A "hole" lotta work

Whatever happened to the lovely notion of Sunday being a day of rest?  We did go to church this morning, but as soon as we got home, we worked outside in the blazing sun all afternoon. 

Steve bought this rusty old thing last week.  It is a head chute for cattle, and apparantly, with the exception of the rust, it is in excellent condition.  And apparantly it will eventually work wonders and make our lives much easier.... but not lying on the ground.  We gotta get it properly installed first.

The first step is to dig a big hole using this post hole digger on the back of the tractor.

The hydraulic digger on the tractor made this hole, but then we had to dig it deeper and deeper with the manuel digger. 

Then we had to drag this massive post, drop it in the hole, and pack the dirt all around it. 

The entire process.... the digging, the dragging, the lifting, the packing... was repeated for the second post. 

Steve did some measuring and decided that the first post on which we spent an hour of hard physical labor, was crooked.  It needed to be lined up just so, and we were slightly off.  So, to my dismay, he hooked it to the tractor and pulled it right back out of that hole we had just filled in! Noooooooooo......

I was slightly upset to have to dig the same hole and reset the same post AGAIN!

Eventually we managed to finish.  They were lined up perfectly and ready for the head gate.

This friendly black cow stepped out of the barn to check things out.

She stood there, surveying the situation, and letting us rub her back and belly.  She's a total pet.... she's a holstein cross that we plan to sell eventually. 

We always have fun with her because she's so tame.

She checked everything out, then she started licking Steve's arm. 

Back to work.....

The EXTREMELY heavy head gate is then lifted into an upright position and bolted onto our two posts.

So eventually when we're all finished, we'll be able to herd the cattle from the barn, through this gate, then to the new head gate. 

They'll stick their heads in here, and the gate will close tightly.  Then we'll be able to work on them... vaccinating them, worming them, dehorning, castrating... whatever needs done.  Steve says this system will ultimately save us hours of time in working the cattle.

It was a HARD day's work.