Archive for November, 2006
November 16, 2006 – Thingamajig Thursday #49
Here’s this week’s “Thingamajig Thursday” entry – a real thingamajig! Also check out last week’s answer. As always, put your guess in a comment below. Answer…ClampTite a tool used to clamp nearly anything together – hoses, split tool handles etc. We picked this up at the small farm show. one year ago…
November 15, 2006 – Honey and Fridges
Grandma Jo submitted a picture of Martin to the Iowa Beekeepers and it won the monthly photo contest! You can see it on their newsletter. OK PEOPLE, I POLITELY ASKED FOR PICTURES OF YOUR FRIDGE, UNADULTERATED. My first low-key plea only gathered three entries! Please visit http://www.showmeyour.blogspot.com/ to see what it is all about and ...Read more.
November 14, 2006 – New Pastured Poultry Breed – Finally!
I’ve been hearing rumors for years of a chicken faster growing than the standard breeds, but not quite as fast as the cornish-cross confinement-style chicken. I believe these birds were developed from some french stock. There are four different breeds with slightly different characteristics. They are distributed by a Canadian company, but there is a ...Read more.
November 13, 2006 – Windows (not the Bill Gates kind)
Things at the farm are in a constant state of needing attention. This summer, a couple of windows in the barn lost some panes of glass. Years ago, I would painstakingly reglaze and repoint the window panes into rotting wood, then paint – all told a job over a few days time. Then I got ...Read more.
November 12, 2006 – Sunday Night Tradition
Sundays are one of the few days of the week with a fairly reliable schedule around here. Usually it’s church in the am – after that grandma jo fixes lunch at her place in Ames, perhaps an errand in town or socializing with others, then the Sunday night movie ritual. The kids get to watch ...Read more.
November 11, 2006 – Game Day
A fairly unscheduled Saturday led to a serious spat of house cleaning in the morning. In the evening, the Marshalltown pep band played at the Iowa State basketball game in Ames. See Claire? After the game, she posed on the court after the 68-40 victory. Another milestone of first – the first dormer side was ...Read more.
November 10, 2006 – Shirtsleeves One Day, Snow the Next!
Today turned winter – started with rain and wind, then sleet and wind, finally, snow and wind. It was not a comfortable day to be outside. These times of transition, we’ve made up our own family myth of sorts to explain why one day you can be out in shortsleeves one day and the next ...Read more.
November 9, 2006 – Thingamajig Thursday #48
Here’s this week’s “Thingamajig Thursday” entry. Also check out last week’s answer. As always, put your guess in a comment below. Answer… It’s our egg candler! one year ago…
November 8, 2006 – Short Shirt Sleeve Day
Today might be the last day in the mid-70′s for a while. I used it to take care of lots of nagging little jobs. Fixed the oyster shell dispenser that was leaking oyster shells on the ground outside of the coop, painted the south side of the peach trees white, moved all the chicken tractors ...Read more.
November 7, 2006 – Election Day
This is as good day as any to share some of my ideas for reshuffling government holidays. Idea #1 – Election Day should be a national holiday. Move or get rid of Columbus Day and instead make Election Day a holiday to give everyone a chance to vote easily. Idea #2 – Make Veteran’s Day ...Read more.
November 6, 2006 – Egg Candler
One of the nifty devices we use is an egg candler to help discover eggs with hairline cracks or to see when we are incubating viable eggs. This is a picture of a “good egg.” You just put the candler (a light bulb on a handle) on the egg in a dark place. Here’s a ...Read more.
November 5, 2006 – Turkey Moon?
Does the turkey moon follow the harvest moon? Here are the turks heading into shelter under a full moon. The turkeys have been growing nicely and have ranged up to an acre away – all the way to the cornfield. one year ago…
November 4, 2006 – Politics Gone Wild!
I’m not sure what the political climate is around where you live, but in Missouri it was a whole ‘nother level. I realized certain things are taboo around here. One is political signs/advertising by businesses. It seems that putting up a political signs would offend about half your customers. In Missouri, lots of businesses had ...Read more.
November 3, 2006 – Small Farm Conference
Today, we drove down to Columbia, Missouri to attend the National Small Farm Conference and Tradeshow. We’ll also use it as our “annual meeting” of high hopes LLC. The conference is a real interesting mix of people, some so far around each end of the political spectrum that they meet up here. It was a ...Read more.
