'Round the Lake and Back Again

I Think the Tractor's Ready

It dawned on me that I haven't used my tractor for several months. With a potential snow storm on the horizon---hoping it doesn't come--I might need the tractor to plow the driveway. So I decided to start it up today and run it for a bit.

Good thing. The battery was not dead, but in the cold it was too weak to get the tractor started. I hooked up the charger, let is charge for 5-10 minutes and soon the tractor was running just fine. I did have to put air in the one front tire again, but otherwise all was well.

I spent about 45 minutes to an hour cleaning under the run in shed using the bucket to scoop up the loose and wet hay. But, since the tractor bucket has no "teeth" or prongs on the front, a lot of the wet stuff just kind of rolls out of the way instead of getting picked up. That means a good bit of hay forking it in--not an easy task.  In the end I got a lot of exercise and did about half the front shed.

Once done with the tractor, I saddled up Chance and headed out for a trail ride.

I'd walked around the back lake in the woods yesterday by myself and noticed that the footing, especially in the usually very swampy, muddy places as quite good. That meant that without much detouring, I could actually ride a horse around the lake for a change. There's one spot where the ATV's have torn up the dirt road so much it collects over a foot of water on top of a very rutted bottom.

Chance was behaving a little strangely, for some reason. On the way out, he was a little nappy, but that was interspersed with some jigging and trotting.  I had to get a bit sharp with him to make him settle as there are a good number of places where the footing is tricky enough that trotting is not a good idea.

By the time we got to the lake trail, though, he had pretty much settled and from there on, it was a much better ride. He didn't spook at anything and aside from the jigging, took everything in stride.

My biggest disappointment, however, is the amount of trash the so called "sportsmen" of our area leave around out there. There is a place where a hunter parks his truck. About a month ago, I cleaned up a half trash bag of bottles, cans and paper garbage from there. Today there were two potato chip bags, a discarded cigarette pack and some cans again. Damn! If you can carry the food in, you can take the trash out! I'll clean it up again, but if I see that truck parked there again, I'm going to leave a note on the windshield.

Out around the lake it's even worse. There are bottles and cans all around the place, particularly in one spot where the fishermen access the banks. I'm not sure how I would be able to carry out the several trash bags it would take to clean up that area, but maybe if I do it in stages I can clean it up too.

But why should I have to? Why to do people think it's OK to dispose of their trash in these beautiful woodlands?

It breaks my heart.