The Saga Continues

It would seem my run of luck, be it good or bad depending on how you look at it, is continuing.

After work I decided to change the oil in the van and car. Starting with the car, I jacked it up, put the jack stand in place then discover I couldn’t get the drip pan in place to catch the oil. I had to reposition the jack. The cats, that aren’t mine, seem to enjoy using a corner of the barn for their bowel releasing pleasure. As I am changing the oil the reek of cat poop is nasty. They have 30 acres to use and they decide to use the inside of the barn.

After smelling and stepping in their droppings I decide to run them out of the barn brandishing a shovel. In and out they run. I finally get the oil changed in the car and start on the van. After loosening the oil filter and receiving a hot oil bath, not enjoyable at the least, I finally get finished with the oil changes.

My back still hurts from chain sawing Sunday. I get an early start on chores. It is about 6:00 PM when I finish with the vehicles. I get the cages I am using to keep my roosters in. I have 1 rooster per cage. They each have their own food & water bowl. These birds live better than I do. I throw some feed into the cages and luckily they congregate around the cages. I quickly grab them using my cat-like reflexes and put them in their respective cages.

Meanwhile the hens are in the coop during the day so they can remember to lay the eggs in the nestboxes instead of all over the farm, are getting excited seeing me throw feed to the roosters. They figure they are next to feast. I open the coop and let the hens out for some exercise. They run to where the roosters are and start trying to get the feed. I shake my head. I look in the nestbox and see 3 eggs. Better than finding 1 egg the other day. I feed them and move the roosters’ cages into the coop. I don’t trust those raccoons around here. I lock up the coop. The cats are back in the barn! I say a few choice words to encourage them to vacate the premises.

Kathy calls to me and says there is water standing in front of her parents’ trailer. Great. I finish up with the chickens and head over to the trailer. As I approach, Kathy tells me the toilet has been over-flowing and the inside is soaked. Again, Great…just what we need. The flapper in the tank stuck open and there must have been a clog in the toilet drain. The water just kept running. Sort of like my electric bill since the water pump is on my meter. Grrr.

Kathy gets to work cleaning up the place. Her parents are off RVing for the week so no one was at home when this happened. I’m sure Kathy won’t get any thank you’s from her mom. It will somehow be our fault that this happened. Her mom will blame someone else like she always does. She won’t appreciate what Kathy has done. Anyway, it happened.

I head over to the other barn and feed the goats. Peaches is still limping but not as bad. I get some 2X4’s down from the rafters so I can make the kidding pens Tuesday after work. I have to coyote-proof my goat pen before the kids arrive. As I am carrying the wood across the pond damn I see my dog with something hanging out her mouth. It is a small rabbit. That dog is a good hunter. I congratulate her on her hunting prowess and continue to the main barn carrying my 2X4’s.

Randy meets me half way and asks me to help him with the lawn tractor. We have to get a tensioner spring on the mower deck to connect onto a post. We end up putting a ratcheting strap on the movable tension bar and the stationary post and tightening the strap. It worked great. We did however have to cut the strap off.

After that and sending another 15 minutes chasing the cats back out of the barn I decided to head home. It is 8:30 now. Time to eat some pasta and fresh green beans. My mother-in-law had made supper earlier, before the flooding episode. I’ll miss her when her and my father-in-law leaves for the winter. My wife was at the studio during all this. Who wants to be me? I do! What a day. I can’t wait to see what Tuesday brings.

Hectic Weekend

Saturday morning turned disastrous while yard-saling. We were backing up in the van to turn around and hit a fire hydrant. It smashed the left side of the rear bumper of my in-laws van. My wife was driving at the time. That is going to cost us $500 deductible. I didn’t even see the hydrant and I walked by it! It was located right by a drive way. It was painted Forrest green and has a white top. The concrete it was on was a light white and the grass in the yard was green. The city of West Burlington is smart I’ll tell you.

Later that day my wife drops her Blackberry in a puddle of water. It won’t turn on. We have insurance on it but it still cost us $50 bucks.

Sunday afternoon one of my pregnant goats starts bellowing. My wife tells me something is wrong with one of the goats. I run down the hill and she was lying on the ground feet uphill. I go over to her and she tries to get up but isn’t able. I see she has one of her hoof clef stuck in between a fork in a sapling. I free her hoof and check for breakage. I feel the clef joint pop back into place. She is walking on it gingerly.

My wife and I started putting up an electric fence around the parameter of the property. We drove in close to 30 steel tee posts with a driver.

Christine and her parents went into town to get a few things. Later I’d find out they picked up more fence posts.

While they were in town I cut every sapling down that could cause a problem for my goats. My back is sore from leaning over using a chainsaw for close to 2 hours cutting these saplings down. Seen poison ivy around the area and went in to take a shower. As I was getting ready to go in to shower Christine and parents came home.

I went in to shower in case I had gotten the poison ivy on me. I no sooner finish the shower and sit in the recliner and I hear Christine driving in fence posts. I get up and go out and help her drive the rest of the posts.

After that I go and do chores. I feed the goats. I check Peaches (the goat that fell) hoof. She is still limping on it. I can tell it is still tender. I put hay in their trough and check their water. The horses see me and start coming up thinking I’m going to feed them. They had already been fed a little earlier. I check their water and it is low. The owner of one of the horses sat over by the horses all day and didn’t even put water in the trough. So I had to do it. It is now 7:30 PM. I still have the chickens to feed.

After I finish feeding and watering the goats and horse I head over to the other barn where the chickens are. I have my rooster (5 of them) separated from my hens. I have one rooster that runs with the hens. {Note to self: I might change him out and let one of my younger rooster’s run with the hens, I think on it}.
All the hens follow me to the coop. I check the nest box and see one lousy egg. I have close to 20 hens and I see one egg. I go in the barn and see 3 eggs on the floor next to the hay bales. I shake my head in amazement. All the nest boxes (about 18 around the coop) they lay their eggs on the floor by the hay. I feed the hens and release the roosters back to the coop. Inside the coop it is a feeding frenzy, as always. I grab my eggs and head home. I finally relax and eat super at 8:00 PM.

What an expensive and hectic weekend.

On the Farm

We are supposed to get another horse Saturday. She is a mature mare, 12 or 13 years old I believe. This one is for me to train and work with. That will be three horses out at the farm.

The hens aren’t laying well. Out of 15-18 hens I have only been getting 3-6 eggs a day. I have been told that the 6 roosters I have (trying to get rid of) is the problem. Since I am vegetarian I don’t want to dress the roosters out just to give them to someone else to eat. Everyone wants free range chicken, but they don’t want to clean them. I guess that puts them too close to their food. Most people I’ve talked to doesn’t want to see how their food gets from hoof to plate.

I think if more people had to process their own food their eating habits would change. I think you would see more vegetarians and Raw veggie eaters. Of course they (meat-eaters) wouldn’t admit it.

I am going to salvage some wood from my brother-in-law’s corn crib to enclose our barn (animal shelter). He lost his house to the flood and is going to clear the land.

I have to get the enclosure done because a couple of the nannies are going to “kid” (birth) the end of August. These next couple of weeks is going to be busy. But then when isn’t it busy around here.

Past weekend

It was a pretty laid-back weekend. We swapped some gates around in the barn across the pond. Did a little ground work with the horses.

We are trying to keep the chickens out of the barn while allowing the cats and kittens access to outside. We put a covering in front of the the sliding door with an outlet for the cats to go through. Those chickens keep going through the opening and getting into the cats food and knocking over the water bowl. And pooping every where.

The cats are pooping in the barn and it stinks. that's the reason we are trying to let the cats outside.

The shifter for the tractor is stuck in 1st gear. We can't get it out of gear. We will try to take the shifter plate off and fix it. The place we have tractor work done at is cutoff by flood water. We can't wait for the water to recede.

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.