wyodreamer - we're not in Wyo any more

[flowerbug]

I went out Sunday morning to tend chickens and found Ms. Sagitta Chicken dead on the floor right by the feeder. She died with a sunflower seed in her mouth, lol. I knew that she was fading and I am fairly sure it was old age related as she was the last of my first batch. But she was always right at the door and insisted on picking BOSS out of the bowl before I tossed the scratch out for the others to eat.

aww...

 

[baymule]

Sorry about the loss of your hen. Even though you know it's coming, it still hurts.

 

[wyoDreamer]

I was scrolling through the Craigs List ad's and that is usually a bad thing. I found crossbreed cattle for sale that I would snap up if we were set up for them. DH says maybe in a "few years". We need to fence all the pasture areas before getting any livestock. But, I think a Guernsey/Devon cross sounds like a nice mix. They would probably produce enough milk for calves and us, plus they look like they have a nice beef body shape.

 

[wyoDreamer]

Getting ready for gardening. DH finished burying the chicken wire around the area and backfilling. Such a wonderful guy, he buried a run of PEX to use as a water source. It will attach to a splitter at the water font at the barn (what I have been pushing for all along) instead of digging up the water font and tying directly into the water line. This way we can simply disconnect from the font, blow out the PEXs and cap the ends for winter. AND the water font can stay on for the winter. If he had tied into the waterline below ground, the entire waterline would have to be turned off for the winter. He also picked up a unit to attach to the end of the PEX at the garden. It has a water spigot, so simply turn the water on and off like at the house spigot. Attach a hose for watering the orchard and greenhouse items. Attach the soaker hose for watering the garden.

 

[Britesea]

sounds like a good system!

 

[frustratedearthmother]

He IS a wonderful guy! That's going to make life a lot more convenient for you.

 

[wyoDreamer]

By the way, the cranberry juice is fantastic!! Dh says maybe a touch too sweet. I gave a quart to my sister and she used it with her Soda Stream and says it is wonderful that way also. Cant wait for cranberry season to make alot more. Going to try with Cherries also for cherry juice.

 

[CrealCritter]

By the way, the cranberry juice is fantastic!! Dh says maybe a touch too sweet. I gave a quart to my sister and she used it with her Soda Stream and says it is wonderful that way also. Cant wait for cranberry season to make alot more. Going to try with Cherries also for cherry juice.

She likes the cranberry juice next step canberry cobbler with the spent cranberries.

 

[wyoDreamer]

Cranberry season here in Wisconsin. I found a place to order a box of fresh cranberries from, I think I will go for it.
I am posting this here for my reference. They have pretty good prices:
https://freshcranberries.com/product/fresh-cranberries/

I canned Beef Stew last night. I was up until 11:30. It looks like one of the jars syphoned some juice into the pot. I forgot to remove bubbles from the jars, so I am blaming it on that. All 4 jars sealed, so that was good.

I put together a double batch of stew in a large roaster pan. Put it in the oven at 350 to warm up while I helped DH install posts for the dog fence. By the time I got back into the house, the stew was hot and mostly cooked. I pulled out enough stew for the 2 of us for supper, put it in a pot and thickened it. The rest was put in quart jars and pressure canned. We will see how it tastes next week when I open one up for supper.

For the beef, I bought a whole flat iron steak that was on sale. It was cryowrapped and 6 pounds, so a whole cut. I looked it up, the flat iron steak comes from the shoulder. The same area as the blade roast so it should be good for this use.

 

[wyoDreamer]

I just got some chicks. A co-workers wife ordered 20 chicks - she wanted a dozen and a neighbor asked her to order some for him. However, he is now ill and doesn't think he can take care of them so she needed to find a home for the rest. Since I have not gotten any new layers this year, I said I would take them.

They are a week old, and the she had them under a heat lamp. I checked on them last evening and they were standing in a corner in a cluster. They were not peeping, but I could tell they were starting to get chilly as they were all puffed up. I did get the brooder cleaned up an the heater cave set up for them, but obviously they were not using it.

One by one, I put them under the cave on the heat mat and held them there for a few seconds so they could feel the warmth. They all ran back out to the corner peeping, trying to get under the other chicks to get warm.

Then I realized, they were looking for the heat LAMP, to them heat had to be light. I turned off the lights directly overhead the brooder so that it was a little darker in there. That really got them distress peeping. Then, one by one I put them under the cave on the heat mat. 2 minutes later, no distress peeping, no pig pile in the corner trying to get warm, and no light to keep them awake and active.

This morning, they were out and about. They had finished off the food that I left last night and were darting back under the cave to warm up, then popping out to scratch through the shavings looking for more to eat. Happy little peeps.