Safe Travels & Construction Challenges

Goats on the move, traveling in their newly-modified trailer.

Today I needed to transport our dairy goat girls to the vet to have blood drawn for CAE testing. (More about CAE testing in another post.) Sure I could have "done it myself"--Not!--but I've never drawn blood on a goat before (or on anyone else for that matter--getting alpaca blood drops for DNA testing is not in the same league). Although the farm has a practically-full-fledged medical assistant with experience in phlebotomy on staff, she has only worked with humans, and she insists that one should never draw blood from the jugular vein. ("But that's what the instructions say to do!" notwithstanding.) So we needed to get to Kinslow Veterinary Clinic to have the blood drawn and to be taught to draw the blood ourselves in the future. Today's challenge was safely transporting my sometimes-high-strung dairy goat girls to the vet.

Beginning with the little 4' x 8' trailer that I haul behind the rattletrap farm pickup truck, I set out for Lowe's (via the transfer station). I had meant to stop to see the welder over on SE Tater Peeler who helped us before, but I must have been lost in thought because we sailed past that turn and I didn't even realize that we had missed it until we were another mile down the road. Once we got the trailer unearthed from the trash and recycling, we headed to Lowe's with the plan to swing by the welder's shop on the way home. (We don't have a phone number for him, so the drill is to just drive by and try to catch him when he's in. Not very efficient, I know, but he's retired from full time work and prefers to just be caught when he's on site.)

4-1/2" angle grinder

No one that I spoke with at Lowe's understood my request for "metal stock," but that was okay as I was standing practically beside it by the time I found someone to ask. (When the trailer had been up in Macon County and I described my vision for raising the sides to Artemis, she told me it would be easy to do--beginning with metal stock for the upright supports. Once I had the terminology, I was ready to shop.) The electrical department had both EMT stock for cheap and rigid stock running close to $1.30 a foot. I gathered enough of both to use the strong stock on the corners and the more-easily-bendable stock along the sides. It helped that I had the trailer with me because I was able to take the materials out to the lot to determine if they would work (fit) before checking out.  (Two huge impediments to the realization of any building visions that I have are lack of terminology to know what to request and lack of confidence that the materials, once found, will work. So, I take baby steps.)

Thin-bladed hand saw

Back on the farm I got busy hunting for the pipe-cutting tool, without a clue as to where to look. I came up with an angle grinder (but no safety glasses or metal cutting blade) and a thin bladed hand saw that I imagined was made for sawing metal. The little saw worked on the EMT stock, but slowly, very slowly. I called our operations manager for direction to the pipe cutting tool. While looking in the places to which I had been directed, I found another little hand saw with instructions on it to always wear safety glasses, so I took that to mean that it, too, was made to cut metal. I did not find the pipe cutter.

The new little saw worked much better and I burned through the EMT stock without much trouble. Measure twice, cut once? Ha. That would take brains. After I had cut the first 10' section on stock into one 2' scrap section and two 4' usable sections--the siding I planned to use is 3' tall and the space into which the stock would fit was about 6" (okay, maybe 4"--no, I did not measure), I realized that there might be a better way. I might even be able to get three usable pieces out of each piece of stock! (Duh.) Of course, 120" is evenly divisible by 3, with the resulting 40" pieces being just the right size for the job. (Thank goodness I made my wasteful cuts on stock that cost less than 18 cents per foot!)

Only in the evening, when our operations manager returned to the farm, did I learn that the two little hand saws are designed for wood. And although I was able to cut the rigid pipe with the angle grinder--I know it would have been easier with a cutting blade, but I must work with what I can locate--I received a brisk dressing-down and review of safety procedures. I'll be given a tool safety refresher class sometime this week. (I'm eager to have the shop finished and organized so that I can find the tools I need when I want them. Hopefully before spring...)

Dairy does on the move, exiting the farm driveway in "their" trailer / limousine.

Pieces of 3'-tall hog panel, woven between the upright posts and tacked in place with plastic zip ties (for now), completed the raised sides. The goat girls clambered into the trailer eagerly, following the basket of grain I held, and rode calmly--as if they were regular travelers. Leslie lay down, no body-surfing on a moving trailer for her. Marcie, busybody that she is, tried to look everywhere at once. An Pamela, silly girl, did a fine canine imitation: pointing her nose forward and practically smiling while her ears flopped on the wind. They came with me to run errands, too, while they were out, and returned home seasoned travelers.