Coffee anyone ?

[farmerjan]

OH..... @Baymule ..... why are we so far apart....????? Getting these birds like I do, is perfect for a set up like you have for being able to sell the meat. These are right at the really good gaining stage once they get out on the grass.....no heat lamps, no chick starter.....already know how to drink and eat out of the automatic feeders....

Good for you getting a few more word of mouth customers. It would be nice to be able to sell them like that here..... I wish there were more people that were willing to pay for the meat like that.....there are some, but I am not going to kill them myself and pluck and all like you do when I can get them done for 2.50 each. And the guy who does them is not USDA inspected.... so legally can't sell them.... Too many around here have access to birds, and I am not about to get into it by having a problem.... I can process them myself and do it legally, but can't have a clean slaughter plant do it and sell them....GO FIGURE !!! The next ones I get done, will mostly all go into parts as there is no extra freezer room......they don't do parts, so will just get them chilled, not bagged, in the cooler chests.... thinking that I won't do more than 25 or so at a time....like every other week???? We'll see how many survive once I get them in the greenhouse/poultry pen.....

 

[farmerjan]

P.S. @Baymule I don't want any more of 2020 but I will gladly set back my clocks.....rather have the light in the mornings and get in the house earlier at night.

 

[Baymule]

I'll raise my next batch of CCX in the early spring. Looking at rye grass and crimson clover seed so they will have some graze. I barter away about as many as I sell.

 

[Mini Horses]

So how do you set your internal clock back? You don't. I'm up at usual and clocks aren't. Maybe, actually, we are both right - clocks and me. I never adjusted at forward on Spring. Always ran an HR behind but, on time with internal. Y'all got that? now in sync.

So I'm up, it's 42 out and only 60 inside . Time to watch leaving those windows open at night. Closed the 2 left up a little, made coffee and back lounging in bed where the mattress heater is just lovely. A treat since I don't do that normally. Hey a day off and catching up on everyone's news before daylight and chores begin. Work to do out there.

Got barn roof repaired yesterday. Replaced a 4x12 panel that had blown out in a recent storm. Orig was fiberglass and used one of tin like most of the panels are. It's what I had, one panel of tin. Now that roof edge is 12' up there but I heaved the panel up and used a board to push until it was far enough to climb ladder and finish the positioning. Afterward I thought about tractor and FEL. . Those rascals are heavy. Well, got it up and done. Then onto roof to screw it down. Had already been up there to remove old screws. Of course, I had not charged batteries for drill, so by hand. At this point I was happy it was only the one panel!! And while up there, pondered if this was where I needed to have this old body . Then looked -- from inside -- to see how many more of these fiberglass ones were left. Three. Well after 20 years in the sun they are weakening. I'll replace those in the spring. Now I need to get a board replaced at one end of aisle. Remove door, replace board, rehang door. I swear, this was easier when built, 20 yrs ago. The barn seems to be holding better than I...I mean, it wasn't moaning and groaning, it was me.

Not sure what today's adventure will be. There are many projects from which to choose! It will be whatever hits me as I walk around doing morning chores. Maybe the barn door?

 

[Baymule]

I’m with you on the Internal time clock. I move with the natural rhythms of nature, not man made clock time. But I live by man made clock time, even though I didn’t set the clocks back last night. Heave a sigh.... I’ll let BJ do that today, it will give him something to do.

6 more chickens on ice then I’m done. We need to eat a bunch of meat, share with DD and family, to make room for the steer in March.

I need some bad weather days to make me stay inside and do deep cleaning. It’s gotten cluttered and it’s driving me nuts but the siren call of outside lures me happily outa here!

Y’all have a great day!

 

[Baymule]

It’s daylight!! Gonna swig down the rest of my 2nd cup of coffee, get dressed and go do chores!

 

[Finnie]

Hi folks. I’m new to this thread. I just poured my second cup of coffee, and decided I will can some salsa today. I was going to work outside, but it’s so cold and windy, that I decided to put those jobs off until later in the week when we’re supposed to get up to 70F.

The only vegetables we grow are tomatoes and green onions. We had a frost a while back and I had brought in all the remaining green tomatoes with plans to make salsa out of them. Well half of them have ripened now, so I will be making two kinds of salsa.

I also have some apples that were on sale, which I like to slice and freeze, but maybe I will try canning them, just for the practice. I’m new to canning, too.

 

[Grant]

I’ll join in. Working in Oregon right now, so my early is later. Usually Sunday is my 1 day off, but I have to pack everything and change hotels. Amazing that they always manage to make us do that on our 1 day a week off. Oh well, it’s not hard, just time consuming. Fortunately the new hotel will have the new room ready early, so I can go straight from 1 to the other. Enjoy your day all.

 

[promiseacres]

Nasty cold and windy today. Made it to church then a bit of clean up in our crawl space. Then we'll finish carving pumpkins. Started last night.

 

[Niele da Kine]

@Niele da Kine Hawaii sounds like a great place to farm. Can you grow cool season crops like broccoli, cauliflower, turnips, brussel sprouts, etc? What about bugs that attack your crops?

Yup, now is the time to plant the cool season crops. We have a bazillion bugs around here, mostly fruit flies that 'sting' developing fruits and things like Japanese beetles that eat leaves. We put out fruit fly traps and that keeps them down plus ring the garden with marigolds. Oh, slugs, there's slugs, too. Corey's Slug & Snail Death will kill them in their tracks and leave bodies laying about. Corey's Slug & Snail Killer just maims them so they have time to crawl away and die somewhere else.

Yesterday I carefully chicken proofed the garden and planted corn, beans, watermelon, beets and lettuce. When I went to water it again in the evening, those evil chickens had gotten in there anyway. SIGH! I dunno if I should just assume they ate all the seeds and replant or wait to see what sprouts and where. I'm gonna try some higher fence and gonna built a chicken trap for less chickens, too. Four of them are roosters that need to be made into soup. Chicken soup will cure dug up gardens, it's a miracle cure for a lot of things.

It had field fencing with string crosses on the front, too. I think that wretched chicken jumped over the back shorter fence made of horse wire. I found some taller horse fence (2" x 4" holes) in the back of the carport, so I'll re-fence with that and probably replant, too.

Those are the two Clun Forest sheep, Cypress & Flower, in the backgound hiding under the grass they're supposed to be eating. It wasn't raining that much, but they seem to like to hide in there anyway.