Archive for February, 2006
February 14, 2006 – Sunny Side Up Days!
Here’s some regular eggs and a pullet (newly laying chicken) egg showing what today’s 62 degree weather felt like! Two days in a row we’re warmer than Orlando. Too bad it was an office day today.
February 13, 2006 – Goats and More
Today I brought Thing 1 and Thing 2 (male dairy goats born last spring) to the locker. Six of the visiting does that were “serviced” by the buck (stinky jim) at our place had an ultrasound today and 5 of 6 have at least twins. So the open doe is back for another visit.
We also got a mulberry tree cut down that was on the back of the machine shed – one of those winter extras – so that when spring and roofing season starts, it won’t be in the way.
There’s still a lot of hauling and cutting to do, but it is at least down.
In a family note, tonight was the last forced eye-drop administration of pink-eye solution to Martin’s eyes. It took one parent to hold his body and arms, another to pry the eyes open enough to get the drops in three times a day. He never did warm up to the procedure!
February 12, 2006 – Now that Was Easy!
The kitchen remodeling is almost complete, except for the cooktop backsplash and light over the sink. I was trying to figure out the best way to build a soffit or box over the sink (there was a box spanning between the cabinets before the remodel, and I was trying to envision how a new one would fit).
We bought a fixture that had a pivot that I was going to mount to the box. We thought it would be nice to have a fixture that could move. Once we got the fixture out of the package and I had cut the first piece of oak plywood, we decided it was too nice to hide and would add more “clutter” to the room, so we just mounted the light directly above the window. The light is on a swivel and one side is opaque white, the other clear and it spins around to let whatever side down you want – light comes out of both sides.
Much faster than cutting, staining, and triming out a bunch of wood and maintains the air of airiness.
February 11, 2006 – Composter Built
Today, Martin and I finished building the small animal composter!
We used treated 2×4 and welded wire (we got on closeout at a store that went out of business last fall) to make the sides and some old roofing I found under the corn crib for the roof.
This shows a closer shot of one of the sides of the composter. The part facing up is the outside of the composter.
This shows a closer shot of one of the sides of the composter. The part facing up with the wire attached shows the inside of the composter.
Here’s a bit of detail on how the sides go together – with a section of electrical conduit and some screw-in eyes. This makes it really easy to move or take one side off to fill it up.
Here’s the final product. A great project – Marty helped by standing on the rolled wire while I got one side tacked down and helped hand me screws, etc. as I needed them. I’m hopeful this will save me a lot of digging in the coming years. Here’s a link to the original sheep composter that was the inspiration for this one.
Next, we need to make a new household composter because the “temporary” one we built the first month we moved in 9 years ago is starting to rot.
February 10, 2006 – Fire
Ok, I like to play with fire. I get to play with it every day in the winter by keeping the corn stove going and clean – and get to gaze upon the flame in the main room at any time. On high hopes blog you can find a prairie burn, solstice bonfire, and today’s small blaze burning the old raspberry canes.
It’s good to burn the old canes as they can harbor disease and a breeding ground for raspberry pests. But more than that, it’s fun. I have stopped burning garbage and have retired the burn barrel. But nonetheless, it is a long-time rural tradition. Even Iris Dement has an unreleased song about Greg Brown and watching him tend the burn barrel.
Almost everybody has a story about themselves or a neighbor who was burning trash and something happened to start a grass fire or burn down a barn. Although it wasn’t from burning garbage, Kelli at Sugar Creek Farm posted pictures this week of photos of their barn burning down after a lightning strike a few years ago. It was an awesome sight I hope I never get to see!
February 9, 2006 – Thingamajig Thursday #10
Here’s this week’s “Thingamajig Thursday entry.” Also check out last week’s answer. Here’s something a little bit harder than last week’s entry!
As always, put your guess in a comment below.
Answer…
A garden shears – like a pruner – only not heavy duty enough for wood – good for cutting flowers and herbs.
February 8, 2006 – Country Road
Last night a surprise inch of snow fell. It was like “stage snow” the lazy snow that falls with a pregnant pause. Here’s our road to the south after only one car had passed by.
The warm winter has been nice for many things, it’s been nice to have dry roads for driving T,TH to work, but it just looks so much nicer with a blanket of snow.
February 7, 2006 – Sheep Composter
Two Friends farmer Steven sent me this link for a great small animal composter. This will be of great use on our farm to dispose of the entrails from butchered sheep and goats as the locker does not keep them because the rendering truck that picks up hogs and cattle will not pick up sheep and goats. I always dread butchering day because it means digging a big hole in the ground by hand and covering them up. This will also be useful for the chicks/chickens that die before market weight. All in all, it will be a great labor/time saver. I just have to get to town to buy the wood.
My camera came back from Canon with a new lens assembly – so more photos will soon be part of the blog once again.
February 6, 2006 – Ankles
Last week Claire rolled her ankle playing in the barn. Of course, doctor’s hours were over, so a trip to the ER was in the cards. Today we brought her to the orthopedic Dr. in Ames for a look. She is still walking on crutches. Doc says no bones are broken and she will start physical therapy later this week. She was in good company as Lindsey Medders, ISU women’s basketball star was in for the same thing.
February 5, 2006 – Mulch Ready
Couldn’t help but get a little bit of farm work done today. Retrieved a pickup and trailer load of mulch for the trees. It’s great that it’s free and only 4 miles away. Here’s the wagon safely tucked in the shed ready to haul the mulch to the trees in the spring. Now, if I only had another three trailers!
It’s nice to get this stuff ready for spring.
February 4, 2006 – INCA Conference Day
Today was a day of information, renewal, hope and despair. I attended the Iowa Network for Community Agriculture’s annual conference and felt all those things at some point during the day – some of the despair comes from the continued downward spiral of agricultural commodity prices and the health of the land they are raised on, the rising obesity and bad food we eat as a culture and the difficulty in beginning new ways of raising food and eating outside the current norm.
The good news is that people are finally talking about it, new direct marketing venues are being tested, and farmers are opting for new ways of doing things, and these people are very willing to share their success and more importantly aren’t too proud to hide their failures.
I was numbed with very impressive statistics, that I won’t try to relay until I have a copy before me, but will return to this thought in the next few weeks.
February 3, 2006 – One Day Past Candlemas
Oh boy, did I find a sticky wicket of ancient traditions celebrated around this day! I have always recognized it as the midpoint between the winter solstice and spring solstice, that point in the winter where you need and hope that the days once again ever so slightly lengthen and inch closer to days of equal length with night.
Ancient Irish tradition it is called Imbolc, other names and different twists on the day include, Candlemas, St. Bridget’s Day, the Feast of the Purification of Mary, and of course, Groundhog Day. A day of deep meaning (and some not so deep) in many traditions. Here’s a link to a site with more information in case you are interested.
Today I was “Rock Man.” I went to Emma’s school and gave a whirlwind tour of geology. The kids were especially captivated with the geologic time analogy. Since it was soo popular, I’ll share it here as well.
Imagine the history of the earth is compressed into one year. The following shows the relative timeline of major events in earth history.
January 1 – Earth forms
July 25 – Oxygen appears in atmosphere
December 19 – Atlantic Ocean appears
December 26 – Dinosaurs Extinct
December 31, 11:49 pm Humans Appear
December 31, 11:58:57 pm Ice Age retreats from Midwest US
December 31, 11:59:57 Columbus sets sail for India and finds America
December 31, 11:59:59.4 WWII
February 2, 2006 – Thingamajig Thursday #9
Here’s this week’s “Thingamajig Thursday entry.” Also check out last week’s answer. Here’s something a little bit softer than the other items!
As always, put your guess in a comment below.
Answer:…
Goat udder
February 1, 2006 – Architects with a Sense of Humor
Many of you have not had the pleasure of viewing the downtown Des Moines skyline from the south at night. The EMC Insurance building looks like there is a 20 story bottle of Absolut Vodka embedded in the building. The architects claimed they never intended or anticipated the likeness. This is a bad picture, but “live” it looks very much like a bottle of Absolut Vodka.
