Finally, a proper gate at the entrance to the farm.  Even though the quarters are fenced, we had left the 3 wire, barbwire gate in place that was there when we bought the place.  Last year I finally broke down and bought a couple of heavy-duty gate panels and acquired 2 steel pipes for posts.  The boys came by with a trackhoe during the fall and placed and pounded the posts for me.  Early this spring, my neighbour Brandon brought his welder friend over and they mounted the gate panels.  Later in the summer Lee organized a post painting party.  All-in-all, the gate turned out great and gave us a little extra bit of security.

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Early in the summer I did a deal with my neighbour Brandon for him to farm all of my cultivated land for 2024.  To prep for that, he brought in a breaking disk and a field disk.  We used my tractor for some of the field work and he brought in their big John Deere as well.  One day while working the west pasture he broke down with his John Deere.  Thankfully my tractor was available so it was a tow to the road.  Once there they managed to maneuver the crippled tractor onto a flat  deck and haul it to the dealership in Fairview.  Unfortunately the repair was going to cost more than the tractor was worth so it ended up being sold for parts.  Farming ain't cheap!

  
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For the July long weekend, we towed our new travel trailer we had bought for camping up to Shaw's Point Resort on Slave Lake.  We set up on Glenn's lot there and had a great few days visiting, fishing and just generally not doing too much.  Leaving there, we continued up to the farm and set it up in the yard.

During the August long weekend our son and DIL came up for a 3-day visit and set up housekeeping in the trailer.  It served so well as a guest house my sister drove up for a few days later in August and moved in.  Just before she arrived I decided to set up three food plots around the property.  I had acquired a rototiller for the Kubota and now put it to good use.  My sister was looking for something to do while she was up so we turned the tractor over to her.  After a day with the rototiller, we had a couple of acres prepared and ready to be planted next spring.

   
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My neighbour acquired a 9370 Case over the summer. Mid-fall, he brought it over to my place to finish up preparing the pastures for seeding in the spring.

  
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Hunting was great this year at the farm.  My long-time hunting partner drew a bull moose tag and was successful.  As well, my neighbour, his grandson and his friend from town also connected.

   
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A big issue up to this year had been our water supply.  Even though we had a tank in the shed we were still pumping water in to the trailer fresh water tank.  Because of the tanks capacity and our water use we were filling it every couple of days.  To remedy this, I bought a 1,100 litre poly tank and mounted it right behind the trailer.  It's connected directly to the trailer water pump.  This bypasses the trailer tank and provides a 2 month supply for us.

 
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Shutting down for the season.  Other than drought conditions and almost no hay this year, we quite enjoyed our time here.  We also hauled and spread another 15 loads of gravel.  The road has never looked better.

    
   
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