Coyote Ridge FarmsWelcome To Our Rural Blog

I got done what I had been dreading for months – since December actually.  I finally poured the small cement pad for our Ritchie™ brand automatic waterer.  This needed to be done as part of the farm’s conservation grant program (it was suppose to have been done last year, but I ran out of time).  Although the pad was only 4′x5′x6″… I hated the thought of doing it.  Last December I had purchased 20 bags of cement mix when it was on sale.  I paid about $50.  I decided to do the cement work myself after contacting a couple local companies about the job – the cheapest price I got was $250… the highest was nearly $400.  Most of the cost was for the hauling of the cement, not the cement itself .

Anyway, I had borrowed a small electric mixer that was a throw-away from a small masonry company.  I now know why they got rid of it… it was/is junk.  It turned the drum just fine… until cement was in it… then it skipped, rattled and at times, stopped turning.  At one time, it dumped the concrete when my back was turned.  Grrrr!  It was so frustrating.  The thing is, once you start the pouring/mixing process, you need to keep going until it is done, so I really couldn’t stop what I was doing to fix the mixer.  I figure it took twice as long as it should have.  I got through it, but it was definitely Miller-time afterward :drink:.

When I finished the pour and drove back to the homestead, one of our neighbors was there with his pickup and livestock trailer.  It was Farmer Mike’s little brother Rod.  He was here to pick-up/borrow a few of our little goat kids.  His family hosts annual farm visits for some local preschool classes.  This year he wanted some new animals, aside his farm’s usual cows and pigs.  Needless to say, we were more than happy to contribute to this learning experience.  He didn’t want to ‘borrow’ Wilbert, our pot-bellied pig.

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