Where have we been?

August 5th of last year. That's the last time I wrote anything on the blog. I think I got a little burnt out on documenting everything, and things got a little lazy-ish around here. The horses were doing the same horse stuff.

We never did get the fence finished around the back of the yard so the chickens came in and ate most everything in the garden. Connie and I gave up weeding it and it looked like a jungle. They ate the corn seeds out of the ground and what didn't get ate, got flooded. The squash took over the world. The chicks we hatched either got ate by the skunks or hawks. I had three survivors to speak of when it was all said and done, and they weren't even ones we hatched, they were ones we bought.

Three survivors in front

We got a few loads of firewood.

Jess joined the Army but came back home
 

 Heather made me get out of the house and go play in the snow a few times.

We lost Fudge

And added two new puppies to the EverStuff. Rudy is a Dachshund and Tanzy is a Cane Corso.  

Amye came out to visit for a few days.

Norman is still growing, pooping and getting ready for the freezer.

I've gotten in a little fishing

 

And that's where we are up to today. I got a bit of chicken wire fence up around the garden to keep out the girls. It's cloudy and rainy-ish and I was going to go put out some been and lavender seeds in the garden, but I just might stay in and wait for Scott to get back from Boise.

Adding to the homestead

I've made two mortgage payments on it, I have homeowner's insurance on it. I turned on the electricity, and the kids next door are gone. It's all ours. Five acres to add to our five acres, fenced, cross-fenced, a pond. There is a ton of work to be done over there. Heather will be here in two weeks with her kid, horses, dog, and all her crap.

Making babies, We're in lockdown

We're on try number three incubating eggs. Three days before they're due to hatch you're supposed to take the eggs out of the turner, if you have one, lay them flat, add water to the incubator to increase the humidity, close the lid, and leave them the crap alone. No opening it for anything. Not for the first few chicks hatched. Quit turning the eggs, just keep your damned fingers out of the incubator. Yeah, that's gonna be hell for me.

I want to see what's going on inside those shells. I want to shine a light through the shell and see what's going on. So I compromised. I candled them all after I removed the turner. Out of 32 eggs

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.  

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. 

Walking around Pictures

I had the camera today with me while I was out and about. My garden is actually starting to produce stuffs that I can harvest and bring inside. I've got about half a gallon bag of snap peas in the fridge. The green beans gave me their first couple of handfuls of beans today.

Greens Beans

Snap peas

Banana Peppers 

Purple beans growing at the base of the corn

Bell Peppers

Corn

Squashini corner

I got some good shots of the steers. Norman is a big boy now, full time out with the big boys from last year.

Are you a cow too?

Norman

Norman

And I got Chicken pictures for Carolyn. I read back and counted days, and this week the Red Rangers are 12 weeks old. Pete at the feed store, told me about 8-10 weeks. I could have easily started butchering a week or two ago.I free ranged these, and restricted their feed just like I did the creepy meats. They were more active, but now their legs are getting to be giant tree trunks. They are molting and look bad, lol. I went out there the other morning and it looked like a chicken had exploded inside the chicken house. Some of the roosters are getting down right huge. I did process three last week, three of the bigger ones. I was joking last time we did them, that I found their nuts way up in there, and they were tiny. these three were not tiny.

So in this pic is Einstein the polish crested on the left. The little grey bird is an easter egger that is a week younger.

This pic is two Ranger roos, a White Plymouth Rock roo, and a 4 year old Jersey Giant hen. I was told it was a JG at any rate.

Ranger hen, Easter Egger on the pan, and another Ranger hen. They are easily the same size as the Jerseys, and as big as the White rock roo that is like 4 weeks older.