Frustratedearthmother's Journaling Journey

[Mini Horses]

But, I think dogs are better keeping to a schedule than goats/sheep!

Not when you are "waiting" ! Sorry.


Generator -- gets hot & lot of fumes...consider as that container appears to be a molded "plastic" type. You can look at where exhaust is relative to container... Just a thought.

 

[farmerjan]

Can you use something like the picture, which is very attractive, and not have the back on it? Is it all one piece or something you can assemble? Maybe build a frame interior to make it more sturdy if you can leave the back off?

 

[flowerbug]

Still have 10lbs of chicken in the freezer that needs to be canned....but...I'm sick of it, lol. And, I need my kitchen to be my kitchen again instead of a processing plant. And just to make things wonderful - I had kept a bowl of trimmings to put over the dog food this morning. Decided to microwave it first. Big mistake. Ever see what the inside of a microwave looks like when guts blow up? It's not
pretty!
View attachment 14123

well i've had a microwaved egg explode (in my hand, held right in front of my stomach) and that was pretty nasty smelling, but i'll give you the king of this hill for the moment. no fun to clean up...

 

[flowerbug]

i wouldn't want it too close to the house due to noise and exhaust fumes and also some chance of fire perhaps... you'll want it well protected from animal chewing on wires and hoses. mice can get into the tiny cracks you can't imagine so it all has to be very well constructed. i.e. not a minor project IMO.

there are very good reasons to keep it simple and to not complicate things if you can cope with the once in a while outage. for the price of a generator and all the extras that go with keeping up yet another piece of expensive equipment i'm just happy to have the propane tank and the fake fireplace that can at least keep us from freezing in the winter if the power goes out for more than a day. so far we've not needed it more than a few times and that's over 23 winters. so in terms of expense and hassles, way ahead.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

well i've had a microwaved egg explode

Ewwwww - that reminds me of my worst egg experience. I found a hidden chicken nest - yay! Not so much, lol. I bent over and picked up an egg and that sucker blew up right in my face...nasty rotten egg all over my face, in my eyes and (barf) even in my mouth. That is NOT an experience you ever want to relive!

Haven't totally worked out the generator storage but am leaning towards the pictured idea. I want it undercover mainly for protection from dogs, dirt and sunlight which takes a toll on hoses and lines. We've never had a rodent problem on the back porch - dogs live there. The generator is on wheels so for prolonged use it would come out of it's little shed. The shed is quite a bit larger than the gen itself giving at least a foot of space on all sides. The way it's configured - if I wanted to run it "in the box" the muffler faces out of the front area so the heat wouldn't impact any of the box itself. The on/off switch would be to the right and the plug in area - to the left. For simplicity's sake we would plug one cord into the main breaker so we wouldn't need multiple extension cords.

I want it on the back porch mostly for security. Our garage opens to the front and faces the road (duh), lol. In case of a power outage it would draw a lot of attention with the noise and would be a bit of an easy target. And, running it inside a building (even a garage with the door open) is a no-no. Backyard has privacy fence all around. The generator is heavy - like 400 lbs heavy. (we will use the tractor to move it) It's hard enough to pull on cement, but pulling it through lawn that has multi-levels (known as holes) created by the dogs would be a huge challenge. Plus a person would have to get past the motion activated lights, through padlocked gates and past the dogs before they could even try to pull it out of the yard.

We have a pre-built wooden storage shed in the back yard (on cement blocks) that might be considered just because it already exists. My issue with that is in a strong hurricane it could take flight. We've also tossed around pouring a pad inside the backyard fence and building a more permanent shed there. That would be a longer term project so for now I'm still leaning towards the back porch box.

Today's chores are to shuffle the goats again. I need to move the kinder's that I'm milking into the front barnyard so I can use the milking machine instead of milking them by hand. I hurt my right hand grabbing a goat a while back and it's complaining almost constantly so I'm going to give it a break.

Tomorrow the first Nubian will be moving to her new home. The guy has indicated interest in several others, but they've recently given birth and will stay until their kids are weaned. Its nice to have an interested buyer. We'll see if he's still interested 6 or 7 weeks from now.

Motrin has worked it's magic and I can now close the fingers on my right hand so it's time to get the feeding/milking done.

Happy Saturday ya'll!

 

[Mini Horses]

Back porch is so convenient! But, if you wanted to use the shed put tiedowns over it like mobile home.

I've taken pain relief 2 days in a row now -- we must be a wuss -- mine is sore back muscles from hoeing! Today we use disc, roto, hoe last.
This old pasture does NOT want to be more than a grass garden! I will win! It may feel like a Mack truck hit but, I will win!

 

[frustratedearthmother]

I'm getting a puppy!!!!! ​

Smallish litter. 3 males, 2 females. I'll be getting a male. My original wish was for a female but I told them I'd take whatever I could get. Eight weeks from now we'll be making a road trip to Arkansas! Woo Hoo!

 

[baymule]

BJ and I are so happy for you!! We know he will have the best home ever! Yay!!!! You’re getting a puppy!!!!!

 

[frustratedearthmother]

I AM getting a puppy!!! They're mostly black, actually tri-colored. I didn't see any with full white collars like Gracie had, but that's ok. I'm after the breed, not the color.

We had a movie night last night - it was fun. We rented Invisible Man. It was a bit of a 'keep you on the edge of your seat' movie....but with some "campy" moments.

Moved the milkers, Luna and Gigi, up to the front barnyard so I can use the milk machine instead of hand milking. That's an improvement for me - but they weren't terribly impressed. They'll get over it though.

I've been wandering around the weed...I mean the garden a little. The cantaloupes are taking over and have quite a few melons. I can't remember the variety I planted. The red rippers are producing - but WTH(?) - they're not red! Must've gotten some crappy seeds. They're so easy to harvest when they are a contrasting color but now they just blend in and I have to really dig for them. The potato harvest looks like it's gonna be dismal...but I'm not a good potato farmer anyway so I'm not surprised. I told DH this morning that the things I expected to do well - aren't. And some of the things I expected to fail - didn't. I guess that's pretty normal for a garden, right?

Worked some more on weeding a raised bed that I started yesterday. I'm almost done, but stopped for a drink and haven't gone back out yet. I've got the sprinkler going on the corn -need to move it over soon before I flood it out.

 

[baymule]

Can’t wait to see pictures of your new puppy!! Whoop!!

Your garden sounds like mine. Success and failure. Eh (shrug)