Meet the farm's newest addition!

IT was Labor Day and we both had the day off. Thank you National Holidays, they seem to be the only time we both get to be home together. We got a late start but went at it hard. First the small square baler needed a new tire and inter tube - we had scrounged all week finding the replacement, turns out old implement tires aren't stocked often. Richard ended up finding a very old but better than the one on the baler in our rock pile, then couldn't find a inter tube but did manage to find one a half size bigger. Yay we have a tire and tube. Next came the fight to put the new tire and tube on.

When in doubt use a hammer.

Sadly all our work was for not, as the straw we were to bale didnt amount to enough to bale. Basically the farmer left the spreader off his combine but the wheat wasn't tall enough to leave much straw after he baled. 

Then it was time to get hay for the goats. Their pasture is pretty dry and dead not much grazing. My uncle and cousin baled us some mini round bales, using their large round baler. They stopped the baler before it was full and made a smaller bale. We still have to move these bales with the tractor or they can be pushed by  a person. Richard thought rolling the closest one to the barn was too much work. He suggested using our trusty garden cart. I was skeptical but look it worked!

On a whim we decided to search our favorite online classifieds site (Bismanonline.com) during our lunch hour. We have been looking for a pony, small square straw bales, a puppy and other farm additions. This time we were in luck. "wagon pony for sale" I made the phone calls, Richard hitched up the trailer. We were off to look at a pony. We both agree that we didn't have to bring this pony home, if he wasn't right/safe we would turn around and come home with an empty trailer. It would be a 2 1/2 hour drive just to look. Boy was it worth every minute. The owners were friendly and honest, the horse was just as they told us. They hitched him up to the cart and we went for a spin. Then we talked price and shook hands. 

'Wow we just bought a pony' kept running through my head the whole trip home.  

Meet Bernie. Sounds like Barney, right?, hopefully it will stick, I really cant stand the name Barney. Images of purple dinosaurs come to mind. Anyway Bernie is a 10 year old gelding, who has only been driven. A big thing with ponies is their feet they often have hoof issues, we got lucky and Bernie has strong black feet with out any signs of issues. (such as founder) His hooves are little long and need a trim but we can handle that. 

Today I brushed Bernie until he shone then got him harnessed up for our first drive. Sure I'd driven him at his old place but here he was mine. I called the neighbor (friend, cousin and horse owner) down the road to see if I could drive him down there for a second opinion. What fun, a little pony to go places with.