Rake, pipe and missing pliers

Over the past three days I have spent much of each day raking my corral.  Since I had more cattle for a longer period in the corral last May I had lots and lots of dried cow pies all around the corral.  And in that I hadn't raked the corral for a few years now you'd agree it was past time to do so.

In the last photo above notice the small mound of dirt.  When raking I discovered a plastic pipe in the ground.  The end was open (with dirt) and looked to have been struck by a lawn mower or something similar. Wrapped around the pipe was part of a heating tape.

I dug down a yard or so until the pipe curved to the south and the heating tape ended.  I am not positive where the pipe went as I didn't want to dig a trench to find out. I suspected it went to the well near my cattle's water trough though I could not see a plastic pipe near it.  Why the pipe came out of the ground at this spot in the corral is a mystery.

With my hand rake I raked the entire corral.  I dumped many wheelbarrow loads of manure and dead grass in three lows spots in the corral and also some places in my garden.  Dried cow manure is a good fertilizer.

I raked so much that Friday I broke the rake I had bought last year (or the year before?)  I broke the metal rake not the handle.  Fortunately I had bought several old rake heads at an auction last year so I was able to replace broken the rake head.

While raking the back corral I found the pair of pliers I had lost back in May of 2007 when my uncles and aunts from Washington State visited me.  My aunts and I had worked on my corral fence and I had lost one pair of pliers.  As much as I searched that year and next I never found the pliers.  Last year in the Spring I had burnt the dead grass along the corral fence and kept an eye out for the pliers and never found them.  I gave up looking thinking I had lost them somewhere else in the yard

Friday as I raked the cow pies I looked up and the sun was just right and I noticed the pliers hanging in the fence. What?!  I had been by the fence a million times the past three years and had already raked by the corral near where the pliers hung.  It is a mystery why I never saw the pliers until now.  Naturally after being out in the elements all these years they have a little rust and a weathered look.