Exhausted!!

Well, this week was not fun at all.  Some little snow to start the week and then a mother of an ice storm.  Only lost power at home for about thirty minutes.  Only reason I know this is because my wife told me about it.  I spent 40 hours strait in the plow truck trying to keep our main customers' businesses open.  Then home for a three hour nap and out for another eight hours. 

I am manager of the canton snow region for the landscape company I work for and we maintain most of the AEP properties in this part of the state.  It was a struggle keeping everything open and safe for them to get their equipment in and out to get and keep the power on for everyone.  I am just glad that is over.  I would have taken three feet of snow over the ice any day of the year!!  At least with that much snow they close the roads and shut the doors at wal-mart so we can plow without the cars there!

A pic of the trucks at the Stark County Fairgrounds.  These guy were working round the clock in shifts to get everything back up and running.  Pretty awesome sight to see a few hundred trucks roll in and out the drive at breakfast!

Anyway, I still do not know what day it is without looking at my phone or my watch.  It will probably be the middle of the week before I can function mentally normal again!

Anyway, yesterday was spent picking up the processed beef at the butcher and making as many deliveries as we could get in a day. 

This is a pic of one of the carts that the beef is stored on in the freezer at the butcher.  A cart will hold one steer with a hanging weight of 650-700 lbs.  They label each cart and each tray for who they belong too.  All the meat that is processed here is 100% USDA inspected.  We have 6 - 128qt. coolers to put the meat into.  One cooler will hold a quarter comfortably.  To pick up two full steers we had to make a delivery and then come back for the rest though.  I would like to have two more coolers but we will have to wait till Wal-mart gets them in stock again.

We got most of the meat delivered Friday.  Took the entire day!  All we have left are the family packs that we are selling.  We have three yet to deliver that are sold and five more to sell. 

Today was spent dealing with all the stuff in the barn that got let go all week.  Apparently Steven left the gate open on the pig pen the night of the storm and no one found it till the next day when his brother brought over the milk water for them.  The pigs made a mess of everything, knocking down boards, tearing up bedding bales, flipping over the tubs we store the feed in!  Then after finding the mess they simply put the pigs back and left the mess and just told me not to look ... I looked.  Yea, not happy! 

So today we started with grinding the feed.  Same mix as last time.  Went a lot quicker as this time as the mixer was ready to go.  Got the feed ready and they brought it over here to unload.  That was when I told them we weren't unloading anything till the barn AND pen were both cleaned.  So we all went to work.  Bedded down cow shed first so the pigs would go down there and mess around while we worked in the barn.  Got the pen cleaned and rearranged the barn more neatly and unloaded the feed. 

That is about 1700lbs. of feed there.  Should last us another three weeks.  Hopefully a little longer if they don't waste much. 

After we got done and Steven and his brothers left I decided to go for a walk in the pasture as I haven't done this since winter set in.  I wanted to check the condition of the ice on the creek where the cows drink.  If it gets covered completely the cows will walk out on it to get a drink and can slip and fall and either die or be terminally injured.  So when it gets bad I take the tractor down and clear a spot out for them to drink.  As I started for the creek I hollered at the cows to come with me and this is a pic of them following me.

If you look you will notice pig is coming to see just what is going on.  After we all got down there they realized pig came down and they started an argument with her and they all headed back to the barn.  Funny part about that is when I checked on them a little bit ago she was sleeping with them in their shed! 

Anyway, the creek had about 2-5 inches of ice covering most of it so I took the tractor back down and broke up what I could to open the area back up.  They should be fine till later in the week when it goes down into the single digits.  After that it is supposed to warm up quite a bit which will let the ice thaw and open the creek back up.

Anyway, if you are reading this you have power so enjoy and stay warm!! 

I wanted to throw a pic of the sunrise on my way home the other day.  Kind of reminds you that no matter how bad it gets another beautiful day is just a sunrise away!

Goodnight all, I am going to go get some much needed rest!!

Kenny