer at the end of the road. It is good to see that the bear was more afraid of Zack, than interested it doing either of us harm. Because he has been in the area, I now carry and keep a gun near by, hopefully more to scare it away than harm it.
It may not be the prettiest cattle guard, but after I install some fencing to keep them from getting around it, I think it will work just fine. Zack wouldn’t even try to get across it, so it should stop the cows. I loaded up the tools and drug myself into the truck for the short ride home. After parking in the garage, I made it back to the cabin and washed my face and arms. Boy, that felt really good.
I managed to feed Zack; Zoey had food left from this morning, so I didn’t give her any more, and then drank another Gator Aide while cooling down. A nice cool shower and then a drink before making dinner, took me to 10 O’clock. I watched a prerecorded television show and then went to bed.