Bringing you up to date

All is well in the "Commune".

Well we have a bigger family unit. Mat and Julie are staying with us for a while. Their home got flooded. That has to be heartbreaking. The waters are still up to and in the house. They are in limbo about what the government is going to do. We all know how the government is. SLOW.

The animals are getting along pretty well. My rooster is a bully. He keeps trying to rein supreme over the other rooster. The cats are getting use to seeing each other. They still maintain a distance from one another. The dogs they run, eat, sleep, and the other stuff dogs do. They get along well.

Christine and I are surrounded by meat-eaters. It hasn't been a problem though. Everyone respects our veggie lifestyle.

Some of the roads have washed out. Some are still under water. The majority of the cleanup hasn't even started yet. The stench from the stagnate water is getting ripe.

We have had rain for the pass 3 nights. Each accompanied with thunder, lightening, and winds. Just what we DON'T need.

I'll post later. Carry on.

What a night!

After work Thursday, Christine and I went out to my bro-in-law's house. We pretty much got every thing out of the house, including the AC unit outside. Hope he isn't pissed about that (I didn't do it). We (Christine and I) somehow wound up with Rosco (Beagle), 5 chickens (1 roo and 4 hens), and 5 cats (2 adults and 3 kittens). Ummm, I wonder how that happened. It's all good.

The river isn't supposed to crest now they say until Wednesday. It is supposed to get 23.6 - 24 feet. A couple of levees have broke north of here. In Wapallo and around Oakville.

We got quite a bit of rain and wind last night. Nice lightening show. The tin roof held on the shelter house/barn across the pond. I am going to try to put the ridge cap on this weekend. We have been lucky so far.

This flood is like preparing for a hurricane. You know it's coming but you don't know exactly when or how bad it will be. I guess we hope for the best and prepare for the worst.

I'll keep you posted. Burlington Steamboat Days has cancelled it's activities. I think it is the first time it has happened. The Old train depot is surrounded by water (yes I will post a photo).

Here come the Flood

The Mississippi River is supposed to crest at 24 feet on June 18th. My brother-in-law and his family are being evacuated today from his home. Christine and I are going there after work to help them move stuff up from the basement and first floor. My In-Laws are there at the moment helping them.

Here is a story about an evacuation.
http://www.thehawkeye.com/Story/evacuation-WEB-061208

The flood won’t affect us since we live away from the river. But a lot of the downtown businesses are worried. A couple of banks have closed already. This could prove to be interesting.

As always, I’ll post photos as I get them.

Animal swap

Went to the animal swap Sunday morning looking for some goats. We found a set that was in our budget but they looked scraggly. Christine and Randy found some good looking ones. Four Boer goats all nannies two with kids that are due at the end of August. The other two are supposed to be with kids. We'll see. Three of the nannies are yearlings and one is 2 years old.

We'll they bought them. My bank account suffered a major financial leak. If we sell off the male goats we can recoup our money. The seller delivered the goats to the house.

Randy and Christine put together a pen for the goats next to the chickens. Hopefully the goats will deter any predators that go after the chickens. Two of my older hens wouldn't go in the coop in the evening. I think they are unsure of the goats being there. I had to trap them in their old coop. I used a fish net on one of them.

The coop is finished

I finally finished the coop. It looks pretty good. The chickens spent their first night in it Saturday night. No mishaps Sunday morning when I let them out. I'll post photos later.

The coop

Finished the screening of the coop yesterday. I have to proof the edging around the bottom of the coop and it will be ready to test. I will test it using some bait is see if the raccoon's or possums can get in.

I'll be angry if they can. I spent a lot of time and effort on this.

I currently have 12 older chickens and 10 chicks. Plenty of room for more chickens in this new coop and I can put some in the old coop too. Or I can put a couple of goats or sheep in them. The animal swap is this weekend. Might bring home a new critter or critters.

Hot Tin Roof

WOW is it hot. Saturday Christine, Randy, Matt, and myself put the metal roof on the pole barn. We put 30 sheets of 13 ft., 24 ga. steel on the 24 ft. X 45 ft. barn. Poor Christine was feeding the sheets up to Matt and I. She was hating life, but she stuck to it. I'm proud of her. Randy was helping sometimes. Kathy was fixing dinner (Mexican). It was good.

Sunday I didn't do much. Randy and I went out and tied the trusses together on the pole barn. Then went to Warren's farm to look at some Morgan horses. We are looking to breed HD to his stud and maybe get a yearling colt for me to work with. The price is a little high so he'll work on him.

Christine and I also started our Cleanse Sunday morning. We are shooting for 10-12 days. We went 7 days last time we started. Basically it is a detox cleanse. Ridding the body of toxins from processed foods and other "not good for you" products that we put in our bodies.

It was rough getting up this morning. Now here I am in the cube wishing I was doing a hundred other things at the farm. Expecting rain tonight. Hope the roof holds.