Dixie Chicks

[hennible]

That's dang cold Briand, coldest we've had was -20C... Very warm year.

 

[BriardChickens]

same for here @hennible thankfully we've only had 2 cold days and that was this weekend. Supposed to go up to -8C by the end of the week.

We've been in the -15 to -20C for weeks.

 

[perchie.girl]

I am baak.... got some stuff to do so out again.... I will do awrite up and the two pictures I took.

I was DOG tired and wanting to lay down when I wrote this....

but here is the write up

I went up to the house yesterday for the first time in a very long time. It struck me at how tumbled down its becoming.... How infirm I am getting in order to be able to do the little things that need to be done.

My neighbor in what ever sense he was using decided to feed my horse a nasty moldy bale of hay. When I brought him dog and cat food up, the reason for the trip, he said that the hay guy wasn't rotating the bales so there were two bales that got moldy. And Katee wasnt eating it.

I thought he just threw the bale in and realized it was moldy and pulled it out. thats what I would have done... except I would have rotated those last two bales EVERY truck load so none would have gotten moldy. We then crossed the road to my house and the hay was stacked OUTSIDE the shelter W T F . I got out of the truck with my walker and grabbed the hay hooks.

Ten bales are easy to move even for me or so I thought. I looked in Katees feeder and it seemed empty. I looked in and was furious there was moldy hay and hay that had been obviously scooped up out of the mud and put in. And Katee was obviously hungry. Not starved thank goodness. but DANG I brought a fresh hay bale up and tipped it up to her feeder where she could get to it. Then I went in the corral and pitchforked that nasty stuff out.

Then I went out and tipped the fresh bale in her feeder. And I could hear her happy mumbles and munching. Katee talks a little while she eats... funny girl.

By then I was done and shaking. I called my son over from the truck and asked him to move the stack onto the pallets and off the FREAKING GROUND. The one last bale that ws nasty went up against the fence There was one side that was good. she will nibble on the good stuff. I had him put a good bale along the fence too so she could choose ...

Hes got asthma so thats why I didnt ask him at first. But Alfalfa affects him worse. thank goodness it was bermuda. Ten bales layed out two by two on six pallets.

I am going to have to rig a pully system for myself to do this again. and do it myself.

Time to Take up the reins of my life... and live it again

Hay Which was stackd forward and parallel even with the trash can.

Bad bale isnt so bad moved you can see a corner of it by the blue treat bucket

Nom Nom Nom "tank ou mom" with a mouth full of hay.



tumble down remains of the goat yard sight protector.... Old swimming pool wall. it needs to be hauled out. This is approximately where I will move the coop to.


full horse shelter before we re installed the corral under it. its 24 x 24 Katee gets 16 x 24 of it leaves me 8 x 24 for hay storage.

Along that front edge I am considering hanging some
hay curtains Heavy tarp that can be moved out of the way for loading

d
e
b

 

[Alaskan]

Wow deb!

That is a heart stress test!!

Glad your heart is proven healthy, and that Katee is just fine. Whew!

 

[perchie.girl]

Wow deb!

That is a heart stress test!!

Glad your heart is proven healthy, and that Katee is just fine. Whew!

Yes for sure.... I am furious but dependent on what care he does give. I also fear he has been letting his son do the work. Who is a young man of 35 but a tweaker. and not horse savvy.

I have been threatening to go to stay up there for a couple of days per week. IF i can stay for three I can feed and manage Katees care. Give her two bales for when I leave for four days. Or install the slow feeder I have been threatening to do for some time then load it with four bales One bale lasts about four days give or take on how heavy it is.

Slow feeders make the horse work a bit for food and keeps them from wasting. Basically a HUGE hay net .... I bought one that is draft horse sized. But I need to modify her feeder to use it.

deb

 

[Alaskan]

Huh... Haven't seen one of those.

But it does make horses happy when they have to work for their food.. It is good for them.

I like your plan.

 

[vehve]

I'm now envisioning a huge tube with holes to get hay from by the bottom, and a conveyor belt type of feeding system to fill it with. Or then you could put the bottom on a hinge and tilt it down and just push in bales into it.

Coldest we had was about -27 so far, after that -15 was a summers day.

Baby bunnies are covered in fur at five days old I'm told. And growing super quickly.

Karin's dad came over to fetch some meds for their dog, and also brought over the meat grinder. Now I just need to find a size 10 sausage funnel for it somewhere, and I can test out some recipes from this book I got for Christmas from Karin. It's a Swedish book called "Make sausage!" (freely translated), and it has like 70 different recipes. Sweden is a great country to write that kind of a book due to their super tolerant immigration policy, you've got people from all over the world living there, often finding employment in low paying fields, like opening up food trucks or small restaurants, and making their own sausages. So a melting pot of sorts.

The cook book is pretty funny, it even has a vegan section, where one of the suggestions to make vegan sausages taste better is to add pork.

 

[Alaskan]

I'm now envisioning a huge tube with holes to get hay from by the bottom, and a conveyor belt type of feeding system to fill it with. Or then you could put the bottom on a hinge and tilt it down and just push in bales into it.

Coldest we had was about -27 so far, after that -15 was a summers day.

Baby bunnies are covered in fur at five days old I'm told. And growing super quickly.

Karin's dad came over to fetch some meds for their dog, and also brought over the meat grinder. Now I just need to find a size 10 sausage funnel for it somewhere, and I can test out some recipes from this book I got for Christmas from Karin. It's a Swedish book called "Make sausage!" (freely translated), and it has like 70 different recipes. Sweden is a great country to write that kind of a book due to their super tolerant immigration policy, you've got people from all over the world living there, often finding employment in low paying fields, like opening up food trucks or small restaurants, and making their own sausages. So a melting pot of sorts.

The cook book is pretty funny, it even has a vegan section, where one of the suggestions to make vegan sausages taste better is to add pork.

I am racist when it comes to food.

I assume all really good sausage has at least some German heritage.

 

[vehve]

Well, depends. Cured sausages are best from Italy. Salami and similar stuff. German sausages are great too though. But then sometimes you want different things, so you try other tastes as well, I couldn't pick a favorite country of origin. At some point I want to try making fennel seed salami though. Mmmmmm.

 

[perchie.girl]

there are several different types of slow feeders. From holding a single flake to holding a whole bale

I have one thats jsut a net with a drawstring to close it off. desinged for about four bales.

here are many examples

here is the product I have

Look under D.I.Y. I ordered the large net with draft horse sized netting.

deb