TR, TR, TR

Friday was a big day at the farm, but first a sheep farmer’s tale of woe.

Early in the morning, I met fellow local sheep farmer Chuck at Tuckerbox (where the elite of Hartford meet) for a cup of coffee. As he sipped his latte, he told me the story of how he recently lost 2 ewes and 4 lambs to listeriosis. In an email exchange earlier this week, he wrote me that he had lost the sheep to “listeria”.  I forwarded that note on to Peg, who wrote back, “WOWOWOWO… is that the purple flowering tall plant?  We don’t have any, right??”  My reply, “No bacteria”.

Listeria is a bacteria that thrives in wet silage, I reacquainted myself on Google.  Peg and I had first learned about it when we read several books on sheep (including a well-written one by Chuck) before we started this adventure. But we hadn’t paid much attention to it over our first two years as shepherds (in other words, we hadn’t faced it). Infected sheep exhibit “lateral deviation of the head and neck” (Wikipedia), so it is called “the circling disease”.

Chuck told me about a neighbor that wanted to get married on his farm. In preparation, he mowed a knoll out in his fields. Unfortunately, it rained on the wedding day, so they held the ceremony in the barn. It’s been cold – and at times, wet – in the Upper Valley over the last couple weeks. Perfect conditions for listeria to grow. After the wedding, Chuck put the sheep out on the knoll. The clippings from the mow were still green, and wet, and cold, and the sheep ate them. I think it was at this point in his tale I said, “The perfect storm,” and he agreed. If the weather had been warmer and/or dryer, the clippings would have turned brown, and the sheep wouldn’t have touched them. Such a shame. Probably a one-in-a-million combination of factors. Another reminder about how humbling things can be – you think you have covered all the bases, and then something comes along to remind you that you never will.

I got back to the farm around 9:15, excited about the day’s activities. Karl and Kevin were up at the barn job site, chatting. I poured the last cup of coffee into my travel mug in the kitchen and went up to join them (I’m on vacation through the end of next week). I knew they were just waiting, so my joining them wouldn’t impede progress on the barn.

We were all waiting for a truck to come up the driveway, but we weren’t waiting for the same truck. Mine came first. Around 10:15 a pickup from L. F. Trottier & Sons with a trailer behind it carrying our new tractor rolled up the hill.

Bob rolled the John Deere 3038 compact utility tractor (with a rotary cutter attached to the back) off the trailer, dropped the loader bucket on the ground, took the fork attachment off the back of the pickup, and said to me, “how much do you know about these things?” My response, “nothing.” He spent the next 15 minutes walking through all the controls, places for checking oil (engine, hydraulic, transmission, rotary cutter), air filter, coolant, radiator, how to take attachments off the front end, how to take the rotary cutter off the back end. Peg, unfortunately, was too busy to come out for the lesson. I gave Bob a check, he told me, “if you have any questions or problems, give us a call.” I told him he may need to come out for another lesson for Peg.

About an hour later, we saw the truck Kevin and Carl were waiting for drive up Jericho Road from Jericho Street and go right past the driveway. About 10 minutes later, it was rumbling up the hill. On Monday, Kevin had arranged with local building supplier LaValley’s to have a crane truck come up and help out on the barn. The driver pulled right into the barnyard and set to work.

This week, Carl spent most of his time making four trusses for the barn roof. Typically, the builders would muscle the trusses up on the posts – a long task that takes at least 3 or 4 folks to complete. Carl suggested to Kevin using a crane on our barn, and Kevin agreed.

The trusses were on the posts and braced in less than 90 minutes. The first truss placement was fascinating to watch (and the most difficult). The succeeding trusses were more and more “ho hum”. The truck driver/crane operator maneuvered the crane with a wireless control box sitting on his hip that had, maybe, six levers on it. Amazing.

After the driver left, Kevin and Carl shared with me the driver was pretty bummed when he got to the job site and saw the task ahead of him. They said he had done a similar job recently and it hadn’t gone at all well. This job went off almost without a hitch. Two trusses needed to be tightened with Carl’s come-along to fit on the posts. No big deal.

Kevin and Carl agreed the decision to use the crane was the right call. Kevin’s estimate for the barn didn’t include the crane. He paid out-of-pocket for its time, but didn’t regret it all. Erecting the trusses manually would have taken a lot more man-hours (and is physically difficult).

Carl finished the day on the job site putting wooden pins (dowels) in the joints between the posts and the trusses. There are very few nails or screws in the barn’s frame.

At the end of the day, Peg was finally able to come outside and meet her tractor. I walked her through the controls, told her a few tips Carl shared with me – keep it in 4-wheel drive most of the time, set it to “idle” rather than turn it off when it’s sitting around – and let her loose.

We finished the lesson with her taking the bucket off the front-end, and then putting it back on – something I did earlier in the day.

OK, the headline?

We got a TRactor from TRottiers and put up TRusses. (I could have put a 4^th TR in there – the TRactor came up on a TRailer.)

Todd