Windmills, New Tank, Back Rubbers and a Water Tanker

#bfrdpwy #aginternship #RightRisk

This week has been some new things, but more of the typical things I have already done. This would include pulling windmills, using the plasma cutter and moving cows, but I was also taught some new jobs.

We started doing some foundation work around a new tank that was going to be put into use. Now we just wait on the concrete to be poured into the frame. Another thing was setting in new posts so that we could put up a back rubber in those pastures, we used the forks on the skid steer and wrapped chain around the posts to pick them up and set them.

Another thing I got to witness was taking the firehouse water tanker and pumping it into a cattle tank that had run dry. This was an important job because the tank was way too low for the cattle, and they needed water that the windmill couldn’t supply fast enough to.

Another reason why windmills are getting to be a pain to work with: they dry up too fast or get plugged and other problems have occurred more than the submersible pump on a solar panel. It seems some of the water table has continued to drop since the start of irrigation pivots on the alfalfa circles. I wondered why one of the windmills was spinning but wasn’t pulling up enough water to supply the tank. I haven’t been here long, but so far I have noticed how more efficient the submersible solar and electric pumps are compared to the windmill pipes. Of course, in the summer the sun is always out and pumps are running fast with solar power, I imagine the wind will blow harder in the winter and the windmills will pump faster. So each has their own pros and cons but I just think the windmills are starting to get out dated with the decreasing number of parts available

[This week I’m wondering] how bad are the flies for cattle? Do cattle start to lose weight if they have too many flies biting them? When will the new alfalfa that just got replanted into the old triticale be sprouting? How does the rebar and the chunks of old concrete help to set in the new foundation? How does the rural fire dept. work together with other companies and the volunteers that run it? What is the policy for fighting wildfires, how are pastures managed during a fire? Do cows have to be left out of the pasture and moved around to the house? How can they be saved in a wildfire?

[I now] understand how to prep a concrete foundation and tie together rebar. Breaking up the old concrete with a sledgehammer was fun and a useful tool to learn how to use for demolition. I think, once we put in the concrete, I [will] be able to learn how it’s spread and dried. Drilling holes was another thing useful skill to learn and it’ll be a life skill I’ll use down the road whenever I need to bury something vertical.

Using a chalk line to mark out a straight line on some pipe that I cut with the plasma cutter will help me practice lining up a level line to cut with. Working with the handheld plasma cutter teaches me to keep my body still and my hands steady the whole way across the cut. Another work week down and I hope to have a good fourth out on the lake.