What Do You Want To Know?

I have quite a few future posts forming in my head, half of which I’ll probably forget before they are ever typed out. However, I feel like I’m posting about a lot of the same topics lately, especially now that spring is here and I have so many updates about the garden and the animals.

Is there a post I promised to write that I’ve forgotten? Is there a question you’d like to ask? Something I do or write about that you want to know more about? Are you sick of hearing about any certain topic? Please don’t hesitate. I’d really love to hear your thoughts. I know there are at least a few lurkers out there as well. Now’s your time!

I’m going to call it a night because I just misspelled hear here and there their. Have a good one!

Cattle Panel Chicken Shelter: Part 1

This have been a bit crazy around here lately and I plan to update y’all soon. In the meantime I want to share how we’re building another great (hopefully) chicken shelter.

I used treated 2″x4″ lumber for the base. The two side boards are 10′ long and the three in the middle are 12′ long. Place the 10′ boards on the outside on the 12′ boards as shown.

You’ll need 3 sheets of 4′x8′ treated plywood to make the floor. There are plenty of good designs out there for shelters without floors. I have too much money and time invested in our broilers to risk losing them to predators or flooding, thus I want a floor.
With the 2″x4″s set up the way I have them the plywood will not fit perfectly. I did this on purpose to provide as much floor space as possible. Position the plywood in from the edges the width of the 2″x4″. There may still be a small gap but the sides angle in enough that I don’t think it will cause any problems. Or, if you’d prefer, you can frame it to fit exactly.

Here you can see the cattle panels on and the three braces. Put the panels on first. You’ll need 2 standard cattle panels 16′ long and you’ll need to overlap them a few inches. You may want the front panel to stick out a few inches in front of the floor to provide an overhang. Hammer in fence staples to hold it on the 2″x4″. Have someone help you pull up the other side or use a rope to hold the curve, then secure the other side. Repeat with the second panel. It helps to wire the two panels together in a couple places before securing both ends.
We added the braces later after measuring exactly how tall the panel was in the place we wanted. The two braces in front will provide a door way so make the gap as wide as you need. We screwed the two braces in from the side so they sit on top of the floor. The back single brace is attached to the back of the 2″x4″ for extra support.

Next, attach chicken wire around the sides and the back. I used some that I had, about 2′ tall I think. You can see the fence staples holding the cattle panel in place, along with the regular staples holding the chicken wire to the lumber.

Here you can see how I held up the top of the wire. Simply use more wire to pull it taught against the panel. I’ll have to get a better picture showing the wire from far away. As I said, I’m only putting a short piece around the 3 sides. The tarp covering should contain the birds from there.

Stay tuned for the next steps, especially if you can’t quite picture the final result. This project is more of an experiment than the eggmobile but I’ll share how it works for us and any changes we make. I did get a lot more accomplished on it today so expect an update soon.

I Wish I Was A Cow…Or A Cat!

Can you see them?

What about now?

This is how our two calves spend their days. They aren’t real interested in eating their corn or picking at the hay. They don’t even go wild for the lush green grass like I expected. They mostly lounge around the pasture and sleep in the sun. It is a beautiful sight, and I’m jealous.

We don’t have any set plans for the weekend yet. We may head up to the beach tomorrow and get Brian’s Mom’s camper settled in to her lot for the summer. I can hardly wait to get back to the farmer’s market in Port Austin. It is the best one around by far, especially on holiday weekends. Then we have a lot of work to do around home, as usual.

What are your plans for this weekend? Is the weather supposed to be nice? I’d love to hear about it.

P.S. This just in…he’s trying to help me type with his back feet I guess.

Planting the Big Fields

Brian planted 40 acres of corn at the end of last week. Sunday we planted 25 or 30 acres of soybeans. Brian helps our neighbor farm in exchange for use of some his equipment.

The planter he’s using in these pictures is a “no-till drill”. It actually cuts a path and sticks the seeds in the ground without the field being plowed up every year. Last year we had corn in this field, this year we drilled the soybeans right in. The conservation district in our county even owns a drill that can be rented out. No-till farming is easier on the environment. The fields are not as susceptible to erosion. Plus, the practice saves quite a bit of fuel and time, thus reducing our expenses.

Planting can be a one man job most of the time. The picture above shows the bins that hold the seed. Ideally we would have just enough seed to plant the field without too much extra to clean out at the ends. As we near the end of planting I stay on the planter and watch the seed level. One person, or even two, can stay pretty busy shuffling seed from one bin to another.

I didn’t have to work too hard. We had quite a bit of seed left. There wasn’t much planting to do this year since our other fields are already growing wheat and hay. It’ll be nice to see these fields turning green again as well.

Pistachio Fluff Minus the Cool Whip

I love the taste a pistachio fluff. Cool Whip, not so much. It isn’t the taste that I mind so much as the ingredients. The first four are: water, corn syrup, vegetable oil, high fructose corn syrup, followed by a bunch of gum and unpronounceable things. My version calls for real cream instead. If you wanted to take things a step further you could make your own marshmallows as well. Homemade marshmallows still contain corn syrup but not as much. Plus, you can then select a brand of syrup that you prefer. I’ve included a couple of links at the bottom for those interested in the marshmallows.

Anyway, back to the fluff. I use the following ingredients:

1 cup heavy whipping cream
10oz. crushed pineapple (do not drain the juice)
1 cup miniature marshmallows
1 1oz. package instant pistachio pudding

First, whip the cream with a mixer until it forms stiff peaks or doesn’t fall from a spoon turned upside down. I stopped mixing when mine was a little lumpy rather than smooth and that’s fine.

In a separate bowl, combine the pudding mix and crushed pineapple. Be sure to include the pineapple juice. Next, stir in the marshmallows. Now is the time to add in any other extras you may prefer. I’ve seen versions with maraschino cherries or mandarin oranges. If it sounds good it probably will be.

Fold the whipped cream in to the pudding mixture. Do not mix more than necessary, you just want to make a uniform green color throughout.

You’re done! Keep chilled in the fridge and enjoy. This is a great, light dessert to serve after a barbecue.

The most thorough tutorial I have found on making marshmallows is at The Hungry Mouse.
If you prefer a recipe with less corn syrup you may like Crunchy Chicken’s version although it calls for covering them in caramel so I’m not sure if they would be the proper consistency for making fluff.

Any alternatives for your favorite dessert?

Oh my goodness…

I can’t help it, I have to share my favorite new song with you. Jason Aldean has managed to make a song about tractors the sexiest, steamiest thing I’ve heard in a while. It is amazing and I can’t stop listening to it!

What’s your favorite new song?

The Lambs are Confused…

Apparently the lambs misunderstood how their feeder works. It is supposed to be a walk-thru feeder for people to walk-thru and dispense feed, not a walk-in feeder for little lambs to play in. They must have missed the memo about that.

Garage Sale Finds

Last weekend there was a neighborhood garage sale nearby. It was raining that Saturday but I went out anyway. It had been so long since I’ve been to a good sale!

I had a few good finds. Several name brand tops for $0.50 – $3 a piece. Aero, Arizona Jean Company, American Eagle, etc. A few cute long sleeved henley style shirts. A turtleneck sweater. One nice hooded sweater and one mini sweater (the kind that just hugs your shoulders). Also, I picked up 2 pair of jeans for a few dollars each. After trying them on at home I can tell they don’t fit well enough to be good going out jeans. However, they’ll be ready for scooping poop and gardening, if nothing else.

Another great find was a riding helmet. I really needed one since I’ve been riding on my own more this year and can’t always borrow one from a friend. It is not a good idea to buy a used helmet in case it has been damaged. I feel okay about it in this situation because I’m pretty sure the girl just lost interest in riding. It was only $5. I’ll have to try it for a whole ride to see if it’s comfortable. If not, for $5, I can donate it to 4-H.

What kind of deals have you been getting?

Eggs and Cell Phone… Bad Mix

They say you don’t know what you got til it’s gone. I’m feeling that today, big time.

Sunday I collected one egg from the eggmobile and put it in my coat pocket. Monday I put my cell phone in my coat pocket on my way to do chores. I must have hit something and kerrr-plat, eggs all over my pocket. I didn’t know it had happened until I reached in to grab my phone. It came out covered in egg yolk. Yumm.

I took it in the house and wiped it down with a washcloth. It still worked, luckily.

After I fell asleep waiting for Brian to come home from farming he was nice enough to set the alarm on my phone for me. The alarm went off at 6:30 AM this morning. Fine, except when I reached over to hit snooze, none of the buttons would work. Even the power button would not stop the horrendous screeching. It took me a good 5 minutes to get the battery out. Apparently egg is a lot like glue when it dries, who knew?

Once I took it all apart and wiped it down again the phone was working fine. Then I forgot my purse and my phone when I left for work. That made for a fun day since I had no money, no drivers’ license, and no key for work. I finally found my phone at home only to realize that it now doesn’t work at all. Not one bit. Actually, the buttons seem to work but the screen is blank.

Now stopping at the cell phone store has been added to my long list of errands for tomorrow. Lesson learned: Do NOT put EGGS in your POCKETS!!

Is the spring season craziness catching up with you too? Or is it just me? I’m exhausted, and wondering what’s next.

#09 is Trouble!

Things are all under control now, but we had a not so fun experience with this calf last weekend. It was time get them out of their little pen inside and out on the green pasture. We worked on the fence for 2 days to get things fixed up for them. We had calves in that fence last year and they did fine with it. All we did was add a hot wire around the top and tighten up the rolled fencing. Three sides of the pasture are rolled cattle fence and one side is the horse fence (4 strands of high tensile hot wire).

We put the calves in the trailer and let them out in to the pasture. They ran around a bit and all was fine. We parked the trailer. Calf #09 promptly climbed between the strands of hot wire and went to visit the horses. I tried to corner him in the horse pasture so he went between the strands again and took a nice run around the yard. At this point we realized that neither of us had plugged the fence charger back in after our last minute repairs. Great.

Anyhow, we got darn lucky the first time. We were able to corner the calf in the yard – right next to the trailer! Here is where Brian impressed me… neither of us had a rope to catch him with so Brian got as close as he could and then tackled the calf. The calf is small but not that small. Brian just gave it a big bear hug around the neck and held on for dear life. I opened the trailer door and Brian drug him in! I was amazing, and we were pretty lucky that it worked.

So we plugged the fence in and let the calf out again. Bad idea. Again, straight through the fence and in with the horses. At this point we were both pretty ticked off as you can imagine. We had a lot of plans in mind for the day and calf roping was not a part of them. That time the calf stayed in with the horses. Brian grabbed a lasso and we started trying to corner him. We would almost get him cornered and then he would run off. We have a great cow horse, Rocky, so I saddled him up. The only problem was I couldn’t ride him in the pasture because the other horses kept chasing us and I didn’t want to get kicked (Rocky is not very dominant in the herd).

So picture me, Brian, and Rocky herding this cow around the pasture on foot. For an hour or more. Rocky was a big help really, I think he was much more intimidating them the two of us alone. When we finally got the calf cornered I pushed Rocky around so he was standing sideways, blocking about a 6′ spot. Then Brian could rope the calf while I covered the other gaps.

Once the calf was caught, I’ll be damned if we were going to let him go again. We compromised by putting a halter on him and securing him to a fence post on about 30′ of rope, inside the pasture. That way he could still approach the fence and figure out that it was hot. About midweek I untied him from the post but left the rope on in case we had to catch him again. Last night I took it off completely. It seems to have worked (knock on wood) because he’s still in today.

Oh the joys of farm life!!