Laurel Ridge Farm: Super Bowl Sunday Excitement

Monday, February 14, 2022

Super Bowl Sunday Excitement

Following last week's ice storm, there was a ton of broken branches and debris to clear.

I worked all day Saturday and all Sunday morning to gather, drag and burn the debris. I didn't even get to this collection on the deer stand.

I concentrated on the driveway and around the barn.

I did get this one field edge ATV trail cleared.

It wasn't easy.

On both Saturday and Sunday, I burned in my burn pit. Everything was wet and green so not so easy to get it going.

Then I decided to split up some of my oak logs with my newly renovated log splitter.

It worked great but at some point, I got a couple fingers pinched between those logs and the tip of the tractor bucket.

It hurt like hell, I stuck it in a snow bank, and went on with my chores. It was past lunchtime so I decided to jump in the shower. We wanted to get home for the Super Bowl. Although I'm actually a Steeler fan, I was still hoping for the Bengals to make a good showing. Notice that's my ring finger.

Anyway, when I got out of the shower and was about to grab a bite of lunch, Joan said "I think that your fire got away from you".

Sure enough, the prevailing winds were spreading it thru the un-mowed section of grass and blowing it toward the pond. I jumped in the tractor and went out to scrape fire breaks. Actually, it was so wet that the tractor tire ruts worked pretty well as fire breaks. Joan also came out (sockless and in crocs) and manned a rake. We had it under control in short order but I found that I bled all over the tractor cab (thru the band-aids that I had put on).

Anyway, once we were sure it was out, we packed up and headed home for the Super Bowl. As I was making my chili for the game, Joan arranged a Facetime medical consult with Amy and Doug. The consensus was that I should have some medical attention so I headed to urgent care. When I showed them what I had, they said go to the emergency room.

So I checked in at the ER and sat down in the lobby just in time to catch the kick off. Eventually I got to an exam room (which had a tv for the game). X-rays said the tip of the ring finger was broken. With generous amounts of lube and a lot of elbow grease, the wedding ring came off for the first time in years. Miranda, the PA, numbed me up and did the sewing as I watched the game - 8 stitches. Since the bone was broken, IV antibiotics were ordered. The IV finished just as the game did. I was famished and went home to have two chili-dogs.

Bummer for the Bengals but they fought the valiant fight.

Another discovery this weekend - as you may know, I started last March to acquire a suppressor for my Xbolt rifles via Silencer Central. I had always assumed that they were threaded identically - not! Three different threads on three Xbolts. So at least I found out that I needed adapters before the can showed up. The paperwork has been in ATF hands for 11 months - no action yet.

Some of the cameras haven't been checked in over a month. I made it around to all of them this weekend. Here's some of the highlights in various categories.