Feeder update and other stuff

After checking the new feeder I decided the holes were too big.

 There wasn't anywhere near as much waste as before, but I thought we could do better. Here's the new cover. 1/2 inch narrower holes and about 3/4 inch shorter. Went down this morning and there was almost no feed on the coop floor. We are happy.

 The bottle on the left is what I put in my coffee. The jar on the right is our homemade creamer. Gramma found a recipe online and we tried it and then I made it better. Yum yum. No chemicals, all natural and cheaper. We are happy.

Decided to try and cut my own hair again. This time I went for "The Flattop". Not too bad huh? What do you think? Saves 14 dollars and I can cut it more often. I think it looks good. The hair I mean, not the face. We are happy.  Bye.

New Chicken Feeder

Here's a pic of the feeder we've been using since we got chickens.

 It hangs and is supposed to hold 40 lbs of feed. I can't get that much in it, but the main thing is, since we have so many girls now, the waste is really bad. They put their beaks in and throw food out like mad. After looking online for no-waste feeders, the only ones I can find only hold a few pounds of food. What to do?

 Make my own! I had some aluminum coil stock left over from when we built the house so I lined it with that to make sure the the feed would not stick to the inside and it would flow easily.

 The bars are to prevent some of the beak swishing which throws the feed out. I know it won't stop it all, but it should cut it way down.

 Ready for install.

 Installed.

In use. After a couple of hours there was some feed  underneath, but not much. I can make the openings smaller if I need to. Oh yeah, it also holds 125 lbs of feed so I don't think I'll have to fill it as often. We are happy. Later.

Happy New Year

Well, it was another busy year.

 Didn't get much fishing in again, but I got to ice fish with my daughter.

 Got to ice fish with my son and his family too.

 Got a nice grey fox.

 Got a skidloader to help the "Old Farmer" out and it sure does.

 Hatched out our own eggs from our own chickens. That was cool.

 Put up a lot of hay. Filled the hay shed and stacked more outside.

 We built a cow shed.

 We got cows.

 I went on a "Never Ending" adventure to "The Big Swamp" and ran into these "Goofballs". They're pretty silly, but they fed me good.

 Went on a Lake Superior trek with my "Sweetie".

 I had my arm operated on and Gramma had some skin cancer removed from her face, but we're in pretty good condition for the condition we're in.

 Went deer hunting. Got deer.

 Butchered one of the cows. Got meat.

 The Berg's came for Christmas Eve dinner. Got presents.

 Got another giant egg.

This was the scene this morning. Snowed last night finally. Hope this stuff stays 'til spring. Anyroad, hope everyone has a good 2012 and we love ya. Bye.

Meat!

The meat is here. Yay!

 From this.

 To this.  All this, steaks, roasts, ribs and 96 packages of hamburger at 97 cents a pound. We still had a pound of store bought burger in the freezer and that was $3.76 a pound. Wow! We are happy.

 Ok, so this isn't meat, but I know how much you all like dog pics. Relaxing together by the stove. Is that a "Red Shoe"?

Heide staring at the flames. I told her not to do that cause Mick did and it gave him scary green and glowing eyes.

Missing chicken update and cow pics

Yesterday Gramma and I had to go down to Stillwater to the eye doctor. We usually go to Forest Lake, but I need a special test every so often and the thing they use is only in the Stillwater office. Anyway we were gone most of the day, so we left the chickens in the coop. When we got home I went to check for eggs and there was an egg outside the coop on the barn floor. Every once in awhile one of the young hens will do this instead of in the box. Well, I  thought "How did we miss this egg last night"? Brought it in and told Gramma and she said that maybe the missing hen laid it. This morning I went down and sure enough there was our lost girl, in the barn. We are happy.

 Jack and the girls.

 Here's Le Beef getting his daily minerals.

 BurgerBoy doing what he does best.

 Pregnant Rita getting fatter.

 Rhoda taking it easy.

 Here's Red Cow giving me her "Get outa my face" face.

And here's our main boy, "Frank the Tank". Nice bunch huh? Oh yeah.

Jerky and Stuff

Jerky time!

 Here we go. Lovely venison.

 The secret ingredients.

 All mixed together.

 Ready for a 24 hour soak. Doesn't look so appetizing like this does it?

 Into the drier.

 3hrs and 10 minutes later, jerky. Yummo. Due to the fact we only got one deer and Ted took some of the meat for grinding, no one gets any this year. Sorry.

 Here's a weird egg we got the other day. All finished except for the very end. Strange. One of our hens has gone missing. Checked everywhere, even where Ethel was found, but no chicken. I suppose a fox, or coyote, or wolf, or bobcat, or some other varmint got her. We'll look some more, but I don't hold out hope. Oh well, such is life in the country.

Here's a pic of a non-digital thermometer that "was not" put in a freezer. I win.

Cow Shed II

 Here's  pic of the horses and cows all getting along. In the background you can see the cow shed.

 This is what Gramma and I did today. We're pretty tired and sore. More work than Gramma figured, but I couldn't have done it without her.

Now the cows have a nice shelter from the wind, rain and snow. Oh yeah, that first pic? All done. The last two days Aksel has decided that it's fun to chase cows. What a stinker. So tonight we seperated them again. Oh well we tried. Two weeks till meat. Yummo. Stay tuned.