You Don't Have to Look and You Don't Have to See 'Cause You Can Feel it in Your Olfactory

G-man finished up the final pasture we have been mowing yesterday. When he started getting down to only a small patch remaining he smelled a skunk. He has my grandfather's weak stomach and gagged a few times, but kept going. Soon he pointed out a skunk scurrying to the creek for cover as his world was closing in on him. We thought that was it, but about two passes before he finished he ran over another skunk that was hiding in the tall grass. He never saw it. If you've ever had a very close encounter with a skunk you'll know the "real" skunk smell is sickening. Its a lot different than the one you smell on the road. This smell is like burning plastic. That lingering funk you get on the road comes some time later. I didn't get close enough to get a good picture of the skunk.



G-man and I got all ready to do some welding today. We were going to fix the rear wheel on the tractor shredder (some people call it a bush hog). The wheel takes a lot of abuse back there and the arm holding the wheel in place got bent and torn loose. Its still usable but needs to be repaired.

The hard part about welding is not actually doing the welding per se its all the setup. You have to get the welder out from under all the junk in the shop. Get on your protective clothing and gear. Get some water to cool down the metal after you're done. Grind the surfaces to receive the weld. Get everything set up and ready to bend into position. We did all of that and when we fired up the cutting torch to heat up the bent arm we discovered we were out of oxygen. So we couldn't heat up the bar to get it into position to weld. We were done before we ever started. It was a bummer.

Maddie took this picture of the chickens sitting on a limb by the pump house in the back yard.

G-man has been doing some fishing in the evenings. He has been catching them with a blue-black worm that my dad gave him.

The kids are getting excited to go to Aunt Jane's Lake House next weekend. This picture is from last year when Justus was with us.