July 21-31, 2009 in reverse chronological order

07/31/2009 Friday: Cool in the morning but it got hot in the afternoon.

I can't believe it's the end of the month already. It seemed as if July just started.

When I went to feed the little Black Baldy heifer I checked the water tubs. Imagine my horror when I saw there was no water in either of the water tubs. I guess Ryan turned off the hydrant when he was done cleaning off the tools used in the concrete pour not realizing he was turning off the water to the tubs. I quickly turned the water back on again and let the tanks get partially full before I let the cows drink. That way they don't knock over the tubs. Poor things were thirsty.

It's a good thing I caught the water problem because it was really hot today.

Pat showed up and worked about 3 hours. He took the forms off the concrete and cleaned the concrete off the boards so that we could use them again for other projects. He also hosed down the concrete so it would cure more slowly.

The concrete pad in the barn is really going to save me a lot of work and make cleaning out the barn much easier. We can use the tractor to do some of the scraping.

While Pat was working on the forms and Chas was painting the floor boards for the deck I went out and did some weeding. I cut back several of the nut trees that had gotten out of control and also the sprouts from the trees we cut down two years ago. They're still sending out sprouts even though the tree is starting to rot on top.

Chas and I took off for Frances Meats and purchased some of their baloney, Jalupunio summer sausage and some bratwurst.

07/30/2009 Thursday. Nice and cool this morning but it's going to get hot later. Actually, it didn't get as hot as I thought it would. The sea breeze blew most of the day keeping things cooled off.

Pat M was here about 4:00am to start watering the gravel in the barn and in the new concrete path to the deck. All the gravel needed to be watered so that the concrete we're having poured wouldn't crack from not being kept wet.

I got up at 4:45am so that I'd be ready to go when the concrete guy got here.

I checked in with Pat M and then went down to feed the chickens. Imagine my horror when I saw 13 dead chickens in the pen. Yup. They died from the heat I guess. Later: I realized that that section of the lawn is in the direct afternoon sun instead of in the shadow of the house. They just roasted in th over 100 degree F temperature.

I still have 6 left in the pen, 5 hens and 1 rooster plus 6 or so up in the regular chicken coop. I think I will move the chickens in the chicken tractor up to the chicken house and just keep the ducks down below until later this year. I'll have the pen in the goat pen ready for them maybe this weekend. I just have to add that short piece of stock panel to make the pen slightly wider at the non-gate end. The fewer the number of places I have to feed the easier it is to me.

The concrete company truck, CalPortland, showed up at 6am just like it was supposed to. Buck and Riley showed up to help Pat around 5:30am. The guys started pouring concrete in the barn and got the final barn bay on the north end cemented in. The load cost over $900.00 but will do the barn bay and the deck footings and sidewalk.

That area is a real problem because it turns to 18 inches of muck. Even if we don't get the rest of the barnyard cemented this year at least we'll have that bay done.

Around noon I laid down some of the burlap that Pat brought with him and wet it down well. Sherry helped me.

Later in the afternoon I took the dead chickens out into the southwest pasture and dropped them on the ground for the eagles and vultures to clean up. They need to make a living, too.

I wet down the barn bay, too, several times as well as the deck supports and sidewalk. It should be cured. I ordered the concrete with fibers in it to make it stronger and will likely do so for the 20 foot pad I want to put in later this year all along the front of the lean-to. Maybe I'll put in a pad for storing the compost with a fence around it and a tarp to cover it. I still have to find out how expensive ecology blocks are and maybe get those next summer for the compost pad.

I place a MC order with American Livestock Supply for some fencing taps and for 20 nylon cords & fasteners to go with the large tags I purchased a week or so ago. These are the cheapest option (instead of expensive leather bands) and will make it easier to identify my critters since I can't remember names worth a damn. I'll put tags on at birth so I can always identify the baby and its mother.

07/29/2009 Wednesday: Pat M said the temperature on his porch in the shade yesterday afternoon was 107 degrees F. It was hot. I nearly freaked out from the heat. The animals were suffering, too.

I hit Del's on the way to the dentist. I had a chance to discuss my top front teeth after I got my teeth cleaned. It's going to cost me $1,000.00 each tooth to get my 6 upper front teeth crowned. Then if they do some gum work that will cost extra. I'm not sure about the gums but I would like to have decent upper teeth.

I did chores this evening but didn't feed any of the critters except the pigs any grain.

By 9pm I couldn't stand sweating so much so I went in and had a shower and then went to bed. The ocean breezes started up and cooled things down somewhat.

07/28/2009 Tuesday: Hot, hot, hot. I think it must have reached nearly 100 degrees outside as it was over 90 degrees F in the house.

Pat arrived early this morning. He had to dump some more gravel in the third bay (cow barn) to bring it up to his standards. He spent some time figuring out how much concrete we needed for the big concrete pour which will occur at 6am Thursday morning. The concrete alone will cost us over $900.00. I had Pat order the concrete with fibers in it to make it stronger.

Pat also drilled several holes in the cow barn and installed rebar. Unfortunately he had to use the rebar that Mike cut for my hose guards. He also drilled holes in the existing concrete path that he will use for linking the new concrete path to the existing path.

I did chores early then around 9:40 we left for town. Chas had to drop off some overdue library books. Then we took off for Costco where we proceeded to spend over $500.00 on food and laundry products.

When we got back and unloaded the Costco stuff (Pat M helped us as he was still here) into the basement, I put it away. It takes much longer to put stuff away when you take the time to date it. I like to date foodstuff so that I know which to use first. This is important if you buy several duplicates of the same thing.

Before we ate lunch Chas and I took a Gary bale of hay over to the Herefords. I'd given them about a hundred pounds of hay from two bales during morning chores but they had totally cleaned out the feeder, I mean everything. Not a blade of hay was left. They managed to demolish that Wally bale in less than 36 hours. We'll see how they do on the Gary hay.

Fortunately all my animals look fat and healthy except for one of the Milking Shorthorns, Three. He looks thin but that's because he's the low cow on the the totem pole. It's so hard to keep the weight on the Milking Shorthorns; they need grain to keep looking good.

As a special treat I bought sushi for us to have for lunch but it wasn't as good as what we get at Main Diner Buffet. A bit disappointing but now I won't have to buy any more from Costco.

We both had a nap after our late lunch. Shopping is so exhausting.

After evening chores I removed a piece of stock panel that Pat had hung on the steps to keep the goats out of the loft. I needed a large piece for the end of the future duck pen that I've been fussing with in the goat pasture and that piece fit the bill. Fortunately I had a smaller piece that actually is a better fit. I just hammered it into place.

Two of my Muscovies seem to be setting again. One is setting under the stairs to the loft; the other is setting under the chicken nest boxes. This time I plan on taking all but two of the babies away from each of the moms and raising them separately so that more of them survive. Now that I can hang heat lamps in the green barn I don't have to raise birds in the basement. I will need to put some kind of cover on the tub to keep potential preditors out.

07/27/2009 Monday: Another hot day.

I went into town to work at the Health Department and on the way picked up two sacks of all purpose livestock and one bag of chicken scratch at the Farm Store. I bought the scratch because it contains more than just cracked corn. I imagine the ducks are getting tired of just plain cracked corn. This mixture gives them a little variety. I should also feed all purpose poultry mix to the ducklings although they seem to be getting enough protein from the flies they catch.

The little devils are almost too big to go through the fence now.

By the time I got home it was too late to do anything. I did chores and almost roasted to death. I also had to water the garden. All the chard and kale was wilting as were the various squash.

Pat framed in another footing for the deck and framed in the bay in the cow barn that we're getting paved this year. It's going to be pretty iffy if we can afford to put in the concrete slab like I want in front of the lean-to section of the cow barn this year. I hate to have the animals have to walk through muck to their hocks during the winter monsoons but they may just have to do that for one more year.

We had store bought chicken with a yellow and zucchini squash (plus onions and canned tomatoes) for dinner.

07/26/2009 Sunday: Hotter and the weather forecast looks as if it will continue to get hotter over the next week. It will be unbearable and will put the finishing touches on the pasture.

I put the first load of laundry on just before I moved the chicken and duck tractors and fed the birds.

Chas and I put a Wally bale of hay into the Hereford's outdoor feeder and put one into the Dexter stall for putting in the feeder later.

After chores I came in and ate breakfast. About 10:30am I went outside and after a couple of false starts got the wire that runs under the gate between the corridor and S1 and S2 pastures put in. The Dexters had pretty much spread the dirt around, including back into the trench. I dug the trench out some more and installed the wire. I had a little bit too much so I coiled it on the west side of the trench in case we ever need to cut the wire.

I ran the wire up the post and to the top wire instead of to the bottom wire. Much easier to undo the butterfly bolt when it's on the top rather than bending over to get at the bolt on the bottom. Where there was a butterfly bolt on the bottom and a regular hex bolt on the top I switched them. Those butterfly bolts are so much easier to undo. You don't need a crescent wrench to get it undone.

I scraped as much dirt from the surrounding area back into the hole using the adze and then went to the Dexter's compost heap and picked up a small load of compost and dirt. That wasn't enough so I went back and got another small pile. It's hard to estimate how much dirt you need to put into a trench. I'll likely have to put more dirt in as the soil compacts but that's for another day.

Before I was finished throwing the dirt into the trench Mary and Gary had come by to visit. Since I was right in the middle of dumping dirt into the trench I made them wait till I was done. Like Gary I hate being interrupted in the middle of a task.

When I was done I showed them my vegetable garden and then we went to the kitchen for coffee, or in my case, pop, since I was really thirsty. I was working in the shade most of the time but did have work in the sun to fork out manure/dirt for filling in the trench.

We looked at the current crop of five calves. Gary might be interested in a couple of the heifers. He didn't get enough babies this year to fill all the beef needs of his customers so he's going to buy two or three from me. Danette is interested in the two steers (or soon to be steers) and possibly more. If she doesn't buy them then likely Gary will buy them in preference to the females since they usually weigh more.

I watered the garden and the chickens and gave them their morning chicken scratch. Then Chas and I loaded one Wally round hay bale into the Hereford's pen. I just put in a bale Saturday morning but they really love his hay and inhale it. I may have to alternate with Gary's bales to keep them from eating me out of house and home.

I dumped two more bags of All purpose livestock into the goat feed garbage pail. I'll have to pick up more tomorrow as well as come chicken scratch.

Red Bull bred Sweet Pea. That might present a problem since I was going to butcher her but I hate to butcher pregnant cows even if the pregnancy isn't confirmed yet. It's a little puzzling that she came back into season so fast since she just gave birth on July 9, 2009. It's only 17 days since she gave birth. Very puzzling. Maybe the fact that she isn't nursing a baby made her come back into season that much faster.

I was going to cook chicken for dinner but by the time I got back from chores and putting out a hay bale for the Herefords it was 6pm. Chas suggested we graze. I ate breakfast cereal with milk and two boiled eggs. Charles had carrots and a snack later. I drank a lot of water - nearly a quart - when I came in from chores. I was really thirsty.

At least I got one farm project accomplished today. Since it was so hot I stayed in the house as much of the afternoon as I could.

I ordered the Canon camera that Chas wanted plus a cheapie for myself for around the farm use. I ordered an 8GB SD Flash Drive to use with the Canon. The Canon was 196.xx and the SD Flash Drive was $18.37. Course we have to pay tax. The other camera was $60.00 more or less. It's pink. The Canon is not.

07/25/2009 Saturday: Hot but not as hot as it's going to get this coming week.

Charles and I loaded one Wally hay bale into the Hereford's outdoor feeder. By noon they'd eaten at least half. They love his hay.

My friends showed up to help me around the farm. I had them shoveling up the leftover fir grindings from the stumps we had removed. There were a lot. They put the grindings in the flower beds near the house and also in the cottage garden. They are so wonderful. They pulled weeds before they laid in the fir grindings. The beds look so much better and should help to retain the water.

They finished that project in two sections since I wanted their help making another small pen for ducks in the goat pen. We did it twice but I think I've figured out how to improve the pen. When Pat put in the stairs under the green barn lean to he hailed up a large piece of stock panel to keep the goats from climbing the stairs to the loft. I have a small piece of panel that I'm going to put up instead. I'll use the large piece of panel to extend the pen by the length of the panel. Right now the pen is very narrow at one end and really needs to be longer.

I had a stock panel that wasn't in use and a gate looking thing that Gary gave to me. I put the stock panel coming out from the stock panel exterior fence and used the gate thingy as the other end. So my pen is triangular. With the exterior fence forming two sides of the pen and the gate the third it's a small pen. I want a larger pen. With the addition of the partial panel the pen will be significantly larger. I'm going to run the short panel from the exterior fence and attach the long panel to it and then to the gate. The pen will be a lot bigger. I may have to line the short piece of panel with fencing as the short panel has fairly large holes. Even the adults could get out.

Then we went over to the cow barn and I asked Enrique and his other uncle (not Juan) to remove the hose I hung from the small lean to on the east side of the barn. It meant cutting the binding twine and coiling the hose. I'm not sure where they ended up putting the coiled hose. Then Enrique pounded in staples and hung the hose that runs from the Dexter water tub to the hydrant up in the first stall south of the cow barn. It runs along one of the rafters that forms the lean to. He did a great job.

We left the guys working on their projects because around noon we left to go to the Flood Celebration BBQ at Rainbow Falls State Park. We stayed two and a half hours. While we were there we talked with Mike and Mary and Mary and Gary as well as other folks we know. I felt badly because I wasn't feeling all that chatty so ignored others I might have introduced myself to. When I did stir my stumps I met a volunteer who is job hunting named Lori. I have her email and will send her a message so that she has my email address.

I started work on putting in the underground wire between the gate on the corridor wire between the corridor and S1 and S2. Unfortunately I couldn't get the plastic insulation off. Knowing when I was defeated I took it back to the house and asked Chas how he would do remove the insulation. We finally determined that taking thin slices off one "side" and rotating the so we could peel a thin strip off that "side" and the other we could take the insulation off down to the wire. Chas took his pliers and gently peeled the wire from the insulation. We cut the insulation off and straightened the twisted wires. There must be an easier way to get the insulation off.

07/24/2009 Friday: Hot, but not as hot as it's going to get in the next few days. I guess Monday and Tuesday are going to be brutal, over 97 degrees. No concrete pouring those two days.

Mike and Mary showed up to drop off my pointed forks. We can use that to pick up both round and square bales of hay. Course we'll have to try it first to see if it works. I'm a little worried that the large sharpened stake won't be quite large enough. Chas doesn't seem to think it will work to pick up the bale on our bucket. Mike also brought a chain to use to hold it onto the bucket.

Mike's idea was to drive up to the attachment and that it would slide onto the tractor bucket, then we'd lift it and attach the chain. We'll try it tomorrow on one of Wally's bales. I paid Mike (actually Mary) $100.00 for the tool.

In the morning around 10:30 Chas and I left for Castle Rock to pick up our two steers at Bolars Meats. We got almost 700 lb (hanging weight) from those two steers. It took a lot of boxes to put the meat into but I had just the right number of boxes. I even remembered to bring my gloves so that my hands wouldn't freeze. Bolar's charged us over $400 for the kill and cut and wrap. Worth every penny but that is the last time I butcher more than one cow/steer at a time. It looks as if a 12 month old calf is just the right size for the two of us. I'll have to remember that.

Before we picked up the meat we ate lunch at Hatties a restaurant we'll want to visit again.

When we got home I gave a bunch of meat to Marie Kiser and to her dad. Marie is a neighbor who lives just east down the highway on the north side of the road. Bill Kiser, Jr and his son, Jared, also got some. Bill says he'll share some elk with me when/if he gets one this fall. Jarod took away a box of beef that he's going to store for me in his nearly empty freezer. I'll take some of the meat over to Mary & Mike in my cooler and transfer it to their cooler so that they can take it home when I go to the Flood Celebration at Rainbow Falls State Park tomorrow.

Pat didn't show up till after 4pm but when he came he brought some silage for both sets of cows. He backed his pickup into the barn and tossed the silage over the gate into the Hereford's feeder. We filled a large 30 gallon tub with silage and fed that to the Dexters. Both sets of animals loved the silage. Pat had to replace a wire to his battery and the battery itself.

I took everything out of the refrigerator freezer and put mostly ground beef in that freezer. The rest of the meat went into the meat freezer at the bottom. With the meat I gave away and the box that went to my neighbors I had just enough space to fit all the new and old meat in.

My order from Premier Sheep came today. I now have the insulated wire to use for underground connections from one part of the fence to another. Plus I have needles and syringes and tags that I can put on the cows so that I can identify the unknown beasties. I can see why name/number tags are so important when every cow looks the same. Hard to keep records if you don't know who the momma is.

We had 1 inch thick T-bone steaks for dinner tonight. They were really tasty. And they were tasty in more ways than one.

07/23/2009 Thursday: Overcast and not too hot except for a few hours late this afternoon.

Sherry here today.

Pat M here today to work on the deck.

Chas had to go into town to pick up some stakes and some 1/2" washers that he forgot to buy when he went to town yesterday. The stakes were first on the list. We all laughed about that. I asked Chas to go to Del's to pick up 4 bags of all purpose chicken crumble even though I'm going in to the orthodontist at 1pm. I'll stop at the bank and get some money.

Tomorrow I want to go to pick up the meat at Bolars. First I need to assemble some boxes. The ones under the stairs in the basement are in sad shape from getting soaked in the flood.

Cally has become quite friendly. She often comes up to be scritched and petted. If she gives me a baby this year it will be well into the fall. She didn't get pregnant this past fall when I had the Angus bull in but the young bulls bred her quite cheerfully. Dunno if their semen is potent but we'll find out.

I hate to butcher Sweet Pea because she's such a sweet cow but two failures in a row is unacceptable.

I'm going to hold off on butchering Cheddar till after she has her next baby. I figure I have a 50% chance of getting a heifer out of her. Huck bred her earlier this spring. I'd have to check my records to see exactly when that was.

The cow that has the lovely eye patches is taking good care of her brown heifer calf.

The little dark red cow that's so friendly is called either Star or Angel's Carolina. It's not a good sign when all the Herefords look the same. I really need to take pictures.

I gave the small red and white (paint) Boer goat a CDT shot in an attempt to stave off the black diarrhea which she seems to be getting. The last time I had that problem I ended up losing the doe. I'd hate to lose this one. She's really pretty.

Rich H finished grinding the large stump by the house and the one by the green barn. I paid him $200. by check for two days work (about 4 hours of work overall).

I forgot to mention, I think, that I moved all the garbage pails that were by the well house down under the walkway from the main deck to the back deck. I figured I could haul the garbage cans or plastic bags full of garbage cans up the hill on the ATV and the put them in the car. That way we don't have to go out in the rain. At least we'll try that location out to see if it works better than up against the house or by the north end of the well house. I don't want to look at garbage pails.

The Chinese gent who is coming out this weekend said his trip was canceled till August 8. That's a bit of a PITA. I need to start harvesting these chickens. They're eating me out of house and home. Soon they will be worth their weight in gold (at least money), literally.

I'm going to wait to butcher the chickens till I see how much space I have in my freezers after I put the meat from the two bull calves away. I may only be able to butcher one chicken at a time, or maybe two, one for the freezer and one to eat. Or, I may get lucky and can harvest 4 at a time.

Danette wrote and asked me if I wanted to sell the small trailer. Alas, I don't wish to sell it now but will make it available to them whenever they want to use it. I'm so happy it has come in handy. It's about the perfect size, I think. Since Danette and I are relatively close by each other it doesn't really matter where it lives. I told them to go ahead and make use of it till we need it here.

Chas ate leftover rabbit while I finished off Monday's uneaten chicken pot pie. We had blueberries with yogurt for dessert.

07/22/2009 Wednesday: Sunny but with a cold wind. Overcast in the evening.

I wasn't feeling so hot today. For some reason I was feeling very anxious all day. I think it has to do with too many people doing things around the farm. Too many stimuli.

Chas and I put a Gary bale in the Dexter and Hereford feeder after chores.

Richard H came by about 4:30 and set up his stump grinder. First he cut the stump off as close to the ground as he could and then used his stump grinder to take the first stump in the former rhododendron bed down as far into the ground as he could. That stump was directly under a concrete pier so we need the foundation as firm as it can be so the deck doesn't settle.

He cut the tops off the two large trees that we cut down in 2006 (before the big wind storms), about 6 inches worth. He ground out the northernmost stump. Tomorrow he'll do the the southernmost stump and the stump over by the green barn. That stump has always been in the way. In fact, I can't really get my tractor into the barn because it's in the way. It also causes a problem when I park my car in the wrong place when I'm trying to drop hay off at the barn.

Richard will finish up grinding the stumps tomorrow. I've forgotten how much I'll owe him. Under $200, I think, although Chas wants one more small stump ground down so I may have to pay over that amount.

07/21/2009 Tuesday: Cold overnight but warm until about 5pm when the sea breezes began and things cooled down a little.

Pat showed up and did some more leveling of the area where we're going to put in the concrete slabs for the deck. He also rooted around and found some 2 x 6s that he used to build forms for the slabs. He pointed out that

I canceled the order that the CenturyTel technician had placed last night without my permission today.

Chas wants to buy a combination modem and wireless router the next time we go to Olympia. That will probably be next week. Be nice to only have one device on my desk instead of two. CenturyTel wants to charge me for the modem and a monthly charge for the privilege of owning the modem which I would also have to pay $22.++ for.

I was feeling overwhelmed by all the work and especially by Chas expecting me to take care of the details of getting a stump that is in the way of our deck, removed. It was just too much for me. Farming is hard work. I did call Richard H and he agreed to come by tomorrow after work and grind out that stump.

Chas is going to town tomorrow. I think I will stay home and vegetate. It will be nice to be at home by myself except for Pat who will be working on the deck.

I picked greens for dinner after watering the gardens. Chas prepared them and I cooked them. We also had another package of Danette's hamburger and mashed potatoes. Pretty tasty. Chas made a jello pudding - low sugar& chocolate fudge variety. Tasty.

I downloaded and installed the current version of Firefox. I think it's 1.5.1.