Devonviolet Acres

[CntryBoy777]

But, @Devonviolet , when in "Rome", ya do as the Romans do....so, since ya are in Texas.....

 

[greybeard]

Pull the roll up to your trailer with comealong. Pretty sure Joe had some there.
It would take several pulls but it's doable.


There is an attachment for unrolling net wire, that goes into a standard sized square receiver hitch. Has a 2" diameter shaft long enough to unroll a 4' tall roll, in either horizontal, partially vertical or full vertical. You just slide the roll onto the shaft, pivot up to whatever position you want to unroll from, lock a pin in and tie the end of the wire off then drive off unrolling as you go.
looks kinda like this:

As far as a way to pump water from your totes, a 12V on-demand sprayer pump will do the trick. They come in a variety of flow rates, from 2-5GPM and will run for hours. I've run all day with a 3.5gpm on a regular sized car battery at 40psi, pumping thousands of gallons. Self priming.just drop the inlet hose into the top of the tank and connect the 2 wires to the battery with alligator clips and it will start pumping as soon as you open an outlet valve.

They use them on spray tanks all over the world. The same kind of pump you see in campers and motor homes when not connected to 110V ac.
TSC sells them in their aisle where spray equipment is. Fimco, SureFlo, JetFlo..lots of different companies sell them. I gave Joe 2 of them when he was down here, one was still in the box. Don't know if he ever used them or not.

https://www.amazon.com/Seaflo-Pressure-Diaphragm-Caravan-Fishing/dp/B01IHG1ADO

https://www.tractorsupply.com/tsc/product/economy-plus-series-2200-10-gpm-40-psi-demand-style-pump

 

[Wehner Homestead]

Leave it to GB to have a great idea for getting something done! I can’t believe that I didn’t think of a comealong myself!

 

[Mini Horses]

I believe Joe "may" have gotten a repair contract when he bought that mower. Seems he mentions it in a post. Probably been a year or so -- last summer? But most are 3 yr deals. It may be something the kids want to check out. As to tires? Maybe only need a compressor. Often the keys are universal. Here I just leave the key in the thing.

I'm certain there are many, many useful tools and "things" there that will need to be discovered. Hope they plan to stay a couple weeks when Joey returns to prep the house.

 

[Devonviolet]

According to Joe’s kidding calendar, April was supposed to be due on Tues. March 19th. Well, the 19th came and went, with no signs of labor.

I kept watching her, and checking ligaments. The other day, they seemed to relax, but were partially there. She wasn’t bagging up, girly parts were tight, and she wasn’t looking huge, like one would expect. So, I talked with @goatgurl, since she owned her first, and she suggested that maybe she was actually due in two weeks. Sure enough, I checked the calendar, and if that was the case, it’s possible that Joe thought RJ got her, but she was past her heat and it didn’t take. Her next heat would have put her due date on April 9th.

I keep checking her and still no signs of impending kidding. So, I am pretty sure goatgurl is right and she will kid closer to the 9th. Rosemary and Angelica will also be due within a few days of April. So we will be overflowing with kids within a couple weeks.

 

[Devonviolet]

Tonight I was out with the goats. I got a good look at Angelica, and she is starting to bag up. Not much, mind you, but she no longer has the “little girl - 1st Freshener” udder. So, things are moving along. It seems like she may just go before April. I will be keeping a much closer eye on her now. Based on her size, I suspect she is going to have a single.

 

[Bruce]

If she is going to go before April (the month) she better hurry. More time if she only needs to go before April the goat.

 

[Devonviolet]

Good point @Bruce! In this case, we are talking about April, the goat. According to Joe’s kidding calendar, April was due on March 19th. However, her revised due date is now April 9th, and I’m. Thinking Angelica may just go before April 9th. Time will tell.

 

[Baymule]

I'll be glad when your goats kid so we can buy kiefer from you again. That stuff is darn good!

 

[Devonviolet]

WooHoo!!! We just sold SEVENTEEN roosters and FIVE DOZEN fertile chicken eggs, to the same man!!!

Last year, when I ordered chickens, I ordered 8 Buff Orpington roosters - one to go with the six Buff hens I bought and the rest to butcher at about 6 or 7 months, as meat birds. Well, they sent a couple extra, so we had ten Buff roosters. Then, I ordered guineas, and they sent extra Gray Cochins, to keep the guineas warm. When Ideal Poultry sent replacement guineas, for the ones that died, they sent extra RIR roosters, as fillers. So, after selling one rooster, with six Buff hens, and keeping a Buff roo, for the four Buff hens we have now (2 that we had + the two we got from Joe), we still had 8 Buff roos, 6 Cochin roos and 5 RIR roos, for a total of 19 roosters.

The plan was to butcher them all, but with my foot surgery and all we need to do, to get a garden in, and goats kidding, we don’t have the time or energy to butcher birds. So, we decided to sell them on CraigsList.

So, last weekend, I posted all our roosters on CL. By Sunday I got a call, asking for two roosters, and sold those for $10 each. I changed the ad to 17 birds and then, last night I got a text asking if we still had the 17 birds left. I had them listed at $10 each or $150 for all.

So, the guy came this morning to get them. Neither of us had change, so he just gave me $160 CASH!

Then, after the roos were loaded in their truck, we started talking and they said they have a big new incubator, and asked if we had fertile eggs. I said yes, but they weren’t pure bred, because we have three different breeds of roosters (Buff, CooCoo Marans and Whiting True Blue), and no guarantee on fertility. We keep them at room temp, so they will incubate better. So, they bought the five dozen that we had for $5/dozen. WooHoo!! We are now $185 richer than we were yesterday.

THEN, he asked about goats. It turns out he has a huge market for goats, chickens, ducks and geese, where he lives South of Dallas, so any goats we have, to sell, he will buy. He will take them as bottle babies (I told him they would be $100-125 ea (NOT wethered - which he said he could do). He has a doe, (whose kids were sold) with a full udder. I suggested he milk her out and freeze the milk now, so he can bottle feed the kids when they get them. So, he said he would do that.

My plan is to keep at least a couple of the kids, to feed for several months and put in the freezer. I will use a USDA butcher, so I can sell the meat at Farmer’s market.