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.