There is a flurry of work to be done beginning each fall with the end of field work, either because it is done or because the ground is too frozen to work with. This will go on until it becomes too cold to work effectively outside. At least this is true of livestock farms. For us this year the main focus is on the hog facilities. Hogs are hard on buildings. Constant repair is the order of the day to restore what the hogs have worn out and also what damage the feeding and cleaning equipment has done.
Top of the list this year was to replace an underground electric wire that was shorting to ground, making it necessary to turn the circuit off and giving us a constant battle in February and March of last year to keep water available to two of our finishing hoop sheds. We were able to tie new wire to the damaged underground at the electric box outside the hoop and pull it through.
The hoop ends also need rebuilding, because the posts that support the big open doorway there have rotted off. We like the hoops for the way in which they offer some protection for the animals and their bedding while not cutting off so much of the air, breeze and sun from the outside. These posts are part of that structure. It is difficult to buy a good 5 inch by 6 inch post from the lumberyard anymore because too much of it is cut from dead fall trees. They rot pretty fast. We will replace these with 2" by 6" planks cut from dismantled railway bridges by a sawmill in Iowa. These we will laminate into replacement posts. They are well worth the price which is half of lumberyard new and well worth the trip to Iowa to get them.
And there are the tractors to winterize and the building heat to see to. The hope this year, like every year, is to get the important things done in time for the celebrations we so much need every year.
