There was a "tea party" like the Boston Tea party during the American Revolution outside the Health Department at noon today. The parking lot was the only area in the vicinity of the County Seat that has any space to meet and it's pretty tiny.
There was a lot of singing and talking and cars honking. I'm not sure what came of the meeting but there were lots of people and they were protesting. I believe there were tea parties all over the country. People are fed up with the government spending money on large organizations and not on the millions of people who have been laid off and who need help badly.
This evening I changed two geese around. The mean hen was already out so I grabbed her and put her into the outdoor pen with the male and female duck that I'd put in last Saturday. The nice hen was in with her boyfriend in with the goats. So, I just switched two ducks, one male and one female. Now the breeding ducks are in with the goats and the 2 makes and mean female are in the pen heading for the cow barn, or dinner.
My braces are killing me today. My whole jaw aches. Good thing I have an appointment next Tuesday. I know they can fix what's wrong.
04/14/2009 Tuesday: It was a mixed day, some rain and more sunshine.
I had a really relaxing day today. I needed it. In the morning I loaded Lucky, my dog, into the jeep and took off for Ethel and a feed store that Danette told me about yesterday. I bought some of their Boer goat feed, some medicated chick feed, a chick feeder (which I unfortunately left behind), some really good dog food and some barley-cracked corn mix for the ducks. I wanted to try feeding them something else besides straight cracked corn.
I drove down to Hwy 12 on I-5. On the way back I stopped and got gas and then went in to Spiffy's restaurant for a hamburger and coffee. I left Lucky in the car with the windows mostly open so he wouldn't roast in what passes for heat around here.
When we got back, I had just sat down to read my Farming magazine when I heard the dog barking. It was Mary and Gary N come for a visit. It was lovely to see Mary again and of course Gary is always a welcome visitor. We jawed and drank coffee until it was time for me to do my chores. I took the car to the green barn and offloaded the Boer feed and then unloaded the dog food and medicated chick food for the chicks that will be arriving sometime around the 29th of this month.
When I went to feed the Boer goat feed ( CHS Payback) I was surprised to see that it was a pelleted feed and not grains. I'm wondering how the goats will like it. I mixed some in with the grain mix I'm already feeding and will gradually switch over if the Boer goat feed works.
04/13/2009 Monday: Alternating bands of rain mixed with sunshine. When it rained it rained hard. When the sun shone, it was beautiful out.
I gave my presentation to the Lewis County Board of Health this morning. It was well received even tho' I'm afraid I did do a little lecturing. I didn't mean to but my years teaching couldn't be denied.
I visited Danette after work (5 hours today from 9am to 2:10pm) to take a look at her two new purebred bucklings. I selected and agreed to purchase the buck with the darker markings. Both little bucklings look really good. They're really husky and should add a lot of good meat quality to the mix. Both are chunky and have a great topline. I hope they don't throw double teats.
This new buckling is really meaty and at two weeks already weighs in at 19 lbs. That's about the size of my purchased 6 week old doelings. I couldn't believe the style and structure of that little buck. He's really going to improve the meat characteristics in my herd. He ought to be quite large, too. Danette says she's going to register him for me even though I'm breeding for meat sales rather than for breeding stock.
This weekend my current buck will be neutered. It's already on my list of things to do.
I also bought two Revere wear pots, both nice sizes from Danette. One is more like a sauce pan and the other is slightly smaller than the large pot I use to make stews and soups in, and also to cook spaghetti and other pastas in. This pot will do quite nicely for that purpose and for making smaller amounts of soup. Danette is getting ready to participate in a large garage sale.
I found out how the hen duck has been escaping. It has been climbing the cyclone fence flapping its wings madly. When it reaches the top it just glides to the ground. I've seen pictures of young chicks doing this on TV in those how-dinosaurs-became-birds specials. The chicks can climb a steep slope but I didn't realize birds could climb vertical fences this way.
She's been escaping because she prefers the dark and rough drake as a mate instead of the whimpy one I have her with. I watched them breed this morning. After breeding the male fell over on his side so I know the breeding was consummated.
So, I think I'll do some duck rearranging this coming weekend. I think I will change the location of the two sets of ducks. The ducks I have in the goat yard will go out to where I have the breeding pairs. I need to put the 3 foot wide green tin roofing sheets on top of the pen so that the ducks can't escape. I may use that pen for turkeys eventually.
Maybe the hen will stay put if I rearrange locations and mates. It was so weird watching her climb back into the outdoor pen. I grabbed her while she was in mid-air and put her in the pen by hand.
I think my Nubian doe, Marcy, the one that refused her babies may be letting them suck on her during the day. When I went to feed the babies this evening they seemed less interested in eating and the doe had a lot less milk than usual. I hope this is the case since it will save me from having to make sure they get their appropriate quantity of milk. The doe milks really well on one side and only adequately on the other so I rotate the bucklings on and off their mom until they both have full tummies. I let them nurse on the milk stand since that's easier for me to keep an eye on them.
Danette took the time to provide me with information on the cows milk/evaporated milk/buttermilk mixture (I wondered if yogurt would also work?). The mix does sound very healthy and the buttermilk provides good probiotics. (That's why I asked her about the yogurt addition).
In emailing Susie H this evening I had a eureka moment. I plan to put the unwanted ducks over in the cow barn to munch worms and fly larvae. (I just thought of using the ducks that way). My ducks are death on anything that's food, especially bugs. I only feed them cracked corn once a day at night so they have to forage for their food. They should keep the bugs down quite well and will eventually provide me with some good eating. I can put together a small pen for them to spend the night in over in the cow barn.
04/12/2009 Sunday: Rain, sometimes heavy, all day.
When I got down to the green barn to do the goat, sheep and duck chores I noticed one of the hens that I'd put into the new pen had disappeared. I looked all over for her including in the area where I keep the other ducks. She was nowhere to be seen but then just as I was leaving I noticed her in the barn with the goats. I think she's looking for a place to nest. During evening chores I grabbed her and reclipped her right wing. I circled the pen looking for possible escape routes several times. I couldn't find any. I suppose that means she somehow flew out.
Next weekend I'll put up several pieces of tin to keep the rain off the ducks. In the meantime I put a piece of tin against the shorter end of the pen and at a 45 degree angle so they'd have a place to hide from the rain until I got the roof on. It will really take two of us to get a 12 foot section of metal roofing up.
I got a such a workout yesterday that I slept for two hours this morning after chores. It felt great. There's nothing like a daytime nap for making you feel wonderful, wonderful but totally incapable of doing hard labor. Once relaxed it's hard to get moving again.
Still, the Herefords need their hay. I've been putting in bales of the new hay which the girls really like. Today is the day for putting in two more bales. The Dexters also need hay. After the Master's Golf Tournament was over and just about the time I got into the barn to clean out the feeders, Chas showed up.
We moved two bales of hay into the Hereford's feeder and one into the Dexter feeder. Neither group of cows was thrilled by the hay.
I'll have to speak to Wally about the hay. We're getting too much waste. I did ask him to save 20 bales for me but I may cancel that order if the hay isn't better quality.
I took the Dexters out of the pasture I'd put them in yesterday afternoon so that they wouldn't graze it down to nothing and so that they wouldn't pug the pasture too much in all this rain.
I put a pork roast into the slow cooker with a can of diced tomatoes and various spices and a dollop or two of BBQ sauce. The end result was served over rice and with peas. It was really tasty. I will have to start using the slow cooker more often.
04/11/2009 Saturday: Overcast with the occasional fine mist
This was a really busy day. I had lots of small tasks for my two friends to help me with.
During the course of the day we moved hay to the Dexter pen (6 bales) and to the goat barn (12 bales). Even though I feed the girls + Huck + the steer round bale hay, I keep square bales of hay around so that if I can't take the time to put in another round bale I can just put in a small bale or two and keep them happy.
The cows are especially happy now that I'm feeding some really lovely, fine stemmed hay that smells like it was just cut. The Herefords go nuts for it.
We moved the compost tumbler I got last week from Mike and Mary H to the area where I keep the compost. First we had to move the wire mesh surrounding the compost pile away from the existing compost heap. It took a few minutes to lift it up since it was stuck in the ground both by the bottom tines and by the volume of compost. The mesh was made out of stock panels that have 6"x 8" mesh and stood about 20 inches high. I cut the panel so that the bottom end was sharp and would stick in the ground. They sure did.
We scraped off the top, uncomposted, bits. There was enough there to fill the compost tumbler quite full. Still, I'm able to turn it. It's now way too heavy to move so I'll have to wait a few weeks to get the first batch of compost out before I can move it into it's final resting place. Lots of lovely manure worms for the chickens to eat.
We filled one of those 30 gallon plastic tubs with the rope handles full of compost from the bottom of the pile plus I probably have two more tubs there. I have lots of places to put the compost, that's for sure.
We moved three sheets of of 3' x 12' tin roofing to the "new" greenhouse and after lifting up the middle which was lower than the ends, we put two of the sheets on the two panels that made up the roof and set aside the third panel in case I want to make any changes.
The tin roof is not my preferred solution to the problem of having a roof because it cuts out some of the light but unless I can find 12 foot long pieces of fiberglass I'm out of luck I think. It would be difficult to put plastic on top without some support but I may try stapling the plastic to a 2x4x12' and putting the wrapped 2x4 up on the roof if I find I'm not getting enough light. I still have to wrap plastic around the sides.
This is a fairly thin plastic so I know that I'll have to replace it next year. But hey, I'll have a greenhouse.
While the guys were working on the greenhouse roof, I rounded up a bunch of the small bricks. Now I have a three-brick wide path with alternating bricks going more or less down the center in the interior. Enrique who has had experience laying bricks had to curve it at the front toward the center because the gate is not in the middle but rather to the right of the six foot section. I plan to put beds under benches that I'm going to make with 2x4s and wire mesh and put them up on two builder's blocks. We also used the left-over bricks to make a place to stand a small pot on.
Before Enrique could lay the bricks he had to dig out all the grass with a mattock and level the ground so it was a lot of work.
Isn't making a greenhouse a great use for flood damaged cyclone fence panels? As I said, I used the remaining panels to make a duck pen.
I planted a bunch of flowers and shrubs today while the guys were taking apart the gutters over the cow barn lean to on the hay side (at the front of the barn) so that they could clean them out. These guys are so great. They not only cleaned the inside but scrubbed all the algae and mud off the sides, top and bottom and replaced the sections. The dang things are covered with a mesh that was put on backwards which essentially means that the dang troughs have to come down to clean them.
This was another of the projects I've had on my list for two years. I'm happy to have that crossed off.
You'll remember I was going to separate the Muscovy ducks so that I have one drake and two hens in one pen. We built the pen last weekend. I left the two most unpleasant males and the even worse tempered hen in with the two males. I expect they will generally make her life miserable until I can find homes for them. I may harvest the hen if I can get my gumption back. The ducks that got moved seem happy in their new home. I'll be putting them in a duck tractor when I get one finished.
I had Enrique cut two 6 foot sections out of two 16 foot sections to make my second tractor. I've started bending rebar to make an arch to support the tarp roof. I need to find some fasteners that will allow me to attach the 1/2" rebar to the slightly narrower top of the hog panel. I'm sure that electricians have something I can use. I just have to find them and try a couple out.
We moved feed from the trunk of my Jeep to the cow barn feed storage area.
After we finished at the greenhouse (to be), I had the guys pick up fruit tree prunings and put them in one of the monster burn piles.
Enrique and Juan were dropped off by friends who didn't come get them till after 5:30. While they were waiting to be picked up, I asked them to pound in some rebar and we started a temporary paddock where Chas can't mow the grass. The temporary paddock looks a little strange because we had to fence the Dexters out of the beautiful trilliums that we have growing on our treed mounds. It's really gerrymandered. We got that done and maybe tomorrow I'll string polywire and will coax the Dexters out to munch on quite thick and succulent grass.
All in all it was a successful day. By the time we were done and I got the chores finished, I felt like my knees had ground glass in them. Walking was an effort. Dang this arthritis.
The new baby bucklings are doing well even being fed twice a day. The two cross-bred doelings I got a few weeks ago look really good and are growing like weeds. I'll likely have to wean them soon although there's less of a problem since I decided to supplement with cow milk replacer. Pound for pound it's a lot cheaper than goat's milk replacer and now that the two doelings are eating grain, the milk has become more of a treat than a necessity.
I enjoy feeding them their bottles, so they aren't weaned yet. I was almost done with the 20 lb bag I bought to feed them when I got them. The doelings didn't really like the taste at first of the goat milk replacer but they sure like the cow milk replacer. That's nice to know because for what I paid for 20# of goat milk replacer I can buy 50# of calf milk replacer. Since I almost always have a bag of cow milk replacer I'm set for disasters.
Cally is in season again and all the small bull calves are trying to breed her including her own baby. The little red bull is likely to be successful.
04/10/2009 Friday: Overcast and the faintest of drizzles most of the day.
Mike and Mary showed up about 9:30am with the revolving compost barrel/tumbler on a stand and a welded gate. I am going to replace the existing compost heap with the revolving compost tumbler.
Chas and I cooked pork spare ribs, a huge potato that we shared and carrots for dinner.
04/09/2009 Thursday: Overcast with some rain late in the afternoon and evening.
On my way into the Health Department today I stopped at the Farm Store to buy two 33 lb protein blocks. I want to put one of the blocks in the calves pen and will keep one as a replacement when they finish munching on the one I'll put in tomorrow. I also picked up some pour-on Ivermectin and a bag of All purpose livestock for the goats and sheep.
Now if I can only figure out how to get the Ivermectin on their backs. Maybe I can sneak in some pouring when they're busy eating.
I still have two bags of all-purpose poultry in the back of my car from my purchases at Del's yesterday but I think I will store it in the cow barn till I need it at the chicken coop.
I came home way too tired after work today. I was glad to get home and get the evening chores done.
I cooked BBQ'd pork ribs with baked potatoes and peas. I was going to cook a pumpkin pie but forgot about putting it in the oven. Also, by the time we finished eating we were both too stuffed to eat another bite.
I took one of the 6 foot long sections of rebar that I got as a barter last year for the leftover horse feed to the green barn and measured it on the top of the little goat pen. It works. In fact the rebar sections are a little long. I'm wondering if Mike can make the rebar sections arched. He may have his own ideas about what I want.
Mike and Mary are coming by tomorrow to drop off some things such as a compost tumbler that they rescued from the floods and which Mike has put back together and a gate made of two welded together futon backs. Then I'll give Mike the other futon sections I have and will ask him to weld those together to make two more gates for me. You can never have too many gates.
I want to replace the existing open compost pile made with sections of stock panel with the compost tumbler. It will look much better and should be easier to work with since it's up higher. I'm supposed to turn the tumbler every day. The turning makes compost even faster.
I also want to set up an earthworm bin to provide a source of worms for my chickens.
I revised the Excel Worksheets that I'm using to collect tax information. Each of the taxable sections is broken out into multiple spreadsheets instead of one worksheet.
04/08/2009 Wednesday: Overcast and gloomy but no rain all day. We're expecting it this evening.
Nothing special occurred during either morning or evening chores.
More progress on the work I'm doing for Lewis County but it was rather slower than I would have liked. Publisher allows you to make charts within the documents that are produced if you want a chart. Unfortunately, I've forgotten how to make charts in Excel so am having to relearn everything. I expect I'll speed up when I remember what I'm supposed to do to get certain kinds of graphs.
I'm going into work tomorrow since I will be meeting with the guy from the Extension Office, Fredricks, Gary
04/07/2009 Tuesday: Another lovely day - more sunshine.
When I did chores this morning I discovered that one of the little doelings born yesterday had disappeared. I wonder if I have some kind of predator that took her. I looked all over for her. She may have crawled under or behind something but I sure couldn't find her. The other doeling seems ok. She's sleeping and her tummy feels like she had something to eat. Her mom doesn't look as if she's well. I may have to give her an antibiotic shot if she doesn't start looking better within the next day or so.
The other little doeling is now critical (evening chores). Her mother is also not taking care of her babies. No milk. I thought she'd had some first milk but apparently not. She was almost stone cold when I found her this afternoon. I dashed up to the house and tried to warm her up but I do not have high hopes for her survival.
Although I tried to warm her up, she died around 9pm.
These were two purebred Boer doelings and I really hate to lose them both.
Looks like I'll have two moms for sale/meat when the one finishes raising her babies and the other when she recovers from the birth. It's sad, but true, that keeping goats that make more work for me just doesn't work out.
It was a busy day. Everyone wanted to come by. Gary N came by to chat and to look around the farm. I told him about Bill W's diabetes because he'd been wondering why he hadn't seen Bill for awhile. We had a great visit.
Just as Gary was leaving his nephew, Mike N, came by with my ATV all fixed up and ready to go. I was very happy to have it back as I really depend on that vehicle to move things around the farm. It only cost me about $280 to have a new battery put in, all the servicing done and new oil and a proper spark plug (supposed to be a #8 and we had a #6 in it. #6 runs way too hot for the ATV). Mike also drained the gas tank. I'd managed to put diesel fuel in the tank. What I thought was gas because it was in a gas can, not a diesel can, turned out to be a mix of diesel and gas from when we mixed diesel and gas in the tractor last year. Chas still hadn't used it all up and put it in the place where I usually reach for the gas.
When I filled up the tank today I made sure the red container also said gas.
After that the Sullivan Pest folks came out to do our quarterly spraying for yellow jackets and other wasps. He also gave me some mouse pellets to put in the basement.
Wally said he would show up at 3:30pm to drop off 50 bales of good grass hay but he didn't show up till 5pm, just after I'd put dinner on. The bales look pretty good. I'll be putting most of that hay in with the goats to feed to them since I don't have a good pasture area set aside for them.
Fortunately Wally had a helper because I just didn't have the strength to do much more than roll bales closer to where the bales were supposed to be stacked.
Then the excitement was over for the day. I came in and we ate dinner.
Of course I fell asleep for about a half hour after dinner. It always feel good to sleep. The little goat was lying on my stomach and managed to pee all over me. I was saddened when she died. I still can't figure out where the other goat disappeared to. It will drive me nuts.
I also didn't get around to moving the ducks into their new pen. I think I'll just capture the three I want to move and hand carry them outside to their new pen.
Finally after two years I got Mystical and Precious's names on their InfoSelect records. Now I can transfer the information to my Ranch Manager Livestock Edition database.
04/06/2009 Monday: Another day of wonderful sunshine.
The older Muscovy hen has discovered that both her wings work (I have to reclip one of her wings to keep her from being able to fly) and has been flying out of the night pen. I've pretty much decided to keep her and the two males in with the goats till I can get rid of them and put the other two females and one male into the pen I built of the cyclone dog fence panels I bought from Mike and Mary. The flying duck is older and likely won't lay eggs.
It's probably not fair to keep her with two males but she's a tough old bird and has the other ducks definitely under control.
On the way into the Health Department I stopped and picked up a bucket that hangs on a 2.x6, a bag of grass seed and a bag of sunflower seeds. I mix the sunflower seeds with cracked corn for the chickens. Some of the sunflower seeds get put into a bird feeder for the wild birds. The bucket is for Three, my Milking Shorthorn steer. I don't like the flat boxes that hang on wood for calves. They work better as feeders for goats and sheep.
The grass seed is mostly rye. I plan to plant it in the pig pen for the pigs to nibble on.
I got quite a bit done at the Health Department today. Now that I have a Publisher template or three to work from (thanks to Lincoln County, WA), I can begin setting out all the indicators. I finished the first page which was a demographic and socioeconomic factors page along with two geographical elements which I'm not sure we want to keep and made a separate indicator page for most, but not all of the indicators we want to discuss in the final Indicators document.
I was so involved in the project I worked an extra 3/4 of an hour longer. I usually leave at 2pm.
When I got home shortly after 4pm Chas and I moved two round bales into the Hereford's pen (after I scraped away some of the yucky hay and muck from the outside of the feeder) and one bale into the Dexter pen.
The Dexters have nibbled the grass in the expanded pasture down to nothing. I'm thinking of reducing the winter pasture by about 15 to 30 feet and expanding the pasture to the south of the winter pasture. I need to find the proper paddock size. Once I have the proper size I will put in a permanent fence with at least three strands of wire.
My small doe had two doelings today probably late in the afternoon. She's been lazing around for the last two days so I knew something was up. I gave her a drink of molasses water to give her some energy. She drank quite a bit and seemed to perk right up. Violet had a drink and so did Marcy.
I'm not sure she's fed her babies yet but will capture her tomorrow when her milk is out in force and help the babies to nurse so that they get some colostrum. If she doesn't seem to be feeding them I will tie her up and help them nurse. Failing that they'll get powdered calf's milk or I'll buy some more goat milk replacer.
The little bucklings have figured out how to escape from the large goat pen. I may have to move Freddy and Blanche in with the large goats soon so that I can put the new doelings in the pen Freddy and Blanche are in now.. They'll be two weeks old around April 19.
Dinner was left-over roasted chicken with an Indian garbanzo bean sauce over rice. Hard to beat garbanzo beans in a hot Indian sauce.
04/05/2009 Sunday: Lordy, Lordy. Two days of sunshine. It is so hard to believe. The grass is definitely growing.
I was going to move the ducks into their new pen and separate out the two males that I think I'm going to sell. Alternatively I could butcher them and have them for dinner, and invite friends over to enjoy them with me. I did other things instead since I wasn't sure I would have the energy to wrestle some protesting Muscovies.
This morning I sat down after chores to listen to Face the Nation and fell asleep about a third of the way into the program.
Around 11:30am, all rested, I took 18 eggs over to Marie K and a dozen eggs over to Bill W. Chas and I have been wondering where Bill was because he usually comes for a visit once or twice a month. It turns out that Bill has been drinking a lot, peeing even more, having day and nighttime sweats and generally feeling really fatigued. It turns out that he has major diabetes. His blood sugar level was over 500. Marie tells me that he's eating baked chicken and fish and steamed potatoes and has lost weight. He's also walking and taking his blood sugar regularly. I guess he's feeling better now.
I went out to the Tack Room to assemble the chemicals needed to do some spraying. The weeds and grass are growing at a horrific rate. If I don't do some spraying soon we'll end up with knee high weeds. I sprayed around the flower beds and
Anyway, I sprayed around most of the existing flower beds near the house and the walkways for most of the cottage garden. I even managed to spray some of the weeds in the flower beds. I also sprayed along each side of the road that divides the two gardens.
I felt so good afterwards even though I was really tired and my knees hurt. Two three-gallon loads of spray is about as much as I can handle in a morning or afternoon. After that it ceases to be fun.
When I was done I fed the beasties. The newest goats are doing well. They're up and about and definitely protesting their lack of food. Once I get Marcy up on the milking stand and she's settled down I get the two babies and put them on her. They're still not exactly sure what to do and because the top of the milk stand is so slippery, they're always flopping off the milk stand. I can occasionally grab them as they go down, but not always.
The bucklings get their milk. Once they're done feeding they go back into the goat pen but I bring them out for another round when Violet gets on the stand. Violet isn't too sure about the new babies but I only let them feed for a short time, just to top off their momma's milk.
I had mistakenly left the gate to the great outdoors open and Violet took the opportunity to go walkabout. Fortunately she was more concerned with grazing than she was with escaping. We did do a little walking about but neither of us got exhausted.
Chas and I sat for awhile after chores and watched the humming birds. Chas must have magical hands because there are many humming birds of more than one color. The property sure looks wonderful.
Dinner was squash with roasted, BBQ'd, chicken breasts with baked potatoes. Yum.
I'm running late today. I just finished making the bed (9:05 pm) and throwing my farm clothes in the dryer. I also put in a second batch of work-type clothes that I'll likely dry tomorrow morning when I pick up the first batch of work clothes so that I'll have something to wear to do chores in.
04/04/2009 Saturday: Oh joy. The sun shone all day. That let me work outside and lifted my spirits tremendously.
Today was a wonderful day. The only problem was is that I wore myself to a frazzle.
I had my usual struggle with Marcey to get her to accept her bucklings nursing her. She'd better shape up or she'll be harvested. I actively dislike animals that cause me more work. Other than the struggle to get the goatlings fed, morning chores got done satisfactorily, except the when Enrique and Juan showed up I totally forgot to let the ducks out of their evening pen.
Gabe didn't show up but Enrique and Juan did. We got a lot done.
I had the guys clean two metal water tubs out thoroughly and haul them down to the loom room door. When they emptied my car of the feed, I had them move the bale of wood chips down to the lower deck so that when the tubs dry out I can drag them inside the loom room and fill the bottoms with wood chips. Now all I need to do is to get the heat lamp and feed and water containers and I'll be ready for the shipment of chicks that will be arriving sometime after April 29 from the east coast.
While I was finishing my chores I asked Enrique and Juan to take down the stock panels that I'd put up last year for my greenhouse. After seeing them sag significantly in one of our ice storms I knew I had to try something else. The guys took them down and I brought the tractor over with the forks and we hauled the three stock panels over to lean against the side of the green barn. I had to back up from the chicken house to the end of the cottage garden very carefully. The road is less than 10 feet wide and the stock panels are 16 feet wide.
Mike and Mary H supplied the alternative when they brought over several cyclone fence panels (10 panels, two of which have doors). It took us several hours to move the six panels to the potting shed and get them installed. One of the ends was a panel with a door. Very convenient.
I moved the car to the cattle barn and emptied feed into the proper containers so that I'd have space to put the new feed, not that there was much of it. Some of the feed got moved to the chicken coop (via the tractor since the ATV isn't back yet from being repaired) and some from the cow barn got moved to the goat pen.
I asked if the guys would put bucket loads of wood chips in with the chickens. I was getting tired of the slime in the chicken pen. The shavings will make the area look better and will be easier to walk on. It definitely looks much better.
Next we put wood shavings in the middle stall where I give the Dexters their treats. There was so much churned up mud and poop that we had to lay in several loads of wood chips before Enrique could venture into the stall to dump successive loads. He drove in, dumped a load and Juan and I forked wood chips into the tractor tracks to make the surface more solid. We finally got to the end of the stall but it took awhile. We put lots of chips at the entrance so that the animals wouldn't sink to far into the stall.
I decided that I wanted a duck pen away from the goats. I want to separate the excess males so that the females don't always look so harried. The one-to-one male-female ratio just doesn't work very well (same as chickens. Only one rooster per 15 hens). The ratio of drakes to hens is 1-3 or 1-5. Soon that will change.
We made the Dexter winter pasture much larger, actually more than doubled the size by removing the temporary fence posts I'd put in to support the polywire. We also removed the two t-posts that were at the far end near the permanent cross fence but left them there for us to re-pound in somewhere else. I need to make a cross fence so that they'll stay in the enlarged pasture so that I can plant some grass seed next fall.
In preparation for Wally to show up to deliver 50 bales of hay I had Enrique and Juan move 6 bales of old hay to the Dexter feeding area. I was expecting to move at least 6 bales of the higher protein hay into the Dexter area when Wally showed up but Wally never showed up. I was unhappy about that because he promised to be here at 1pm so that I could have Enrique and Juan stack the hay. Grrr.
Enrique and I also put the light that was hanging on one of the large trees we had cut down two years ago up on the edge of the porch.
My knees were killing me all day. They were really hurting. Made work not very pleasant.
I dragged in around 4:30 and had to sit for half an hour to get my strength back. Chas put the water on so that I could make a cup of tea. It was wonderful.
Chas started bangers and mash so that's what we had for dinner.
04/03/2009 Friday: Sunshine more often than rain today. Everyone's spirits were definitely up.
I worked on a PowerPoint presentation for the Public Health Director, Kathleen for a Board of Health meeting on the 13th. That's about all I was able to get done.
On my way home tonight I stopped at Del's to pick up a bucket that will hang on the gate, 2 bags of alfalfa pellets and one bag of alfalfa cubes. One of the bags is for the goats. The other pellets and cubes are for the cattle. After that I visited the used bread store (Franz) to get some of our favorite bread, western hazelnut. Chas really likes this bread. It isn't inexpensive but it sure is good tasting. After doing my weekly grocery shopping I came home and tried out a new recipe that I chanced on today. It's Cheese Tortellini with Beans and Vegetables. I used shredded zucchini since that was all I had and some chili beans instead of kidney beans. Chas said it was a winner.
Chas said the little Dexter steer slipped under the fence and was busily munching away on what little grass there was in the second paddock to the left (south) of the winter paddock. I decided to let all the Dexters in to get some grass. I'll put them out tomorrow morning after they've grazed.
Once I get the fence fixed on the south side I will open the gate after I fence it off so that they'll only eat a section at a time, and let them graze last year's taller grass and this year's tender grass down. The pasture is about 50 feet wide at the east end and down to about 35 feet on the west end before it turns the corner toward the highway. Remember the central haying field has a corridor that runs all the way around the field.
Big day tomorrow. I should plan on getting to bed fairly early tonight as the guys will be arriving early.
04/02/2009 Thursday: No rain so far (10:15 am) and even a few rays of sunshine for a few minutes earlier in the day. Now, it's overcast again and will likely rain later on (which it did). Tomorrow it should be reasonably nice.
Sherry showed up this morning to help clean. I tidied up the piles on the floor of my study and put the unread farming magazines in a box I brought in from the living room.
So far there's no boxes of magazines at my feet where I sit to watch tv. The new (garage sale) rug is working out although it isn't as large as the other rug. We just put a small area rug over the tv cables so that we wouldn't catch our feet on them. We probably should reposition the cables since it's unlikely we'll want to rearrange the living room/tv viewing area. Right now it works quite well and doesn't block any paths through the living room.
I did move the large couch closer to the south window to give us some room in the doorway area to the back deck. I want to move the rocker-recliner over to the fireplace. That will open up the living room somewhat.
So, things I want to do in the near future.
1. Plant the plants I bought last week.
2. Move hay to the Dexter pen and stack along the wall as emergency hay. I can feed square bales when its not convenient to feed a large round bale.
3a. Remove center fence in the northwest pastures and replace with a corridor made with temporary fencing.
3b. Divide the area up into paddocks. I'm still not sure about doing this job.
3c. Remove gates from western dividing fence and put under fir tree near the gate into the road pasture.
3d. Replace former gates with wire/polywire strands with gate hooks.
4. Divide the remaining large pastures into paddocks.
5. Fix the broken wires in the electric fences.
6a. Remove the three stock panels from the side of the potting shed
6b. Stack the panels against the green barn. They'll be used to enlarge paddocks for the goats. One panel will be used in the right hand stall to prevent escapes.
7a. Bring six cyclone fence sections to the potting shed and set up a greenhouse. Use one of the sections that contains a gate.
8. Make a duck pen from the remaining cyclone fence sections. (Not sure where I want the duck pen to go yet.
9a. Rearrange the Dexter winter pasture so that they have more space.
9b. Add another strand of polywire to the Dexter paddock fences.
This afternoon just when I went down to the green barn to feed the critters, Dena and Tammi showed up. We all went to the barn to see the two new crosses: Freddy & Blanche. I let Dena feed them.
Then I heard the unmistakable sound of new babies. Marcy had had two doelings. They were still wet and covered with birth goo. I dried them off with a rag and tried to get them to nurse. Marcy wasn't having anything to do with the babies yet but I expect as her bag fills out she'll want the relief and will let them nurse. If not, I'll milk her out and will feed the babies myself with a bottle. Milking her will be a bit of a struggle but she'll learn how to be milked or will be butchered. I won't have animals around that don't take care of their young.
Dinner was leftover soup with homemade bread.
04/01/2009 Wednesday: Rain all day, not a downpour but steady rain. Not fun.
Into the Health Department today. Not a productive day because I had several meetings. My first meeting with John A lasted a half hour and gave me a huge list of things to do while John is away getting training for the next two weeks.
Kathleen, the Director, asked me if I would do a presentation before the County Commissioners on April 13. It's sort of last minute and I have 5 minutes to talk. I've already done a first draft and hope to do more tomorrow. Plan to emphasize why public health is important to me and to the community.
I also met with Doug W briefly.
When I got home and changed clothes Charles and I put two round bales in with the Herefords and one into the Dexter feeder before I did my evening chores. I gave them bales of hay to tide them over this morning but I must admit they were quite happy to see the hay.
Wedgie is limping more than he was a week ago. I wonder if his hip is acting up more than usual? Or maybe it's healing and the cold damp weather is aggravating it. He's certainly eating well. I'm giving him and Three grain twice a day although I've cut back a little since they're both getting soft poop. I think I need to cut back even more.
Dinner was salmon burgers with potatoes and two large artichokes.
I need to figure out what to do with my Muscovy ducks. I need to put them in a different area/pen so that I don't have to keep moving them in and out of their existing pen and so that they can begin breeding in comfort.
I want to use some of the dog panels Mike and Mary gave me for a green house. After some consideration I don't think the stock panels are actually what I want. I believe I have 11 cyclone fence panels, one with a gate. If I put one panel out from the potting shed at each end and two along the side plus two for the roof I will only use 6 panels. That will leave me with 5 panels plus shorter panels to use elsewhere.
Any remaining panels I plan to use for the duck pen. With any luck I can use the side of the barn to create their pen. Ideally the ducks should be on the side which has easy access to the water hose since they use up so much water in their daily living. I know I'll figure something out. I'll put a tarp across part of the top and the weather side to give them shelter from the rain and too much sun.
I don't want to use the existing calf pen since I plan to get at least one more Milking Shorthorn calf to my herd for reselling and I prefer to keep them outside in the round house until they're smart enough to go into their house when it rains.
So many ideas, so little time.
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