Rocks.

My dad was cleaning grain all day NW of Bismarck a ways! Then tomorrow, he's off to the South, down near Venturia, SD. Andrew was here all day, mainly to fix some things on his rig (pictured below) and then tomorrow he's off to clean for friends for 2 days near Ellendale. I think it's a good thing the guys were able to start the cleaning season earlier this year, as they're getting more and more new customers each year. PTL!

The original plan for this season was to get Jacob set up with a rig as well, but plans changed, and I'm very glad that Jacob is around here, as we have a big project to fill our days with at home too...

 That project requires my Bobcat:

 It does NOT require Andrew's Telehandler, although he did use it today to work on something on his cleaner. He and my mom also pruned the tops of the apple trees this afternoon, as it was pretty nice out.

 No, our big job requires a Rock Badger!

 Jacob refreshed my memory of how to use my Bobcat and gave some recommendations for how to dig rocks, then opened the gate to the pasture by the farm here and set me free. :) This was the first rock I managed to dig out. It took some time, but I did get pretty comfortable with the machine over the next 3 hours that I used it, at which time Jacob came out and took over for another hour or so before it was time to feed the cows.

 See? I made quite a mess! Tomorrow we get to work on picking up all of the rocks and putting them on a pile. Anyone want to come help? There are also tons and tons more rocks that need to be dug. Hopefully, we can get lots of it cleared before my dad is ready to plant something here!

 Ewww, it's all dirty!

 We now have 8 calves from the heifers, so we're waiting on just 4 more to calve... 

Busy days!