21st April

On Sunday afternoon we went back to build fences. At the beginning, I only attached the wire, but then someone had the idea that we wanted to finish building the complete fence today. That was still a really long way...we have never built so much in one day before. But when you can see the end, you get motivated again and we were super quick with the last tree trunks...Henry and Dave were sawing continuously and Ty and I just laid down the tree trunks and we actually managed to finish everything by 6:30 pm. And the way back was as cool as always...Henry asked me if I wanted to drive the tractor home again, to which I joyfully said yes. But he didn't tell me that there was a big trailer attached (fortunately empty) and that I had to drive a different way (where I had never been before). Well, I just started driving. The river is now so high that the front tires were completely under water and only the iron bars (which are supposed to hold the logs) were sticking out of the trailer. And there were also some very muddy spots, but I managed to get through everywhere with a lot of gas. And then there was another spot (difficult to explain now) where you have to turn around in a very small circle and then drive through a gate where the trailer just fits through. For that, you have to drive straight.... but that didn't work because I had to turn around in the small circle. I have never been so happy in my life that I practiced backing up with a trailer at home :) Because I managed to drive through the gate on the second try :D. And so, after over an hour of driving, I finally arrived home.
By the way, there was no Easter here.... no Easter eggs, bunnies or decorations or anything like that and it was snowing on Easter Sunday. But I didn't mind that at all. It would have been worse if Christmas had been canceled.
On Easter Monday, we then attached a few new 'gate openers' that can be easily opened from the horse and did many other small things on the farm. In the evening, the whole family was here to celebrate Dustin's birthday and there was a big turkey :)
On Tuesday, I think I drove the tractor from 8 am to 6 pm. Haha and it's still fun. We only feed most of the animals every 3-5 days and that day the food ran out for all the animals at the same time. Henry wasn't there, so I drove hay to the pasture for everyone and also drove mineral buckets back and forth.... and all of that took a long time. The most annoying thing is getting in and out. I felt like I had to get in and out 300 times. And in the afternoon, we found a cow that couldn't get up on her own. We loaded her into the tractor shovel and I got to ride in the shovel next to the cow :). It was funny, but unfortunately, no one took a picture again. The cow is now in the stable and still hasn't gotten up. We sometimes turn her over to the other side and today we tried to stand her up, but it didn't really work.
On Wednesday afternoon, we planted a little bit in the greenhouse. The best thing about winter is that you don't have to work in the garden. And I think Henry and Aileen have the same attitude about it ;). Well, we just put a little bit of everything in the ground, added soil and water.... done.... and if it doesn't work, we'll have meat without vegetables.

Yesterday was the second time since I've been here that I left the ranch :) I really like the outings here. Aileen's father builds fences for other ranchers and I was supposed to come help. There is only one road here and Henry and Aileen live at the 5 km mark and the nearest neighbor is at 24 km, and that's where we built. There was still so much snow at the neighbor's that it came into the rubber boots from the top ;). And the fence was just infinitely long (the neighbor has 600 cows). We attached wire in hail and snow the whole afternoon, but it was still fun because Aileen's parents and brother are really nice and also have a good mood in hail, wind, and an infinitely long fence. Tomorrow we want to finish the rest.
Today we are a bit slow. But that's because Aileen and Henry were awake all night taking care of the cows and calves. But now I finally have some time to write down everything we've done :)

And we already have over 50 calves! :D