Cedar tree with a job.

Yesterday was stall stripping day! Mary picks the poop all week and on a Friday we strip stalls. It doesnt take long to do 7 stalls, 3 hours tops from stripping the stall, dumping the poo, lay lime and 3 barrows of shavings and put horse back.

This week while I was in my minis dry lot I noticed this little Cedar tree growing. I thought to myself, if you get any higher you will be short circuiting my electric fence...you have to go. I had a job for this baby tree that would short out my fence and 1 day, if it grew big enough, my mule would girdle it and it would die a slow painfull death, so I had to put it out of its misery a bit sooner than planned, but it had a job to do, I wasnt going to waste it. So off I went down the road with my baby tree and drinks.

Star Ranch This is where that little Cedar tree would be working today, along side me & Mary...or should I say Mary, I wont be anywhere near it if I can help it. The job this Cedar has sends me running for cover untill its job is over.

These cobwebs appear over night and stay all week. You usually find most of them above the stalls up in the rafters and in the corners of stalls where the horses butts are to large to get into to swipe them away. They appear out of nowhere in the summer, you dont see them in the winter, its to cold for them to come out I think, but thats fine with me. Saves me having a hissy fit every time I feel a cobweb run across my face. Mary just shakes her head and me, runnig round like an crazy person with arms flying everywhere.

So down to stall stripping. Nothing much to it really, you shovel shit and shovel more shit, you take out all thats in the stalls, lay a bit of lime to get rid of the amonia smell that sometimes chokes you to death and you stand for 10 minutes choffin your gutts up and cant get rid of the smell out your nose. So Smoke went out 1st, he wanted a cookie and he begged for one. I didnt have anyhting to give him but he kept on, looking at me with those big expressive eyes he has and leaned his head over like PLEEEEESSSEEEEEE!!!!

I had to give in, I didnt bring anything for him, so I gave him a handfull of feed to keep him happy and to stop begging like a pauper on the street. You would think hes hard done by...but hes not!
So, we scooped shit and Mary went to dump it out in the pasture, the back of the gator lifts up, the idea is to spread it as she drives but most of the time it will THUD to the ground in 1 big heap..oh well, never mind.

Then comes the job of the Cedar tree. Mary shoves the small trunk of the tree down a piece of tubeing and uses it as a duster, to dust away all the cobwebs that appeared over night and got to stay all week. Because the tree is sticky, the webs stick to it and they dont fall all over you when your doing it. As you can see im standing faaaar away so the spiders dont fall on me.
We then lay lime and add 3 barrows of shaving to the stall and add the horse to flatten the shavings .

Usually when you put Smoke back in his stall the first thing he does is have a pee, then he gets down to business and he will waller in the shavings and spread them round his stall. Today he wasnt having any of it. The camera in my hand must of looked like a cookie, so I had to walk away and wait...and wait...and wait. In the end he did go down, it was a 2 second roll before he spotted me and was up in a flash. No Smoke, its not a darn cookie!!!!
So that was 1 stall done, another 6 more to do yet. But we got the job done. The Cedar got his job done too. I didnt feel 1 iota of guilt as I was cutting this baby Cedar down, this Cedar was going to save my life and dignaty from flailing around like a demented chicken. Next week we will hunt down another Cedar, thats the worst bit, they dont last long. 1 cleaning to be presise, after the cleaning it does, the stickyness dissapears and its job is over. It dries out covered in cobwebs and its only payment for doing such a good job is to be taken across the road back into the woods where it will die. Im sorry baby Cedar tree for taking your life so early but you did a good job, saved me from cobwebs and siders and gave Mary a clean barn.
Thank You baby Cedar Tree!!

Some more pics from the barn

Willie B A Loper...aka Willie