02/10/2009 Tuesday: More Hay Needed, Dead Mouse in Calf Water Bucket

Snow. It was a combination of wet small snow and large honking flakes most of the day. By evening chore time it was just rain and the hoses were unthawed enough for me to fill water buckets.

This morning Chas and I headed for Lacey so that I could get a mammogram at Group Health Coop. I was x-rayed by a woman named Pamela who was so good that it made getting my breasts squashed almost pleasant. I plan to ask for her again. I think my physician must have requested her for me knowing that Pamela was very good at her job.

While I was at GHC I bought some paperback books to read. The books I buy helps the GHC Friends/Foundation/Clinic. I also had a latte. When I was done with my mammogram I picked up 3 more books for a total of 8.

Chas and I had lunch at the Peking restaurant. Chas ordered Suchwan chicken while I had Mongolian beef. We replaced the rice they offer with noodles. This restaurant, for a little over $12.00 for the two of us, gave us enough food for lunch and dinner.

I cooked the leftovers as hot (spicy) noodles. It was easy to add Shitakii mushrooms to round out the dish. It was so good.

We stopped at the library where I picked up 5 more books to read after lunch.

After a short nap I went down to do the evening chores.

Chas and I moved two bales into the Hereford's feeder this afternoon.

The calf's water bucket had a dead mouse in it. Yuck. I scrubbed it out and refilled it. I put out some mouse bait the day before yesterday so I expect I will see more dead mice around the place - or smell them. With grain that I and the animals spill mice breed pretty fast. I put the bait in the third drawer of the chest of drawers to keep it away from the other animals.

I ordered 20 more 500 lb round bales from Wally R and told him to throw in a couple of 80 lb sacks of barley/oats mixture for me to try out. I'm not sure if that is whole barley/oats or rolled. I plan on mixing it with some of the Country Livestock to ease the transition to the new grain. It turns out that oats have between 12 and 14.5% crude protein and barley has between 12.5 and 13.5 percent crude protein. Wally says that this is all he feeds his beasties - except for hay.

I have 6 bales left to feed but will need to feed one to the Dexters tomorrow morning. I gave them a square bale of hay this afternoon to tide them through. They munched on it with evident relish.