Christmas Takedown and Hog Rings

It was time to let go of Christmas, so the chaos began yesterday.

 I realized that I only used decorations that were in my closet, because I was sick, and not the multitude of Christmas boxes out in the rafters of the garage. This is the second year that I have not pulled out all the boxes of Christmas things in the garage. I have decided that maybe I don't need what's out there anymore. What I used from the closet was enough and the revelation is mind boggling. Sometime this year, I will tackle the boxes in the garage and PURGE.
We took the lights down from the outside edges of the house....

The old Prospector put them up, this year, without his usual baa humbug, "Do I have to do this?" speech. Maybe he took pity on me because I was ill. He used the pretext that people in Mokelumne Hill (the little town east of us) would miss seeing the only Christmas lights across the river on the western hills. But, sadly, on Wednesday, he went out and took them down. I kind of miss the colored edges of the gutter coming on in the morning before the light breaks and at night as I sat in the living room knitting. It's the old fashion ones, individual and multi colored. No flashing on/off or icicle fakery, just soft color around the porch and across the back of the house where they can be seen from many miles. I will miss them.
Yesterday, in the late afternoon, the Prospector asked me if I would help him fix the goat fence below the house. The wire fencing had finally given way from the goats incessant reaching for the "greener" grass on the other side. This section, if they broke through would lead right up into my front garden and disaster would ensue. So, we corraled the dogs, much to their dismay....

and laid out the new piece of fencing, with SMALLER holes that the goats couldn't get their heads through and began the arduous stretching and attachment of a new piece of wire fence. We decided to leave the old fencing in place and attach the new shorter section right to the old one.
We laid out the new piece of fencing and cut the length we needed. I held the piece up on one end while the Prospector snaked an old t-post through one end and attached the "come along" to it. This is a very nifty device that lets you stretch the wire fencing tightly so you can attach it to the fence posts.I don't know how any fencing could be done without one.

We just needed to pull this new piece tight enough  so that we could attach it to the old fence.

That's where these little guys come in. I was in charge of the HOG RINGS. Now, I don't want to offend any of my readers by going into detail about what the real purpose of these large rings( heavy staples) are for but if you really want to read about it go to this site and it will explain. Please don't if you are into animal activism or don't have a pig farm. Don't tell me you went to the site and now you're offended. I told you ahead of time and you had a choice. Raising farm animals is a learning process. If you want to learn something... then go take a look. Now I know why I wouldn't want to raise pigs. I couldn't do this to them.... and maybe you don't have to. I believe that some of these practices are a bit old and barbaric. I'm glad we were using them on fencing.
OUR purpose for the hog rings was to attach one fence to another as a temporary measure until we can afford a new section of fencing below the house. They are crooked little staples that get all tangled up in the box.  My job, after we got the fencing stretched out, was to untangle them and hand them to the Prospector, one at a time, so he could attach the wires of the fencing to the old one using these nifty staples and his (what else) HOG PLIERS. It all works quite well with two people. We were quite a team. Those old goats won't know what happen. I can just hear them now. "Hey, what happen to the holes we made in the fence? How come we can't reach the grass on the slope.? FARMLADY......"

The fog was coming in over the hills to the west and the wind was picking up. We finished the "patching" as the sun disappeared into the fog and the air got really cold.  We cleaned up, closed the gates and  dragged everything up into the garage.Time to go inside and have some hot chocolate.
It was a day of accomplishment. It was a day of putting away, cleaning up and fixing here on the farm. I like that. Together, with this man that I live with, we make a good team. We always have.