Caching Up: December 1-10, 2008

12/10/2008 Wednesday: Overcast and misty.

I moved two bags of Country Livestock from the goat pen to the cow barn and filled up the alfalfa bin with two bags of alfalfa. I've been giving the Herefords two scoops of alfalfa pellets and one of Country Livestock on each stretch of the fenceline feeders. I have to lift up the plywood I've put on the ground for the cows to eat off on the outside edge to keep the pellets from rolling back to the hay.

I need to bring over the garbage pail that I was using for the pig feed over to the cow barn so that I can get the Country Livestock off the ground.

We'll put in a new bale in the Dexter's feeder and two in the Hereford's feeder. If Wally doesn't deliver some hay soon I'll have to start feeding the square bales. We have about 7 or 8 days before we run out of the round bales.

While Chas worked on the side of the barn reinforcing it, I took my pitchfork and shovel and shoveled shit out of the barn.

Chas and I put two round bales into the Hereford feeder and one into the Dexter feeder. We pushed a little too hard against the feeder and ended up popping one of the bolts out of the fenceline feeder. I guess we can fix that easily enough with a bigger bolt.

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12/09/2008 Tuesday: Overcast and misty most of the day.

Nothing much new on the farm.

I fed the Herefords a mix of Country Livestock and alfalfa pellets in addition to their regular hay.

I did go over to Danette's place to spin. Left about 10:10am and stayed till 2:30pm or so. Danette fed me leftover potroast, one of the steers she had butchered a month or so ago. She showed me her freezer. It's full of beef and part of a pig. She also let me taste goat sausage. Yum.

On my way home I stopped at Bob Fay's farm. He lives near Adna on the top of the hill. I introduced myself, told him I also raised Herefords and was looking for a bull. He told me he got his bull from Wilson Ranch near Onalaska. I finally found him through the American Hereford Association's EPD site. I looked up Fay's bull Maverick under his name and found his owner email and phone number. If I don't hear back from him in a few days I will call.

Dinner was a sirloin steak divided in halves, brussel sprouts and an acorn squash from our garden.

Chas didn't want to work today using the chop saw without me being around. There's a reason they call them chop saws.

12/08/2008 Monday: Overcast and gloomy.

Charles worked on the barn. He got four 2 x 6s nailed into the bay. He still has one bay to go and then we can screw up the plywood.

I didn't do much of anything but feed the critters.

Dinner was hot noodles made with the leftover pork, leeks and broccoli. As always it was delicious.

12/07/2008 Sunday: Light rain off and on all day. Over 40 degrees this am.

Charles kept watch over the fire. Most of it got burned but not all. That's fine because we can now add branches to the pile.

I was so tired from the work I did yesterday (and from staying up late) that I slept off and on all day.

Bill W came by for a chat and for some coffee. He's been helping the Orcutts out. Their place is still in need of help.

I drove into Pe Ell with the dog. He likes to go for car rides. I wanted my Nickle and some information about the Pe Ell Food Bank. Until yesterday when Chip showed up I didn't know that Pe Ell had a food bank. It's located in the Catholic Church across from Evey's Restaurant. The bank is open most mornings until about 11am. I think I'm going to add a extra food to my shopping cart when I visit the grocery store.

We had pork shoulder ribs, baked potatoes and a sweet momma squash for dinner.

12/06/2008 Saturday: 30 degrees F when I did chores but it did go to nearly 50 degrees and the sun was lovely after the fog burned off.

Busy day around the farm. My helpers were here today to help me make order out of chaos on the farm. Thank heavens for their help.

Today we removed some of the duff on the floor of the barn and a bunch of lumber and fencing lengths that had piled up in the barn. The lumber and fencing lengths went into the second bay of the equipment shed at the back with the other lumber. The duff got spread in the (future) sheep pasture on the east side of the driveway. We still have more duff to scrape up before we get our new hay.

With the boards gone we had space to rake the area in front of the fence-line feeders flat. Once that was done we laid down sheets of half-inch plywood, one on each feeder and then laid in some 2 x 4 foot plywood to make 10 feet which is enough to form a flat surface for me to use for feeding grain on. We backed the plywood with bales of hay. Course later in the day the cows reached through and started chewing on the bales. I moved them back out of the way.

After that I had my friends move some of the bales down from the right hand side of the stack so that Charles could get in to put up the 2x6x10' supports to which he will screw in sheets of plywood. This will provide a surface against which we can push to pick up round bales with our forks. I moved one of the round bales out of the way so the guys could get into the stack from the ground. When they finished moving the square bales out of the way I moved the round bale to another place. Where we originally had it stacked would have gotten in Chas's way. We ended up freeing enough space for Chas to put up the supports without hay getting in the way.

While we were doing this Chas took 5 or so loads of wood chips and put them in the chicken pen. Later in the afternoon I spread out the chips. It sure looks better in the pen now. I still need to dig out the area in front of the door. The dirt has built up so that sometimes it's hard to open the door - especially when it freezes out. I also need to put in a couple more bales of shavings. I wanted to pick a bale up at the Farm Store but the last time we went to town we were lucky enough to get a garbage pail full of bread for the critters which took up all the available space in the back of our jeep.

Enrique and Juan moved four bales of hay over to the green barn. It looks as if the sheep and the goats consume four bales a week. The animals waste a lot of hay. I think I'm overfeeding them.

I had just gotten into the house when up came Chip from the Dryad Fire Department and Joe Schulte (Bill's youngest) who was helping collect the food for the food bank in Pe Ell. I gave him three boxes of mostly canned goods from our downstairs pantry and a check for $100. to put towards purchasing additional food. I know people in this area are going to have a hard time of it as small and large businesses lay people off. No one has any money to spend on buying things so the businesses are really hurting. When they hurt, so do their employees.

Once the barn was organized to our liking we picked up the chain saw and pitchfork and loppers and headed out to the gazebo garden. It was really overgrown. As we cut down the elderberry bushes and other trash trees we discovered lots of garden art, driftwood and tree stumps that we needed to get rid of. We hauled off the driftwood, tree sections, branches, stumps and other burnables to the brush pile near the potting shed.

The yard art either got burned or moved to the gazebo for future decisions. I took most of the plastic flower pots scattered about the area and emptied them since all that was growing in them now was weeds.

The old wood bench that was there finally fell apart when we tried to move it out of the way so we put it in the burn pile. Rotten 4x4s were also burned. One tree stump I put in the chicken pen as it was full of termites. The chickens loved that.

We moved loose bricks to a stack which we'll incorporate into a walking are in front of our deck (between the car parking area and the deck). Various metal things (use often unknown) got moved to the metal stash for Mike and Mary to pick up eventually.

We severely pruned a bush right next to the gazebo. It was growing away from the gazebo trying to get into the light and had leaned so far over that the top branches were touching the ground. It doesn't now. We still have the rose bush to prune and another tall bush that turns red in the fall.

Once the area was cleaned out it really looked nice.

I've pretty much decided to start feeding grain once a day to the Herefords now that I have the new fence-line feeders up. My cows are starting to look way too thin. Even Myrtle, the boss cow that gets into the food first is looking thin. She's also limping. Whatever it is that is causing the animals to lime seems to be going through the herd. They only lime for about a week and then they're walking with no problem. It's pretty mucky around and inside the barn. I need to get into the barn to scrape the concrete bare again.

Chas burned the brush pile closest to the house. It was a monster pile. It was a good thing he burned it because we're going to have lots more brush to burn plus I had bags of barn garbage that needed burning. I've been using so little grain lately that I don't have many feed sacks to use as garbage sacks. He used three bags of kitchen trash to start the fire as well as my two bags of barn trash (mostly pieces of wood I get out of the hay and boards that I find as I rummage through the detritus in the barn).

Charles and I had Mahi-Mahi for dinner along with steamed cauliflower and pasta. I made a sauce of olive oil, margarine, portobello mushrooms that I rehydrated, and garlic, lots of garlic to put on the penni pasta. Dinner was really good and we finally got rid of most of the fish.

Since we cleaned out the freezer I see lots of things I can cook (especially pork), and should, since they'll start losing flavor before long. Pork doesn't last all that long in the freezer.

12/05/2008 Friday: Cold this morning but it warmed up a little bit and was sunny.

Chas and I moved two round bales of hay into the Hereford's feeder and one into the Dexter feeder.

Chas used the tractor to move two aluminum gates out to store them with the other round metal gates. I moved another pipe 3' gate and an aluminum gate over with the other gates by hand.

Chas took the trailer into town to get 10 - 2x6x10s and 7 pieces of CDX plywood for reinforcing our barn. When he came back he said picking up the wood was a "Piece of Cake." He backed the trailer into the barn. Tomorrow Enrique and Juan will help me move hay away from the second bay and put up the plywood and hay barrier so that I can feed bales of hay to the cows and have it stay within eating distance instead of being spread over the barn. (They do seem to push it away from their feeders as they eat).

I've been asking about old time Herefords on the grazer's edge yahoo! group and have gotten back several interesting replies which I've saved. It's clear to them that I'm a relatively new cattle raiser.

Bill S's wife (lordy, if I haven't forgotten her name. Mind like a sieve) came byjust before dinner to pick up the magazines I recycle. I was saving them for the Senior Center but so has everyone else. The Senior Center won't take any more magazines. I'll wait a few months and try again.

12/04/2008 Thursday: Looks like it might be sunny today.

Diller now comes running when he hears his name called. He knows he's going to get some grain and hay.

Sherry is here today to clean. Thank heavens for Sherry. Chas and I would likely be divorced if she didn't show up to clean. Neither of us like cleaning so she is a perfect solution.

I finally took the tin off the sheep feeder since they always knock it off. I need some way of fastening the sheet of tin to the side but still making it easy to lift it up to drop hay in. I also need to clean up the hay that's collected around the feeder. It builds up pretty fast. The sheep are pretty wasteful of their hay. Oh well, it can be used to improve their pastures.

Charles and I emptied and cleaned both freezers starting with the bread and vegetable freezer. We rotated the contents so that the oldest veggies and bread are at the top. I took out several shopping bags of old bread, some dating back to 2007. We'll use it for feeding the cows and goats.

After we cleaned out the bread and vegetable freezer we cleaned and rotated the meat freezer.

I lined up the bread and vegetable freezer with the meat freezer along the east wall. Before I had it lined up with the window. I just felt like a change.

We also removed the 4x4s that we'd placed the freezers on during the Dec 3, 2007 flood.

Mike and Mary H came by to pick up some eggs and hamburger buns and to drop off a large crusher screen we'd given them a year ago. We asked them to return it since we needed it to drag the fields. We gave them a smaller crusher screen, about a foot shorter but the same length.

Dinner was chicken breasts, baked potatoes and calliflower.

I still have not sorted out any food for the food drive this Saturday. I've got to do that tomorrow.

12/03/2008 Wednesday:

Chas and I went into town and did our shopping. We visited the usual suspects - farm store, library, bank, Palmer's lumber. We went to Franz's and were lucky enough to pick up a garbage can of several day old bread. We also shopped at Fullers in Centralia. I was not impressed by the quality of the produce considering how much they were charging us. Shop n Kart is a much better shopping experience. At least there the sticker shock isn't heart-attack level.

We bought sandwiches for lunch. Neither of us felt like a huge lunch since we were planning on going to the Dryad Fire Station for a chili feed. The get-together served to remind us that we survived the year after the flood (December 3) and it served to offer some information about bridges across the Chehalis River.

It turns out that two bridges are being designed although the state and FEMA says they will only pay for one. The total cost of the two bridges would be $4 million. Most of the money would come from FEMA (75%). Twelve point five percent would come from the State and twelve point five percent from Lewis County (from taxes, I assume).

In the afternoon I took a bag of hamburger buns from Franz's and fed them to the cows. The cows, especially the Dexters, really seemed to enjoy their treats. I still have to finish unloading the sodium bicarbonate, 125 lb protein block tub from the Farm Store and the bread. It was a light shopping trip relatively speaking.

12/02/2008 Tuesday: Some sun. Not too cold.

Worked on my computer this morning and part of the afternoon.

As I was doing my evening chores - feeding Three - I heard this awful racket coming from outside the green barn. When I went out to look after the calf had finished feeding I only saw four Muscovy ducks. In a moment the other two appeared - flying off the roof. They'd been flying for a couple of days so I'd put the hoof trimmers in my pocket to prune one of their wings.

I ran them into their evening pen but I simply wasn't fast enough to catch them. In fact, one of my roof flyers flew out of the pen (no top). I ignored her and went and got my pitch fork. To catch the little suckers I used the bottom of the pitchfork and sort of squashed them then reached down to pick the squashed one. Holding it carefully by the wings I clipped off either the right or left-hand wing (mostly the right wing) then let them go back into their pen. I chased the escapee back into the pen and captured her too. None of the ducks was hurt. They just ruffled their feathers and after calming down, ate their dinner. Peace of mind returned to the owner - me. No escapees over the fence.

Dinner was leftover pork roast, scalloped potatoes (from a box) and home grown squash. The pork was also home grown.

I need to get some boxes to package the food for the fire department's "Walk and Knock" effort. That will be on Saturday.

Tomorrow we're going into town to do our shopping and feed store purchases.

12/01/2008 Monday: Overcast and really gloomy out.

Diller was nearby when I came to feed him. I waited to check on the cows until after I'd fed Three and the goats because I wanted to feed Three his bottle while it was still warm. This is the second day I've fed Three a handful of grain. He was actually chewing it this morning, not spitting it out.

You will be happy to know that my carpenter friend, Pat, showed up at lunchtime today just as I was beginning to chop up the lettuce for our salads. (People always seem to show up at lunch time around here). I nabbed him before he headed out to work on re-roofing my potting shed roof with a project that was much more important - screwing in the supports for my new fenceline feeders and installing two gates, a large one and a person gate - where I used to have the wood mangers. We finished all but one part - fastening the collapsible feeder - but only because I need to buy some parts. So, the fenceline feeders are firmly attached to the support posts on either side of the gate that holds the hay in the collapsible feeder. Plus now I also have a person gate to get into the lean-to addition easily. The attachments are hell for stout so should keep the girls from crushing the panels (which are made of 2 inch pipe).

I HATE dragging 2 inch pipe gates across a large section of duff and loose hay (and shit on the cow side). I am so thrilled that this project is done. It will make my life so much easier. Now all I/we have to do is unchain the gate, swing it open out of the way and slide in the 2 - 500 lb hay bales with the tractor. I can also feed square bales along the fenceline feeders if I run out of round bales or feed round bales in the collapsible feeder. This is so slick.

I tried to take pictures but my battery in my camera was low. I'm not very fond of this camera. It's large and heavy and seems to suck up the battery even when it's not being used. It does take pretty good pictures, tho. When I get the camera working again and can take pictures I'll send you a pix showing you what I did. I've never seen anyone else with this configuration.

With the collapsible feeder the Herefords eat every blade of hay. They're actually much better than the Dexters about cleaning out their feeders. They complain when their hay is down to 12 inches worth in their feeder. "We're starving. You're not feeding us. Whine, whine."

I had forgotten how much poop and pee the cows generate around their feeders. Lots of scraping in my future.

I was able to touch Diller's head this evening when I went to do chores. He came quite close to me when I held the grain up to him.

I was also able to get some grain into Peanut. Today I noticed that Sweet Pea has a swollen right foot and is limping. Hopefully I'll be able to get close enough to her to give her an antibiotic shot.

I believe this last go around with getting Brie bred was a success (November 10). By my reckoning she should have come back into season today (or tomorrow) but I have not seen any indication that she's in season or even coming into season. I've knocked on wood that she has been bred.

Charles talked to Pat about reinforcing the north wall of the cow barn. Pat says he'll reinforce my barn wall where we have the hay stacked (north side) so that the metal doesn't get pushed outwards when we slide the forks under a round bail of hay and so that we can stack right against the barn wall without it pushing the wall outwards. We'll put up 2 x 6's on the inside of the support posts and then nail 3/4 inch plywood to the 2x 6's. Probably will have to wait a few weeks until I have more of the hay eaten down.

Dinner was stir fries made with our pork. We used store bought carrots, onions and broccoli. Delicious.