An exciting event we've been eagerly awaiting happened this morning while I was at physical therapy (of course). Fortunately, Kara grabbed my iPad and recorded it for me. Brandy asks, "Is THIS the new pony?"
Sorry, Brandy, no, but it IS something we got because of you (and Angel and Sara and Siobhan and T-Bone). Hint: Poop!
Our instructions from ABI said to have a tractor with a loader ready to help unload our new toy because it was too big for the lift gate alone to handle. So Herb fastened a strap to it and helped the driver let it down.
Oops! Suddenly it slipped! But the tractor and the strap held it up.
Oof! Safe on the ground! You can actually see the relief on Herb's face! (Our new toy weighs over 1,000 lbs, by the way. You don't grab it when it slips!)
The mighty little Kubota dragged the whole thing out of the road so the driver could turn around at Kara's house.
This is the delightful sight that met my eyes when I got home: Our new
ABI Classic Manure Spreader! Ours is the 50G, meaning it is ground-driven (the blades turn as it drives over the ground without having to be hooked up to a tractor's PTO drive) and it holds 50 cu.ft. of manure. This is not a lot as full-size manure spreaders go, but it is perfect for us. It would take us all winter to fill a gigantic manure spreader, and then our tractor wouldn't be able to pull it! This one will be light enough to be pulled by our riding mower, will cause less damage to wet ground, and will be more maneuverable.
Take a peek inside at the chains that move the manure back . . .
... and the chopping blades and spreader bars that, well, chop and spread the manure! :) We can't wait to try it out, but we need a large cotter pin, so we'll just have to hold our horses . . . before the spreader can hold our horses' manure!
Stay tuned for a photographic demonstration . . .
You can see why this was a "crappy" day and why it was good, too. One more thing happened that might qualify for a "crappy" day for lots of people, but made it extra specially good for us: A cloudburst that dumped rain on us shortly after I took this picture.
What a lovely, doubly crappy day!
Excellent! I've never seen one not covered in manure.
ReplyDeleteJust wait! :D
ReplyDeleteNice! The farmer (in the field behind us0 uses a side dump manure spreader--I'd never seen one of those before.
ReplyDeleteBarbara
I've never even heard of a side-dump manure spreader! Except the other day when one of the animals knocked over the wheelbarrow Herb had just filled up! I'll have to look it up on the internet and see what it's like.
ReplyDeleteI remember my dad having a full size manure spreader but we had a dairy farm with lots of manure, when he spread the manure from the loafing shed you could smell it for miles it seemed. we could not hang clothes on the line to dry for a few days or they smelled too bad. this brought back some memories for me. thanks
ReplyDeleteSo funny, Ellie! There are a lot of chicken farms in this area, and they use the liquefied manure to fertilize fields. A week later, you can't walk across one of those fields because the odor literally takes your breath away. I truly hope our compact spreader with only leave a compact odor! Stay tuned . . .
ReplyDelete