The best-laid schemes o’ mice and men gang aft agley.—from “To a Mouse” by Robert Burns

There’s always work to be done on the farm.  Kevin and I frequently start the day by asking each other, “What do you want to do today?” Recently, the plan of the day included reconstructing the corral that we had taken apart so that we could have sorting/holding pens built.  We had a few other chores to take care of first, but then made our way over to the holding pen area.

The panels we’re reconstructing are big and heavy—built for bison—so Kevin uses the tractor to pick them up and place them. He picked two panels up at once and set one of them next to a post we would anchor it to, so it would be connected to the holding pens. Then, we set the other panel next to a post at the other side of the holding-pen area. It was as we were maneuvering the second panel into place that we realized we would need to move a large pile of dirt out of the area before we could continue building the corral. It would be much simpler to move the dirt without the corral panels up around it.

So off Kevin drives on the tractor to exchange his hay spike for his front loader. I made good time digging thistles while he was gone, so I began building a bridge while waiting for him to get back and finish moving the dirt pile.

After Kevin moved the pile of dirt and rocks, we did another survey of the area and decided that before we continued building the corral, we should smooth out the area, so it would be more level. A box blade is the best tool to use for smoothing rough areas, but we had the post driver on the tractor, so we’d have to make yet another trip back to the barn to get the right equipment. By this time, it was late in the day and neither of us felt like starting on the next phase. We agreed to detach the post driver, attach the box blade and call it a day.

These types of details that you don't think about until after you start a project are the reason almost all home-improvement and farm projects take longer than you think they will.

With only two corral panels up, it doesn’t look as if we accomplished much, particularly considering our morning plan. But we built two bridges; shored up the bison water tank; cleaned out the chicks’ tank; dug thistles; took inventory; and prepared dinner, lunches and coffee for the next day.

We never need to worry about boredom even if we don’t accomplish what we set out to do.