Getting the flock out of here - a diary of a crazy chicken man

[ozexpat]

The chicks are in the brooder!!

This afternoon we do the electrical on the new coops and tomorrow we play chicken catching

 

[ozexpat]

The kids returned to the farm after a short school week. Tomorrow is a many free day which I love as I get to hang out with my kids more.

We had a fantastic Indonesian stir fry for lunch. There has been an scarcity of fish in the markets an we are pining for fresh fish. Yesterday's fish and chip lunch made from frozen Dory lacked the firmness only fresh fish can offer.

Tonight its Shepard's Pie with enough for a redo tomorrow as Rona will also be off.

I have a couple of 220v digital timers that I am going to wire tonight. One for the coops to turn on the lights from 5pm-8pm and the second for the 10-24 day old chicks to run from 5pm-8am.

Bernie pressure washed the old brooders. One will go in the shed as a shelf unit for all our paint. The second will be used as a shelving unit high up the wall in the egg house for all the chick and adult bird shipping boxes until it's shipping time again.

The new brooder has 100 chicks in it with room for another 50.

The juveniles' brooder will be good for another 100+. That will be Tuesday and Wednesday's project.

I hope to spend Sunday doing maintenance stuff on the house.

 

[Wisher1000]

Quote:

Lolo Oz. That sounds pretty cool.

Job accepted!

Does that mean that you are Piglett's Daddy?

 

[Tomtommom]

Lolo Oz. That sounds pretty cool.

Job accepted!

Can't help but think of Hawaiian when I see 'lolo'..

(It means crazy/stupid)

 

[scottcaddy]

Quote:

Lolo Oz. That sounds pretty cool.

Job accepted!

Does that mean that you are Piglett's Daddy?

Scott

 

[ozexpat]

I'd be proud to call that boy son.

 

[ozexpat]

It's 3am and obviously I am awake lol.

Saturday was a big day.

Friday night's Sheppard's Pie had a hiccup when the oven would not get hot.

There was just a minimal amount of propane in the 50kg bottle so I replaced it with the 5kg back up. The oven was still not functioning. One of the burners was crappy as well. Dinner was cooked in an electric turbo oven. A truly great invention.

I took the regulator off and blasted compressed air down the line. It worked. The oven and burner were back to their former glory.

The has delivery truck happened to be on our route today so we got a new gas canister. 50kg is $75.

We painted the egg house and put in the clear plastic corrugated roofing panel. What a difference. It is a different place with a skylight.

Next I replaced the laundry faucet as the old one leaked every time it was on.

Father in law popped by to check on our projects.

In my free time I reviewed the kids school work and did some homework with them.

I need to get back to sleep.

 

[piglett]

I'd be proud to call that boy son.

there is only about 10 years between us Pop
you must have started rather young

 

[Wisher1000]

I didn't think there was that much difference!

 

[ozexpat]

Our kids will be close enough in age to be cousins hanging out together.

We can watch them from the porch complaining about sore joints.

Piglets have been on my mind.

Today was a huge day.

Last night I went to bed thinking about pig 1. She looked too pregnant to farrow in three weeks.

I thought I missed her ovulation the first time we did AI but Mrs Oz was spot on. That meant she would be due tomorrow.

I had dreams of her delivering in her pen with her buddies eating piglets as they delivered.

Today is Bernie's day off. Jun and I coaxed a 150kg very pregnant gilt up a small ramp and into the farrowing pen.

We then had to plumb the water nipples. I taught Jun how to cut thread on GI pipe and was so thankful for the $25 pipe vise I bought last trip. It made light work of threading and connecting all the fittings for the 3 pens.

By 5 pm we had all three hooked up leak free. Pig 1 had settled in nicely and I felt very pleased with myself regarding the pen design that we built from scratch.

In the middle of all this we celebrated Jun's daughter Scarlett's sixth birthday with two roasted chickens, pancit bihun noodles and a chocolate cake. She and her parents were thrilled that we had gone to so much effort.

Bernie will be back by 6am and will be surprised at the work done and the location of pig 1, though it was his initial suggestions that got my mind running.

Jun has the 8pm and 10pm checks. I will do the 12, 2 and 4 am rounds.

We also managed to do the last pre-bernie egg hatch and banded birds. It was nice putting them in the brooder.

The truck dropped off another 8 cubic meters of gravel today.

We also scored some eucalyptus trees we will mill for the rails on the beach fence. With the d-block coops complete, the final phase of the fence project will start. 500 feet of fence to go and we will be done.

The construction crew will then move onto the new workers house. A two bedroom place with an additional two dorm rooms with private bathrooms.

My wife's parents applied for passports two weeks before we did for the kids and they were told that the wait time has gone from five weeks to nine weeks. It looks like we will get them mid November. I was hoping to take the nannies and kids to Bali before the Christmas peak season and all the Aussie families on summer vacation.

That's it for today. I will hit send once I have a signal.