06/10/2009 Wednesday: Cooler than yesterday, at least it felt like that to me.
Not a lot accomplished today.
After work I stopped at Sunbirds and picked up a short length of hose for under $4.00. I also picked up a salmon fish net with an extensible handle to use as a tool for catching chickens. Capturing the rooster yesterday made it really clear that having such a tool would be very handy.
I'm thinking of taking the Buff Orpingtons and either putting them in with the Red Rangers or taking them up to the chicken coop and putting them in with the remaining hens. I can't decide. They're doing okay so far in with the ducks but I'd like to see them separated. The ducks are so messy.
Chas ordered about $1200.00 worth of lumber from Lincoln Creek Lumber for our deck footings. Pat says we also need to order 5/8th or 3/4 inch gravel. We'll get a truckload and put it with the other gravel. There's not much left.
I need to take the lumber out of the barn. It's in my way. Chas and Pat leaned it against my hay bales, the ones I'm trying to get out of the barn by feeding the good ones to the critters and by spreading the moldy ones on the ground for fertilizer.
The piggies are getting brave they came within about 5 feet of me when I was putting water into their flat pan but headed out as far away from me as they could get when I went to put their dinner in their pan. They're still all sleeping in the dog kennel. I expect I should start putting hay into the Calf-Tel.
Pat has another job this week so he won't be in. You can't blame a guy for wanting to make more money than what I can pay him.
I went to Del's to pick up some chicken starter. As I was complaining about the price (same as Brand X, I grumbled), the woman who was helping me asked the age of my chickens. When I told her they were 6 weeks she suggested that I just get the 18% protein feed which is half the price. I bought three. I also picked up a feeder that will hold at least twice as much feed as the current gallon feeder plus it has a wider lip. The chicks are going without feed part of the day because they haven't figured out how to dig the feed out from under the holding section.
I'll have to pick up one or two of the birds and see how heavy they are. I might be able to butcher a couple to give the remainder a big more running around space.
06/09/2009 Tuesday: Sunny and hot all day - but not hugely hot - in fact, bearable. I got sunburned brush hogging S1 and the south corridor.
Got a late start this morning as I slept in till nearly 7am.
Chores took longer than usual because I usually take the time on my non-work days to attend to any issues that require attention such as scrubbing out water tubs, changing things around. Filling salt containers.
I did not do any goat or calf castrating today although I thought I would have time to at least do a couple of bucklings.
Instead I worked on the garden. I had three beds left to rototil for a second time, two long beds and one smaller bed. I planted kohl rabi in one of the small beds closest to the driveway separating the cottage garden from the vegetable garden. I found Hubbard squash seed at the Farm Store, but only one package. I planted two hills (6 seeds) way at the far (eastern) end of the garden. Then I planted about half a row of cabbage.
I watered the new plants and seeds and plants and seeds already planted starting from the north side of the garden but only got about half-way done before Chas was coming toward the cow gate after having spent at least three hours brush hogging N5. I asked him to do that field because I needed easier access to the broken top wire on the two wire corridor fence. I did not get the fence repaired because I will have to take the weed whacker with me and clean out under the fence before I can fix the fence.
I'd dropped off two more bales of waste hay in the corridor area by the entrance gate. As I came back towards the chicken coop I brush hogged the small end pasture where I'd dropped the hay. That chewed up the hay and spread it around. I also cut most of the buttercup. I'm trying to add tilth to the pastures. They're in really sad shape. The ground is as hard as a rock from the underlying clay soil. I should spread come of the compost from the pile in the Dexter pen in the south-most corridor to see if that won't improve the soil.
After lunch while Chas was recovering from his hard work brush hogging, I got the tractor which I had him leave in the corridor and brush hogged S1. So now the two fields look better and the weeds have been cut down. The grass is about 4-5 inches high now and should be more palatable with the tall, coarse grass cut down. The new grass should come up and should be tenderer. I still need to weed whack under the fence line. There's no grass but the thistles are getting big.
Chas sharpened my fish-gutting knife. Earlier in the day I took the fish net I borrowed from Jon and Lorraine O and caught the rooster who'd been terrorizing the girls and me. It was surprisingly easy to catch him. I barely had to chase him. The long handle on the salmon net worked like a champ. Once in the net I tied his feet together and then tied him to the post supporting the nest boxes. I left him there while I brush hogged S1.
When I returned I butchered him, scrubbed him thoroughly, removed any feathers, and cut him up. Since he's an older rooster I plan on cooking him all day on high in the crock pot. Once I get home I'll take the meat off the bones and add veggies and make a stew. I'd love to make dumplings but I'm not sure Chas likes chicken and dumplings. Oh well, I'll eat the dumplings if he doesn't want them.
We had ravioli with a topping of shrimp cooked in butter and garlic. It was so good.
Wally finally called me back. He's making haylege right now but will be cutting hay at the end of the month. I've ordered 60 bales. With those bales and with the bales from Gary Nelson I should have enough to last me through January assuming that we get some rain and that I get rid of some of my Herefords.
I know LauraVic will be leaving us for hamburger after she has her calf. The bull calves will definitely be leaving as will the three steers. That will reduce the herd by 5 animals.
06/08/2009 Monday: Sunshine but not too hot.
Worked for the Health Department today. But before I got into work I stopped at the Farm Store to pick up some All Purpose Livestock. I like their version of this feed better than Del's.
After work I stopped and paid for the tabs for my long trailer. Now I have to put them on.
While I was at work Chas drilled a hole in the side of one of the large posts in the cow barn (one of the posts we're using to hold the collapsible feeder with plates) and installed a small, but still substantial eye bolt. I wanted it so that I could snap the gate to the eye bolt using a carabiner on the chain that is attached to the gate.
Pigs are still with me. Braver now, they actually come out when I'm around. I saw them eating their dinner which is a mixture of All Purpose Livestock and pig starter.
Dinner was hot noodles. Chas got the vegetables ready while I did the cooking.
I let the cows out into N1 to graze for a few hours but before I did that I tested the polywire. I was getting 4.9mvt on all the lines except for the north-south line that was broken before. Well, it's broken again. I decided that I would let the cows out only long enough to get a full belly, about 4 hours. When I went out, one of the Milking Shorthorns and Wendy were out in N2. They'd broken through the fence. I had my tester with me. No reading at all. Grrr.
I may let the Herefords out only for three hours and then bring them in if Wendy and her partner in crime are going to keep breaking through the polywire. Tomorrow I plan on going out and fixing the broken wire and figuring out what is shorting out the wire. I'll need to take the weed whacker with me as the grass is pretty high along the fence line. The entire paddock needs to be brush hogged as well. There are many thistles back in the northwest corner. I think the thistles were brought in by the flood waters which covered that half of the property. I may ask Chas if he wants to help with that - or I could do it myself after I get the weed whacking done.
Alternatively, I could sell Wendy and all the bull calves. That's beginning to sound much better. I have too many animals as it is.
06/07/2009 Sunday: Overcast all day and not very warm. Some faint-hearted drizzle but not worth talking about.
Well, this Sunday was no day of rest.
I stripped the bed of everything and washed the mattress pad and pillow covers and later the sheets. After the bed was stripped, Chas and I flipped the mattress. It needed it badly. After that I put on the 3 inch foam rubber pad I purchased at Costco Tuesday. After dinner I remade the bed with Chas's help. Now our bed is three inches higher and clean. I hope this new mattress pad helps us sleep better.
Chores took forever this morning. The Herefords decided to roam and went through several polywire fences and ended up in N1 and N2. I'd put them in N5, the biggest field. Not sure why they wanted to roam. Perhaps the pasture is getting rank and we need to cut it. They even went through the double wire electric fence along the perimeter, at least two of them did.
I'll keep them in their winter pasture for a few days so that they'll forget and to give me time to figure out what the problem is with the fence. I did fix some spots where the wire was touching the t-posts and grounding the lines out but now I need to do a real survey of the fence and maybe even weed whack along the corridor. It would be easier to let the cows in to do the job for me. I need to consider that. I'd have to watch to make sure they didn't get out and I'd need to make sure the double strand fence was working.
Anyhow the cows did not get to go graze this evening. I may let them out to graze but bring them in after dinner and before dark. That way I don't have to spend my time in the morning fixing fences.
I also need to find out why the N paddock fences are not working at all.
Baby was making a huge racket this morning. She was hungry and everyone knew about it. The noise abated when I gave her some grain and hay.
I spent quite a bit of time rototilling the remaining beds. Some of the ends of the beds didn't have much tilth - in fact they were more like rototilling concrete - so I added well-composted chicken manure to those ends and did another rototilling. Hopefully that will loosen up the soil. I need to add spoiled hay and maybe even some compost from the various compost piles in the cow yards. Maybe I'll do that this fall if I have any compost left.
One of the three large beds I raked smooth and brought in two pieces of stock panel held together by a curlique fastener to be used as bean plant supports. I pounded in two t-posts and attached the stock panels to the posts using the farmer's secret weapon, binding twine. Then I planted two types of beans. On the north side I planted Kentucky Wonder pole beans and on the south side a Yard-long bean whose name I have forgotten. Something like Dow Guck.
I still have two long beds that need another round of tiller work before I can plant them but I need to decide what I want to plant in those beds. I need to put in Kohl-rabi and leeks but I probably should start the leeks in pots and transplant them. I also have two smaller beds available for planting. Maybe I'll put flowers in. Or cabbages. Kaija's still had cabbage plants available.
Chas came out to look at the little pigs this morning but couldn't find them. I showed him that they were just buried under the hay in the dog carrier and practically invisible. After only one day they have not associated me with food but I am calling them and getting them used to the sound of my voice. They're having a great time rooting up the grass and weeds. I can see that with three pigs there won't be any grass left in a short period of time. Oh well, I always have lots of uneaten hay from the goats that I can toss in.
I will probably put down lots of uneaten hay into their calf-tel for them to sleep on after I add wood chips for a base. The dog carrier won't work long for housing.
The pigs won't be ready for butcher until December, at least.
After finishing planting the beans I rounded up the stuff I was taking to Mary's. This included three plastic gallon jars from the coffee place, a full bucket of coffee grounds, magazines, and a couple of dozen eggs. On the way to her house I stopped at Marie's and gave her 18 eggs in a carton. Then I visited the Orcutts with some different magazines (Atlantic, Harpers, NY Review of Books). In exchange they loaned me their salmon catching net that I will use to capture the rooster that keeps trying to attack me. Once caught he'll be turned into dinner.
I still need to put up a killing rope and cone.
Chas took two of the support cross-pieces (top pieces) on the deck down. The remaining structure is pretty wobbly but I expect Pat will start dismembering the rest of the deck over the next week after he fixes gates and my second manger. I think Chas was tired from his work on the deck yesterday.
Susie, Curtis's new girlfriend and our plumber, Curtis, came by to say hello after dinner and to find out what kind of squash we grew last year. We grew Hubbard but I have not been able to find any seeds this year. We showed them around the farm, especially the garden area. They also admired the goats.
Curtis decided he wanted goats and wants to purchase my Boer doe that is blind in one eye and one of the little Boer bucklings. He'll select which buckling he wants after I castrate them and when they're ready for weaning. We did talk about his fruit trees and the potential damage the goats could do to the trees. The bucklings were born 04/02/09. They're ready for selling or harvest. I need to castrate them first. He is also thinking of buying a trio of Muscovy ducks. I hope one or the other of the Muscovies finally has some eggs hatch.
Dinner was a pork roast with baked potato and asparagus.
06/06/2009 Saturday: Overcast and chilly most of the day. Around dinner time the sun started shining.
This morning I moved the ducks and chicken tractors. Last night I set up the new five gallon waterer for the Red Ranger chicks (who are now almost as big as the Buff Orpingtons). I only put in 4 gallons so it wouldn't be so heavy to lift over the hog panel. I cleaned and filled the large white protein tub that I'm using in the duck pen and also the black short tub that the ducks also use but which is the waterer for the chickens. I think I will put in the metal waterer that I took out of the Red Ranger tractor when I put in the larger waterer.
After chores I moved a few things from the deck. Later Enrique helped me move the rest of the things including the dog's house off the deck. The dog's house is now under the vine maple trees.
Enrique got here later than usual - not until 9:30am. He couldn't find a car that he could use. His own car is actually under his uncle's name so he licensed it again in California. He finally decided to use his own car even though it doesn't have up-to-date plates.
Chas set him to work right away tearing down the back deck. Enrique and Chas first removed the translucent ripple panels and then started on the joists. Enrique did most of the work. Chas removed nails and tossed them in a bucket.
Pat and I are planning on using the ripple panels and uprights and the two or three windows I got from Mary and Gary last year to make the greenhouse. It will be a lean-to like the sheep pen but larger and with a translucent roof to let in more light. I had Enrique put the fiberglass panels and joists in the "green house."
Before Chas and I had to leave to go to Yelm to pick up some weaner pigs Enrique and I moved the Calf-Tel back into the pig pen. I will need to fill it full of hay for the pigs.
So, we drove almost to Yelm to visit Bill R who is a general contractor in his non-farming life.
Anyway I picked out, quite by accident, three gilts. They'll take a little longer to grow to eating size but should a lot of fun to raise.
When we got home we carried the dog carrier full of hay and piggies to the pig pen and put them in, dog carrier and all. I opened the door of the carrier and left them to find their own way out which they eventually did. While I was waiting to drive down to the chicken and duck tractors I poured a mixture of very expensive pig starter into some All Purpose Feed and then added water to make a slop. When I got back with the black rubber tub, well rinsed, I dumped their dinner into the tub. I expect they'll eat when I'm gone.
I always worry that somehow they'll escape but I'm hoping they won't because for sure they'll become dinner for the coyotes that prowl the area and I'll be out the $300.00 I paid for them. The pen is pretty secure (I think) and they tend to stay put if you feed them well. Still, these are pretty small piglets...
This evening when I went to feed the ducks and chickens down along the back yard, I removed the small black rubber tub, rinsed it and put it on the ATV for use by the new piggies. It will be their feeder till I get their automatic waterer working again and can free up the pig trough.
Dinner was eggs, cornmeal pancakes and a pork steak. I have to get rid of all the pork before we have Cheddar butchered.
06/05/2009 Friday: Overcast and the faintest hint of drizzle today. It was nice to have a cloudy and cool day after all the heat we had for the past two days.
I went into work today and worked on health indicators for the Health Department but before I arrived at work I stopped at the Farm Store and picked up three stout eyebolts for hanging my hammock. Two will go upstairs and one will go downstairs. We will also use a eye bolt with a nut on the end. The bolt will go through the 6" square support post and the eyebolt will screw into the wall. That way I can use my hammock on the upper deck or on the bottom deck. I also picked up two 50 lb sacks of chicken grower crumbles and 1 bag of layer pellets for the Barred Rocks.
I also picked up a 5 gallon chicken waterer. It will be nice to have a second waterer so that during the winter I can put fresh water out when it freezes and bring the frozen waterer in to be unthawed and scrubbed. I plan to use it to water the 27 Red Ranger chicks. During the previous two days of hot weather they ran out of water using just the gallon container. Of course I could have refilled the waterer in the morning but I thought it would last 24 hours. Not so. This way I can fill the waterer every other day and not be afraid that they will run out of water.
I stopped at Kaija's on the way home hoping to find some leeks but they were out. I did buy an artichoke, and some herbs. At the grocery store I bought some leek seed and some yard-long beans to plant in the garden. I think I will start the leeks indoors and then transplant them when they get old enough.
I think I must have a secret stash of garden seeds somewhere in the potting shed aside from the ones that got eaten by a little mousie. I just need to look.
I hung the chicken feeder to the widthwise board that is being used to support the steel panel keeping the tarp from falling down into the chicken tractor. I may try three pieces of rebar across the top and no sheet metal on the ducks. When I remove the Barred Rocks from the duck tractor I can afford to remove the metal sheets I've put around the outside. That will make the tractor so much lighter to move.
Pat did not get the second feeder built because he removed my old aluminum gate and replaced it with a heavier duty steel gate with mesh on the bottom. It's the green gate I purchased in 2006 when Elizabeth had her horse here. After that he put up my stock panel gate using heavy duty staples. I really need to pound in a t-post to keep the Herefords from using the gate as a scratching post.
After that he scavenged the boards that originally supported the north side of the green barn and removed the nails from them so that he could use them for making my second manger. The grain area will be about 2 inches thicker. I told Pat that if he ran out of the thicker wood to use the thicker wood in the back and a 2x4 in the front.
Tomorrow Enrique and Juan and I will clear off the deck and remove the roof and supports from the back door deck without damaging them too badly. Enrique can do the removal and Juan can stack the ripple plastic on the ATV for scrubbing and remove nails from the roof joists and uprights as they come down. I'll supervise the removal of the stuff on the deck and Chas will give the instructions for removal of the plastic roof, joists and uprights. I will help if I can.
We will leave the deck itself for another day since I also need the guys to remove the rhododendrons and replant them elsewhere. I plan to put the rhodies down in the flat land by the stream. The beavers probably won't eat them since they're poisonous to most animals. They'll look really pretty there. Unfortunately they'll be somewhat set back when we move them but should recover by next year's flowering season. (They're in flower now, dang it). I need to label them with their color.
I have resolved to castrate the bull calves as soon as I can after birth while they're still a manageable size even though the recommendations are that they be castrated at 90 days of age. At 90 days of age they've got enough testosterone to keep them growing well for the rest of the year. At a much younger age (less than a month) I can do the castration myself by throwing a halter on them and doing the deed myself. Once they get to be 3 months they're hard to catch and handle.
After this year's problem with the bull calves trying to breed any female that's in sight I will not keep intact male calves with the rest of the herd. I can still castrate them now but I need them localized in one place and I will definitely need help. I need a small corral to keep them in. I'm hoping Tye will be able to bring his horse over and help me round them up.
We had leftover pasta prima vera and t-bone steaks from the calf I had butchered in 2007 (Stew) for dinner. The steaks were great and not very large. He must have been a little over a year old when I had him butchered. He was Gary N's calf. The steaks were quite delicious but could have been a little more tender.
06/04/2009 Thursday: Another hot day but not quite as bad as Wednesday.
I spent most of my day working on the garden. I rototilled several beds and then planted another bed of corn, three tomato plants, three very long rows of beets in one bed, four yellow banana peppers and a hot pepper. I also planted 8 collard plants. I'll have lots to share with Mary and Mike if they all grow. I still have one large bed and one slightly narrower bed to rototil and a small bed to rototil. I still have to find leeks. Maybe I'll try seeds. Oh, yes. I planted 4 parsley plants in the herb bed outside the kitchen. I forgot about that.
As I planted or seeded a bed I watered it pretty well once and then went back to water some more.
Pat came over and he and Chas worked on re-attaching the collapsible feeder and repositioning the two fenceline feeders. When they were done with that project, Pat put legs on my feeder, the one that sits under the northern fenceline feeder.
Tomorrow he'll build me a second feeder similar to the one that he added the legs to. It will also be up on legs but built in such a way that I can slide the forks under it and take it out of the barn for cleaning or whatever. He also screwed down the plywood which was working its way loose. He'll also replace the aluminum gate in the northernmost stall with the green one I purchased in 2006. He'll have to add some pieces of wood since the gate is slightly smaller than the opening. This time the gate will open outward toward the barn side instead of to the electric fence side. It should make life a little easier.
It should be cooler tomorrow. The clouds rolled in tonight and the seabreeze was substantial.
Pat and I talked about the back deck. I'm going to pull up the indoor-outdoor carpet and remove the double sided tape, clean the sticky residue first with WD-40 and then with Dawn. After that I'll sand it and put on a primer coat and then paint it a deep forest green. It will look similar to old porches and will highlight any wicker furniture I get. Very country, don't you know?
Yesterday Pat brought us a salmon. I cooked it tonight along with a potato and some broccoli. All in all it was quite a delicious dinner. We even have enough left over for salmon salad sandwiches.
The youngest heifer, LillyKoo, is in season and all three bull calves are trying to breed her. This is the second or third time she's come into heat. Naturally Huck, my Dexter bull, is going crazy. He can smell her readiness but cannot get to her. He keeps bugling in frustration.
06/03/2009 Wednesday: Very, very hot today. I suspect it must have reached nearly 90 degrees F here.
I finally put the two doelings I purchased earlier this year into the pen with the other goats and moved Mysti and her two doelings into the pen vacated by Freddy and Blanche. The big goats were stepping on the babies. Mysti needed to do some serious bonding with her babies.
I did some watering today but know I need to do a lot more watering. The ground is parched. Even the weeds are wilting. I need a hose near where I have the various non-cottage garden flower beds. I saw one lying in the gazebo garden that might not leak. If it does I'll cut it and put in a new end or middle. Lord knows I have a lot of hose repair pieces.
I worked on the garden rototilling three beds in preparation for planting. I planted the onion sets, at least the sets that were still alive in the bed closest to the south end of the garden. Then I planted three kinds of chard and the corn in one bed. I also planted three squash plants and watered every thing.
The Dexters were in the south corridor in the next to the last section on the south side. Tomorrow they'll be moved to the last section. The Herefords ended up in the N5 pasture. I need to divide that pasture and may do that after Chas brush hogs the grass in that pasture. The thistles are starting to get large (12-14 inches).
Charles and Pat worked on finishing up the barn wall where we want to stack bales of hay and the 500 lb round bales we get from Wally. Pat brought us a salmon or xx tail end about a foot long. We'll eat that tomorrow because it's still frozen. I can hardly wait.
I finally brought one of the large white protein block tubs down to the duck tractor and filled it with water to the top. The ducks went crazy. Finally they could swim and not be standing in three inches of water. It was sure fun to watch the ducks. I also put out the smaller black tub for the chickens to use to drink from. I felt I needed to bring down the larger tub because the birds were totally out of water and so thirsty.
06/02/2009 Tuesday: Overcast most of the day. Warm and muggy.
Some excitement this morning. The Herefords had broken through the fence into S1 and were heading toward the Dexters. Everyone was bellowing about how their space was being invaded. I threw on a pair of pants, my t-shirt and shoes (no socks), grabbed the ATV and rounded them up and put them in for the day. I'd slept in till 7am. Thank heavens the Herefords are accustomed to being rounded up and herded with the ATV. I would not have been able to get them back into their pasture without the machine.
The new cow, Baby and her calf, seem to have settled in ok. Pixie is also doing well although her stall is wet. I'll have to add some more hay to sop up some of the moisture.
Magic (Marcy's 1/2 Boer daughter) had one doeling and one buckling this afternoon while we were at Costco. They are jumping around and I think have been fed. They sure are noisy. I need to take pictures.
Chas and I went to Evergreen College to their bookstore. Chas needed some pens. I didn't need anything but ended up with a notebook, a new coffee mug and two gardening books.
I was pooped by the time we got back around 3pm. After unloading all the food we sat down for a few minutes to rest then I went out to feed.
The freezers are all full again but we're stocked up. I finally got around to buying a mattress pad. It's three inches thick. We'll put it on this weekend. Chas and I will take the time to rotate the mattress and wash the existing mattress pad before putting everything back together and making the bed. I expect we'll sleep better and a $179. mattress pad is a lot less expensive than $1790.00 which is almost what we'd pay if we bought a new mattress.
The chores aren't so bad, mostly tossing hay. The new cow and Pixie got some alfalfa cubes. They seem to really enjoy them. I hauled out a short round tub for use in the duck tractor and scrubbed it out after I went down to feed and water the chicks and ducks. Tomorrow morning I'll put the new tub in and see if the ducks can get into it.
Fritz Coon has not called me back regarding a truckload of hay. I guess he's not interested. Oh well. I'll find someone else. There are lots of folks advertising hay in the local rags.
Dinner tonight was pasta prima vera made with squash, peas and celery in a tomato sauce with lots of garlic and Italian seasoning. The pasta could have cooked a little longer. I also heated up a leftover pork chop for each of us.
Pat didn't show up today.
06/01/2009 Monday: Another hot day but around dinner time the sky got cloudy. Think it's the residual from the thunder storms in Oregon. I wouldn't mind a little rain to refresh the grass.
I can't believe it's June already.
Not a lot to say today. I worked at the Health Department and during work on the County Health Indicators I also helped Jane, my office mate with some one-on-one learning. She taught me something namely that you can right-click on an Excel spreadsheet and copy the xls file into a Word document. Very cool.
Did the evening chores which took longer than usual because I had the two cows separated from the others which always means more work.
I cooked one of my Porterhouse steaks from the last cow I had butchered.
I have to call Bolars to schedule Cheddar's butcher. She seems very tired and old. I think the baby is taking a lot out of her.
I made up a list of things for Pat to do. He didn't show up today.
Monday, September 28, 2009
June 11 - 20 in Reverse Chronological Order
06/20/2009 Saturday: Generally overcast and occasionally cool with light sprinkles of rain. A good day to work because it wasn't hot.
Another really busy Saturday.
The Enrique and Oskar came about 7:30 even before I'd started chores. I had them begin taking nails and joist supports off the wood that they took down last weekend. Chas was worried that we'd run out of time for them to do all the chores we needed doing. I snarled at him because I hate to be interrupted when I'm doing chores. But, I also told him not to worry. We'd get it all done.
Shortly after I finished chores Mary H showed up and helped me castrate Magic's two bucklings. I used the band method. Mary held the bucklings up in the air with her hands behind their hocks so they couldn't struggle. I banded them pretty easily. The hard part about using an elastrator is getting the elastic band off the bander. It took us just a few minutes to get the males done and also to do Mystical's buckling. Generally speaking I don't like to band until they're older but I have to admit it is a lot less work when the animals are smaller. I'm just not as strong as I once was.
I really, really appreciated that Mary took the time to come over to help me castrate. Just having someone hold the the bucklings while I kept my hands free to do the castrating made all the difference in the world.
Another one of the tasks Chas and I decided to do while we had some help was to put the well house roof back on the sides so that Chas could check to make sure the roof would be tall enough to cover the new pump. We need to be able to access the top of the tank in case we have to blow air into the bladder. Chas had nailed two 2x4s on all four sides to raise the roof up about 3 inches. The four of us put the well house roof back on in two stages, up on the wood sides then after a quick check, up and over the tank. Now all Chas has to do is to fasten the roof to the body and put up flashing around the outside to keep water from leaking inside.
After Mary left (after admiring my garden again) I had the guys move the wood by old deck to two piles in the equipment shed. The wood without nails was put on the long trailer (per Chas's request); the wood with nails was put in the pile with the other wood in the second bay for later nail removal and reuse.
Oskar seemed interested in buying a goat. He want's the male that I used to breed last year. I told him that he could have him. He said okay and that was that. I'll have one less goat after next Saturday. And, if Curtis still wants the two goats, one of the bucklings that I castrated and my blind-in-one-eye doeling that rejected her babies and let them die. He'll keep them as pets until they get on his nerves. I should write up a handout for new goatkeepers.
The three of us picked up small pieces of boards from the cow barn, outside the green barn and scattered in other places on the property from all the work that was done by Pat and Chas. The longer boards went into the equipment shed and the short ones into the burn pile.
Before we picked up the small pieces of scattered boards I had Enrique and Oskar move three bales of alfalfa hay into the green barn (which is all that were left) and move 6 bales of local grass hay from the green barn into the cow barn. I'll be glad to get the cows out grazing again.
The guys emptied the two tubs of chicken manure and shavings from the time I had the chicks and ducks in the tubs back behind the wood stump along the creek bank. I'll spread the manure/compost in that area since the wood chips we had there are long gone, rinsed away when Hope Creek flooded. The guys rinsed the tubs out for me with the hose and turned them upside down to drain under the deck.
I also had Oskar and Enrique put the metal roofing used on the chicken tractors on the ATV and had them haul it to the scrap heap where I store all the metal roofing (outside the green barn).
We picked up the picnic table in the gazebo garden and moved it a few feet north onto some gravel. Over time it has sunk into the ground and the legs are beginning to rot. Anyhow, we picked up the picnic table and moved it so that part was on some gravel. It still wasn't level so we put two bricks under the south ends of the table.
Just before he and Enrique left for the day Oskar cut out the rest of the wild roses in the flower bed next to the well house. I'd gotten most of the wild roses removed but not all. They came back with vengence but Oskar defeated them with my clippers which are mostly worn out. They were so bad I put them in the metal recycling bag that will go the Mike and Mary for their next trip to town. The bed looks ever so much better with all that extra vegetation moved.
Laura and Enrique weed whacked the area to the west of the house where the vine maple beds are. I weed whacked the area by the main (north-east) gate into the Dexter pastures before lunch and Enrique made some passes to clean up the area around the flower bed about 15 minutes before he was scheduled to leave. We still have more to go as it's only about half weed whacked.
Chas and I had gussied-up pizza for dinner. Chas added some salami and mozzarella cheese to the top and I cooked it. It was pretty good but very salty. I drank two cups of tea and had two pops before the evening was over and I was still thirsty.
I played with my new Garmin GPS system. I ordered it from Amazon about a week or so ago and it arrived Wednesday. I think it will work just fine for me. I just program in the address and let it acquire the signal and it will tell me where to turn and how far away and I think I can even tell where I am located. It will even tell me how to go home from where ever I am. I can also add music (MP3s) or even audio books so that I can listen to a good book while I drive.
Two more days and I can put Lucky Charm (Baby) in with the other Dexters. I could probably do it tomorrow. Maybe I'll put her in with the others in the afternoon when I bring the Dexters back in from grazing.
After this full day I'll be glad to rest tomorrow. After I do some weed whacking.
06/19/2009 Friday: Rainy, but more like a driving mist all day. Some sunshine in the evening.
Morning chores took forever this morning. I was really dragging. I think I'm overdoing it with all the animals I have. I have 16 Herefords, crosses and Milking Shorthorns. If I get rid of the 6 males (3 bulls and 3 steers), that will take me down to 10 cows. I will get a heifer in exchange for my red bull calf from Gary N (up to 11). Plus LauraVic will go. She's getting on and is beginning to limp. I'll also get rid of Wendy. That will bring me down to 9 Herefords plus any babies they might have. I need to get the herd down even further. Now comes the tough decisions.
Allen P, a friend of Lances, hauled in a truckload of gravel as Pat requested. It's 3/4 inch, minus, at a cost of $170.00 for the load. Ouch.
Chas finished removing the last of the remaining pieces of wood holding up the deck. We were both happy.
As a reward for getting the deck finished I make Chas one of his favorite dishes, stir fried vegetables with chicken served over rice. It was really good. It's had to go wrong with stir fries made with carrots, red and green peppers and chicken.
06/18/2009 Thursday: Overcast most of the day with intermittent sun.
Some predator got two of my chickens, one Buff and one Red Ranger.
I pounded in the rebar that Mike H cut for me and Mary dropped off yesterday. Then I dropped in the plastic pipe over the rebar and finished pounding the rebar down till it was almost flush with the plastic. When I watered I tried out the new "bumpers." They worked really well and did keep the hose from knocking over my plants - as long as I was sure to put the hose around the bumper first. Mike made me 7 bumpers. It is nearly enough for the number of beds I have.
After lunch I transplanted four more yellow peppers that I'd picked up a few days ago. I also potted up a whole bunch of flowers in different pots. Now I'm nearly out of potting soil. Maybe I'll pick up some more tomorrow.
Dinner was chicken breasts, rice and Chas peeled carrots. A terrific dinner but I ate too much chicken. These are the southern breasts which are so much better tasting than the Foster Farms chickens. I'll be glad when I start harvesting my Red Ranger chickens.
Danette and Joe want to borrow my trailer to haul their chickens to the butcher. I still have to put the license plate on but first I have to find it. It was on the table the last time I looked. They're going to come over to see if they can use the trailer.
06/17/2009 Wednesday: Overcast most of the day. On the way home I experienced a few sprinkles but it didn't amount to much.
I went in to work at the Health Department but because I got to bed so late last night (I was up reading again) I wasn't worth much. I did get some more data explained and some more facts entered but finally left around 1:30 pm. My office mate was on a conference call and I just couldn't concentrate.
I finished up the hay that was stacked on the south side of the barn. I still have three bales left in the cow barn plus the timothy and a few bales of alfalfa. I'm going to have the guys take the alfalfa to the green barn for the goats. With all the babies running around the moms need the additional protein that comes with better hay. Also, I still have local grass hay in the green barn. That needs to be used up sometime before the new hay starts coming in.
Mystical's three baby goats are still alive and eating. I still have to tie their mother, Mystical, up so that she'll let the babies nurse but she does seem to be doing better about standing still and not trying to kick the babies away. The little doe seems to have double jointed legs as does one of the bucklings. The paint doe seems to be quite okay. I have to remember to give the kids each a BoSe shot. Maybe that will help. Also, CDT to prevent scours.
I took some pictures of the goat babies and the Welsh Mt sheep but none of the bucklings I will be selling. I need to finish taking as many individual pictures of the goats as possible as a record.
06/16/2009 Tuesday: Cool and cloudy till late morning, some sun and then the sky clouded up. We're supposed to have rain this week.
I stayed up way too late last night. I didn't get to bed until 2pm. As a result I was not worth a damn today. I had a nap in the morning and one right after lunch. I did get some things done today but it wasn't really very productive.
Chas has almost finished tearing off the deck. He's taken off most of the deck boards but has not taken down the super structure. I put a warning cone on the steps up to the deck until he gets it torn down and one on the inside of the back door (which is really our front door since we never use the front door.
I grabbed the fishing net and scooped up all six of the Buff Orpington chickens and 6 more of the Red Rangers. I put the chickens in the cage I had under the deck and used the ATV to haul them up to the chicken coop where I tossed them in. The Buffs are scratching around for food but the Red Rangers don't seem to have figured out that they have to look for food. The Barred Rocks seem bemused at this influx of chickens. I tried to get two Red Ranger roosters
Speaking of the Red Rangers, my lord some of them are big. The bigger ones are definitely ready for harvesting. I plan on doing two at one time and eating one and freezing one. I wonder how big they'll be at 12 weeks of age which is when you're supposed to butcher them.
The banty still has all her chicks, all four of them. They wander in and out of the fence searching for food. I do toss out cracked corn for the chickens and they do get some of that but I think a large part of their food is insects.
Mystical has settled down a little bit and doesn't stamp her feet too much when I put the babies up the her teats for dinner this afternoon. The babies are becoming more steady on their feet as the days pass. The one little doe almost seems double jointed. Her tendons are so loose her legs flop in several directions at once. I find I have to hold her to the teat so that she can eat. She's a determined little thing. I may bottle feed her separately since she's already gotten cholestrum.
Marcy is letting the little bucklings suck through the stock panel. Grrr. I wanted her milk for the pigs.
Violet isn't acting her normal self. She's acting like she doesn't feel well. I'll need to keep an eye on her.
The two new ewes are getting less skittish. I put some grain in with their hay and they had their front feet and noses in the feeder. Grain may be the way to lure them to me.
I got the plastic chicken waterer from under the deck where I'd left it after buying a better water container for the Red Rangers and too it to the green barn where I filled it up with water for the ducklings. Momma Muscovy took them on a long walk into the goat yard.
Mike and Mary came by to pick up two dozen eggs, a white protein tub (small) and the remains of the well (pump, pipes and electrical wire). Chas wanted to keep the water tank, turn it on its side, and fill it full of water for emergency water for the critters. I plan on putting it up on a platform (maybe I'll ask Pat M to make one for me) and filling it eventually. I have no idea how many gallons it holds, maybe 50. It's hardly worth it for that few gallons.
06/15/2009 Monday: Cool and cloudy till late morning. Then it warmed up.
Only another week (June 21) until I can put Baby in with the other Dexters. Then I'll know whether or not she was bred to Chuck's bull. Then I can start luring the Herefords into that pen so I can catch the boys for castrating (except for the large red bull calf which Gary is going to take home with him).
During evening chores I put two bales in the collapsible feeder in the cow barn and took two bales that had gotten wet from sitting on the ground out to the road pasture and tossed them out for the cows to pick through.
I also put each of Mystical's babies on a teat after a bit of a struggle with Mystical. She was not having any of her babies. I persuaded her to stand still while they nursed. They eventually all ate including the one that must have a selanium deficiency because she looks like a noodle. I need to order needles and syringes for giving shots to the goats and sheep and also for my cattle.
I worked at the Health Department today. Back to chronic diseases and the 10 leading causes of death in Lewis County, WA.
Pat stopped by about 8:15pm to check to see what we'd done. He's leaving for Oregon for a week to do a job and then will be back to work on the deck. I guess he's going to pour concrete footings after we level the area and remove a stump which is right on the line where the concrete footing will go. I need to contact Dill to see about having a trench built so that we can get water & power to the outbuildings. I also need to contact Lance McCoy to have him deliver a load of 3/4" minus gravel. We'll use some for the deck and some for under the cement in the barn and pad. I'd like to get the Dexter pen done, too, but that might have to wait till I can get that area cleaned out.
Our well went out yesterday. The repair person showed up just before I left for work. It turns out there was a good sized hole in one of the sections of pipe near the pump. Chas decided to replace the pump and pipes while we had them out of the ground. He also had the guy install a tank with a bladder so that we weren't always having to pump it out. I was so happy. That well house has been a PITA since we moved in.
The guys disconnected the roof of the well house and slid it forward on two large planks. The new pressure tank is taller than the old tank so we're going to have to build up the sides of the house by two 2x4 widths (about 3 inches) so that we can get access to the top of the tank where the air valve for the bladder is. Chas wants to use the 2x4s that still have some use left in them from the planks on the deck. After nailing those on we need to put a face board on and caulk it on top. Then lift the roof which is leaning on two stout boards against the well house and replace it on the well house and fasten it down.
Dinner was hot noodles, Chas's favorite dinner.
06/14/2009 Sunday: Chilly this morning. The sun really didn't come out till after 2pm and even then it stayed cool.
I weeded several of the flower beds in the cottage garden and then proceeded to hack away at the weeds in the vegetable garden. Three of the zucchini squash are up but none of the Hubbard. The fourth zucchini didn't come up. Oh well, I think three plants will give us enough zucchini to even freeze some.
The yard long beans are coming up but the Kentucky Wonder beans are not. We have germination on the three different kinds of chard. I love chard. So delicious steamed. The corn is up about 2 inches, both kinds. I purchased Ed Hume seeds for the corn since I expected they'd be seeds that would sprout in this climate. No kohl-rabi yet. The potatoes are doing well, even the finger potatoes I just planted are doing well. Most have emerged and have leaves.
I'm being ruthless this year. If a potato appears where it isn't supposed to be it gets chopped down as if it were a weed. I suppose I could transplant it but I'm too lazy.
After watering the garden I went in to have lunch.
I've been noticing that our water pressure has gotten steadily worse over the last few days. We thought it might be that it needs draining and the water tank pumped full of air. Chas drained it but said that not much water came out. The tank seemed to be full of air. This didn't sound good. There is supposed to be water in the tank so that we can pressurize it.
The water pressure slowly climbed to 28lb of pressure. We did not try to put air into the tank. Around 4:45pm I phoned Moerke, our well folks and asked them to please call us back in the morning (Monday morning). Chas will talk to them. I hope he tells them that we're getting sediment from the bottom of the well fairly frequently. That probably isn't doing the pump any good.
I found having the water problem to be a total downer. This kind of problem really bums me out.
Marcy's two baby bucklings seem to be having problems adapting to life separated from their mom. I am milking Marcy although she's not giving me much milk. I wonder if the babies are reaching through the fence and sucking on her. (Later. They are)
There are 5 new ducklings. The pround momma was taking them out exploring. I need to put out a pan of water for them so that they'll have something to drink.
I did not get the Buff Orpingtons moved to the hen house. I was going to move them in the afternoon but I got in from working on the garden so late that there was only about half an hour. I could have done it then but decided to spend half an hour reading a mystery novel.
The two new St Croix sheep are acting nutso. When I get near their pen to check their hay and water they start trying to jump through the stock panel. They seem terrified and I'm not exactly sure why. As far as I know they've never been abused. They're away from their mom for the first time and probably just don't know what's going on. Hopefully they'll tame down when they realize that I'm not going to hurt them and am the bringer of food delights.
One of them tried to get behind the round calf structure and got caught in the panel I grabbed her and checked her collar to make sure it wasn't too tight. It wasn't. I petted her for a few minutes but that didn't seem to make any difference. I was able to catch the other sheep when it tried to leap through the space between the calf hutch and the stock panel which I hadn't opened up yet so I als checked her collar and loosened it.
After struggling for a few minutes and tearing up the sod that had grown over the lip of the calf hutch I was able to drag the calf hutch away from the stock panel so that the sheep could go around the back. Now they can hide but not get caught in the fencing.
Anne called me today to check on the lambs. She also gave me the name of the folks who might have a ram lamb. The farm name is Ternam Trails Farm with Mike and Faye being the owners. Anne said they have very nice rams. I will follow up next week.
I ordered Joel Saladan's two DVDs from Back40Books for $85.00. It sounds as if it might be useful for thinking about pastured animals.
Mystical had two doelings and one buckling very early this morning. She's rejected these babies. One of the females is a paint, very pretty. One of the doelings has serious leg problems. I've been putting her on Mystical's teat and she's eating well but Mystical is really unhappy that I'm forcing her to nurse the babies. The buckling seems to be doing okay.
Dinner was boiled finger potatoes (the ones I didn't plant in my garden), pork roast from last year's pig, and frozen beans. I know we have frozen beans in the freezer downstairs. I'll have to dig them out.
06/13/2009 Saturday: Overcast and cool this morning but sunny and hot this afternoon.
Another lovely but busy Saturday.
Enrique and Marcos showed up to help out today. They started right away to tear down the deck under Chas's supervision so I left them to it. Later Pat M came by and told them that they needed to remove the rhodies so that they could pull the whole structure over and work on it from the ground. He also gave them instructions on what to do.
While they chainsawed some of the deck cover to get it down, I scouted out where I wanted the rhodies - near the creek but alongside what must have once been a road since it's very flat - and pounded in rebar with insulators on them to mark the spots.
Then I weed whacked a path and cleaned out an area for the plants.
By then it was 10am. I left to go to Anne Scharff's place. She lives on Mauerman Rd near Pe Ell. I got to meet her husband, too, but I can't remember his name, now.
Anne had put an ad on Craigslist about two St Croix ewe lambs she had for sale for $100.00 each. I phoned last night and made an appointment to see the lambs. I liked what I saw and purchased the two ewe lambs. I stuffed them into the dog carrier and after a short visit and a look around the place took them home. They are living temporarily in the calf pen with the round calf hutch in it.
They were both born in early April this year; I think she said they were born around the 5th.
Anne is going to look for a ram lamb for me. One of her ewes is going to give birth in August. If she has a ram lamb she will save it for me.
I guess these sheep breed year around and generally have twins.
Shortly after I got back Gary N came for a visit. He told me he took the sweet Black Angus bull that I used and a cow to the sale barn. Apparently he did not impregnate all Gary's cows. Gary paid a thousand for him and got $500 at the sale barn. He did get $150 from me for leasing the bull so he really wasn't out all that much money. He plans on using my long-legged red cross-breed Red Whiteface on his cows. He'll be picking him up after he does the haying for me.
Gary wants $35.00 for each round bale. I have no idea how many round bales I can get into the barn but I will get as many as I can from Gary. I wish I could store some in the green barn but there is not enough room to get anything but square bales into that barn.
Enrique dug up some of the dirt for the holes with the tractor and then he and Marcos finished up the holes with shovels. Two of the holes had lots of tree roots that they had to cut before they could finish the holes.
One by one they dug up the rhodies and transplanted them. We gave each plant 3 - 4 gallon buckets of water to make sure they were well watered. Tomorrow I'll have to give them another bucket or two of water. They're in the shade and Enrique made a well so that the water wouldn't escape. I'll add coffee grounds and compost to the well to enrich the soil and to act as a mulch.
They finished up transplanting the rhodies just before lunch. I fed them lunch. After their lunch break they went back to taking down the section of the deck closest to the walkway. By 5pm they had that entire section of the deck down. It's a long way down looked at from the kitchen door.
Chas seems to feel he can finish up the last section of deck.
I did some more weed whacking but by then I was pretty tired.
Later on in the afternoon Richard showed up. He's an electrician. He'll be helping us with fixing all the things that were installed incorrectly. I want a fan with lights in the kitchen over the dining room table. He's going to do that as well as fixing the lighting in the cow barn and running power to the green barn.
The piggies got milk with their dinner. This morning I separated the two bucklings from their mom, Marcy, and this evening I put her on the milk stand and milked her out. I didn't get much because I think she was holding it back but over time she will release more. She was none too happy about being milked and did stomp her foot a couple of times. I just held her foot while I finished milking her out. The pigs were very happy to get milk as a topping for their dinner.
I totally forgot to feed them this morning. They were definitely hungry when I dumped their food in their bucket this evening.
Chas made macaroni and cheese from scratch. It was really good. Hard to beat shells, grated cheese, mustard and a can of chopped tomatoes well baked as a dinner. Good thing he felt like cooking because I did not.
06/12/2009 Friday: Cloudy this morning but sunny this afternoon.
This was a worthless day for me in terms of getting anything done. I guess I finally hit the wall since I slept most of the day. I'd been working pretty hard physically these past few days and it finally caught up to me.
Basically all I did today was do chores twice and read some but I mostly slept. I feel better and if I get to bed reasonably early tonight I should be raring to go tomorrow.
Just as I'd given up hope that the Muscovy duck number 1 that was setting was going to hatch anything, I noticed several babies tucked under her wing. I expect she'll be taking them out and showing them off in a few days.
We're going to get at least one more meal in addition to the one I cooked tonight from the killer rooster. I make chicken a la king and have lots left over.
I phoned about an ad I saw on Craigslist for two St Croix ewes for $100 each. I'm going to see them tomorrow morning and will likely purchase them. I will sell the Welsh Mt sheep, at least the trio. I'll keep the two lambs from this year plus the wether from last year.
The contact person for the St Croix sheep is Anne Scharff, 237 Mauermann Rd, 291-3931.
06/11/2009 Thursday: Overcast with some sun.
After I let the Dexters out to graze I took the ATV and trailer and started picking up all the junk that Pat left lying around when he reroofed the potting shed. First I took all the uprights and roof joists from the deck to the wire enclosed "greenhouse." That cleared up two areas that were causing me heartburn. They looked awful. The metal Pat took off the roof when he trimmed it got put into a feed sack and will go to Mike and Mary's.
Mary showed up today with my metal gate. Not sure where I'll put it yet but I'll find a space for it sooner or later. While she was here we looked at the garden and then admired the chicks and ducks.
My chicks at 6 weeks are almost big enough to start processing. I talked to one of the staff at Del's about the high cost of chick starter on Monday since I was all prepared to buy two bags of the 24% protein. She asked how old they were. When I said 6 weeks she suggested I switch to the cheaper 18% protein (all purpose poultry). The 50lb sacks were half the cost of the 24% feed. Something to consider.
I've been watching the chicks and I think the heavy protein is making some of them grow too fast. A few (two so far) seem to have leg problems. They're walking as if one leg is dislocated. Those will get eaten first. I'm hoping to process a few at a time each weekend till they're all done.
After a lunch of yogurt I headed back outside and picked up the two loads of trash right in front of the pig pen. Pat had left it there when he redid the wall in the green barn that had rotted out and from tearing out part of the wall to my loft so that he could put in a flight of steps. I just can't climb vertical ladders any more. Quite a lot went into the burn pile but the good pieces went into the equipment storage area. That's going to have to be reorganized eventually.
Once I got the detritus cleared up I turned off the power to the fence and loaded up the ATV with fencing tools. Chas and I went out to fix the break in the fence. I think the cows must have broken out because they couldn't see the fence. It is really overgrown there.
We spliced in a length of wire and turned up the edges so that the wire wouldn't slide out again. I think this is the third time we've repaired this section of fence. I had to go back to the tack room once and get a pair of pliers and the weed whacker.
After we finished the job and I tightened the fence, Chas walked back to the house and I continued the weed whacking he'd started along the fence line. I didn't do the entire fence line but I got quite a bit of the thistles and daisies cut down. I'll continue to weed whack till I get all the fence line cleared out.
After that I let the cows out and did my evening chores. It wasn't an hour later when several of them walked through the polywire again. I went back into the pasture and routed them out with my ATV. It took several tries to get them back in as they got very naughty and kept sneaking back or into neighboring pastures. I finally got them back into their winter pasture and put up the electric fence to keep them in. I think the bull calves and Wendy are causing the problem.
I'm going to definitely reduce the herd. It's getting to be too much work, now that they've become escape artists.
By then I was so agitated that Lucky and I decided to go for a nice car ride. I snuck out without telling Chas that I was leaving. Bad me. Before I left I told Chas he would have to get his own dinner. He had succotash and kielbasa. I had a chicken pot pie when I got back from Pe Ell.
While I was gone, Chas took down some more of the deck railings. He's so good. He actually removes the nails. That will make reusing the boards for my greenhouse much easier for Pat. I have to admit I did not remove the nails from the boards I put into the equipment shed but will eventually get around to that.
He and I talked about moving the recycle garbage pails down under the walkway to the back deck. I wanted to do that to get them out of sight. They're currently by the well house and are not very attractive to look at from the deck. I thought it would be easier to do the recycle if we just took it down the stairs to the daylight basement and stashed it out of sight. Chas was concerned about how we'd get it back up to the top level. I suggested the ATV as one possibility. We recycle all the time but generally give our pop cans to Mike and Mary. We take glass and cans in.
Lately we hardly go into town together. Since I'm working at the Health Department I go in three times a week but never think of taking the recycling.
While I got a lot done today the cows are so aggravating that the day wasn't very much fun. It is, however, a pleasure to go into the chicken pen. No rooster to attack me now. Maybe chicken a la king for tomorrow night's dinner. Should be easy and tasty served over rice.
Another really busy Saturday.
The Enrique and Oskar came about 7:30 even before I'd started chores. I had them begin taking nails and joist supports off the wood that they took down last weekend. Chas was worried that we'd run out of time for them to do all the chores we needed doing. I snarled at him because I hate to be interrupted when I'm doing chores. But, I also told him not to worry. We'd get it all done.
Shortly after I finished chores Mary H showed up and helped me castrate Magic's two bucklings. I used the band method. Mary held the bucklings up in the air with her hands behind their hocks so they couldn't struggle. I banded them pretty easily. The hard part about using an elastrator is getting the elastic band off the bander. It took us just a few minutes to get the males done and also to do Mystical's buckling. Generally speaking I don't like to band until they're older but I have to admit it is a lot less work when the animals are smaller. I'm just not as strong as I once was.
I really, really appreciated that Mary took the time to come over to help me castrate. Just having someone hold the the bucklings while I kept my hands free to do the castrating made all the difference in the world.
Another one of the tasks Chas and I decided to do while we had some help was to put the well house roof back on the sides so that Chas could check to make sure the roof would be tall enough to cover the new pump. We need to be able to access the top of the tank in case we have to blow air into the bladder. Chas had nailed two 2x4s on all four sides to raise the roof up about 3 inches. The four of us put the well house roof back on in two stages, up on the wood sides then after a quick check, up and over the tank. Now all Chas has to do is to fasten the roof to the body and put up flashing around the outside to keep water from leaking inside.
After Mary left (after admiring my garden again) I had the guys move the wood by old deck to two piles in the equipment shed. The wood without nails was put on the long trailer (per Chas's request); the wood with nails was put in the pile with the other wood in the second bay for later nail removal and reuse.
Oskar seemed interested in buying a goat. He want's the male that I used to breed last year. I told him that he could have him. He said okay and that was that. I'll have one less goat after next Saturday. And, if Curtis still wants the two goats, one of the bucklings that I castrated and my blind-in-one-eye doeling that rejected her babies and let them die. He'll keep them as pets until they get on his nerves. I should write up a handout for new goatkeepers.
The three of us picked up small pieces of boards from the cow barn, outside the green barn and scattered in other places on the property from all the work that was done by Pat and Chas. The longer boards went into the equipment shed and the short ones into the burn pile.
Before we picked up the small pieces of scattered boards I had Enrique and Oskar move three bales of alfalfa hay into the green barn (which is all that were left) and move 6 bales of local grass hay from the green barn into the cow barn. I'll be glad to get the cows out grazing again.
The guys emptied the two tubs of chicken manure and shavings from the time I had the chicks and ducks in the tubs back behind the wood stump along the creek bank. I'll spread the manure/compost in that area since the wood chips we had there are long gone, rinsed away when Hope Creek flooded. The guys rinsed the tubs out for me with the hose and turned them upside down to drain under the deck.
I also had Oskar and Enrique put the metal roofing used on the chicken tractors on the ATV and had them haul it to the scrap heap where I store all the metal roofing (outside the green barn).
We picked up the picnic table in the gazebo garden and moved it a few feet north onto some gravel. Over time it has sunk into the ground and the legs are beginning to rot. Anyhow, we picked up the picnic table and moved it so that part was on some gravel. It still wasn't level so we put two bricks under the south ends of the table.
Just before he and Enrique left for the day Oskar cut out the rest of the wild roses in the flower bed next to the well house. I'd gotten most of the wild roses removed but not all. They came back with vengence but Oskar defeated them with my clippers which are mostly worn out. They were so bad I put them in the metal recycling bag that will go the Mike and Mary for their next trip to town. The bed looks ever so much better with all that extra vegetation moved.
Laura and Enrique weed whacked the area to the west of the house where the vine maple beds are. I weed whacked the area by the main (north-east) gate into the Dexter pastures before lunch and Enrique made some passes to clean up the area around the flower bed about 15 minutes before he was scheduled to leave. We still have more to go as it's only about half weed whacked.
Chas and I had gussied-up pizza for dinner. Chas added some salami and mozzarella cheese to the top and I cooked it. It was pretty good but very salty. I drank two cups of tea and had two pops before the evening was over and I was still thirsty.
I played with my new Garmin GPS system. I ordered it from Amazon about a week or so ago and it arrived Wednesday. I think it will work just fine for me. I just program in the address and let it acquire the signal and it will tell me where to turn and how far away and I think I can even tell where I am located. It will even tell me how to go home from where ever I am. I can also add music (MP3s) or even audio books so that I can listen to a good book while I drive.
Two more days and I can put Lucky Charm (Baby) in with the other Dexters. I could probably do it tomorrow. Maybe I'll put her in with the others in the afternoon when I bring the Dexters back in from grazing.
After this full day I'll be glad to rest tomorrow. After I do some weed whacking.
06/19/2009 Friday: Rainy, but more like a driving mist all day. Some sunshine in the evening.
Morning chores took forever this morning. I was really dragging. I think I'm overdoing it with all the animals I have. I have 16 Herefords, crosses and Milking Shorthorns. If I get rid of the 6 males (3 bulls and 3 steers), that will take me down to 10 cows. I will get a heifer in exchange for my red bull calf from Gary N (up to 11). Plus LauraVic will go. She's getting on and is beginning to limp. I'll also get rid of Wendy. That will bring me down to 9 Herefords plus any babies they might have. I need to get the herd down even further. Now comes the tough decisions.
Allen P, a friend of Lances, hauled in a truckload of gravel as Pat requested. It's 3/4 inch, minus, at a cost of $170.00 for the load. Ouch.
Chas finished removing the last of the remaining pieces of wood holding up the deck. We were both happy.
As a reward for getting the deck finished I make Chas one of his favorite dishes, stir fried vegetables with chicken served over rice. It was really good. It's had to go wrong with stir fries made with carrots, red and green peppers and chicken.
06/18/2009 Thursday: Overcast most of the day with intermittent sun.
Some predator got two of my chickens, one Buff and one Red Ranger.
I pounded in the rebar that Mike H cut for me and Mary dropped off yesterday. Then I dropped in the plastic pipe over the rebar and finished pounding the rebar down till it was almost flush with the plastic. When I watered I tried out the new "bumpers." They worked really well and did keep the hose from knocking over my plants - as long as I was sure to put the hose around the bumper first. Mike made me 7 bumpers. It is nearly enough for the number of beds I have.
After lunch I transplanted four more yellow peppers that I'd picked up a few days ago. I also potted up a whole bunch of flowers in different pots. Now I'm nearly out of potting soil. Maybe I'll pick up some more tomorrow.
Dinner was chicken breasts, rice and Chas peeled carrots. A terrific dinner but I ate too much chicken. These are the southern breasts which are so much better tasting than the Foster Farms chickens. I'll be glad when I start harvesting my Red Ranger chickens.
Danette and Joe want to borrow my trailer to haul their chickens to the butcher. I still have to put the license plate on but first I have to find it. It was on the table the last time I looked. They're going to come over to see if they can use the trailer.
06/17/2009 Wednesday: Overcast most of the day. On the way home I experienced a few sprinkles but it didn't amount to much.
I went in to work at the Health Department but because I got to bed so late last night (I was up reading again) I wasn't worth much. I did get some more data explained and some more facts entered but finally left around 1:30 pm. My office mate was on a conference call and I just couldn't concentrate.
I finished up the hay that was stacked on the south side of the barn. I still have three bales left in the cow barn plus the timothy and a few bales of alfalfa. I'm going to have the guys take the alfalfa to the green barn for the goats. With all the babies running around the moms need the additional protein that comes with better hay. Also, I still have local grass hay in the green barn. That needs to be used up sometime before the new hay starts coming in.
Mystical's three baby goats are still alive and eating. I still have to tie their mother, Mystical, up so that she'll let the babies nurse but she does seem to be doing better about standing still and not trying to kick the babies away. The little doe seems to have double jointed legs as does one of the bucklings. The paint doe seems to be quite okay. I have to remember to give the kids each a BoSe shot. Maybe that will help. Also, CDT to prevent scours.
I took some pictures of the goat babies and the Welsh Mt sheep but none of the bucklings I will be selling. I need to finish taking as many individual pictures of the goats as possible as a record.
06/16/2009 Tuesday: Cool and cloudy till late morning, some sun and then the sky clouded up. We're supposed to have rain this week.
I stayed up way too late last night. I didn't get to bed until 2pm. As a result I was not worth a damn today. I had a nap in the morning and one right after lunch. I did get some things done today but it wasn't really very productive.
Chas has almost finished tearing off the deck. He's taken off most of the deck boards but has not taken down the super structure. I put a warning cone on the steps up to the deck until he gets it torn down and one on the inside of the back door (which is really our front door since we never use the front door.
I grabbed the fishing net and scooped up all six of the Buff Orpington chickens and 6 more of the Red Rangers. I put the chickens in the cage I had under the deck and used the ATV to haul them up to the chicken coop where I tossed them in. The Buffs are scratching around for food but the Red Rangers don't seem to have figured out that they have to look for food. The Barred Rocks seem bemused at this influx of chickens. I tried to get two Red Ranger roosters
Speaking of the Red Rangers, my lord some of them are big. The bigger ones are definitely ready for harvesting. I plan on doing two at one time and eating one and freezing one. I wonder how big they'll be at 12 weeks of age which is when you're supposed to butcher them.
The banty still has all her chicks, all four of them. They wander in and out of the fence searching for food. I do toss out cracked corn for the chickens and they do get some of that but I think a large part of their food is insects.
Mystical has settled down a little bit and doesn't stamp her feet too much when I put the babies up the her teats for dinner this afternoon. The babies are becoming more steady on their feet as the days pass. The one little doe almost seems double jointed. Her tendons are so loose her legs flop in several directions at once. I find I have to hold her to the teat so that she can eat. She's a determined little thing. I may bottle feed her separately since she's already gotten cholestrum.
Marcy is letting the little bucklings suck through the stock panel. Grrr. I wanted her milk for the pigs.
Violet isn't acting her normal self. She's acting like she doesn't feel well. I'll need to keep an eye on her.
The two new ewes are getting less skittish. I put some grain in with their hay and they had their front feet and noses in the feeder. Grain may be the way to lure them to me.
I got the plastic chicken waterer from under the deck where I'd left it after buying a better water container for the Red Rangers and too it to the green barn where I filled it up with water for the ducklings. Momma Muscovy took them on a long walk into the goat yard.
Mike and Mary came by to pick up two dozen eggs, a white protein tub (small) and the remains of the well (pump, pipes and electrical wire). Chas wanted to keep the water tank, turn it on its side, and fill it full of water for emergency water for the critters. I plan on putting it up on a platform (maybe I'll ask Pat M to make one for me) and filling it eventually. I have no idea how many gallons it holds, maybe 50. It's hardly worth it for that few gallons.
06/15/2009 Monday: Cool and cloudy till late morning. Then it warmed up.
Only another week (June 21) until I can put Baby in with the other Dexters. Then I'll know whether or not she was bred to Chuck's bull. Then I can start luring the Herefords into that pen so I can catch the boys for castrating (except for the large red bull calf which Gary is going to take home with him).
During evening chores I put two bales in the collapsible feeder in the cow barn and took two bales that had gotten wet from sitting on the ground out to the road pasture and tossed them out for the cows to pick through.
I also put each of Mystical's babies on a teat after a bit of a struggle with Mystical. She was not having any of her babies. I persuaded her to stand still while they nursed. They eventually all ate including the one that must have a selanium deficiency because she looks like a noodle. I need to order needles and syringes for giving shots to the goats and sheep and also for my cattle.
I worked at the Health Department today. Back to chronic diseases and the 10 leading causes of death in Lewis County, WA.
Pat stopped by about 8:15pm to check to see what we'd done. He's leaving for Oregon for a week to do a job and then will be back to work on the deck. I guess he's going to pour concrete footings after we level the area and remove a stump which is right on the line where the concrete footing will go. I need to contact Dill to see about having a trench built so that we can get water & power to the outbuildings. I also need to contact Lance McCoy to have him deliver a load of 3/4" minus gravel. We'll use some for the deck and some for under the cement in the barn and pad. I'd like to get the Dexter pen done, too, but that might have to wait till I can get that area cleaned out.
Our well went out yesterday. The repair person showed up just before I left for work. It turns out there was a good sized hole in one of the sections of pipe near the pump. Chas decided to replace the pump and pipes while we had them out of the ground. He also had the guy install a tank with a bladder so that we weren't always having to pump it out. I was so happy. That well house has been a PITA since we moved in.
The guys disconnected the roof of the well house and slid it forward on two large planks. The new pressure tank is taller than the old tank so we're going to have to build up the sides of the house by two 2x4 widths (about 3 inches) so that we can get access to the top of the tank where the air valve for the bladder is. Chas wants to use the 2x4s that still have some use left in them from the planks on the deck. After nailing those on we need to put a face board on and caulk it on top. Then lift the roof which is leaning on two stout boards against the well house and replace it on the well house and fasten it down.
Dinner was hot noodles, Chas's favorite dinner.
06/14/2009 Sunday: Chilly this morning. The sun really didn't come out till after 2pm and even then it stayed cool.
I weeded several of the flower beds in the cottage garden and then proceeded to hack away at the weeds in the vegetable garden. Three of the zucchini squash are up but none of the Hubbard. The fourth zucchini didn't come up. Oh well, I think three plants will give us enough zucchini to even freeze some.
The yard long beans are coming up but the Kentucky Wonder beans are not. We have germination on the three different kinds of chard. I love chard. So delicious steamed. The corn is up about 2 inches, both kinds. I purchased Ed Hume seeds for the corn since I expected they'd be seeds that would sprout in this climate. No kohl-rabi yet. The potatoes are doing well, even the finger potatoes I just planted are doing well. Most have emerged and have leaves.
I'm being ruthless this year. If a potato appears where it isn't supposed to be it gets chopped down as if it were a weed. I suppose I could transplant it but I'm too lazy.
After watering the garden I went in to have lunch.
I've been noticing that our water pressure has gotten steadily worse over the last few days. We thought it might be that it needs draining and the water tank pumped full of air. Chas drained it but said that not much water came out. The tank seemed to be full of air. This didn't sound good. There is supposed to be water in the tank so that we can pressurize it.
The water pressure slowly climbed to 28lb of pressure. We did not try to put air into the tank. Around 4:45pm I phoned Moerke, our well folks and asked them to please call us back in the morning (Monday morning). Chas will talk to them. I hope he tells them that we're getting sediment from the bottom of the well fairly frequently. That probably isn't doing the pump any good.
I found having the water problem to be a total downer. This kind of problem really bums me out.
Marcy's two baby bucklings seem to be having problems adapting to life separated from their mom. I am milking Marcy although she's not giving me much milk. I wonder if the babies are reaching through the fence and sucking on her. (Later. They are)
There are 5 new ducklings. The pround momma was taking them out exploring. I need to put out a pan of water for them so that they'll have something to drink.
I did not get the Buff Orpingtons moved to the hen house. I was going to move them in the afternoon but I got in from working on the garden so late that there was only about half an hour. I could have done it then but decided to spend half an hour reading a mystery novel.
The two new St Croix sheep are acting nutso. When I get near their pen to check their hay and water they start trying to jump through the stock panel. They seem terrified and I'm not exactly sure why. As far as I know they've never been abused. They're away from their mom for the first time and probably just don't know what's going on. Hopefully they'll tame down when they realize that I'm not going to hurt them and am the bringer of food delights.
One of them tried to get behind the round calf structure and got caught in the panel I grabbed her and checked her collar to make sure it wasn't too tight. It wasn't. I petted her for a few minutes but that didn't seem to make any difference. I was able to catch the other sheep when it tried to leap through the space between the calf hutch and the stock panel which I hadn't opened up yet so I als checked her collar and loosened it.
After struggling for a few minutes and tearing up the sod that had grown over the lip of the calf hutch I was able to drag the calf hutch away from the stock panel so that the sheep could go around the back. Now they can hide but not get caught in the fencing.
Anne called me today to check on the lambs. She also gave me the name of the folks who might have a ram lamb. The farm name is Ternam Trails Farm with Mike and Faye being the owners. Anne said they have very nice rams. I will follow up next week.
I ordered Joel Saladan's two DVDs from Back40Books for $85.00. It sounds as if it might be useful for thinking about pastured animals.
Mystical had two doelings and one buckling very early this morning. She's rejected these babies. One of the females is a paint, very pretty. One of the doelings has serious leg problems. I've been putting her on Mystical's teat and she's eating well but Mystical is really unhappy that I'm forcing her to nurse the babies. The buckling seems to be doing okay.
Dinner was boiled finger potatoes (the ones I didn't plant in my garden), pork roast from last year's pig, and frozen beans. I know we have frozen beans in the freezer downstairs. I'll have to dig them out.
06/13/2009 Saturday: Overcast and cool this morning but sunny and hot this afternoon.
Another lovely but busy Saturday.
Enrique and Marcos showed up to help out today. They started right away to tear down the deck under Chas's supervision so I left them to it. Later Pat M came by and told them that they needed to remove the rhodies so that they could pull the whole structure over and work on it from the ground. He also gave them instructions on what to do.
While they chainsawed some of the deck cover to get it down, I scouted out where I wanted the rhodies - near the creek but alongside what must have once been a road since it's very flat - and pounded in rebar with insulators on them to mark the spots.
Then I weed whacked a path and cleaned out an area for the plants.
By then it was 10am. I left to go to Anne Scharff's place. She lives on Mauerman Rd near Pe Ell. I got to meet her husband, too, but I can't remember his name, now.
Anne had put an ad on Craigslist about two St Croix ewe lambs she had for sale for $100.00 each. I phoned last night and made an appointment to see the lambs. I liked what I saw and purchased the two ewe lambs. I stuffed them into the dog carrier and after a short visit and a look around the place took them home. They are living temporarily in the calf pen with the round calf hutch in it.
They were both born in early April this year; I think she said they were born around the 5th.
Anne is going to look for a ram lamb for me. One of her ewes is going to give birth in August. If she has a ram lamb she will save it for me.
I guess these sheep breed year around and generally have twins.
Shortly after I got back Gary N came for a visit. He told me he took the sweet Black Angus bull that I used and a cow to the sale barn. Apparently he did not impregnate all Gary's cows. Gary paid a thousand for him and got $500 at the sale barn. He did get $150 from me for leasing the bull so he really wasn't out all that much money. He plans on using my long-legged red cross-breed Red Whiteface on his cows. He'll be picking him up after he does the haying for me.
Gary wants $35.00 for each round bale. I have no idea how many round bales I can get into the barn but I will get as many as I can from Gary. I wish I could store some in the green barn but there is not enough room to get anything but square bales into that barn.
Enrique dug up some of the dirt for the holes with the tractor and then he and Marcos finished up the holes with shovels. Two of the holes had lots of tree roots that they had to cut before they could finish the holes.
One by one they dug up the rhodies and transplanted them. We gave each plant 3 - 4 gallon buckets of water to make sure they were well watered. Tomorrow I'll have to give them another bucket or two of water. They're in the shade and Enrique made a well so that the water wouldn't escape. I'll add coffee grounds and compost to the well to enrich the soil and to act as a mulch.
They finished up transplanting the rhodies just before lunch. I fed them lunch. After their lunch break they went back to taking down the section of the deck closest to the walkway. By 5pm they had that entire section of the deck down. It's a long way down looked at from the kitchen door.
Chas seems to feel he can finish up the last section of deck.
I did some more weed whacking but by then I was pretty tired.
Later on in the afternoon Richard showed up. He's an electrician. He'll be helping us with fixing all the things that were installed incorrectly. I want a fan with lights in the kitchen over the dining room table. He's going to do that as well as fixing the lighting in the cow barn and running power to the green barn.
The piggies got milk with their dinner. This morning I separated the two bucklings from their mom, Marcy, and this evening I put her on the milk stand and milked her out. I didn't get much because I think she was holding it back but over time she will release more. She was none too happy about being milked and did stomp her foot a couple of times. I just held her foot while I finished milking her out. The pigs were very happy to get milk as a topping for their dinner.
I totally forgot to feed them this morning. They were definitely hungry when I dumped their food in their bucket this evening.
Chas made macaroni and cheese from scratch. It was really good. Hard to beat shells, grated cheese, mustard and a can of chopped tomatoes well baked as a dinner. Good thing he felt like cooking because I did not.
06/12/2009 Friday: Cloudy this morning but sunny this afternoon.
This was a worthless day for me in terms of getting anything done. I guess I finally hit the wall since I slept most of the day. I'd been working pretty hard physically these past few days and it finally caught up to me.
Basically all I did today was do chores twice and read some but I mostly slept. I feel better and if I get to bed reasonably early tonight I should be raring to go tomorrow.
Just as I'd given up hope that the Muscovy duck number 1 that was setting was going to hatch anything, I noticed several babies tucked under her wing. I expect she'll be taking them out and showing them off in a few days.
We're going to get at least one more meal in addition to the one I cooked tonight from the killer rooster. I make chicken a la king and have lots left over.
I phoned about an ad I saw on Craigslist for two St Croix ewes for $100 each. I'm going to see them tomorrow morning and will likely purchase them. I will sell the Welsh Mt sheep, at least the trio. I'll keep the two lambs from this year plus the wether from last year.
The contact person for the St Croix sheep is Anne Scharff, 237 Mauermann Rd, 291-3931.
06/11/2009 Thursday: Overcast with some sun.
After I let the Dexters out to graze I took the ATV and trailer and started picking up all the junk that Pat left lying around when he reroofed the potting shed. First I took all the uprights and roof joists from the deck to the wire enclosed "greenhouse." That cleared up two areas that were causing me heartburn. They looked awful. The metal Pat took off the roof when he trimmed it got put into a feed sack and will go to Mike and Mary's.
Mary showed up today with my metal gate. Not sure where I'll put it yet but I'll find a space for it sooner or later. While she was here we looked at the garden and then admired the chicks and ducks.
My chicks at 6 weeks are almost big enough to start processing. I talked to one of the staff at Del's about the high cost of chick starter on Monday since I was all prepared to buy two bags of the 24% protein. She asked how old they were. When I said 6 weeks she suggested I switch to the cheaper 18% protein (all purpose poultry). The 50lb sacks were half the cost of the 24% feed. Something to consider.
I've been watching the chicks and I think the heavy protein is making some of them grow too fast. A few (two so far) seem to have leg problems. They're walking as if one leg is dislocated. Those will get eaten first. I'm hoping to process a few at a time each weekend till they're all done.
After a lunch of yogurt I headed back outside and picked up the two loads of trash right in front of the pig pen. Pat had left it there when he redid the wall in the green barn that had rotted out and from tearing out part of the wall to my loft so that he could put in a flight of steps. I just can't climb vertical ladders any more. Quite a lot went into the burn pile but the good pieces went into the equipment storage area. That's going to have to be reorganized eventually.
Once I got the detritus cleared up I turned off the power to the fence and loaded up the ATV with fencing tools. Chas and I went out to fix the break in the fence. I think the cows must have broken out because they couldn't see the fence. It is really overgrown there.
We spliced in a length of wire and turned up the edges so that the wire wouldn't slide out again. I think this is the third time we've repaired this section of fence. I had to go back to the tack room once and get a pair of pliers and the weed whacker.
After we finished the job and I tightened the fence, Chas walked back to the house and I continued the weed whacking he'd started along the fence line. I didn't do the entire fence line but I got quite a bit of the thistles and daisies cut down. I'll continue to weed whack till I get all the fence line cleared out.
After that I let the cows out and did my evening chores. It wasn't an hour later when several of them walked through the polywire again. I went back into the pasture and routed them out with my ATV. It took several tries to get them back in as they got very naughty and kept sneaking back or into neighboring pastures. I finally got them back into their winter pasture and put up the electric fence to keep them in. I think the bull calves and Wendy are causing the problem.
I'm going to definitely reduce the herd. It's getting to be too much work, now that they've become escape artists.
By then I was so agitated that Lucky and I decided to go for a nice car ride. I snuck out without telling Chas that I was leaving. Bad me. Before I left I told Chas he would have to get his own dinner. He had succotash and kielbasa. I had a chicken pot pie when I got back from Pe Ell.
While I was gone, Chas took down some more of the deck railings. He's so good. He actually removes the nails. That will make reusing the boards for my greenhouse much easier for Pat. I have to admit I did not remove the nails from the boards I put into the equipment shed but will eventually get around to that.
He and I talked about moving the recycle garbage pails down under the walkway to the back deck. I wanted to do that to get them out of sight. They're currently by the well house and are not very attractive to look at from the deck. I thought it would be easier to do the recycle if we just took it down the stairs to the daylight basement and stashed it out of sight. Chas was concerned about how we'd get it back up to the top level. I suggested the ATV as one possibility. We recycle all the time but generally give our pop cans to Mike and Mary. We take glass and cans in.
Lately we hardly go into town together. Since I'm working at the Health Department I go in three times a week but never think of taking the recycling.
While I got a lot done today the cows are so aggravating that the day wasn't very much fun. It is, however, a pleasure to go into the chicken pen. No rooster to attack me now. Maybe chicken a la king for tomorrow night's dinner. Should be easy and tasty served over rice.
June 21 - 29 in Reverse Chronological Order
06/29/2009 Monday: Sunny but it didn't get too hot, just around 71 degrees F.
After chores I dug a huge splinter out of my left palm. I can't remember where I picked it up but it was festering.
The new ram seems to be doing well. He's not as skittish as the two ewes. I'm trying to decide if I should put the ram in with the goats and run them together for a little while until I can sell the Welsh Mt. sheep. I want to keep the ram and ewes separate because those ewes are seasonable breeders but I think they're too young to breed just yet.
Worked at the Health Department today. I located some articles for Rachel W plus did some more work on the Indicators. I ran into Doug W and asked him to maybe find some small projects in addition to the Health Indicators for me to work on to give me some variety.
As of 2pm today I officially started an 8 day holiday. I need some time off to relax and get caught up with all sorts of tasks around the farm and elsewhere. Plus I plan to do a lot of sleeping and relaxing and maybe working on the house, like the basement.
Got a call from Joe F. He's coming by to check out the trailer tomorrow at 10am. He wants to borrow it to use to carry chickens to the slaughter house.
Ty called shortly after I hung up with Joe. He has some hay cut and baled that he wants me to look at. Then he'll organize a crew to haul it to my house and stack it if I like it. He wants $3.00/bale plus I'll have to pay the guys separately @ $10.00/hour. The hay is from the folks across the road. He also says he has some nice-looking river bottom hay. I'll have to ask him if I can buy more hay from him. Maybe we can get a trailer-load or two with our trailer and jeep.
06/28/2009 Sunday: Sunny all day.
I was expecting Enrique around 7am but he slept in. No wonder. He's been working two regular jobs and then working for me and the neighbors during the weekend.
I got my morning chores done before 9am and went in for breakfast which just consisted of a cup of tea and a nap. When Mike and Mary H showed up I dragged them out to the barn and asked Mike again to help us think of a solution to the problem of the collapsible feeder. It's intended to collapse but I don't want it to. The animals compress the feeder and then poop on the area revealed. When I try to push the feeder out I can't because the animals have developed a hard pack of manure and waste hay. So, I've got to clean out the area in front of the feeder so that I can open it. It's hard work.
The other issue is that as the larger cows collapse the feeder they make it impossible for all the cows to eat hay so some of the cows end up hungry.
Mike's solution was to suggest that we drill a hole in the concrete and drop in a pipe. Then get a long piece of rebar (or equivalent) to put between the two latches? (not sure what they're called but they hold a pin and there are two of them, one on top and one on the bottom of the join). Mike said he has the drill and will do it for us.
This is such a simple solution to the problem and exactly what I was looking for. Chas's solution, while a well thought out and extremely well designed solution, is way too complex. He was trying to solve two problems, one of which didn't really exist if the feeder was kept from collapsing. That problem was keeping the hay clean and dry. There's no problem with wet hay unless the animals defecate and pee on it. The second problem he was trying to solve was to keep the feeder from collapsing.
I like Mike's solution better. If it doesn't work, I'll have Chas build his solution.
While Mike and Mary were visiting Enrique and his cousins showed up to butcher NoName, my Boer buck whose useful breeding days are over. I wanted to replace him so bought a really high quality buck from Danette and Joe. I excused myself from the group.
They arrived around 10:30 am and butchered NoName. I caught him and handed him over to the guys. They killed him by putting a thin knife blade through his spinal cord near his head and then cut his throat. I would have just cut his throat and windpipe. Much faster and no yelling. Enrique was visibly upset by the butchering and I can't blame him. It's tricky to find the space between the vertebrae to cut the spinal cord.
Before Mike and Mary left Chas and I gave them a little money to go towards rebuilding Mike's shop. Chas and I have always appreciated the work Mike has done for us and this was just a token of our appreciation. I had a couple of green towels that just don't go with my kitchen. I gave one to Mary and told her I would give her the other one after I washed it. I took it out of the drawer without thinking and it was hanging up in the kitchen. I had a dozen eggs I shared with her and some strawberries that Enrique's cousin gave to me as thanks. Mary brought me some rhubarb since mine hasn't done anything after we took the three cuttings. I think it needs dividing this fall and the hole needs to be filled with compost while the other one gets replanted also with compost. Chas and I love rhubarb. I'm hoping to prepare it for freezing. Just wash, chop, fill baggies, and freeze.
After lunch (grilled cheese sandwich), I had a nap. Around 1:50 pm I loaded up the dog carrier and took off for Faye and Mike's place at Ternan Tails Farm. They live off Pleasant Valley road. I was a little late since I made a left turn onto their road instead of a left and ended up driving way the hell and gone out of my way. When I figured it out I turned around and tried again, this time crossing Pleasant Valley to the dead-end street section of their road and there it was.
My trip to their farm was to see their St Croix sheep and pick out a ram from their three yearlings. I found one I liked and we loaded him into the dog carrier. After a quick check to make sure he was ok I took a quick tour of their property. They have 9 cows but about twice the land that I have. Of course their land is very hilly. I would not have been happy with it. I invited them to come by some time as they were out and about so that they could see my farm. They also have pigs and Muscovy ducks.
Speaking of Muscovies, the hen who had 5 ducklings still has 5 but that may not last if they keep going into the pig pen. I can only hope they get too big to fit through the fence before the pigs figure out they could be lunch or a snack.
I didn't want to put the ram lamb in with the doelings since they still have some growing to do. Instead I carved out a section of the green barn beside Mystical and her babies.
Dinner was salmon ravioli with pesta sauce. We also finished up the remaining strawberries. I shared half with Mary since I knew we couldn't eat all of them. They were ripe.
06/27/2009 Saturday: Sunny all day. Nice in the shade.
The guys showed up at 7am. I'd just gone down to feed the chickens in the chicken tractor when they showed up.
Today we finished cleaning out the un-concreted stall and leveled it. We blocked off the area with stock panels so that the Herefords couldn't get in there to poop and pee and wreck the level area. When we get the foundation forms in for the deck and area to be concreted in the barn we'll get the concrete truck out and will pour cement in the barn and under the deck. That's after we lay in some foundation cloth and a load of gravel in the barn. Then we can think about doing the exterior pad. So handy to have concrete inside and outside a barn.
The guys lost one of our hammers. I think Oskar set it down and Enrique dropped a load of dirt on top of it when they were leveling the floor. Sigh. It was probably my good, long-handled, hammer that I've had for ever. I should never let guys handle my tools. They rarely put them back or away. Oh well, there are more hammers at any box store. Still, I sure liked that hammer.
After cleaning out the barn and setting up the stock panels I had the guys clean out the goat pen. It was really getting high in there what with all the hay the girls waste. They didn't clean down to the bare ground. They just took off the top several inches so that it's all level again. I'm going to see if I can find the time to spread some of that compost in the middle pasture where the lambs graze. That area needs weed whacking and fertilizing.
Before the guys left around 2pm they nearly finished digging a trench under the two south posts that I use for letting the Dexters into S1 and S2. The girls were in S2 today. I have no power surrounding that paddock. One of these days they'll get out and I'll be really unhappy.
Now I have to find some insulated (black) wire to put into the ground. I forgot to note which kind of wire I got from Premier but I'll bet I could find the order since I ordered online. I did find the order and will place an order for this and other luxuries such as a shepherd's crook for catching the little devils.
My little Nubian-Boer cross doe that had two doelings lets them nurse whenever they want. That's got them trying that behavior on their grandmother. Both does are skin and bones now from the constant nursing. I got tired of it and put the two doelings in with Mystical, the doe who refuses to nurse the paint doeling. I feel bad about having to put her on the barn floor so that the baby can nurse but she keeps stamping her hind foot on the doeling each time she tries to nurse when I'm holding her head. I just turn her over like I would a sheep and lay her down on the ground so that the two doelings can nurse.
Anyway, Mystical will kick the snot out of the two doelings that don't belong to her and will maybe train them that that is not acceptable behavior. On the other hand it could backfire and Mystical could be feeding them all the time, too. I'm trying to get some milk from Marcy (the Nubian) so that I can give the milk to my three piggies. I might try putting Marcy's daughter on the stand too and see what she does in the way of milk. She has pretty good teats.
After a couple of days of "where am I?" and acting bemused, Rule seems to have settled down and is slowly being integrated into the herd. The adults still butt him but only half-heartedly. He seems to have adapted to the goat barn and area.
He is wearing a loose-fitting dog collar so I can grab him for a little petting but I got a nice chain length for him with a screw-down fastener that I'll put on him when he's munching on his grain.
He's certainly a pragmatic goat and seems to love humans. He seems to think long and hard about everything. I really like him even if every time he brushes up against me he leaves green tattoo ink all over me. I'm really enjoying him. Actually I often just stand and admire him. Such a great body!
The guys will be coming by tomorrow morning to harvest my buck who is being replaced by Rule, the purebred buckling that I got from the Danette and Joe. Mike and Mary will be coming by shortly after 9am and I'll be heading off around 2pm to pick up a St Croix ram lamb, a yearling, from Mike and Faye at Ternan Tails Farm. Anne said that that was where she got her ram. He is a real beauty, Anne's ram is. I'm hoping I can find as good a ram for my duo of girls.
06/26/2009 Friday: Sunny and not very hot. I have not got an outdoor thermometer any longer. It got taken down when we took down the deck.
Well, no calls on my Welsh Mt sheep yet. I'll just keep placing the ad until I get a bite. I still need to take pictures of my goats so that I can put them on the market, too.
Got quite a lot done at work today. I'm not sure I'll go into work next week. I'm ready for a mini-vacation. It has been stressful what with decks being torn down and holes dug in the ground.
Chas wanted soup for dinner so I made soup. Unfortunately I left it on too high a temperature and the bottom burned. We each had a bowl full and enjoyed it even with the burnt taste but I might just go ahead and feed the rest to the pigs.
Chas and I moved one bale of hay that Wally delivered yesterday into the Dexter feeder and put a spare one in that stall for use the next time they run out of hay. We also put one bale in the Hereford's outside feeder.
Chas worked some on the un-concreted bay in the cow barn. Pat wants it down about 10 inches so that we can put gravel in over taipar and then concrete it in. I'll need to bring in two stock panels or two gates to put up so that the cows can't get into that section until the concrete is poured and set. One panel/gate will go from the fenceline feeder to the west wall and the other will go across the opening on the outside.
06/25/2009 Thursday: Overcast most of the day with heavy sprinkles. Around 7:30pm the sun began shining.
I checked out the worms in the round compost bin but fear I might have lost most of them to heat. I added the waste from the silver kitchen bucket and then sprayed the interior of the bin to make sure it was wet enough. It looked pretty dry to me. The contents looked a lot better after I added water but I didn't see many worms. I must admit I haven't been turning the bin - or even paying much attention to the bin.
Wally showed up and dropped off 10 round bales of 2008 hay. It looks awful but the Herefords are hungry enough that they'll eat it. After Chas and I put the hay into the feeder they scarfed quite a bit of the bale down. I've been feeding them quite a bit of timothy twice a day but I'm not sure it was enough judging by the amount of hay they ate.
Wally might be interested in purchasing two of my black baldies bull calves. I'd love for them to be gone. I want to sell them for $400-$450 each. They are about a year old. This is too low a price but I want them gone.
We rolled the hay into the barn. We'll put a bale in the Dexter feeder and one in that stall and will move the rest to the equipment shed after we take out the small trailer.
Pat came over right at dinnertime to discuss the concrete pouring project. We need to deepen the area in the barn so that we can put taipar sheeting and gravel into the space so that we can pour concrete over the top. I have to figure out a way to keep the cattle out of that third bay.
Chas made dinner tonight: spaghetti. It was really good and we have enough sauce left over for at least one more meal. Chas put the sauce into a 32 oz jar and filled it to the top. It was so nice to have dinner made for me. I must confess to feeling a little overwhelmed by everything going on in my life.
I put an ad on Craigslist to sell my trio of Welsh Mt. sheep for $375. We'll see if we can get that much for them. I paid $100. each for 4 sheep. I'll keep the two babies from this year and will butcher them later on along with last year's sheep.
Once those sheep are gone I will move the St Croix sheep over to the larger space. I may give the space a short rest to see if I can get any grass to regrow.
06/24/2009 Wednesday: Overcast. Faint sprinkles.
While I was at work Charles did some scraping of the barnyard with the box scraper and blade. The north bay in the cow barn is pretty much cleaned out except for the corners which Chas couldn't get in to. I'll have the guys work on that this weekend.
The barnyard is nice and smooth now in front of that north bay.
Before I left this morning I moved 4 - 50 lb sacks of All purpose livestock feed into the goat barn from the back of my Jeep. Marcy doesn't like the mix of livestock feed with the Boer feed and the other animals sort of turn up their noses at it. Any they don't eat goes to the pigs or sheep. I may end up giving the remaining two bags of the Boer feed to the pigs over time.
The little buckling, Rule, seems bewildered by his new home. I feed him grain in the morning and at night. The two doelings, Freddy and Blanche get their grain in the morning and maybe a little bit at night.
The St Croix sheep on the other hand are getting positively bold. They're just staying a short distance away from me as I pour their grain into their feeder. These sheep do not seem to be thrilled with the hay I'm feeding them. I did try a little alfalfa on them tonight and they did eat it.
The Red Ranger chickens look ready to butcher. I may try to do one or two each time I have a few minutes. Mary H says Mike doesn't really like home grown chickens so I won't give her any for cooking. No point in wasting chickens.
Useful videos on stock handling: http://www.handnhandlivestocksolutions.com/video.htm
Here's a picture of what a Bud Box looks like: [picture not displayed due to copyright restrictions]
Source: http://www.knox.unl.edu/files/file070213161949
Bud Boxes are used instead of a round pen to work cattle. They're sometimes 12 feet wide and sometimes 14 but rarely larger because you want to get reasonably close to the animals without actually getting in the pen.
06/23/2009 Tuesday: Alternating sunshine and clouds.
Busy day.
I saw my chance today and took it. Cheddar came wandering in along with her calf so I put some grain in the bucket and put it out for her to eat. With his mom in the Dexter stall the baby was easily persuaded to come into the stall where I could pen him in. While his mom ate I ran around and got the elastrator and the ear tag machine. Cheddar's baby was Red 0001. I'm keeping the red tags for the boys. I'd saved that number for him since he was the first bull born this year when I tagged the second bull calf of the year. That calf was born to Emma and there never was any question about my keeping him as a herd sire.
I put two halters on him. I used one to catch him. The second I put around his head and left him standing while I gathered the equipment. Once back I thought I would have a problem castrating him but I put the band on the elastrator grabbed the tip of his testicles, slid the elastrator on while keeping the ends open, checked to make sure the testes were in place and rolled the band off. It was so easy, he didn't even flinch.
Putting the ear tag on was a little harder. I had to watch for the main vein down the center of the ear. I didn't quite get the tag in the right place but I doubt if it will come out.
Richard, our electrician showed up. He was at Mark's log cabin. He let me know that Dil was coming over with his bulldozer/xx piece of equipment. We got the trench dug from the house to the well house. Richard is going to put in a heavier duty wire and run another panel into the well house. From there 110 wires plus a black plastic water line will run south to the chicken coup/potting shed and north to the green barn and then to the equipment shed. We'll put in at least three pump-like things that we'll run hoses from. The pump-things will drain the water into the ground so that my water lines don't freeze in winter.
Anyhow, Dil came and dug the trench including a right angle heading toward the chicken coop. Dil had to be pretty careful as there were stumps and flower beds to get around. My well-house flower bed is covered in soil from the trench. That will have to be dug out by hand and put back into the trench.
Dil also removed a large stump and one 3' x 5' x 4" slab of concrete and put it off to one side. We'll find a place to use that. He also pulled out and broke up two smaller pieces of concrete that formed a 1-foot wide path between where we park the car and the house. The area was covered with rugs that will need to be pulled out and put on the fire.
We'll dig the rest of the trench out to the outbuildings with a small ditch witch. Dil's equipment digs a wide trench when we really only need a 6 inch trench about 2 feet down.
I'm so happy I had the guys remove all the usable lumber. It really would have been in the way. As it was there were several things that needed moving out of the way including my hose to the green barn. Chas helped me put the hose back together just before I went down to do my evening chores.
Dinner was Zatarain's Jambalaya which I made with chicken, ham and shrimp with some celery chopped up and added for crunch. I also add an extra cup of rice. Chas has enough left over for lunch tomorrow. It's always nice to have food left over for Chas.
The Herefords knocked down more of my electric fence. I may just give up and let them graze the entire half pasture this year. Not much point in fighting the critters. There's just too many of them. It will be pretty easy to pull up the rebar and put it back in next year.
I downloaded all the pictures from my Canon camera and deleted them from the camera's storage disk.
06/22/2009 Monday: Alternating sunshine and clouds.
I went into work today. Before I got there I picked up 4 bags of Country Livestock, 2 for the cows and 2 for the goats. The goats don't seem to care much for the addition of the Boer goat feed, especially Marcy.
Oh yes, I've figured out why Marcy has no milk. Magic, Marcy's cross bred daughter from last year, must not have enough milk so her bucklings are nursing from Marcy. Grrr. I want the milk for the pigs.
The goats had gotten through the stock panel that Pat had nailed together. The nails didn't hold. I found some smallish staples and put in four as well as pounding in the nails again. Anyhow I chased all the goats out since I really wanted the wethers out with the others. The new buckling went out with the others into the herd.
I grabbed Mystical and her three babies and put them all in the same pen. Maybe being together will force Mystical to adopt all her babies.
I let the Herefords out for about 3.5 hours after I fixed the fences. Unfortunately the cows didn't stay where they were supposed to stay, in their paddock. Still they'd had enough to eat and went back into their winter pasture with alacrity when I showed up with my ATV. I have got to sell some of my cows.
06/21/2009 Sunday: Overcast and cold; some sunshine off and on with a few light sprinkles.
Around eleven am after a quick nap I went out and did some weed whacking between the coppices of vine maple. I didn't quite get it all done but did do most of it. The area looks a little better but I do need to weed whack it again in a week or so. The grass was so tall I couldn't get it cut low enough.
One of the things on my list of things to do ought to be to bring compost in from the Dexter yard one day when they're out grazing and level off the dips. It's really hard to walk out there. When the previous owners made the hillocks they must have dug into the ground with the tractor. As a result all the area around the hillocks has lots of low spots.
I also weed whacked the winter pasture and got rid of most of the Canadian Thistles in that pasture. I ran out of string and gas at just about the same time. By then I was tired and it was lunch time. Time to stop.
Before I went in for lunch I opened up the gate between Lucky Charm and her baby and the other Dexters. They all came trooping into the middle pasture to see what was going on. I thought I would move them out of there but decided it would be less stressful on the cows to have them leave the pasture on their own. So, around their dinner time when I put out their hay they all ended up at their regular feeder. I walked into the middle pasture and closed the gate. Simple as pie.
After lunch Danette and Joe were supposed to come by to drop off a buck and two turkeys. They were late so I did some weeding of the cottage garden and started watering the garden. I didn't get it all watered but can finish the rest tomorrow or Tuesday.
Anyway, when Danette and Joe got here we unloaded the buck and the turkeys. The turkeys went into the chicken coop and the buck with the two males I castrated yesterday. He had green tattoo ink all over him including his butt. This was Danette's first time at tattooing a goat. It's never an easy proposition.
I paid $170 total. The buckling was $150 and the two turkeys were $10.00 each. The buckling is a really good gainer of weight averaging about 1/2 lb every day. The turkeys are broad breasted bronze hens. Before I went into the house to prepare dinner I checked on the turkeys and put them into the chicken house. I also picked up the eggs and tossed out a few handfuls of cracked corn.
Dinner was baked ham for Chas and a tiny cornish chicken for me with squash and brown rice.
After chores I dug a huge splinter out of my left palm. I can't remember where I picked it up but it was festering.
The new ram seems to be doing well. He's not as skittish as the two ewes. I'm trying to decide if I should put the ram in with the goats and run them together for a little while until I can sell the Welsh Mt. sheep. I want to keep the ram and ewes separate because those ewes are seasonable breeders but I think they're too young to breed just yet.
Worked at the Health Department today. I located some articles for Rachel W plus did some more work on the Indicators. I ran into Doug W and asked him to maybe find some small projects in addition to the Health Indicators for me to work on to give me some variety.
As of 2pm today I officially started an 8 day holiday. I need some time off to relax and get caught up with all sorts of tasks around the farm and elsewhere. Plus I plan to do a lot of sleeping and relaxing and maybe working on the house, like the basement.
Got a call from Joe F. He's coming by to check out the trailer tomorrow at 10am. He wants to borrow it to use to carry chickens to the slaughter house.
Ty called shortly after I hung up with Joe. He has some hay cut and baled that he wants me to look at. Then he'll organize a crew to haul it to my house and stack it if I like it. He wants $3.00/bale plus I'll have to pay the guys separately @ $10.00/hour. The hay is from the folks across the road. He also says he has some nice-looking river bottom hay. I'll have to ask him if I can buy more hay from him. Maybe we can get a trailer-load or two with our trailer and jeep.
06/28/2009 Sunday: Sunny all day.
I was expecting Enrique around 7am but he slept in. No wonder. He's been working two regular jobs and then working for me and the neighbors during the weekend.
I got my morning chores done before 9am and went in for breakfast which just consisted of a cup of tea and a nap. When Mike and Mary H showed up I dragged them out to the barn and asked Mike again to help us think of a solution to the problem of the collapsible feeder. It's intended to collapse but I don't want it to. The animals compress the feeder and then poop on the area revealed. When I try to push the feeder out I can't because the animals have developed a hard pack of manure and waste hay. So, I've got to clean out the area in front of the feeder so that I can open it. It's hard work.
The other issue is that as the larger cows collapse the feeder they make it impossible for all the cows to eat hay so some of the cows end up hungry.
Mike's solution was to suggest that we drill a hole in the concrete and drop in a pipe. Then get a long piece of rebar (or equivalent) to put between the two latches? (not sure what they're called but they hold a pin and there are two of them, one on top and one on the bottom of the join). Mike said he has the drill and will do it for us.
This is such a simple solution to the problem and exactly what I was looking for. Chas's solution, while a well thought out and extremely well designed solution, is way too complex. He was trying to solve two problems, one of which didn't really exist if the feeder was kept from collapsing. That problem was keeping the hay clean and dry. There's no problem with wet hay unless the animals defecate and pee on it. The second problem he was trying to solve was to keep the feeder from collapsing.
I like Mike's solution better. If it doesn't work, I'll have Chas build his solution.
While Mike and Mary were visiting Enrique and his cousins showed up to butcher NoName, my Boer buck whose useful breeding days are over. I wanted to replace him so bought a really high quality buck from Danette and Joe. I excused myself from the group.
They arrived around 10:30 am and butchered NoName. I caught him and handed him over to the guys. They killed him by putting a thin knife blade through his spinal cord near his head and then cut his throat. I would have just cut his throat and windpipe. Much faster and no yelling. Enrique was visibly upset by the butchering and I can't blame him. It's tricky to find the space between the vertebrae to cut the spinal cord.
Before Mike and Mary left Chas and I gave them a little money to go towards rebuilding Mike's shop. Chas and I have always appreciated the work Mike has done for us and this was just a token of our appreciation. I had a couple of green towels that just don't go with my kitchen. I gave one to Mary and told her I would give her the other one after I washed it. I took it out of the drawer without thinking and it was hanging up in the kitchen. I had a dozen eggs I shared with her and some strawberries that Enrique's cousin gave to me as thanks. Mary brought me some rhubarb since mine hasn't done anything after we took the three cuttings. I think it needs dividing this fall and the hole needs to be filled with compost while the other one gets replanted also with compost. Chas and I love rhubarb. I'm hoping to prepare it for freezing. Just wash, chop, fill baggies, and freeze.
After lunch (grilled cheese sandwich), I had a nap. Around 1:50 pm I loaded up the dog carrier and took off for Faye and Mike's place at Ternan Tails Farm. They live off Pleasant Valley road. I was a little late since I made a left turn onto their road instead of a left and ended up driving way the hell and gone out of my way. When I figured it out I turned around and tried again, this time crossing Pleasant Valley to the dead-end street section of their road and there it was.
My trip to their farm was to see their St Croix sheep and pick out a ram from their three yearlings. I found one I liked and we loaded him into the dog carrier. After a quick check to make sure he was ok I took a quick tour of their property. They have 9 cows but about twice the land that I have. Of course their land is very hilly. I would not have been happy with it. I invited them to come by some time as they were out and about so that they could see my farm. They also have pigs and Muscovy ducks.
Speaking of Muscovies, the hen who had 5 ducklings still has 5 but that may not last if they keep going into the pig pen. I can only hope they get too big to fit through the fence before the pigs figure out they could be lunch or a snack.
I didn't want to put the ram lamb in with the doelings since they still have some growing to do. Instead I carved out a section of the green barn beside Mystical and her babies.
Dinner was salmon ravioli with pesta sauce. We also finished up the remaining strawberries. I shared half with Mary since I knew we couldn't eat all of them. They were ripe.
06/27/2009 Saturday: Sunny all day. Nice in the shade.
The guys showed up at 7am. I'd just gone down to feed the chickens in the chicken tractor when they showed up.
Today we finished cleaning out the un-concreted stall and leveled it. We blocked off the area with stock panels so that the Herefords couldn't get in there to poop and pee and wreck the level area. When we get the foundation forms in for the deck and area to be concreted in the barn we'll get the concrete truck out and will pour cement in the barn and under the deck. That's after we lay in some foundation cloth and a load of gravel in the barn. Then we can think about doing the exterior pad. So handy to have concrete inside and outside a barn.
The guys lost one of our hammers. I think Oskar set it down and Enrique dropped a load of dirt on top of it when they were leveling the floor. Sigh. It was probably my good, long-handled, hammer that I've had for ever. I should never let guys handle my tools. They rarely put them back or away. Oh well, there are more hammers at any box store. Still, I sure liked that hammer.
After cleaning out the barn and setting up the stock panels I had the guys clean out the goat pen. It was really getting high in there what with all the hay the girls waste. They didn't clean down to the bare ground. They just took off the top several inches so that it's all level again. I'm going to see if I can find the time to spread some of that compost in the middle pasture where the lambs graze. That area needs weed whacking and fertilizing.
Before the guys left around 2pm they nearly finished digging a trench under the two south posts that I use for letting the Dexters into S1 and S2. The girls were in S2 today. I have no power surrounding that paddock. One of these days they'll get out and I'll be really unhappy.
Now I have to find some insulated (black) wire to put into the ground. I forgot to note which kind of wire I got from Premier but I'll bet I could find the order since I ordered online. I did find the order and will place an order for this and other luxuries such as a shepherd's crook for catching the little devils.
My little Nubian-Boer cross doe that had two doelings lets them nurse whenever they want. That's got them trying that behavior on their grandmother. Both does are skin and bones now from the constant nursing. I got tired of it and put the two doelings in with Mystical, the doe who refuses to nurse the paint doeling. I feel bad about having to put her on the barn floor so that the baby can nurse but she keeps stamping her hind foot on the doeling each time she tries to nurse when I'm holding her head. I just turn her over like I would a sheep and lay her down on the ground so that the two doelings can nurse.
Anyway, Mystical will kick the snot out of the two doelings that don't belong to her and will maybe train them that that is not acceptable behavior. On the other hand it could backfire and Mystical could be feeding them all the time, too. I'm trying to get some milk from Marcy (the Nubian) so that I can give the milk to my three piggies. I might try putting Marcy's daughter on the stand too and see what she does in the way of milk. She has pretty good teats.
After a couple of days of "where am I?" and acting bemused, Rule seems to have settled down and is slowly being integrated into the herd. The adults still butt him but only half-heartedly. He seems to have adapted to the goat barn and area.
He is wearing a loose-fitting dog collar so I can grab him for a little petting but I got a nice chain length for him with a screw-down fastener that I'll put on him when he's munching on his grain.
He's certainly a pragmatic goat and seems to love humans. He seems to think long and hard about everything. I really like him even if every time he brushes up against me he leaves green tattoo ink all over me. I'm really enjoying him. Actually I often just stand and admire him. Such a great body!
The guys will be coming by tomorrow morning to harvest my buck who is being replaced by Rule, the purebred buckling that I got from the Danette and Joe. Mike and Mary will be coming by shortly after 9am and I'll be heading off around 2pm to pick up a St Croix ram lamb, a yearling, from Mike and Faye at Ternan Tails Farm. Anne said that that was where she got her ram. He is a real beauty, Anne's ram is. I'm hoping I can find as good a ram for my duo of girls.
06/26/2009 Friday: Sunny and not very hot. I have not got an outdoor thermometer any longer. It got taken down when we took down the deck.
Well, no calls on my Welsh Mt sheep yet. I'll just keep placing the ad until I get a bite. I still need to take pictures of my goats so that I can put them on the market, too.
Got quite a lot done at work today. I'm not sure I'll go into work next week. I'm ready for a mini-vacation. It has been stressful what with decks being torn down and holes dug in the ground.
Chas wanted soup for dinner so I made soup. Unfortunately I left it on too high a temperature and the bottom burned. We each had a bowl full and enjoyed it even with the burnt taste but I might just go ahead and feed the rest to the pigs.
Chas and I moved one bale of hay that Wally delivered yesterday into the Dexter feeder and put a spare one in that stall for use the next time they run out of hay. We also put one bale in the Hereford's outside feeder.
Chas worked some on the un-concreted bay in the cow barn. Pat wants it down about 10 inches so that we can put gravel in over taipar and then concrete it in. I'll need to bring in two stock panels or two gates to put up so that the cows can't get into that section until the concrete is poured and set. One panel/gate will go from the fenceline feeder to the west wall and the other will go across the opening on the outside.
06/25/2009 Thursday: Overcast most of the day with heavy sprinkles. Around 7:30pm the sun began shining.
I checked out the worms in the round compost bin but fear I might have lost most of them to heat. I added the waste from the silver kitchen bucket and then sprayed the interior of the bin to make sure it was wet enough. It looked pretty dry to me. The contents looked a lot better after I added water but I didn't see many worms. I must admit I haven't been turning the bin - or even paying much attention to the bin.
Wally showed up and dropped off 10 round bales of 2008 hay. It looks awful but the Herefords are hungry enough that they'll eat it. After Chas and I put the hay into the feeder they scarfed quite a bit of the bale down. I've been feeding them quite a bit of timothy twice a day but I'm not sure it was enough judging by the amount of hay they ate.
Wally might be interested in purchasing two of my black baldies bull calves. I'd love for them to be gone. I want to sell them for $400-$450 each. They are about a year old. This is too low a price but I want them gone.
We rolled the hay into the barn. We'll put a bale in the Dexter feeder and one in that stall and will move the rest to the equipment shed after we take out the small trailer.
Pat came over right at dinnertime to discuss the concrete pouring project. We need to deepen the area in the barn so that we can put taipar sheeting and gravel into the space so that we can pour concrete over the top. I have to figure out a way to keep the cattle out of that third bay.
Chas made dinner tonight: spaghetti. It was really good and we have enough sauce left over for at least one more meal. Chas put the sauce into a 32 oz jar and filled it to the top. It was so nice to have dinner made for me. I must confess to feeling a little overwhelmed by everything going on in my life.
I put an ad on Craigslist to sell my trio of Welsh Mt. sheep for $375. We'll see if we can get that much for them. I paid $100. each for 4 sheep. I'll keep the two babies from this year and will butcher them later on along with last year's sheep.
Once those sheep are gone I will move the St Croix sheep over to the larger space. I may give the space a short rest to see if I can get any grass to regrow.
06/24/2009 Wednesday: Overcast. Faint sprinkles.
While I was at work Charles did some scraping of the barnyard with the box scraper and blade. The north bay in the cow barn is pretty much cleaned out except for the corners which Chas couldn't get in to. I'll have the guys work on that this weekend.
The barnyard is nice and smooth now in front of that north bay.
Before I left this morning I moved 4 - 50 lb sacks of All purpose livestock feed into the goat barn from the back of my Jeep. Marcy doesn't like the mix of livestock feed with the Boer feed and the other animals sort of turn up their noses at it. Any they don't eat goes to the pigs or sheep. I may end up giving the remaining two bags of the Boer feed to the pigs over time.
The little buckling, Rule, seems bewildered by his new home. I feed him grain in the morning and at night. The two doelings, Freddy and Blanche get their grain in the morning and maybe a little bit at night.
The St Croix sheep on the other hand are getting positively bold. They're just staying a short distance away from me as I pour their grain into their feeder. These sheep do not seem to be thrilled with the hay I'm feeding them. I did try a little alfalfa on them tonight and they did eat it.
The Red Ranger chickens look ready to butcher. I may try to do one or two each time I have a few minutes. Mary H says Mike doesn't really like home grown chickens so I won't give her any for cooking. No point in wasting chickens.
Useful videos on stock handling: http://www.handnhandlivestocksolutions.com/video.htm
Here's a picture of what a Bud Box looks like: [picture not displayed due to copyright restrictions]
Source: http://www.knox.unl.edu/files/file070213161949
Bud Boxes are used instead of a round pen to work cattle. They're sometimes 12 feet wide and sometimes 14 but rarely larger because you want to get reasonably close to the animals without actually getting in the pen.
06/23/2009 Tuesday: Alternating sunshine and clouds.
Busy day.
I saw my chance today and took it. Cheddar came wandering in along with her calf so I put some grain in the bucket and put it out for her to eat. With his mom in the Dexter stall the baby was easily persuaded to come into the stall where I could pen him in. While his mom ate I ran around and got the elastrator and the ear tag machine. Cheddar's baby was Red 0001. I'm keeping the red tags for the boys. I'd saved that number for him since he was the first bull born this year when I tagged the second bull calf of the year. That calf was born to Emma and there never was any question about my keeping him as a herd sire.
I put two halters on him. I used one to catch him. The second I put around his head and left him standing while I gathered the equipment. Once back I thought I would have a problem castrating him but I put the band on the elastrator grabbed the tip of his testicles, slid the elastrator on while keeping the ends open, checked to make sure the testes were in place and rolled the band off. It was so easy, he didn't even flinch.
Putting the ear tag on was a little harder. I had to watch for the main vein down the center of the ear. I didn't quite get the tag in the right place but I doubt if it will come out.
Richard, our electrician showed up. He was at Mark's log cabin. He let me know that Dil was coming over with his bulldozer/xx piece of equipment. We got the trench dug from the house to the well house. Richard is going to put in a heavier duty wire and run another panel into the well house. From there 110 wires plus a black plastic water line will run south to the chicken coup/potting shed and north to the green barn and then to the equipment shed. We'll put in at least three pump-like things that we'll run hoses from. The pump-things will drain the water into the ground so that my water lines don't freeze in winter.
Anyhow, Dil came and dug the trench including a right angle heading toward the chicken coop. Dil had to be pretty careful as there were stumps and flower beds to get around. My well-house flower bed is covered in soil from the trench. That will have to be dug out by hand and put back into the trench.
Dil also removed a large stump and one 3' x 5' x 4" slab of concrete and put it off to one side. We'll find a place to use that. He also pulled out and broke up two smaller pieces of concrete that formed a 1-foot wide path between where we park the car and the house. The area was covered with rugs that will need to be pulled out and put on the fire.
We'll dig the rest of the trench out to the outbuildings with a small ditch witch. Dil's equipment digs a wide trench when we really only need a 6 inch trench about 2 feet down.
I'm so happy I had the guys remove all the usable lumber. It really would have been in the way. As it was there were several things that needed moving out of the way including my hose to the green barn. Chas helped me put the hose back together just before I went down to do my evening chores.
Dinner was Zatarain's Jambalaya which I made with chicken, ham and shrimp with some celery chopped up and added for crunch. I also add an extra cup of rice. Chas has enough left over for lunch tomorrow. It's always nice to have food left over for Chas.
The Herefords knocked down more of my electric fence. I may just give up and let them graze the entire half pasture this year. Not much point in fighting the critters. There's just too many of them. It will be pretty easy to pull up the rebar and put it back in next year.
I downloaded all the pictures from my Canon camera and deleted them from the camera's storage disk.
06/22/2009 Monday: Alternating sunshine and clouds.
I went into work today. Before I got there I picked up 4 bags of Country Livestock, 2 for the cows and 2 for the goats. The goats don't seem to care much for the addition of the Boer goat feed, especially Marcy.
Oh yes, I've figured out why Marcy has no milk. Magic, Marcy's cross bred daughter from last year, must not have enough milk so her bucklings are nursing from Marcy. Grrr. I want the milk for the pigs.
The goats had gotten through the stock panel that Pat had nailed together. The nails didn't hold. I found some smallish staples and put in four as well as pounding in the nails again. Anyhow I chased all the goats out since I really wanted the wethers out with the others. The new buckling went out with the others into the herd.
I grabbed Mystical and her three babies and put them all in the same pen. Maybe being together will force Mystical to adopt all her babies.
I let the Herefords out for about 3.5 hours after I fixed the fences. Unfortunately the cows didn't stay where they were supposed to stay, in their paddock. Still they'd had enough to eat and went back into their winter pasture with alacrity when I showed up with my ATV. I have got to sell some of my cows.
06/21/2009 Sunday: Overcast and cold; some sunshine off and on with a few light sprinkles.
Around eleven am after a quick nap I went out and did some weed whacking between the coppices of vine maple. I didn't quite get it all done but did do most of it. The area looks a little better but I do need to weed whack it again in a week or so. The grass was so tall I couldn't get it cut low enough.
One of the things on my list of things to do ought to be to bring compost in from the Dexter yard one day when they're out grazing and level off the dips. It's really hard to walk out there. When the previous owners made the hillocks they must have dug into the ground with the tractor. As a result all the area around the hillocks has lots of low spots.
I also weed whacked the winter pasture and got rid of most of the Canadian Thistles in that pasture. I ran out of string and gas at just about the same time. By then I was tired and it was lunch time. Time to stop.
Before I went in for lunch I opened up the gate between Lucky Charm and her baby and the other Dexters. They all came trooping into the middle pasture to see what was going on. I thought I would move them out of there but decided it would be less stressful on the cows to have them leave the pasture on their own. So, around their dinner time when I put out their hay they all ended up at their regular feeder. I walked into the middle pasture and closed the gate. Simple as pie.
After lunch Danette and Joe were supposed to come by to drop off a buck and two turkeys. They were late so I did some weeding of the cottage garden and started watering the garden. I didn't get it all watered but can finish the rest tomorrow or Tuesday.
Anyway, when Danette and Joe got here we unloaded the buck and the turkeys. The turkeys went into the chicken coop and the buck with the two males I castrated yesterday. He had green tattoo ink all over him including his butt. This was Danette's first time at tattooing a goat. It's never an easy proposition.
I paid $170 total. The buckling was $150 and the two turkeys were $10.00 each. The buckling is a really good gainer of weight averaging about 1/2 lb every day. The turkeys are broad breasted bronze hens. Before I went into the house to prepare dinner I checked on the turkeys and put them into the chicken house. I also picked up the eggs and tossed out a few handfuls of cracked corn.
Dinner was baked ham for Chas and a tiny cornish chicken for me with squash and brown rice.
May 1 - 10 in Reverse Chronological Order
05/10/2009 Sunday: Sunny part of the morning but cloudy from about 11:30am onwards.
I slept in this morning till 7am and didn't get out to do chores till after 8am.
I moved the Dexters into S1 and later in the day moved them out to their winter holding pasture so that I could move the Herefords into S3.
I didn't let the fact that it was cloudy hold me back from spraying. There were areas that I'd missed when I sprayed the last time. I got those plus some more areas along the east fence line in back of the cottage garden, around the back of the chicken coop and in the cottage garden. I also sprayed some in the gazebo garden. The weeds are taking over there, too.
I've heard that straight vinegar sprayed early in the morning works as well as Roundup or equivalent. The plant sucks up the vinegar and the leaves dessicate and the roots are killed too. Wonder if it would work on grass. I'll have to try it. Vinegar is lots less expensive and likely less hard on the environment.
I noticed today that another Muscovy duck has started laying eggs, this time under the feeder which Pat moved against the new wall he installed. I just had to peek to see if any of the ducks was using the dark area as a nest. No feather pulling yet and there are only three eggs in the clutch, but with any luck I'll be overrun with ducklings.
Some day when I'm not so busy I'll empty out the rolling compost bin that Mike and Mary H gave to me and start up a worm farm. Then I'll use the compost in my garden. The dang thing is way too heavy for me to turn so dumping out some of the compost would make it easier to turn and to add new greens for the worms to turn into usable compost.
Dinner was pot roast with potatoes and succotash. I'm not really keen any more on lima beans in my corn. I prefer my corn straight but Chas loves it. I suffer (but not so much).
05/09/2009 Saturday: It was nearly a perfect day. It started off foggy so I knew it would be nice, and nice it was. Sun all day after the morning fog burned off but it didn't get too hot.
I finally noticed this morning that I have another baby sheep. Not sure what the sex of this critter is but I think it's a male. I believe it was born about 4 days ago. I say that because it's been sleeping on the compost pile. The other sheep, the little female, doesn't do that. Course I could be totally wrong. I guess I'll have to grab the two babies and check them out.
Enrique, Juan and Gabe showed up to help me out today. Enrique and Juan worked 6 hours and Gabe three. Enrique decided that instead of making two trips down to work for me today and then for Gary N tomorrow four of them would drive down today. Two would work 6 hours for Gary and 6 hours for me. I really appreciate them sparing the time to help out around here because, of course, I had a jillion things on my to do list.
Juan and Enrique moved 3 bales of alfalfa and 3 bales of timothy into the Dexter pen and 4 bales of alfalfa into the goat pen. I also had them roll the top bales down a level or so so that the stack isn't so high.
After they'd moved the feed from my car into the green or cow barns I had them take down the hi-tensile wire that divides the westernmost pastures. I'm going to take that entire fence down and replace it with a corridor as I have with the large hay pasture. The fence was mostly down already where Chas had unwound the fence last year to dig the ditch. This project took most of the rest of their time working for me.
Once Chas can get back there and dig the ditch a little deeper we'll fence the south side. I guess first we'll have the cows graze that section, after I get the perimeter fence fixed. That will make it easier for Chas to see where the ditch actually is. Getting the entire perimeter fence electrified will be a major job in itself. Chas will want to put in off-on switches so that we can only electrify what needs to be hot and that won't be as much area in the winter time.
I had Gabe remove the rebar posts I had the guys set out in the area between the house and the electric fence and had him weed-whack the area. I started thinking about the idea of having the cows think they could move outside the perimeters of the perimeter fence and wasn't too happy with the idea so I had him cut all the grass there.
Then I had him weed-whack the area to the east of the cow barn. So, the area around the main entrance to my Hereford winter pasture looks a lot better.
After that he finished double-wiring the hog panel to the t-posts on the goat pen side. He didn't quite get that part done last week when he worked on this project.
Gabe and I put collars on three of the goats: the Boer cross female, the large, fat, Boer female and the buck. While we had them in hand we trimmed hooves. I cut the buck's left rear hoof a little too close and it bled some. The rest of the trimming went well. It will be easier to catch those goats now. The collars make it much easier. I wonder what Pat did with Mystical's collar, the one I had hanging on the gate. Maybe it's still there and I just can't see it.
After he was done with those jobs I had him pound in a t-post at the west end of the space between the cow barn and the nearest stall. Once he tied up the pallet to the support post and to the t-post, the alley way is blocked.
Gabe and I found boards to fit across the narrow width of one of the chicken tractors and three pieces of metal roofing to fit across the top. We used the tractor to move down one of the chicken tractors (we folded it first to make it long and narrow), the two boards and the three pieces of metal roofing. We un-accordioned the chicken-tractor, tied the two pieces of wood across the tractor and put two of the pieces on the top to make a roof.
Later I found a tarp that I took down to the tractor. I removed one of the pieces of metal roofing and put the other in the middle with the tarp tied down on top.
After I'd gotten everything sorted out on the chicken tractor after everyone had left I put the five ducklings into the pen. It's huge and at first they didn't know what to do. I put their water container in so they could drink and left them in for about 2.5 hours. I had to crawl inside the pen to catch them. I need to call Mary to ask her if I could borrow her chicken catcher (aka fish net) for a few weeks so it's not such a hassel catching the ducks.
I'll find one of the big rubber feeding pans and fill it with water so that they can take a bath and get cleaned up but they'll have to take their baths outside. Honestly those animals play with their water until their shavings are sopping wet.
Once they get used to being outside and no longer need a lamp they're stay outside all the time until they're ready to go into the pen with the other ducks or until I get tired of moving them. Gabe was thinking that he might buy the two Muscovies that I have in the separate pen but he has to check to see if that's ok with his mom. He also wants pheasants. He'll have to special-order those online unless he can find some on Craigslist.
While the ducks were outside grabbing some rays I took the opportunity to take their water tub living area and remove all the soaked shavings and replace them with new dry shavings. The soaked shavings went out under the big rhododendron.
I'll have to buy a new bale of shavings.
I will be glad to get the ducks out of the basement. They make everything very wet. I finally opened the window to let some of the dryer air in. It has a screen so hopefully no preditors or cats will get in to eat the chicks.
The Buff Orpingtons are almost ready to go outside, I think. They're knocking over their feeder and waterer in their effort to get some exercise. Their pen isn't all that big so they don't have much room to run around.
I checked the fence charger today. Somehow we got it working properly. It's reading 7.3 instead of 3.9. I found where one of the polywires was touching a t-post and shorting out the fence and fixed it. Maybe that was what was causing the problem. Who knows?
05/08/2009 Friday: The day started off sunny and then turned to gloomy with lots of clouds but late in the afternoon it turned sunny again. Oh joy. The sun.
I hate to say it but I was very happy when today was over. I worked over at the Health Department and then went grocery shopping after work. Before work I got some money at the bank and picked up four bags of feed, 2 livestock for the cows and 1 livestock for the goats as well as a cracked corn for the ducks.
It was great coming home. The staircase to the green barn loft is completed as of today; it's a dream.The steps are easy for me to climb since the risers aren't very high. Now I can store hay where I need it - in both barns. Wahoo! It has a nice banister on both sides of the steps so that when I gimp up the stairs I can haul myself up with either arm. Thinking about my old age, LOL.
Pat took one of the stall doors from the Dexter pen that I'd had the guys take down a week or so ago because the damn upper doors were always in the way. I had leaned them against the side of the green barn intending on using one of them for a gate into a sheep shed that I'm going to get Pat to build for me as a lean-to against the side of the existing green barn. (Sorry for these long convoluted sentences but I think you get the idea). I need a sheep shed. Pat will build me one. I will use one of the gates as a gate into the shed. Sigh. That was so much easier.
We really needed to put a gate on the steps so that the goats won't climb the stairs and get into the loft. So he installed one of the gates across the front of the stairs; he also set up a latch for me. He's going to cut the gate down to size since it's about 6 inches too wide. He put it up so that I could see it before he did any cutting just in case I needed the gate as is. When he comes back on Monday he'll cut the gate to size and will remount it.
He's begun installing the gutters around my green barn so that I'll be able (hopefully) to walk around the exterior of the barn without walking in mud to the tops of my boots. The goats will appreciate the lack of mud, too.
Once Pat gets the gutters done on two sides of the green barn he's going to work on improving the mangers in my cow barn. After that I'll have him build me a sheep shed. I'm thinking it will be a lean-to off the side of the green barn addition, where I have the sheep now.
I may have found an alfalfa seller. I plan on purchasing at least one truck load of alfalfa (32 tons) as well as a bunch of round bales from last year's supplier this year. (The early round bales were great. No problem with the cows eating it).
I would rather pay more for hay this year and not have to pay so much for grain (if any) for the cattle. The grain and having to buy so much more hay and then have the later bales not be very good has made me a believer in alfalfa. This guy's prices are not yet set but he thinks his hay will be $150-$200/ton plus whatever the trucker charges. While I'd rather pay less, I'd be happy with around $150-$175/ton.
The Dexters will not get pure alfalfa all the time or else they'll be so rotund they won't be able to move. I'll use the alfalfa as top dressing for them. The goats will get alfalfa with the stems and uneaten parts going over to the cows.
Mary H called me this evening to tell me that Mike had finished my manure fork/bucket attachment that I'd asked him to weld up for me. They will deliver it tomorrow around 9:30am and I'll try it out in the calves's stall to see how it works. It will be a couple of dry days before I'll be able to even get into the Dexter or Hereford's pastures to clean their areas out.
The manure scraper/picker-upper/fork mounts on the bucket of my tractor. It has a long sharpened piece of heavy rebar welded next to a shorter piece all along a bar that should fit into my bucket and should theoretically act like a large pitchfork. If I can get my camera to work I'll take a picture.
I've been looking for equipment to make it easier to scrape up the hay/manure mixture in my barn. Hand pitchforking 6-8 inches of wet, manure-y, hay in a 16' x 40' section of barn is way too much work. I want to be able to do most of the cleaning myself - when I want to clean. When Mike and Mary deliver my manure fork tomorrow morning I'll try it out right away in one of the cow stalls since with all the heavy rains we've been having lately I can't even get my tractor into the barnyard to clean. His fork lifts have been a godsend. I thank Mike in my mind nearly every day.
I totally broke the hay forks the first time I tried to use them but Mike fixed the problem and they've been wonderful.
The grass in my Dexter paddocks have gotten away from me so I let the Herefords in to munch on the tall stuff.
In the mornings I put the Dexters out to graze and in the afternoons when I get home from work I put the Herefords out most often in different pastures unless the grass has gotten out of control and is too tall. That way I don't have to test the single strand of polywire against the possibility of a breech. I don't want the two herds to comingle. Today I took one group of cows out and put in a second in the same pasture. That's the first time I've done that but that dang pasture grass just had a day or two too many and it's getting ready to put up seed (I just know it).
The cows seem to know when I'm going to let them into fresh grass and meet me at the entrance to the farm and follow me up in the car bellowing all the way. Then the Dexters start in. What a cacophony.
Farming is so much fun. I love it. No new babies but I am getting ready to move the ducks out of my daylight basement and into a pasture tractor. They manage to get everything wet in their pen in half a day and then my basement starts to smell of wet duck, wet shavings and wet feed. Yuck.
Haven't lost a chick so far. (fingers crossed). But I did lose another layer today. My birds are old and my rooster is rather too fond of pecking them on the head. I have to put up a killing rope on my chicken coop and capture him so that I can harvest him. Who needs a rooster anyway? Mean things.
The guys come tomorrow. I have another full page of work/tasks for them to do. Not that I expect them to get it all done. I just list all the things I'd like done and I pick and choose depending on whether or not I'm feeling energetic and want to work along with them.
Too much news. I could go on but I'm likely boring you.
Dinner was store-bought pizza. It was ok. Too much salt, tho'.
05/07/2009 Thursday: Off and on pouring rain and sunshine.
Pat M was sick so he didn't show up to work on the stairs and gutters.
Sherry, his wife, came by to help clean the house.
Morning chores were uneventful. I had to feed hay to the cows, both kinds, as the rain makes it impossible to put the cows on the pasture without ruining it.
The ducks managed somehow to get water on their heat lamp and it smashed into lots of very sharp pieces of glass. I fished out as many of the pieces as I could and put the shavings into a large garbage sack for deposit in the compost pile. I'm going to have to put the ducks into the green barn, perhaps under the new stairs. They're getting too rowdy for their smallish pen. I'll have a large enough area with some hay in it and a nice warm place to sleep. I will not be providing heat unless I can put them in the cow barn and can run a cord from the nearest outlet to a heat lamp. They need to go outside badly.
I got tired of the small doelings jumping up on their (horse) hay rack so I moved the rack to the exterior wall, hammered in two xx and raised the level of the rack so they couldn't jump into it. If it isn't high enough, I'll pound in some additional xxs and raise it even higher. I need to take out the waste hay and feed it to the cows. They'd love it, stems and all, because there are still some leaves left. I'll bring the wheelbarrow in and will haul the scraps to the Herefords.
I baked the oysters for half an hour after scrubbing them well and knocking off as many of the barnacles as I could. Then I put on some scalloped potatoes (packaged, bad me). Chas prepared the cauliflower which we steamed. Nothing like freshly steamed cauliflower with a squeeze of lemon. I also cooked the shrimp in butter. They were delicious. I served the seafood with lemon slices. Actually, dinner was a rare treat. We don't often get the chance to eat fresh seafood. The oysters were great as was the shrimp. Thank you Pat!
I fed the barnacles to the chickens along with the cauliflower leaves and egg shells.
I keep looking at Craigslist with a view to getting more goats but then realize that I can't handle any more excitement in my life. Goats are way too exciting.
One of the Muscovies appears to be setting on her eggs. She didn't move off the nest all day and seemed entranced. So, I may be over-run with ducks. I could sell some. She's pulled down from her breast. The nest looks really fluffy. I pretend I don't see her when I go into the milk room.
Dang, I really need to start taking pictures. I've gotten so lazy. Maybe if I got some sleep.
The little Dexter bull slipped through the electric fence into the pen with the two steers. I crowded him back into the Dexter pen where he was reunited with his momma, Cheddar.
I will need to butcher Cheddar around the middle of August when I'll wean her bull calf around 4 months of age. I should have the freezer more or less empty by then.
05/06/2009 Wednesday: Poured again today. It looks like Friday, Saturday and Sunday might not be raining. That would be wonderful.
I'm so tired of heavy rain. Keeps the cows off the pasture and means I have to feed hay and the animals would much prefer grass. I keep them off because they turn the pastures into mud holes.
Another Wednesday at the Health Department. I get up around 6:10am, shower and go out to do morning chores. Generally back by 8:30am. Have a cup of tea and breakfast and watch a little of the news. Then I drive into town. This morning I stopped at the Farm Store to pick up 8 gate hooks and 2 packages of rebar insulators for my upcoming fences.
Then work till 2pm more or less and do any shopping that needs to be done, drive home, sit for 20 minutes to rest up for evening chores, do the chores, cook and eat dinner and read while I watch TV till around 8pm when I read email till bedtime.
Pat M stopped by late in the afternoon and dropped off 10 large shrimp and 12 oysters. We'll have those for dinner tomorrow night since I already had Mexican food planned.
Tonight we had Mexican food for dinner: burritos cooked in salsa with cheddar cheese on top and baked for an hour.
I trimmed Precious's feet today during evening chores. They really needed trimming.
05/05/2009 Tuesday: Poured heavily during my morning chores. The sun peeps out for a minute and then the sky gets dark and gloomy and it pours again. Luckily the sun began shining later on in the morning.
The Herefords were all in the winter pasture. Even they got tired of being out in the rain and came into the barn. I did throw them some hay on the off chance that they might get hungry during the day.
I did not put the Dexters or the Herefords out onto the pastures today. It's so wet and raining so hard that they'd put holes in the pasture from their hooves. I did give them their treats and give them hay. They didn't seem very interested in the treats this morning. Maybe my gloves smelled funny.
The Herefords were not all that interested in the hay I put out although I did notice that they'd eaten it all by evening chores.
Pat M and Jimmy (married to Pat's daughter) poured concrete for a pad, set up posts and built me a staircase up to my loft so that when I store hay up there I can climb stairs, not a vertical stepladder that is not very steady, to get to my hay. I'll walk up there holding on to the railings they'll build the next time they come out - probably Thursday - and be able to toss down bales of hay when I need them. Or my helpers can toss them down. There's a proper-sized hole between the loft and the lower section of the barn.
It will be nice to have hay for the goats stored where the goats are. I'll have to use a hay elevator to get the hay up there although I might be able to lift it high enough to put a couple of bales in at a time using the tractor.
I entered things into the 2009 taxes spreadsheets, not enough, tho. I also paid the credit card and renewed my Sunset magazine. And spent some time reading a novel, something I don't get much of a chance to do. I did feel guilty that I wasn't out chopping weeds in my cottage garden. The weeds come out easily and the chickens love them. I forgot to check to see if the Dexters ate any of the weeds I tossed over the fence to them.
Only two weeks till my two-day workshop in Richland.
I made pork ribs, polenta with tomato sauce (left over from last night) and Chas cooked canned kale for our vegetable. We had a delicious orange for dessert.
05/04/2009 Monday: Poured all day. Not fun to do chores in.
I moved the Herefords into their winter pasture. They'd been out grazing all night. I moved the Dexters out into S2 since they'd barely made a dent in the grass. I will need to put them into S1 pretty soon.
Into work for four hours. Project progress is slow but I am making some progress.
Dinner was polenta with squash and leftover chicken.
05/03/2009 Sunday:
I lazed around this morning but this afternoon I began weeding the cottage garden. I tossed several loads of weeds into the chicken pen and threw several wheelbarrow loads over the electric fence and into the Dexter pen.
I've decided to leave the Herefords out from the time I get back from work (around 3pm) to the next morning. I'll let the Dexters out to graze in the morning and early afternoon. They'll go out when I feed the chickens.
05/02/2009 Saturday: When it rained today it poured but in between the hard showers we got a lot of work done.
When Enrique and Aldo showed up to work, Enrique pointed out a little black lamb that obviously had been born recently and had snuck out through the futon gate Mike welded for me and which I was using perfectly well for the adults. It was born to Sara Beth (white spot on forehead) It was way over near the well house. I dried it off and put it back with its momma who seemed happy to see it. In my excitement I forgot to check the sex. That is something I'll have to do tomorrow. I'm betting its a female. It looks like a female but then I've been known to be wrong. Can't tell till you physically check.
Enrique and Aldo moved 4 bales of alfalfa to the goat pen as well as the feed from the back of my car. Three All purpose livestock feed went to feed the goats. I had them empty two bags into the feed garbage pail. Two alfalfa pellets went into the cow barn.
Four more alfalfa bales went into the Dexter stall for use when I didn't let them out. Enrique and Aldo moved those four bales of alfalfa to the Dexter stall using the tractor. The bales are so heavy that the ATV was struggling to carry more than two bales.
The guys cleaned up all the needles, moss and branches from the front door and from the back of the barn. The front needles went into the burn pile. The needles from the back were used to level a couple of low spots at the fenceline opposite the lean-to. It took them all morning to clean up the needles. They opened up the fence to make sure the ground was even on both sides of the fence. I had them separate the branches out. Those went to the burn pile.
Gabe swept the loft and tossed down a piece of carpet that I put in the brush pile. He also double-wired each of the hog panels to the t-posts on the outside of the pig pen but forgot to do the inside. I'll get him to do that next week. I think he didn't want to get in Aldo and Enrique's way.
I had the guys take a stock panel from the stack over to the sick bay stall. Gabe removed the useless wood after he cleaned the alleyway of dropped hay. Then the guys slid the stock panel in on the outside of the pen and tied it down with binding cord. It's a little higher for me to throw the hay over but I don't have all the pieces of wood sticking out causing trouble.
After lunch Enrique and Aldo finished making a 3 foot path along the fence-line on the inside of the wetland to make it easier for us to work on the fence if we need to. It looks really great. To get there they drove along the area between the median and the highway. I did not check to see if they cut all the way around the wetland. I also asked them to make sure the the grass is weed-whacked from under neath the fence.
After they finished the pruning in the wetland, Enrique and Aldo picked up at least two loads of branches from the creek bottom and put them in the burn pile closest to the house, the one that Chas burned last week.
I went over to Mike and Mary H's. My intent was to take over a load of coffee grounds but I forgot to put them into the jeep. I gave M & M all my aluminum cans. They'll make a little money off that and we don't have to do it. I also gave M & M a large egg carton with 18 eggs in it.
On my way over to M & M I dropped off a dozen eggs to Marie and her dad. Marie wasn't home but I left the eggs just outside the door where she'd be sure to see them. He dad picked them up and I waved to him on my way out.
The cows spent most of the afternoon out on the pasture. They did not want to come back to the barn and tried running away from me. I had my ATV and was able to herd them back to the barn under protest. It was a little slick trying to get back to the gate because of the rain.
The newest batch of chicks are doing well. So far no mortality.
Dinner was hot noodles with leftover steak, leftover stir fry veggies and lots of broccoli and diced onions. I got the spice down just right. It was magnificent. Chas loves hot noodles.
05/01/2009 Friday: Sunny all day, but started to cloud over a tiny bit toward evening.
Got a call first thing in the morning letting me know my chicks had arrived at the Post Office. I was asked if my regular delivery person could drop it off at my place. I said yes and they were waiting for me on the kitchen table.
It was a genuine struggle to put everything together for the new chicks. First I had to go pick up the rabbit cage that I'd been storing in the chicken coop. It was full of shavings. Took me awhile to get it cleaned out. Once I got the lamp set up I took the 6 Buff Orpingtons and put them in the cage. I still need to put chips in the bottom pan. Then I moved the ducks into the tub where I'd had the chicks. Lastly I cleaned out the duck tub because they'd managed to spray water all over the shavings. It was a mess and very wet. Once that was finished I got their waterer scrubbed and filled and also their feeder filled.
One by one I put the chicks into their new home after first dipping their beaks in the water. The hatchery gave me 27 chicks just in case one or two died. I ordered 25. Some of the chicks stretched under the heat lamp and just vegged out. Others ran about looking for more water and feed. It took a few minutes for everything to get sorted out but within half an hour the chicks were eating and drinking like old pros.
They're soft and downy. A few have brownish red down, some pure yellow and some just barely have color. It will be interesting to see what color feathers they fledge out to.
Worked at the Health Department but left at 1pm. The desk that I was working at was needed by the woman who works there occasionally.
I did stop at the feed store before going into work and purchased 2 bags of alfalfa pellets for the cows and three bags of feed for the goats. I also picked up a large chicken feeder (not the largest) and a small 18 inch long feeder for the chicks. Plus some sweet onion sets. Now I have to find a place to plant them. I think it will have to be in the cottage garden. They'll likely be harvested as green onions.
Pat did not show up today to start putting up the eves troughs. It is irritating when he doesn't show up.
I changed the cartridges in my HP printer this evening (not much of a problem) and printed out the tasks for tomorrow.
Tomorrow will be a busy day.
I slept in this morning till 7am and didn't get out to do chores till after 8am.
I moved the Dexters into S1 and later in the day moved them out to their winter holding pasture so that I could move the Herefords into S3.
I didn't let the fact that it was cloudy hold me back from spraying. There were areas that I'd missed when I sprayed the last time. I got those plus some more areas along the east fence line in back of the cottage garden, around the back of the chicken coop and in the cottage garden. I also sprayed some in the gazebo garden. The weeds are taking over there, too.
I've heard that straight vinegar sprayed early in the morning works as well as Roundup or equivalent. The plant sucks up the vinegar and the leaves dessicate and the roots are killed too. Wonder if it would work on grass. I'll have to try it. Vinegar is lots less expensive and likely less hard on the environment.
I noticed today that another Muscovy duck has started laying eggs, this time under the feeder which Pat moved against the new wall he installed. I just had to peek to see if any of the ducks was using the dark area as a nest. No feather pulling yet and there are only three eggs in the clutch, but with any luck I'll be overrun with ducklings.
Some day when I'm not so busy I'll empty out the rolling compost bin that Mike and Mary H gave to me and start up a worm farm. Then I'll use the compost in my garden. The dang thing is way too heavy for me to turn so dumping out some of the compost would make it easier to turn and to add new greens for the worms to turn into usable compost.
Dinner was pot roast with potatoes and succotash. I'm not really keen any more on lima beans in my corn. I prefer my corn straight but Chas loves it. I suffer (but not so much).
05/09/2009 Saturday: It was nearly a perfect day. It started off foggy so I knew it would be nice, and nice it was. Sun all day after the morning fog burned off but it didn't get too hot.
I finally noticed this morning that I have another baby sheep. Not sure what the sex of this critter is but I think it's a male. I believe it was born about 4 days ago. I say that because it's been sleeping on the compost pile. The other sheep, the little female, doesn't do that. Course I could be totally wrong. I guess I'll have to grab the two babies and check them out.
Enrique, Juan and Gabe showed up to help me out today. Enrique and Juan worked 6 hours and Gabe three. Enrique decided that instead of making two trips down to work for me today and then for Gary N tomorrow four of them would drive down today. Two would work 6 hours for Gary and 6 hours for me. I really appreciate them sparing the time to help out around here because, of course, I had a jillion things on my to do list.
Juan and Enrique moved 3 bales of alfalfa and 3 bales of timothy into the Dexter pen and 4 bales of alfalfa into the goat pen. I also had them roll the top bales down a level or so so that the stack isn't so high.
After they'd moved the feed from my car into the green or cow barns I had them take down the hi-tensile wire that divides the westernmost pastures. I'm going to take that entire fence down and replace it with a corridor as I have with the large hay pasture. The fence was mostly down already where Chas had unwound the fence last year to dig the ditch. This project took most of the rest of their time working for me.
Once Chas can get back there and dig the ditch a little deeper we'll fence the south side. I guess first we'll have the cows graze that section, after I get the perimeter fence fixed. That will make it easier for Chas to see where the ditch actually is. Getting the entire perimeter fence electrified will be a major job in itself. Chas will want to put in off-on switches so that we can only electrify what needs to be hot and that won't be as much area in the winter time.
I had Gabe remove the rebar posts I had the guys set out in the area between the house and the electric fence and had him weed-whack the area. I started thinking about the idea of having the cows think they could move outside the perimeters of the perimeter fence and wasn't too happy with the idea so I had him cut all the grass there.
Then I had him weed-whack the area to the east of the cow barn. So, the area around the main entrance to my Hereford winter pasture looks a lot better.
After that he finished double-wiring the hog panel to the t-posts on the goat pen side. He didn't quite get that part done last week when he worked on this project.
Gabe and I put collars on three of the goats: the Boer cross female, the large, fat, Boer female and the buck. While we had them in hand we trimmed hooves. I cut the buck's left rear hoof a little too close and it bled some. The rest of the trimming went well. It will be easier to catch those goats now. The collars make it much easier. I wonder what Pat did with Mystical's collar, the one I had hanging on the gate. Maybe it's still there and I just can't see it.
After he was done with those jobs I had him pound in a t-post at the west end of the space between the cow barn and the nearest stall. Once he tied up the pallet to the support post and to the t-post, the alley way is blocked.
Gabe and I found boards to fit across the narrow width of one of the chicken tractors and three pieces of metal roofing to fit across the top. We used the tractor to move down one of the chicken tractors (we folded it first to make it long and narrow), the two boards and the three pieces of metal roofing. We un-accordioned the chicken-tractor, tied the two pieces of wood across the tractor and put two of the pieces on the top to make a roof.
Later I found a tarp that I took down to the tractor. I removed one of the pieces of metal roofing and put the other in the middle with the tarp tied down on top.
After I'd gotten everything sorted out on the chicken tractor after everyone had left I put the five ducklings into the pen. It's huge and at first they didn't know what to do. I put their water container in so they could drink and left them in for about 2.5 hours. I had to crawl inside the pen to catch them. I need to call Mary to ask her if I could borrow her chicken catcher (aka fish net) for a few weeks so it's not such a hassel catching the ducks.
I'll find one of the big rubber feeding pans and fill it with water so that they can take a bath and get cleaned up but they'll have to take their baths outside. Honestly those animals play with their water until their shavings are sopping wet.
Once they get used to being outside and no longer need a lamp they're stay outside all the time until they're ready to go into the pen with the other ducks or until I get tired of moving them. Gabe was thinking that he might buy the two Muscovies that I have in the separate pen but he has to check to see if that's ok with his mom. He also wants pheasants. He'll have to special-order those online unless he can find some on Craigslist.
While the ducks were outside grabbing some rays I took the opportunity to take their water tub living area and remove all the soaked shavings and replace them with new dry shavings. The soaked shavings went out under the big rhododendron.
I'll have to buy a new bale of shavings.
I will be glad to get the ducks out of the basement. They make everything very wet. I finally opened the window to let some of the dryer air in. It has a screen so hopefully no preditors or cats will get in to eat the chicks.
The Buff Orpingtons are almost ready to go outside, I think. They're knocking over their feeder and waterer in their effort to get some exercise. Their pen isn't all that big so they don't have much room to run around.
I checked the fence charger today. Somehow we got it working properly. It's reading 7.3 instead of 3.9. I found where one of the polywires was touching a t-post and shorting out the fence and fixed it. Maybe that was what was causing the problem. Who knows?
05/08/2009 Friday: The day started off sunny and then turned to gloomy with lots of clouds but late in the afternoon it turned sunny again. Oh joy. The sun.
I hate to say it but I was very happy when today was over. I worked over at the Health Department and then went grocery shopping after work. Before work I got some money at the bank and picked up four bags of feed, 2 livestock for the cows and 1 livestock for the goats as well as a cracked corn for the ducks.
It was great coming home. The staircase to the green barn loft is completed as of today; it's a dream.The steps are easy for me to climb since the risers aren't very high. Now I can store hay where I need it - in both barns. Wahoo! It has a nice banister on both sides of the steps so that when I gimp up the stairs I can haul myself up with either arm. Thinking about my old age, LOL.
Pat took one of the stall doors from the Dexter pen that I'd had the guys take down a week or so ago because the damn upper doors were always in the way. I had leaned them against the side of the green barn intending on using one of them for a gate into a sheep shed that I'm going to get Pat to build for me as a lean-to against the side of the existing green barn. (Sorry for these long convoluted sentences but I think you get the idea). I need a sheep shed. Pat will build me one. I will use one of the gates as a gate into the shed. Sigh. That was so much easier.
We really needed to put a gate on the steps so that the goats won't climb the stairs and get into the loft. So he installed one of the gates across the front of the stairs; he also set up a latch for me. He's going to cut the gate down to size since it's about 6 inches too wide. He put it up so that I could see it before he did any cutting just in case I needed the gate as is. When he comes back on Monday he'll cut the gate to size and will remount it.
He's begun installing the gutters around my green barn so that I'll be able (hopefully) to walk around the exterior of the barn without walking in mud to the tops of my boots. The goats will appreciate the lack of mud, too.
Once Pat gets the gutters done on two sides of the green barn he's going to work on improving the mangers in my cow barn. After that I'll have him build me a sheep shed. I'm thinking it will be a lean-to off the side of the green barn addition, where I have the sheep now.
I may have found an alfalfa seller. I plan on purchasing at least one truck load of alfalfa (32 tons) as well as a bunch of round bales from last year's supplier this year. (The early round bales were great. No problem with the cows eating it).
I would rather pay more for hay this year and not have to pay so much for grain (if any) for the cattle. The grain and having to buy so much more hay and then have the later bales not be very good has made me a believer in alfalfa. This guy's prices are not yet set but he thinks his hay will be $150-$200/ton plus whatever the trucker charges. While I'd rather pay less, I'd be happy with around $150-$175/ton.
The Dexters will not get pure alfalfa all the time or else they'll be so rotund they won't be able to move. I'll use the alfalfa as top dressing for them. The goats will get alfalfa with the stems and uneaten parts going over to the cows.
Mary H called me this evening to tell me that Mike had finished my manure fork/bucket attachment that I'd asked him to weld up for me. They will deliver it tomorrow around 9:30am and I'll try it out in the calves's stall to see how it works. It will be a couple of dry days before I'll be able to even get into the Dexter or Hereford's pastures to clean their areas out.
The manure scraper/picker-upper/fork mounts on the bucket of my tractor. It has a long sharpened piece of heavy rebar welded next to a shorter piece all along a bar that should fit into my bucket and should theoretically act like a large pitchfork. If I can get my camera to work I'll take a picture.
I've been looking for equipment to make it easier to scrape up the hay/manure mixture in my barn. Hand pitchforking 6-8 inches of wet, manure-y, hay in a 16' x 40' section of barn is way too much work. I want to be able to do most of the cleaning myself - when I want to clean. When Mike and Mary deliver my manure fork tomorrow morning I'll try it out right away in one of the cow stalls since with all the heavy rains we've been having lately I can't even get my tractor into the barnyard to clean. His fork lifts have been a godsend. I thank Mike in my mind nearly every day.
I totally broke the hay forks the first time I tried to use them but Mike fixed the problem and they've been wonderful.
The grass in my Dexter paddocks have gotten away from me so I let the Herefords in to munch on the tall stuff.
In the mornings I put the Dexters out to graze and in the afternoons when I get home from work I put the Herefords out most often in different pastures unless the grass has gotten out of control and is too tall. That way I don't have to test the single strand of polywire against the possibility of a breech. I don't want the two herds to comingle. Today I took one group of cows out and put in a second in the same pasture. That's the first time I've done that but that dang pasture grass just had a day or two too many and it's getting ready to put up seed (I just know it).
The cows seem to know when I'm going to let them into fresh grass and meet me at the entrance to the farm and follow me up in the car bellowing all the way. Then the Dexters start in. What a cacophony.
Farming is so much fun. I love it. No new babies but I am getting ready to move the ducks out of my daylight basement and into a pasture tractor. They manage to get everything wet in their pen in half a day and then my basement starts to smell of wet duck, wet shavings and wet feed. Yuck.
Haven't lost a chick so far. (fingers crossed). But I did lose another layer today. My birds are old and my rooster is rather too fond of pecking them on the head. I have to put up a killing rope on my chicken coop and capture him so that I can harvest him. Who needs a rooster anyway? Mean things.
The guys come tomorrow. I have another full page of work/tasks for them to do. Not that I expect them to get it all done. I just list all the things I'd like done and I pick and choose depending on whether or not I'm feeling energetic and want to work along with them.
Too much news. I could go on but I'm likely boring you.
Dinner was store-bought pizza. It was ok. Too much salt, tho'.
05/07/2009 Thursday: Off and on pouring rain and sunshine.
Pat M was sick so he didn't show up to work on the stairs and gutters.
Sherry, his wife, came by to help clean the house.
Morning chores were uneventful. I had to feed hay to the cows, both kinds, as the rain makes it impossible to put the cows on the pasture without ruining it.
The ducks managed somehow to get water on their heat lamp and it smashed into lots of very sharp pieces of glass. I fished out as many of the pieces as I could and put the shavings into a large garbage sack for deposit in the compost pile. I'm going to have to put the ducks into the green barn, perhaps under the new stairs. They're getting too rowdy for their smallish pen. I'll have a large enough area with some hay in it and a nice warm place to sleep. I will not be providing heat unless I can put them in the cow barn and can run a cord from the nearest outlet to a heat lamp. They need to go outside badly.
I got tired of the small doelings jumping up on their (horse) hay rack so I moved the rack to the exterior wall, hammered in two xx and raised the level of the rack so they couldn't jump into it. If it isn't high enough, I'll pound in some additional xxs and raise it even higher. I need to take out the waste hay and feed it to the cows. They'd love it, stems and all, because there are still some leaves left. I'll bring the wheelbarrow in and will haul the scraps to the Herefords.
I baked the oysters for half an hour after scrubbing them well and knocking off as many of the barnacles as I could. Then I put on some scalloped potatoes (packaged, bad me). Chas prepared the cauliflower which we steamed. Nothing like freshly steamed cauliflower with a squeeze of lemon. I also cooked the shrimp in butter. They were delicious. I served the seafood with lemon slices. Actually, dinner was a rare treat. We don't often get the chance to eat fresh seafood. The oysters were great as was the shrimp. Thank you Pat!
I fed the barnacles to the chickens along with the cauliflower leaves and egg shells.
I keep looking at Craigslist with a view to getting more goats but then realize that I can't handle any more excitement in my life. Goats are way too exciting.
One of the Muscovies appears to be setting on her eggs. She didn't move off the nest all day and seemed entranced. So, I may be over-run with ducks. I could sell some. She's pulled down from her breast. The nest looks really fluffy. I pretend I don't see her when I go into the milk room.
Dang, I really need to start taking pictures. I've gotten so lazy. Maybe if I got some sleep.
The little Dexter bull slipped through the electric fence into the pen with the two steers. I crowded him back into the Dexter pen where he was reunited with his momma, Cheddar.
I will need to butcher Cheddar around the middle of August when I'll wean her bull calf around 4 months of age. I should have the freezer more or less empty by then.
05/06/2009 Wednesday: Poured again today. It looks like Friday, Saturday and Sunday might not be raining. That would be wonderful.
I'm so tired of heavy rain. Keeps the cows off the pasture and means I have to feed hay and the animals would much prefer grass. I keep them off because they turn the pastures into mud holes.
Another Wednesday at the Health Department. I get up around 6:10am, shower and go out to do morning chores. Generally back by 8:30am. Have a cup of tea and breakfast and watch a little of the news. Then I drive into town. This morning I stopped at the Farm Store to pick up 8 gate hooks and 2 packages of rebar insulators for my upcoming fences.
Then work till 2pm more or less and do any shopping that needs to be done, drive home, sit for 20 minutes to rest up for evening chores, do the chores, cook and eat dinner and read while I watch TV till around 8pm when I read email till bedtime.
Pat M stopped by late in the afternoon and dropped off 10 large shrimp and 12 oysters. We'll have those for dinner tomorrow night since I already had Mexican food planned.
Tonight we had Mexican food for dinner: burritos cooked in salsa with cheddar cheese on top and baked for an hour.
I trimmed Precious's feet today during evening chores. They really needed trimming.
05/05/2009 Tuesday: Poured heavily during my morning chores. The sun peeps out for a minute and then the sky gets dark and gloomy and it pours again. Luckily the sun began shining later on in the morning.
The Herefords were all in the winter pasture. Even they got tired of being out in the rain and came into the barn. I did throw them some hay on the off chance that they might get hungry during the day.
I did not put the Dexters or the Herefords out onto the pastures today. It's so wet and raining so hard that they'd put holes in the pasture from their hooves. I did give them their treats and give them hay. They didn't seem very interested in the treats this morning. Maybe my gloves smelled funny.
The Herefords were not all that interested in the hay I put out although I did notice that they'd eaten it all by evening chores.
Pat M and Jimmy (married to Pat's daughter) poured concrete for a pad, set up posts and built me a staircase up to my loft so that when I store hay up there I can climb stairs, not a vertical stepladder that is not very steady, to get to my hay. I'll walk up there holding on to the railings they'll build the next time they come out - probably Thursday - and be able to toss down bales of hay when I need them. Or my helpers can toss them down. There's a proper-sized hole between the loft and the lower section of the barn.
It will be nice to have hay for the goats stored where the goats are. I'll have to use a hay elevator to get the hay up there although I might be able to lift it high enough to put a couple of bales in at a time using the tractor.
I entered things into the 2009 taxes spreadsheets, not enough, tho. I also paid the credit card and renewed my Sunset magazine. And spent some time reading a novel, something I don't get much of a chance to do. I did feel guilty that I wasn't out chopping weeds in my cottage garden. The weeds come out easily and the chickens love them. I forgot to check to see if the Dexters ate any of the weeds I tossed over the fence to them.
Only two weeks till my two-day workshop in Richland.
I made pork ribs, polenta with tomato sauce (left over from last night) and Chas cooked canned kale for our vegetable. We had a delicious orange for dessert.
05/04/2009 Monday: Poured all day. Not fun to do chores in.
I moved the Herefords into their winter pasture. They'd been out grazing all night. I moved the Dexters out into S2 since they'd barely made a dent in the grass. I will need to put them into S1 pretty soon.
Into work for four hours. Project progress is slow but I am making some progress.
Dinner was polenta with squash and leftover chicken.
05/03/2009 Sunday:
I lazed around this morning but this afternoon I began weeding the cottage garden. I tossed several loads of weeds into the chicken pen and threw several wheelbarrow loads over the electric fence and into the Dexter pen.
I've decided to leave the Herefords out from the time I get back from work (around 3pm) to the next morning. I'll let the Dexters out to graze in the morning and early afternoon. They'll go out when I feed the chickens.
05/02/2009 Saturday: When it rained today it poured but in between the hard showers we got a lot of work done.
When Enrique and Aldo showed up to work, Enrique pointed out a little black lamb that obviously had been born recently and had snuck out through the futon gate Mike welded for me and which I was using perfectly well for the adults. It was born to Sara Beth (white spot on forehead) It was way over near the well house. I dried it off and put it back with its momma who seemed happy to see it. In my excitement I forgot to check the sex. That is something I'll have to do tomorrow. I'm betting its a female. It looks like a female but then I've been known to be wrong. Can't tell till you physically check.
Enrique and Aldo moved 4 bales of alfalfa to the goat pen as well as the feed from the back of my car. Three All purpose livestock feed went to feed the goats. I had them empty two bags into the feed garbage pail. Two alfalfa pellets went into the cow barn.
Four more alfalfa bales went into the Dexter stall for use when I didn't let them out. Enrique and Aldo moved those four bales of alfalfa to the Dexter stall using the tractor. The bales are so heavy that the ATV was struggling to carry more than two bales.
The guys cleaned up all the needles, moss and branches from the front door and from the back of the barn. The front needles went into the burn pile. The needles from the back were used to level a couple of low spots at the fenceline opposite the lean-to. It took them all morning to clean up the needles. They opened up the fence to make sure the ground was even on both sides of the fence. I had them separate the branches out. Those went to the burn pile.
Gabe swept the loft and tossed down a piece of carpet that I put in the brush pile. He also double-wired each of the hog panels to the t-posts on the outside of the pig pen but forgot to do the inside. I'll get him to do that next week. I think he didn't want to get in Aldo and Enrique's way.
I had the guys take a stock panel from the stack over to the sick bay stall. Gabe removed the useless wood after he cleaned the alleyway of dropped hay. Then the guys slid the stock panel in on the outside of the pen and tied it down with binding cord. It's a little higher for me to throw the hay over but I don't have all the pieces of wood sticking out causing trouble.
After lunch Enrique and Aldo finished making a 3 foot path along the fence-line on the inside of the wetland to make it easier for us to work on the fence if we need to. It looks really great. To get there they drove along the area between the median and the highway. I did not check to see if they cut all the way around the wetland. I also asked them to make sure the the grass is weed-whacked from under neath the fence.
After they finished the pruning in the wetland, Enrique and Aldo picked up at least two loads of branches from the creek bottom and put them in the burn pile closest to the house, the one that Chas burned last week.
I went over to Mike and Mary H's. My intent was to take over a load of coffee grounds but I forgot to put them into the jeep. I gave M & M all my aluminum cans. They'll make a little money off that and we don't have to do it. I also gave M & M a large egg carton with 18 eggs in it.
On my way over to M & M I dropped off a dozen eggs to Marie and her dad. Marie wasn't home but I left the eggs just outside the door where she'd be sure to see them. He dad picked them up and I waved to him on my way out.
The cows spent most of the afternoon out on the pasture. They did not want to come back to the barn and tried running away from me. I had my ATV and was able to herd them back to the barn under protest. It was a little slick trying to get back to the gate because of the rain.
The newest batch of chicks are doing well. So far no mortality.
Dinner was hot noodles with leftover steak, leftover stir fry veggies and lots of broccoli and diced onions. I got the spice down just right. It was magnificent. Chas loves hot noodles.
05/01/2009 Friday: Sunny all day, but started to cloud over a tiny bit toward evening.
Got a call first thing in the morning letting me know my chicks had arrived at the Post Office. I was asked if my regular delivery person could drop it off at my place. I said yes and they were waiting for me on the kitchen table.
It was a genuine struggle to put everything together for the new chicks. First I had to go pick up the rabbit cage that I'd been storing in the chicken coop. It was full of shavings. Took me awhile to get it cleaned out. Once I got the lamp set up I took the 6 Buff Orpingtons and put them in the cage. I still need to put chips in the bottom pan. Then I moved the ducks into the tub where I'd had the chicks. Lastly I cleaned out the duck tub because they'd managed to spray water all over the shavings. It was a mess and very wet. Once that was finished I got their waterer scrubbed and filled and also their feeder filled.
One by one I put the chicks into their new home after first dipping their beaks in the water. The hatchery gave me 27 chicks just in case one or two died. I ordered 25. Some of the chicks stretched under the heat lamp and just vegged out. Others ran about looking for more water and feed. It took a few minutes for everything to get sorted out but within half an hour the chicks were eating and drinking like old pros.
They're soft and downy. A few have brownish red down, some pure yellow and some just barely have color. It will be interesting to see what color feathers they fledge out to.
Worked at the Health Department but left at 1pm. The desk that I was working at was needed by the woman who works there occasionally.
I did stop at the feed store before going into work and purchased 2 bags of alfalfa pellets for the cows and three bags of feed for the goats. I also picked up a large chicken feeder (not the largest) and a small 18 inch long feeder for the chicks. Plus some sweet onion sets. Now I have to find a place to plant them. I think it will have to be in the cottage garden. They'll likely be harvested as green onions.
Pat did not show up today to start putting up the eves troughs. It is irritating when he doesn't show up.
I changed the cartridges in my HP printer this evening (not much of a problem) and printed out the tasks for tomorrow.
Tomorrow will be a busy day.
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