cow haircuts & grapevines

As I mentioned before, we were having some off-the-wall temperatures in Illinois for it only being March. Typically.. during March, we usually are still seeing a lot of the white stuff on the ground. That and usually some sleet and rain, accompanied by persistent winds. But for a few weeks in March, we were blessed with temps rivaling that of our usual late May/June forecasts. Due to this odd occurrence, we were on the ball when it came to a few projects. One, of which, being taking the clippers to our wooly-bear-looking bull, Kahuna. 

I should have taken a "before"photo of his wooly, curly, cuuurrrllyyy head, but, of course, I didn't. He reminded me of a toy stuffed animal, he was so hairy. So now that Chris clipped a TON (as you can see in the top photo..the stuff on the ground is hair!) of hair off of him, he should feel nice and cool.

The next day, my father-in-law, Joe, & I started and finished a project of mine while Chris was busy and not on the farm. I've always wanted to have grape plants. I've probably wanted to grow them ever since I plucked my first bunch of concords from my great grandma, Louise's, thick vines.  My Grandma Rita, who passed away over 10 years ago now, used to make the BEST grape jelly from those concords.

I still remember opening the last jar of grape jelly a while after she passed away and feeling guilty for eating it. I suppose I just felt that it should be saved forever. Now that I'm going to have my own vines, I can look forward to tasting her recipe once again.

I helped Joe select some round fence posts from a pile in our yard and measure the distance between the holes to be dug. We then dug 2 holes, about 5 feet deep for the fence posts to be placed. Then we spaced out and planted the 6 grape plants. I painted the posts white and today we strung the wires up. Mission accomplished.

The following day I applied a couple fresh coats of white barn primer & paint and they look brand spankin' new.