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.