Canadiannee - "These Old Ways"

[Canadiannee]

When it rains it pours... truly!

With threats of another rainy week, husband's company has sent him to a job site 1 1/2 hrs away... a courthouse in another city, where no construction can be going on during the day; hours for this job are 6pm til 5am, plus 3 hours of drive time per day... just got the word late last night, didn't leave us much time to prepare the animals for the new schedule... and certainly wasn't what we had been planning when we opened forty feet of barn wall on Sunday!

Mother Nature and I are NOT on good talking terms!

Beloved husband is now on the road heading towards the new site and dear son and I are sitting at home twiddling our thumbs... it's 4:53pm, and neither of us know what to do with our time.

The horses were pretty darn confused when they were brought into their stalls at 3:15pm and given their night time feed, normally they just walk to their barn and go straight to their stalls when the gates are open... NOT today... today the mares ran into the lane where we saddle up and then hightailed it through the open gate towards the upper barn paddock... smart cookies, they knew it wasn't suppose to be dinner time!

If we had of had more time to plan for dear husband to be working a night shift, I would of aired out the trailer on Sunday, packed up the dogs today and we would of spent the week at the horse property... might end up doing that tomorrow and eliminate some of this extra drive time between home and barns so dear hubby can get in the extra sleep.

Nothing much new at the barns... some baby rabbits weaned, pheasants are in season and laying eggs... still nothing coming from the quail since we moved them over... umm, new goat kid Shamus has discovered the art of Houdini, and has learned how to squeeze thru this tiny opening under his and his Momma's pen door and get in and out... we fixed his escape route this afternoon. Horses spent their day in the arena as there's a big backhoe working right on the front paddock fenceline digging out property owners new garage foundation.... Not worried about the horses being sensitive to the backhoe or the other heavy equipment coming in and out, they're use to machinery and tools, but, lol, I am worried about human error and having the backhoe operator take out the fence accidently...

So far since being home, I've watched a video on a woman hatching two Emu eggs she bought at a local auction, and thought that was kinda cool... hmm, then I had a bowl of Rice Krispies for dinner... how exciting huh?! lol!

Sending best wishes for everyone's day!

 

[Canadiannee]

Things this week went much better then we expected them to... beloved husband spent two nights on the courthouse renovation before they caught up to the other trades on site... Not wanting to switch him (and the other fella working with him) back to days on short notice again, his company had a small local job that they quickly arranged to be completed last night... The fellas completed it at 2am and beloved husband was home and crawling into bed at 2:30am... lol, I thought I was dreaming, but when I woke up this morning and rolled over, there he was! Such a wonderful surprise!

Today it is raining, and although anxious to get back to rebuilding the big barn's south wall, the weather forecast doesn't look too promising and so we're going to work on another much needed project today... an incubator! We use to have a really nice cabinet incubator but it was one of the causalities in the whole "recession/retirement from farming" chapter of our life and we're not looking to shell out another $2000 to buy another cabinet, and I'm certainly not looking to incubate 400 eggs at a time anymore... indeed, the "need to know/do-it-myself" drumming that goes on in me wee little head makes building a small table top incubator an exciting project. If it works, GREAT... if it doesn't... well, nothing lost because we're digging into our recycled materials...

I must be feeling confident tho... I ordered 24 peking duck eggs from a local farmer to hatch and add to my fowl flock (maybe putting the cart before the horse a little huh?)

On the rabbit front... dear son Sawyer FINALLY got that vicious doe "Ms Toffee" to breed! Had she not just come to breeding age, she would of been in my freezer by now... nasty, nasty doe! But 6 months of feeding her, I guess we have to give her at least one or two tries at motherhood... if she's this vicious now, I am certainly not looking forward to how she'll behave when she has kits in a nest... will probably need thicker leather gloves!

The quails still haven't come back to laying eggs since the move... so I think the boys are going to butcher them this weekend and we'll buy new chicks... it's kind of sucky, everyone is missing their pickled quail eggs!

I don't think there's too much else going on around here thats newsworthy...

And as always wishing everyone the BEST in their day!

 

[Four Winds Ranch]

I sooooo want an incubator too!!!! Logically, I don't NEED one because I have at least 20 hens that set for me and that ends up being a lot less work for me in the long run. It is just the endless opertunities that could come with one!!! And I want ducks too!!
Good luck with your vicious bunny!!!

 

[Canadiannee]

Gosh Four Winds... why couldn't you live a little closer?!?! lol, I'd sneak over and snafoo a few of those hens when you weren't looking!

haha... when it comes time for kindling, I'm not going anywhere near that doe... dear son Sawyer can feed her and check on the kits, I'm just bidding my time with that one!

 

[Canadiannee]

Ok... I give... I think I have gremlins living in our city apartment! Items that I know I have just keep disappearing! A 12 volt CPU fan I bought last spring to build this incubator has gone missing... I have picked it up a billion times where it's rested on the top of my canning and equipment shelves to dust underneath it, and suddenly it's gone! Yep... gremlins!

I didn't get too far on building my incubator this weekend... nope, the truck broke down on beloved husband way home from work friday morn, and he ended up spending friday overnight at the big barn right up until late Saturday afternoon fixing the truck while I was stuck in the city... not that it made much difference, I spent those 36 hours tearing apart our home searching for this $3 fan. (ok, not all true... I did spend some of that time on the computer... lol, but it as purely "thinking time" )

With no luck in finding the fan, I hit the road yesterday driving to every computer store I could think of... most were either closed for Sunday shopping, or had closed their doors permenantly and of those who were open... many didn't sell just the fan, but the whole power box... I'm not paying $20 when all I need is the fan. Ditching the idea of using a 12 volt fan, I started to look for any small fan that would run off 110v... but didn't have much luck there neither... So today I am tearing apartment apart again, and if I don't find where these gremlins are hiding stuff... I'm heading downstairs and I'm going to rip about one of our portable heaters and scoop the fan out of that!

Beloved husband of course is as cool as a cucumber... "I'll pick you up one next week" he says... haha, all these years of marriage, he ought to know I'm not a "next week" girl when I'm hot on a project! Gosh we're so different he and I... he's one of the most laid back individuals I have ever met in my life, a missing fan or not having all the pieces sitting in front of him for a project doesn't bother him in the slightest... me, I'm the opposite... I like having my ducks in a row, everything has to be laid out and accounted for... I don't like to have to stop or put something on hold.... yes, I am impatient, and probably why the good lord put he and I together... his mellow attitude, my firey one! lol, I figure I was suppose to learn patience form our union... just can't figure out what my darling fella was suppose to learn?!?!

Late last night the plywood was finally cut, and the outer box put together... today I'm going to cut and line the box with 3" thick styrofoam, and then work on modifying the water heater and begin wiring components together... minus the fan, unless I succeed in finding it today! GRRR!

Had to butcher one of dear son's breeding does at 10pm Saturday night... when I went to the barns to do feed and collect tools, I noted she hadn't touched her morning hay and wasn't looking herself... She was one of our son's older does, her last litter was a bust... 4 babes squashed in the next box... I was going to try her one more time before making the decision to send her to freezer camp, but as I said, she was older and I didn't want to come to the barns in the morn and find her deceased... I never feel overly upset about butchering the young ones we raise for meat... but the breeders I do, probably because we name them, and get to know them... I always get a hitch in my throat when giving that last scritch and saying goodbye...

And that's it for me today... it's a glorious day outside... sunshine and warmth, and I got a mission to find a fan!

Wishing everyone the best in their day!