August 21-31 in reverse chronical order

08/31/2009: Monday. Overcast with the occasional spit of rain. It's supposed to be sunny.

Pat and Chris arrived around 9am. They're cutting the furring strips on the roof and did some work on the sofits. The left at 2:30pm.

I went to use the lights in the cow barn but they didn't turn on. It looks as if the circuit breaker was tripped. Wonder how that happened. I asked Chas to check it since he was going that way. He said that the circuit breaker had somehow tripped. He reset it and tested the lights. They work now.

I talked with Danette around 5:30pm. She has more meat customers than she can provide meat to. She and I talked. If she can find me buyers for my excess cattle I will pay her $25.00/half for the referral. Seems fair to me. She also shared some of her promotional material with me. She recommended that I not discuss the sex of the animal but instead use the term Hereford beef, a more generic name with no sexual connotations. Many people are put off by the possible killing of females. Me, too, but selling breeding stock is impossible these days. No one wants to overwinter cattle. It would sure help my bottom line if I could sell a few cows.

Danette sells her meat for $2.75/lb but that includes the kill fee and the cutting and wrapping. She also takes payments so that folks don't have to fork out a large amount of money when it comes time to pick up the meat. She says Joe at Salmon Creek Butchery will pick up final checks. If people have overpaid because the animal doesn't weigh as much as Danette thought it would, she immediately reimburses the amount of the overpayment.

She also provided me with cover letters and recommended I get a Web site. Hard to believe that someone who was so adamant about people having Web sites in her work life now doesn't have one of her own to market her own beef.

I cooked the last of the pork chops tonight, I think. They need using up. Pork just doesn't last that long, about 7 months in the freezer. Chas made zucchini/yellow squash surprise with tomatoes and herbs. I also cooked French fries. It was a tasty dinner.

I'm gradually turning my Yahoo groups to Special Notices for groups I'm not reading. That should cut down on the number of digests I get in any one day. There will be more as I try to free up some time.

08/30/2009: Sunday. Sunny all day and about 72 degrees F. Just right. No rain till Thursday, I think.

This morning a family came out to purchase a goat to be a companion to their gelding. Wed or Thursday I'll be taking at least three goats over to Danette and Joe's place. I need to double check to make sure that I have two doelings and three wethers. Got $60.00 for Marcy's doeling.

Chas and I put in a new bale of Wally hay into the Hereford's outdoor feeder. I took two square bales and a bunch of the Wally hay which had dropped off the round bale and put it into S1 for the Dexters. They grazed on that hay for a long time. This evening I added another square bale to the Dexter feeder. The little devils had reached under the gate and had devoured most of a bale and made a mess of another. I moved the bales away from the door but I may have to put in a better barrier to keep them from devouring the square bales. Honestly, you'd think I never fed them. They still have uneaten hay in their round bale feeder.

I dashed over the Tami's place after lunch to pick up some green beans she'd picked for me. I took her a dozen eggs. Took the dog with me. He likes to go for car rides.

I had awful leg cramps last night and a couple today. I have no idea what is causing them unless I'd somehow dehydrated.

Dinner was green beans, baked potatoes and salmon burgers. Not very inspired but then neither was I.

Note from Susie today. We're trying to resolve the problem of Noel and her cysts and her inability to breed again. And her acting like a bull.

08/29/2009: Saturday. Overcast but no rain. Not very warm but clamy.

We totally cleaned out the Welsh Mt sheep pen this morning including removing the compost pile that I'd made over the past year. All the waste hay is gone; we even used a leaf rake to rake up all the poop pellets. It looks so clean there now. The guys got a little carried away and cleaned out the sleeping area too so I had to lay down new hay but hey, the place is sparkling clean now.

We removed all the waste hay in the goat feeding area, too. I kept tripping over the mounds of loose hay and finally couldn't stand it. It's nice to go into winter with pens thoroughly cleaned out. Next comes the goat pen and the St Croix ram pen.

I've been gradually scrubbing each of the water tanks with a small scrub brush. They do look much better now.

My helpers spread the waste hay and pen cleanings on the north side of the driveway. I didn't see much point in making yet another compost pile when the hay and pellets would just break down over the winter right in the pasture.

I had them move some rocks into the cottage garden. They used them to line a new flower bed near the chicken coop. I'd had Enrique move three tractor bucket loads of compost from the Dexter pen to the beds last week. Today we smoothed out the compost and broke up a lot of the lumps. It looks as if I need to add another three loads to raise the bed up some more. I might have to move a few rocks into the bed a little as they encroached on the path some but that won't amount to much work.

I was off building one of those triangular feeders that I saw at the SWW goat show while they were laying in the river rock. Since I saw them at the Fair I wanted something that the three wethers and two does couldn't put their feet (and whole bodies) into. Using one of those protein block tubs just didn't work for obvious reasons: big flat surface with plenty of space to squat and pee or poor. Anyhow I had a piece of hog panel that had gotten squashed under a tree during the storms in 2007 that I was saving. I was able to find just enough unbent wireon it to turn into the feeder. I just tied everything together with binding twine to make sure it would work properly.

Speaking of protein blocks/tubs, I purchased a 250 lb block/tub for the Herefords at Del's. The price was right but the cattle ate it way too fast. It was completely gone in less than a week. I really prefer the harder molassas-based protein blocks I get from the Farm Store. They last quite a bit longer, at least two-three weeks. I like the protein blocks as they really compliment the grass hay I'm feeding, adding some protein and energy to the cow's diet. I'm saving the alfalfa till the chill of winter has set in. I also have second cut orchard grass at Victors. He's storing it for me until I have the space.

The last thing we did today was to clean out the gazebo garden. It was getting hard to walk around the garden and to see what few flowers are in there because it had grown up so much since we last cleaned it out. Way too many blackberry vines and elderberry branches. Now I can see the flowers. We took out one ATV trailer load and put it on yet another burn pile.

More undergrowth to take out next weekend. I also want to rip up the carpet and plastic that the previous owner put down to keep down the weeds in the gazebo garden. They totally covered the ground under my plum tree so that it doesn't get any water. I think we can handle the weeds with a sharp hoe or pruning shears depending on how far ahead of me the undergrowth gets.

I just talked to Bob F to ask about my bull calf. He said he only has two bull calves. He'd gotten rid of most of his herd in January (I'd forgotten he told me that) so only has 4 spring babies. He's planning on selling me one and castrating the other for meat for his freezer so Bob just won't be a source this year. Sorry. He did say that he's likely to have more steers next year. He might be someone to keep in your rolodex as a potential source of private treaty steers.

The bull calf that Bob has in mind for me has a slightly darker coat than the other. That's the one he'd keep for himself if he needed a new bull calf.

Victor has four of Bob's steers from last year or the year before last and they're wonderful looking. Real chunky/meaty looking. I saw them at Victor's when I went to order more hay a month or two ago.

I expect that bull calves will be higher priced next year as there are going to be a lot fewer beef animals. Nearly everyone has cut their herd sizes after last year's high hay prices. Even my friend Gary has reduced his herd considerably and will be buying three females from me next spring to raise up for meat for his customers. And Bob as well.

The Dexters as wonderful eating. If I were raising another steer for myself I would raise a Dexter. That way I could keep the entire animal. Dexter steers take between 24-28 months to mature to butchering weight. The older Dexter steer will be 24 months next March. Some grain for three months and he'll be ready to harvest.

Actually I have never eaten a Dexter but the blind taste test that was done in 2008 by a group of rare breed animal owners placed the Dexters in 3rd place after two really exotic and very rare cattle, cattle I'd never heard of. My friend Susie charges $4.50/lb for her Dexter meat and has more buyers than she has animals but then she lives up north in Snohomish where there are people with more of a disposable income than we have around here.

I expect I'll have enough Dexter meat in a few months. I'm going to butcher one of my old Dexter cows for hamburger as she didn't produce a calf for me this year. She likely has ovarian cysts. She's completely changed her personality. She's turned into a bull, trying to mount the cows in season and generally getting in the way of Huck who wants to breed the cows in standing heat. She's also pawing and snorting and carrying on. Time for her to go. Can't keep unproductive cows around. They cost too much to maintain over the winter.

I've been giving some thought to selling a hamburger Hereford. I thought I would sell her at a price that would include the cutting and wrapping, say $2.50/lb so that the purchaser could just pick up the meat without having to worry about paying the butcher. They'd just pay me.

I had calf liver and onions for dinner. Nothing like calves liver for a delicious dinner.

08/28/2009 Friday: Overcast. Looks like rain this evening.

I had an inspiration this morning. Surprised me because it doesn't happen often. As mentioned previously one of my Muscovies had 13 babies. I lost one and gave three to the momma. The rest I am raising in my goat barn in a large galvanized water tub. Feeding and watering is a bit of a problem. The water container I have leaks and the feed container is a flat ceramic kitchen bowl. The bowl works well but needs to be refilled twice a day. The water container is a PITA to move from the hose to the tub.

As I was thinking about the problem I remembered I had three dog/cat feeders in the cow barn, ones that had been left by the previous owner. I hadn't had time to FreeCycle them so I still had them in the barn. These are the "we're going away for the weekend and want to make sure Fluffy has food and water while we're gone" containers. They're cylindrical and take up vertical space but not much horizontal space. The feeder can be filled with dog or cat food but in my case will be filled with chicken crumbles. The waterer will obviously be filled with water.

This solves a lot of problems and frees up a few chore minutes in the morning. I just need to periodically fill up the feed container and the ducks will have plenty of feed in front of them to eat. The waterer will have to be changed once a day because ducks are so messy and love to grab a mouthful of feed and then dump it into the water.

I have an extra waterer but will probably find a use for it when I raise chicks. My cat is using the feeder that goes with it for his cat food.

It turns out that I have two waterers and one feeder. I'll just use one of each. I moved all three from the cow barn to the green barn and washed the feeder and one waterer.

Danette's two cows have gone to be meat. I hope she's not too sad. She said she would send me Kevin's phone number. Kevin is the gent that does the butchering.

I had hoped that Kevin would be able to make it to my place but when I talked to the guy at Salmon Creek Meats this morning he said that it was unlikely that he would be able to do my animals today. Sigh. I guess I can wait. I wanted to do it ASAP so I can move animals around and to give the little goats additional space. I have them in the duck pen now.

Regarding minerals for my critters. I generally prefer the loose minerals as I have heard that the goats/cows can't lick enough minerals off the block in one setting to meet their quota. Dunno if that's true. Their tongues get tired before they've gotten the minerals. Plus I like to mix the minerals with kelp so that they get the benefit of that mineral-laden stuff, too.

Certainly a block will last longer than loose minerals because the animals seem to prefer the loose minerals. Still I might put out a backup block for those who like to lick the blocks. I purchased Redmond mineral conditioner but haven't yet put any out since I haven't unloaded my car yet. (Lazy me).

I've heard that you can mix the Redmond minerals with water to dissolve it and can spray it on your land in conjunction with compost tea to improve the soil bugs. It is a soil amendment as well as an animal salt. Some people also add molasses to the mix which is really supposed to help the land and improve the tilth and fertility of the soil. Course some will be excreted by the animals over time and that should help with the fertility, too.

Danette suggested that I harvest or sell the two does that didn't take care of their babies. One was a runt that I expected would grow some with good feed but she never has. The other is larger and more meaty. I'm conflicted about doing her in. I think I will also try to sell the Nubian and her daughter. Lord knows I have more goats than I know what to do with.

The three wethers are still fairly small, not large enough to eat but someone might be interested in them if I price them low enough. I just separated them from their mothers a couple of weeks ago. They're eating grain and hay quite nicely. I need to add on to their pen to give them more space as I mentioned above.

Today was my mother's birthday. I gave her a call to find out how she's doing. She has really bad arthritis and is using a cane. We had a good chat.

This afternoon I went over to Mary & Mike's place to look at a BBQ that they'd picked up for scrap. They remembered that I wanted one and asked me to come over to see it. The bottom three burners have rusted out but they seemed to feel that I might be able to find a replacement in Walmarts. The dimensions are 8" along the pipes by 17.5 width across the burners. I've forgotten the name of the BBQ itself but Mike assures me that if they have the burners they will be standard.

Mary gave me some delicious tomatoes and cucumbers which I cleaned for dinner. I just washed the cucs and sliced them. Wow, what flavor. I also cooked corn from our garden and a couple of steaks. We each ate a piece of Marie's peach pie with Cool Whip. I'm stuffed.

08/27/2009 Thursday: Sunny. It will likely be hot today.

No word from the Salmon Creek Butcher. Sigh. Maybe he'll call later with a new date.

I spent most of the day working on entering receipts into Excel for tax purposes. Still have a lot to enter.

Pat and Chris put in the last two sections of plywood on the deck roof. Tomorrow they'll put the black tar paper on and perhaps even lay in the furring strips.

We got a bid from the metal roof folks: $5720. but he forgot about $150.00 worth of bits and pieces. I gave Jack a check for half the amount. He stopped by on his way back to whereever he has his shop: Longview? Pat is checking over the materials list and will let us know if we need to make changes.

In the afternoon Chas and I put a Wally bale of hay in with the Herefords. Most came in from the fields to get their share.

Mary and Gary came by at 6pm for a visit. Chas had chopped the vegetables for hot noodles but we hadn't started cooking. Mary and Gary visited till 7pm. They brought me some plastic coffee cans that I will add a screen to and turn into a worm box for a few worms, just as an experiment.

08/26/2009 Wednesday: Warm most of the day but around 4:30 pm it cooled off a little and got cloudy.

Senator Edward Kennedy died peacefully this morning at his compound in Hyannesport, MA. He'd had a brain tumor for over a year. He will be missed by many and especially missed by those who depended on him for encouragement in getting health care reform. A great loss.

Chas and I went into town and did our weekly chores. We got money to pay the guys working on the house, returned and borrowed new library books (and donated books and magazines to the library), went grocery shopping, recycled tin cans, and got me a new battery. My battery went dead catastrophically. One day it was working and the next it was dead as a doornail. It was designed to last 4 or 5 years and I guess it finally just died.

I also picked up 3 bags of livestock feed, and a 50 lb bag of Redmond super salt and a bucket. I still need to pick up minerals although I still have goat and cattle minerals. Be nice to only have to buy one kind of mineral for all the animals.

Chas and I moved a bale of Wally hay into the Dexter's pen. I called the girls when I was done and they all came in. They always seem to know when I call them that there's something good to eat at the end.

I moved several bucket-loads of dirt from the Dexter's compost pile to the surrounding fields. I also filled in some holes. Honestly this property is full of holes. Be nice to have smooth pastures to walk on. The dirt is also intended to act as humus since we collected it from around the Dexter lean-to.

Got a call from Anna Scharff who is going to buy Sweet Pea. She's been working 20 hours overtime and feels guilty because she hasn't emailed me. I purchased two St Croix sheep from her. She may come by Saturday because one of the neighbors is going to shoot her very old horse and bury it using a back hoe. The horse is basically starving to death because it has no teeth and can't digest any food it does take in.

08/25/2009 Tuesday: Cool and overcast, light drizzle.

Pat & Chris are here to work. Chris drove into Centralia to Lincoln Creek Lumber to pick up a single board. Pat didn't order quite enough facia boards to complete going around the deck. It sounds as if they're pounding in the skip sheeting/furring strips. And dropping heavy objects...

The guy selling metal roofing is supposed to come today to give us a bid. Pat has also asked a couple of eves trough vendors to give us a bid.

I need to ask if Pat can cut that piece of rebar in the Hereford feeder. Plus I should get the top of the other piece of rebar with the heavy duty steel bottom that Mike H gave me the last time I was over for a visit.

After I figured out just how many feeding stations I have to feed at twice a day, I was a little overwhelmed. It's sometimes a lot easier not knowing just how much work you have to do.

The Muscovy drake I threw in with the Welsh Mt sheep was out of the pen when I arrived at the green barn to do my morning chores there but at least the one duck got some respite from the constant feather plucking for one night. I really need to sell or butcher the aggressive duck; there are almost no feathers left on the non-aggressive duck. Even the down has been pulled out.

The guy from the metal sheeting/roofing company came by to give us a bid. He took measurements and did a schematic and will draw up how many sheets we'll need for the roof. He says it's available for a $1500.00 energy efficiency tax rebate when we do our taxes next year.

Marie came over with a lovely peach pie while I was doing my chores. I stopped briefly to talk and then finished up. Chas gave her some squash and a carton of eggs to take home with her.

No word from Susie about my question regarding Noel. I'm sure she's still thinking about how to answer me. I hope I haven't made her mad.

Chas and I put a Wally bale of hay into the Hereford's outdoor feeder.

08/24/2009 Monday: Cool this morning but by 9am the sun was shining. It's likely to be hot this afternoon.

Pat came to work around 10am. He brought us some tuna he'd caught on his trip as well as two crabs. He kindly cleaned them for us since I had no idea how to clean them. When he was done he took the bits and pieces that were left over and tossed them into Hope Creek for the crawdads.

Pat got the west side plywood on the trusses. First he had to go to pick up some scaffolding to stand on from Chip and then get it set up. Cutting the plywood is likely to be a bear because of the hip roof. Just about every single piece of plywood need to have an angle cut out of it. The plywood sheets are held together with clips.

Pat says he'll finish attaching the joists to the support pieces after they get the plywood on. He says it's not a high priority to do it now. Tomorrow the sheet metal person comes to give us a bid on the roof. I hope it's not more than $6,000.00.

Pat seems to feel that we'll have most of the work done by Labor Day. I sure hope so. I'm really tired of all the construction. I want my house back and peace and quiet.

I need to make a feeder for the little goats, one that they can't crawl into. I may see if I can make any use of the hog wire that got folded up when the tree fell on it last year. I only need 2 small pieces for each end and two longer pieces for the sides. I could pound in some rebar to keep the feeder from being moved around by the goats.

I may do a search on google to see what I can find in the way of goat feeders (hand made rather than purchased). I'm more looking for ideas.

Everything seems to be running smoothly on the farm. I've pretty much got a routine set up that seems to work. I do have several places and animals that I have to feed.

For example, I have the 3 Pekin and 2 Rouen ducks still in the duck tractor on our lawn between the house and Hope Creek. The Muscovy ducklings that I stole from their momma are in their own galvanized tub until they get too big. They may have to go out into a duck tractor when they get larger and no longer fit in the tub.

The chicken are all in the chicken coop area except for the four small barred rocks that I'll have to track down at night sometime and see if I can't pen them up in the coop.

I have sheep in three different spots. The Welsh Mt sheep are in their own pen; the St Croix females are in the old calf raising pen and the ram is inside the green barn in a separate pen.

The goats are in three areas, too. I have the two oldest doelings in a larger pen under the green barn lean to. The other 5 kids are in the former duck pen till they're weaned and can no longer get through the stock panels. The adult goats are in the regular goat pen.

The Dexters have their own pasture and lean-to shelter as well as one stall (the center stall); The Herefords have the road pasture and the barn lean-to for their eating and sleeping. I need to buy a round bale feeder for the Dexters that I can keep out on the pasture so that I don't have to do so much cleaning in the lean-to. It should be much easier to clean the Hereford's lean-to what with the new concrete slab we put in the third bay.

The pigs have their own pen and shelter that I keep filled with hay that I clean out of the hay storage section of the barn.

So, basically I have 12 feeding stations/areas. This doesn't count the dog and cat feeders.

I think I need to downsize.

Chas and I had a memorable dinner. We ate most of the tuna Pat caught along with squash surprise (the no-tomato variant) and corn from our garden. The corn was pretty good but not exceptional. I still have trouble eating corn on the cob because of my braces.

08/23/2009 Sunday: Overcast in the morning and chilly but it warmed up in the afternoon.

After I did morning chores I ate breakfast and changed my clothes. I decided to go to the fair and I'm really happy I did. I learned a lot about Boer goats and what to look for in a doe. My purchases from Melody and Patrick were all wrong. I also think I need to be feeding more grain to get them gaining weight, especially the young ones.

I asked Danette for the name and contact information for the judge who did such a good job of explaining why she placed the animals being shown. She sells percentage Boer doelings. I'd like to pick up some really meaty does, maybe two and get a picture of the preferred Boer doe style/look/structure.

When I got home from the fair Chas and I put a Wally bale of hay in the Hereford outdoor feeder. The cows heard the tractor as we got the hay and all of them came in from the far end of the hay field. The grass in the field is pretty sparse. They put their noses in the round bale feeder and proceeded to chow down. They were hungry. The grazing they do just keeps them busy during the day.

I went out with the ATV and rounded up the calves. They're pretty blase about the ATV now and just walk into the road pasture unless I push them.

In keeping with my idea of helping the Boer goats gain weight I upped the babies feed some and will increase it a little more each day until they leave some, then I'll stop adding grain at that point. I'd like to see my little Boer goats out of Mystical put on some muscle.

08/22/2009 Saturday: Overcast in am but sunny in the pm.

When I went down this morning I noticed that one of the two ducklings I put under the old Muscovy had been smothered. The other baby has found its mother. She has three babies. The old Muscovy crushed one and the other headed right for momma sometime during the night. It amazed me that momma and baby found each other again. I tossed the dead baby outside and Lucky picked it up. When I got back to the house he was crunching on it. It made me a little queasy hearing him crunch the dead duckling.

I drove the Muscovy out of the nest and tossed the eggs and put a board in so that her nest no longer exists. The Muscovy mother-want-to-be is very old now and very bad tempered. I expect she'll turn into duck soup shortly (snort, snort). I have my new butchering knife sharpened and ready to go. However, I'll have to wait till she puts on some weight. She got quite thin from sitting on the nest for so long.

Enrique & Juan moved 8 bales of hay to the Dexter feeding stall. That way when I run out of hay from a round bale and don't feel like moving another into their feeder I can just feed square bales. Holy smokes, I just realized the Dexters ate nearly an entire bale in 3 days. They like Wally's hay way too much. It disappears extremely fast.

After that E&J moved 2 - 50lb sacks of chicken feed to the chicken coop and 4 bags of all purpose feed to the goat barn. Enrique dumped one of the bags of chicken feed into the chicken feed garbage pail but put the other bag under the east roost. I moved it so that it was standing upright so that the birds wouldn't poop on the bag.

I'd purchased a large protein block for the Herefords on Wednesday. We moved a large tire that I had for holding the tubs to the hill by the water tubs and put the protein tub in that tire to keep it from moving around. By then I'd put the Herefords out to graze so that they didn't try it till I brought them in for the night when I did evening chores. They seemed to like it. I'm going to be interested in how long the tub lasts.

I counted the cattle in the road pasture. By my count I have 18 Herefords, crosses and Milking Shorthorns. Ouch. That's way too many animals. I will have to take some to the auction. I need to contact Ty and see if he's interested in doing some penning with his horses and maybe even moving the critters to the sale barn.

Enrique and Juan finished cleaning out the Dexter pen. They took the area in the lean to down quite far and when they were done Enrique used the bucket to drag the dirt in front of the lean to over to the compost pile. I also asked him if he would mound the compost pile back up again since the cattle had run all over the pile and had gradually knocked it down. We need to spread quite a bit of that back on the land.

While Enrique was smoothing out the paddock Juan spread the compost Enrique dumped today and last Saturday on the pastures by hand so that it's more or less evenly spread out. I was planning on using the harrow but who knows when I'd get it done. I like having the compost spread out.

After lunch which was quite late (1:30 pm) Enrique, Laura and Juan picked up and dug up medium sized rocks from inside and outside the goat pen, tossed them into the tractor bucket and dumped them on the rock pile for future use. I guess the Whitakers or Johnson's had dumped a pile there for possible use some day. I kept tripping over them and finally decided I'd had enough.

We picked up the stones outside the pig pen first and dumped them. Then I opened up the new gate I'd made for the goat pen and we picked up stones from inside the goat pen. By the time we were done both sides of the fence were pretty flat which will make it a whole lot easier for me to walk around.

Late in the work day we filled in three low spots on the west side of the driveway with compost from the Hereford pasture compost pile. Juan leveled and smoothed the piles. I have other holes to fill in but we can do that over time. I will seed these filled-in areas this September after the rains start and the new dirt has had a chance to settle and get really wet. Chas was concerned that there would be no place for the water to drain off the road if we filled in all the low spots but I don't think there will be a problem. It will be a lot easier to cut that section of the driveway now that the dips aren't quite so deep.

I want to level the entire area so that we can cut the grass with the mower if we want. Eventually I will fence off that area for the sheep/goats and they can keep the grass down.

I did not use one of the beds in the cottage garden this year. I decided to take the opportunity to add more compost while it was empty of flowering plants. I asked Enrique to bring three loads of compost from the Dexter compost pile and dump on former Dahlia bed. My role today was to open and shut the south gate as he came out with a load and back in when he returned for another load.

I still have to spread the compost around the central stump and make it look pretty. I also need to spray the small bushes that are growing up from the brush we cut down last year. Those dang stumps keep trying to coppice. That means we're always cutting them back.

Dinner was southern chicken breast (type of chicken breast), biscuits and green beans. These southern breasts at least have some flavor unlike the Foster Farms chickens.

I wrote Susie H a note telling her I was disappointed in Noel's inability to have additional calves and wanted to hear from her about her thoughts on my concern.

08/21/2009 Friday: Overcast much of the day and pleasantly cool.

Chris showed up at 9am to work on the skip sheeting on the roof. When he gets that done and when the plywood has been nailed to the deck roof Pat will contact the company in Vancouver/Longview to order our metal roofing. Periodically the entire house will shake as he tromps around up there.

Left to do: reroofing, deck, temporary window framing, railing, backfill to make the area around the steps flat (maybe put in a concrete pad), finish deck roof, install cam lights.

Richard also showed up around 11am to work on the exterior cam lights. He'll also install the new bathroom fan which we need really badly to suck the moisture out of the bathroom after showers. Even my towels start to smell mildewy after a few days even when it's hot and even when I carefully spread them out to air dry.

2pm. Chris finished skip sheeting the roof. The 1x4s have been tacked down. He says that he'll have Pat check to make sure the 1x4s are in the correct place on the roof and then will screw down the 1x4s to complete the job. He left at 2pm.

Chas had to go into town. The primer he purchased from Rhodda separated and had to be returned. Chas discovered it's easier to prime the plywood if he first brushes the panel off with a wire brush. The wire brush removes the rough spots and loose wood and makes it easier to brush on the paint. Chas said he'll do another panel or two tomorrow.