Good, Bad and Could Have Been Worse News

First the Really Good News: I have got my hay locked in for the winter. I bought some square bales from this lady a couple of years ago, but had lost her phone #. I found an ad from her at a local feed mill, so called her about some round bales a couple of days ago. I went to look at it yesterday and immediately bought 5. It looks and feels really nice. I am going to see how the critters like it, and how long a bale lasts, then call her to reserve as many as I will need to take me through to April, when I HOPE my pastures will be coming up. She will store what I need in her barn, and then have it delivered as needed. That is a great weight off my shoulders. I was starting to worry about finding enough hay. I have fed the small square bales until now, but apart from the fact that fewer and fewer farmers are putting them up - they are a lot more expensive than the large round bales. I plan on unrolling one at a time, and storing it in the south barn under cover, feeding the critters with it twice a day.

The Bad News was that as I was about to leave this lady's barn, having bought four small bales to tide me over till the round bales can be delivered, my van refused to start. It had been working perfectly well until that second... Then... nothing. We tried all the usual stuff - checking battery connections and grounding connections, looking at fuses, etc. We tried jump-starting from her truck. All to no avail. Not so much as a glimmer or a click. (sigh). So I had to call poor Jim, my dear, long-suffering son in law and favorite mechanic. He ran me through a couple of things that might be wrong - but alas, they weren't the ones. So I had to bum a ride home from the generous hay lady and Jim had to spend his evening travelling up to Muskogee to look at the van.

The Could Have Been Worse news is that it was, in fact, a ground wire that was not quite tight enough so at least it didn't involve something time consuming and expensive. For which I am truly grateful.

The other Good News is that I scored 10 big fat chickens at a great price from a local processor. These are HUGE. They look almost like small turkeys. They were free ranged during the day and I understand that they were fed organic feed. They are now settled comfortably in my freezer. Between these, and the ones we processed at Amanda's a few weeks ago, and the few cockerels that are running around here and surplus to needs, I now have enough to last me probably a year. Which reminds me - I still have another large chest freezer to inventory and I need to empty and defrost my upright freezer so I have room for the piggy that we are processing this weekend. Always something.

Long Time, No Blog

The time has just flown by since my last entry. I have been pretty busy here and there. We have got a large area of the backyard fenced for the chickens, scavenging the chain-link dog kennel panels. They now have a (relatively) safe place to range, roost and lay eggs.

Last weekend Krystal, Alex and I went to the dog show at Lawton. Krystal and I were ring stewarding, Alex was showing. It was a good weekend. She won Best of Breed both days with her Long Coat Chihuahua, Ch. Kyfo Manor Liza With A Zee. Saturday was no big deal - there was just one other exhibit, and that dog was also being shown by a Junior. Sunday, however, was a different matter. There were several entries and two professional handlers were exhibiting. Alex managed to beat them both for the Best of Breed honor. She enjoyed the experience of going to the Group competition, though she did not place there. I also got a championship point on my smooth coat Chihuahua - Star-K A Toybox Sugarplum. Sugar does not like to show, unfortunately, so that was her last time in the ring.

Alex also shows in Junior Showmanship, and does a very creditable job. There was no competition in her class this weekend, so she won by default.

On Monday morning Krystal and I inventoried one of my chest freezers. I do this periodically, then find myself forgetting to update the list when I remove stuff. I am going to make an Excel spreadsheet to see if that makes it any easier than the current book and pen method. I had to get Krys to the gym in the afternoon, then on to the garage to get the hydraulic strut that holds up the back door of the van repaired. It was very hard trying to hold that door up manually - it weighs a lot more than one might think. That took care of Monday!!

Tuesday and Wednesday I spent nourishing my mind. Tuesday was a workshop on composting, with emphasis on the composting of animals. It was extremely informative, and something a person might want to think about, though any of my mortalities get fed to the LGDs. Wednesday was a series of speakers on the various aspects of Organic Gardening. My one criticism is that there wasn't enough time for anyone to be particularly comprehensive. After the workshop I went and picked up four Partridge Cochins that were kindly donated to me.

Yesterday - Ken and I moved the pigs from the summer garden to the top triangle. The garden is very soggy and muddy after so much rain. We are hoping that they don't turn over the ground in the triangle too much before Sunday (the day they go to Camp Westinghouse). It went pretty smoothly, and we filled their "bedroom" with hay to keep them cosy. We did lots of "puttering" so although we worked long and hard, there is precious little to actually show for it.

Today is going to be a boring cleaning day. I need to get what was the kennel cleaned out ready for Sunday, in case the weather proves to be unkind. We intended doing the butchering in the field, but there is a chance of rain, and the temperature may be a bit chilly, so a back up is a Good Thing.

Saturday - Boring but productive

Ken finished the little shed in the north triangle, so the piggies have a bedroom now. Not a minute too soon - it was really cold last night. I know they are pretty well insulated, but so am I and I feel the cold a lot, so I was really concerned for them to have a nice warm place to sleep. I know - anthropomorphism rules! Hard not to assign human feelings to such sweet and friendly creatures. I had run out of hay, so I put down a bunch of old paper feed sacks for them to shred and bed down in. I put a small amount of hay sweepings from the floor of the barn feed area plus some of the hay discarded by the wasteful sheep from inside the barn. I have plans to put that stuff in the summer garden in Spring - it will be great fertilizer by then... Anyway, the piggies are enjoying their new room.

My meat from which I make dog food was delivered Saturday. Today I will grind it all down, five pounds at a time, add some juiced vegetables with the fiber added back in, and package and freeze it all - about 175 pounds of it. That is likely to take much of the day, as it is a fairly slow and laborious process. However, I truly believe that the dogs are much healthier on this raw, natural diet. I know exactly what goes into it and where everything comes from. That means a lot in this day and age of frequent contaminated food recalls...

My other task for today is to empty and inventory at least one of my freezers. I have three. Two chest and one upright. Currently I have no real idea of what is in any of them. I found a lamb loin from 2006 in one chest freezer the other day when I was rummaging around trying to figure out what to cook for dinner. My alpha LGD was grateful for my lack of organization, but I could have kicked myself. Lamb is an expensive meat - though (thankfully) this loin was part of a home-raised, home-butchered lamb and cost little to produce.

Ugghhh...

It has been a trying few days.

For starters - my van wouldn't start. It worked just fine last Friday when we went to the Fair, but when I tried to start it up on Sunday to make a run for chicken feed it said "No way". The battery was low, so I recharged it. Darn thing still wouldn't start. Recharged it again. Same story.

Finally called my son-in-law for advice, and he (bless his heart) came out and replaced the battery. So now the van runs. I had to make two runs for animal feed, because the bins had got really empty. Ken and I were emptying the feed from the second run into the bins, when the hydraulic whatever-the-thing-is that holds the rear door up when it's open broke out of it's attachment. The door closes, sort of, and can be propped open when needed but it is very inconvenient as it is. Jim says he will take a look at it next week if I bring it in to the shop, thank goodness.

Then there is the question of the weather. It has rained pretty well non-stop for the last 36 hours. We have had a rainfall of somewhere around five inches. And it is COLD. I don't mind dry cold, I don't mind warm rain. But I hate cold and rainy with a purple passion. My hands feel as if they will never be warm again.

And another thing. The goats are getting all too clever at getting out of the north field. I need to get that fence fixed (it has a couple of areas that are very slack) and wired hot enough to fry them if they so much as think of testing it. It is one thing to slog through the rain carrying feed buckets, it is quite another slogging through rain carrying a feed bucket and having a gaggle of goats trying to feed out of it.

Ken is valiantly fighting the weather, finishing off the shed for the pigs to get out of the wet. I will go get more hay and put that down for them as soon as he has finished the roof. Painting will have to wait till it dries up some. The whole place is soggy. The one bright point is that the rain made it even easier for the pigs to finish tilling up the summer garden-to-be.

OK. End of Pity Party. I feel better now I shared. (g)

Tulsa State Fair

We (my daughter Amanda and her two daughters) arrived at the Fair good and early. We found a close (free!!!) parking spot and set off in search of Dexter Cattle, which were slated to be judged at 10 am. We found their stalls without much trouble. The entry was small but high in quality. As the judging was running late on the Longhorns, we wandered around, looking at several other Breeds - I was particularly taken with the Santa Gertrudis and the Gelbveigh (sp??). These are large, meaty cattle that are bred to grow out fast. We also took the opportunity to watch some of the Dairy Breeds being judged. Some of those udders almost made my eyes pop out!! I would hate to have to hand milk them - I am betting on eight to ten gallons!

After the Dexter judging was over we went to the Petting Zoo area where the girls had a wonderful time petting the goats, sheep, Highland Cattle, Zebu, and many other animals. I have to confess to enjoying that myself...

Directly behind the petting animals were the poultry exhibits. I am very fond of poultry so we spend a short while walking between the cages. There were several breeds of chicken I did not recognise and some of the bantams were too pretty for words. I would not keep bantams because every animal here has to contribute something edible, and those bantams don't have enough meat on them to keep a mouse alive, LOL, and I would bet their eggs are minuscule, too. Interesting for fancy hors d'oevres but not for breakfast... There were a few geese there. I didn't realise how huge the Toulouse and Embdens are. When I told Ken about them he about drooled. I am betting that geese are on our next poultry order. He really likes goose. It is not one of my favorite meats - I find it rather greasy, but then again, I have never had a home raised one either. I am willing to try anything once.

It was getting to leaving time - Amanda has weekend guests, and I had critters to feed when I got home. I would have liked to spend more time there, and would have loved to return to watch the sheep and swine judging, but alas other things need to be done here at home for that to be possible. The girls wanted to take a photo of themselves so we waited around just long enough for that, then home it was. All in all it was a very enjoyable break from the usual workaday routine.

Mission Accomplished! (well, a third of it!)

Yesterday I finished weeding, raking and amending the east bed of the hoop house. I now have parsnips, carrots, radishes, beets, endive and two types of lettuce mixes (for fancy baby greens salads) sown in there. I can't tell you how much I miss having salad prepared from produce that was picked literally minutes before eating.

I had already got broccoli and brussels sprouts planted in the second , center, bed last week. There is another eighteen foot of it to prepare, and that is my goal for next week. The following week I want to get the last, west, bed done.

Ken helped me move the bin of pig feed from the old building to near the hoop house, so that I can feed the pigs without running the gauntlet of goats all trying to grab the bucket. Feeding the piggies was soooo much easier this morning.

Another thing I did yesterday was measure the pigs to get an approximation of their live weight. I came up with: Boss Hawg (barrow) = 228#; My Hammy (Hamp cross) = 193#; Ms Piggy (?Berk cross?) = 217#. Butchering day has been reset to the 25th October, so they may be a little more by then.

Ken is still working on the housing in the north triangle for future pigs, steers that are being grained out, and other animals that are being "beefed up" ready for the freezer. It will also hold my bucks during summer when I don't want them breeding the does... all in all a very useful area. I will have photos of that this weekend.