Yesterday was beautiful and refreshing with a major milestone; Kyra learned to drive the mower. Actually, we both did. The pasture had patches of moldy hay we spread last fall over a foot deep in places, but that was no match for Little Buck pulling a flail mower. It took a really long time in 1st and 2nd gears (we'll be able to use 4th and 5th next time), but it's done! Moldy hay is now an even pulverized mat getting sun baked. We only found a few rocks, a little twine, and a buried tire.
Only big mistake, discovered after reading my manual this morning, was that I should have been in PTO speed 1 instead of 2 out of 3, but nothing broke. Also, I put together a maintenance schedule today.

Far from being a plug for a product, this post is a celebration of a concept, an invention, a type of product that allow someone like me to exit the flaming, rubber-walled prison of the 3M carbon/HEPA filter monstrosity.
RZ Mask, a small business in Utah that "invented" this product and sells it direct from their website, missed the mark a little for those with high profile noses like myself. But not to be deterred, some 8 gauge wire bent to match facial contours and hand stitched into the extra fabric (formerly eye-flaps apparently) transforms deformity into conformity.
My constant companion, little RZ is washable, and filters (supposedly) 99.9% of air-born particulate with additional activated carbon function. It has enabled me to do all sorts of things from going inside the rapidly vanishing house to mowing rows of moldy hay. Here's to modern British military technology made accessible for $30 plus 10 inches of wire and an hour and a half of bending and stitching.
Note that I am rapidly earning a reputation through local gossip channels as that mysterious masked (and seemingly paranoid) new owner of the little yellow house.

While it may not look like much, this 10' x 10' canopy on a platform took a full day to construct (so I'm not just a tent dweller, but I'm a slow one...). At dusk, overcome by joy at our success, local birds sang and anointed liberally. It was reminiscent of a melodramatic movie moment - pointy birds anointing things.

Come May 13th, this will be my home away from home. With approximately half my nights spent here, my five gallon camp shower and five gallon bucket lid (not pictured here) will be luxuries.

We bought this little buck from a woman on Highway 8, about 4 miles east of Moscow. It came with a plow blade, but we had to take it off to fit it in our 4' by 8' utility trailer.
Joshy, the youngest, is sitting on it contentedly in the picture above. The oldest four of us drove it on the hills behind our house in Moscow, then we delivered it to Garfield.

We ordered a flail mower from Betstco in Oregon. It arrived in two days, and we picked it up in Lewiston. A week later, on May 6th, Dad set it up and did a test. It had the wrong set of blades, so Dad talked to the dealer, and they are sending a replacement set of blades.