Farm additions

 Here is the latest piece of machinery to come here. It's an IH sickle mower, made for a Farmall.

It took a bit of figuring and re-engineering, but I got it to fit my tractor and got it working yesterday afternoon. Unfortunately it was raining this morning so I'll have to wait till it dries out to use it again. We got this to mow the pastures to help keep them growing good and keep the weeds down. Also since I'm only planning on one hay harvest I will be able to cut the hayfields when they start to grow back. This will help keep the weeds down and put nutrients back into the soil instead of taking them all out, sort of like self-fertilizing. It's like mulch mowing your lawn. I also went to the FD"s yesterday and brought home this.

 This is the first head of beef in the soon to be vast Berg Acres Cattle Empire, which we expect may number in the two's, three's or four's.

He is a Semmental-Angus cross and maybe some other too, I can't remember. Most important he is Beef. I told Gramma I was going to call him T-Bone and she said, she was going to call him Burger Boy. That's a better name, but then this morning we came up with the perfect name. We recently watched the new True Grit movie. Now if you are not familiar with either of these movies this may not mean anything to you, but it does to us, so we named him Monsieur Le Beef. Doesn't he look delicious? In about a year, when he's two, we will take him to the butcher.

Roosters

You remember Antoine? 

And after his comb froze he became Butch, terror of the barn, frightener of farmer's wives, attacker of farmers.

See him now? No, he's gone.When he flew up at my face that was the last straw. Now Gramma can go down to the barn without the stick and without being scared.

 This is Jack. We expect him to be our new guy.

I've been going in there at least once a day and making sure he knows that I'm the head rooster. I hope it works. We will see.

 Well here they are attached to the boat lift. I pushed out into the lake and did a "Shot In Goal" arm raise when it floated.

Here it is in place. The winch is really heavy so when it comes out the tube on that side will need more air, but it actually works. We are happy.

Chickens, chicks and contraptions

 Kinda hard to tell in this pic, but there are chickens in the garden taking dust baths. It's one of their favorite things. Lucky for us we haven't planted anything.

 Yesterday afternoon we moved the chicks out to the barn. They seem to be adjusting ok.

 I put a light in there for warmth just in case, but I don't think they need it, cause it's 88 degrees right now.

Well, this is my latest contraption. I made two. Any guesses as to what it is? C'mon, all you kids in the Peanut Gallery, guess. The FD already knows so she doesn't get a guess. I'll let you know if they work.

Peep update

The peeps keep growing. We have been putting them outside on the grass lately to help acclimate them to the outside world.

 They seem to enjoy it.

This is the rooster we will probably keep. He has nice feathered feet and the right color. There were two other roosters. One that we think was a cross of Maran and Welsummer and another Maran. Yesterday I saw the cross go into the "Attack Rooster" mode and go after a couple of hens. It's too early for them to be that aggressive, so he went away. We'll see how the other two grow and then decide for sure which one to keep. The good news is we have six new hens. We are happy. In other news, "Governor Gramma" has given the piggie boys a reprieve and they now will get to stay and live to old age. We do however plan to raise some pigs to eat, but they will be named Bacon and Sausage and Porkchop and not raised on the dining room table and bathed in the kitchen sink. I MEAN IT! Next week we'll be getting the steer from the FD and start our cattle operation. I don't know when I'll get to fish. Oh well.

Dang chickens

We haven't been getting very many eggs lately. The FD always says, "They're laying them somewhere and you have to find them." Well I always go look and sometimes I find a couple in the straw or on the floor of the coop. I've looked out in the woods and everywhere they frequent. I don't think they will lay them just out in the open. Anyway I've seen them get into the old cat house, but I've never found eggs in there. Yesterday morning I decided to look again as I had not looked in there for four or five days.

 That's right, this is what I found in there. Dang Chickens! Can't trust 'em.

Just got done storming here.

Wind blew, rained hard, sun came out and it began to hail. Sunshine, rain and hail. Gotta love it.

Stuff

 Here's a couple of pics of my dog enjoying Gramma's new chair while Gramma is working.

 I think she likes it.

 Finally got to the lake yesterday to mow and put the dock in. Wasn't as bad as I thought it would be.

 Had some trouble with the dock, but it's in.

Put an addition on the peeps coop to give them a little more room since there is nine of them. So far I think there might only be two roosters. That would be really great. We'll see.