Tails of the Travelin' Trio: Smash

(Arlington, WA) Meet Farmer Mike. With five acres to take care of, Mike is becoming a farmer whether he likes it or not! He won't say so but I think he is enjoying it. He is doing a great job, working from morning until night. The dogs and I are extremely appreciative of all his efforts.

After getting all the rocks picked up, the field was still very "fluffy" and rough. So Mike rented a roller to smash down the ground.

The rental company brought it over and gave Mike a 60 second lesson.

Then it was off to work!

In addition to rolling, the machine vibrates to help pack down the ground. Mike thought that part was fun. But he mentioned many times that it was really hurting his back.

Not sure if you can tell from the pictures but this thing is HUGE!

And it sure did flatten the ground.

I was glad Mike thought it was fun as it took him the better part of two days. First he rolled the entire pasture. Then he spread grass seed over the entire area. Once again, he then rolled the entire area one more time.

This is what it looked like when he was done. Not sure if you can tell or not but there is a small brown dot in the field. That is Slugger just sitting there watching....who knows what.

At one point during the week, Mike walked around the yard trying to get out as many of the roots sticking out of the ground that he could. The dogs really enjoyed this activity and did their best to help.

Tugging

Pulling

Eating

I haven't seen much animal life since we moved in. I've heard a lot of squirrels - as have the dogs. But the one thing there is no shortage of are huge spiders and their webs.

I hate spiders! They are making these webs everywhere. Mike won't knock them down as he loves to see how big they'll get and see what they catch. Great.

Amazing how I didn't see any birds around here until Mike spread grass seed. It was like a seed alert was sent out around the city. Suddenly we had birds everywhere. The dogs tried to chase them for a while but gave up as they were totally outnumbered.

The only other thing I saw was a dragonfly. Fortunately he landed as I was having a heck of a time trying to get a picture while he was flying.

But the highlight of my sightings was the pileated woodpecker. He sure takes a big wind up before banging into the wood.

It was really interesting to see how big a holes he could make.

Speaking of wildlife, 2iggie had a great day today. She caught a mouse, a mole and a platypus. I saw her doing something under the deck that looked unusual. I called her and she brought me a mouse. Great....not!

Shortly after that she took Mike a mole! Yes! Catch all those you want little girl.

In all fairness, she had help with the platypus. Boogie actually caught it....2iggie just killed it. Here it is before its death.

Mike was working in the "basement" - the bins under the RV - and Boogie crawled in, hunted through a big bag full of toys and pulled out the platypus. It didn't last long once 2iggie got a hold of it.

Wazzu doesn't kill animals. I watched her for quite some time today as she was trying to make friends with a mole. She was so patient as it slowly came up and peaked out then dashed back down...over and over. You can see the little mound of dirt just starting.

The dogs didn't really know what was going on but they knew their daddy was doing lots of digging and pulling so they seemed to want to try as well.

Every time we go outside the dogs dig under this bush. There has got to be someone under there.

I have a picture of each dog under this bush. I can't imagine what is so interesting under there but it must be something good.

Today was the first day that 2iggie discovered the forest. She darted into the forest and was there about 20 minutes before Mike went to find her. She came out sopping wet.

The forest is too dense for people to get through....it's even hard for the dogs to get through. But Mike did cut a path all along the fence line. The fence is on the left side of the pictures.