Canesister's 2025 journal - Bushel & Peck Farm

[fuzzi]

Good grief. Nearly every day for the past 2 weeks. Like much of the eastern half of the country, I'd love a little break in the humidity & nightly rain.
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Last night it was 74° at 4am, with 95% humidity.

We haven't gotten ANY rain!

Storms moved through this afternoon, but pavement is just wet.

 

[Mini Horses]

I got over 3" last night. Saying more tonight.

 

[murphysranch]

And we out west are in a drought.

 

[farmerjan]

We haven't gotten ANY rain!

Storms moved through this afternoon, but pavement is just wet.

That's the way here, going around us... enough to barely get the pavement wet for half an hour...

 

[fuzzi]

That's the way here, going around us... enough to barely get the pavement wet for half an hour...

It's pouring right now, woo!

 

[SageHill]

What's rain? I ~think we had a little wet stuff in March.

 

[Mini Horses]

@SageHill ... You may not really remember what "rain" is But I do like my pastures green, so I complain about the inconvenience of this every day stuff we are currently getting. Not the actual rain. That said, we're getting more than our share this summer!

 

[canesisters]

OMG! If ever there was a 'rest day' built into a work day - this was it.

Leadership had 1 task for us to complete tonight (our section is down), to switch out all of the fiber packages way down in the Coater lab.
We call that the Baby Beamer. The entire thing is roughly 1/3 the size of what we usually work on. 1 competent person working alone could change out the whole thing in about 3 hrs..... we had 2 that were certified & 1 in training.
We get down there & I suggest that, IF the trainee wanted...., this would be a fantastic opportunity for her to learn splicing in a completely stress-free, unhurried way. Trainee eagerly agreed. The other certified person said that sounded great to him (and went to find a quiet corner out of camera view to nap in). I show the trainee how to use the splicer. Watch her carefully as she makes a few attempts. Correct here & there.... then spend the next 5hrs rolling around in an office chair handing her fiber rolls, DJ'ing the music for the night, 'supervising' her 'training & practice time', and generally having the easiest night I've had in MONTHS.
She is now confident using the splicer in both left & right handed setups & is eager for us to get back to our regular work so she can practice with the Big fiber packages. And I haven't had to do a darn thing all night.

.... gotta go find the other guy now & make sure he's awake for shift change in an hour or so.

 

[fuzzi]

OMG! If ever there was a 'rest day' built into a work day - this was it.

Leadership had 1 task for us to complete tonight (our section is down), to switch out all of the fiber packages way down in the Coater lab.
We call that the Baby Beamer. The entire thing is roughly 1/3 the size of what we usually work on. 1 competent person working alone could change out the whole thing in about 3 hrs..... we had 2 that were certified & 1 in training.
We get down there & I suggest that, IF the trainee wanted...., this would be a fantastic opportunity for her to learn splicing in a completely stress-free, unhurried way. Trainee eagerly agreed. The other certified person said that sounded great to him (and went to find a quiet corner out of camera view to nap in). I show the trainee how to use the splicer. Watch her carefully as she makes a few attempts. Correct here & there.... then spend the next 5hrs rolling around in an office chair handing her fiber rolls, DJ'ing the music for the night, 'supervising' her 'training & practice time', and generally having the easiest night I've had in MONTHS.
She is now confident using the splicer in both left & right handed setups & is eager for us to get back to our regular work so she can practice with the Big fiber packages. And I haven't had to do a darn thing all night.

.... gotta go find the other guy now & make sure he's awake for shift change in an hour or so.

That's smart supervising.

 

[canesisters]

Back to square 1.
There was a guy training on A Shift (days) that was supposed to replace me mid Sept. He quit last week.
<sigh >

I'm working on a way to divide up the inside of my chicken coop. The building is an 8'x8' shed. There is the 'people door' on the front (N side). A closed up pop door under the roost that was part of a broody pen years ago (W side). An inoperable auto door in the middle of the bottom of the back (S side). And a big window in the middle of the E side.
The roosts are roughly waist high on the W side.
If I take down the current roosts - divide the building in half diagonally with chicken wire - reset roosts in the opposite corners.then I'll have a secure night coop for the Breese that I can easily access during normal daily chicken chores. My chicken pen is roughly 50'x100' with the coop in the middle. It would be easy enough to run a chicken wire fence out each side to make 2 roughly 50x50 pens. Adding a 2nd bulk feeder & 5gal waterer would be simple enough. A shared heated waterer for winter (1/2 on one side 1/2 on the other) would be easy enough too.


I've been wanting to do a whole makeover in there for a LONG time. It's dark & dirty in there. I want to give it a GOOD cleaning & paint the bare plywood walls. Probably strip the floor down to the gravel & rebed with pellet bedding.

Feeling stagnant around the farm lately. I need a project ... & a the emotional boost of completing something that improves things.

None of the construction needs to be heavy duty. Just enough to keep the flocks apart. I'm pretty sure I have most of it already in the barn.
4' Chicken wire
Maybe some 5' chicken wire
Scrap 2x6, 2x4, 2x2
Will need a few t-posts
Already have a gate hanging on the W side of the coop from when the pen didn't extend out in front.

What do ya think? Suggestions?