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.