frustratedearthmother
Sustainability Master
@goatgurl Sounds like you've been pretty busy to me!
What are you all doing to prepare for winter?
- Thread starter sumi
- Start date
Denim Deb
More Precious than Rubies
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Sounds that way to me too!
tortoise
Wild Hare
I might have posted some of this earlier. Lots done, plenty left to do!
Canning and dehydrating done. I have some dry beans from the garden to deal with still. Basement is full of wood. The garden is cleared up and cultivated.
I need to address rabbit escapes from community pens. They are solid up to 2 feet, then slatted. I have a couple little jumpers that are in wire cages now due to escapes. I have 2 rabbits to cull before winter. And I need to figure out what exactly I'm doing for keeping them in thawed water. When the 2 boys are culled, I should be able to get a heated water bottle to replace a broken one and run a power cord. It should be easy this year ****IF**** I can manage to keep the community pens reasonably clean. I'll have 2 does and 2 bucks, in separate enclosures. Each is approximately 4 x 6 feet, with concrete floor.
Sheep breeding is coming up soon. A ram lamb to band and finish growing out until we start feeding hay.
As soon as the corn on our rented fields is harvested, the chickens will have to be cooped and it will be raccoon season around here. DH is seeing a lot of them on the game cams.
Deer season is coming up. We need 2 this year. DH is starting to see deer activity on the game cams now.
I knit mittens for myself, a scarf for DS8. I'm about 2/3 done with knitting a blanket for Baby. I wasn't planning on making him a blanket, but he saw the yarn at the store and nearly lost his mind over it! He loves to watch me knitting it. When I let him play with it, he starts jumping and panting from excitement! I started a scarf pattern for myself. It's going to take a long time! It has enough pattern to it and stitch-counting that I can only work on it when the kids are sleeping. I'm also planning to knit a hat for Baby. That should be a quick easy project.
I am making the blanket for a Christmas gift for Baby. I decided to get a locking box of some kind for DS8 to store his little trinkets safely away from Baby. He will LOVE that. I am working on a written gift for DH. It might end up being short and tucked into a card, or possibly end up long and illustrated. Not sure how that will end up. I am also collecting stocking stuffers for DS8. I found a name tag for his trumpet case, some sparkly printed wood pencils, and I have a keychain stashed away somewhere for his stocking. I'll stuff a stocking for DH, but that is so much more difficult! I usually end up stuffing with his favorite candy bars. Pretty lame after 6 years! He did the best stocking stuffer for me last year so I feel like I need to step it up!
Canning and dehydrating done. I have some dry beans from the garden to deal with still. Basement is full of wood. The garden is cleared up and cultivated.
I need to address rabbit escapes from community pens. They are solid up to 2 feet, then slatted. I have a couple little jumpers that are in wire cages now due to escapes. I have 2 rabbits to cull before winter. And I need to figure out what exactly I'm doing for keeping them in thawed water. When the 2 boys are culled, I should be able to get a heated water bottle to replace a broken one and run a power cord. It should be easy this year ****IF**** I can manage to keep the community pens reasonably clean. I'll have 2 does and 2 bucks, in separate enclosures. Each is approximately 4 x 6 feet, with concrete floor.
Sheep breeding is coming up soon. A ram lamb to band and finish growing out until we start feeding hay.
As soon as the corn on our rented fields is harvested, the chickens will have to be cooped and it will be raccoon season around here. DH is seeing a lot of them on the game cams.
Deer season is coming up. We need 2 this year. DH is starting to see deer activity on the game cams now.
I knit mittens for myself, a scarf for DS8. I'm about 2/3 done with knitting a blanket for Baby. I wasn't planning on making him a blanket, but he saw the yarn at the store and nearly lost his mind over it! He loves to watch me knitting it. When I let him play with it, he starts jumping and panting from excitement! I started a scarf pattern for myself. It's going to take a long time! It has enough pattern to it and stitch-counting that I can only work on it when the kids are sleeping. I'm also planning to knit a hat for Baby. That should be a quick easy project.
I am making the blanket for a Christmas gift for Baby. I decided to get a locking box of some kind for DS8 to store his little trinkets safely away from Baby. He will LOVE that. I am working on a written gift for DH. It might end up being short and tucked into a card, or possibly end up long and illustrated. Not sure how that will end up. I am also collecting stocking stuffers for DS8. I found a name tag for his trumpet case, some sparkly printed wood pencils, and I have a keychain stashed away somewhere for his stocking. I'll stuff a stocking for DH, but that is so much more difficult! I usually end up stuffing with his favorite candy bars. Pretty lame after 6 years! He did the best stocking stuffer for me last year so I feel like I need to step it up!
chicken girl
Power Conserver
OMGosh. I'm a huge slacker. Today is my day off and hope to accomplish some things
Denim Deb
More Precious than Rubies
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I'm getting there. I did more wood today, and started working on prepping the garden for winter.
- Thread starter
- #46
sumi
Rest in Peace 1980-2020
Slacking? Count me in 
I got busy and stopped gathering wood a few days ago already. My pile is getting small and of course now the weather is impossible. We had the most glorious weather for more than a week and I wasted most of it. Ugh!
I got busy and stopped gathering wood a few days ago already. My pile is getting small and of course now the weather is impossible. We had the most glorious weather for more than a week and I wasted most of it. Ugh!
baymule
Sustainability Master
We are getting a pole barn put up.(hiring it done) I have scrounged materials for years. Telephone poles, lumber, used tin, but we are buying new metal roofing. The poles are up and 4 rafters. We have to buy 29 2x6's 20 feet long for rafters. The cross braces will be 2x6's we already have (scraps). We also have to buy the OSB for roof decking. The barn is 36'x36' with 3 12'x12' stalls on each side. The horses will have a roof over their heads soon! Walls will come later, that is something DH and I can do ourselves.
- Thread starter
- #48
baymule
Sustainability Master
OK, @sumi, here goes, I would love to post pics, but am having problems doing so tonight. How about a link to my thread on TEG? I posted pictures there on the last page of this thread, but they came out sideways. We are building a barn and went today to order 2"x4"x20' lumber, 29 of them, for rafters, and 65 pieces of OSB plywood for the roof decking. We are hiring this done, as planting telephone poles, hanging rafters and decking a roof is a little much for us to do. The lumber is being delivered tomorrow. We also ordered metal roofing and will pick that up on Friday.
We also have had a porch built, 54 feet long and 12 feet wide. It is screened in to keep the mosquitos out. We still have to stain some of the wood, but for all practical purposes, it is done. We love it.
We are so excited to be getting these two projects done. Everything for the barn, so far, is what we already had. I have scrounged over the years, storing my treasures until they were needed. My DH, who thought I was nuts, went along with my madness, and he is so proud of all the money we have saved. we sure spent it today though. but I still found us some good deals even though it was all new materials.
And I am also working on a sheep shed. They have a temporary shelter, but need something better.
http://www.theeasygarden.com/threads/baymule-finally-has-sheep.18387/
And have I mentioned that we bought the rest of the horse wire to finish out the fence? We have 1,086 feet of fence, plus about 200 more feet of fence to build. I will have to break down and actually BUY treated wood posts for H braces and corner braces. I had a huge stack of used treated posts that has almost done this whole place, plus the T-posts that we bought. We have a wet weather stream to cross when we put up the last stretch of fence. But the barn, porch and sheep shed is in front of the fence project.
I found a metal high tunnel greenhouse frame, 16 feet wide and 40 feet long on Craigslist for $50. That is another project that has had to take a number and wait.
We also have had a porch built, 54 feet long and 12 feet wide. It is screened in to keep the mosquitos out. We still have to stain some of the wood, but for all practical purposes, it is done. We love it.
We are so excited to be getting these two projects done. Everything for the barn, so far, is what we already had. I have scrounged over the years, storing my treasures until they were needed. My DH, who thought I was nuts, went along with my madness, and he is so proud of all the money we have saved. we sure spent it today though. but I still found us some good deals even though it was all new materials.
And I am also working on a sheep shed. They have a temporary shelter, but need something better.
http://www.theeasygarden.com/threads/baymule-finally-has-sheep.18387/
And have I mentioned that we bought the rest of the horse wire to finish out the fence? We have 1,086 feet of fence, plus about 200 more feet of fence to build. I will have to break down and actually BUY treated wood posts for H braces and corner braces. I had a huge stack of used treated posts that has almost done this whole place, plus the T-posts that we bought. We have a wet weather stream to cross when we put up the last stretch of fence. But the barn, porch and sheep shed is in front of the fence project.
I found a metal high tunnel greenhouse frame, 16 feet wide and 40 feet long on Craigslist for $50. That is another project that has had to take a number and wait.
- Thread starter
- #50
