Pink Fox: its Raining...IN MY HOUSE! :/

[Denim Deb]

And if you'd like to see a ground hog, I'd be more than willing to send you several!

 

[the funny farm6]

we dont get those in iowa!!! lol

i would kinda like to see one once.

I'll gladly send you mine!

Do you think the post office would be upset if it clawed its way out?

Deb- as far as the ground hogs we DO have those. they don't cause any trouble though. Rarely see them. Our cousin who lives north about 40 miles has an infestation of ground squirrles I think some people call them chipmonks. They are tiny and have stripes down their backs. They are the cutest things! But mean a hell if you get your hands on one. (Which is why I DON'T have one) he cought one in a live trap for me and when he went to get it out, well..... it wasn't pretty. He has yet to get me a baby one.

 

[pinkfox]

well, 3 of the 6 6ft T-Posts are in. 3 more to go in and those are going to be HARD, the 3 i did were in the woods and whent in suprisingly easy given all the must be fairly shalow roots back there...but these next 3 are going to SUCK! the ground is ROCK hard. ive got 2 for the gate posts and one for the front corner to go in.
then ive got the grounding rods to go in (oh yeah...THAT will be fun LOL) then once that is sorted out itll be a case of having to tether the goats each day (or bring them up into the garden which i just might do) because ive got to rip their fence out get that put up between me and the neighbor, then run the wire and then run everything up. i dont think i can do it all in 1 day...but we'll see...

i do know i need about 30 step in posts, LOTS of insulators, 1/2 mile of wire, lots of insulated wire, grounding rods, gate handles ect...gonna be a busy next few weeks.

i think im going to hold off on my fencing supplies buying today and just go get some groceries and stuff, TSC is further away and i dont feel like going all the way up there today (and i need so much other stuff that i shoudl get that first so i know exactly where i stand in terms of money...)
so i think im going to go give another attempt on the T-Posts, then come in, make a shopping list, have lunch then head into town for groceries.


ETA:
well that was hot (literally the t-posts were HOT! lol) and heavy, but 10 mins per post...not bad at all...
now a COLD drink...
then strip down, tick check and get changed
after that, lunch.
then grocery list and shopping.

 

[pinkfox]

picked up the grounding rods today...this is going to be...umm...interesting. there 8 ft tall...im going to have to stand on a ladder but the guy did suggest using the t-post pounder which is what i thougth so YAY! lol.
i think i know where the best spot to put them will be but ive got to double check the septic system location first lol. last thing i need is to try and pound a 8ft rod through my septic tank lol.

picked up groceries too, and dog an cat and pbird food...
need to go out tomorrow morning and pick up rabbit goat and quacker food and that SHOUDL be the maor money aspects done for the month...
which means electric fence supplies...

is it odd that im excited about giving the goats more room?!

 

[Wannabefree]

That's not odd at all sis! Eight foot long is pretty long...I didn't realize they'd be that long Yeah checkin on the septic..pretty smart

 

[pinkfox]

i was looking for 6ft'ers but they only had 8's, i only realy need to sink 6ft especially since ive got 2 rods, 6 ft on each rod (espeiclaly since the areas i want to put are regularly "watered" (grey water drain and the spot i usually dump the duck pool lol)) SHOULD keep me well grounded...
TSC has the 6ft rods, but there DOUBLE the price of the 8ft rods from lowes (which is funny because eveyrthing else for the project is cheaper at TSC.)

 

[pinkfox]

well dillo hasnt been spotted since the incident the other night, theres 1 diviet in the back pasture whihc im pretty sure was his doing but no dig patches otherwise so im thinking hes moved on...the shed still stands...so he would have been fired otherwise (i realy was kinda hoping hed collaps the foundation so the stupid thing would fall down LOL.)

i celebrated independance day...independantly...lol, did nothing yesterday, too hot, had brat and corn on the cob for dinner, skinny cow icecream for desert and watched Big Bang theory all night lol.
there wasnt even the hint at fireworks in the area (which was good because i had visions of wildfires) so it was a peacefull night.

today then i picked up ceramic tiles to try freezing those for the rabbits (the bottles help but my freezer is FULL of them and having trouble keeping up refreezing them otherwise so im hoping the tiles will mean i can cut back on bottles and gain some frezer space back, they certainly take up less room...)
I also picked up 50bs of goat, 50lbs of rabit and 50lbs of quacker feed...im using a high protein grower at 18% so i can use it for the guineas too, thus far its not giving me any wing issues on the ducks or geese and the guinea keets are growing nicely so *fingers crossed*
put gas in my car and then came home, iced the bunnies, and then decided to get satred on the grounding rods...
1 of the rods is in...

after that task im not yet sure if i REALY need 2 rods LOL (in otherwords im lazy and it hot and im not sure i want to do the work of adding a second rod lol)
so id loe thoughts/inupt there. ill be running about 1/2 a mile of fencing right now, but eventually will be running more...grounding rod #1 is 8ft long (6 ft burried) and right in the spot where the grey water drains off so the ground is alway at least semi damp there (even after no rain for ive forgotten how long tht spot is green, soft and cool, the rest of the place is pre-made hay lol...)

do i need 2 grounding rods? or can i return rod #2?

anywho, 1 is in...the other is waiting on an opinion, and now i can realy start progressing with the project.

Ive also got my 6 bank empty (unfortunatly my mini rex buck was killed yesterday by what i thinkwas a bug sting, he was fine then i saw him JUMP and a big black wasp type bug flew out of his hutch and his neck started swelling, by the time i got in grabbed the benadryl and a syrnge and got back to his hutch he couldnt breath and i couldnt even get the beadryl in him...)
he had the exact same anaphalacctic reaction you see in people allergic to stings, his neck and face started swelling immediatly...and i couldnt save him.
thankfully everyone else seems to be doing ok, ive changed my high temp protocal to include ice bottles, frozen high moisture veggies (watermellon rinds, cucumbers ect) and misting them every 2-3 hours and having MUCH more sucess...
but yeah since hes gone now that 6 bank is empty and that wood is going to be used to build the guinea house, so im going to start dismantling that to see exactly what i need to sort that out.
hoping by the end of July ill be caught up on current projects.

and yeah, thats about all i have right now...so off i go again

 

[Wannabefree]

sounds like one grounding rod should do it. just my opinion. keep in mind I have NEVER had experience with electric fencing firsthand.

 

[SSDreamin]

First, on the mini rex buck Pink - you're luck with rabbits has been the pits lately! Love the idea about the tile! I have some extra around here, I wonder if it'd do any good in with the chickens? Definitely will have to scrub it good every night!

Will double check with DH (he is off on some project right now) but I think he used 2 ground rods - don't know if it was the size of the enclosure (1- 1 1/2 acres) or he just used one for each strand of wire (we only used one in the small pen, but only had one wire ).

We went to see fireworks last night. It's the first time ever I have had them go off right over my head, showering ash all over me! DS thought it was awesome, and DH liked being able to lay in the bed of the truck to watch them (I think he attempted to nap a little, actually ). It was too hot to eat much, and shortly after we got home and tucked the animals in, we got a micro burst that raised the humidity through the roof 80 degrees for a low, high humidity and no A/C =

ETA: DH said it has nothing to do with how many wires there are ( I was just guessing! ) He said we only have one. It has to do with how much electrical charge needs to be sent out, based on the type of animal you will be keeping, and that you should check the amount of electrical impulse (or whatever he called it ) with a tester, to tell you how many you need - he suggested I give you the web site of the system we have - www.ZarebaSystems.com - too. Ours is a solar system, but he said they have standard system instructions on there too, so it might give you an idea or two. I didn't realize the ground rod hooks up to the charger itself, I thought it was tied to the wire :/ Guess I should pay more attention when he's doing that stuff (and probably would, if he wouldn't do it in the middle of a heatwave, in the blazing sun! I'm a delicate flower, don't ya know )

 

[pinkfox]

lol, me too, delicate and all...

i decided to stick to the 2 rods ONLY because the neighbors son asked for a ride to the scrap yard and back...told him no problme IF he pounds this 8 ft rod a minumum of 6 ft into the ground...
i pre-warned him because the gorund is so dry it will be HARD, id already doen one and its not fun...
crazy guy agreed to the trade.
he managed to get a good 3 ft in but it was too hot out there so hes comming back this evening to finnish it off for me.
this fence charger is a 20mile charger and high on the output (and goats are sutbborn lol) so i think having the extra grouding, especilaly given we are clay and ive no idea how high the water table is around here so no idea how deep we have to go to hit any kind of natural moisture reserves Plus having 2 means i should be good to go as i expand (though some info suggests 3 rods being optimum lol.)

in terms of the buns, definalty sucky, but definatly not luck, rex and lops tend to be hyper sensitive to the heat anyway so the ones ive lost its my own fault realy for not being more pro-active in this heat wave...babies/younguns are also more sensitive...the ones ive lost over the past 2 months are deifnalty my own fault...thistle though, deifnatly an add fluke, ive never heard of a rabbit being allergic to a wasp sting, but that definatly appeared to eb what happend...no idea WHY it would have stung him either but it does look like one has been attempting to start a nest inside the hutch thisle was in.
i did skin him, saved his pelt, but i tossed the meat, didt want to risk feeding the dogs anything that might cause a reaction in them (i dont know if wasp vemon remains in the meat ect...so didnt want to risk it)
i seem to have the heat issue under control though so thats good...im still not entirely decided on the colony idea, im realy thinking of just adding more shade since im worried baout ease of catching the buns and predator risks...going to look into putting a shade cloth up to try and give that area a little more coverage for the buns and go from there.
I have decided in all this though that im 100% going to be focusing on my rex and rex x meaties from now on and se how things go. the mini rex x lop project was more because i wanted a little lop eard rex bunny, and thats realy a silly reason at this stage, right now i need fo focus on them paying for their own food and putting meat/fur in the freezer.
kind of a rough akeup call i guess, but thats the deal.
Ive got 2 males left from bluebell ready to go, and thats it for babies for the summer.
hopefully going to get a couple of grow out pens built so i can raise some meaties to butchering too.

Ive given myself the first 3 years of "learning" and "adapting" and 5 years to make this work on an even balance...if i cant make things work after 5 yrs ll see about moving to the next adventure...Hard to belive october will be 1 yr