indian summer

The sliding manger is working well.  It takes two to shift it uphill, but we only move it a little way each day.  The animals tend to lounge in the area, as well as feed there, so the wasted hay and manure will get pretty well spread around the pasture over the course of the winter.  We're still flushing the new shallow well, so we don't know yet if it will provide all the stock water we need.  There is still the pond, but we want to fence the animals out of that so they don't break down the bank, and use a draw-down to direct the overflow into a tire-tank.  Another job for next summer.The last three days Shawn and the big boys -- mostly the boys -- have been digging out a leaking water line to the pigs up at neighbors'.  Got to have that fixed before it gets really cold -- and before hog butchering in January.Mom and the girls cleaned out the raised beds, and transplanted lettuce into the hoop house, and have their fingers crossed that it isn't too late for the plants to make good growth.  The lettuce in boxes in the greenhouse is way ahead of the hoop house lettuce.  We'll  know next year to start it earlier; the problem will be germination in the hot weather.