Well Howdy,  I know, I know it's been forever since I wrote something down on here...I have no excuse other than life gets in the way.

Now that Robt has realized I am not going to die tomorrow after all he is back to working me like a slave.  While he was doing the last of his spring seeding last week I was given the task of taking down an old barbed wire fence that has been standing or a better descriptive would be, not standing, since the 1940's.  no kidding. Old twisted tamarack posts and weird old kinds of barbed wire...rusted and repaired again and again. Ant hills galore...red ants to be more specific...nasty angry little red bastards...the first day I was bitten three times, the second day only once....lessons not wasted on me, you can see. Rule # 1 - don't hang on to the post too long....
Rule # 2 - don't stand in one place too long.
Rule # 3 - tuck your pants into your socks.

I had to wear a pair of Robts heavy leather gloves to protect my hands from the barbs on the wire....Robt insisted... and I got a huge blister the first day from the gloves seam rubbing on my thumb...

First I had to remove the staple from the first wire...which entails walking along the fence for a 1/4 mile pulling out staples, some of which, seemed like they had been there since the time of moses...while carrying a pail to put the staples into once I got them out of the tamarack posts...hahahaha   easy enough to begin with but by the time I was on the last wire the pail was getting pretty heavy...once the staple were removed from that first wire I could unwind it from the last post and start rolling it up...the first one I made the circle too small and had to hold the roll up for the whole 1/4 mile...it got fricking heavy, necessity being the mother of invention, but I think laziness was actually the real reason, I started the next wire in a much bigger circle and then after I got it going a few dozen feet I could sit it on the ground and without bending over too much could just roll it along while winding up the strung out wire...I had to do that four different times until the wire was all rolled up...then I could take the tractor and with a chain on the loader, could attach it to each post and pull them out one at a time... 173 posts were pulled out....then I got to load the wire into the truck and take it to the dump for recycling...and the posts we both loaded into our old truck and hauled them home to pile them on a garbage wood pile which we will burn this winter....

This fence has been an eye sore for years and the field looks so much better with it gone...Robt plowed up the spot and seeded it down...even the neighbour said how much better it looked and was impressed that we worked so hard on a shitty chore.....

We had a couple of rainy day a while ago and I managed to finish my painting from January.

 I have to admit I am luke warm about this one...it is based on a sketch I drew during the winter while waiting for Robt in the barn.  The sketch is based on our own Dry Lake just south of the house...that last summer with all the rain, had water in it for the first time in ten years... I had problems with the stormy looking sky...but managed to turn it around and drag it up to respectable, just....

I am going to start another painting soon...and am not building furniture right now...just busy driving tractor and fencing...soon haying will start.

Ayla Graduated last month and looks spectacular in her gown...we are so proud.