The machinery is home

After a long and bumpy trip, our machinery that we purchased in Illinois is home safe and sound.  Farmer Rick had it all chained and strapped down so that it wouldn't shift.  Sure wouldn't be any fun rounding up two gravity boxes and extra tires after they bumped down interstate 90/94!  All went well on the home front with chores except the loss of one of our daughter's baby hogs.  The horses were all glad to see me and were full of nickers and whinnies . . . UNTIL . . . I brought out the wormer.  They're all easy to do, but they despise this task that we do every three months.  Now that we've had a couple of hard frosts, the timing is just right to get 'er done.  I also took one of the geldings out and longed him for about 20 minute.  The coyotes were singing and yapping the whole time we were out there.  They sure were making alot of noise down in the woods.  The neighbor's cattle were pretty upset about all of the noise.  I hope that they are all OK.  Once the snow is on the ground, I'll do more riding at night after chores, but right now it's too hard to see any other critters that may be out there with us.  Usually even the old mare doesn't get spooked when out at night, but the last few times she's been edgy too.  This old cow hand is getting too old to deal with coyotes and bears at night, even with the dogs out there with me.  That's OK, because we're planning on hitting the trails again this weekend to catch some of the last spectacular views of fall color before the wind blows the last of the leaves off of the trees!