my terrible, no good, very bad day...with a happy ending

Sometimes everything isn't sunshine and flowers here on the farm. I needed to finish filling the second raised bed, so I made 2 trips out to Catawba to get horse manure compost yesterday. I got caught in a torrential downpour on the way home the second time and then sat in a country traffic jam with a full load of horse poop due to a bad accident. When I got home I was backing the truck up to the cinder block bed when I heard the horrible sound of scraping metal and then blocks tumbling down. Now, I ain't the greatest driver in the world after 7 years of hardly driving in San Francisco, but having a trailer ball hitch works out pretty good for me cause that hits first and saves me from feeling guilty for denting the truck. I put on the parking brake and hopped out to check out the damage and much to my surprise (horror might be a better choice of words) the tri-ball hitch was GONE! I know I had it put on right and tight because we had just towed the sodcutter home not too long ago and I hadn't messed with it since then. I could hardly believe that someone around here would steal it, but that seemed to be the only reasonable explanation. The damage was pretty bad appearance wise but fortunately nothing that will stop the truck from hauling more crap.

ouch

We are finally going to rent the wood chipper this Friday, so I needed to get a replacement ball hitch and the chicks are almost out of feed. So, this morning I headed out with the boys to pay a visit to Walmart, Tractor Supply & Lowe's. The first two stops went well enough, picked up a 50lb bag of chick starter with no antibiotics added, then got groceries and a new ball hitch with a lock at Wallyworld. If anyone tries to steal this one they are gonna need a blowtorch or freon.

anti-theft locking hitch, next time mr. grabby won't have it so easy...

I headed off to Lowe's to complete my mission by picking up about 1000 lbs of cow manure and topsoil. I ran into a high school pal of April's who just got engaged at the checkout and congratulated him from both of us then pushed my flatbed of soil building goodness out to my dented chariot. Getting a ball hitch stolen and subsequently scraping my Chevy had put me in a pretty foul mood, so when I opened the door and found Clyde nose deep in my 4WD selector tearing out insulation; I lost it. He got a butt swatting and then the silent treatment as I seethed and simmered on the way back to our house. I could tell he knew that he had messed up big time, but forgiveness wasn't something I was ready to give the demonic Blue Heeler I insisted we buy.

"Your truck is tasty!"...No more rides for Clyde

We got home and I put the boys inside so I could take out the girls outside to their chicken tractor for their very first day outside in the sunshine. They squaked and clucked to express their displeasure with being stuffed into a box, one of the yellow ladies tried to make a break for it and was the first one to actually fly out of their trough. When I had them all corralled and brought them out, I first tried to shove the whole box into the chicken tractor and then turn it on its side so they could get out; but none of the girls was brave enough to venture out of their safe dark cave into the sun. Finally, I just tipped the box over and when they had all slid out I took it out of the chicken tractor. After I scattered some feed in the grass and made sure their waterer was full, I sat down to watch their first taste of the great outdoors and take a few pics. I wish I could capture the happy songs they sung as they realized how good the grass felt underfoot and how tasty the grass and bugs were. I'm not sure I have ever heard such beautiful sounds. I just sat there in the sun for what seemed like an eternity, enjoying them clucking contentedly in the sun. It was like a balm for my soul, I felt happy again and ready to dig up the septic tank and and gather up some more fallen branches to be chipped this Friday. The happy ending was when my wife got home and heard about my day. She said, "Well that's three things, so you should be done with the bad luck for a while." It was exactly what I needed to hear and with April home, my day suddenly didn't seem so bad after all...

the ladies enjoying the sun and their new digs