Fix

I went to the calf barn with Kris tonight. A waterer had been running ... had overflowed, with a little stream running out of the barn. (Nice drainage, anyway!) Kris fixed it - there was a tiny pebble that had gotten lodged in part of it, and once he freed that, it started working again. It took him awhile, though, because he had to take the entire thing apart and put it back together again.

I remember when we were growing up here and my sister asked my dad how he knew how to fix everything. He told her he didn't start out that way - just when you HAVE to fix things, you learn by doing.

I'm sure Kris never took a class on waterer maintenance. But when the calves HAVE to drink, you figure it out pretty quickly.

Water

These waterers remind me of those big McDonald's thermoses from elementary school. Yet they're not filled with some orange drink, they're Ritchie cattle waterers.

By looking at that site, I just learned Thomas Ritchie patented the first automatic waterer device in 1921 ... way to go, Thomas. Apparently still wildly popular.

It's always full of water. If a calf drinks enough out of it at one time, there's a valve that opens up and it automatically fills back up. It's also heated, so that when it freezes outside, the cattle's water never freezes over.

So, this is the new barn. Piece by piece, it's getting put together - and looks good! I hope the calves like it ... McDonald's and Ritchie obviously know what they're doing.