winter shelter

[johnnyjack]

well we buy a 50lb bag and it lasts usualy about a week per cow.as for the hay u know cows they eat all day everyday so usualy a big round bail last about 2 weeks between 2 cows..its gota be the good hay. but now as i say in the summer we dont give the hay they eat off the field. some times we will give them alfalfa lol i cant spell.((((((((((( anyway hey today i built one of those bait stations out of pvc. for my coop . got a pack of mice in it over the summer. gona try it out and see how this contrapsion works.think i will remove the feeders at night for now so they will have to eat the bait..

 

[picklespickles]

good for you with the bait stations. too bad cows don't eat mice.

always building something, huh? what else have you built or finagled around your farm?

 

[johnnyjack]

we built a feeder out of one 5 gal bucket and a 2 gal bucket cant see paying 18 dollars for them at the feed store and mine has a lid .built my laying boxes. put up my coop and fence . pictures of it on my page.wife took pictures today of the kids for the holidays. i will send ya one when she gets them downloaded. so u can see why i spend so much time outside and trying to entertane my kids lol. they are my world.i guess i want them to have a father and mother that spends time with them doing stuff.i didnt have that chance with my parents... lord knows all they could be into these days.we have a garden everyyear tho this past summer was to dry for anything to make here. its bad when we went to get the calfs i saw 5 big ponds on farms that were dried up. we gota have some rain bad here.

 

[picklespickles]

good luck with the rain! yes, important to spend time iwth family. very.

i knew you were a builder or one of those people who just makes something out of nothing. a good quality.

would love to see pics.

i just took a sledge hammer and eerything else to this broken sliding glass door frame that vandals had broken the glass from before i moved in on an outbuilding. it took me a long time, but i have the frame half way pryed out. need the duck and geese to be able to go insie without stepping on all that messed up metal. (broken feet.) not worried about the goats or chickens, but water fowl and walking on broken metal strips, not good.

this is the building i'm turning into my official barn.

the juvenile deligquenet next door who did the damage but whose parents will burn you r hosue down if you do anyhting was right next door at home while i did it. i was VERY nice and just said, do you know how you don't know how to bring something up? he smiled and looked embarassed. well, i said, there's really no need to bring anything up, but i'm just trying to pry out that frame so my ducks don't hurt their feet. if i had a tarp that i could hang up there instead, i bet it would keep the snow out. do you think you might come across a tarp somewhere you could bring me.

lol

i think it might just work

small victory, but in this neighborhood, HUMONGOUS.

already had his mom over here this morning trying to borrow the tools i used on the rpoject from her. lol. she gave no sign at all that she even knew her kid did this. though obviously as the broken door is RIGHT ACROSS OUR COMMON FENCE. lol.

they are known for being mean and literally drove the last poeple out of the neighbrhood. so i just figure be nice, play stupid, plan smart.

if i can even get a tarp from people who don't even have windows in most of their rooms, water, etc. then i will be doing good. and if i can get it without my house being burned down and no more vandalism. then hey. i'm the queen.

wish me luck.

 

[johnnyjack]

this is my 5 kids..

 

[picklespickles]

cool. merry christmas.

 

[picklespickles]

okay. this is more like winter feeding but it is other livestock, so i figured just continue the thread............

since the pond which is inground didn't freeze like the other water sources did even though it at the time had less water in it, it gave me the idea to bury some of the other buckets.

i have not quite given up hope yet today with my aches and pains, so might actually get one hole dug.

especially want to do this with dog food in billy goat yard. the bg is the most rambunctious of everyone and will literally tump over pallets, etc. very strong guy.a nd the puppy being a puppy just knocks things over for the heck of it.

so, i was just thinking. found an old window box type container. am cleaning it in the bathub now. then will plant it in the ground in hole and dump dogs food in there. so, they can chew the sides or leaves will get in it or whatever, BUT it can't be torn up and thrown all over the yard with no more food or water avaialbe.

i just saw the billygoat dozing in the sun just now and i needed that. sort of like a sleeping baby. so angelic you can't quite kill them.

 

[picklespickles]

okay. more billygoat building. this is my last holiday so i figured i'd better really get stuff done. plus, a good cold but sunny day.

had billy goats water in bucket inside of tire before. worked better but now dug hole then put tire then bucket. have two of those size buckets, so can just switch out water buckets.

yeah!

got window container stuck in ground for feed. have no idea if that will work. but tamped it in as best as i could.

put heavy rocks over all the places they like to dig.

i admit to up til now having been used to tiny house dogs and mellower animals than mr billygoat. so to have both in the same yard while good for their companionship has been a bit of a uh, learning curve here.

or, you could say that yard looked like a tornado hit it. it looked so bad the guy i was buying the house from came over and asked the neighbors if i had just moved out. ooooooooh.

yes.

like an abandoned junk yard.

but, i have been working bit by bit. and then they destroy it again. then i do it a little more wisely. etc.

today, i decided that instead of soley trying to keep them from destroying the grapevines with my fence i'm putting up, that i should give them something else similar they could pruporsefuly destroy. do keep large logs and tree branches in there for goat to chew on and both to jump over and on. but, today, dug holes in planter container and "planted" some of teh old branches skyward. then tamped in with large rocks. so, they can pull this over and destroy it and have good billygoat and big dog fun. or they can just ignroe it. either way......... trying to work with their natures instead of against it.

so, before dark, in twenty minutes, need to pick up rest of trash they'd strewn around that yard. or, mabye that can wait til morning. i am so tired.

i DO feel like i made progress though this vacation and that is what is important.

so, yeah. not going back out there.

oh, uh. in the spring when i go to use my sprinkler system again, i might be well, unhappy. was so determined to be a good digger that i may have messed it up in two places. oh, well. at least i won't know how much i messed it up til like april.

i guess i'm a bit of a billy goat myself.

 

[johnnyjack]

watch out for those buckets and feeder u burried dont break a leg or the goats leg steping in one of them.

 

[picklespickles]

put along side of house which is where usually water anyway. thanks for the advice. a one legged pickel would look sillier than this two legged one already does.