August 11-20 in reverse chronical order

08/20/2009 Thursday: Not as hot today as it was yesterday, thank heavens.

During chores I got the Dexter feeder cleaned out today and a new round bale put in. I have that dang steer which insists on getting into the feeder and peeing on the hay. After awhile the hay at the bottom gets really wet and then the other cows won't eat the hay because it smells so bad. I have to clean it out fairly often but it does make for heavy pitchfork work. I have to get inside the feeder, dig out the wet hay and toss it out and then pitchfork it away from the feeder so the animals can get up to the feeder. Double heaving. Anyhow, the feeder is clean but I was wiped out.

Chris got here around 9am and got some of the skip sheeting on our roof completed. We're having the roof re-roofed with forest green metal roofing.

I didn't realize how tired I was until I relaxed today. Every time I sat down I'd fall asleep. While I was napping Chas was putting a primer coat on some of the plywood that we're going to use on the underside of the deck, sort of like we did on the back deck.

I asked Chris to put up another piece of 2x4 on top side of the goat hay feeder so that the goats couldn't put their feet in the hay. Now they can only put their heads through - at least that's what I'm hoping. Yup, the goat who was doing most of the feet in the manger is doing it less. Just a small change and animal behaviors change.

The Herefords have almost finished the round bale we put in their feeder yesterday. I put them out to graze and will put them out tomorrow again. Late in the day we'll put out another round bale.

When the guys are here we'll put out the new protein block. They haven't had one for months although they have a variety of minerals and salt available to them ad lib.

08/19/2009 Wednesday: Way too hot. Hotter than yesterday.

Chris and Pat got the trusses on the deck in but they haven't been braced yet. They left around 12:30 because Pat needed to get ready to take the next four days off. He's going to the ocean for some fishing and R&R.

I talked to Pat about the "windows" that would have gone on the deck. Chas and I never have been very comfortable about the idea of having permanently installed vertical pull windows. Pat reminded me that we needed windows to stop the wind in the fall when we wanted to sit outside. We talked about other ways of handling the situation. Originally we'd wanted removable windows. Pat reminded us of that and suggested we use Lexan plexiglass windows that we could remove in the summer time and store. We thought that was a fine idea so that's what we'll do. Pat will frame in the space and we can buy the size of plexiglass for the available space.

08/18/2009 Tuesday: Hot. Sun.

After doing chores I slept till 10:45am. I guess I must have been tired.

When I was fully awake I went over to Tammy's and picked up the salmon and had a tour of her garden. The garden is designed around square foot gardening so the raised beds are designed in multiples of 4 (e.g., four feet wide by 4 feet wide, etc. They've already set up a place for their rabbits and are replacing the bad wire on the bottom of the cages they found. I promised Tammy that I would find some rabbit ads for her on craigslist.com.

It was really too hot for Pat and Chris to work today. Also, the plywood didn't come till after lunch, nor did the trusses so they got a late start. The plywood was $1008.00 and the trusses were over 750.00. Expensive day but having the trusses built and delivered was a lot less expensive than having Pat build the supports for the roof.

When it was cooler the guys came back and put the trusses into position. Pat has to readjust his side of the trusses since he was an inch off. Also, I reminded Pat that the two joists on the end were doubled. He was going to put the one truss where the roof comes down to each corner as a singleton but I distinctly remembered him saying that the truss at that end was a doubled truss. I saved him and Chris extra work.

Chas and I both took pictures of the truck and the crane putting the trusses up on the roof. They also moved the 35 sheets of plywood onto the trailer so that they wouldn't warp from being on the uneven ground. I paid Chris $40.00 for his work today even though he didn't work that many hours. He was on call most of the day. I thought given the work he did that $40.00 was just enough for his trouble.

I told Pat that we wanted the north and west sections by the corner pole to be open, to act as entrances. We'll make a short railing where the wheelchair ramp will fo bu the rest will be open.

Richard came by to put in some cams where Pat is building us our extended sofits. I had him wire them up all along the front of the house but the ones south of the door will be on their own switch so we don't have to turn them on if we don't want to. The lights will be on a three-way switch so that we can turn them on either from the front or back doors.

08/17/2009 Monday: Sunny all day. Not horribly hot but hot enough to make you sweat in the sun.

I asked Chris to remove the harrow I got from Jr. Kiser and straighten it out. He did. It looks mostly usable even if it is a little rusty from being stored in the open but buried in tall grass. After work he and I talked about building a corral, actually a bud box. I still need to get the two gates down from the most western pasture and bring them up to the area that I'm going to use for a corral.

I ordered another approximately $1000.00 worth of wood for the deck and for the roof. I ordered 150 - 16' long 1x4s and 35 - 4x8x1/2 inch CDX plywood plus 16p & 8p nails and a carbide saw blade and a box of Hammer Tacker staples. The plywood will be put on the deck roof and under the sofits. The 1x4s will be used as furring strips for the metal roof.

Chas and I put a Wally bale of hay into the Hereford feeder. As soon as the cows who were out in the pasture grazing heard the tractor they came charging up to get their hay. The pastures are so dry that I'm not sure they're finding much to graze.

Before dinner I took the four yellow squash Chas harvested two days ago and sliced them thinly and put them in the food dehydrator. Someone on one of my lists suggested that this was a good way to store the excess yellow squash and zucchini most gardens supply. People like to eat the "chips" as chips and others use the dried vegetable rounds in soups and stews. I thought I might as well try it so the circles are drying overnight.

Dinner was leftover chicken with french fries and steamed broccoli. We had blueberries and yogurt for dessert.

Tammy called to tell us she had caught an extra salmon and to ask if Chas and I would like to have it. I said yes and that I'd be over tomorrow to pick it up.

I just realized I forgot to enter the date that Wendy had her bull calf in my electronic record for her. Fortunately I'd written it down in my farm (and task) notebook. He's all black except for a spot of white on his pizzle. He's a big calf. Now, I'll update her record.

08/16/2009 Sunday: Cloudy and cool in the am; sunny in the pm.

I put the cows out early today. They'd eaten every lick of Wally hay that Chas and I had put in Friday afternoon. I figured they could get their fill of grazing during the day even though the pastures are pretty much dried up. Then I'd put in two or three bales of local grass hay this evening to tide them over till tomorrow. I'd have to give them three more bales tomorrow morning and then let them out to graze when I get home from the Health Department. Or, maybe I'd just let them out to graze when I did morning chores.

I watered the garden this morning. It's looking pretty good. New beet plants and chard plants are growing well. We have small Hubbard squash, not too many, but a few and there are more blossoms. The other sweet meat type squash also has a couple of squash on it. The chicks are eating the kohl-rabi. I thought it was slugs but it isn't. No slugs in my garden.

Chas asked me to water the plum tree that is near the gazebo. It has been dropping plums. Chas thought this might be a sign of water stress. We dropped the hose mostly on and let it run for awhile. I moved it twice more to get different sides of the tree. When I was moving the hose I noticed that there was plastic under the dirt almost up to the trunk. No wonder the tree is thirsty. It didn't get the benefit of the rains we had last week. I've made a note to tear out all the plastic around the tree and cut out the suckers.

Actually, I need to tear out all the carpet and plastic that's lying in the gazebo garden.

I put dinner on around 3pm. It was a small pot roast. I put in a layer of chopped onions, with carrots on top and a row of potatoes surrounding the outside of the pot. Then I cut the roast in half across the width and placed it on top. I covered the roast and veggies with a roasted garlic and pepper flavoring and threw it all in the oven with some water and a little bit of chicken bouillon. Later I cooked up yellow squash with onions to have as a side dish. Yum.

Jr Kiser came by just after I put dinner on and just as I was about to take off to do chores. He wanted to let me know he was at the old homestead and did I want to come pick up the harrow he had buried near a stack of wood. I said yes and grabbed the tractor. I carefully drove along the 30 foot wide right of way till I was almost there and then drove on the shoulder till I could safely cross the road. Once there it took me about 30 seconds to pick up the harrow and then another 5 minutes or so to wrap it up to attach to the chain for easier carrying.

Jr. didn't want any money for the harrow. It's pretty rusty and I'll have a devil of a time untangling it, but it will be a useful farm tool.

I want back the same way I came after about 30 minutes of farmer talk: pickup trucks (I want one), hay, animals and butchering. What else do farmers talk about?

Then I did my chores.

Fortunately I'd already made the bed so I could collapse in a heap and relax until dinner. Not that I did so much today but water the garden, weed a little and pick up the harrow.

I did put some more tasks on the to do list. Always more work to be done around a farm.

DSL went out again tonight. I had to reboot everything. And sooooo slow.

08/15/2009 Saturday: Overcast and only about 60 degrees F. It was cold sitting down eating lunch.

Enrique and Juan arrived to help out around the farm around 8am.

Since I had barely started chores I had the guys move 17 or so bales of hay into the Dexter feeder stall (Stall 1). I needed to have some loose bales in the stall so that when the round bale runs out I can feed the small square bales without having to go get them. They also put 6 bales into the goat barn. I sure appreciate having the hay close at hand. I also had them put one bale by the pen where I'm holding Pixie and her baby. Hopefully by Monday morning the baby will have bonded firmly to Pixie and won't go wandering off. She's really little.

I had Enrique and Juan move a bale of last year's hay to the pig pen and put the hay into the pigTel (actually a CalfTel that I'm using as a shelter for them. I was astounded to see that there was no hay left in their hut when I looked yesterday. They'd either spread it around their pen or had eaten it. I'm not sure which they did. In any case with the nights turning cold they needed the hay to keep warm. Now they'll be warm.

I washed out the dog igloo again and put it over by the side of the green barn. I will likely use it to shelter new piggies when they're just little instead of the dog kennel which they seem to like to trash.

As the guys were cleaning out the Dexter lean-to I noticed that one of the double lean-to roof supports in the lean- to has rotted out. It's just hanging there. Fortunately there are two posts holding up the roof in that section but the post in front will need to be replaced. Maybe that's something Chris and Pat can fix when they have a free moment.

Well, one of my Muscovy ducks hatched 13 ducklings over the past several days and brought them out to show me yesterday. Knowing that most of them would get trompled on by the goats I set up a large galvanized tub in the goat barn now that I have power out there, added a layer of wood shavings and a heat lamp, a feeder and waterer and had my more agile friends Enrique and Juan catchall but two of them using a fishing net and a bucket.

I told them to leave two with the mother. Well, I got 11 to put under the heat lamp and the momma got two as I requested. Hopefully she'll be able to keep the babies alive. And me, too. They seem comfortable now but momma duck was hovering around them for the longest time as they gave distress calls. They finally settled down and momma took her two babies out to feed them from the scratch I throw out twice a day for the ducks. Now I have chicken feed in the barn so they'll also get some of that along with the scratch. I may put out a pan of scratch where the ducks can get it but the little escapees (my latest batch of 100% Boer goats) can't.

The newest set of Boer kids are two months old and are nearly ready to be weaned.

I've been thinking about the goats. I think next year I'll sell most of the crosses for $30.00 about a month old when they're well started. I really want the milk for my pigs, not the babies. Course if I don't have pigs I can keep the babies longer. There's nothing like milk-fed pork. Yum.

Yesterday one of the construction guys who stopped by to harass Pat, my carpenter, saw the Pekins and said he might be interested in acquiring 1 or more of the ducks. As we chatted he mentioned that his grandparents had rabbit cages that might still be useful. I told him that I would be willing to barter with him if he was interested trading one or more three hole cages for each duck. He's going to look at the cages and see if they can still be used. Until recently they've been stored in the chicken coop. Now they're outside. We'll see how useful they are. I'm planning ahead. The cages are also useful for temporary older chick habitat, too.

I'm going to truncate the goat pen I have in the lean-to and hang rabbit cages under the stairwell. That's the nice thing about covered space. You can use it for many purposes.

I found another dead chicken. It was starting to smell which is how I discovered it. These Red Rangers definitely have to be harvested around 12 weeks or they just keel over and die. Bit of a disappointment. I think I will stick with Buff Orpingtons even though they grow more slowly. At least I can get eggs from them when they're 5 months old.

I had sort of expected Danette and her friend to come see the Welsh Mt sheep but her friend may not want them since they aren't registered. I'm about to put another ad on Craigslist if Danette's friend isn't interested. I appreciate Danette's efforts on my behalf even if they don't end in my selling the sheep.

I stopped in at a sign shop a week or so ago to get some idea of how much a HCDF farm sign would cost. I want one that I can hang additional signs from like: Beef for sale, Lamb for sale, ducks, chickens, etc. for sale. It looks as if the basic sign would be around $300 but that's for a double sided sign plus art work and maybe even one or two of my for sale items. Living along the highway has its advantages, namely, lots of eyeballs.

I can't decide what I want on my sign beyond the farm name and what??

We sure got lots of work done around here today: recently cut stumps from having the stumps ground out (the stump grinder cut most of the above ground wood out then ground the stumps down) got picked up and put on the burn pile, trash got picked up and the metal separated out from the burnables and pure garbage put where we can take it to the dump. Also some weed whacking done. The farm is looking better each weekend.

Getting the trash and waste wood picked up has made a big difference in how it looks around the construction site. We moved hoses and Rubbermade tubs to their proper places and got rid of lots of little bits of metal left over from Richard S's work on the well house. Not much actual garbage left over.

I need to empty the tin cans out of the garbage pail they're in and take them to the recycle center. Then I can move the empty cans down to the area under the deck for more recycle.

We also got most of the Dexter pen/lean-to cleaned out and the results spread on one of the extremely dry and not very productive Dexter paddocks the paddock next to the corridor pasture. I decided that it made more sense to put the loose/spilled hay and mostly composted litter directly onto the field so that we didn't have to handle the results twice.The field is a little lumpy because the litter is wet and harder to spread with the tractor bucket. Once it dries out we'll drag it and that will make it look better. Any kind of amendment helps improve fertility.

I plan to use some of the Dexter compost in my garden which needs it badly (that compost is closer to my garden than the Hereford compost pile is) and to spread it on other paddocks to improve the fertility of my yucky clay soil.

It's pretty amazing to me. The 10 cubic yards of chicken manure I put on two years ago is almost gone, devoured by the soil bacteria, I guess. I can tell because the soil is starting to form a crust when I water the plants when it didn't for the past two years. Makes it hard for seed to come up.

A week or so ago I direct seeded more beets and chard and still have a package of cylindrical beets to seed. I also planted more leeks inside in a plastic grape container. I guess this is the time to plant them for putting out before the first autumn frost. They're like hair right now but about 3 inches high. So cute at that stage. The leeks in my garden are beginning to get bigger.

We've been harvesting limited zucchini despite having 4 plants and yellow squash but I'm not sure we're going to get any Hubbard or the other winter squash by the time it gets really cold. Lots of flowers but no fruit. Oh well, this may not be the summer for winter squash.

The corn looks good. I have not squeezed any ears to see if they're filling out but will soon. The potatoes also need to be dug up. I'm not expecting much of a crop this year. I didn't keep them well enough watered and they just didn't thrive.

We definitely will not have to fertilize the road pasture. It has lots of compost on it.

Chas picked yellow squash and washed and cut them up for me to cook tomorrow night.

Dinner was chicken with rosemary potatoes baked in the over with beets. Hard to beat beets. They were really sweet. I'll be happy when we finish all the commercial chickens up so that I can harvest one of my roosters. I have a gimpy rooster that the others pick on. We'll harvest him first.

08/14/2009 Friday: Overcast and cool and somewhat gloomy.

Chas and I went to VJs to look at windows. Pat suggested a 4x4' window for each of the two bays. We're getting thermo-pane windows even though we don't really need them there because it's hard to find single pane windows these days. I found the one that I want. It's a vertical slider just the right size. Now I have to order two. Then Pat can get them framed in.

Pat and Chris began work on the sofits. They had to scab on a 2x4 to the existing 2x4s and add two pieces of plywood to support the horizontals and the angled 2x4s. They've done the section up to the door. Next week they'll be finishing up the west side of the house but that section will be trickier because it has shorter 2x4s sticking out to form the overhang. I'm going to be interested in seeing what Pat will do.

Chas and I ate out at Country Cousins. We'll likely not eat there any more since the food is overpriced and not all that good. It used to be good when we first came here but the food is no longer up to snuff. Plus it's crowded and noisy.

Tuesday the trusses will come. The truck will have a small crane to lift the main joist which, unlike the others, is not broken in half. We're building a hip roof over the deck. Lots of lovely triangles. Pat will need to figure out how much plywood we need to buy to cover the deck roof and then Chas will likely go to town with the trailer to save us a $15.00 delivery fee.

Chas and I put another Wally hay bale in their outdoor feeder. I moved the ring out of the dip that it was in by shoving it with the ATV. Worked like a champ. The ground was slick from waste hay so it slid really well.

I did not make a regular dinner tonight. We were still too full full from lunch. Chas had curried beans with tuna while I ate a bowl of cereal. Later we had frozen blueberries with yogurt.

One of the Muscovies who was setting had a boatload of babies. I'm going to steal some of the babies and raise them in one of the tubs to see if I can't get most of them to live. We lost all of one clutch and 6 of 9 in a second. This Muscovy had lots of babies. I'll leave her with two. Wonder if the other Muscovy will have babies. She started setting earlier but doesn't seem to have had any hatch yet.

Tomorrow we'll have to bring up the tubs, wood shavings, extension cord, heat lamp and feeder and waterer plus a cover to keep the ducklings warm and safe from most of the preditors. One of the tubs, the smaller tub, will stay outside the barn.

I also need to be thinking about expanding the pen that I have the St Croix ewes in since I'm going to be getting another ewe and her baby/babies in partial payment for Sweet Pea.

Cally is the cow that is limping. Her right hind foot seems sore. I wonder if she got kicked or if she has some kind of infection. Usually they don't get infections this time of the year.

Lots of jobs for the guys tomorrow.

08/13/2009 Thursday: Looks like sunshine all day.

Sherry here to clean.

Pat and Chris here to work on the deck. Today they're tearing off the eves troughs and facia boards. Looks like the only thing holding up the 2x4s that make the overhand is a 2x2 running along the side of the house. The guys are going to put in supports so that the roof overhand is less likely to come down when we walk on it. The overhang will be the same distance all along the house so that the large window in Chas's study and the one over the stairwell will be somewhat shaded. The overhang will be the same all around the deck.

Chris used the saws-all to cut the nails holding the facia board. Noisy bugger. I may borrow it to cut off the bent rebar that Mike gave me to use as a peg for the collapsible feeder.

Pat cut off the fancy ridge beam out about 2 feet so that when we put in the trusses everything will fit properly. Chris took off the evestroughs and facia boards. Then they left around 1pm. Dunno why. They just snuck out.

Chas went to town with my car and the trailer to get 2x4s and other wood for the deck and overhang.

When I checked over the garden I noticed that the row of chard I planted has sprouted and the plants are about 1.5 inches high. The beets have also sprouted. We'll have beets to eat soon.

Dinner was Mexican food: chimichangas. Pour salsa into a pan. Lay out frozen chimichangas, pour on more salsa, put grated cheese over all. Cover with aluminum foil, bake for an hour at 425 degrees F. Eat. Delicious.

08/12/2009 Wednesday: Actual rain this morning, not just drizzle. This should help the pastures.

I went into work today but I wasn't very productive.

Chas took the harrow he made of the crusher screen, railroad tie and chains and dragged the road pasture after we put a Wally bale of hay in with the Dexters and one in the Herefords outdoor feeder. It looks one hundred times better without piles of shit everywhere. His screen contraption works very well.

The Southwestern Washington Fair starts soon, I think on the 18th. Danette is going to show one or more of her Boer goats there. I may try to attend the fair on the day/s she's showing to offer support.

I made a stew with a package of our beef, purchased potatoes, carrots, an onion and green pepper. I made dumplings to go on top. Dumplings always make the stew tastier since I almost always add some sage to the biscuit batter.

08/11/2009 Tuesday: Light drizzle in the am. A small amount of drizzle fell in the afternoon.

Chris arrived around 8:30am. Apparently he was supposed to call Pat before coming into work. We got the problem of the roof trusses fixed. We'll have to cut 2 1/8th inches off each support post for the trusses to fit smoothly without a differential in the porch and house roofs.

Anyhow, I put Chris to work, and me too. We moved 100 or so bales of hay from the trailer where we'd been storing them and onto the stack in the bay next to where we store the trailer. I could have waited till the weekend but Chris was here and he sure can use the money. Plus, he's a nice guy. We put some of the hay bales in the back where I'd been taking out the less prime bales and stacked some in front. I think we only lost one bale due to improper handling (on my part).

Chas asked me to move the hay because he's going to drive down to Vancouver and pick up the trusses next Tuesday to save us $150.00. Personally I'm not sure my jeep will be able to haul that weight back but Chas seems to think he can. Oh well, if the transmissions goes, I'll just have to buy a pickup.

Aside from helping Chris move hay, I slept from after the hay move till it was time to do evening chores. My battery is running on empty and I sure must have needed the sleep.

Dinner was pizza. I did not feel like cooking.

Pixie finally had her baby. It's a heifer and a feisty little thing she is indeed.