It's been Frosssty

The weather has been kinda crappy the last week or so. We'd had this inversion layer stuck overhead for over a week. The fog would roll in thick overnight and then the clouds would descend till you couldn't what was what. It was just the murky, gloomy yuck. No sun, just wet cold. The only good thing is, it was beautiful on the winter countryside.

Scott took these ones.

These ones were a few days before that I took.

Ice crystals forming on the hot wire

 One good day we had yesterday. We even saw the sun in the morning. The temperature has been holding pretty stead. Low 20's at night, mid 40's in the afternoon. The blankets are off the horses. I even turned them out on the front pasture yesterday to run around and pretend they were wild horses. Today, rain all day. I woke up to a sheet of ice on everything. Bleh. More of the same predicted for tomorrow.

Everything else is holding steayd on the homestead. Scott and Andrea took the steers to Nate's house Saturday afternoon. He was going to dispatch them that evening and let them hang for 10 days. Tuesday next week we'll go over and help him cut and wrap them. It's something I want to learn to do start to finish, but I'm good with learning the butchering part next week.

Norman is pretty upset that he's the only cow in the round pen. He didn't necessarily like the other steers, they were always chasing him away from their food, and trying to hump him, but he isn't happy being by himself. He lowled  and mooed all afternoon Saturday and most of the morning Sunday. I keep telling Scott, he wouldn't be lonely if I got a little dairy heifer. He looks at me like I a nutter.  

Little chicky outside, insulated chicken waterer, rainbow of eggs

Our little chicky and Mamma are full time outside. The weather has been holding nice-ish. Mid 20's overnight and mid 40's during the day. The little chicky is fully feathered and Mamma Speckles was wanting OUT of the brooder pen in the garage. The first night Speckles slept in the bottom of the condo with the little chicky, but she's wanted to sleep in the top with the big hens, and the little chicky is quite upset about that. I swooped her little feathered butt up the first night and stuffed her in the top of the condo. The second night she came flapping right back out and down the ramp. I watched for a few minuets and she headed back into the bottom of the condo and that's where she spent the night.

We had one of those heated base chicken waterers that plugs in and keeps the water unfrozen. I say had, cause I broke it. It was a pain in the ass anyhow. It did it's job and worked great, but in order to put water in it, you had to flip the thing upside down, unscrew the plug in the bottom and fill it turned over. Screw the plug back in and then try and flip it back right side up without splashing water on yourself and carry it back over to the coop while water is trying to drip down your pant legs from the base. It only held three gallons of water, and with 18 chickens, they were going through it every few days.

Back in the summer I ran into Chicken Nipples at D&B while I was in buying chicken feed. I saw on pintrest where you screwed these nipples into the bottom of a 5 gallon bucket and hung it up and voila, chicken waterer that fills from the top. So I got five nipples, and they sat around in the garage gathering dust. The rubber bucket I was using to water the birds was working fine, and we never got around to building the nipple/bucket.

And then I broke the heated waterer. I had broke the handle off the top a few days before (It was over a year old and only plastic in my defense) so I was trying to carry this three gallon waterer between my legs, by the base, doing the penguin walk across the yard. I got back to the coop, managed to spill a minimal amount of water over my pant legs. In flipping it back over onto it's base, it slipped just a little in my hands and smacked the ground. It was pretty cold that morning, like 14 degrees, and the whole blasted thing shattered, spraying me with water up to my thighs. .../sigh.

Scotty to the rescue. We'd bought a new heat tape before he dug out the frost free water hydrant. Pintrest again showed us a design for a bucket in a bucket with the heat tape in the middle.

Inner bucket with chicken nipples in the bottom

Cutting out the bottom of the outter bucket

 

Wrapping the heat tape, top cut off outer bucket

Finished heated chicken waterer

 Scott built a tripod out of some logs to hang it from. It took a few days before on of the hens figured it out, but once she did, everyone had to take a turn pecking at the chicken nipples. 

Using the chicken nipples

 

I've been getting a couple eggs every few days. The older black hens have been taking a break, they molted pretty hard. Only one of the easter eggers started laying before the daylight cut back, and she went on strike when they moulted a little around the head and neck. Last week I opened the box after not looking for eggs the evening before, and found EGGS! All colors. One of the other easter eggers is laying an olive colored egg. I've got creams, tans, pinks, green, olive and almost orange. I'm still missing the pink with grey speckles, but egg production is on the rise.

It was a crappy kind of day

This Tuesday, and last Tuesday were crappy days. This Tuesday I didn't haul near as much of it, but last week was a shit shoveling day. The weather got warm enough that the ground unfroze enough to start pitching cow pies.

With the steers up in the round pen getting fattened up for the butcher, there is a lot of poop. We throw straw out for them to bed in and that starts to get wet and nasty and has to come out too. The cow pies are perfect this time of year. Still a little frozen together, clumped in piles and not scattered all over the place. It took me 8 wheel barrow loads to pick turds and wet straw. I started throwing it right out onto the the frozen dirt in the garden. The rain and the snow will soak all that poopy goodness into the garden. What doesn't break down over the winter will be tilled in, in the spring.

The rabbits got their pens cleaned out, new hay strewn in for them to dig and burrow in. The weather warmed up enough to clean out the top of the chicken condo too. I'd only been able to throw new shavings over the frozen bird turds. What a wet stinky mess. The whole top stripped down to plywood, new shavings scattered inside. Only a few birds still sleep in the bottom of the condo so they got their bedding stirred around, wet spots pulled out, and new shavings over the top. The rabbit pellets and the muck out of the chicken coop went onto the compost pile. I know rabbit crap can go right on, but it was on the bottom of the wheel barrow with the bird turds on top.

Speckles and Chicky got to spend time outside too. Last week was pretty windy so I didn't let them out too long, but Speckles spent the whole time flopping around in the dirt looking like she was having a seizure. She hasn't had a super duper dust bath in ages.

Goodbye Charlie

Charlie came to live with us when Connie moved in. He was a pain in the ass at first and I was debating how to either fence in the front yard, or fence in an area for the chickens. Neither were really options with our budget, especially since Scott is so anti hillbilly twine. :)  

Charlie visited with us when Connie and Liam came down for one of the get togethers here when the chickens were still chicks. Chasing my little chickies was something that was going to make me find a hole in the lava rock in the desert for him to disappear into.  He chased my favorite colored chickie, and got a hold of it. When he went after Fudge and bit him in the face, life almost ended for him when he moved in.

He was a funny looking little dog. Mom was Wire Haired Doxie on one side, and Shih-tzu on the other. Dad was something that lived down the street, but I think was something scottie-ish, going by the way he looked. I gave him a funky hair cut with a mohawk, a goatee, and halfway shaved- tassel ears. It looked ridiculous, and I loved it.


Having some room to roam worked wonders on Charlie. He mellowed out, and turned into a great little dog. He quit pestering Fudge and stopped chasing the animals that lived here, but he and Ashley were my mighty cat chasers. The strays in the area like to try and get into my trash barrels, but with Ashley and Charlie on patrol they didn't stick around long. He chased voles and mice in in the long grass with Ashley. He followed me on walks into the trees to watch the chickens in the summer afternoons. He still was a rotten beast about coming when you called him to come inside.

He thought the steers were his friends. He hung out with me when I took Norman for walks so he thought the big steers wanted to be his buddies too.  He was always in the round pen when they were. Now that we're graining them, he was also trying to sneak grain when we fed them. I think that's what did him in. They were trying to pile drive him with their heads, and he thought they were playing.

He came inside the other day and just didn't seem his happy self. He seemed like he might be favoring a back leg, but there wasn't anything in his foot. When I got home from work Sat he seemed a little wobbly in the back end, but with the long back he could have just tweaked it. We had to go to Boise yesterday but Connie told me that when she woke up yesterday, he'd lost the use of his back legs and his bladder. She had to take him in and have him put down.

Goodbye Charlie. You were a good little dog for starting out such a pain in the ass. 

All ready for Winter

I haven't been really good about getting home from work with there being enough daylight left to get any good pictures of what's been going on. I took a few crappy pics with the phone this afternoon after I got everyone fed and watered.

Scott got the frost free hydrant that was freezing up on us all last winter, dug out and fixed. Teh Boy gave him a hand while he was down for Turkey Day. It's so nice not having to have to have yet another extension cord stretched across the yard to run the hot tape to keep the water faucet from freezing. I still have to drain hoses after every time I run water through it. Scott has taken over most of the morning chores for me and he gets the waters filled for me.

Speaking of water, it was becoming a huge hassle to keep the steers watered. It got cold enough that going out and busting the ice off the water troughs wasn't working. They were froze solid all the way through. Dragging hose across Andrea's property, across the road, and out to the pasture, twice a day, then dragging all that hose back, and making sure it was drained so it didn't freeze wasn't worth keeping the boys out on the pasture any more. Now they are in the round pen. We got em moved Mon after I got home. One cord to the front of the house and they have a tank heater. We threw some straw out to keep them off the snow and mud. Norman has some serious fuzz going on.

While the boys were down for Turkey day, Mike helped me bring the brooder pen Scotty made for me, back into the garage. It was still out next to the chicken condo from when we moved the second batch of meat birds outside. Speckles and her little chick are in it now, all cozy in the garage. When I bring the water bowls in for the rabbits, they unfreeze, so I know she can keep the little chicky warm. They are out of any draft, and the other chickens, or predators can't get to it. I still don't know yet if it's a pullet, or a cockerel chick, but I'm leaning towards pullet. It's going to have Barred Rock coloring. 

The big chickens outside have their heated water dug out of the garage, cleaned out, and plugged in.

The ground looks ugly. We had weird weather this year. No rain really or snow to speak of. It was getting into the high 40's during the day, maybe the low 50's. Then BAM, Cold. Down into the negative numbers in the morning, teens during the day. The ground didn't have any moisture to make it freeze. When we finally got snow it was that really dry powdery stuff and it mixed with the dry powdery, sandy soil underneath it. My front yard looks like someone took dirt, and sprinkled white playground sand in it.

The ponies have their blankets on and they're off the pasture too. They're in the dry lot right next to the haystack so I can feed easier. Then hop the electric fence and feed Dave's horses.

Scott got a good chunk of the firewood bucked up into rounds and the biggest rounds split to fit in the stove.

The wood rack he built for me last year is working perfectly. It takes me two wheel barrow loads to fill it, and filled it will last me about three or four days. 

Connie has been working over at Valley Country Store. Scott is still working nights (which I hate) at IMP. I'm still grooming dogs at WindSwept Kennels. 

I Haza Baby Chickenz!!

Actually I have two little chicks. Two little, home grown, my own broody hatched, chicks.

The Austra White hen, Speckles, decided three weeks ago that she wanted to set that day's eggs I hadn't collected yet. With my two failed attempts already, I figured why the hell not? Sure it's getting to be cold, and there is likely to be snow on the ground soon. Not like any of them are gonna hatch anyway. I thought Tues this last week was going to be the hatch date, and I wasn't terribly surprised when Tues came and went with no chicks. 

I did remember to mark the eggs this time and I knew she stole two more, so I thought I'd just let her set a few more days to see what happens. Color me giddy when I got home Thurs night and picked her up to peek under her. A little fuzzy chick was peeping under there. It was too dark to really see anything, but today I got pics. She hatched out a second chick Fri morning too. 

YAY, /HappyDance

I don't have any idea who the baby daddy is. Neither of them have a puff on their heads. The black one does have a little yellow spot. I'm just tickled pink that we Haza Baby Chickenz!!!!

Chickens, Fencing, Steers and Horses

I was talking on the phone with my momma the other day and were were comparing chickens. I was trying to explain the breeds and the birds that I have, so I went out and snapped a few photos. The light was fading and I didn't get pics of everyone.

Einstein is bigger than I thought he was. He's turning into a very handsome rooster.

The White Plymouth Rock Rooster is Captain. I'm super happy with both the boys. Gentlemen, they both are. The White Rock behind him is a hen. 

This is the Red Ranger that I just couldn't butcher. She's so big and fluffy.

One of the Easter Eggers, the the Buffy Red Ranger in the background. This is the EE that will come over and eat of my hand. 

Two of the other Easter Eggers. 

This is Spur. One of the original hens we started with. She has spurs like a rooster. Her and the other other black hens are Black Australorps. I was told they were Jersey Giants, but the other birds are bigger than they are. Australorps we decided. All four of them are molting and look terrible right now.

This poor girl doesn't have any tail feathers left. Just some scraggly bits.

The fence has been working beautifully. Scott did a perfect job on it. None of the cows have gotten out, the horses are happily out on pasture and not eating the winter hay. 

Ben and Fox behind the new gate and fence braces.  

This is the corner brace that gave us such a hard time getting into the ground.

Bacon, the steer, is starting the grow in some woolly hair. He's looking like a fine tasting fellow. Soon we'll bring both the steers back up to the round pen and start feeding the crap outta them, getting them ready for the butcher. 

Norman was out stuffing himself on grass and didn't want to come out the the fence to get his picture taken. Give him a trunk though, and he's look like a baby Woolly Mammoth. 

I promised Heather pictures of the new mare. Here's one of her favorite boy, Ben, too. 

Ben

Hancocks Gaelic Fox. Her topline isn't really that funny looking, Ben is hiding behind her and you can just see a bit of him by her withers and neck. 

Hancocks Gaelic Fox and Benjamin Brown

Fox

Scott on Hancocks Gaelic Fox

Scott and Fox