A busy day - Tuesday - Fertilizer

Tuesday was a busy day at the farm with multiple things going on... so I helped out by getting gates open for the fertilizer truck...

Jimmy had most of the gates open for the truck to access the pastures... I opened one gate so the driver could get to the pasture behind the house -- but I could leave that one open because there weren't any cattle in that field now...

After the fertilizer truck had finished behind the house, he headed to the further fields and I went to wait near the gate where the bulls were -- I would need to open and close the gate to the bull pasture when the driver was ready to fertilize in that field.

I was in the Jeep sitting outside an open gate at the road thinking about fences and the importance of fences or boundaries. Jimmy shares that the fences aren't there to deprive the cattle of something they need, but rather to keep them safe and away from things that could harm them. This gate along the roadway is always kept closed, even if no cattle are in the pasture beyond, so if any animal happens to get out of the field they are in, they won't be able to get out on the road and possibly get hurt. It also should keep people who should not be on the property from coming onto the land and possibly doing things (like letting dogs run and chase) that would harm the cattle.

Obviously, there are theological implications -- that God sets boundaries for us, not because He does not love us, but because He *does* love us and knows what is best for us -- after all, He created us, and He knows our frame.

A view of the Poplar Springs house and farm buildings with brilliant blue sky from the gate at the road.

Fertilizer truck...

I was also remembering when my Dad would get a fertilizer spreader and fertilizer to put on the fields when I was a kid. While this fertilizer truck uses a GPS and computer controls to determine where the driver needs to drive and what rate to spread, Dad used his son and daughter (Jimmy and me) and manual calculations. He had two pairs of metal rods/posts with a set length of baling twine tied between each pair of rods. Jimmy would be positioned near one end of the field, and I would be at the other end. Dad would line up the tractor on the route delineated by the two of us across the field, and then motion the closer one of us (say, Jimmy) to move his line. Dad would drive straight toward me, until he got close and then motion me to move my rod. I would run it as far as the baling twine let it go, push it into the ground, and then go back to the other rod. By then, Dad would have U-turned at my end of the field, and I would be at the rod at my end of the field, Jimmy at his rod at his end of the field so Dad could line up the needed path between me and Jimmy. He would motion me to move and then continue down the field toward Jimmy -- and so on it went, inch-worming with the rods and baling twine across the field!

With its GPS and monitoring, the truck eventually finished the other pastures and arrived at the bull pasture... where I opened the gate.

Fertilizer truck in the bull pasture - the bulls were down there near the trees, fully unimpressed with any of this going on... but... if we'd left the gate open, I'm certain they would have quickly figured it out and made their way into some mischief!

While I was waiting down near the gate, a group of 7-8 deer got flushed out of the trees (probably by the fertilizer truck coming nearby) and they came running up the field just inside the bull pasture. The first two successfully jumped the fence at the road, and the first one made it across the road (albeit right in front of a vehicle that thankfully wasn't going very fast). The second deer stopped and waited as some of the others were having more difficulty getting past the fence. When the whole group had made it across the fence, they all took off across the road -- again right in front of a vehicle -- don't their mothers teach them to look both ways? I didn't get pictures of the deer...