More outside cleanup

We finished up another day of cleaning up the farmstead. We made piles of scrap metal to recycle and wood to burn. We filled the dumpster up more than we expected.

When we got to the house in the early afternoon, after church and lunch, we were surprised to find Dad already there with the lawnmower. The fuel line came loose though, so we'll have to try to find a part to reconnect it to the tank through a Scag dealer tomorrow. We're concerned about ruining the entire mower at our place. He's gone through two tires, three blades and a bunch of barbed wire wrapped around underneath so far.

Bob finished removing planks from the old garage. Diane wants an outhouse for syrup season in the woods — and I agree that it's harder for us women to find a spot to go — so a friend will build one out of the garage wood. After Bob had all the planks off, we pushed the garage over by hand without too much effort. I can breathe a little easier now knowing it won't fall on the kids.

Maggie and Dick came by in the evening and were amazed to find a seemingly endless burial ground of metal scraps next to the shop. They worked at it for quite awhile and will be back tomorrow for more help. Bob went down to the house to retrieve some sloppy joes for us that Diane had made. They hit the spot.

Brenda will watch the girls tomorrow. Mark will join us for the work bee and Dad will be back with the loader tractor this time.

After everyone else was gone, our last job for the night was to pull some cardboard boxes out of the milkhouse and burn them. While we watched the fire I noticed a beautiful half moon. Later we heard an unusual bird call that turned out to be the twittering a male barn owl makes to attract a mate. It sounded like this.