Denim Deb Hay, hay, hay. Thank the Lord!

[Denim Deb]

Truthfully, during the winter, I just use one of those black, rubber bowls for water. It's a lot cheaper to just dump it in the morning and afternoon if needed than to worry about keeping the water from freezing.

 

[sunsaver]

Every day, i see trucks loaded with hay head west on I-20 towards east Texas. Im glad those folk finally got some rain. Just popped in to say hi to DD, FF, and our new friend gypsi. Hope Yall are all doing well. The drought has finally broken here, but it's still pretty bad in east Texas.

 

[Denim Deb]

I'm not sure exactly how much rain we've gotten here since the beginning of August. Neither of the 2 places that I check have accurate numbers. There was one day when we had heavy rain-and it said we got no rain, another day when there was a record 10" near here, and they had that down as around 2". But, what they show for Philly is pretty accurate. Normal rainfall for the year is just over 42.5". Since the beginning of August, Philly has gotten over 34"! And for the year, it's at over 52". I would have loved to have been able to send the excess to Texas and other areas that need rain.

 

[FarmerJamie]

Deb - your mailbox is full.

 

[Denim Deb]

Not anymore. I just cleaned it out.

 

[Gypsi]

Truthfully, during the winter, I just use one of those black, rubber bowls for water. It's a lot cheaper to just dump it in the morning and afternoon if needed than to worry about keeping the water from freezing.

Mine was freezing in less than 15 minutes in their coop last winter. I couldn't keep them halfway watered. My coop and run were built to shed heat, not hold it in.

If we get another freeze like that, the hens are moving to the greenhouse I just built/ had built (my crew framed it out and set the windows and door, I finished). It's sheltered on the north side by my garage, the west side by a fence, and I'm putting a duplex outlet in there. Right now it's on extension cord power and I've got my americauna pullets in it.

 

[Denim Deb]

Today, hubby and I went out where I used to work to get some firewood. A fairly good sized dead cherry tree had come down during Irene. She wanted part of the tree to use as a jump, but we were more than welcomed to the rest! I had gotten some of it the other day, but there was just no way I could get the main part of it w/my little, 14" electric chainsaw. I needed a much bigger saw. But, I can't run a gas powered chainsaw-the fumes trigger my Meniere's. So, that meant I needed hubby and his chainsaw. When he saw the size of this tree, he wasn't even sure if his chainsaw would cope w/it!

So, we get all set up, and get started. The first piece that we cut is actually too big for in the stove. But, because of where a branch had been, hubby decided to cut where he did. I had my axe w/me, and tried to split off some chunks so we could load it easily in the truck. Didn't work too well. Hubby kept cutting. He could make about 2 cuts B4 he had to refill the saw and sharpen it. I tried as much as possible to split up the wood some. We figured splitting them to a point was the only way we were going to get them in the truck. I finally had to admit that I just couldn't get enough off of them w/the tools we had. So, I did the smart thing-I borrowed a tractor. I drove the tractor, and hubby pushed the chunks into the bucket. Then, I drove the tractor to the truck and dumped them in the back. We got a whole truck load of really heavy wood, and there's still about 1/2 of the tree out there!. The trunk looked like it was broken at one spot, so I took the tractor and tried to move the rest of the tree. I was able to get the trunk to break the rest of the way thru, and was then able to push the pieces off of the field. Now, if we can't get out there for a bit to get the rest of the tree, it's not in the way.

We stopped at the farm on the way home. KN had actually fed for me this morning, but I needed to give Stormy his 2nd feeding plus take care of the chickens and the cats. Once this was done, we headed for home. I was able to get all of the big chunks of wood out of the back of my truck. I started to unload the stuff that I had split, but since hubby wanted to go out, I stopped.

But, this took us much longer than expected, and I'm tired! I don't think I'll have any trouble getting to sleep tonight.

 

[Denim Deb]

Last week, we had 3 days that were cloudy w/rain at times. And when it's like that out, I just don't get much of anything done.

It rained overnight, and is still gray and cloudy out. Tomorrow and Wednesday, we can expect more of the same. The biggest problem for me right now though? W/all these systems moving thru, it puts a ton of pressure on my ears. My right ear HURTS!!!!!! And, it feels like it needs to pop, it just won't. W/the pain, my hearing is super sensitive. I WISH I could send all this rain some place where they'd really appreciate it, like Texas.

 

[Windyhillfarms]

Yes send it this way!!! I am just watching my ponds dry out totally. The smallest pond has MAYBE two feet of water in it. The "big" ponds, are just looking horrible. The one with the dock has about one inch lower to go before the dock is no longer in water

 

[BarredBuff]

Thats how I feel DD, we have been flooded this year and some places are drier than I dont know what. I dont understand