Catching Up: October 1-15, 2008

10/15/2008 Wednesday: Overcast and bitter out this morning.

Today is the last day for grazing the hay paddocks. I'll be bringing in the cows and closing the electric gate. I will be removing the temporary fence I put in earlier this year and opening up the entire pasture sometime this week.

I phoned Becky who has Muscovy ducks. She has a mated pair for $60.00 or individual 1-month old ducklings for $10.00 each. Day olds are $5.00 each. She also has other birds, Angus, and Nigerian Dwarf goats.

In the afternoon we went to Becky's place in Yelm to pick up 5 ducklings. I think I picked out 3 females and 2 males but neither of us is 100% certain that we sexed them properly. I paid $10.00 each. Nearly adult pairs go for $30.00 each and an adult, laying pair goes for $35.00 each. I just bought the 5 - 1 month old ducklings. For the price if I get an extra drake I can just eat him or sell him on.

Becky has many animals: 2 horses, many Nigerian dwarf goats, three different kinds of turkeys, chickens, including Silkies, a Nubian, a Boer and other goats, rabbits (several kinds from what I could see), and other animals. Her place was messy with stuff and pens everywhere but the animals look well cared for.

She's a young, energetic woman who also shared grape vines cuttings with me. I'll have to get them into water tomorrow.

Dinner was leftover lasagna, a small piece of leftover sweet momma squash and an ear of corn. Quite delicious as leftovers go.

10/14/2008 Tuesday: Sunny but not exactly warm, today.

Before I fed the goats their breakfasts I turned off the power and opened up the last pasture to the cows (N4). That got them out of the way while I moved a round bale into their field. Before I got the bale I lifted the round bale feeder and rolled it to approximately where I wanted to put the new bale. Then I drove the tractor to the cow barn and retrieved a bottom bale. I moved it into the road pasture and dropped the ring over it.

The cows saw what I was doing and came rushing back to eat. They were hungry! I left the pasture and put the tractor by the large brush pile near the green barn.

Chas and I burned the really big brush pile near the green barn. While we were waiting for the fire to burn down a bit we removed the outer leaves of the corn husks from the large pile near the main gate to the road pasture. I fed some to the Dexters and fed the rest to the Herefords. I'd already thrown

In the afternoon I dug a wooden box full of red and Yukon Gold potatoes. I didn't dig them all because my box was full. The potatoes were lovely and large - even the red potatoes.

We still have lots of squash, kohl rabi, chard and greens. There's corn and lots of apples to gather. The corn is likely past its prime by now but I should pick a few ears to dry for next year.

I got a reply from the person with the Muscovy ducks. I asked if I could come by around 2pm tomorrow. I'll call or check my email tomorrow morning to see what she says.

10/13/2008 Monday:

In the morning while Chas was burning the large pile of brush in the south west pasture I worked on APHA stuff.

Dena's Mexican friends came by just as we finished dinner and picked up Berney's two babies, a wether and a doe. They gave me $60.00 for the wether and said Dena would be paying for the doe. It's nice to have two fewer animals.

I also went online to Craigslist to see if I could find some Muscovy ducks. I like the two that I got from Faye and Donald. They're very quiet but aggressive in looking for food. I found one ad that had some on sale for $10.00 each in Elma. I contacted the person and asked if she had pairs for sale.

10/12/2008 Sunday: Sunny in the morning but overcast and cold in the afternoon.

In the morning I cleaned up around the back side of the wood shed. I moved chips of wood and branches to the nearby burn pile, pulled out many t-posts that the Johnsons had pounded in to support the rows of wood they had stored back there and which are now gone. I'll get the guys to move the tin to the metal stash place. Then it will look much less disorganized around there. There's also some wood that needs to be stacked somewhere. Right now it's in two piles. I just picked up the wood and tossed the pieces into two piles.

I went and got a plastic lined feed sack to put the bits of broken glass and metal into. The hill area was apparently the Johnson's midden. I found a girl's tea set. I set aside two small plates to maybe use in the house.

After lunch (a salad) I went out to the garden and started removing plants. I took down the beans and the poles they were on. No beans this year. I tried growing Chinese yard long beans but didn't get a single bean. The beans got fed to the Dexters. Cheddar and Emma were the only cows who seemed to enjoy them. I also took down about a third of the corn and fed the stalks and worthless corn to the Dexters.

I did not get to the potatoes which I wanted to dig up. I did, however pick up windfall apples from the tree overlooking the fish pond. I did feed the fish earlier today. I only do it occasionally otherwise their pond gets full of algae, and green looking.

No one showed up to pick up the goats. I should probably put an ad on Craigslist and see what happens. I put an ad on Craigslist (portland area, clark county) for $60.00 each.

I cooked steaks, beet greens (and put the beets into two bags for two future dinners), and corn. I must say it was pretty tasty. The meat was so tender. I pan fried the meat in olive oil which I had first sauteed garlic in. Yum.

Interesting, I did a google search and could not find collapsible round bale feeders even tho' I saw one at the Farm Store, and even ordered one last week. You'd think it would be under round bale feeders or collapsible round bale feeders. I even tried searching through the google images. Frustrating.

10/11/2008 Saturday: When I went out this morning at 7:30am the temperature was 30 degrees F. It was foggy in the morning but sunny, if not very warm in the afternoon.

My two Mexican gentlemen came to work on the farm. They cut brush from the area to the north of Hope Creek. I made sure they didn't cut brush too close to the stream as I want to preserve the temperature of the stream. Our burn pile has doubled as they cut out big leaf maple, hazelnut, elderberry and other plants including blackberries. They also pruned up the branches on the large evergreen trees so that I can walk under the trees without getting my hair caught.

I asked if they were coming Sunday to pick up a couple of goats. They said yes so I imagine they will some sometime during the day.

I spent some time reading about grass budgeting. One of the ideas I got out of one site (http://www.teagasc.ie/newsletters/2005/dairy-200509.htm) is this:

"Making the most of Autumn grass
To make the most of Autumn grass in the cows diet, these eight guidelines must be followed:
- Rotation length must be increased to 35 days by mid-September.
- The highest average farm cover should be achieved in mid-September – target of 550 kg DM/LU. There is scope to carry a higher cover per LU at lower stocking rates i.e. 600 to 700 kg DM/LU at 2 LU/Ha or less but the average farm cover should not exceed 1,200 to 1,400 kg DM/Ha.
- Pre-grazing covers should not exceed 2,500 kg DM/Ha and there should be a range of paddock covers – a ‘wedge’ shape distribution of covers.
- The last grazing rotation should start sometime between 10th and 15th October on most farms.
- Graze out paddocks in sequence only spending two days in each paddock or section of field. The grass cows will graze in the spring will be grown between closing and December 1st. Each day delay in closing after October 15th will reduce spring herbage mass by 15 kg DM/Ha.
- Aim to have at least 60% of the farm grazed by the end of the first week of November.
- All paddocks should be grazed to a post-grazing residual of 200 – 300 kg DM/Ha during the last rotation to encourage tillering.
- Avoid reducing the average farm cover below 500 kg DM/Ha at closing. This is just as important on a late farm as on an early farm. James O’Loughlin, Teagasc Kilmaley said that ‘there is nothing worse than having dry conditions (in the spring) on a wet farm and no grass’.
Remember that by including grass in the cows’ diet for one extra day in the Autumn, you will increase farm profits by €1.20 per cow."

The concept of "wedge" is still something I don't quite understand but I think it's the wedge that's formed based on growth; i.e., great growth in the spring but minimal growth in the early and late winter. Viewed on a graph the height of the line would be high in the spring (left side of graph) but quite low in the fall.

One of the other ideas I got from one of the UK sites was that it might be worth thinking about keeping bull calves intact till they are 12 months old and then butchering them for meat. My problem would be finding a spot to keep them separated from the cows and other bulls. If I decide to try this out I might have to rethink my pasture organization. They'd definitely would need to be separated from the cows even if the cows were bred.

On the other hand if the cows calved in July and August and I removed the bulls in late June the bulls would be ready for slaughter so I wouldn't have to worry about the bulls rebreeding the cows if they were gone by the time the cows were ready for rebreeding. So, they'd be babies while the outside bull bred them and would be with pregnant cows until just before the cows calved. It is possible to do but the timing would have to be perfect. I might want to grain them for a month or so. This is an idea worth thinking about.

Chas made zucchini medley for dinner which we ate with leftover chicken and packaged noodles.

10/10/2008 Friday: Cold. Sunny in the morning but overcast in the afternoon.

This was a busy morning. I got out the tractor and moved a large round bale out into the Hereford's round bale feeder.

I tried putting one of the new plastic pallets on the tractor forks but the holes aren't wide enough apart to slide onto the forks. The new wooden pallet had a break in the side which was fixed with an insert. That also didn't work because the pallet was too narrow with the insert.

Fortunately I had a pallet at the cow barn where the hay is stored. I drove over and went into the corridor and had to move some fencing wire out of the way before I could get to the pallet. I loaded the pallet onto the forks and climbed up the mountain of hay to toss down about 10 bales. I loaded six onto the pallet and took them over to the green barn. I unloaded the hay and then went back to the cow barn to pick up a round bale.

I keep meaning to count the number of round bales I have left. I can do that while I'm on top of the stack of square bales. The Dexters go through one bale a week and the Herefords 2.5 bales. I have about 44 bales left. That gives me approximately 12.5 weeks of feed. With good planning the hay ought to last me till the last week in December. Then I'll have to order more to get me through to the end of March, beginning of April. I go through 15 bales a month.

I parked the tractor by the cow barn and went inside. About 11:30am Chas and I went to do various outdoor chores in order to move a round bale into the Dexter's feeders. Chas had to put the chain saw together and clean it up in the process. I had to clean the old hay out of the feeder and generally straighten the feeder up. The cows had pretty much moved the feeder around and had worn out the wire that I'd just put in, so much so that I had to put the feeder back together again.

I used one of the clips that I use for holding stock panel gates together to hold the two front sections together. I'll have to bring a clip for the bottom. These clips are sort of like carabiners in their shape. The ones I use look like theu're about 2.5 inches long. Anyhow, I clipped the two sections together so that the Dexters wouldn't be able to move them apart. I might put a second clip on the bottom just to make sure they can't separate the feeder.

Once Chas got the chain saw going I had him cut the opening four inches wider (south side) and about 8-10 inches higher. Once the wood was out of the way, Chas and I moved a round bale into the feeder. It was a piece of cake setting it into the feeder. I put the futon gate back on with binding twine and went and got the ATV and trailer to haul away some of the loose waste hay I've been stockpiling because I've been too lazy to move the stuff.

I was only able to load one load of rejected grass. Since the animals were eating their new hay I was able to dash into paddock 2 and spread the grass out as a mulch/compost to add fertility to that section of pasture. A trailer-load of waste hay doesn't cover much ground but over time I should be able to lay hay in the entire pasture a bit at a time.

I also took the time to cut back three nasty bull thistles. I put the thistles on the burn pile for disposal.

Just as I finished putting away the ATV Chas rang the bell for lunch. He got out the ingredients and I assembled them into a salad.

I was really pleased to have the opening in the Dexter pen made wider. So much easier to get hay into the feeder. Plus I won't keep banging my head.

I cleaned out the hay feeder in stall 3 where I'm keeping the two new Dexters and spread it in the stall. It was getting pretty mucky in there.

Only 9 more days until I can put Brie and Pixie in with the other Dexters. That means less work for me since I don't have to feed and water twice a day.

Oh yes, I looked for pedigrees for Brie, Pixie and Cheddar. Unfortunately I could not figure out which animal was Pixie because all of Susie H's cows are from Pixie Farm. I emailed Susie to ask her to tell me which Pixie she is so that I can download her pedigree. I'd just like to know how old she is and how much color she has in her background. Later: I did find Pixie by searching by owner. Pixie's full name is Glenn Land Pixie (#201943, born 2004-03-04).

I also found out that Huck's grandmother on his Dam's side is Noel (actually Dottie's Noel). It's kind of fun looking at the pedigrees.

I ordered a collapse-able 4-section round bale cow feeder today on sale from Clayton at the Farm Store. I'm planning on ripping out the center section of the manger in my cow barn (tomorrow when I have some help?) and stretching the round bale feeder across the 12 foot opening. I have a 12 foot gate I can stretch across the back to keep the calves from wandering into the barn although I may need to order a 16 foot stock panel if I need it to curve around the hay. I can fit two round bales into the open feeder and not have to worry about the hay getting sopping wet in the rain. Plus as the hay disappears the animals can push the feeder toward the remaining hay until it is all gone.

The good news is that if it doesn't work I can still use the new feeder as a round bale feeder, although it's a pretty expensive feeder ($377.xx plus tax). I'm pretty sure it will work, tho'. I'll eventually replace that feeder with locking stanchions but that may not be for a year or so.

I'll use the galvanized feeder that's currently in use in the field during nice weather.

Dinner was hot noodles made with chicken breasts and packaged stir-fry vegetables. It needed to be a little hotter (spicier).

10/09/2008 Thursday: Foggy, then sunny, then rainy with hard rain, then sunny again. It was an interesting day.

Chas and I changed the oil in my ATV. The drainage plug is way under the bottom of the ATV and requires an 11/16" head on the ratchet. Chas had to lay on the ground to work on the machine. The oil was really dirty since I hadn't changed it since I bought the ATV in July 2006. We put the oil into a stainless steel pan and then poured it back into the gallon containers once we'd emptied them into the ATV. I was pleased we got that job done.

Sherry cleaned our house today. I gave her an additional $10.00 for gas. Money is so tight these days I figured she could use the extra.

I cleaned up around the cow barn, finishing off the job I started yesterday.

Once I have used up the feed on top of the wooden pallets in the green and cow barns I will begin using the plastic pallets for storing feed on. I'm not sure I can use them for transporting bales of hay (will they fall apart?) but I will try tomorrow to see how they work. The problem with wood pallets is that they eventually rot out from sitting on the ground. The good thing about plastic pallets is that they won't rot.

I spent some time searching for medium-framed Herefords and for information on grazing. The whole issue of being a grass farmer is a complex one. I'll have to spend a lot more time trying to figure out how to maximize growth.

10/08/2008 Wednesday: Very foggy in the am but lots of warm sun in the afternoon. I had to wear my vest under my jacket to keep from freezing to death this morning. I actually came back and added the vest.

Chas burned the brush pile over near the potting shed. That pile included the mattress from the couch that got flooded, the couch we burned last week.

Then we went into town to do our weekly shopping. I got a bag of chicken layena pellets, and a cracked corn. I also picked up two smaller buckets and a scoop and two 33lb protein blocks. The buckets just seem to disappear.

I put one protein block in with the Dexters and cut the second into a 25% section so that I could feed the smaller section to the new Dexters. All the animals went crazy. They enjoy those blocks. I put the 75% section into the Herefords manger since I'll be giving them the large protein block tomorrow.

We visited the bank, and Sunbirds so that I could look for a jacket. I could not find the jacket I wanted but did pick up some socks, 4 handkerchiefs for Chas and a series of four nesting stainless steel bowls. I'm finally going to get rid of the ugly brown plastic bowls as well as the green plastic bowls. We really don't need so many bowls and it's better to have the bowls we like.

Around 5pm my feed got delivered. I'd purchased a half ton of alfalfa pellets and a half ton of All Purpose Feed as well as a large (250 lb) and a small (125 lb) protein block. I keep forgetting the name of the guy who delivers my feed when I place a large order.

Before I went to do my chores I took the tractor to the Dexter's pen and did some scraping from in front of the lean to. I can't get the tractor into the lean-to because of the roll bar.

There is still lots of work to do in the Dexter pastures. The walkway needs to be smoothed with the box scraper.

Fed one round bale to the Herefords

I also need to check to see why the fence is shorting out by the south gate of the north-south fence line. I think there's a piece of polywire that's causing problems.

10/07/2008 Tuesday: Mixed rain and sun off and on all day.

Another interesting day at Hope Creek Diversified Farm.

I needed to bring my tractor over to where the pigs were going to be harvested so I went out about half an hour before I knew the butcher was coming. To keep busy I removed the forks by bashing them with a 2x4 to loosen them up. They get pushed on pretty tightly when I pick up a round bale like I did yesterday. Anyhow I got them off and set aside where I could easily put them back on again. After that I scooped up two loads of corn and spread them in three different places in the road pasture.

Since the butcher still wasn't here I started scraping up the compost that the cows scatter as they play "king of the compost heap." I got about half done when I heard the truck coming up our driveway. I drove up to the truck and put the tractor where I'd be out of the way.

I have to say I don't like the butchering process. When I hear the rifle go off I get really flustered which gives me a brain arrest. This can be a problem when driving the tractor. I keep forgetting to put the tractor in reverse when I have to back up and similar things. I hate it when this happens to me. I always flinch when I hear the gun go off.

Anyhow, I hauled both pigs on a chain that the butcher had attached to the tractor. I wasn't sure I'd be able to get the pigs over the fence but by manipulating the bucket I got them high enough to slide over the top. I drove them over to the truck and the guys proceeded to skin them and remove the innards.

Bolar pointed out that the back and white male pig had had a broken back at some time in his early days. You could see where the spine dipped and the obvious fractures on either side of the dip. He showed me the other pig's back and there was no dip. The pig probably got stepped on when he was a baby - or it might have happened in the womb. In any case it won't affect the meat.

Dena asked me to save the head and feet for her Mexican friends. I also saved the liver and heart just in case they wanted those too. You can hardly give pig liver and heart away to American customers these days. I called Dena to ask her to send Tammy over. Tammy came by to pick the heads and guts up at dinnertime. She'll take them home and store them overnight and then take them up to Olympia to Ramon when she goes tomorrow afternoon.

The white female was 98 lbs a side and the black and white male was 104 lbs a side. I'm selling the halves for $1.50/lb with the customer (me included) paying half the butcher fee and the cutting and wrapping on their half of the animal. Bolar's office called me with this information this afternoon. While I had them on the phone I gave them my cutting and wrapping instructions. I'm going to have my side turned into bacon. The last batch was so good I wanted to do it over again. We'll have steaks, chops and roasts.

I talked to one of my customers and told her how I was going to have my half of the pig cut and wrapped. She listened attentively since she didn't know how to give instructions for having pigs cut and wrapped.

I gave the girls corn, alfalfa cubes and apples today. They are all getting spoiled. Brie loves treats but Pixie doesn't. I must not be feeding the right treats. Huck, my red bull, is almost always the first cow that shows up when I appear at the treat station. When I gave the Herefords their treats Gary's Angus bull was right there along with the others wanting his share. Actually, he got more than his share since he always had his nose practically in my face. (I was feeding the Herefords across the manger inside the cow barn). They sure like apples. Fortunately I still have more apples.

Speaking of apples, I cut up another 8 or so apples and put them in the dryer. I'd planned on drying the Italian plums Chas picked a few days ago. I got two entire trays-full.

The corn I set aside for seed corn yesterday is drying well. I put it on top of the dryer right where warm air escapes through the door on top. I rotate the ears periodically to make sure they dry well. I plan on getting an ear or two from the early corn I planted that is so short and drying it for seed corn too.

I made stir-fries from the leftover pork roast, several red and green peppers and two onions. I put a hot (stir-fry) sauce on the cooked vegetables and meat and served it over short-grain rice. It was very good. Chas had two helpings but I could only do one.

I'm still waiting till my Farm Store order arrives. I need way less feed now that the pigs are gone.

Two of my young goats are going to be sold on Sunday October 12. I think Curtis wants the last remaining goat from this year. Of the two that are going, one is a wether and the other a female. The last goat is a very nice looking female with a dark head. She's the daughter of the smaller Nubian with the frosted ears, Marcy.

I very much like the Boer-Nubian crosses. They're very meaty once they get some growth on them. They're very hearty eaters.

Since our wireless was down I spent most of the afternoon trying to get it to work. The dang plugs are getting tired and not making proper connections.

I also did a google search on farm budgets and finance. I did find some suggestions for what information to collect and a template that I can adapt for my own purposes.

10/06/2008 Monday: Rain off and on. Not hard rain but definitely heavier than a mist.

I was really lazy today. I actually took some time to read my magazines and even a few minutes to read a novel. Mary called to thank me for getting her the dehydrator (Excalabur, just like mine). She'd used it to dry all sorts of things such as pears, tomatoes, apples, etc. I was really happy that she liked it.

But, just hearing her say that she'd dried tomatoes reminded me that I had tomatoes from our garden that could be dried so as we were talking on the phone I washed the tomatoes, removed the stem and sliced them into thin slices (the big tomatoes, that is) and cut the cherry tomatoes in half lengthwise. They're still drying (7:45pm).

Mary came over and we raided my garden for goodies for her to take home. She got some tomatoes, greens, a zucchini and 4 leeks. She and I took the tomatoes that had split and gave them to the chickens who were thrilled to get them. She also took some corn from the garden which she husked and threw over the fence to the Dexters.

Just as Mary was leaving Dena and Tammy drove up to pick up Dena's painting supplies. Dena is going up to Ballard to paint three bedrooms and pressure steam their carpet. I'm hoping she'll be back Friday or Saturday to finish painting the house. We'll wait till 2009 to paint the potting shed.

Before I fed the goats, sheep and pigs I picked up the tractor and moved a round bale into the Hereford's feeder. They'd gone out into S5 to graze so I knew they were running out of grass. I need to cut them off from the pastures soon before they trample it into mud.

Dinner was baked squash, baked chicken thighs and zucchini medley. Chas picked the veggies from the garden and cut them into pieces for cooking. I added lots of garlic via my garlic press. Yum.

After dinner Chas reminded me that wireless was down. I finally got DSL to work but not the wireless. I'm not very keen on trying to get it going this late at night. I will try tomorrow.

Tomorrow's harvest day for the pigs. It's hard to believe that they'll be gone by noon or shortly thereafter. I enjoy them so much but also will be pleased not to have to fuss with pigs till next year. I'll have to remember to bring the tractor and a chain to lift each one over the hog panel. This is much easier than trying to open up the hog panel.

10/05/2008 Sunday: Rain most of the day off and on.

While Chas did the laundry (except for the first load that I put on) I snapped the ends of green beans and broke them up into pieces for blanching and subsequent freezing.

We had a quick visit from Sharyn and Charles just before I was scheduled to go out to do my evening chores. They dropped off some purple broccoli which we had with a pork roast and baked potatoes for dinner. Nice visit if brief.

My cattle are all doing well. I'm continuing to feed them corn from the pile. They do a pretty good job of cleaning up the corn I toss over the fence - except for the cobs that get stepped on or get accidently tossed into a pile of manure. I toss them on both sides of the gate.

I'm also feeding the pigs some of the corn. I husk them and toss the husks over the fence for the Herefords and put the cobs into a bucket. The pigs are well fed these days. They love the corn on the cob. The chickens also love the corn but I've been too lazy to husk ears for them.

The young chick seems to be doing well. I wonder if it's a female. It has a white spot on its head. Nope, according to the Web both males and females have the white spot but it is larger on the males. The chick is beginning to get its first set of wings.

In an email from Susie H she says that she's going to have the red bull calf I got out of Noel registered as a red. She'll take some tail hairs and have the analysis done. He has some unusual black in him but is red. I'm not quite sure I understand it but will take her word for it.

Dena called this evening to tell me her sister Margie wants half a pig. Wahoo! That means Chas and I can eat half a pig and sell the rest. The Orcutts want half a pig and so does Clay although I have to double check with Clay to make sure he's still interested.

I need to finish cleaning out the hay in the Dexter's hay storage area. This hay is the stuff I pulled out of the bottom of their feeder. It should get spread on their pastures to improve the fertility of the soil. I've been using it to stretch the Hereford's hay by another day but I'm not sure it's worth it. I want the Herefords to have some weight on them.

I could probably put a second bale in the Dexter's stall and just push it in with the tractor when I needed it except that I would still need to lift it over the sill into the round bale feeder.

I've been thinking of my cow barn and how I could take the middle manger and turn it into a round bale feeder like I have in the Dexter's pen. I would need to buy three or four green panels from the Farm store and attach them to the two middle posts to form a square with the end open inside the barn. The green panels are intended to join together to form either a round bale feeder or a long rectangular feeder. Then I could just shove two bales into the 12 foot opening and put a hog panel across the back to keep the calves out of the barn. That might work. It's worth getting dimensions and doing the math.

10/04/2008 Saturday: Rain, and some of that pretty hard rain.

At 6:50am my two Hispanic helpers showed up to work. We're cleaning along the east fence line behind the green barn. I want to get all fences cleared.

We tried using the ATV but there are too many trees to try to get around so I put the forks on the tractor and a pallet on the forks to see if that would work better. It did. We were able to put the tractor over the non-working electric fence and pile branches and then dump them on the fire we burned the previous day. The fire was down to nothing, still smoking, tho. We dumped the branches up pretty high. It's as if we didn't burn at all.

One of the guys was able to relieve me of tractor duty. Before we did I had him help me put another bale of hay in the Dexter feeder and also one in the Hereford's feeder. I was relieved to have the animals fed as they were getting restive even though they still have pasture to munch. Pretty soon now I need to open up the section of the road pasture that I closed off and close off the remaining pastures to give them a chance to get some energy back in their root system for next year's spring growth.

10/03/2008 Friday: Rainy all day. Glad I could stay indoors most of the day. Course when I did go out I got sopping wet.

No call from Colleen at the Chehalis library so the library obviously isn't open even to volunteers. Maybe next week.

This morning Chas and I froze enough corn from the pile we husked yesterday to see us through the winter without purchasing any more from the store. Not a huge savings of money but still worth-while and we had the fun of husking corn yesterday with friends. It seemed more like old times.

The process of freezing the corn was pretty simple. Chas washed the ears of corn and put them in a bowl to drain. Then I took an ear and with a sharp knife cut off the kernels. The result is nothing like the perfect kernels you'd see in store-bought corn where each kernel is complete but I don't think eating it will be a problem. It took about 5-6 ears of corn to half fill a sieve.

When I got a sieve half full, we'd blanch it for 3 minutes and then cool it quickly. We used a bowl of cold water and Chas would plunge the sieve into the water and swish it around. When the water warmed up, we'd empty it and refill it swishing the kernels around to make sure all of them got cooled off. Chas would bag the corn with 2 cups in every pint zip-lock baggie.

When we got enough pint baggies I'd take them downstairs and put them, 4 to a gallon-sized baggie, labelled with what it is and the year, and toss the gallon bags into the freezer, well spread out so that they'd freeze faster.

I estimate we must have put away 40 pint baggies, more than enough for the winter.

We'll have good eating this fall as I also plan to do squash from our garden and maybe the green beans I picked yesterday - assuming I can find the time, that is.

I put all the de-kerneled cobs into the tote bucket that came from Mary and will give them to the cows later on when I go out to do my evening chores.

I relaxed for about an hour.

Around 2:15 pm Chas started burning our brush piles. He started with the one closest to the house (north of the house). The burn ban was lifted today.

I husked some corn, threw the husks to the cows and gave the pigs the cobs with the lovely corn on them. The pigs love corn on the cob.

Mary's Excalabur dehydrator came today shortly after lunch. I put it in my car intending on driving it over to Mary's place but when I called her she was in town dealing with the massive traffic jam that was caused by a fatal accident between a car and a semi that happened earlier today. Apparently the police were routing Interstate traffic through town. So, Mary and Mike will be by later today to pick up their dehydrator. I also saved four packages of corn for Mary and have a dozen eggs to give to them.

Mary and Mike came about 5pm. Mary picked up some cottage cheese for me. I still owe her one dollar. I gave her some eggs and corn and told her where the dehydrator was - in the back of my car. I also returned her blue bucket which she'd given me partially filled with apples.

I cooked hot Italian sausage, boxed noodles and acorn squash from our garden.

The two Mexicans are supposed to come tomorrow at 7am to work on brush clearing down by Hope Creek and back in the southwest pasture. Dreadful time but they want to get to work early.

10/02/2008 Thursday: Rainy all day, sometimes quite heavy rain.

This morning I headed into town to work at the library. The head librarian, Colleen, needed someone to shelf read. When I headed over to the new library it was pretty clear that the books hadn't been moved over there. I was sent back to the old library across the street.

It turned out that we couldn't go into the new library because the fire marshal hadn't okayed the 911 system as the telephone system wasn't in. So, most of the volunteers went home. I stayed and took apart shelves. Someone else packed up the ends and moved the shelf bottoms to another person who was taping them together in bundles of 6, I believe. Anyhow I stayed for two hours and then went home. I'm waiting a call from Colleen about tomorrow.

I also hit the feed store for feed to hold me over till my feed comes from the Farm Store. I stopped first at Airgas to return a piece that Chas had gotten from them for his gutter cleaning project but couldn't figure out what it was for. The second piece he gave me was probably from Nasco but I didn't know that.

After I got home, Sherry was there. She took me to this farm off Pleasant Valley Rd that had at least two truckloads of corn rejected by the processing company because of smut. I drove and brought several garbage sacks. Sherry and I partially filled 4 sacks with corn. Then we went down to pick over the beans left in the fields. Dena came with us. While we were picking, Curtis took his trailer and dumped half a load at my house for my animals. He also picked up another load for himself. I tried to pick carrots but they were all furry. I did get one large one for some soup.

Sherry had enough beans so the beans she picked went to me. I probably have 15-20 lbs of beans to process tomorrow. I'll likely string them and snap them, blanch them and freeze them for later use.

Dena, Charles, Curtis and I shucked corn for several hours till I had to feed my animals. Chas had agreed to cook dinner. We did my corn first and then Chas and I helped Dena. Before she left tonight Dena had a five gallon bucket full of corn kernels. She had a very nice device that took off the kernels and left a nice, clean cob. She'll order a kernel remover for me since I don't have the catalog and I'll reimburse her.

Around dinner time I put on 5 ears of corn. Curtis ate two and Dena ate two. Then they went out and did some more kernel removal but finally gave up because their hands got so cold. I hope they have lots of energy because they have a whole trailer-load to go.

I gave the pigs the cobs and the cows got the husks. I tried not to overdo it because I didn't want to make my cows sick. I'll give the chickens some cobs with corn on them as well.

Chas taped the VP debate. We all listened to it over dinner.

10/01/2008 Wednesday: Cooler, partially cloudy. Rain tomorrow.

Chas left early to go into town. In fact, he left before I got done with my chores. He stopped to get the dies for threading the 1/4 inch pipe he plans to use for cleaning out the gutters. He also had to pick up the pipe which he'd left at a plumbers to get threaded (right hand thread).

When he came home he began threading the pipe with his new dies. When he assembled the device, one of the pieces, the easy off piece (female end) was cracked. Since I'll be going in tomorrow I'll stop off and pick up a new part and hopefully return the broken part.

I let the cows out of their winter pasture and moved them to S5 to graze. They had finished up every scrap of the hay in the feeder and were quite willing to follow me out to the field. I forgot to turn off the power so had to hasten back and turn it off and then drive back out again to wind up the gates which were lying on the ground effectively shorting out the system.

Now that I'm for sure certain that I have a short somewhere in the N paddocks I can spend some time trying to figure out where they are. Soon the question will become moot since the animals will be over-wintering in the home pasture. I know they'll miss grazing. Hay is just not as wonderful as pasture is.

While Chas was in town I fed the critters and tried to put the forks on my tractor bucket. Chas and I had left them shoved under a 500 lb round bale thinking it would be easy to push the forks back on. Not so. When I tried to get the forks on the bucket I only succeeded in pushing the forks more firmly under the bale. Of course I couldn't wiggle the forks out from under the bale. They were just too heavy.

Then I had an idea, I'd wrap a chain around the support piece and lift it away from the bale. To my surprise I not only lifted the forks, I raised the entire bale up. Rather than stopping I drove slowly out to the pasture (low, low) and set the bale on the ground. After moving MSB02 away from the feeder several times I managed to heave the round bale feeder up and over the bale. I did not crush the calf, fortunately. Soon he was munching on the hay and having a great time doing so. I was relieved that that task was over for another 3 days.

Dena and Tammy came by and worked on finishing up the painting. They got the ell completed; Dena put a second coat on that section since it still did not look well painted even though it was. She rolled a coat of paint on the well house and Tammy painted all the raised sections where it needed it. Dena also painted the roof boards but they and the well house need another coat of paint to thoroughly protect the house. All Dena has left is to paint a post or two downstairs, paint the sofits and complete the railing, deckside and outside.

Unfortunately we've run out of paint. I ordered two more gallons today and Dena will pick them up tomorrow and will finish up the house either Monday or Tuesday. It's going to rain Thursday through Sunday with fairly nice weather on Monday. I hope so. I want this house finished. I've had enough of people wandering about. Chas and I value our solitude and there have been far too many visitors and workers in the past three weeks.

I think Dena is glad to have a few days off. She's tired. This house is a bear to paint mostly because it hasn't been painted in years and in some cases needed a coat of primer and two coats to adequately cover the walls. We didn't bother painting the north side deck since we'll be replacing it next year. Nor did we do the downspouts since they will also be replaced when we have the roof replaced next year.

Dena told me the Mexicans who came to take firewood wood from my house to Dena's will be picking up a couple of this year's goats around 5pm on Friday (Oct. 3). Another of this year's crop is spoken for so soon most of my 2008 babies will be gone.

With the pigs leaving on Tuesday my chore load and feed costs will go down substantially. The pigs eat three scoops of all-purpose feed and one scoop of hog finisher twice a day. The goats eat less since I only feed the Boers and crosses half of a scoup of all-purpose feed and half a scoop of alfalfa pellets once a day in the evening. I'm trying to reduce the amount of all-purpose feed and mostly use alfalfa and grass pellets.

The littlest Boer gets fed twice a day but that's hardly worth talking about since she eats so little. The sheep only get grass.

The little Boer lets me pet her occasionally. She seems to like being petted.

MSB02 has been following me around all day pacing along the fence as I go back and forth. I've been giving him treats: range cubes and cut up apples. He, like MSB01, will likely turn into skin and bones. MSB01 is really bony even though he eats a lot of grass. Being a dairy animal he likes lots of grain, especially alfalfa pellets. I'll try to supplement him when the big cows aren't around. At the slightest sound of grain rattling around in a bucket they come running and force him out of the way. Big meanies.

My two new Dexters are taking treats out of my hand and from Dena's. She was thrilled to be able to give them treats (range cubes). They're pretty girls.