July 1-10, 2009 in reverse chronological order

07/10/2009 Friday: The day started off with ground fog so I knew it would be hot. It was. It's still hot out and it's nearly 9:30pm.

I went into work today and continued working on the indicators project. I'm sure there are three versions by now, the full page indicators and the snapshot in time pages (all 11 of them) and probably a copy on John A's computer. They'll all have to be reconciled at some future date. They'll be presenting on Monday at 9am. I'll need to get up really early to listen to the PPT presentation that John and his colleagues will make.

Before I got into work I hit the bank and drew out $1000. to pay Ty for the hay. I'll owe him for 143 bales @ $3.00 each and 130 bales at $2.00 each for a total of $429 + $260.00 = $689. His price per 10 bales is less than Gary's round bales even if I figure 10-12 square bales for each round bale. The second batch of hay he said got rained on a little but it's nice and leafy. I'll feed that first.

I've been keeping an eye on Sweet Pea's baby. I don't believe she's been feeding it because all it does is sleep. Tonight I checked her belly and it seemed empty. I drove back to the house on the ATV and mixed up some milk replacer for her. I grabbed her, straddled her and pried open her mouth and stuck the bottle in. Fortunately she was hungry enough to take right to the bottle. I only made up half a bottle and she drank it all.

I'm afraid this means that Sweet Pea is stew meat or will be sold for slaughter since she's not caring for her baby. LauraVic seems to be kicking her baby away but I planned to get rid of her later this year anyway. I hope it's not true and that she'll let the baby nurse. I'll keep a watchful eye on that baby, too. It's a lot more active than Sweet Pea's baby.

Later: I think I was wrong in assuming that Sweet Pea is the mother of the calf. LauraVic is feeding both of them with me supplementing one of the calves with milk replacer. I can't believe that LauraVic had twins but the momma is not owning up.

Even later: I was right. Sweet Pea did have the baby but wasn't going to feed her.

Danette and Joe showed up to bring me some hamburger. I'd asked them if they had any hamburger left and would they sell me some. Danette brought me 3 packages of hamburger plus two jars of home-made jam. That was so sweet of her. She said it was in "payment" for the loan of my small trailer.

They've been using my small trailer to pick up hay and, based on my suggestion, a round bale feeder that they can use to toss square bales into for feeding their cows. They got the feeder at a lot less - about $95.00 less than what I paid for it at the Farm Store.

Danette tells me she doesn't much care for the Angus steers they picked up at the auction. If I have any Black Baldy steers for raising next year she'd be interested in them but she's not interested in the Black Baldy heifers because of the bull next door. With any luck a couple of my Herefords should give me some Black Baldy bull calves which I will steer right away.

It's easier for me to sell the Black Baldies than the Herefords. The babies look like ghosts, shiver, although I don't mind bottle feeding them.

I showed her the new trenches and water/power system. She said how much she liked the hydrant system she has at her place. She did say that if you leave them on they freeze. Makes sense to me.

I plan on using insulation on each of the hydrants just so that I don't have to carry water as I have in past years. I want an easy farming life. I'm wondering how big a plastic pipe I'd have to buy to put over the top of the hydrants as further insulation.

Around 8:45pm Ty showed up with another load of hay. This hay dried out too fast in the field so that the bales tend to fall apart when dropped from the top of the trailer. It got rained on as I mentioned above but it is fine hay and looks pretty good. With the fields all dried out I'll be having to feed hay the rest of the summer unless it rains. I paid him $990 for the hay he delivered for me.

I talked to him again about the round bale feeder. I told him I was interested in becoming a silent partner if he decided to buy a round baler. He said he would think about it. It's much easier to manage the round bales than a zillion square bales. Each round bale is the equivalent of about 10 square bales depending on the weight of the round bales and the weight of the square bales.

The damn cows have been going through the electric fence. I know it's Wendy that's doing it. I may have to put some of the insulators on the other side of the fence. I think I have some insulators that will fit on the wrong side of the fence. If I don't, I know where I can buy some.

07/09/2009 Thursday: Overcast and cool. Late in the afternoon the sun started shining.

I think that it is Sweet Pea who had yesterday's Black Baldy heifer. I have not seen her nursing her baby but her udder is full of milk. I can't see any other cow that's bagged up like she is except Myrtle and Myrtle has not had a baby, but she must be close.

Today, LauraVic had a Black Baldy heifer. The baby looks good. It still thinks it's invisible.

I spent the morning removing hoses and Y's and putting them where I needed them. First I had to water the cows. They were standing patiently by their water tubs but obviously in need of liquid.

I attached the hose that ran into their tub to the hydrant on the south side of the barn because I didn't want to take the time to undo the hose. It's tied to staples in the side of the barn under the east lean-to. Once the tub filled up and the Herefords got their fill of water, I disconnected the hose and started going around collecting just the right length of hose for giving each set of animals supported by a hydrant their water.

Ok, here's what I did. The hydrant closest to the stalls on the east side of the cow barn at the south end will support any animals in the stalls and the Dexter's waterer out in the field. I did not put a Y on that hydrant but I will because I need a length of hose to water plants as well as the dedicated Dexter water tub hose. Currently the dedicated Dexter water tub hose is the only one connected to that hydrant.

The new 24 foot hose I bought a few weeks ago brings the Dexter water tub hose over to the hydrant. Chas suggested I bury that hose in the existing trench. Makes sense to me. I may partially fill in the trench and lay the hose about 6-12 inches down. I asked him what I would do if it stopped working. He suggested I just cut it off and lay down a new hose. Simple solution. I liked it.

I took the Y off the old faucet that used to live between the two stalls and attached it to the Hereford hydrant. Then I ran a short length of hose to the tub sitting by the new electric fence and installed a longer length of hose that runs to the automatic waterer sitting on the tub that sits parallel to the north cow barn wall.

I removed the 4-way adaptor that I'd installed on the faucet on the west side of the house and put it on the hydrant by the green barn. A week or so ago I purchased a female:female adaptor so that I could put the piggies on a Lixit waterer. That got put on one of the off-on switches. I ran quite a bit of water through it because it was a little rusty from sitting from last year.

On the end off-on switch nearest the goats I installed the hose that was already available to water them. That is two down.

The north end off-on switch is running the duck and Welsh Mt sheep waterer. I still have one available off-on switch that I can use if I need more outlets.

I installed a Y adaptor on the south hydrant that we installed between the chicken coop and the potting shed and ran one long hose that I can use for watering the chickens and the garden. The other part of the Y will also have a hose that I can use for water in the potting shed and eventually in the green house when I get that built.

I really like those hydrants. Course I didn't have any idea how they worked but Chas came to the rescue and got the water turned on. It turns out that there are 3 positions: off, halfway (but no on) and all the way up which is on. I felt like a darn fool but then I'd never seen one in action. I thought half-way was fully on. Learned something today.

By then it was lunch time and I came in to relax and eat.

I spoke to Danette today. Actually she phoned me to talk about the trailer she and Joe borrowed to take chickens to the butcher. She told me they'd picked up 30 bales of hay. Danette wanted to know how much hay the calves she's raising would eat. I told her an adult cow would eat 30 lb a day and that younger ones would eat less, maybe 20 lb depending on their age. She immediately decided they didn't have enough hay. She asked if she could keep the trailer longer so that they could pick up more hay.

That's fine with me since I've managed to fill two of the four bays in the equipment storage building with hay. Bays 1 and 3 have hay (counting from the south side). Bay 3 has grass hay in square bales and bay 1 is storing 17 round bales. I really have no space to store the trailer. I might just leave it outside and cover it with a tarp.

We were actually able to stack some of the round bales two high last night. Chas is getting pretty good at stacking hay. Course he's had a lot of practice since he stacked in 74 round bales from Gary and the 20 bales from Wally.

The Herefords are enjoying Wally's hay enormously. We put in a round hay bale last night as we were putting Wally's hay away and by now it's more than half gone. I did turn them out into the big pasture to graze. They're less mischievous when they have limited grazing time. Once they start laying down it means they're finished grazing for awhile and are chewing their cud and it's time to bring them in. They had about 3 hours of grazing time.

In the afternoon I went to visit Mary and Mike. I wanted to thank Mike again for his suggestion about drilling a hole in the concrete to hold a pin that would keep the collapsible feeder from collapsing. Mike sure is handy to have around. He's building me a spear to put on my bucket for spearing hay bales for carrying out to the field.

Mary showed off her garden and her new goodies. That woman is a working fool. She has a great eye for laying out plants in an attractive pattern. Her place really looks good considering that she was flooded out two years ago.

Chas brush hogged the rest of the south-west pasture and then got a good start on the north-west pasture. He looked worn out around dinner time and admitted he might have overdone it. Sitting on that bumpy tractor and steering the tractor in circles is a lot of work. It's hard on your concentration and hard on your back.

He mentioned that there was lots of clover in the field. Course I did include extra clover in the seed mixes I put on the fields.

We still need to pull the t-posts from the furthest west pastures and remove the gates. I'm hoping that by next year we'll be able to use those pastures for grazing but I might be a little overoptimistic. Oh well, one of these years I'll be able to use those two pastures.

Back to work tomorrow. Monday is the presentation to the Lewis County Board of Health. I sure hope something is ready for presenting on Monday. I'll have to get up really early Monday morning to make the 9am meeting time.

Dinner was different for Chas and myself. I cooked a Cornish Game Hen for myself and some Kielbasa for Chas. We had potatoes and peas for our vegetables.

All in all this was a good day. I got a project started and finished without much trouble, just a lot of walking around. I did take a length of hose down to the chickens so that I would have enough hose to for watering the ducks. I hate filling a bucket and hauling the water. Too much like work.

07/08/2009 Wednesday: Overcast and gloomy with rain showers. Not sure it showered 50% of the time as the weather channel said it would but it did give us scattered showers.

I went in to work at the Health Department. On the way there I stopped at the Farm Store and picked up 4 bags of Country Livestock and a female:female fitting for my pig waterer. I also purchased a Y adaptor to split one faucet into two outlets.

I also stopped at Cenex and bought 10 gallons of hydraulic fluid for the tractor. That stuff is expensive. It cost about $123.00 plus or minus. Then I went to the bank and picked up $300.00 for paying the guys this weekend.

After work I stopped at Sunbirds and picked up a Y adaptor, but a large one for the pig & goat hoses and a 12 x 16 foot tarp.

By the time I got home, Wally was here to drop off 20 round bales of local grass hay. This is the first time he's been on time. His bales are tighter this year for some reason so they stack better. I paid $900 for the 20 round bales. He charges $45.00 each bale.

Chas and I put 17 bales into the first bay of the equipment shed this time. I want to save Gary's hay for later. One bale of hay went into the Hereford's feeder, one went into the Dexter feeder and one went into the Dexter stall for later use.

I'm going to put the tarp across the back side of the hay to protect it from any rain we might have. We'll be working out of that hay first. We put it in the south-most bay where we usually store the tractor. I'll have to make some tarp pins to hold it in place from some of my 12.5 gauge wire..

As we were putting away the hay I noticed a new black baldy calf. When we took the round bale into the Hereford pen I checked the new calf out. It's a heifer calf so I don't have to band it. I have no idea which of the cows it belongs to because they all had their noses in the feeder. I'll ear tag it tomorrow while it still thinks it's invisible and maybe determine who the mother is. I'll bet it's LauraVic.

Then I did my chores and came in to make dinner. Dinner was a couple of very small steaks and pirogues. Chas was good and peeled some carrots for roughage. I can't eat hard carrots with my braces. I can't really bite with my front teeth.

While I was at work Richard finished installing the hydrants. On Monday he'll concrete them in after we've had a chance to make sure the system works properly. He said that the concrete will just lift out if we need access to the black pipe below. Gary suggested that I put in a post by each hydrant but in most cases I'm close enough to the wall to put a loop around the pipe and attach it to the wall or post. I will need to get some insulation for the exposed pipe and for the handle. It almost looks like a rag and a plastic sack will keep the pipe dry and somewhat insulated.

07/07/2009 Tuesday: Overcast and gloomy most of the day but the sun did shine later on around dinner time.

Busy day around the farm. I was going to work on APHA stuff but Richard and his co-worker showed up with a ditch witch to start work on digging ditches between the well house and the equipment shed via the green barn, and between the well house and the south end of the vegetable garden and I got side tracked. The line from the green barn also crossed the road and went over to the electric fence on the north side of the cow barn. One line goes from the water faucet currently situated between the two north stalls to the south end of the cow barn. Essentially I'll have water hydrants at each end of the cow barn, at the south end of the vegetable garden, by the south-west corner of the green barn and by the equipment shed.

We managed to cut the phone line in the middle of the road necessitating a visit by a CenturyTel repairman and a charge for his services. CenturyTel will bill us. We did not cut the line to our septic system as far as we can tell.

Chas tested DSL so that if we had any problems we could call CT back and get the repair person back out to fix the problem.

I dug out some of the dirt in the trench where it wasn't level on most of the lines except for the one running between the green barn and the equipment shed, plus I dug the hole for one of the hydrants.

By the end of the day I was tired.

Some of the trenches have been filled in but there are sections where the dirt needs to be replaced in the trench. We'll use the dirt from the compost pile.

Charles began brush hogging the large south west pasture where last year he dug the trench. The end of the trench was about 4 inches too high. When he finishes brush hogging both the south west and north west pastures he'll dig out the end of the trench.

The grass and clover mix seeds we planted last fall have grown considerably. We have canary grass which must be about 5 feet tall. Chas can only do about half the row otherwise it binds up. He got about 2/3 of the field completed today. He'll likely finish tomorrow.

I'm hoping to put in a second fence along the freeway to keep the cows in but likely it won't be till next year. It will be a two strand fence like the corridor fence we have now but it won't form a corridor around the field; it will just run along the freeway. I'll need to put a gate in this fence so we can graze cows along it if we want. That's a large section of fenced-off land.

We also need to pull the existing t-posts that divide the two pastures. Those will be reused along the highway, I think.

07/06/2009 Monday: It tried to rain today but it was more like a mist and lasted most of the morning and part of the afternoon.

During chores this morning I took pictures of the St. Croix ewes and ram, the piggies and some of the goats. I also took pictures of the square bales of hay I got from Ty.

With the rain I wonder if he'll be able to get me more hay. Likely it's out in the field already baled but rained on.

I fed two bales of hay to the Herefords. I did not put the Dexters out to graze but fed them hay and alfalfa. They still have lots of the Wally bale left but only eat it when they're starving.

I took pictures of the pigs, goats, and St Croix sheep for my records. I still have to name the St Croix sheep.

I came in after chores, ate breakfast, and promptly fell asleep in my chair. I think Chas must have turned off the TV sometime.

After lunch Charles brush hogged pastures S2 and S3. They were filled with Canadian thistles with the occasional bull thistle mixed in. I pulled thistles by hand as long as my hands could stand it. Even with wearing gloves the thistles made it through my gloves. What thistles I couldn't pull by hand I pulled the flower heads from the stem but I didn't get all of them. I really need to get the weed whacker out and cut thistles under the electric wire.

07/05/2009 Sunday: Cold and cloudy.

I did my morning chores and then came in and fell asleep till around 11am when Charles, Sharon's friend, phoned to ask if he could visit. We said, sure, since we really enjoy talking to him. We had coffee/tea together and chatted about interesting things. Chas intends to buy some raw coffee beans so that they can try roasting coffee. This was Charles's idea.

This cold nights weather is not going to help the garden grow. The corn is up only about 6 inches, way lower than it's supposed to be by this date. With the really hot weather the ground dries up and the plants desiccate. I water as often as I can but I don't think it's nearly enough.

Hardly any of the beets have come up. Very disappointing. Chas's kohl-rabi barely sprouted. The pole beans are short and not very many sprouted. The chard is about 4 inches high and doing well. The single kale plant, at least that's what I think it is, is really growing. Onions are nearly ready for harvesting as green onions. The garlic is turning brown. I need to prune off the bulblets growing on top.

I fed two bales of Ty's hay to the Herefords. They loved it. The Dexters also got some of the same hay. The Dexters ate hay while around 4pm the Herefords went out to graze for three hours. I figure if I keep their grazing time short they'll fill up and not get into as much trouble. They'll be too hungry.

I want to put the last remaining round bale from Wally's last batch which is in the Dexter's stall into the Hereford feeder so that they'll clean it up. The Dexters are much more discerning in their choice of hay but the Hereford's seem to eat mostly everything. Not that I try to feed them bad hay but I have to get rid of last year's hay from Wally.

We used up the leftover spaghetti sauce from last week. I boiled it pretty well before we ate it.

I have got to take pictures of the goats so that I can sell some of them.

I registered for APHA this fall and secured our hotel reservations. By our I mean Margaret B's and myself. All I have to do now is get my flight reserved.

07/04/2009 Saturday: Cloudy in the am but hot and sunny in the pm.

Today was quite busy. My friends showed up to help around the farm around 6:45am and I put them to work right away. Chas wanted the trench between the well house and our house partially filled in. Enrique and Juan left a foot of space between ground level and the bottom of the trench for the Dish Network guy who was going to be here sometime before 5pm to lay in his cable. Enrique used the tractor to move the dirt while Juan did the shovel work. I was happy to get that project done.

Fortunately I'm getting up at 6am and was already out doing chores. Generally I feed the ducks and chickens in their chicken/duck tractors, move the tractors to a new spot and water them. I only empty the ducks water once a day since they fill their beaks full of dirt and then rinse their mouths out in the water. About 10 minutes after I fill their protein tub full of clean water they have turned it into mud.

Fortunately the mud settles to the bottom so that water on top, while muddy is not chewable. I generally end up with half an inch of mud on the bottom of the water tub that has to be cleaned out.

About 7:30am Ty showed up with a crew of 4 guys and a trailer-load of hay. Ty didn't have my phone number so he didn't call ahead of time. I would have had the equipment shed ready for the storage. As it was we had to move some lumber and lay down pallets. We ran out of pallets. I'll need to pick up a tarp or two, something I should have done before, to lay the remaining hay on.

Ty and his friends and Juan and Enrique stacked 143 bales. I'm expecting at least 300 and maybe more. I want to be sure to have lots of hay available for my critters this coming winter even though I'm going to downsize.

I had the guys remove the dog carrier from the pig pen and put wood chips and hay into the calf tel. The piggies had made a nest for themselves way at the back when I checked during evening chores.

While Enrique helped Chas put hay in the cow barn, Juan and I wound up polycord for use next year. We did not take down the rebar.

Before Juan and Enrique left they moved most of the lumber from the cow barn to the equipment shed. There are still two very long pieces of lumber left to move but they're so long I'm not sure they'd fit in the equipment shed. They must be 20 feet long.

Then we built a buck pen in the lean to in the green barn. It's still not exactly what I wanted - one of the problems of rushing things.

Around 4pm the Dish Network guy came out and hooked us up with High Def TV. It will cost us a little extra every month but the difference between normal, old fashioned TV, and HD is amazing. The phone company will need to come out to check to see where the phone line is before we can install the pole. The Dish Network folks can't dig the hole for the pole until the phone line location has been verified, otherwise, Dish gets fined.

After he left we dashed over to Suzanne and Rick's place for their annual 4th of July BBQ and potluck. The food was exceptional and the fireworks were spectacular. I drove by yesterday and donated $50. to Suzanne for the purchase of fireworks.

07/03/2009 Friday: Cloudy in the am but hot in the pm.

Chas and I replaced the road pasture gate with one that isn't bent in the middle. Gary suggested that we reverse the gate so that the gate hangs from the straight post, not the post that's leaning. I think it would be better situated on the straight post near the loading ramp because we usually come from the cow barn. Now we have to drive around the gate. The gate will close against the loading dock instead of hitting the dirt and coming to a shuddering stop.

Gary and Mary brought over 20 more round bales. It was late in the day when they delivered it so we only got 10 of the bale put in the barn. We'll no doubt pay tomorrow for not having it put away.

The co-ax cable is in but not yet hooked up. There's a plug in my study and beside the TV so that we can surf the net from our TV chairs if we want. The cabling for the Dish satellite, High Definition TV is installed. Our electrician is doing the work.

We ate leftover chicken for dinner.

07/02/2009 Thursday: It's even hotter today than it was yesterday.

One of the bales of hay we moved last night fell off the bottom bale and was leaning against the fenceline feeder but inside the fenced-off area so the cows didn't spread the hay everywhere. Before we could stack the remaining 10 bales we had to get that one down. We moved two bales and let the last one fall into place. We discovered that picking up the bales while they are on their sides and then flipping them so that they're on their ends turns them into balls. They lose their cylindrical shape so this last batch we turned on end and carried them in without dropping them into place. So, now I have 54 bales.

Also, regarding the hay, stacking the bales too close together by placing them into the previous row makes one side lift up and the other side become lower. It's better to leave space and then push the bale into it's designated slot. That way the bales don't tip over. It doesn't help that Gary's bales are slightly kitty-whumpus to start with.

We moved another bale out to the Herefords this morning before we started moving the bales Gary dropped off into the barn.

Unless I get rid of a lot of my critters I'm not going to have enough hay to last the winter. Something to think about. I need to call Ty again but it's too late tonight.

Neither Pat nor the electrician, Richard, showed up today.

Mike and Mary H picked up the large trailer so that they could move joists for their new workshop area. Unfortunately they had to move the wood Chas had the guys put on the trailer off the trailer so they could use it. Later they brought it back. Both were suffering from the heat, but especially Mary.

Gary finally got his cows butchered. Mary ended up with 7 more tongues and 7 hearts. I guess they had tongue sandwiches for lunch. I have to figure out what to do with testicles.

Got an email reply from Clay. He says his freezer is full. I suggested he contact Bolar to see how much meat that would be in terms of space. I also suggested he could take half a calf if one entire calf was too much. I have to laugh. He was pretty insistent when he and his daughter were her a month or so ago that he wanted a cow. Never can tell with customers.

07/01/2009 Wednesday: Gad, it's already July. Hot today with sunshine all day.

I had the butcher come out today to do Cheddar but instead I had him do my two Black Baldy bulls. I just couldn't do it. Cheddar's calf is still nursing and I really like her. Come fall I might have a change of heart but for now, she lives!

Bolar came early because Gary's cows heard the truck and freaked out, jumped the fence and took off into the pasture. Rather than wait around for Gary to round up the cattle he came over to my place and then went to Rick N's to get one of his cows. When I asked, Bolar gave me a used butcher knife after he was all done butchering the two bull calves. I was quite happy to pay him but he asked for cookies instead.

With the two bulls gone it should be quieter in the Hereford barn yard. So, two down, 6 more to go. One of my senior Herefords is limping. Old age, I think. Gary agrees and indeed was the one to point out to me that she's showing her age. She's just getting tired I think. After she weans her baby this January, she'll go, plus the red bull to Gary's and the three Milking Shorthorns to someone on Craigslist. Then I have to make a couple of hard decisions. I have a Hereford that I don't particularly like that I think I will sell with her baby depending on the sex of the baby. She's a nice looking cow but easily spooked. Or I may sell the cow that didn't get bred during regular breeding season. Or maybe one of my favorites who lost a huge calf last year. Hard to decide. I want the Hereford herd down to 7 or 8 cows of smaller frame size.

Gary is coming next week to pick up his red bull calf so no more bulls until the young ones come along - except for Huck.

Gary delivered 54 round bales of lovely grass hay. It's lovely and green and hardly has any stems in it. I reached in to put scraps in the Hereford feeder and it was snatched out of my hand before I could let go. I asked Gary to save me some additional bales if he was going to do more bales. He said that if he could find some more good grass hay on the 30 acres he's doing, he'll bring me some more round bales. He put up about 120 bales for his own use but I expect that won't be enough. I know for certain 54 round bales plus 300 square bales won't be enough for me unless I really cut the Hereford herd. And I am working on that.

With this drought the grass is going downhill fast I'll probably have to feed hay early. I must say that the field that Chas brush hogged has come back very nicely. What with everything going on at our place it may be awhile before we get to brush hog again but I'd like to get everything cut back soon. It seems to grow better and the cows like it better.

I'm taking a few days off Tuesday through next Tuesday, then back to work on Wed. I thought I would have time to sort of veg out and do some weeding in my garden and weed whacking one of the Dexter pastures that is full of thistles going to seed.After I cut them the Dexters will eat them with relish.

Yesterday instead of relaxing Chas had me out laying driveway fabric (Tripar) and shoveling bucketloads of gravel. We're trying to get the last bay in the barn cemented. Once that's dry and ready to be used we'll make a concrete pad out about 20 feet along the length of the barn and then 6 feet beyond that we'll lay in Tripar and gravel and have the concrete truck come back do do another pour. I'm bound and determined not to have the animals knee high in mud this winter.

I'm hoping to get the Dexter pen concreted too but I'm afraid that may have to wait till next year. Chas doesn't seem concerned about money but I like to spread out the spending.

Then today Gary delivered 54 round bales of local grass hay which Chas and I mostly put in the barn which meant that today I'm even more tired since I didn't get a rest from yesterday's labors. We have 20 bales still aging in the driveway making for an interesting driving path for visitors. We're so slow as Chas has it in his mind that he has to sneak up on each bale, pick it up daintily and then go halfway around the barn before he can put it into place with lots of TLC. Lots of backing up and too-ing and fro-ing. Drives me nuts. Just go straight into the barn and drop the round bale into place, damn it!

I also have 300 square bales coming. Probably take three trips. Most of the hay is just across the street so they don't have to drive far.

My small trailer purchased a year ago May has finally been licensed and the lights and turn signals checked. They work. Our friends with the Boer goats borrowed the trailer and will be using it to haul chickens in boxes and carrying cases to a guy who butchers and then cut and wraps them for customers for $4.50 each. Ouch. Nice to know that trailer is available if I decide I want to pick up hay for some reason. We'll have to use Chas's car since mine is set up with the equipment for the large trailer.

My butcher no longer will take liver, hearts, tongue or tails to cut and wrap. Apparently farmers who included those things with the beef made problems for my butcher. Customers would refuse to pay for the "extras."

No problem, I said, here's a bucket, stick the "extras" in there and I'll take what I want and give Mary & Mike the stuff they like. They'll take calves liver but not cow liver. Cow liver is too strong. M&M sure like the hearts and tongue. I saved the testicles from the bull calves and will try them out. Not sure what you do with them but I remember something about boiling them?? I'll have to check out the Web for a better answer.

I had liver and onions for dinner tonight. It was pure eating pleasure. I'd forgotten just how good calves liver is.

As of today we have a new fan with lights in the kitchen over the kitchen table. The awful/broken kitchen light is no more. We had the light hanging on the wall where I keep the microwave removed and new recessed lights put in over the kitchen sink. Our electrician is a contractor and will also be wiring up the various barns and outbuildings and running water pipes from the far end of the garden to the green barn and to the outbuildings just in case I ever put animals down in that section of the property - likely sheep or goats). We'll finally get a fan that vents outside instead of into the tops of my kitchen cupboard.

Richard (the electrician) is also going to wire the attic so that we can put in our new high def tv this Saturday.

Oh yes, he moved the large outdoor light which was on the end of the tack room and being held up by its wire (dangerous) to over between the first and second stalls so I'll have a light more centrally located to see by when it's dark out. He's also replacing the unsafe electrical panel in our tack room and will be putting in a plug hanging from the ceiling so that Chas can use electrical equipment when he's at his table working area. The outlet/plug on the north side of the cow barn now only works when the lights are on. Soon it will work anytime, lights or no lights. That will be nice because it means I can start the chickens in the barn instead of in my basement. That will be much better.

I acquired 3 new sheep: St Croix meat sheep and have the Welsh Mt sheep up for sale on Craigslist. Two ewes from one farm and an unrelated ram from another. So far everyone is separated but I have to get rid of some of the smaller stock to free up areas to keep them in. My barn is getting crowded.

I have a goat who absolutely refuses to nurse one of her babies. It's the most beautiful doeling. I guess she selected the two she wanted to nurse and that's that. Morning and night I dump her on the ground and kneel on her so that I can let the nicest doeling nurse. She looks pretty good considering she's just eating twice a day.

My breeding buck from last year was harvested last Saturday and I acquired another beautiful buck from Danette for breeding this fall. I think I told you about him already so I won't bore you.

I've attached a pix of our dismantled well house from having the pipe develop a hole. While the roof was off we replaced the tank and pump and pipeline and cable to the pump. The third picture is of the house sans deck.

Aside from that my property looks like someone threw a bomb at it. It's even worse now because a deep trench goes between the house and the well house for additional power and water lines and there are large piles of dirt everywhere. My back yard has been chicken tractored to death but the grass should be very lush from all the chicken poop this fall and next summer.

I did manage to find a nice bench that I assembled (sort of) so that I could see what it looked like. It wobbled when I got all the screws hand tightened. Chas tightened up all the screws for me using the proper tool. I just used a wrench when you really need a rachet. Lazy me. That will likely go on the deck when it gets completed and the roof goes on.

Garden is dry and needs weeding. After putting the hay in the barn tomorrow maybe I'll have time to do some garden work. It's amazing what you can do with a good swan's neck hoe in a short period of time.

Dinner for me was liver and onions. Chas had a cold plate with cheese and sliced meat. My liver was so good. Nothing like calf liver!