Feels Like An Expensive Day

Bruce did have an original plan for the day.  First we sold a cow that was no longer milking enough to pay for her feed and was not pregnant.  The next plans were to haul 2 loads of manure, bed the pen and put the heifers that seem closest to having their calves in there. Bruce went to haul the load from yesterday and the tractor would start but wouldn't move.  He called the mechanic who suggested a number of things that could cause the problem.  Unfortunately all of them involved splitting the tractor which was a bigger project than Bruce wanted to tackle.  They offered to come and get it today but it was covered with mud and manure from the winter.  There is no way we would pay shop rate so someone could pressure wash it so Bruce called Ed to come and pull the tractor in front of the milkhouse so Bruce could pressure wash it.  That took a couple hours to do and then he took all the tools, electric controls etc out of the cab so it would be ready to leave when they came to get it.  When he got that done he got another tractor and proceeded to haul the load of manure that had been sitting.  When he got back he went into the barn intending to clean the gutters and haul a second load but when he arrived he found that one of the new heifers that was supposed to go into the pen had delivered a heifer calf in the gutter.  Needless to say, it was filthy so Bruce's next project was giving the new calf a bath and getting her settled in a pen in the barn to dry.  It was after 4 before he got the 2nd load of manure hauled and after that it was time to start feeding again. The heifers did eventually end up in the pen, tonight after we got done milking.