Awfully foggy this morning when I did chores but later in the morning the sun started shining and it was beautiful out.
After I did chores I ate breakfast and drove into town for 4.5 hours of work at the Health Department. My progress on reorganizing their data is slow, but steady. I'm actually making pretty good progress on getting it into an organized schema given how badly it was organized and by the sheer number of duplicate files.
Dave H from the Farm Store came by with my load of feed, protein blocks and 4 hog panels. Clayton forgot to include the alfalfa/ranch cubes in the order but that was probably just as well as the cost of all this feed and protein blocks was pretty expensive. I can pick up alfalfa pellets and cubes any day I go to town.
I had a chance to talk to Roger Shaw. He's the guy that wrote the article on the commercial Dexter in The [Dexter] Record. He called me about 5:40pm and we talked on the phone till 6:30pm. I enjoyed every moment.
Roger lives in Nebraska. He has a commercial herd of Angus, Simmental, Maine Angou and others. He also has a registered Dexter herd. He mostly uses Dexter bulls on his regular cows as well as his Dexters. He assured me that in 99.9% of the cases the Dexter bull will have all the regular sized cows impregnated within 45 days.
He even told me how the bull does it. The bull will leap onto the back of the cow and while in the air will inseminate her. He may also get them when they're lying down. He stopped at two accounts, lol. I remain skeptical but am willing to be educated (especially if I can see it happening).
He sells Dexter steers for $x00. each at about 5-6 months of age. He often sells them to folks who want to buy a bred cow or heifer as companion animals. In fact, he assures me that he will not sell a cow to someone who does not have other cows.He's had too many of them go walkaway.
He sells bulls for a bit more; $xx00. but he also will lease them out for breeding @ xx.00/cow. Or, people can bring their cows to him for breeding. He charges the $xx.00 fee plus a dollar a day for feeding.
A 6-8 month old Dexter heifer sells for $xx0-xx00. An older momma cow and her calf will sell for around $xx00.
Basically what he does is breed his commercial herd to a Dexter bull. Then he takes the F1 generation and breeds the resulting cow to a second Dexter bull. The next generation (F2) is bred to an Angus or to a lowline Angus bull (he just acquired a lowline bull for about $x,000, a lot less than what I've seen them for out here). At this point in time he's keeping the F1 crosses for further cross breeding. I can't remember what he said he did about selling/butchering the large cows.
He sells meat for $1.75/lb which works out with cutting and wrapping to about $2.50/lb. I love the way he markets. When people come to his ranch to buy Dexters or just to look, he gives them a package of steak and a package of hamburger so that they can try the meat. He says this method brings him lots of business.
He told me that he cannot keep up with the demand for his animals and his butcher cows/steers.
He also has a stable of between 6 & 7 bulls of which 4 are actively used for breeding. The other two are youngsters who will eventually move into the breeding herd.
I didn't ask him if he was making any money at this effort but he does sound successful.
I've been trying to determine leg length on my current herd of Dexters. Here's what I think but I may be wrong. It's so hard for me to tell still.
Noel short legged; beef configuration
Emma long legged; dairy configuration
Pixie short legged; beef configuration
Brie long legged; dairy configuration
Cheddar short legged; beef configuration
Huck short legged; beef configuration
Chas cooked dinner tonight. I forgot what he called it but it was delicious. It's one of his Mom's old recipes. I went back for seconds. Bad me.
Friday, January 30, 2009
Thursday, January 29, 2009
Thursday, An Email Exchange with Roger Shaw, author of "The Commercial Dexter"
It was cold but sunny and very beautiful.
Sherry came to clean today. She's got a new pickup. It looks really good, mostly blue with one black front fender where it got bashed in an accident. The black fender is a replacement. I guess it's a 2000 year model but she got it for a pretty good price. She and Pat had to go all the way to Monroe, WA to buy it from a private party. I was excessively jealous since I want a used pickup for picking up feed at the feed store, carrying small animals around and generally being able to move or pick stuff up. I was definitely jealous.
Good thing I went to the Farm Store and picked up 4 bags of feed. I have enough to last me till Dave H can deliver Friday night.
Chas used the tractor to push together the remnants of the brush pile. It was still burning when I looked a few minutes ago (9pm).
I emailed Roger Shaw who wrote an article in The Record titled, "The Commercial Dexter." He was kind enough to reply. We exchanged phone numbers and I expect to be able to contact him by phone in the next few days. His article talked about his breeding his Angus heifers to a Dexter bull to produce smaller cows that he then bred back to a low birth weight Angus bull. The article also discussed the amount of feed you'd provide to 2 large cows vs providing the same feed to three cross breds and getting three calves that are just slightly smaller than the giant cows would produce.
I found some old green tea that I decided to try out tonight with my flavored soy milk. It actually tastes pretty good considering how old the tea is.
Dinner was some dish I got from the January edition of one of Oprah's magazines. It involved cannelloni beans, shrimp, green onions and garlic over couscous. It was really flavorless, disappointing actually. I guess I prefer spicy dishes.
Work at LCHD tomorrow. More data being organized for easy retrieval.
Dave from the Farm Store comes tomorrow to drop off my feed and 4 hog panels around 5pm.
Those are the panels I will use for chicken tractors as soon as I figure out how wide and long to make each tractor. I want something I can move easily. Since the panels are 16 feet long, I will need to cut the panels into one small and one large section and then trim. I was thinking of 4 feet x 10 feet. I still haven't decided.
Sherry came to clean today. She's got a new pickup. It looks really good, mostly blue with one black front fender where it got bashed in an accident. The black fender is a replacement. I guess it's a 2000 year model but she got it for a pretty good price. She and Pat had to go all the way to Monroe, WA to buy it from a private party. I was excessively jealous since I want a used pickup for picking up feed at the feed store, carrying small animals around and generally being able to move or pick stuff up. I was definitely jealous.
Good thing I went to the Farm Store and picked up 4 bags of feed. I have enough to last me till Dave H can deliver Friday night.
Chas used the tractor to push together the remnants of the brush pile. It was still burning when I looked a few minutes ago (9pm).
I emailed Roger Shaw who wrote an article in The Record titled, "The Commercial Dexter." He was kind enough to reply. We exchanged phone numbers and I expect to be able to contact him by phone in the next few days. His article talked about his breeding his Angus heifers to a Dexter bull to produce smaller cows that he then bred back to a low birth weight Angus bull. The article also discussed the amount of feed you'd provide to 2 large cows vs providing the same feed to three cross breds and getting three calves that are just slightly smaller than the giant cows would produce.
I found some old green tea that I decided to try out tonight with my flavored soy milk. It actually tastes pretty good considering how old the tea is.
Dinner was some dish I got from the January edition of one of Oprah's magazines. It involved cannelloni beans, shrimp, green onions and garlic over couscous. It was really flavorless, disappointing actually. I guess I prefer spicy dishes.
Work at LCHD tomorrow. More data being organized for easy retrieval.
Dave from the Farm Store comes tomorrow to drop off my feed and 4 hog panels around 5pm.
Those are the panels I will use for chicken tractors as soon as I figure out how wide and long to make each tractor. I want something I can move easily. Since the panels are 16 feet long, I will need to cut the panels into one small and one large section and then trim. I was thinking of 4 feet x 10 feet. I still haven't decided.
01/28/2009 Wednesday. An Uneventful Day.
Some sun, some rain.
I spent most of the day at Lewis County Health Department working on moving data into an organized scheme to make it easier to find.
I made a chicken breast (sliced) sandwich for lunch and forgot to take it with me. Chas ate it for lunch but left me the rest of the cut-up chicken. I ate that to tide me over till dinner time.
Did morning and evening chores. Not much to report. I gave treats to all the critters: day-old bread to the Herefords and Dexters and goats and bull calf in the green barn.
Chas and I cooked bangers and mash for dinner with sauerkraut.
I will likely go to bed early tonight. Working at a computer is hard work and makes my brain tired.
I spent most of the day at Lewis County Health Department working on moving data into an organized scheme to make it easier to find.
I made a chicken breast (sliced) sandwich for lunch and forgot to take it with me. Chas ate it for lunch but left me the rest of the cut-up chicken. I ate that to tide me over till dinner time.
Did morning and evening chores. Not much to report. I gave treats to all the critters: day-old bread to the Herefords and Dexters and goats and bull calf in the green barn.
Chas and I cooked bangers and mash for dinner with sauerkraut.
I will likely go to bed early tonight. Working at a computer is hard work and makes my brain tired.
01/27/2009 Tuesday. Moving the Dexter Steer.
Snow last night but not too much. By noon there was only about an inch and a half. When I went out to do chores the temperature wasn't too bad. It must have been close to 32 degrees F because the water was covered with partially melted snow but was not frozen.
After we moved two round bales into the Hereford's collapsible feeder we picked up the weeks of feed sacks full of more feed sacks, garbage and round bale wraps and took them over to the fire. I also picked up boxes that we'd stored on the deck and put them on the ATV and hauled them to the brush pile next to the green barn for starting the fire. That's almost always our biggest slash pile and it takes a lot of paper to get the wood burning.
I fed the Dexters their treats. What a lot of pushing and shoving to get their share. Then I opened the gate between the Dexter steer and the Dexter herd and let the herd into the pen where the steer has been living for the past two weeks. He's always reluctant to go where I want him to go so I thought I'd use the herd to move him.
I checked the Dexter's water. It was full. I sort of stirred up the water and broke what little ice there was in the tub. It's a good thing I filled both water tubs in the road pasture because I doubt if the hoses will unthaw enough for me to refill them. One hundred gallons lasts about a day around here.
This afternoon's mail brought me another letter from the WA State Dept of Agriculture regarding my Premesis ID. I also got my login/pw so that I can get in to make changes if I need to. I logged in in the evening to see what the site looked like.
When I went down to do my evening chores all the Dexters but one the cows (Cheddar) were in their regular pasture. So, moving the calf with the herd seems to work.
I hustled Cheddar into the pasture with the others and have closed up that pasture to let it recover till I get the newest calf in that pen. I'd like to get the Shorthorn bull calf used to electric fences and to the other cows. He's due to be castrated 02/17/09. I'll move him about that time.
We had chicken breasts with rice and home grown squash. I baked the bread that Chas had made. He replaced 1 cup of the regular white flour with 1 cup of whole wheat and added a little extra water. The bread was so good. Chas got it to the right consistency and when I cooked it the center was soft and the outside was hard and crispy like European bread.
I called the Farm Store to find out when my order was going to arrive. Clayton asked Dave H who generally delivers for me since he lives out this way and Dave H said he would deliver it Friday night. I'll have everything put in the cow barn and will move whatever I need to the goat barn.
After we moved two round bales into the Hereford's collapsible feeder we picked up the weeks of feed sacks full of more feed sacks, garbage and round bale wraps and took them over to the fire. I also picked up boxes that we'd stored on the deck and put them on the ATV and hauled them to the brush pile next to the green barn for starting the fire. That's almost always our biggest slash pile and it takes a lot of paper to get the wood burning.
I fed the Dexters their treats. What a lot of pushing and shoving to get their share. Then I opened the gate between the Dexter steer and the Dexter herd and let the herd into the pen where the steer has been living for the past two weeks. He's always reluctant to go where I want him to go so I thought I'd use the herd to move him.
I checked the Dexter's water. It was full. I sort of stirred up the water and broke what little ice there was in the tub. It's a good thing I filled both water tubs in the road pasture because I doubt if the hoses will unthaw enough for me to refill them. One hundred gallons lasts about a day around here.
This afternoon's mail brought me another letter from the WA State Dept of Agriculture regarding my Premesis ID. I also got my login/pw so that I can get in to make changes if I need to. I logged in in the evening to see what the site looked like.
When I went down to do my evening chores all the Dexters but one the cows (Cheddar) were in their regular pasture. So, moving the calf with the herd seems to work.
I hustled Cheddar into the pasture with the others and have closed up that pasture to let it recover till I get the newest calf in that pen. I'd like to get the Shorthorn bull calf used to electric fences and to the other cows. He's due to be castrated 02/17/09. I'll move him about that time.
We had chicken breasts with rice and home grown squash. I baked the bread that Chas had made. He replaced 1 cup of the regular white flour with 1 cup of whole wheat and added a little extra water. The bread was so good. Chas got it to the right consistency and when I cooked it the center was soft and the outside was hard and crispy like European bread.
I called the Farm Store to find out when my order was going to arrive. Clayton asked Dave H who generally delivers for me since he lives out this way and Dave H said he would deliver it Friday night. I'll have everything put in the cow barn and will move whatever I need to the goat barn.
01/26/2009 Monday. My Agricultural measuring Wheel Arrived Today. Scrubbing Water Troughs.
Cold out this morning, about 20 degrees F when I went out around 7:30 am to do chores.
After chores I changed clothes, picked up my LCHD file folder and headed for the Health Department. I parked several blocks away so that I could get some exercise and so that I could pick up a latte at a nearby coffee shack.
I talked with John A (for awhile about the data moving project and about another project he's working on that involves finding Washington State DOH data and Healthy People 2010 data on the indicators that this health department decided on for their assessment document.
I finally left the Health Department about 2:05 pm.
While I was gone I got a parcel from the engineering company that sells agricultural measuring wheels. It finally came. Looks pretty good. It's a simple tool, basically a large wheel, a counter, a "kick stand" and a handle for pushing the wheel. It looks as if it will be easy to use.
Charles reassembled the back end of my ATV that he had to take off to get at the battery. It works like a champ now that Chas added water to the battery and trickle charged it. I even used it to pick up today's mail.
While I was doing evening chores, Chas put on some bread for me to bake tomorrow.
I should have moved the black Dexter steer into the field with the other Dexters but I need to check to see if he has lost his testicles. I banded him quite awhile ago.
I checked out the Hereford's water tub. It was nearly empty. I filled it and scrubbed out the other tub and filled it too. With the cold nights the tubs don't refill. I'll have to check the Dexter's tub tomorrow just in case it needs filling, too. It's supposed to rain someday soon
Dinner was store bought pizza. I was too tired to think of anything to cook.
After chores I changed clothes, picked up my LCHD file folder and headed for the Health Department. I parked several blocks away so that I could get some exercise and so that I could pick up a latte at a nearby coffee shack.
I talked with John A (for awhile about the data moving project and about another project he's working on that involves finding Washington State DOH data and Healthy People 2010 data on the indicators that this health department decided on for their assessment document.
I finally left the Health Department about 2:05 pm.
While I was gone I got a parcel from the engineering company that sells agricultural measuring wheels. It finally came. Looks pretty good. It's a simple tool, basically a large wheel, a counter, a "kick stand" and a handle for pushing the wheel. It looks as if it will be easy to use.
Charles reassembled the back end of my ATV that he had to take off to get at the battery. It works like a champ now that Chas added water to the battery and trickle charged it. I even used it to pick up today's mail.
While I was doing evening chores, Chas put on some bread for me to bake tomorrow.
I should have moved the black Dexter steer into the field with the other Dexters but I need to check to see if he has lost his testicles. I banded him quite awhile ago.
I checked out the Hereford's water tub. It was nearly empty. I filled it and scrubbed out the other tub and filled it too. With the cold nights the tubs don't refill. I'll have to check the Dexter's tub tomorrow just in case it needs filling, too. It's supposed to rain someday soon
Dinner was store bought pizza. I was too tired to think of anything to cook.
01/25/2009 Sunday. Lunch at a Friends Place. Treating the Cows. What Would I Do With Unlimited Funds?
A tiny bit of snow on the ground this morning and light rain later on. The arthritis in my knees was really acting up. Tomorrow is supposed to be sunny.
I skipped breakfast because Mary and Mike had invited us for dinner. She served us oven fried chicken, boiled beans with bacon bits and flavored rice along with the best part - a biscuit. Lunch was great but I don't think we'll want much for dinner. We're still stuffed.
Chas had a nap after lunch when we got home. I sat down for 20 minutes and played with Lucky and read in between pets.
It's always a pleasure giving the cows their treats. This evening's treat was ranch cubes (cubed alfalfa). The Herefords jockey for position with some of them moving from one end of the feeder to the other in the off chance that I wouldn't remember that they'd already had one or more treats and i would give them one. I feed on the north side divider and then move to the other divider at the south end of the barn. (The collapsible feeder is in the middle). That way all the cows get a more or less even opportunity to have a couple or three treats. I don't feed grain/alfalfa pellets in the evening, just in the morning.
Tomorrow I'll be going into the LCHD to do some more rearranging of the data files. They're somewhat disorganized plus some are duplicates. I don't dare delete anything. I'll just bring them together and let someone else make that decision.
I'd like to hang the 2 inch board with coat hooks that my Uncle Tom made for me in the guest bedroom. That will serve as a place for guests to hang up clothes when I have guests stay.
If money were not an issue... What an interesting question. I wonder what I would do? Probably cement the rest of the barn (the last bay) and create a pad out from the lean to out about 20-25 feet and further out put in a concrete pad with ecology blocks for the compost along with a tractor path to the compost pad.
I'd hire my basement cleaned of the flood mud and concrete troweled in to level the rough places, buy some wicker furniture that can be easily moved to higher ground when it floods and maybe hire a decorator to make the basement and first floor more friendly.
I'd hire someone to finish the electric fences for us and to put in a proper corral and some large corrals.
I'd also hire someone to organize my cottage garden and make it look pretty.
Not sure if I would buy more land. I'm pretty happy with the 23 acres we already own.
I'd donate enough money to the Pe Ell food bank so that they could open twice a month or even weekly.
I'd donate money to the Lewis County Health Department so that they could hire enough people to perform their functions without getting stretched so thin. I'd hire a LCHD Webmaster whose only function was to make the Web site a useful one for people in the community.
My needs are not great but I will likely think of things I'd like to do.
I skipped breakfast because Mary and Mike had invited us for dinner. She served us oven fried chicken, boiled beans with bacon bits and flavored rice along with the best part - a biscuit. Lunch was great but I don't think we'll want much for dinner. We're still stuffed.
Chas had a nap after lunch when we got home. I sat down for 20 minutes and played with Lucky and read in between pets.
It's always a pleasure giving the cows their treats. This evening's treat was ranch cubes (cubed alfalfa). The Herefords jockey for position with some of them moving from one end of the feeder to the other in the off chance that I wouldn't remember that they'd already had one or more treats and i would give them one. I feed on the north side divider and then move to the other divider at the south end of the barn. (The collapsible feeder is in the middle). That way all the cows get a more or less even opportunity to have a couple or three treats. I don't feed grain/alfalfa pellets in the evening, just in the morning.
Tomorrow I'll be going into the LCHD to do some more rearranging of the data files. They're somewhat disorganized plus some are duplicates. I don't dare delete anything. I'll just bring them together and let someone else make that decision.
I'd like to hang the 2 inch board with coat hooks that my Uncle Tom made for me in the guest bedroom. That will serve as a place for guests to hang up clothes when I have guests stay.
If money were not an issue... What an interesting question. I wonder what I would do? Probably cement the rest of the barn (the last bay) and create a pad out from the lean to out about 20-25 feet and further out put in a concrete pad with ecology blocks for the compost along with a tractor path to the compost pad.
I'd hire my basement cleaned of the flood mud and concrete troweled in to level the rough places, buy some wicker furniture that can be easily moved to higher ground when it floods and maybe hire a decorator to make the basement and first floor more friendly.
I'd hire someone to finish the electric fences for us and to put in a proper corral and some large corrals.
I'd also hire someone to organize my cottage garden and make it look pretty.
Not sure if I would buy more land. I'm pretty happy with the 23 acres we already own.
I'd donate enough money to the Pe Ell food bank so that they could open twice a month or even weekly.
I'd donate money to the Lewis County Health Department so that they could hire enough people to perform their functions without getting stretched so thin. I'd hire a LCHD Webmaster whose only function was to make the Web site a useful one for people in the community.
My needs are not great but I will likely think of things I'd like to do.
01/24/2009 Saturday. A Hard Day's Work Around the Farm and Progress.
Damp and chilly. Sun tried to shine and mostly succeeded.
Chas discovered yesterday that my Yamasa ATV's battery was almost out of water. It took him awhile to get the ATV apart. The battery is buried under the seat and requires that the whole back end be removed to get at the battery. Anyhow he filled the battery and trickle charged it. Today he installed it and jumped it with my car. We let it run for awhile to charge the battery. When I finally turned it off I was able to start it up really easily.
Enrique and Juan came to work today. I had them put the barn cleanings they dumped in a couple of weeks ago into the holes the pigs had dug. Enrique put wire on the hog panels and attached the hog panels back to the t-posts. This means I can toss some grass seed into the pen so the pigs have something to root up and eat - at least for a little while.
On my list of things to do was to remove the five-strand hi-tensile wire from the area behind the green barn. The guys removed the wire and wound it up into coils for me. The old fence used to run between the corner post with the DOT property south down the hill and just stopped dead in the middle of the open area to the south of the wood shed.
If I ever plan to use that area for a pasture I will put in temporary fences with rebar and polywire and insulators.
I plan to use the wire we removed on the new corrals in the road pasture. I may also put a corral in the Dexter pasture, too. I certainly need to widen the winter sacrifice pasture and make that pasture permanent.
I had Enrique and Juan move several hay bales into the Dexter stall for emergency feeding and had them put some over in the green barn for daily use. I use the hay in the green barn to feed the goats, sheep and calf and the hay in the stall to feed the Dexters if I don't want to put a new round bale in the Dexter's feeder.
After moving the hay, I had the two of them remove the flat, sharp stones that were put in vertically and outlined the flower beds immediately adjacent to the new arbor I put in two weekends ago. They removed the flat stones and laid them in the path under the arbor. Enrique and Juan moved in new river rock that I had stored and enlarged the bed slightly. Juan trimmed back the asters and other dead plants in that area. Next week I'll put in some chicken compost and will make that area look a little better.
I wanted the arbor to be the entrance way to the garden so we had to remove the stones from immediately in front of the hog panel. I still need to tear up a sheet to use to tie down the wisteria and to prune it once I have most of the branches in place.
Boy, It's a lot cheaper buying a hog panel and bending it to use as an arbor than it is to buy one. I have to scrub up the white arbor that Mike and Mary brought me and set it up in the cottage garden. I have to make a final decision as to where I want it to live in the garden.
Dinner was salmon burgers with rice and succotash. Boring but tasty.
Chas discovered yesterday that my Yamasa ATV's battery was almost out of water. It took him awhile to get the ATV apart. The battery is buried under the seat and requires that the whole back end be removed to get at the battery. Anyhow he filled the battery and trickle charged it. Today he installed it and jumped it with my car. We let it run for awhile to charge the battery. When I finally turned it off I was able to start it up really easily.
Enrique and Juan came to work today. I had them put the barn cleanings they dumped in a couple of weeks ago into the holes the pigs had dug. Enrique put wire on the hog panels and attached the hog panels back to the t-posts. This means I can toss some grass seed into the pen so the pigs have something to root up and eat - at least for a little while.
On my list of things to do was to remove the five-strand hi-tensile wire from the area behind the green barn. The guys removed the wire and wound it up into coils for me. The old fence used to run between the corner post with the DOT property south down the hill and just stopped dead in the middle of the open area to the south of the wood shed.
If I ever plan to use that area for a pasture I will put in temporary fences with rebar and polywire and insulators.
I plan to use the wire we removed on the new corrals in the road pasture. I may also put a corral in the Dexter pasture, too. I certainly need to widen the winter sacrifice pasture and make that pasture permanent.
I had Enrique and Juan move several hay bales into the Dexter stall for emergency feeding and had them put some over in the green barn for daily use. I use the hay in the green barn to feed the goats, sheep and calf and the hay in the stall to feed the Dexters if I don't want to put a new round bale in the Dexter's feeder.
After moving the hay, I had the two of them remove the flat, sharp stones that were put in vertically and outlined the flower beds immediately adjacent to the new arbor I put in two weekends ago. They removed the flat stones and laid them in the path under the arbor. Enrique and Juan moved in new river rock that I had stored and enlarged the bed slightly. Juan trimmed back the asters and other dead plants in that area. Next week I'll put in some chicken compost and will make that area look a little better.
I wanted the arbor to be the entrance way to the garden so we had to remove the stones from immediately in front of the hog panel. I still need to tear up a sheet to use to tie down the wisteria and to prune it once I have most of the branches in place.
Boy, It's a lot cheaper buying a hog panel and bending it to use as an arbor than it is to buy one. I have to scrub up the white arbor that Mike and Mary brought me and set it up in the cottage garden. I have to make a final decision as to where I want it to live in the garden.
Dinner was salmon burgers with rice and succotash. Boring but tasty.
01/23/2009 Friday. Volunteering at LCHD
01/23/2009 Friday: Damp, but no rain, and chilly.
I left around 9:30 am to do a couple of chores and see if I could get some work done at LCHD. Before I did that I hit the feed store, the bank, and the library to pick up books. Then I drove over to Social Services across from Shop N Kart since my contact was working at a different building.
Doug and I talked about getting me integrated into the system again (I'd volunteered there last year) so that I could continue to volunteer at the Health Department. I told him I'd come back on Monday to work. He gave me the name of a contact person, Sandi, in case he wasn't there. Sandi is always there, he told me.
After talking with Doug I zipped over to Shop N Kart and picked up our weekly ration of human food.
By the time I got home it was nearly time to do chores. I rested till it was and then did chores.
Dinner was one of our favorites: hot noodles with chicken, baby bok choi, broccoli and green onions. I snuck in a leek from our garden. That's definitely the last of the leeks. Chas and I really enjoyed the leeks. I'll have to buy a box and get them planted for our eating pleasure this fall. I'm going to have to try to plant only one in a spot instead of several.
I did some work on the computer trying to beat down my UW and Yahoo! email after dinner.
Around 11pm we had a power outage. It lasted quite a while. First the lights went out, came on, went out, came on, and finally stayed out. I got ready for bed with one of the emergency LED lanterns. Fortunately the bed was still warm. I had turned on the electric mattress an hour or so ago. It didn't take me long to fall asleep.
I left around 9:30 am to do a couple of chores and see if I could get some work done at LCHD. Before I did that I hit the feed store, the bank, and the library to pick up books. Then I drove over to Social Services across from Shop N Kart since my contact was working at a different building.
Doug and I talked about getting me integrated into the system again (I'd volunteered there last year) so that I could continue to volunteer at the Health Department. I told him I'd come back on Monday to work. He gave me the name of a contact person, Sandi, in case he wasn't there. Sandi is always there, he told me.
After talking with Doug I zipped over to Shop N Kart and picked up our weekly ration of human food.
By the time I got home it was nearly time to do chores. I rested till it was and then did chores.
Dinner was one of our favorites: hot noodles with chicken, baby bok choi, broccoli and green onions. I snuck in a leek from our garden. That's definitely the last of the leeks. Chas and I really enjoyed the leeks. I'll have to buy a box and get them planted for our eating pleasure this fall. I'm going to have to try to plant only one in a spot instead of several.
I did some work on the computer trying to beat down my UW and Yahoo! email after dinner.
Around 11pm we had a power outage. It lasted quite a while. First the lights went out, came on, went out, came on, and finally stayed out. I got ready for bed with one of the emergency LED lanterns. Fortunately the bed was still warm. I had turned on the electric mattress an hour or so ago. It didn't take me long to fall asleep.
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Feeding Hay and Treats; Integrating a Dexter Steer With the Rest of the Herd
01/27/2009 Tuesday: Snow last night but not too much. By noon there was only about an inch and a half. When I went out to do chores the temperature wasn't too bad. It must have been close to 32 degrees F because the water was covered with partially melted snow but was not frozen.
After we moved two round bales into the Hereford's collapsible feeder we picked up the weeks of feed sacks full of more feed sacks, garbage and round bale wraps and took them over to the fire. I also picked up boxes that we'd stored on the deck and put them on the ATV and hauled them to the brush pile next to the green barn for starting the fire. That's almost always our biggest slash pile and it takes a lot of paper to get the wood burning.
I fed the Dexters their treats. What a lot of pushing and shoving to get their share. Then I opened the gate between the Dexter steer and the Dexter herd and let the herd into the pen where the steer has been living for the past two weeks. He's always reluctant to go where I want him to go so I thought I'd use the herd to move him.
I checked the Dexter's water. It was full. I sort of stirred up the water and broke what little ice there was in the tub. It's a good thing I filled both water tubs in the road pasture because I doubt if the hoses will unthaw enough for me to refill them. One hundred gallons lasts about a day around here.
This afternoon's mail brought me another letter from the WA State DOAgriculture.
When I went down to do my evening chores all the Dexters but one the cows (Cheddar) were in their regular pasture. So, moving the calf with the herd seems to work.
I hustled Cheddar into the pasture with the others and have closed up that pasture to let it recover till I get the newest calf in that pen. I'd like to get the Shorthorn bull calf used to electric fences and to the other cows. He's due to be castrated 02/17/09. I'll move him about that time.
We had chicken breasts with rice and home grown squash. I baked the bread that Chas had made. He replaced 1 cup of the regular white flour with 1 cup of whole wheat and added a little extra water. The bread was so good. Chas got it to the right consistency and when I cooked it the center was soft and the outside was hard and crispy like European bread.
After we moved two round bales into the Hereford's collapsible feeder we picked up the weeks of feed sacks full of more feed sacks, garbage and round bale wraps and took them over to the fire. I also picked up boxes that we'd stored on the deck and put them on the ATV and hauled them to the brush pile next to the green barn for starting the fire. That's almost always our biggest slash pile and it takes a lot of paper to get the wood burning.
I fed the Dexters their treats. What a lot of pushing and shoving to get their share. Then I opened the gate between the Dexter steer and the Dexter herd and let the herd into the pen where the steer has been living for the past two weeks. He's always reluctant to go where I want him to go so I thought I'd use the herd to move him.
I checked the Dexter's water. It was full. I sort of stirred up the water and broke what little ice there was in the tub. It's a good thing I filled both water tubs in the road pasture because I doubt if the hoses will unthaw enough for me to refill them. One hundred gallons lasts about a day around here.
This afternoon's mail brought me another letter from the WA State DOAgriculture.
When I went down to do my evening chores all the Dexters but one the cows (Cheddar) were in their regular pasture. So, moving the calf with the herd seems to work.
I hustled Cheddar into the pasture with the others and have closed up that pasture to let it recover till I get the newest calf in that pen. I'd like to get the Shorthorn bull calf used to electric fences and to the other cows. He's due to be castrated 02/17/09. I'll move him about that time.
We had chicken breasts with rice and home grown squash. I baked the bread that Chas had made. He replaced 1 cup of the regular white flour with 1 cup of whole wheat and added a little extra water. The bread was so good. Chas got it to the right consistency and when I cooked it the center was soft and the outside was hard and crispy like European bread.
01/26/2009 Monday. Return to the Local Health Department. Brain Finally Returns to Life
Cold out this morning, about 20 degrees F when I went out around 7:30 am to do chores.
After chores I changed clothes, picked up my LCHD file folder and headed for the Health Department. I parked several blocks away so that I could get some exercise and so that I could pick up a latte at a nearby coffee shack.
I talked with John A (for awhile about the data moving project and about another project he's working on that involves finding Washington State DOH data and Healthy People 2010 data on the indicators that this health department decided on for their assessment document.
I finally left the Health Department about 2:05 pm.
While I was gone I got a parcel from the engineering company that sells agricultural measuring wheels. It finally came. Looks pretty good. It's a simple tool, basically a large wheel, a counter, a "kick stand" and a handle for pushing the wheel. It looks as if it will be easy to use.
Charles reassembled the back end of my ATV that he had to take off to get at the battery. It works like a champ now that Chas added water to the battery and trickle charged it. I even used it to pick up today's mail.
While I was doing evening chores, Chas put on some bread for me to bake tomorrow.
I should have moved the black Dexter steer into the field with the other Dexters but I need to check to see if he has lost his testicles. I banded him quite awhile ago.
I checked out the Hereford's water tub. It was nearly empty. I filled it and scrubbed out the other tub and filled it too. With the cold nights the tubs don't refill. I'll have to check the Dexter's tub tomorrow just in case it needs filling, too. It's supposed to rain someday soon
Dinner was store bought pizza. I was too tired to think of anything to cook.
After chores I changed clothes, picked up my LCHD file folder and headed for the Health Department. I parked several blocks away so that I could get some exercise and so that I could pick up a latte at a nearby coffee shack.
I talked with John A (for awhile about the data moving project and about another project he's working on that involves finding Washington State DOH data and Healthy People 2010 data on the indicators that this health department decided on for their assessment document.
I finally left the Health Department about 2:05 pm.
While I was gone I got a parcel from the engineering company that sells agricultural measuring wheels. It finally came. Looks pretty good. It's a simple tool, basically a large wheel, a counter, a "kick stand" and a handle for pushing the wheel. It looks as if it will be easy to use.
Charles reassembled the back end of my ATV that he had to take off to get at the battery. It works like a champ now that Chas added water to the battery and trickle charged it. I even used it to pick up today's mail.
While I was doing evening chores, Chas put on some bread for me to bake tomorrow.
I should have moved the black Dexter steer into the field with the other Dexters but I need to check to see if he has lost his testicles. I banded him quite awhile ago.
I checked out the Hereford's water tub. It was nearly empty. I filled it and scrubbed out the other tub and filled it too. With the cold nights the tubs don't refill. I'll have to check the Dexter's tub tomorrow just in case it needs filling, too. It's supposed to rain someday soon
Dinner was store bought pizza. I was too tired to think of anything to cook.
01/25/2009 Sunday. Wherein I treat the Cows and Think What I Would Do If Money Were Not an Issue
A tiny bit of snow on the ground this morning and light rain later on. The arthritis in my knees was really acting up. Tomorrow is supposed to be sunny.
I skipped breakfast because Mary and Mike had invited us for dinner. She served us oven fried chicken, boiled beans with bacon bits and flavored rice along with the best part - a biscuit. Lunch was great but I don't think we'll want much for dinner. We're still stuffed.
Chas had a nap after lunch when we got home. I sat down for 20 minutes and played with Lucky and read in between pets.
It's always a pleasure giving the cows their treats. This evening's treat was ranch cubes (cubed alfalfa). The Herefords jockey for position with some of them moving from one end of the feeder to the other in the off chance that I wouldn't remember that they'd already had one or more treats and i would give them one. I feed on the north side divider and then move to the other divider at the south end of the barn. (The collapsible feeder is in the middle). That way all the cows get a more or less even opportunity to have a couple or three treats. I don't feed grain/alfalfa pellets in the evening, just in the morning.
Tomorrow I'll be going into the LCHD to do some more rearranging of the data files. They're somewhat disorganized plus some are duplicates. I don't dare delete anything. I'll just bring them together and let someone else make that decision.
I'd like to hang the 2 inch board with coat hooks that my Uncle Tom made for me in the guest bedroom. That will serve as a place for guests to hang up clothes when I have guests stay.
If money were not an issue... What an interesting question. I wonder what I would do? Probably cement the rest of the barn (the last bay) and create a pad out from the lean to out about 20-25 feet and further out put in a concrete pad with ecology blocks for the compost along with a tractor path to the compost pad.
I'd hire my basement cleaned of the flood mud and concrete troweled in to level the rough places, buy some wicker furniture that can be easily moved to higher ground when it floods and maybe hire a decorator to make the basement and first floor more friendly.
I'd hire someone to finish the electric fences for us and to put in a proper corral and some large corrals.
I'd also hire someone to organize my cottage garden and make it look pretty.
Not sure if I would buy more land. I'm pretty happy with the 23 acres we already own.
I'd donate enough money to the Pe Ell food bank so that they could open twice a month or even weekly.
I'd donate money to the Lewis County Health Department so that they could hire enough people to perform their functions without getting stretched so thin. I'd hire a LCHD Webmaster whose only function was to make the Web site a useful one for people in the community.
My needs are not great but I will likely think of things I'd like to do.
I skipped breakfast because Mary and Mike had invited us for dinner. She served us oven fried chicken, boiled beans with bacon bits and flavored rice along with the best part - a biscuit. Lunch was great but I don't think we'll want much for dinner. We're still stuffed.
Chas had a nap after lunch when we got home. I sat down for 20 minutes and played with Lucky and read in between pets.
It's always a pleasure giving the cows their treats. This evening's treat was ranch cubes (cubed alfalfa). The Herefords jockey for position with some of them moving from one end of the feeder to the other in the off chance that I wouldn't remember that they'd already had one or more treats and i would give them one. I feed on the north side divider and then move to the other divider at the south end of the barn. (The collapsible feeder is in the middle). That way all the cows get a more or less even opportunity to have a couple or three treats. I don't feed grain/alfalfa pellets in the evening, just in the morning.
Tomorrow I'll be going into the LCHD to do some more rearranging of the data files. They're somewhat disorganized plus some are duplicates. I don't dare delete anything. I'll just bring them together and let someone else make that decision.
I'd like to hang the 2 inch board with coat hooks that my Uncle Tom made for me in the guest bedroom. That will serve as a place for guests to hang up clothes when I have guests stay.
If money were not an issue... What an interesting question. I wonder what I would do? Probably cement the rest of the barn (the last bay) and create a pad out from the lean to out about 20-25 feet and further out put in a concrete pad with ecology blocks for the compost along with a tractor path to the compost pad.
I'd hire my basement cleaned of the flood mud and concrete troweled in to level the rough places, buy some wicker furniture that can be easily moved to higher ground when it floods and maybe hire a decorator to make the basement and first floor more friendly.
I'd hire someone to finish the electric fences for us and to put in a proper corral and some large corrals.
I'd also hire someone to organize my cottage garden and make it look pretty.
Not sure if I would buy more land. I'm pretty happy with the 23 acres we already own.
I'd donate enough money to the Pe Ell food bank so that they could open twice a month or even weekly.
I'd donate money to the Lewis County Health Department so that they could hire enough people to perform their functions without getting stretched so thin. I'd hire a LCHD Webmaster whose only function was to make the Web site a useful one for people in the community.
My needs are not great but I will likely think of things I'd like to do.
01/24/2009 Saturday. The ATV revives; Work Gets Done on the Farm
Damp and chilly. Sun tried to shine and mostly succeeded.
Chas discovered yesterday that my Yamasa ATV's battery was almost out of water. It took him awhile to get the ATV apart. The battery is buried under the seat and requires that the whole back end be removed to get at the battery. Anyhow he filled the battery and trickle charged it. Today he installed it and jumped it with my car. We let it run for awhile to charge the battery. When I finally turned it off I was able to start it up really easily.
Enrique and Juan came to work today. I had them put the barn cleanings they dumped in a couple of weeks ago into the holes the pigs had dug. Enrique put wire on the hog panels and attached the hog panels back to the t-posts. This means I can toss some grass seed into the pen so the pigs have something to root up and eat - at least for a little while.
On my list of things to do was to remove the five-strand hi-tensile wire from the area behind the green barn. The guys removed the wire and wound it up into coils for me. The old fence used to run between the corner post with the DOT property south down the hill and just stopped dead in the middle of the open area to the south of the wood shed.
If I ever plan to use that area for a pasture I will put in temporary fences with rebar and polywire and insulators.
I plan to use the wire we removed on the new corrals in the road pasture. I may also put a corral in the Dexter pasture, too. I certainly need to widen the winter sacrifice pasture and make that pasture permanent.
I had Enrique and Juan move several hay bales into the Dexter stall for emergency feeding and had them put some over in the green barn for daily use. I use the hay in the green barn to feed the goats, sheep and calf and the hay in the stall to feed the Dexters if I don't want to put a new round bale in the Dexter's feeder.
After moving the hay, I had the two of them remove the flat, sharp stones that were put in vertically and outlined the flower beds immediately adjacent to the new arbor I put in two weekends ago. They removed the flat stones and laid them in the path under the arbor. Enrique and Juan moved in new river rock that I had stored and enlarged the bed slightly. Juan trimmed back the asters and other dead plants in that area. Next week I'll put in some chicken compost and will make that area look a little better.
I wanted the arbor to be the entrance way to the garden so we had to remove the stones from immediately in front of the hog panel. I still need to tear up a sheet to use to tie down the wisteria and to prune it once I have most of the branches in place.
Boy, It's a lot cheaper buying a hog panel and bending it to use as an arbor than it is to buy one. I have to scrub up the white arbor that Mike and Mary brought me and set it up in the cottage garden. I have to make a final decision as to where I want it to live in the garden.
Dinner was salmon burgers with rice and succotash. Boring but tasty.
Chas discovered yesterday that my Yamasa ATV's battery was almost out of water. It took him awhile to get the ATV apart. The battery is buried under the seat and requires that the whole back end be removed to get at the battery. Anyhow he filled the battery and trickle charged it. Today he installed it and jumped it with my car. We let it run for awhile to charge the battery. When I finally turned it off I was able to start it up really easily.
Enrique and Juan came to work today. I had them put the barn cleanings they dumped in a couple of weeks ago into the holes the pigs had dug. Enrique put wire on the hog panels and attached the hog panels back to the t-posts. This means I can toss some grass seed into the pen so the pigs have something to root up and eat - at least for a little while.
On my list of things to do was to remove the five-strand hi-tensile wire from the area behind the green barn. The guys removed the wire and wound it up into coils for me. The old fence used to run between the corner post with the DOT property south down the hill and just stopped dead in the middle of the open area to the south of the wood shed.
If I ever plan to use that area for a pasture I will put in temporary fences with rebar and polywire and insulators.
I plan to use the wire we removed on the new corrals in the road pasture. I may also put a corral in the Dexter pasture, too. I certainly need to widen the winter sacrifice pasture and make that pasture permanent.
I had Enrique and Juan move several hay bales into the Dexter stall for emergency feeding and had them put some over in the green barn for daily use. I use the hay in the green barn to feed the goats, sheep and calf and the hay in the stall to feed the Dexters if I don't want to put a new round bale in the Dexter's feeder.
After moving the hay, I had the two of them remove the flat, sharp stones that were put in vertically and outlined the flower beds immediately adjacent to the new arbor I put in two weekends ago. They removed the flat stones and laid them in the path under the arbor. Enrique and Juan moved in new river rock that I had stored and enlarged the bed slightly. Juan trimmed back the asters and other dead plants in that area. Next week I'll put in some chicken compost and will make that area look a little better.
I wanted the arbor to be the entrance way to the garden so we had to remove the stones from immediately in front of the hog panel. I still need to tear up a sheet to use to tie down the wisteria and to prune it once I have most of the branches in place.
Boy, It's a lot cheaper buying a hog panel and bending it to use as an arbor than it is to buy one. I have to scrub up the white arbor that Mike and Mary brought me and set it up in the cottage garden. I have to make a final decision as to where I want it to live in the garden.
Dinner was salmon burgers with rice and succotash. Boring but tasty.
January 22, 2009: Return to Public Health Volunteering
01/23/2009 Friday: Damp, but no rain, and chilly.
I left around 9:30 am to do a couple of chores and see if I could get some work done at LCHD. Before I did that I hit the feed store, the bank, and the library to pick up books. Then I drove over to Social Services across from Shop N Kart since my contact was working at a different building.
Doug and I talked about getting me integrated into the system again (I'd volunteered there last year) so that I could continue to volunteer at the Health Department. I told him I'd come back on Monday to work. He gave me the name of a contact person, Sandi, in case he wasn't there. Sandi is always there, he told me.
After talking with Doug I zipped over to Shop N Kart and picked up our weekly ration of human food.
By the time I got home it was nearly time to do chores. I rested till it was and then did chores.
Dinner was one of our favorites: hot noodles with chicken, baby bok choi, broccoli and green onions. I snuck in a leek from our garden. That's definitely the last of the leeks. Chas and I really enjoyed the leeks. I'll have to buy a box and get them planted for our eating pleasure this fall. I'm going to have to try to plant only one in a spot instead of several.
I did some work on the computer trying to beat down my UW and Yahoo! email after dinner.
Around 11pm we had a power outage. It lasted quite a while. First the lights went out, came on, went out, came on, and finally stayed out. I got ready for bed with one of the emergency LED lanterns. Fortunately the bed was still warm. I had turned on the electric mattress an hour or so ago. It didn't take me long to fall asleep.
I left around 9:30 am to do a couple of chores and see if I could get some work done at LCHD. Before I did that I hit the feed store, the bank, and the library to pick up books. Then I drove over to Social Services across from Shop N Kart since my contact was working at a different building.
Doug and I talked about getting me integrated into the system again (I'd volunteered there last year) so that I could continue to volunteer at the Health Department. I told him I'd come back on Monday to work. He gave me the name of a contact person, Sandi, in case he wasn't there. Sandi is always there, he told me.
After talking with Doug I zipped over to Shop N Kart and picked up our weekly ration of human food.
By the time I got home it was nearly time to do chores. I rested till it was and then did chores.
Dinner was one of our favorites: hot noodles with chicken, baby bok choi, broccoli and green onions. I snuck in a leek from our garden. That's definitely the last of the leeks. Chas and I really enjoyed the leeks. I'll have to buy a box and get them planted for our eating pleasure this fall. I'm going to have to try to plant only one in a spot instead of several.
I did some work on the computer trying to beat down my UW and Yahoo! email after dinner.
Around 11pm we had a power outage. It lasted quite a while. First the lights went out, came on, went out, came on, and finally stayed out. I got ready for bed with one of the emergency LED lanterns. Fortunately the bed was still warm. I had turned on the electric mattress an hour or so ago. It didn't take me long to fall asleep.
Thursday, January 22, 2009
An Unexceptional Day
Thursday: Not nearly as cold this morning as it was yesterday.
Chas and I moved two bales of hay into the Hereford's feeder and will do the same tomorrow for the Dexters.
Sherry came today to clean. I laid down the new long bath mat that I purchased at K-Mart but decided I was going to have to add back one of the smaller rectangular bath mats in front of the toilet. The new rug looks very nice. We'll see how it works tomorrow morning when I have my shower.
Worked on my computer this morning. I uninstalled Google Chrome because I could never get internal links within Yahoo! email to work properly and because I could never send email.
Dinner was leftovers: pork ribs, potatoes and corn that I gleaned from a local farmer's field and froze last fall.
Chas and I moved two bales of hay into the Hereford's feeder and will do the same tomorrow for the Dexters.
Sherry came today to clean. I laid down the new long bath mat that I purchased at K-Mart but decided I was going to have to add back one of the smaller rectangular bath mats in front of the toilet. The new rug looks very nice. We'll see how it works tomorrow morning when I have my shower.
Worked on my computer this morning. I uninstalled Google Chrome because I could never get internal links within Yahoo! email to work properly and because I could never send email.
Dinner was leftovers: pork ribs, potatoes and corn that I gleaned from a local farmer's field and froze last fall.
01/21/2009: Health; iHop Is Now Too Expensive; Costco Visit
Wednesday: Gad zooks. It was 20 degrees F this morning when I went down to do my morning chores. I had to break the ice on most of the water tubs. Naturally adding new water was out of the question. The hoses were frozen. By the time I got back from feeding the chickens (first task in the morning), my hands were frozen.
Chas and I left early for Olympia. Chas had to get his blood syphoned off plus he had to pick up his repaired hearing aids and pick up some diabetic strips.
After all that was over we headed to iHop to have breakfast. We were horrified to find out that they no longer served corn pancakes AND an omlette costs well over $9.00 and closer to $11.00. Seems unlikely that we'll ever eat at iHop again. Talk about sticker shock.
We headed to Costco to do our every six weeks to two months major shopping expedition. I picked up a couple of formed pillows. They're intended for those who sleep on their sides and back (me). What I'll do is use one of those pillows and give Chas mine. I don't know how he does it but he totally destroys the pillow itself, not that he rips and tears it but he does make them terribly lumpy and hard to sleep on.
Next time we go I plan to buy one of those 4 inch bed pads that cover your mattress and make it more comfortable. Cheaper to buy a $179 pad than a $1500.00 new mattress.
It was well after 2pm before we got all the produce and pop unloaded from the car. We've got quite a bit of the produce taken to the basement and otherwise put away.
After a short rest I went outside to do the evening chores. The hoses and water tubs were unfrozen so I was able to add new water to the tubs.
Dinner was leftover soup and cornbread made from scratch.
Chas and I left early for Olympia. Chas had to get his blood syphoned off plus he had to pick up his repaired hearing aids and pick up some diabetic strips.
After all that was over we headed to iHop to have breakfast. We were horrified to find out that they no longer served corn pancakes AND an omlette costs well over $9.00 and closer to $11.00. Seems unlikely that we'll ever eat at iHop again. Talk about sticker shock.
We headed to Costco to do our every six weeks to two months major shopping expedition. I picked up a couple of formed pillows. They're intended for those who sleep on their sides and back (me). What I'll do is use one of those pillows and give Chas mine. I don't know how he does it but he totally destroys the pillow itself, not that he rips and tears it but he does make them terribly lumpy and hard to sleep on.
Next time we go I plan to buy one of those 4 inch bed pads that cover your mattress and make it more comfortable. Cheaper to buy a $179 pad than a $1500.00 new mattress.
It was well after 2pm before we got all the produce and pop unloaded from the car. We've got quite a bit of the produce taken to the basement and otherwise put away.
After a short rest I went outside to do the evening chores. The hoses and water tubs were unfrozen so I was able to add new water to the tubs.
Dinner was leftover soup and cornbread made from scratch.
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Barack Obama Is Inaugurated. Oh Happy Day!
Cold and sunny all day. The hoses did unthaw so that I could fill the water tubs.
I got up at 5am so that I could be through with chores by 7am. I wanted to listen to Barack Obama being sworn in and to hear the poet read her Inaugural day poem. It was pretty good. I'd like to have a copy of her poem.
A very important day in the life of this country. A new president has been sworn in and he has promised that things will change in the country.
Obama's acceptance speech was very good. I found a copy on the Web so that I could re-read it whenever I felt I needed an uplifting experience.
Dinner was pork ribs, baked potatoes (little red ones from Costco) and brussels sprouts.
Monday, January 19, 2009
Just Another Day at the Farm But Excitement is Growing
Cold enough this morning that all the water troughs were frozen. I thumped the water containers with a swift kick or two and that broke up the ice. I made sure to do the fish pond so that I didn't lose any more fish to a lack of oxygen. Sun, too, although it doesn't seem to be getting all that much warmer.
The cows are standing with their sides to the sun. You can tell they're really enjoying the feel of it on their bodies.
Lots of excitement building across the Nation over the upcoming inauguration of Barack Obama. I'm going to have to get up really early if I want to start watching at 7am Eastern Time.
Spent time reading my professional email. I had to stop reading email and reboot the router and modem because we kept losing DSL.
DSL has been intermittent for the past three weeks. Wonder if it has anything to do with the cold spell hitting the country. I finally called today but they recommended that I turn off all my equipment, wait two minutes and plug everything back in again. It worked. I have DSL again. I can't survive without high speed Internet access.
Gary N came for a visit late in the afternoon. We chatted for several hours, well, Chas and Gary did, I had to go out to do evening chores but I did get some words in. I told Gary about all my plans for new pastures and for replacing the old corral.
Dinner was "breakfast-for-dinner." We ate bacon cooked in the oven - the best way to cook bacon as far as I'm concerned, eggs from our hens who are finally laying again, and grits. Great dinner. The bacon is so good. I may start crisping up some of our bacon so that we can use it for putting on our lunch salads instead of buying bacon bits at Costco.
I've decided to have Pat M put up some shelves for me in my study over my desk. There will be two shelves on the left and one on the right over the computer. The right shelf will be in the middle of the other two and will overlap. That is, we'll put up three standards and the three shelves will share the middle one. I want to get the router and modem off my desk and also put the computer wires up where I can see them so I don't have to crawl around under my desk to check wiring or when I have to plug in new or unplug old equipment.
I need to get to bed since I'm going to get up really early so that I can be done with chores by 7am in time to watch the inauguration ceremonies.
Sunday, January 18, 2009
Wherein I Acquire an Alpine Goat
Sunshine today - a rare commodity these past few months!
I slept in late this morning mostly because I got to bed late.
After chores I jumped into my car to visit Violet. Violet is a 5 year old Alpine goat with a horrible udder due to mastitis a long time ago. Her teats look like bananas before she's milked but squashed bananas after. One teat is easy to milk (her left side) but her right is a bit of a struggle. Still, she's a good framed, if somewhat thin, goat that I think will give me good babies. I was told by her 14 year old owner that at one time she did have good teats but the mastitis did her in.
We negotiated on the price because I was there and had the money and because I promised them I would give her a good home. And I will.
I had a terrible time getting home from their place which was near Onalaska. I kept turning the wrong way each time I was supposed to come to a corner. I was nearly to Hwy 508 when I was so confused I had to stop and ask a woman who was outside cleaning her BBQ if I was anywhere near 508. She informed me I was about 2 miles away, just past the stop sign. Once I got to the highway it wasn't a problem to jump on I-5 going north toward home.
Violet rode in the back of my jeep with nary a peep. She did pee and poop tho'. Fortunately I'd planned for that and included a tarp. Next time I transport animals I will be sure to toss in a washable blanket to absorb the liquid. She did nail one of my cloth shopping bags but that was no problem to wash off when I did the tarp.
My senior Boer goat is giving Violet hell. We had a talk about her disposition. Violet will spend a few days being disciplined before being allowed to join the herd.
Since I milked her around noon when I was looking at her there wasn't much left this evening. She wasn't too thrilled about the grain I gave her and didn't eat much. She'll come around in a few days when she gets really hungry. I did get a few squirts out of her that I fed to the calf as a supplement to his regular powdered milk. I expect she's getting ready to dry off so I won't expect a lot of milk. She does give about a gallon and a half when she's first fresh.
By the time I got Violet settled and ate brunch (eggs and toast) it was time to go do my evening chores. I did fold some laundry and hang up a load of shirts and start vegetable soup for dinner. That's about all I had time for.
I forgot to mention that last night I also purchased an agricultural distance measurer. It will be nice to know exactly how large everything is without trying to use a tape.
My teeth must be moving around again (braces) because the left side of my mouth is a little raw and sore. Only 1 year and one month several days to go before I get my braces off.
You Wouldn't Believe the Work We Got Done Today!
01/17/2009 Saturday: Light overcast but the sun broke through a couple of times much to our joy.
This was a really busy day for us around here. My Mexican friends showed up to help me with many tasks. I actually made a list last night.
I had the guys removed the calf-tel from the pig pen. I was using the calf-tel for housing for the last two batches of pigs. They used the tractor and palate to carry the calf-tel to the sheep pasture. Ernesto carefully lifted the calf-tel over the fence. Juan and I took the calf-tel off the palate and laid it on the ground. I still have to put hay into the calf-tel to give the four sheep someplace dry to lie down. The good thing about the calf-tel is that I can move it from place to place as the sheep dirty the hay. (They're not too careful about where they do their business. One place is as good as another).
The also took out the pig's water trough. I need to clean it and take it over to Mike's place to have him weld on rounds on each end and two on the long side so that I can fasten the feeder to the hog panel so that the pigs can't move it. That way I always know the feeder is where I want it to be for morning and evening feedings.
We moved square bales to the green barn and replace all the hay that I'd used up in December and January. The ATV's battery seems to be dying. We couldn't get it going so we just pushed it out of the way and used the tractor to move the hay on. First we put a palate on the forks and stacked hay on the palate. Juan climbed to the top of the stack (not all that high any more) and tossed down bales. Enrique and I stacked them on the palate. The guys drove the tractor over to the green barn and unloaded it and came back for two more loads.
Next we moved the hog panel that I'd been storing in the horse's grave in our turn around to the spot where we cut down the cascara tree. (There's actually no horse buried there, we just refer to it as that because we're weird). I wanted to be able to support the wisteria with something. I decided to use the hog panel bent in half and kept stationary by pounding in one six-foot long rebar at each corner.
We actually laid the hog panel out on its side and tied the bottom in the middle to make the width I wanted. I didn't actually want the height to be great, just enough to make a pleasant looking arbor. Before we could put the wisteria where we thought it should go, we had to free it from a metal panel. When it was young, instead of tying the wisteria to the panel, the very slender trunk was woven through the bars of this panel. We had to cut the panel into thirds to free the wisteria. Enrique used my long handled cutting tool to clip the rounds of metal.
Then we put the wisteria trunk and branches up and over the top of the hog panel arbor. The wisteria needs pruning badly but I will wait till it has had a chance to recover from the trauma of being freed from the wires and the metal panel.
By the time I get all the arbors in place I will have at least three in the cottage garden. I want to remove the stones directly in front of the hog panel arbor and use them to delineate a path through the arbor - so they'll be put parallel to each other out from the arbor to the edge of the flower bed. We'll lay in wood chips there to form a path that will go into the "shade" garden.
After that came the really hard job. We had to clean out the muck from the cattle lean-to and then drag the pasture in front of the barn to get rid of the accumulated manure and hay. We used the back blade which really doesn't work as well as the box scraper. We'll have to put the box scraper back on the three-point hitch.
We picked up two railroad ties that I stored in the equipment shed along with the tractor and other equipment such as our two trailers. I used the rotted-out tie in front of the lean-to entrance to make a shorter step up to the concrete in the barn. It worked for awhile but finally collapsed under the weight of the tractor and heavy bucket. The tie was pretty rotten. I used the other railroad tie as a barrier to keep the grain near the cows when I feed them their grain in the mornings.
It was about a 4.5 hour job in all. Juan and I pitch forked out a lot of muck and a lot of wet hay. Enrique scooped it up or we filled the bucket and he'd go out and drop it on top of the compost pile. When we were done we could walk on the ground without sinking into the muck. I'm sure the cattle are much happier now.
Cleaning out the barn also allow me to fix the collapsible feeder which wasn't collapsing because there was too much muck built up under the ends so it couldn't collapse.
I also asked Juan and Enrique if they would move the old manger back into the barn so that I could use it as a grain feeder. I had Enrique remove the old supports but not the dividers.
We gave a superficial wash to the tractor to remove most of the muck but I will have to spend some time tomorrow giving it a good scrub-down.
After we finished washing the tractor (a lick and a promise with me to do a better job tomorrow) we moved 2 round bales into the Hereford's cleaned out feeder and one into the Dexter's feeder. One of the round bales we put in the Hereford's feeder was the one that had the binding torn off it. I'll feed the hay that got left on the barn floor to the little Dexter bull. I'll be moving him back in with the adults a week Monday (26th).
Dinner was Tres Maria's Chipolte Chicken over rice with squash. I hate using prepared food but was too tired to fuss with dinner. I got a hard workout today.
I ordered white, red and green button tags with HCDF on one side and 0001, 0002, etc on the 20 tags. I plan on using the white tags for any cow born in 2007 or earlier, the red on 2008 calves (if I can catch them), and green on the 2009 calves. These will be used on any calf regardless of whether or not I bred it.
Friday, January 16, 2009
Who Says Women Can't Hunt Meat? We Just Do It Differently
Dena was supposed to come over at 10am but lost her car keys. It took her an hour to find them and drive over here. I showed her how to do several cast-ons (knitting) and how to pick up stitches. I admired the books she brought over and we discussed several of the sweaters and afghans. Both of us agreed that many of the items we looked at were classical in design but the knitters had used some awful colors and color combinations to make the item.
We cooked Swiss bratwurst from Frances Meats for lunch and after discussing how good they were, Dena and I decided to drive over to Frances to pick up some more bratwurst and jalapeno sausage. While we were there we tasted some of their baloney. It was so good, just like a regular salami but baloney-sized that I bought 3 packages. Dena bought the same things I did but added some pepperoni to her stack of meat.
Two hunters were there picking up their sausage and pepperoni and other goodies that they had had made from seven deer and one bull elk. We went over to talk to them and in the process, because I said I'd never had elk, one of the guys gave me a package of Kielbasa made with jalipeno peppers to try. I was very happy to get some of their wild game to eat. We hunted the hunters in this instance.
I also gave the woman who helped us a recipe for home made bread, a recipe I haven't tried yet but which got many great reviews online.
I updated the Hope Creek Diversified Farm blog this evening. I was aghast to see that I typed in the last entry September 21, 2008. I entered large chunks of information; e.g., 5, 10, or 15 days worth of information about the goings-on around the farm. I'm happy to be up to date on all the blog entries. I keep a daily journal and just copy the information to the blog site.
Chas and I had leftover spaghetti and leftover cheese and crackers from previous meals.
I didn't get a lick of work done today and I don't care. Well, I care but it was nice to talk to someone else and just have fun that isn't work.
Enrique phoned this evening to see if I wanted him to come help me tomorrow. Boy, was I happy to hear from him. I have lots for him and his uncle to do.
We cooked Swiss bratwurst from Frances Meats for lunch and after discussing how good they were, Dena and I decided to drive over to Frances to pick up some more bratwurst and jalapeno sausage. While we were there we tasted some of their baloney. It was so good, just like a regular salami but baloney-sized that I bought 3 packages. Dena bought the same things I did but added some pepperoni to her stack of meat.
Two hunters were there picking up their sausage and pepperoni and other goodies that they had had made from seven deer and one bull elk. We went over to talk to them and in the process, because I said I'd never had elk, one of the guys gave me a package of Kielbasa made with jalipeno peppers to try. I was very happy to get some of their wild game to eat. We hunted the hunters in this instance.
I also gave the woman who helped us a recipe for home made bread, a recipe I haven't tried yet but which got many great reviews online.
I updated the Hope Creek Diversified Farm blog this evening. I was aghast to see that I typed in the last entry September 21, 2008. I entered large chunks of information; e.g., 5, 10, or 15 days worth of information about the goings-on around the farm. I'm happy to be up to date on all the blog entries. I keep a daily journal and just copy the information to the blog site.
Chas and I had leftover spaghetti and leftover cheese and crackers from previous meals.
I didn't get a lick of work done today and I don't care. Well, I care but it was nice to talk to someone else and just have fun that isn't work.
Enrique phoned this evening to see if I wanted him to come help me tomorrow. Boy, was I happy to hear from him. I have lots for him and his uncle to do.
Catching Up: January 11-15, 2009
01/15/2009 Thursday: Overcast and not very warm out.
I sent Susie H another check for Brie and Pixie. I need only send three more checks and I'm done paying for these two critters. Then I can concentrate on getting a Hereford bull. I also sent her an email, part of which is included here.
Sherry came to clean today. We left early before she was done. She always locks up for us when we're not around.
I figured out why I've been so lethargic/exhausted for the past 6 weeks or so. I went to the orthodontist yesterday to have my braces checked and mentioned to them that one of the rings around a crown was rubbing against my gum and causing me all sorts of grief (bad taste and smell in mouth). The person doing the checkup said the ring had come loose, was rubbing and trapping food against the gum and that I did have an infection. The orthodontist fixed the band and replaced it. By 6pm last night I was starting to feel better and even had a little energy.
Today, although I'm tired from a doctor's visit (wellness visit with all sorts of poking and prodding and scraping and lastly, pricking of the feet to make sure I still have feeling there) I finally have some energy. Boy, I should have figured out that falling asleep right after breakfast (after chores) and then again right after lunch for hours at a time was not normal behavior. Who me? Slow? nah! Anyhow, my doctor warned me not to let anything in my mouth get infected again because infections in the mouth may lead to major heart and blood problems (sepsis??). This is especially true for folks with diabetes. Dumb me, I knew that.
Anyhow I'm hoping that I'll feel well enough now to take on the chores I need to do instead of sleeping the day away.
I'm still trying to decide where that dang corral should go, the one with the squeeze chute and head lock. I want to take the large field (the road pasture that is my sacrifice pasture) and divide up that pasture into two smaller pastures - divide it into a small pasture and a large pasture so that I can rest half of the pasture while the cows graze the other side and to give me more flexibility in managing the herd.
The smaller side (the east side) might funnel into my corral (which I'n thinking of moved from the area beside the barn (north side) to the area where the old corral used to be and where the current loading chute is so I don't have to move the head gate so far.I have to build a new squeeze chute but it would be handy to have a loading dock by the main gate into that pasture.
Of course after I put in the corral I want to set up a small pen over close to where the manure pile is. Not sure what I'll do with the manure pile but I will get it organized the way I want it to look.
I've got to put this all on a map so that I can see what it's going to look like. So many decisions to make.
Chas had leftover chili for dinner. I had a bowl of cereal. While we were in Lacey we stopped for lunch at the Main Chinese Buffet and really porked out. We were not hungry when dinner time came.
Dena will be stopping by tomorrow around 10:30 so that I can show her how to do the cast on for a sweater. We'll also talk about frugal living.
01/14/2009 Wednesday: Lordy, lordy, the sun is shining. I haven't really seen meaningful sun for over a month. Wish I felt well enough to really enjoy it.
Chas went into town to his chiropractor and picked up some library books. He forgot to take the ones we'd already read in to the library. Since we have to go to Olympia tomorrow to my doctor's appointment, we'll likely take them in then.
This afternoon I go to my orthodontist to have them mess with my teeth again. I'll need to tell them about the problems I'm having with my upper right quadrant: bad taste and smell in mouth and a ring that's irritating my gum. Likely I'll have to go back in to have that fixed at a later time. My appointment is at 1:20pm. We'll have lunch at home and then I'll drive in. I may do some shopping as well.
I feel so much better. The orthodontist's assistant removed the band that was digging into my gum and trapping food. It was definitely infected. When I had the wires and the bands removed and went to brush my teeth, that section bled like a son-of-a-gun for quite a while. They replaced the band, put at a better angle around the middle of that crown. By dinner time I was actually starting to feel better. I felt like I had more energy but we'll have to wait till tomorrow to find out.
To celebrate getting my teeth worked on I went to Safeway and bought a half-gallon of milk and a single tall latte. Rare treats for me. I went home afterwards not stopping to get feed or anything.
I cooked spaghetti for dinner. It was particularly good. I added hamburger, dried celery, onions and garlic as well as some spaghetti spices. The sauce tasted better than usual. I cooked it in the large pot so that it had time to evaporate the extra water and cooked the spaghetti in a smaller pot.
01/13/2009 Tuesday: Overcast but no rain. Just another gloomy Northwest day.
I was feeling off my feed today. Not sure why. I even got to bed at a pretty decent time. I sort of moped around all day. I even got to sleep before 11pm last night.
Wally came by about 1:00pm and dropped off 20 round bales. One of the bales was ripped open. We put it into the barn last and on its side. All my bales are dirty from getting dumped in the mud that Chas opened up yesterday. I guess it won't do too much damage to the hay in the middle but the outside sure looks awful.
Dinner was a steak which we split and noodles and mixed Chinese vegetables.
01/12/2009 Monday: Overcast but no rain. That's progress.
Chas and I moved two bales of hay into the Hereford's feeder and one into the Dexter's feeder in the afternoon.
Charles thought he would help with the mud situation in front of the barn and so dragged it. Unfortunately it just scraped away the grass and left even more mud.
Susie H wrote to tell me that she and her herd are ok but that her mom died of liver cancer last week. Bummer, that.
Dinner was leftover chili and corn bread.
01/11/2009 Sunday: Overcast and a driving mist. Not a fun day to be outside doing chores.
We did the laundry today, each of taking turns washing a load, drying it and folding the dried clothes.
I ordered the National Cattlemen's Beef Association 2009 IRM Redbooks and downloaded the early version of the Excel Spreadsheet. I also ordered the Cow/Calf Desk Record Book and the Natural Resource Desk Record. In addition I purchased a beef cattle management program from Lion Edge Technologies called Ranch Manager: Cattle Edition. The Ranch Manager: Cattle Edition was $99.00. I thought about purchasing the handheld version and then decided that the IRM Redbook would probably work just as well.
I cooked a chuck roast with potatoes and cut up onions. Along with one of the packages of squash that we put up earlier this year, dinner was complete.
I sent Susie H another check for Brie and Pixie. I need only send three more checks and I'm done paying for these two critters. Then I can concentrate on getting a Hereford bull. I also sent her an email, part of which is included here.
Sherry came to clean today. We left early before she was done. She always locks up for us when we're not around.
I figured out why I've been so lethargic/exhausted for the past 6 weeks or so. I went to the orthodontist yesterday to have my braces checked and mentioned to them that one of the rings around a crown was rubbing against my gum and causing me all sorts of grief (bad taste and smell in mouth). The person doing the checkup said the ring had come loose, was rubbing and trapping food against the gum and that I did have an infection. The orthodontist fixed the band and replaced it. By 6pm last night I was starting to feel better and even had a little energy.
Today, although I'm tired from a doctor's visit (wellness visit with all sorts of poking and prodding and scraping and lastly, pricking of the feet to make sure I still have feeling there) I finally have some energy. Boy, I should have figured out that falling asleep right after breakfast (after chores) and then again right after lunch for hours at a time was not normal behavior. Who me? Slow? nah! Anyhow, my doctor warned me not to let anything in my mouth get infected again because infections in the mouth may lead to major heart and blood problems (sepsis??). This is especially true for folks with diabetes. Dumb me, I knew that.
Anyhow I'm hoping that I'll feel well enough now to take on the chores I need to do instead of sleeping the day away.
I'm still trying to decide where that dang corral should go, the one with the squeeze chute and head lock. I want to take the large field (the road pasture that is my sacrifice pasture) and divide up that pasture into two smaller pastures - divide it into a small pasture and a large pasture so that I can rest half of the pasture while the cows graze the other side and to give me more flexibility in managing the herd.
The smaller side (the east side) might funnel into my corral (which I'n thinking of moved from the area beside the barn (north side) to the area where the old corral used to be and where the current loading chute is so I don't have to move the head gate so far.I have to build a new squeeze chute but it would be handy to have a loading dock by the main gate into that pasture.
Of course after I put in the corral I want to set up a small pen over close to where the manure pile is. Not sure what I'll do with the manure pile but I will get it organized the way I want it to look.
I've got to put this all on a map so that I can see what it's going to look like. So many decisions to make.
Chas had leftover chili for dinner. I had a bowl of cereal. While we were in Lacey we stopped for lunch at the Main Chinese Buffet and really porked out. We were not hungry when dinner time came.
Dena will be stopping by tomorrow around 10:30 so that I can show her how to do the cast on for a sweater. We'll also talk about frugal living.
01/14/2009 Wednesday: Lordy, lordy, the sun is shining. I haven't really seen meaningful sun for over a month. Wish I felt well enough to really enjoy it.
Chas went into town to his chiropractor and picked up some library books. He forgot to take the ones we'd already read in to the library. Since we have to go to Olympia tomorrow to my doctor's appointment, we'll likely take them in then.
This afternoon I go to my orthodontist to have them mess with my teeth again. I'll need to tell them about the problems I'm having with my upper right quadrant: bad taste and smell in mouth and a ring that's irritating my gum. Likely I'll have to go back in to have that fixed at a later time. My appointment is at 1:20pm. We'll have lunch at home and then I'll drive in. I may do some shopping as well.
I feel so much better. The orthodontist's assistant removed the band that was digging into my gum and trapping food. It was definitely infected. When I had the wires and the bands removed and went to brush my teeth, that section bled like a son-of-a-gun for quite a while. They replaced the band, put at a better angle around the middle of that crown. By dinner time I was actually starting to feel better. I felt like I had more energy but we'll have to wait till tomorrow to find out.
To celebrate getting my teeth worked on I went to Safeway and bought a half-gallon of milk and a single tall latte. Rare treats for me. I went home afterwards not stopping to get feed or anything.
I cooked spaghetti for dinner. It was particularly good. I added hamburger, dried celery, onions and garlic as well as some spaghetti spices. The sauce tasted better than usual. I cooked it in the large pot so that it had time to evaporate the extra water and cooked the spaghetti in a smaller pot.
01/13/2009 Tuesday: Overcast but no rain. Just another gloomy Northwest day.
I was feeling off my feed today. Not sure why. I even got to bed at a pretty decent time. I sort of moped around all day. I even got to sleep before 11pm last night.
Wally came by about 1:00pm and dropped off 20 round bales. One of the bales was ripped open. We put it into the barn last and on its side. All my bales are dirty from getting dumped in the mud that Chas opened up yesterday. I guess it won't do too much damage to the hay in the middle but the outside sure looks awful.
Dinner was a steak which we split and noodles and mixed Chinese vegetables.
01/12/2009 Monday: Overcast but no rain. That's progress.
Chas and I moved two bales of hay into the Hereford's feeder and one into the Dexter's feeder in the afternoon.
Charles thought he would help with the mud situation in front of the barn and so dragged it. Unfortunately it just scraped away the grass and left even more mud.
Susie H wrote to tell me that she and her herd are ok but that her mom died of liver cancer last week. Bummer, that.
Dinner was leftover chili and corn bread.
01/11/2009 Sunday: Overcast and a driving mist. Not a fun day to be outside doing chores.
We did the laundry today, each of taking turns washing a load, drying it and folding the dried clothes.
I ordered the National Cattlemen's Beef Association 2009 IRM Redbooks and downloaded the early version of the Excel Spreadsheet. I also ordered the Cow/Calf Desk Record Book and the Natural Resource Desk Record. In addition I purchased a beef cattle management program from Lion Edge Technologies called Ranch Manager: Cattle Edition. The Ranch Manager: Cattle Edition was $99.00. I thought about purchasing the handheld version and then decided that the IRM Redbook would probably work just as well.
I cooked a chuck roast with potatoes and cut up onions. Along with one of the packages of squash that we put up earlier this year, dinner was complete.
Catching Up: January 6-10, 2009
01/10/2009 Saturday: Light and heavy rain off and on all day.
My Mexican helpers didn't show up today. I think I'll have to call them.
Chas and I went into town to pick up some groceries. Shop n Kart was flooded but is expected to open tomorrow. We went to Grocery Outlet to do our shopping. I'm always amazed at how much I can buy there for so little money.
We hit the library and the used bread store (Franz). Chas was pretty much out of his favorite bread. I complimented the head librarian, Corinne, at the Chehalis branch of the Timberland Library. She encouraged the staff of the Chronicle to use the library as their staging ground while the Chronicle building was flooded. I am so proud of her. She sees the library as a community resource. It made it possible for the Chronicle staff to continue reporting on the flooding and related problems.
I made chili for dinner. It was pretty tasty. Hard to beat a good chili.
01/09/2009 Friday: An amazing day. Periods of cloudy skies with the occasional blast of sun. It's hard not to stop what you're doing and just admire the sunshine.
Hope Creek is down even further. Not quite normal flow for this time of year, but not overwhelming water either.
We were invited over to Sharon O's place for lunch. I had Chas leave earlier than I did because Pat M came by and we removed the two shelves on the huge river rock fireplace surround and hung Chas's wonderful redwood coffee table top. I had it covered with a sheepskin on the south wall in the living room under the window that looks over the gazebo and gazebo garden. I had it sitting on two card catalogs. I've wanted to hang the coffee table top because it is so beautiful. I needed a wall that was large enough and dramatic enough to set it off. The rock fireplace surround sure did set it off.
Lunch at the O's was terrific, brussel sprouts freshly picked, carrots from her garden and rotissery chicken along with homemade bread. It was delicious. Sharon took me on a tour of her new living quarters which she expects to occupy once the sink and bottom cupboards are in. It's a large lovely place with a great heater, essentially one large open room. We also toured the stalls and arena. There's still a lot to pick up after the flood of 2007. It's so hard to put a farm back together again once you've been flooded.
We didn't bother with dinner except to munch a few blue corn chips.
01/08/2009 Thursday: We got lucky last night. The water stayed in the creek. The water in the creek is still running fast this morning but nothing like it was running yesterday.
Charles and I put one bale of hay in with the Dexters and two into the collapsible feeder for the Herefords. I need to order more hay.
I'm hoping the road that my hay dealer lives on is not flooded and that his hay didn't get wet.
I wasn't expecting Sherry this morning because her back yard got flooded as did some of her fields. One of her fence sections is down and will have to be repaired. She was able to lure the calf I sold her to a field that hadn't flooded with grain. She said the water was chest high on him when they finally got him moved.
The creek is way down now, at least 8-10 inches less than it was last night. That's good news since it means that we will not likely have a wet basement. It's nice not to have to listen to the creek roar by the house.
We headed out to visit with Mary and Gary N. Both of us were getting stir crazy and we wanted out. We had a great visit. Gary's pond overflowed and the water came across his west field, across his garden (likely removing the chicken manure he's just put on the garden, and dropped into a large, landscaped ditch that has a culvert at the end that empties into the Chehalis River.
Highway 6 was closed near Pe Ell. Highway 12 is closed due to mudslides. Randall is completely cut off. Carnation and Snoqualami are flooded. Sedro Wooley was hit pretty badly as the snow melted under the rain. And they got lots of rain. Sedro Wooley is where my friend Susie H lives and raises her Dexters. Her farm is where my Dexters came from.
Dinner was bangers and mash. I made garlic potatoes instead of plain potatoes. We'll have to go pick up some more sausages (bangers) from our source at Francis Meats.
01/07/2009 Wednesday: Yucky weather today. It rained all night and is still raining at 9:30 this evening. We've been keeping a close eye on Hope Creek. It rose to within about 12 inches of the bank but seems to have fallen a little.
I guess Randal and Chehalis are being inundated. I-5 is closed down from Napavine to north of Centralia. There have been mud slides. Sedro Woolley where Susie lives was hit with more rain than we got. I think she's on higher ground so she should be ok.
We got a little water in the basement. The window in the pantry leaked into the pantry and through the wall into the guest bedroom. The window well is filling up with water. We'll have to put up a cover for days when we're experiencing a "pineapple express" weather pattern. We've never had water in the pantry before.
I'm so glad I didn't remodel the basement. When I do it will be with wicker furniture and reed/mat carpets, things I can easily move to higher ground.
The animals are doing fine but the cows are wet from standing out in the warm rain.
The bump on my right arm is still swollen up but is gradually disappearing. Imagine, it was 2 months ago that I got hit by the hay ring.
We had three occurrences of power outages but only for a few minutes at a time. Thank heavens as I was able to cook dinner with no problem.
Dinner was hot noodles.
01/06/2009 Tuesday: Cool, overcast and rainy. Most, but not all of the snow has disappeared. Hope Creek is still up, but not as much as it was a couple of days ago. It's still hard to tell that the days are getting longer. My weather feature says that significant amounts of rain are expected and that some areas will flood.
Dena and Tammy showed up today to drop off some knitting and cross stitch books and magazines. I gave Dena two really nice knitting books that I had duplicates of.
Got my UW email beat down to 2 messages.
Dinner was leftovers: chicken, green beans and corn bread. Chas put the dry ingredients together. I added the wet ingredients and cooked the cornbread. Dinner was really good.
My Mexican helpers didn't show up today. I think I'll have to call them.
Chas and I went into town to pick up some groceries. Shop n Kart was flooded but is expected to open tomorrow. We went to Grocery Outlet to do our shopping. I'm always amazed at how much I can buy there for so little money.
We hit the library and the used bread store (Franz). Chas was pretty much out of his favorite bread. I complimented the head librarian, Corinne, at the Chehalis branch of the Timberland Library. She encouraged the staff of the Chronicle to use the library as their staging ground while the Chronicle building was flooded. I am so proud of her. She sees the library as a community resource. It made it possible for the Chronicle staff to continue reporting on the flooding and related problems.
I made chili for dinner. It was pretty tasty. Hard to beat a good chili.
01/09/2009 Friday: An amazing day. Periods of cloudy skies with the occasional blast of sun. It's hard not to stop what you're doing and just admire the sunshine.
Hope Creek is down even further. Not quite normal flow for this time of year, but not overwhelming water either.
We were invited over to Sharon O's place for lunch. I had Chas leave earlier than I did because Pat M came by and we removed the two shelves on the huge river rock fireplace surround and hung Chas's wonderful redwood coffee table top. I had it covered with a sheepskin on the south wall in the living room under the window that looks over the gazebo and gazebo garden. I had it sitting on two card catalogs. I've wanted to hang the coffee table top because it is so beautiful. I needed a wall that was large enough and dramatic enough to set it off. The rock fireplace surround sure did set it off.
Lunch at the O's was terrific, brussel sprouts freshly picked, carrots from her garden and rotissery chicken along with homemade bread. It was delicious. Sharon took me on a tour of her new living quarters which she expects to occupy once the sink and bottom cupboards are in. It's a large lovely place with a great heater, essentially one large open room. We also toured the stalls and arena. There's still a lot to pick up after the flood of 2007. It's so hard to put a farm back together again once you've been flooded.
We didn't bother with dinner except to munch a few blue corn chips.
01/08/2009 Thursday: We got lucky last night. The water stayed in the creek. The water in the creek is still running fast this morning but nothing like it was running yesterday.
Charles and I put one bale of hay in with the Dexters and two into the collapsible feeder for the Herefords. I need to order more hay.
I'm hoping the road that my hay dealer lives on is not flooded and that his hay didn't get wet.
I wasn't expecting Sherry this morning because her back yard got flooded as did some of her fields. One of her fence sections is down and will have to be repaired. She was able to lure the calf I sold her to a field that hadn't flooded with grain. She said the water was chest high on him when they finally got him moved.
The creek is way down now, at least 8-10 inches less than it was last night. That's good news since it means that we will not likely have a wet basement. It's nice not to have to listen to the creek roar by the house.
We headed out to visit with Mary and Gary N. Both of us were getting stir crazy and we wanted out. We had a great visit. Gary's pond overflowed and the water came across his west field, across his garden (likely removing the chicken manure he's just put on the garden, and dropped into a large, landscaped ditch that has a culvert at the end that empties into the Chehalis River.
Highway 6 was closed near Pe Ell. Highway 12 is closed due to mudslides. Randall is completely cut off. Carnation and Snoqualami are flooded. Sedro Wooley was hit pretty badly as the snow melted under the rain. And they got lots of rain. Sedro Wooley is where my friend Susie H lives and raises her Dexters. Her farm is where my Dexters came from.
Dinner was bangers and mash. I made garlic potatoes instead of plain potatoes. We'll have to go pick up some more sausages (bangers) from our source at Francis Meats.
01/07/2009 Wednesday: Yucky weather today. It rained all night and is still raining at 9:30 this evening. We've been keeping a close eye on Hope Creek. It rose to within about 12 inches of the bank but seems to have fallen a little.
I guess Randal and Chehalis are being inundated. I-5 is closed down from Napavine to north of Centralia. There have been mud slides. Sedro Woolley where Susie lives was hit with more rain than we got. I think she's on higher ground so she should be ok.
We got a little water in the basement. The window in the pantry leaked into the pantry and through the wall into the guest bedroom. The window well is filling up with water. We'll have to put up a cover for days when we're experiencing a "pineapple express" weather pattern. We've never had water in the pantry before.
I'm so glad I didn't remodel the basement. When I do it will be with wicker furniture and reed/mat carpets, things I can easily move to higher ground.
The animals are doing fine but the cows are wet from standing out in the warm rain.
The bump on my right arm is still swollen up but is gradually disappearing. Imagine, it was 2 months ago that I got hit by the hay ring.
We had three occurrences of power outages but only for a few minutes at a time. Thank heavens as I was able to cook dinner with no problem.
Dinner was hot noodles.
01/06/2009 Tuesday: Cool, overcast and rainy. Most, but not all of the snow has disappeared. Hope Creek is still up, but not as much as it was a couple of days ago. It's still hard to tell that the days are getting longer. My weather feature says that significant amounts of rain are expected and that some areas will flood.
Dena and Tammy showed up today to drop off some knitting and cross stitch books and magazines. I gave Dena two really nice knitting books that I had duplicates of.
Got my UW email beat down to 2 messages.
Dinner was leftovers: chicken, green beans and corn bread. Chas put the dry ingredients together. I added the wet ingredients and cooked the cornbread. Dinner was really good.
Catching Up: January 1-5, 2009
01/05/2009 Monday: Cool and cloudy, but not frozen. No rain today.
Pat stopped by at noon today to visit. I told him I wanted to hang Chas's homemade redwood coffee table top on the rock chimney face. Before we can hang it we need to remove two badly placed rocks that jut out about 4-5 inches from the chimney face. The chimney is made out of river rock.
Pat also looked at the fireplace opening and said we had at least 8 inches of clearance, 4 on each side of the existing fireplace, that we can use to put in a larger insert. That's good news since the existing insert has a very small box that can only take small branches and doesn't throw out much heat. In short, it's worthless and needs to be replaced.
I want a wood stove with a flat top that I can use to cook on when the power goes out and one which will keep the first floor rooms cosy. I can go downstairs and use the stove down there but that's pretty inconvenient.
I'm also going to have him install some shelves for me in my study. I need more shelf space. We have the boards and the hangers but I have to check to see if we have the standards.
I dumped the three hanging baskets on the deck, one on each of the rhododendron bushes under the Vine maple trees and stacked them ready to go to the potting shed.
Dinner was leftover salmon, a sweet potato and canned peas.
01/04/2009 Sunday: Cold and gloomy, gloomy enough that we have to have the lights on in the house in order to be able to see anything. Chas says there's another storm coming in. This morning was cold - about 26 degrees F outside.
Getting up late/sleeping in makes a person feel better but doesn't get the farm work done. I didn't get back into the house from doing morning chores till 10:30am.
I aggregated some of my knitting yarns into a clear plastic tub so that they're together. They'd been sitting around all over the basement in gallon-sized plastic sacks.
I cooked chicken breasts with the bone in, squash and barley for dinner. Dinner was delicious.
01/03/2009 Saturday: It got down to about 26 degrees last night but is expected to rise to over freezing. It even snowed a little, just enough to make it slippery walking.
Slept all morning and most of the afternoon. Dunno why I fall asleep at the drop of a hat. I'm getting lazy in my old age, I guess. Either that or I'm not sleeping well at night.
This morning after chores I brought up the chicken waterer and a white bucket from the cow barn to wash and disinfect. It took me forever to scrub them. After scrubbing and rinsing I poured some bleach into the chicken waterer and left it sit for awhile. Once it was disinfected I poured the bleach water into the white bucket to disinfect that.
After drying it I took it to the cow barn where I've got the chicken feed temporarily and filled the bucket so that I could fill the chicken feeder. The leftover pellets I put into the feed can. With their newly cleaned waterer and the soon to be distributed white shavings the chickens will be in heaven.
I filled the chicken waterer when I got it to the coop and also cleaned and filled the duck and goat tubs. I broke the ice in the Dexter tub with the automatic waterer and scooped out all the ice and some of the water to get fresh water into the tub. I need to scrub both tubs out, the one in the Dexter pen and the main tub in the Hereford's pasture.
I need to plan for chicks and ducks in a few weeks. I think I'll keep them in the loom room for a few weeks until they're feathered out. Not much in that room so if it gets covered with chick feather dust it really won't matter too much.
I paid the Master Card bill today. It wasn't much since I paid most of it last time.
I took the leftover salmon from dinner two nights ago and made a delicious salmon loaf and served it with baked sweet potatoes and succotash. The salmon was fabulous and there's enough left for another meal.
01/02/2009 Friday: It snowed last night, melted and refroze so that this morning it was treacherous to walk and to drive. Later around noon it snowed lightly but the additional snow didn't stick around as the temperature was above freezing.
Chas and I put another bale of hay in the Dexter's pen this morning before we took off for town.
Chas was reluctant to drive because of the snow and ice on the roads but I told him it was ok. I'd seen many cars driving with no problem. We did see a spin out and a van on its side. I expect the driver was going too fast for the road conditions. We made it into town safely. I picked up two bags of ranch cubes and one of chicken layer pellets a the Farm Store. Then we hit the library where I got many farming books to review. Dunno when I'll have the time to read all of them but I will find it.
Dinner was rice, beets and a packaged/frozen chicken chipolte dish. Very convenient, especially when I didn't really want to cook. I also baked the no-knead bread Chas assembled last night. I turned it this morning and then basically forgot about it till nearly dinner time. We had a couple of slices with dinner. It was good! Chas added rye flour to the mix. He replace 1 cup of rye with 1 cup of regular flour. We agreed that it would be better with one half cup instead of one cup of rye flour the next time he makes it.
01/01/2009 Thursday: Rain most of the day. And very dark with thick clouds.
I set my alarm clock for 6:30am last night. With my sleeping in till all hours, my day is half gone before I have breakfast. That doesn't get the things I need to get done, completed.
I wasn't expecting Sherry to come by to clean today, but she came bearing a gift. In this case she brought over some salmon that her nephew had caught recently. It was two large fillets of silver salmon. This is the best gift. There's enough salmon for dinner and maybe sandwiches for lunch tomorrow and maybe even salmon cakes for dinner tomorrow night.
The hanging baskets are pretty much gone. The plants in them got frozen several times. I need to dump the dirt out and take the baskets to the potting shed for use later this spring.
I've been trying to figure out where my dog food, bird block and shavings went to. Chas reminded me that they were likely in the back of his jeep. I've been wracking my head trying to figure out where they went.
Pat stopped by at noon today to visit. I told him I wanted to hang Chas's homemade redwood coffee table top on the rock chimney face. Before we can hang it we need to remove two badly placed rocks that jut out about 4-5 inches from the chimney face. The chimney is made out of river rock.
Pat also looked at the fireplace opening and said we had at least 8 inches of clearance, 4 on each side of the existing fireplace, that we can use to put in a larger insert. That's good news since the existing insert has a very small box that can only take small branches and doesn't throw out much heat. In short, it's worthless and needs to be replaced.
I want a wood stove with a flat top that I can use to cook on when the power goes out and one which will keep the first floor rooms cosy. I can go downstairs and use the stove down there but that's pretty inconvenient.
I'm also going to have him install some shelves for me in my study. I need more shelf space. We have the boards and the hangers but I have to check to see if we have the standards.
I dumped the three hanging baskets on the deck, one on each of the rhododendron bushes under the Vine maple trees and stacked them ready to go to the potting shed.
Dinner was leftover salmon, a sweet potato and canned peas.
01/04/2009 Sunday: Cold and gloomy, gloomy enough that we have to have the lights on in the house in order to be able to see anything. Chas says there's another storm coming in. This morning was cold - about 26 degrees F outside.
Getting up late/sleeping in makes a person feel better but doesn't get the farm work done. I didn't get back into the house from doing morning chores till 10:30am.
I aggregated some of my knitting yarns into a clear plastic tub so that they're together. They'd been sitting around all over the basement in gallon-sized plastic sacks.
I cooked chicken breasts with the bone in, squash and barley for dinner. Dinner was delicious.
01/03/2009 Saturday: It got down to about 26 degrees last night but is expected to rise to over freezing. It even snowed a little, just enough to make it slippery walking.
Slept all morning and most of the afternoon. Dunno why I fall asleep at the drop of a hat. I'm getting lazy in my old age, I guess. Either that or I'm not sleeping well at night.
This morning after chores I brought up the chicken waterer and a white bucket from the cow barn to wash and disinfect. It took me forever to scrub them. After scrubbing and rinsing I poured some bleach into the chicken waterer and left it sit for awhile. Once it was disinfected I poured the bleach water into the white bucket to disinfect that.
After drying it I took it to the cow barn where I've got the chicken feed temporarily and filled the bucket so that I could fill the chicken feeder. The leftover pellets I put into the feed can. With their newly cleaned waterer and the soon to be distributed white shavings the chickens will be in heaven.
I filled the chicken waterer when I got it to the coop and also cleaned and filled the duck and goat tubs. I broke the ice in the Dexter tub with the automatic waterer and scooped out all the ice and some of the water to get fresh water into the tub. I need to scrub both tubs out, the one in the Dexter pen and the main tub in the Hereford's pasture.
I need to plan for chicks and ducks in a few weeks. I think I'll keep them in the loom room for a few weeks until they're feathered out. Not much in that room so if it gets covered with chick feather dust it really won't matter too much.
I paid the Master Card bill today. It wasn't much since I paid most of it last time.
I took the leftover salmon from dinner two nights ago and made a delicious salmon loaf and served it with baked sweet potatoes and succotash. The salmon was fabulous and there's enough left for another meal.
01/02/2009 Friday: It snowed last night, melted and refroze so that this morning it was treacherous to walk and to drive. Later around noon it snowed lightly but the additional snow didn't stick around as the temperature was above freezing.
Chas and I put another bale of hay in the Dexter's pen this morning before we took off for town.
Chas was reluctant to drive because of the snow and ice on the roads but I told him it was ok. I'd seen many cars driving with no problem. We did see a spin out and a van on its side. I expect the driver was going too fast for the road conditions. We made it into town safely. I picked up two bags of ranch cubes and one of chicken layer pellets a the Farm Store. Then we hit the library where I got many farming books to review. Dunno when I'll have the time to read all of them but I will find it.
Dinner was rice, beets and a packaged/frozen chicken chipolte dish. Very convenient, especially when I didn't really want to cook. I also baked the no-knead bread Chas assembled last night. I turned it this morning and then basically forgot about it till nearly dinner time. We had a couple of slices with dinner. It was good! Chas added rye flour to the mix. He replace 1 cup of rye with 1 cup of regular flour. We agreed that it would be better with one half cup instead of one cup of rye flour the next time he makes it.
01/01/2009 Thursday: Rain most of the day. And very dark with thick clouds.
I set my alarm clock for 6:30am last night. With my sleeping in till all hours, my day is half gone before I have breakfast. That doesn't get the things I need to get done, completed.
I wasn't expecting Sherry to come by to clean today, but she came bearing a gift. In this case she brought over some salmon that her nephew had caught recently. It was two large fillets of silver salmon. This is the best gift. There's enough salmon for dinner and maybe sandwiches for lunch tomorrow and maybe even salmon cakes for dinner tomorrow night.
The hanging baskets are pretty much gone. The plants in them got frozen several times. I need to dump the dirt out and take the baskets to the potting shed for use later this spring.
I've been trying to figure out where my dog food, bird block and shavings went to. Chas reminded me that they were likely in the back of his jeep. I've been wracking my head trying to figure out where they went.
Catching Up: December 21-31, 2008
12/31/2008 Wednesday: Light rain this morning. The snow continues to melt. It's wonderful to see the green grass even if there's a lot of mud, too.
Today is the last day of 2008. I'm half sad and half happy that its over.
While I wasn't expecting my iTouch till January 3, it showed up today in the mail. Naturally I've been playing with it. I've put greasy fingerprints all over it. I actually have a cover and cloths to get rid of the fingerprints which I'll have to use.
I did download two ebook readers and some free ebooks to read. Now if I could only find the time to read.
Dinner was hot noodles to celebrate the last day of the year.
12/30/2008 Tuesday: Overcast but not raining. Green barn hose frozen this morning but unthawed by this evening.
Chas and I left at 9:30am to attend Bill S's swearing in. It was short but one of the commissioners gave a way too long speech in the most boring fashion. He seems well meaning, otherwise. I mentioned my concerns about public health defunding. Bill said he was also concerned and didn't see how the county could cut any more money out of their budget. I think I will encourage Bill to consider promoting Internet access to the working content so that in bad weather folks can work from home (assuming they have power). Plus, it would be of great benefit to the volunteers who don't want to spend the money driving in.
Evening chores went well. The cows protested when I didn't give them their evening grain but they got a third more this morning. They also have lots of hay to munch on.
Dinner is chicken breasts and cauliflower since we ate late and had biscuits and leftover soup.
I borrowed a nice book from the library titled, "Farm Management." It's a textbook and has numerous sections on financial management and related topics. I glanced through it to get an idea of what's in it and will spend more time reading relevant chapters during the time I have it checked out. I also looked at Ken Midkiff's book titled, "The Meat You Eat: How Corporate Farming Has Endangered America's Food Supply." Got to know your competition.
12/29/2008 Monday: Hail today and rain off and on. Probably go down to freezing this evening but isn't expected to last.
I did nothing useful today except help Chas put two round bales into the Hereford feeder in the afternoon after I fed the goats and sheep.
Animals are all fine. Snow is still on the ground. When it's gone I can start mucking out the barn.
Got a letter from Susie. See Updates for my response to her letters. Sounds as if she had a tough time with 4 feet of snow and no power and no water for her Dexters. Also the search for a new home isn't going very well.
Dinner was spaghetti with Pesto and shrimp.
Going to town tomorrow to attend Bill S's swearing-in ceremony as county commissioner. Then shopping.
12/28/2008 Sunday: It's still melting outside and both Chas and I are very happy. I guess there's about four more inches to melt but we are starting to see bare earth in places.
It took forever to do chores this morning since I washed out and filled the waterers in the green barn. Yes, the second hose is all thawed out and working just fine. I still have to wash out and fill the sheep waterer. In the meantime the sheep have plenty of snow melt in their tub to drink.
I should also clean out the built up hay around their feeder. I wonder if I shouldn't think about another kind of feeder for the sheep. They sure waste a lot of hay. I need to build a better feeder.
I started the laundry with our sheets this morning. So far the washing machine is working well. This is a relief. Chas took over after that and finished doing the rest of the laundry. I made the bed.
I got out a pork roast for dinner tonight and began defrosting it in the microwave. We ate it with a small baked potato and the last of our acorn squash.
Bill W came by to visit and we chatted for about an hour. He left us $40. for diesel for the tractor. I'll have to figure out something to give his wife. I'll bet he didn't use $5.00 worth of gas.
In the afternoon we put a round bale in the Dexter's feeder. They were very grumpy with me as they'd eaten all their hay down to the nibs. I had Chas put a second bale in the stall just so that we had one handy for the next time or in case I need to feed parts of it. (such as if the tractor breaks down).
I gave the Herefords their usual buckets of grain. I also gave Two extra grain with some vegetable oil on it to give it extra calories. It's always amazing to see how fast the critters gain weight when they get extra grain. One looks pretty good. He's old enough to be pushy.
12/27/2008 Saturday: Still melting. Looks like the weather will be rainy but much warmer.
I turned on the hose in the hopes that the Hereford cows tub would be filled with water when the water in the hose melts. I pulled most of the hose going to the goat barn out of the snow but need to get the rest of it exposed so that the water in it can melt. The Hereford hose finally came unthawed and filled the cows' waterer.
The hose running from the house to the green barn partially unthawed so that I was able to get some clean water into the goat waterer.
I did some scraping out inside the cow barn but barely made a dent in it. I really need to scrape the barnyard of all the muck that has accumulated and then lay in two or three railroad ties to provide a strong surface so that I can get into the barn without dropping into a pit. Then I can get inside the barn to scrape the concrete. I have to wait till the snow melts and I can easily get into the road pasture.
I also need to get out into the road pasture to disconnect the wire that is shorting out the fenceline. I'll do that as soon as the snow melts so I can get out there easily.
Bill W phoned to ask if he could use our tractor. We loaned him the tractor and the back scraper. Chas took off the box scraper. I'm dying to try the scraper on the barn floor to see how well it will do with removing the built-up shit. Before he left he scraped our driveway for us. What a sweetie. We're always happy to have Bill borrow our tractor. He takes care of our equipment when he borrows it. In fact, he actually cleans the tractor off so that it looks beautiful.
Part of my iTouch purchases came today, the box contained one leather cover, 3 silicone covers in different colors, a plug-in for my car cigarette lighter, speakers, two clear screen covers, earphones, splitter for two people to listen to a song - in short, 14 pieces. Course my iTouch is not expected to come till January 7, 2009.
The roof on the section of the equipment shed where we store our tractor started collapsing from the weight of the snow but Chas caught it in time. He propped up the 2x4 that, except for the ends is the only piece of wood supporting the roof there. We will need to reinforce it. I might have Pat tear the roof off and put in 2x6s or 2x8s and put in another post or two to properly support the roof.
Dinner was leftover soup. I made biscuits. When I made them I added cornmeal. The biscuits didn't rise very much but they sure were tasty.
I watched some more videos today: Dung Beetles, Think Like a Cow, How to Make Money with Meat Goats. I learned a lot about the various products that they were promoting, some of which I might purchase.
12/26/2008 Friday: This weather is wearing me out. I even went to bed early for me - 10:30 pm and slept till 6:30 am. I'm still tired and dragging myself around. It started raining this morning around 11:00 am (or so). The snow on the ground is melting. I'm happy about that.
Fed and watered the critters this morning so that I wouldn't have to come out later and do the watering. I'd left the hose on the floor of the cow barn overnight and it didn't freeze. I left the blanket off the faucet this morning since I was pretty sure it would get over freezing sometime today. I hung the over the gate to the Dexter stall where I feed hay so that it would have a chance to unthaw and maybe dry out a little.
Fed the Dexters some of the bag of carrots that are beginning to go bad in the kitchen after I did my chores. They loved them, except for Emma who kept spitting them out. I also cut one carrot up for Diller. He smelled them but wouldn't eat them so I dropped them into his grain feeder. We'll see if he eats them.
I purchased Nero 8 this evening and am installing it. It's taking forever.
I spent time last night watching two videos from www.24-7agtv.com. Both videos were on pasture management, animal size and amount of food consumed by smaller vs larger animals and equipment to make managing fields easier.
12/25/2008 Thursday: Chilly first thing in the morning but I think it's finally beginning to thaw.
The power went off early this morning. When it didn't come back on again I got dressed and went out to do my chores. There was just enough hot water left to make a half-gallon bottle of milk for Three. I gave grain to the Herefords and goats and hay to the sheep and goats.
Chas came out first thing after I'd finished my chores and together we put in two more bales of hay into the Hereford collapsible feeder.
The power kept coming on and going off for about an hour so there wasn't much point in doing anything but read. I was so happy that we could read.
I think I will take the garbage can with the holes in the bottom down to the equipment shed and put the wooden and fiberglass fencing posts in it. it's so hard to keep them organized.
The weight of the snow broke the tin on the front of the wood shed. The front wasn't supported very well. I'll talk to Pat M and see what he has to say about a possible fix.
I cooked soup and bread machine bread for dinner tonight. I started both around noon today. Not sure why my bread isn't rising. I guess the yeast is getting old. I'll have to proof it before I put it in the bread machine.
Finished off two Stuart Woods books today - Santa Fe Dead and Hot Mahogany.
12/24/2008 Wednesday. Christmas Eve Day: More snow this morning. Temperature hovering around 30 degrees F. In the late morning the temperature hit 36 but has since dropped to around 30 degrees (3:30 pm) Snow flurries in the afternoon. Made the roads slippery.
Did my chores then came in for breakfast. Around 10:30am I went out and watered the critters. I didn't have to break up the water because most of it wasn't frozen.
In the afternoon I went into town with Chas. He had to visit the chiropractor and I wanted to get a pizza for dinner. And that's what we did.
I was disappointed with the pizza. I will have to start making pizza crust myself and adding the ingredients I want on it.
It looks as if it's raining out a little but it just may be melting.
12/23/2008 Tuesday: The temperature got up above freezing today.
Chas helped me fill the water tubs of the Herefords and I did the rest. I want this bad weather to end.
Chas and I went into town after lunch and did our visit to the feed store, the library and the grocery store. It was slippery when we left but it was melting. That means that the roads will be slicker than snot tomorrow morning when Chas needs to go into town to get his back cracked at the chiropractor.
Dinner was goat, plantains (2) that I boiled then mashed and cauliflower which was relatively inexpensive and tastes so good steamed. Tomorrow I'll turn the leftover goat into soup. Lucky got the bones left over from tonight's dinner.
12/22/2008 Monday: Snowed again last night. The temperature got down to about 26 degrees F. I think it might hit 32 degrees. Any melting would be appreciated by me. Big time. It fills the Dexter water tub.
I did my chores and came back in to have breakfast and get thawed out.
I'm really happy that I filled up those two bins I got from Mary and Mike H with water. It's made it possible to put water into the goat tub, the Muscovy's tub and bucket and the sheep's tub. I finally ran out last night.
After a brief snooze - it was hard work just walking because the snow is almost up to the top of my boots and because it's heavy snow - I went outside to do the watering. Chas brought up the hose for me. Took me about an hour to do the watering. I carried two half buckets over to the green barn to partially refill one of the tubs and to refill the goat and sheep tubs. I just took out some of the ice from the duck tub and refilled their bucket inside their evening pen.
I figured out why my computer kept crashing. The blue screen of death came up 3 - 5 times a day. On it was the message that mxopswd.sys was the problem file. I did a search on that file and found how to remove it - or at least disable it. So far since I fixed it I have not had any blue screen of death and a reboot. (I have my fingers crossed that there's no futher occurrences of the BSofD. From the answers I found it seems as if this is a major problem for Maxtor users. I don't use a password for this external drive anyway.
Chas got the tractor moving again. It had frozen up because we left it outside. He and I put a bale of hay into the Dexter feeder after Chas scraped away the snow in front of the gate so that I could get the gate open.
Dinner was leftover turkey breast, leftover potatoes from our pork roast, and broccoli (store bought like the turkey breast).
12/21/2008 Sunday: I think it must have gotten up to 32 degrees F for an hour or two late in the afternoon because the Dexter lean-to roof was dripping into the waterer underneath it. Otherwise it hovered around 30 degrees F. The good news is that it's supposed to gradually get warmer over the next week. It snowed about another inch today. It looks as if there's about 8-10 inches of snow on the ground. It's hard to walk on because there's a hard crust under the latest batch of snow from yesterday.
This morning Chas and I took my hair dryer out and unfroze the water pipe by the stalls that I use to water my cows. It was such a pleasure unrolling the hose and filling the tanks for the Herefords. They were all gathered around the tanks bellowing their disappointment that there was no water available for them to drink. Several of the cows were gathering up snow and "drinking" that. Once the first tank was partially full they elbowed each other out of the way so that they could drink. I felt really bad that I didn't take time last night to defrost the faucet.
I took a shovel to the chicken coop and chipped away at the ice in front of the door. I couldn't get it open enough for me to get in and I knew I needed to get in so that I could top off their feeder. Good thing too because it was nearly empty. I spread some cracked corn and sunflower seeds around their coop. I'd also brought some warm water which I used to fill their rubber waterer. I put the waterer in the coop so that perhaps it wouldn't freeze again.
Charles made dinner tonight. Clam spaghetti. It was delicious. So nice to have Chas cook periodically. It gives me a chance to relax.
We did the laundry in our new washer. It worked really well and doesn't seem to take as long to complete its various cycles. I think that's because it fills much faster.
I backed up some of my D:\ drive, especially my knitting patterns and D:\Downloads.
Today is the last day of 2008. I'm half sad and half happy that its over.
While I wasn't expecting my iTouch till January 3, it showed up today in the mail. Naturally I've been playing with it. I've put greasy fingerprints all over it. I actually have a cover and cloths to get rid of the fingerprints which I'll have to use.
I did download two ebook readers and some free ebooks to read. Now if I could only find the time to read.
Dinner was hot noodles to celebrate the last day of the year.
12/30/2008 Tuesday: Overcast but not raining. Green barn hose frozen this morning but unthawed by this evening.
Chas and I left at 9:30am to attend Bill S's swearing in. It was short but one of the commissioners gave a way too long speech in the most boring fashion. He seems well meaning, otherwise. I mentioned my concerns about public health defunding. Bill said he was also concerned and didn't see how the county could cut any more money out of their budget. I think I will encourage Bill to consider promoting Internet access to the working content so that in bad weather folks can work from home (assuming they have power). Plus, it would be of great benefit to the volunteers who don't want to spend the money driving in.
Evening chores went well. The cows protested when I didn't give them their evening grain but they got a third more this morning. They also have lots of hay to munch on.
Dinner is chicken breasts and cauliflower since we ate late and had biscuits and leftover soup.
I borrowed a nice book from the library titled, "Farm Management." It's a textbook and has numerous sections on financial management and related topics. I glanced through it to get an idea of what's in it and will spend more time reading relevant chapters during the time I have it checked out. I also looked at Ken Midkiff's book titled, "The Meat You Eat: How Corporate Farming Has Endangered America's Food Supply." Got to know your competition.
12/29/2008 Monday: Hail today and rain off and on. Probably go down to freezing this evening but isn't expected to last.
I did nothing useful today except help Chas put two round bales into the Hereford feeder in the afternoon after I fed the goats and sheep.
Animals are all fine. Snow is still on the ground. When it's gone I can start mucking out the barn.
Got a letter from Susie. See Updates for my response to her letters. Sounds as if she had a tough time with 4 feet of snow and no power and no water for her Dexters. Also the search for a new home isn't going very well.
Dinner was spaghetti with Pesto and shrimp.
Going to town tomorrow to attend Bill S's swearing-in ceremony as county commissioner. Then shopping.
12/28/2008 Sunday: It's still melting outside and both Chas and I are very happy. I guess there's about four more inches to melt but we are starting to see bare earth in places.
It took forever to do chores this morning since I washed out and filled the waterers in the green barn. Yes, the second hose is all thawed out and working just fine. I still have to wash out and fill the sheep waterer. In the meantime the sheep have plenty of snow melt in their tub to drink.
I should also clean out the built up hay around their feeder. I wonder if I shouldn't think about another kind of feeder for the sheep. They sure waste a lot of hay. I need to build a better feeder.
I started the laundry with our sheets this morning. So far the washing machine is working well. This is a relief. Chas took over after that and finished doing the rest of the laundry. I made the bed.
I got out a pork roast for dinner tonight and began defrosting it in the microwave. We ate it with a small baked potato and the last of our acorn squash.
Bill W came by to visit and we chatted for about an hour. He left us $40. for diesel for the tractor. I'll have to figure out something to give his wife. I'll bet he didn't use $5.00 worth of gas.
In the afternoon we put a round bale in the Dexter's feeder. They were very grumpy with me as they'd eaten all their hay down to the nibs. I had Chas put a second bale in the stall just so that we had one handy for the next time or in case I need to feed parts of it. (such as if the tractor breaks down).
I gave the Herefords their usual buckets of grain. I also gave Two extra grain with some vegetable oil on it to give it extra calories. It's always amazing to see how fast the critters gain weight when they get extra grain. One looks pretty good. He's old enough to be pushy.
12/27/2008 Saturday: Still melting. Looks like the weather will be rainy but much warmer.
I turned on the hose in the hopes that the Hereford cows tub would be filled with water when the water in the hose melts. I pulled most of the hose going to the goat barn out of the snow but need to get the rest of it exposed so that the water in it can melt. The Hereford hose finally came unthawed and filled the cows' waterer.
The hose running from the house to the green barn partially unthawed so that I was able to get some clean water into the goat waterer.
I did some scraping out inside the cow barn but barely made a dent in it. I really need to scrape the barnyard of all the muck that has accumulated and then lay in two or three railroad ties to provide a strong surface so that I can get into the barn without dropping into a pit. Then I can get inside the barn to scrape the concrete. I have to wait till the snow melts and I can easily get into the road pasture.
I also need to get out into the road pasture to disconnect the wire that is shorting out the fenceline. I'll do that as soon as the snow melts so I can get out there easily.
Bill W phoned to ask if he could use our tractor. We loaned him the tractor and the back scraper. Chas took off the box scraper. I'm dying to try the scraper on the barn floor to see how well it will do with removing the built-up shit. Before he left he scraped our driveway for us. What a sweetie. We're always happy to have Bill borrow our tractor. He takes care of our equipment when he borrows it. In fact, he actually cleans the tractor off so that it looks beautiful.
Part of my iTouch purchases came today, the box contained one leather cover, 3 silicone covers in different colors, a plug-in for my car cigarette lighter, speakers, two clear screen covers, earphones, splitter for two people to listen to a song - in short, 14 pieces. Course my iTouch is not expected to come till January 7, 2009.
The roof on the section of the equipment shed where we store our tractor started collapsing from the weight of the snow but Chas caught it in time. He propped up the 2x4 that, except for the ends is the only piece of wood supporting the roof there. We will need to reinforce it. I might have Pat tear the roof off and put in 2x6s or 2x8s and put in another post or two to properly support the roof.
Dinner was leftover soup. I made biscuits. When I made them I added cornmeal. The biscuits didn't rise very much but they sure were tasty.
I watched some more videos today: Dung Beetles, Think Like a Cow, How to Make Money with Meat Goats. I learned a lot about the various products that they were promoting, some of which I might purchase.
12/26/2008 Friday: This weather is wearing me out. I even went to bed early for me - 10:30 pm and slept till 6:30 am. I'm still tired and dragging myself around. It started raining this morning around 11:00 am (or so). The snow on the ground is melting. I'm happy about that.
Fed and watered the critters this morning so that I wouldn't have to come out later and do the watering. I'd left the hose on the floor of the cow barn overnight and it didn't freeze. I left the blanket off the faucet this morning since I was pretty sure it would get over freezing sometime today. I hung the over the gate to the Dexter stall where I feed hay so that it would have a chance to unthaw and maybe dry out a little.
Fed the Dexters some of the bag of carrots that are beginning to go bad in the kitchen after I did my chores. They loved them, except for Emma who kept spitting them out. I also cut one carrot up for Diller. He smelled them but wouldn't eat them so I dropped them into his grain feeder. We'll see if he eats them.
I purchased Nero 8 this evening and am installing it. It's taking forever.
I spent time last night watching two videos from www.24-7agtv.com. Both videos were on pasture management, animal size and amount of food consumed by smaller vs larger animals and equipment to make managing fields easier.
12/25/2008 Thursday: Chilly first thing in the morning but I think it's finally beginning to thaw.
The power went off early this morning. When it didn't come back on again I got dressed and went out to do my chores. There was just enough hot water left to make a half-gallon bottle of milk for Three. I gave grain to the Herefords and goats and hay to the sheep and goats.
Chas came out first thing after I'd finished my chores and together we put in two more bales of hay into the Hereford collapsible feeder.
The power kept coming on and going off for about an hour so there wasn't much point in doing anything but read. I was so happy that we could read.
I think I will take the garbage can with the holes in the bottom down to the equipment shed and put the wooden and fiberglass fencing posts in it. it's so hard to keep them organized.
The weight of the snow broke the tin on the front of the wood shed. The front wasn't supported very well. I'll talk to Pat M and see what he has to say about a possible fix.
I cooked soup and bread machine bread for dinner tonight. I started both around noon today. Not sure why my bread isn't rising. I guess the yeast is getting old. I'll have to proof it before I put it in the bread machine.
Finished off two Stuart Woods books today - Santa Fe Dead and Hot Mahogany.
12/24/2008 Wednesday. Christmas Eve Day: More snow this morning. Temperature hovering around 30 degrees F. In the late morning the temperature hit 36 but has since dropped to around 30 degrees (3:30 pm) Snow flurries in the afternoon. Made the roads slippery.
Did my chores then came in for breakfast. Around 10:30am I went out and watered the critters. I didn't have to break up the water because most of it wasn't frozen.
In the afternoon I went into town with Chas. He had to visit the chiropractor and I wanted to get a pizza for dinner. And that's what we did.
I was disappointed with the pizza. I will have to start making pizza crust myself and adding the ingredients I want on it.
It looks as if it's raining out a little but it just may be melting.
12/23/2008 Tuesday: The temperature got up above freezing today.
Chas helped me fill the water tubs of the Herefords and I did the rest. I want this bad weather to end.
Chas and I went into town after lunch and did our visit to the feed store, the library and the grocery store. It was slippery when we left but it was melting. That means that the roads will be slicker than snot tomorrow morning when Chas needs to go into town to get his back cracked at the chiropractor.
Dinner was goat, plantains (2) that I boiled then mashed and cauliflower which was relatively inexpensive and tastes so good steamed. Tomorrow I'll turn the leftover goat into soup. Lucky got the bones left over from tonight's dinner.
12/22/2008 Monday: Snowed again last night. The temperature got down to about 26 degrees F. I think it might hit 32 degrees. Any melting would be appreciated by me. Big time. It fills the Dexter water tub.
I did my chores and came back in to have breakfast and get thawed out.
I'm really happy that I filled up those two bins I got from Mary and Mike H with water. It's made it possible to put water into the goat tub, the Muscovy's tub and bucket and the sheep's tub. I finally ran out last night.
After a brief snooze - it was hard work just walking because the snow is almost up to the top of my boots and because it's heavy snow - I went outside to do the watering. Chas brought up the hose for me. Took me about an hour to do the watering. I carried two half buckets over to the green barn to partially refill one of the tubs and to refill the goat and sheep tubs. I just took out some of the ice from the duck tub and refilled their bucket inside their evening pen.
I figured out why my computer kept crashing. The blue screen of death came up 3 - 5 times a day. On it was the message that mxopswd.sys was the problem file. I did a search on that file and found how to remove it - or at least disable it. So far since I fixed it I have not had any blue screen of death and a reboot. (I have my fingers crossed that there's no futher occurrences of the BSofD. From the answers I found it seems as if this is a major problem for Maxtor users. I don't use a password for this external drive anyway.
Chas got the tractor moving again. It had frozen up because we left it outside. He and I put a bale of hay into the Dexter feeder after Chas scraped away the snow in front of the gate so that I could get the gate open.
Dinner was leftover turkey breast, leftover potatoes from our pork roast, and broccoli (store bought like the turkey breast).
12/21/2008 Sunday: I think it must have gotten up to 32 degrees F for an hour or two late in the afternoon because the Dexter lean-to roof was dripping into the waterer underneath it. Otherwise it hovered around 30 degrees F. The good news is that it's supposed to gradually get warmer over the next week. It snowed about another inch today. It looks as if there's about 8-10 inches of snow on the ground. It's hard to walk on because there's a hard crust under the latest batch of snow from yesterday.
This morning Chas and I took my hair dryer out and unfroze the water pipe by the stalls that I use to water my cows. It was such a pleasure unrolling the hose and filling the tanks for the Herefords. They were all gathered around the tanks bellowing their disappointment that there was no water available for them to drink. Several of the cows were gathering up snow and "drinking" that. Once the first tank was partially full they elbowed each other out of the way so that they could drink. I felt really bad that I didn't take time last night to defrost the faucet.
I took a shovel to the chicken coop and chipped away at the ice in front of the door. I couldn't get it open enough for me to get in and I knew I needed to get in so that I could top off their feeder. Good thing too because it was nearly empty. I spread some cracked corn and sunflower seeds around their coop. I'd also brought some warm water which I used to fill their rubber waterer. I put the waterer in the coop so that perhaps it wouldn't freeze again.
Charles made dinner tonight. Clam spaghetti. It was delicious. So nice to have Chas cook periodically. It gives me a chance to relax.
We did the laundry in our new washer. It worked really well and doesn't seem to take as long to complete its various cycles. I think that's because it fills much faster.
I backed up some of my D:\ drive, especially my knitting patterns and D:\Downloads.
Catching Up: December 11-20, 2008
12/20/2008 Saturday: Cold last night, about 20 degrees F. Around 9:30 this morning it began snowing, the little flakes.
Nilsen's appliance repair came out today to bring us a new used washer. I suspect the pressure washer went out on the old one. Since it was an old Kenmore it seemed better to buy a refurbed washer than to pay what must have been lots more to get the old one fixed. It cost us $139.19 which also included delivery and installation. I gave the guy an extra $10. for coming out in the snow (even though it was light snow).
It will take me awhile to get used to the new washer since it's not as wide but is deeper than the old one. I'm not sure how much will fit in the washer and will just have to try it out to see.
I could not put water in the Hereford's water tubs because the pipe was frozen. I was upset at not being able to give the girls their water. I did break the ice in the Dexter pen and in all the other waterers.
It will take me awhile to get used to the new washer since it's not as wide but is deeper than the old one.
Looks like the weather is going to get warmer starting Sunday - all the way up to 36 degrees F.
11pm: The temperature is up to nearly 30 degrees F.
Dinner was a pork arm roast cook on top of leeks. I added one of our acorn squash and some of our potatoes.
12/19/2008 Friday: Cold and going to be even colder this evening and into Saturday.
It was chilly doing chores this morning. It was just plain bitter out.
Chas and went into town to do some grocery shopping and get some money from the bank, drop a letter with my request for a premise ID from the Washington State ag? dept. into the post office and do some shopping at Madsons. Chas bought two pair of pants and two watch caps (he'd walled the last watch cap into the barn wall along with his thermos). I bought a package of 12 medium sized gloves so that I'd have some around.
The library was closed presumably due to the bad weather. It was a bummer for us since we both had books to pick up.
Enrique stopped by just as we got home from town to ask if I needed him to work tomorrow. I told it it would be way too cold and likely snowing. So, I told the guys not to come tomorrow.
We had lunch and then went out to look at washing machines at Neilsen's. Ours had broken. Probably a pressure switch. We're expecting delivery tomorrow morning. It's not a giant washing machine like we had but it might get us through a couple of years. We'll replace this new, used machine, with a more modern one when it breaks down.
It was much easier hauling up the one hose from the loom room. While I was breaking ice in the Dexter waterer with a sledge hammer I filled the two tanks in the road pasture. The Dexters were sure happy when I broke up the ice in their waterer. I also filled up the yellow bucket in their pen.
Dinner was turkey breast with zucchini medley and rice. The turkey was delicious as was Chas's medley.
Tomorrow it's expected to snow big time but then it will start warming up. Thank heavens because I'm getting tired of hauling the hose up from the basement. I need to find a good spot to keep the hose so that I don't have to get it every night and return it. Chas's idea of wrapping the faucet in a blanket was an inspired one and has saved us from having to haul water in buckets from the kitchen.
Tomorrow I need to think about working on cleaning up the basement. Maybe I can even get the guest room floor scrubbed and ready for someone to come visit us. Be nice to have the carpet glue removed, at the very least. I'd sure like to get it scrubbed, too, and the furniture put back in some kind of order.
Found a good homesteading-type Website this evening: http://matronofhusbandry.wordpress.com/ . Has great recipes, too.
http://journeytoforever.org/farm_poultry.html
12/18/2008 Thursday: It snowed a lot today with some large flakes and later smaller ones off and on all day. It actually got to over 32 degrees F, positively balmy.
I discovered that the hose that was attached to the 55 gallon drum is long enough (barely) to reach from the faucet to the Hereford's water troughs. When the day warms up the downspout at the corner of the Dexter pen fills up the tub again so I don't have to worry much about the Dexters as far as water is concerned.
I hauled 4 - 50 lb bags of Country Livestock from the green barn to the cow barn on the ATV and filled the garbage can with two bags. I use one scoop of Country Livestock to two scoops of alfalfa pellets. The animals love it.
I need to put the protein block into the corner so that the cows can eat it when they need a little extra protein. I'm thinking of pouring some molasses on top of the container just to see whether or not they'll eat it. I think they'll love it.
Dinner was chicken breasts with squash and chard. I forgot to turn on the brown rice which means we'll have to have that for dinner another night.
I downloaded a few free ebooks from various book stores. Nice to see they're giving away a few ebooks in order to get demand up. eHarlequin has books up on their site in chapters so that you can read a chapter a day/week - or if the book is done, you can read all the chapters at once.
12/17/2008 Wednesday: A little less cold than yesterday. It was only 26 degrees F outside but it was snowing big time before I went out to do chores. Then later it got a couple of degrees warmer but by the time I was done with chores it came down really hard and has continues to snow lightly off and on.
I went out to break up the water trough for the Dexters but couldn't do much more than dent the ice on their tough under the downspout. I finally went and got a sledge hammer from the tack room. That worked and I was able to free up their water.
Everyone seems to be surviving ok. I'm feeding the Herefords grain + alfalfa pellets morning and night. They really enjoy it and whine (bellow) when I don't give them their grain. I also broke up water in their tank but because I've been bashing at their water twice a day and filling the one tank, the ice in their tubs was easy to break with a t-post.
I spent part of the morning fixing the modem. Quite a process. Glad I kept the instructions from the last crash of that tool. I did get it to work.
It actually rained this afternoon after dumping about 2 inches of snow on us. It was lovely watching the snow drift down. Sometimes it was large heavy flakes and sometimes light and very small flakes. Course it started raining about the time I went to do chores. I had to dodge large clumps of melting snow falling out of the trees. Fortunately no clumps got me. It made watering easier since the ice was beginning to melt in the water tubs.
This afternoon I fed the critters and went out for the mail. The mail box was open and I'm afraid that we might have had something stolen from it. I will try to remember to put a note in the box to see if she remembers if she delivered any mail today.
I tried to take the ATV down to the loom room entrance to pick up the hose but I couldn't get up the hill again. I kept sliding backwards. Chas came out and got it almost up (about to where I stopped). In the meantime I'd hooked up the hose and had started filling water tanks starting with the Herefords second tank.
I went and got the tractor and used the steel cable on the ATV to pull the ATV up the hill to where it was flat. By the time I got the tractor back in the barn the water tank was filled. I filled the other tank which I see needs cleaning badly, filled Diller's tank and put the hose away.
We had leftover spaghetti for dinner. It was good.
12/16/2008 Tuesday: Brrr. Another really cold day. It started out around 14 degrees F and actually got up to about 28 degrees. It was really cold doing chores today. My knees always hurt when it's this cold.
I broke the ice again this morning on the critter's water troughs. I poured hot water into the chicken pan that I put out yesterday. First I broke up the ice by turning it upside down and stomping on it. Fortunately the pan is made of rubber and can take that kind of punishment. It was so cold that I had to take my gloves off and put my hands in my pants pockets to get my hands warmed up.
After lunch when it was slightly warmer Chas and I moved the round bales that Wally dropped off (literally) yesterday into the barn. It took us about an hour and a half to get all twenty into the barn.
The Dexters had broken into the stall behind their feeder and pushed around the bales of hay I had stored in there and ate some. I shooed them out, straightened out the feeder arrangement, and had Chas bring a round bale so that they wouldn't be so pesky and tear apart the feeder. I need to pound in some T posts to tie the feeder and gate to. Maybe I'll have my helpers do it this Saturday.
Dinner was hamburger (ours), potatoes (ours) and carrots (store bought).
12/15/2008 Monday: When I went out this morning it was 17 degrees F outside. That's cold for this part of the world. It's not expected to get better for over a week.
I spent quite a bit of time breaking the ice on the water containers this morning. I also brought hot water out to the chickens and put the water in a small black rubber tub, one I could easily break the ice in.
The littlest Boer doe was shivering. The temperature is supposed to go down quite far this evening - into the teens so she'll be even colder.
I fed the Herefords 2.5 bales of hay and will feed at least that amount this evening. Nope. Wally came around 3:30 pm. Chas and I decided we'd put the last two remaining bales in with the Herefords and then put a new one in the Dexter's pen tomorrow after Wally delivers my new batch of hay.
Chas cleared out all of his tools and put them back in the Tack Room and took his saw to the front of the tack room but will likely need some help putting it away. He carried it over there on the ATV. I'd have been afraid it would tip over and break but it didn't.
I turned on the faucet at the cow barn to see if it would work. It did but the green hose was still frozen even though we emptied it. Chas took it up to the house to finish thawing. I filled the small 30 gallon water bucket I put in the Dexter pen and went out to break up the ice in their outside waterers. Then I filled up both troughs in the Hereford pen. They go through almost a 100 gallons each day.
Just as I was finishing up watering the Herefords Wally showed up to drop off 20 round bales. That will last me a month, maybe more if I continue to feed the alfalfa-Country livestock mix. He dumped them off and I showed him my new fenceline feeders and collapsible round bale feeder setup. He thought this arrangement was great. He also grinds and mixes his own grain, half corn and half barley. He said he'd bring over a 50 lb sack of this feed. I'll try it out on the cows and see how they like it. If his price is reasonable and the cows like it I may buy a half ton from him. Be a good way to save money.
Wally might be interested in purchasing some of my cows. He has so much feed left over he needs to find something to feed and thinks he'll go with beef. If I could figure out how to catch them I might sell him two of the cross-bred bull calves and the two cows I got from Gary. I think the bull calves could be weaned now.
I dragged the hoses up to the house. Chas took them downstairs to our loom room to keep them from freezing. That will make it lots easier to water the critters. Chas put a blanket around the barn faucet which will hopefully keep it from freezing solid. I guess I could go for two days without refilling the cow's water tubs but I like to fill them when I can - just in case.
Dinner was spaghetti made with choice cooked and frozen mushrooms that we picked from our property, our sausage, canned sauce and our leeks. I made enough for two meals. I like leftovers.
Tomorrow will be sunny but it's going to start to snow Wednesday.
12/14/2008 Sunday: The weather has turned nasty. Snow on the ground and the thermometer hovering right at 30 degrees F.
I slept in late and got out to feed late. I fed 2/3 alfalfa pellets and 1/3 Country Livestock on each fenceline feeder. Boy, do those feeders ever creak when 5 cows lean against it.
The little Shorthorn, Three, is doing well. He's eating grain on his own and nibbling at the hay I throw in.
Diller, the Dexter steer, seems to be doing well after being castrated. He's eating well and comes when I call him. I'll butcher him at 2 years of age which appears to be the best time to butcher Dexter steers. I think I should plan on castrating the bull calves closer to 90 days of age. It would be easier as they wouldn't be so big and hard to manage.
Everything was frozen this morning but Chas discovered that the water near the Stalls was working. He filled up Diller's waterer. When I was done with evening chores I brought over a round bucket and put it into the adult Dexter's stall so that if I do have to haul water I can easily fill that bucket. Just reach through the gate, or open the gate.
I also filled up the second waterer in the Hereford winter pasture a half bucket at a time. Any fuller and it was hard to lift the bucket up to put through the high tensile wire to empty it. So I got it almost full. When I was done I undid the hose, emptied it and stored it in the barn, and turned off the faucet and wrapped it with a towel. I'm hoping that the water will run so that I can fill waterers. I want to add one length of hose to the existing hose to make it long enough to reach the water tub. We have at least 8 days of this cold snap.
I might be able to fill the tubs on Wed since the thermometer is supposed to go up to 35 degrees F. Sunday the daytime temperature is supposed to be 38 degrees F even if the morning temperatures are below freezing.
We did the laundry. It looks as if we're going to have to get a new washer. It will likely be used since fixing this machine will likely be hard.
Dinner was homemade bread with homemade soup. I didn't use enough flour and too much Zoom cereal so the bread didn't rise very much. It was delightfully chewy and very dense.
12/13/2008 Saturday: The temperature started off around 40 degrees F and is going down. It's supposed to snow this afternoon and be generally miserably cold for the next nine days.
I've got most of my water buckets filled but if the weather doesn't warm up we're likely to have to haul buckets of water out to the cattle.
This was our usual busy Saturday morning. Enrique and Juan helped me out quite a bit today. The first thing we did before my nerve ran out was to castrate Diller and give him a shot of Tetanus Toxoid. It was an eventful process. I tried walking the bull into the pasture but he wouldn't make it all the way up. I tried the hazing method of walking back and forth alongside him, but he would laugh at me, run by me and kick his heels up as he went by. Finally Enrique came out and we stretched a rope between us and walked him into the stall. I closed the gate.
We threw the rope around his neck but Enrique who was holding the rope let him run under the gate which bent it all to hell. Fortunately we threw the end of the rope around a post and held on for dear life. Juan walked up behind the bull and we reeled him in. Once we had him snugged up to the post I put a halter on him and snubbed him up pretty good. Juan leaned against the calf while Enrique held the tail up to prevent him from kicking me. I used my California Bander to castrate him.
I left Diller tied up to the post for about 3 hours. Finally he gave up fighting the halter and lay down quietly. Around 12:30 pm after lunch I released him and gave him some grain and hay.
After that Enrique and Juan moved the green gate which I'd been storing in the goat pasture over to where the rest of the gates were being stored (under the trees by the old corral). Then we cleaned out the middle stall - it was really gross - and dumped in about 6 or 7 loads of wood chips. While Enrique got the chips I spread them out in a thick layer with my pitchfork. Juan removed nails from 2x4s.
The guys moved four bales of hay over to the green barn. Then I asked them to help me put the 2x4s under the sheets of plywood so that the sheets would slope back to the fenceline feeder. When the cows eat they lick the grain away from them as they try to curl their tongues around a bunch. I'm hoping to get the grain to roll back down the plywood. We'll see.
I may end up building a plywood rectangle with edges into which I put the feed. That will be next summer's project if I decide to do it.
I had the guys continue working on the area alongside the fenceline that divides us from the DOT dumping ground. I had them remove and buck up the trees that were leaning along the ground.
I went over to Mary and Mike's place to drop off a dozen eggs and a bag each of chard and greens. Then I went on to Pe Ell to get my Nickle and some goodies to last me through the next week or so. It snowed - well at least there was a solid component to the rain - as I headed toward Pe Ell. Brrr. The dog enjoyed the ride.
We had chicken breast, acorn squash and chard for dinner. The squash was just perfect. Alas, we only have 2 Acorn squash left and 2 small squash and a slightly larger squash. Then we'll have to dip into our frozen squash.
12/12/2008 Friday: It started off fairly warm - nearly 40 degrees F - then it started to rain. And it really rained hard.
I did my chores and cleaned and filled every water container I could lay my hands on inside and outside the green barn. I cleaned out the sheep's tub and filled it to the top and did the same for Three's waterer, the goat's tub and even filled two of the green tubs I got from Mary. I covered them. Hopefully they won't freeze. They'll be necessary if it's going to freeze for 5 days.
After that I went over to the cow barn and filled up Diller's tub. Then I emptied out the broken 100 gallon Rubbermaid tub and dragged it over to the water barrels. I opened the spigot and the water that runs off the roof and into the barrel is now filling up the broken tub. The tub is only broken at the top 5 or 6 inches so I can get about 70-80 gallons in it.
I called Wally, my hay supplier, to ask him to deliver 20 round bales on Monday. It's pouring down rain and that will likely turn to snow later today. He will come Monday assuming that he can take his big truck onto the roads safely (i.e., no snow/ice), otherwise he will deliver two bales in his pickup to keep me going till he can deliver. I don't know why I'm fussing since I have enough square bales to last me for several weeks if necessary. Still, at 5-6 square bales a day, I'll go through them pretty fast. I'd rather pay $45.00 for 2.5 days of hay than twice that amount for the same period in hay bales.
Gary N showed up today. We had a nice chat. I showed him my plans for the new corral. He thinks it looks good.
Pat M also showed up and Charles put him to work finishing up reinforcing the side of the barn. I'm going to ask him to fix the screw that popped off when we moved the bale of hay into the feeder.
Pat finished reinforcing the north wall that Chas has been working on for days. Now we can push against it with no trouble when we need our bales, It's hell for stout. We still have the last bay to do but we can do that when we move the square bales that are stacked there.
He also fixed the screw that popped out on the south fenceline feeder and put in the two gate hinges so that we could lock the collapsible round bale feeder into the fence line feeder using the existing metal pegs. That project is now complete. Looking good. I have pictures of Pat and Charles working on the wall and of Pat standing in front of the gate that he put in for me. I paid Pat $80.00 for his work. It included $10.00 gas money.
I filled the second 100 gallon Rubbermaid tub as a backup waterer so the Herefords now have 200 gallons in their pen.
The Dexters have only their 100 gallon Rubbermaid tub but that should be enough especially if some of the days warm up in the afternoon. Failing that we can fill a 55 gallon drum with water from the stream and carry it into their field and siphon it into their waterer. One of the joys of having a tractor.
Pat didn't leave till 5:30 pm. I was going to cook chicken and didn't feel like eating leftover soup. We decided to eat fast so I cooked salmon burgers for dinner.
Poor Charles was peopled out by the end of the day. All he wanted to do was sit quietly in his chair and veg out - which is what we both did the rest of the evening.
12/11/2008 Thursday: Overcast and bitter. Looks like we're in for about 5 days of really cold weather. I will need to put extra water in containers for the cows and sheep and goats. Ducks and chickens, too. I also need to cover the outdoor faucets with towels and plastic bags.
Chas went into town today to pick up some additional 2x4 and 2x6 hangers and boards so that he could finish the barn wall reinforcement project. I stayed home. I wore myself out yesterday scraping the barn.
Sherry came to clean. I told her about the clothes washer, that she'd need to use the permanent press cycle to fill the tub.
Around 2pm I went to the cow barn and dug out the overabundance of duff on the floor of the barn where I store the round bales of hay. I filled the trailer and took it to spread over near the equipment shed. Then I picked up a bunch of 4 foot 2x4s to use under the plywood to keep the plywood at an angle so that the feed doesn't roll away from the cows. Of course that meant I had to move two sheets of plywood out of the way. Plus I have to removed the nails. I know a bunch of those 2x4s are buried somewhere under the stack of wood but I didn't take the time to look for them. I suppose I could also just put a bunch of hay under the furthest edge of the plywood. I just need something to raise the end.
I did get things cleared out somewhat. At least I can get through the barn to my feed.
I called Wally to find out when he was going to deliver my hay. He said tomorrow - late morning. That means lunch time. Sigh.
Dinner was vegetable soup made from the leftover pork roast. I served garlic bread from Costco with it. Freed up some room in my freezer. I think I'll cook chicken for tomorrow night's dinner.
Nilsen's appliance repair came out today to bring us a new used washer. I suspect the pressure washer went out on the old one. Since it was an old Kenmore it seemed better to buy a refurbed washer than to pay what must have been lots more to get the old one fixed. It cost us $139.19 which also included delivery and installation. I gave the guy an extra $10. for coming out in the snow (even though it was light snow).
It will take me awhile to get used to the new washer since it's not as wide but is deeper than the old one. I'm not sure how much will fit in the washer and will just have to try it out to see.
I could not put water in the Hereford's water tubs because the pipe was frozen. I was upset at not being able to give the girls their water. I did break the ice in the Dexter pen and in all the other waterers.
It will take me awhile to get used to the new washer since it's not as wide but is deeper than the old one.
Looks like the weather is going to get warmer starting Sunday - all the way up to 36 degrees F.
11pm: The temperature is up to nearly 30 degrees F.
Dinner was a pork arm roast cook on top of leeks. I added one of our acorn squash and some of our potatoes.
12/19/2008 Friday: Cold and going to be even colder this evening and into Saturday.
It was chilly doing chores this morning. It was just plain bitter out.
Chas and went into town to do some grocery shopping and get some money from the bank, drop a letter with my request for a premise ID from the Washington State ag? dept. into the post office and do some shopping at Madsons. Chas bought two pair of pants and two watch caps (he'd walled the last watch cap into the barn wall along with his thermos). I bought a package of 12 medium sized gloves so that I'd have some around.
The library was closed presumably due to the bad weather. It was a bummer for us since we both had books to pick up.
Enrique stopped by just as we got home from town to ask if I needed him to work tomorrow. I told it it would be way too cold and likely snowing. So, I told the guys not to come tomorrow.
We had lunch and then went out to look at washing machines at Neilsen's. Ours had broken. Probably a pressure switch. We're expecting delivery tomorrow morning. It's not a giant washing machine like we had but it might get us through a couple of years. We'll replace this new, used machine, with a more modern one when it breaks down.
It was much easier hauling up the one hose from the loom room. While I was breaking ice in the Dexter waterer with a sledge hammer I filled the two tanks in the road pasture. The Dexters were sure happy when I broke up the ice in their waterer. I also filled up the yellow bucket in their pen.
Dinner was turkey breast with zucchini medley and rice. The turkey was delicious as was Chas's medley.
Tomorrow it's expected to snow big time but then it will start warming up. Thank heavens because I'm getting tired of hauling the hose up from the basement. I need to find a good spot to keep the hose so that I don't have to get it every night and return it. Chas's idea of wrapping the faucet in a blanket was an inspired one and has saved us from having to haul water in buckets from the kitchen.
Tomorrow I need to think about working on cleaning up the basement. Maybe I can even get the guest room floor scrubbed and ready for someone to come visit us. Be nice to have the carpet glue removed, at the very least. I'd sure like to get it scrubbed, too, and the furniture put back in some kind of order.
Found a good homesteading-type Website this evening: http://matronofhusbandry.wordpress.com/ . Has great recipes, too.
http://journeytoforever.org/farm_poultry.html
12/18/2008 Thursday: It snowed a lot today with some large flakes and later smaller ones off and on all day. It actually got to over 32 degrees F, positively balmy.
I discovered that the hose that was attached to the 55 gallon drum is long enough (barely) to reach from the faucet to the Hereford's water troughs. When the day warms up the downspout at the corner of the Dexter pen fills up the tub again so I don't have to worry much about the Dexters as far as water is concerned.
I hauled 4 - 50 lb bags of Country Livestock from the green barn to the cow barn on the ATV and filled the garbage can with two bags. I use one scoop of Country Livestock to two scoops of alfalfa pellets. The animals love it.
I need to put the protein block into the corner so that the cows can eat it when they need a little extra protein. I'm thinking of pouring some molasses on top of the container just to see whether or not they'll eat it. I think they'll love it.
Dinner was chicken breasts with squash and chard. I forgot to turn on the brown rice which means we'll have to have that for dinner another night.
I downloaded a few free ebooks from various book stores. Nice to see they're giving away a few ebooks in order to get demand up. eHarlequin has books up on their site in chapters so that you can read a chapter a day/week - or if the book is done, you can read all the chapters at once.
12/17/2008 Wednesday: A little less cold than yesterday. It was only 26 degrees F outside but it was snowing big time before I went out to do chores. Then later it got a couple of degrees warmer but by the time I was done with chores it came down really hard and has continues to snow lightly off and on.
I went out to break up the water trough for the Dexters but couldn't do much more than dent the ice on their tough under the downspout. I finally went and got a sledge hammer from the tack room. That worked and I was able to free up their water.
Everyone seems to be surviving ok. I'm feeding the Herefords grain + alfalfa pellets morning and night. They really enjoy it and whine (bellow) when I don't give them their grain. I also broke up water in their tank but because I've been bashing at their water twice a day and filling the one tank, the ice in their tubs was easy to break with a t-post.
I spent part of the morning fixing the modem. Quite a process. Glad I kept the instructions from the last crash of that tool. I did get it to work.
It actually rained this afternoon after dumping about 2 inches of snow on us. It was lovely watching the snow drift down. Sometimes it was large heavy flakes and sometimes light and very small flakes. Course it started raining about the time I went to do chores. I had to dodge large clumps of melting snow falling out of the trees. Fortunately no clumps got me. It made watering easier since the ice was beginning to melt in the water tubs.
This afternoon I fed the critters and went out for the mail. The mail box was open and I'm afraid that we might have had something stolen from it. I will try to remember to put a note in the box to see if she remembers if she delivered any mail today.
I tried to take the ATV down to the loom room entrance to pick up the hose but I couldn't get up the hill again. I kept sliding backwards. Chas came out and got it almost up (about to where I stopped). In the meantime I'd hooked up the hose and had started filling water tanks starting with the Herefords second tank.
I went and got the tractor and used the steel cable on the ATV to pull the ATV up the hill to where it was flat. By the time I got the tractor back in the barn the water tank was filled. I filled the other tank which I see needs cleaning badly, filled Diller's tank and put the hose away.
We had leftover spaghetti for dinner. It was good.
12/16/2008 Tuesday: Brrr. Another really cold day. It started out around 14 degrees F and actually got up to about 28 degrees. It was really cold doing chores today. My knees always hurt when it's this cold.
I broke the ice again this morning on the critter's water troughs. I poured hot water into the chicken pan that I put out yesterday. First I broke up the ice by turning it upside down and stomping on it. Fortunately the pan is made of rubber and can take that kind of punishment. It was so cold that I had to take my gloves off and put my hands in my pants pockets to get my hands warmed up.
After lunch when it was slightly warmer Chas and I moved the round bales that Wally dropped off (literally) yesterday into the barn. It took us about an hour and a half to get all twenty into the barn.
The Dexters had broken into the stall behind their feeder and pushed around the bales of hay I had stored in there and ate some. I shooed them out, straightened out the feeder arrangement, and had Chas bring a round bale so that they wouldn't be so pesky and tear apart the feeder. I need to pound in some T posts to tie the feeder and gate to. Maybe I'll have my helpers do it this Saturday.
Dinner was hamburger (ours), potatoes (ours) and carrots (store bought).
12/15/2008 Monday: When I went out this morning it was 17 degrees F outside. That's cold for this part of the world. It's not expected to get better for over a week.
I spent quite a bit of time breaking the ice on the water containers this morning. I also brought hot water out to the chickens and put the water in a small black rubber tub, one I could easily break the ice in.
The littlest Boer doe was shivering. The temperature is supposed to go down quite far this evening - into the teens so she'll be even colder.
I fed the Herefords 2.5 bales of hay and will feed at least that amount this evening. Nope. Wally came around 3:30 pm. Chas and I decided we'd put the last two remaining bales in with the Herefords and then put a new one in the Dexter's pen tomorrow after Wally delivers my new batch of hay.
Chas cleared out all of his tools and put them back in the Tack Room and took his saw to the front of the tack room but will likely need some help putting it away. He carried it over there on the ATV. I'd have been afraid it would tip over and break but it didn't.
I turned on the faucet at the cow barn to see if it would work. It did but the green hose was still frozen even though we emptied it. Chas took it up to the house to finish thawing. I filled the small 30 gallon water bucket I put in the Dexter pen and went out to break up the ice in their outside waterers. Then I filled up both troughs in the Hereford pen. They go through almost a 100 gallons each day.
Just as I was finishing up watering the Herefords Wally showed up to drop off 20 round bales. That will last me a month, maybe more if I continue to feed the alfalfa-Country livestock mix. He dumped them off and I showed him my new fenceline feeders and collapsible round bale feeder setup. He thought this arrangement was great. He also grinds and mixes his own grain, half corn and half barley. He said he'd bring over a 50 lb sack of this feed. I'll try it out on the cows and see how they like it. If his price is reasonable and the cows like it I may buy a half ton from him. Be a good way to save money.
Wally might be interested in purchasing some of my cows. He has so much feed left over he needs to find something to feed and thinks he'll go with beef. If I could figure out how to catch them I might sell him two of the cross-bred bull calves and the two cows I got from Gary. I think the bull calves could be weaned now.
I dragged the hoses up to the house. Chas took them downstairs to our loom room to keep them from freezing. That will make it lots easier to water the critters. Chas put a blanket around the barn faucet which will hopefully keep it from freezing solid. I guess I could go for two days without refilling the cow's water tubs but I like to fill them when I can - just in case.
Dinner was spaghetti made with choice cooked and frozen mushrooms that we picked from our property, our sausage, canned sauce and our leeks. I made enough for two meals. I like leftovers.
Tomorrow will be sunny but it's going to start to snow Wednesday.
12/14/2008 Sunday: The weather has turned nasty. Snow on the ground and the thermometer hovering right at 30 degrees F.
I slept in late and got out to feed late. I fed 2/3 alfalfa pellets and 1/3 Country Livestock on each fenceline feeder. Boy, do those feeders ever creak when 5 cows lean against it.
The little Shorthorn, Three, is doing well. He's eating grain on his own and nibbling at the hay I throw in.
Diller, the Dexter steer, seems to be doing well after being castrated. He's eating well and comes when I call him. I'll butcher him at 2 years of age which appears to be the best time to butcher Dexter steers. I think I should plan on castrating the bull calves closer to 90 days of age. It would be easier as they wouldn't be so big and hard to manage.
Everything was frozen this morning but Chas discovered that the water near the Stalls was working. He filled up Diller's waterer. When I was done with evening chores I brought over a round bucket and put it into the adult Dexter's stall so that if I do have to haul water I can easily fill that bucket. Just reach through the gate, or open the gate.
I also filled up the second waterer in the Hereford winter pasture a half bucket at a time. Any fuller and it was hard to lift the bucket up to put through the high tensile wire to empty it. So I got it almost full. When I was done I undid the hose, emptied it and stored it in the barn, and turned off the faucet and wrapped it with a towel. I'm hoping that the water will run so that I can fill waterers. I want to add one length of hose to the existing hose to make it long enough to reach the water tub. We have at least 8 days of this cold snap.
I might be able to fill the tubs on Wed since the thermometer is supposed to go up to 35 degrees F. Sunday the daytime temperature is supposed to be 38 degrees F even if the morning temperatures are below freezing.
We did the laundry. It looks as if we're going to have to get a new washer. It will likely be used since fixing this machine will likely be hard.
Dinner was homemade bread with homemade soup. I didn't use enough flour and too much Zoom cereal so the bread didn't rise very much. It was delightfully chewy and very dense.
12/13/2008 Saturday: The temperature started off around 40 degrees F and is going down. It's supposed to snow this afternoon and be generally miserably cold for the next nine days.
I've got most of my water buckets filled but if the weather doesn't warm up we're likely to have to haul buckets of water out to the cattle.
This was our usual busy Saturday morning. Enrique and Juan helped me out quite a bit today. The first thing we did before my nerve ran out was to castrate Diller and give him a shot of Tetanus Toxoid. It was an eventful process. I tried walking the bull into the pasture but he wouldn't make it all the way up. I tried the hazing method of walking back and forth alongside him, but he would laugh at me, run by me and kick his heels up as he went by. Finally Enrique came out and we stretched a rope between us and walked him into the stall. I closed the gate.
We threw the rope around his neck but Enrique who was holding the rope let him run under the gate which bent it all to hell. Fortunately we threw the end of the rope around a post and held on for dear life. Juan walked up behind the bull and we reeled him in. Once we had him snugged up to the post I put a halter on him and snubbed him up pretty good. Juan leaned against the calf while Enrique held the tail up to prevent him from kicking me. I used my California Bander to castrate him.
I left Diller tied up to the post for about 3 hours. Finally he gave up fighting the halter and lay down quietly. Around 12:30 pm after lunch I released him and gave him some grain and hay.
After that Enrique and Juan moved the green gate which I'd been storing in the goat pasture over to where the rest of the gates were being stored (under the trees by the old corral). Then we cleaned out the middle stall - it was really gross - and dumped in about 6 or 7 loads of wood chips. While Enrique got the chips I spread them out in a thick layer with my pitchfork. Juan removed nails from 2x4s.
The guys moved four bales of hay over to the green barn. Then I asked them to help me put the 2x4s under the sheets of plywood so that the sheets would slope back to the fenceline feeder. When the cows eat they lick the grain away from them as they try to curl their tongues around a bunch. I'm hoping to get the grain to roll back down the plywood. We'll see.
I may end up building a plywood rectangle with edges into which I put the feed. That will be next summer's project if I decide to do it.
I had the guys continue working on the area alongside the fenceline that divides us from the DOT dumping ground. I had them remove and buck up the trees that were leaning along the ground.
I went over to Mary and Mike's place to drop off a dozen eggs and a bag each of chard and greens. Then I went on to Pe Ell to get my Nickle and some goodies to last me through the next week or so. It snowed - well at least there was a solid component to the rain - as I headed toward Pe Ell. Brrr. The dog enjoyed the ride.
We had chicken breast, acorn squash and chard for dinner. The squash was just perfect. Alas, we only have 2 Acorn squash left and 2 small squash and a slightly larger squash. Then we'll have to dip into our frozen squash.
12/12/2008 Friday: It started off fairly warm - nearly 40 degrees F - then it started to rain. And it really rained hard.
I did my chores and cleaned and filled every water container I could lay my hands on inside and outside the green barn. I cleaned out the sheep's tub and filled it to the top and did the same for Three's waterer, the goat's tub and even filled two of the green tubs I got from Mary. I covered them. Hopefully they won't freeze. They'll be necessary if it's going to freeze for 5 days.
After that I went over to the cow barn and filled up Diller's tub. Then I emptied out the broken 100 gallon Rubbermaid tub and dragged it over to the water barrels. I opened the spigot and the water that runs off the roof and into the barrel is now filling up the broken tub. The tub is only broken at the top 5 or 6 inches so I can get about 70-80 gallons in it.
I called Wally, my hay supplier, to ask him to deliver 20 round bales on Monday. It's pouring down rain and that will likely turn to snow later today. He will come Monday assuming that he can take his big truck onto the roads safely (i.e., no snow/ice), otherwise he will deliver two bales in his pickup to keep me going till he can deliver. I don't know why I'm fussing since I have enough square bales to last me for several weeks if necessary. Still, at 5-6 square bales a day, I'll go through them pretty fast. I'd rather pay $45.00 for 2.5 days of hay than twice that amount for the same period in hay bales.
Gary N showed up today. We had a nice chat. I showed him my plans for the new corral. He thinks it looks good.
Pat M also showed up and Charles put him to work finishing up reinforcing the side of the barn. I'm going to ask him to fix the screw that popped off when we moved the bale of hay into the feeder.
Pat finished reinforcing the north wall that Chas has been working on for days. Now we can push against it with no trouble when we need our bales, It's hell for stout. We still have the last bay to do but we can do that when we move the square bales that are stacked there.
He also fixed the screw that popped out on the south fenceline feeder and put in the two gate hinges so that we could lock the collapsible round bale feeder into the fence line feeder using the existing metal pegs. That project is now complete. Looking good. I have pictures of Pat and Charles working on the wall and of Pat standing in front of the gate that he put in for me. I paid Pat $80.00 for his work. It included $10.00 gas money.
I filled the second 100 gallon Rubbermaid tub as a backup waterer so the Herefords now have 200 gallons in their pen.
The Dexters have only their 100 gallon Rubbermaid tub but that should be enough especially if some of the days warm up in the afternoon. Failing that we can fill a 55 gallon drum with water from the stream and carry it into their field and siphon it into their waterer. One of the joys of having a tractor.
Pat didn't leave till 5:30 pm. I was going to cook chicken and didn't feel like eating leftover soup. We decided to eat fast so I cooked salmon burgers for dinner.
Poor Charles was peopled out by the end of the day. All he wanted to do was sit quietly in his chair and veg out - which is what we both did the rest of the evening.
12/11/2008 Thursday: Overcast and bitter. Looks like we're in for about 5 days of really cold weather. I will need to put extra water in containers for the cows and sheep and goats. Ducks and chickens, too. I also need to cover the outdoor faucets with towels and plastic bags.
Chas went into town today to pick up some additional 2x4 and 2x6 hangers and boards so that he could finish the barn wall reinforcement project. I stayed home. I wore myself out yesterday scraping the barn.
Sherry came to clean. I told her about the clothes washer, that she'd need to use the permanent press cycle to fill the tub.
Around 2pm I went to the cow barn and dug out the overabundance of duff on the floor of the barn where I store the round bales of hay. I filled the trailer and took it to spread over near the equipment shed. Then I picked up a bunch of 4 foot 2x4s to use under the plywood to keep the plywood at an angle so that the feed doesn't roll away from the cows. Of course that meant I had to move two sheets of plywood out of the way. Plus I have to removed the nails. I know a bunch of those 2x4s are buried somewhere under the stack of wood but I didn't take the time to look for them. I suppose I could also just put a bunch of hay under the furthest edge of the plywood. I just need something to raise the end.
I did get things cleared out somewhat. At least I can get through the barn to my feed.
I called Wally to find out when he was going to deliver my hay. He said tomorrow - late morning. That means lunch time. Sigh.
Dinner was vegetable soup made from the leftover pork roast. I served garlic bread from Costco with it. Freed up some room in my freezer. I think I'll cook chicken for tomorrow night's dinner.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)