Denim Deb Hay, hay, hay. Thank the Lord!

[Denim Deb]

Well, it's all home! And starting tomorrow, I'm hoping to work for about an hour on getting it put away. I hope to do that every day but Sunday-weather permitting. Hubby says he'll get another wood shed made. It will be so nice to not have to worry about wood next winter!

I also got more of that fence down. I had hoped to get it all done today, but just didn't have the time. I figure to go on Monday and finish getting it all down. Then on Wednesday, RU is supposed to go w/me and get that as well as some old telephone poles and railroad ties that she wants.

I also noticed that they have a bee hive. It has no bees in it. I'm wondering what they're planning on doing w/it.

Tomorrow morning, I'm planning to go out and work in the garden for an hour B4 I leave for the farm. I had been going to get a load of manure and bring it home, but hubby has his (non-running) Durango sitting in the way. Plus, I don't know where RU put the bucket for the tractor. Right now she has the spear on it. She's away, and I just don't feel like looking for it.

 

[hqueen13]

Glad you're getting stuff done!

 

[Denim Deb]

Didn't get started on the wood today. I had planned on working in the garden this morning but it was too cold! I hadn't made a fire, and when I got up, it was 60* in the house! And, it was 30* outside! It hadn't been supposed to get that cold. At least my plants were all OK. So w/as cold as it was, I made a fire and went back to bed.

I was heading for the farm when I suddenly remembered that I needed to buy feed. I had enough feed for Misty and Licky for today and that was it. Stormy hasn't been eating as much lately, so even though I still have a bag of his feed left, I got another bag. I don't think what I had would have lasted until I was ready to buy their feed again.

They had chicks in the feed store. I managed to behave myself and not buy any today. However, in 3 weeks, I'm planning on buying a couple. They'll have both black sex link and barred rock. And while neither seems to be a breed that's known for going broody, I liked the cross I got from a barred rock hen and an Ameraucana rooster. The boys were a nice size, and the hen laid large eggs. She's the chicken I lost over the winter. Right now, I'm not sure if I want 1 of each, or 2 barred rock. I have a hen that acts like she wants to go broody, so I stuck some eggs in the incubator. And one of the farm chickens is broody. She's on 3 eggs since we don't know if she'll be a good broody or not-she's young. So, if mine is broody, I'll stick the eggs under her. If she's not, I'll try to hatch them out in the incubator, then slip the chicks in w/the other hen after they hatch-along w/any I buy. At least the feed store will let me buy just 2.

Since I'm going w/square bales this year, I decided to take home all the tarps that I had in my feed stall. I also picked up trash in there, swept up some, and rearranged some stuff. It's much easier to move around in there now. I have some empty metal cans at home. I need to take one w/me for chick feed. Right now, there's 8 ducklings out at the farm, and since they eat the same thing as chicks, I really need something for feed. My eggs didn't hatch, so I'll be taking some of these ducklings when they get a bit older.

Speaking of hay, I called the guy I got my hay from last year. He had talked about doing sbs this year, and selling them for $2.50/a bale. Well, he's still planning on doing sbs this year-but he's planning on charging $5.00 or $6.00! So I won't be buying hay from him. I can get it cheaper than that at the auction, or I can get it that price from a guy right down the street from the farm and they're super heavy bales. He does still have some RBs left, so I'm going to get one of them. I only have enough hay for about a month, and most of that is sbs. So, I'm going to start feeding them instead of the RB since once they're gone, I'm going to need some time to get a bigger shelter up. That one only holds 66 bales. I need something much bigger. Once I have that up, I'll start going to the hay auction again.

I did work in my garden some this afternoon. The goats were happy. I dumped all the weeds I pulled out in for them to eat. Tomorrow I'm hoping to get a lot more done-including moving my raspberries and rhubarb. And, I need to get cleaned up on the one side. By the end of next week, it should be all done and I should have some stuff in it! I'm also going to be ordering my trees. I've found a place where I can get a few different types of 5 in 1 trees, pear, apple peach and plum. That along w/cherry, apricot, some strawberries and some other types of bushes should men I have a nice little orchard set up.

 

[Denim Deb]

Since the ground was too wet to work in my garden, I decided to tackle the area between my garden and where I store my motorcycle. I have not been able to walk thru there in years! Hubby had a bunch of junk in there. I had raspberries come up in there. And the biggest problem was I had a huge Russian olive growing there! So the first thing I needed to tackle was that olive. I got out my pruners, and got to work. At first, I tried tossing it in w/the goats. They were happy! But there was just too much for them to eat. So I started to pile it up. I finally got to where the branches were too thick for the pruners, so I broke out my chainsaw. I finally managed to get it all down! It's multi stemmed, and we're not sure how we're getting that out, so for now, I left it tall enough so we can wrap chain around it if we want to try and pull it.

Once the olive was down, I had a whole bunch of branches I needed to do something with. So, hubby broke out the chipper/shredder and I went to work. Other than a few small branches that I missed, and the stuff that's big enough to burn, it's all gone! I was filthy. So, I went in, and stripped in the kitchen. Shook out all the bits and pieces out of my clothes, took a washcloth and got the worst of the grime off my neck and back, then brushed my hair. Once that was all done, I took my broom and swept that all up, dumped it in the trash, and got redressed.

Next I started moving all the junk hubby had there. I also found a bunch of pots I can use. They were all put near my greenhouse. The junk is dumped in the yard. I don't want it back there, and I don't know what hubby is doing w/it. Then w/all the junk moved, I started to rake. I also had to cut down some of the raspberries that were in there, but I pretty much got it all raked up!

One reason I really wanted to get this area cleaned is because of how hot it gets in my greenhouse. The backside of the storage area faces north. So, when it gets too hot in my greenhouse, I wanted to be able to put my plants there. I took an old, metal shelving unit and stuck that back there. Then I went and got all of my plants and put them on the shelves. That worked well. When I got back from the farm, I wanted to put everything back in the greenhouse. I started walking the way I normally do, then stopped. I didn't need to go that way! I could walk where I was supposed to be able to.

I'm not sure how much work I'm going to be able to do outside this week. They're calling for the possibility of rain Tuesday-Thursday, so we'll see. But, if I can work out there, by next Saturday, I should have everything in that area done!

 

[hqueen13]

They're calling for rain Here too. I hope it's not too much. If choose I said is get together with a friend on Monday, just about the only day is not going to rain which means I should be on the farm! So it goes...

 

[Denim Deb]

My niece wants to come out next week. The only day I can see now for her to come is Monday. If I didn't have a meeting on Friday morning, I'd have her come out then.

 

[Denim Deb]

They've now changed the forecast. The rain is supposed to start on Monday now!

 

[Denim Deb]

RU is still away. And, PT is as well. PT normally feeds the small animals when RU is away, so I had to do it. I also had to put out hay for RU's one herd of horses. They went thru the hay a lot quicker than she was expecting and that was the last hay that she had. And, another group is almost out. The bale I put out was supposed to be for this group. I called her and told her. She'll be home tomorrow, so she can deal w/it. I also told her I cannot do the small animals again-at least not w/where the food was. It smelled like cat pee and was triggering my Meniere's. I still want off, so I'm still looking.

 

[hqueen13]

I saw that to for here. Pm showers.
Lots of rain. I just hope I can get enough done this week despite the rain!

 

[Denim Deb]

It's raining now. But, I did get quite a bit done and I'm tired! Didn't make a list this morning cuz I wasn't sure what all I was getting done. BW had talked about coming out to the farm this week, and today was the only day I could take her. Left her a message last night, but she never called back, so I called her this morning, and she couldn't come out. So, I went out by myself. In a way, I was glad. I wouldn't have gotten anything done if she had been w/me. But, I got done the following:

1. For the first time this spring, I let my horses out in the parking area. B4 I could do that, I had to redo how I had the electric up. I don't know if the pole got moved, or my electric rope shrunk, but it no longer stretched all the way across. I had very happy horses.

2. Of course, since the horses were out, that meant that the chickens were also able to get in there. Only problem being, they found a way to get from the parking area into CL's area. I had to chase them in where they belonged 2x. When they got in the first time, I put some fencing to fill in a spot that I thought was how they were getting in there. When that didn't work, I had to find another spot. I fixed that, and they didn't get in there again!

3. I scrubbed the auto waterer. That is a pain to do by myself. It's in the fence line, and has 2 sides to it. I hate it. It never comes completely clean, but at least it's better than it was.

4. I scrubbed my stock tank and refilled it. I also cleaned the chicken's water bowl.

5. Last year, I had a bunch of jimson weed come up in the chicken pen. I pulled some of it, but not all of it since the chickens were using it for shade. I had wanted to get the flowers off, but didn't so of course I got seed pods. I spent some time snipping those off and putting them in a paper bag. I filled 2 paper lunch bags! I will be burning them.

6. KN had a bag of chicken feed in my shed. She couldn't take it over B4 because of the mud. I think she even forgot about it and bought another bag. I told her I was planning on cleaning my shed on Wednesday and that today would be a good day to take the feed over since it's going to rain. She agreed-and then forgot to move it. Since I was tired of tripping over it, and had no desire to clean around it, I took it over. I also took a bag of feed that I had in there and put it in the can it belonged in.

7. Of course, I did normal stuff like clean the field, put out hay, bag feed, etc.

8. Once home, I worked on weeding the garden. I am now past the halfway point!

9. It's supposed to be cooler tomorrow w/rain, so I decided to bring in some wood. I had to split some of it, but I have enough in the house for at least a couple of days if needed.

10. I also did a load of laundry and fed the goats.

Now I'm sitting back and relaxing for a bit. I'm hoping to get to bed early.