A trip to the Farmer Daughter's

Yesterday I went over to FD's, she had a few things she wanted me to do and I had some kindling for her wood furnace.

Anyway, here's some of the piggies.

When you feed pigs they always end up with food on them cause they have no patience.

Jowly.

A pig sharing it's food with a duck. ( Notice the food on it's head.)

Here's one sharing with two chickens. (Food head.)

 Mama sharing with her babies. (Must have snuck up on them cause there's hardly any food on them.)

The "Geese".

                                       Zippy "The Wonder Dog"

This is the bull calf Gramma and I are taking.(After he's no longer a bull.) His sire is a Simmental and they come from Switzerland, so we're going to name him Hans. His mother is part Angus, so I suppose we could have named him Argyle, but I like Hans better. When he was born he was all brown, but now he's turning black. I think he was prettier when he was brown, but he's still pretty cute and someday he's going to taste real good. So I did a couple of things for the FD and managed to stab myself in the hand with a flat blade screwdriver. Went right in, about two feet deep, or so it felt like it. So now I have a swollen, very sore hand. So far it doesn't seem infected, but Gramma thinks I should get a tetanus shot since it's been nine years since my last one. I'll try and get one tomorrow, cause as you know I always do what Gramma tells me. Really.

Rocks and other stuff

Well I just realised that I didn't post about the rocks in a week like I said I would. It's been two and a half weeks. The last polish did not turn out. I now have them going through the second grind again and then back to the polish. Keep your fingers crossed. Always worked before.

The other morning a doe and fawn were feeding behind the house. Then yesterday they were out there again. It's so much fun to see them.

Here is Aksel taking a nap by the scratching post.

 Here's Heidi relaxing on the couch, she likes to sit like this and sometimes just lays her head on the back. Goofy dog.

Yesterday I found these tracks coming from the West woods, across the yard ten feet from the front windows, and down the driveway and into the woods on the East side. Big deal, just a rabbit, right?

No. Not a rabbit. I got out my mammal book and my animal tracks book and went online searching. I believe I can say with some conviction that this is the track of a Pine Marten. Cool. It's been visiting my varmint pile and may be staying in one of the brush piles at the edge of the woods. Look them up, they're cool.  I let Heidi outside this afternoon and when she didn't come back to the door in her usual pokey time, I went to see what was up. Well she was standing there at the fence holding a perfect point towards the woods on the West side. At first I couldn't see anything, but then I saw something move in one of the small popple trees, so I got the critter scope and there was a grouse in the tree. Good Dog! Yay! There's hope. We are happy.

BRRRRRR! II

Well it was a "Two Dog Night " last night. (It was actually a three dog night, but we only have two dogs.)

Gramma snuggling for warmth.

We BBQ'd some steaks last night. 6 below and snowing. We BBQ all year round. I don't believe in pan frying beef steak. It's just wrong. I also believe it can only be properly cooked over wood or charcoal. Had a gas BBQ once, didn't like it. No flavor.

 It's only 9 below this morning, so things are improving. Got a good fire going and the sun is out, so it should warm up to about 77 to 80 in the house. That's when Gramma takes off one of her extra flannel shirts and thats when I put on my shorts and go in the back bedroom where it's cooler.

The dogs like the stove. Some times they lay so close I expect them to burst into flames.

 One of the bad things about the cold is the chickens get frostbite on their combs. They all have it, but Antoine's is worse because his comb is so big.

Here you can see he has some on his wattle as well. It doesn't seem to bother them, they don't act any different or scratch at it or anything. They have an insulated coop with a heat lamp, but only go in there at night, so I don't know how else to help them. When I look it up online, some people think it's bad and some people say not to worry about it cause chickens have been getting frostbite since there were chickens. There was one amusing post by someone who said it would make the chickens sterile. I don't know what their comb has to do with fertility, as some chickens don't have combs, but hey I'm just a dumb old hay farmer, so what do I know? Anyway stay warm.

BRRRRRRR!

Sorry no pics. Don't know how to take pics of cold. 29 degrees below zero when I got up this morning. Coldest it's been since we moved here. 46 below at International Falls. You know it's cold when you go down to the barn and the hair in you nose freezes and icicles form on your mustache. Ouch that hurts! It's only supposed to last a couple of days and then next week back into the 20's. Nice having the wood stove. When there's a good fire going the furnace never comes on. Anyway, I feel real bad for you folks down South where it's down in the low 30's.  :-)

Mille Lacs the next time

Went back up to the big lake yesterday.

A far village.

A near village.

I found fish right away, but they just weren't biting. Caught a couple small ones.

These are some pics I took of my underwater cam.

I had lots of fish check out my bait, including perch, walleye and tulibee. Nothing worked. I threw everything down there except "The Kitchen Sink". I don't think I've ever changed lures and bait as often as I did yesterday. Moved to another spot and found fish again, all sizes and flavors and again couldn't get any hooked. I watched some of them come up and take the bait and spit it out. They never took it in far enough to get hooked. Anyway I don't know what I'm doing wrong. Maybe, as my Dad used to say, "I'm just not holding my mouth right". Maybe I'm not going back to the "Dead Sea".

Ice fishing

Well I finally made it up to Mille Lacs today.

I try not to get too close to a "Village"

It looks a little lonely out there doesn't it.

Here's my little portable. Took me awhile to find fish and then I only found small ones. Fished here for a couple hours and then decided to move. That's when I noticed it was snowing quite a bit and blowing. Went to look for another spot but by the time I got loaded up I could no longer see where the drifts were or where the shore was. So I headed back in. I was about three miles out and it just kept getting worse. Made it back, but no fish. Still had fun though, my new underwater camera works great and so does my auger after I overhauled it. It really is fun to watch the fish down there. A walleye came and sniffed my minnow three times, but wouldn't bite. Maybe next time.

Doe in the snow

This morning as it was getting light out I went back to the bedroom to get dressed and go do the chores. When I glanced out the bedroom window I saw something was different. There was a doe sleeping and one walking around heading back North deeper into the woods. They don't usually hang around once it gets light.

Can't see the other one cause it moved out of sight before I got the camera.

Here the sun is up, but the doe isn't. I guess she likes to stay in bed late like the FD. :)

You can tell by the short nose that it's most likely a fawn, born last spring. Anyway she stayed there until about 10:00 and then slowly headed North. A couple of years ago we had about 20 deer laying back there in the same spot. Cool huh? I took the last pic through my critter scope, turned out good.

Rock polishing IV, no pics

Here's an update for those interested parties. I put the rocks through the polish grind and it did not turn out well. Some came out shiny as they should, but most did not. So I did it again. Same result. Now you must remember that this takes a week, so it is a slow process. This morning I put them in again and tried using less water than before, so we'll see what happens. I'm hoping that it was just a matter of too much water, which can prevent the correct abrasive action. I'll let you know in a week.

Winter horses and pigs

Well, we have had quite a winter here. It got cold earlier than usual and stayed cold, until last week. It got up to 38 degrees here for two days and rained. Then it got cold again. It's 8 below zero right now. So the rain and then cold has been causing all kinds of problems around here. I've had to use the big torch to thaw out numerous things that the rain got into and then froze. At least the horses have nice warm coats to wear.

Here is Ingrid hiding behind her hairdo. Doesn't she look svelte?

Now you can see her eyes.

Here's Aksel wondering why I'm not feeding him.

Here he is looking for crumbs. Poor starving horses.

Here's Perky sleeping in the straw. You see, if you bury your face the rest of you feels warm. Usually the boys sleep together but Pinky was busy looking for something to eat.

                  Now they're both looking for something to eat.

                          Feed us you mean old farmer.

It's not too often that we get a full dozen eggs cause we eat them almost everyday, but sometimes they catch up to us, so I took a pic. Pretty aren't they? Yummmm!

Happy New Year

2010 was a very good year at the farm. It was also very busy. I get tired just remembering.

We tapped maples for the first time in an attempt to make syrup.

It worked. It worked really well. Hoping to double what we got last year. Of course it all depends on nature.

We got our first eggs this spring. Yummy. We expanded the coop twice. We got more chickens, twice.

We got a new boat. No, I already had the "Cute Chick".

                       

We had all of our family here for our anniversary and my birthday.

 There was fishing.

And more fishing.

 And snacking while fishing.

And more fishing.

We landscaped around the house. We added a deck, a patio and a concrete driveway.

We built a hay shed.

We filled the hay shed.

We grew giant squash and tiny pumpkins.

We grew tasty sweet corn.

We harvested deer.

We plowed and shoveled snow. Lots of snow.

I decided for the New Year I'd get a new look. What do you think? I think I'll take a nap. Happy New Year.