Our renter brought over 22 small heifers on Wednesday, so after I got home from work the SU and I had to do the "sort" thing. We put them in 4 groups out in the heifer barn. Renter took 6 springers home Thurs. morning, which leaves us with 7 out in the home pasture. There are 26 up at the other farm, and renter dumped 11 more a week ago. The SU about vapor-locked when he saw how small they were (a bull up there) and told him they were going to have to sort those small ones out and bring them here to put in the heifer barn. They did that on Thursday too. Thank heavens I was able to weasel out of that rodeo as I had a massage appointment at 10 am. LOL The SU and I did sort out the springers here at home, tho, as that wasn't too bad of a job to do. Just hoping none of the 10 they brought back home didn't come into heat while they were up there.

In OUR opinion he breeds them waaaay too young/small and I think that's why they don't put on a decent udder when they spring up. One had a calf here in the lot, she never looked like she was going to calf. Had the calf with no problem, he was up tearing around and having a snack.

Snow here, and now the neighbor's sheep look dark and kinda dirty against it instead of white against the grass.

sunny and (moderately) warm for the first day of deer season. I'm pretty much keeping to the yard.

Here's a shot I took yesterday. I had never seen hooded mergansers in the wild before. This is a breeding pair.

Neat photo, Kathleen!

Can't believe it is Thanksgiving next week already. I need to go get my turkey and all the fixings for Turkey dinner! Have to have a nice turkey in the oven for Thanksgiving. Nothing else will do. My mom always made a Turkey, I can't remember ever not having Turkey at thanksgiving. And of course I make it each year. Turkey and gravy and stuffing and potatoes. Oh YUMMY!!!! Can'; wait.

Well, I figgure anyone with a farm (even a hobby farm) has plenty to do all winter but for me I don't have one so I spend lots of time indoors. Don't much like to go out in the cold anyway. So I have started up on my exercise program again for the winter. Last year most days I did 45 minutes on my Gazelle machine, often more. This year I started two days ago. Doing 20 minutes each day to start. Will build up to more but taking it slow to begin with.

Winter just hit us with a blast of cold air from Canada. Just cold air with this system, no moisture. We'll have a few more of these 10 degree nights and bright sunny days. Hopefully no wind for a while. Day before yesterday the wind chill was below 0. I know it is not officially winter yet, but my ears and fingers don't read calendars. My neighbor is putting his 90 ft long hoop house together now that there is no gardening to be done. I get to grow some things in it next year. It's going to be a learning curve for both of us.

Stan talked about a hoop house once, but we still have those cows so who knows when.

We are braced for lake snow over the weekend with the possibility of 6-8 inches or more depending on where the bands set up. Stan is planning to put heifers in up to Melissa's tomorrow. He's been luring the girls here in a few at a time with grain, but the grass is still green, so they are quite content to stay outside. We'll see how they feel about it all on Sunday with a predicted high in the low 20s.

I went out yesterday to see if I could pull a couple of the onions we planted late, but they are frozen in solid in the raised bed. Ah, well.

We've had some cold weather this week as well, down in the 20s. My chicken water froze inside the coop, so guess I'll need to give that some thought. I opted not to try to keep the hens laying all winter, but did put in a rope light so the coop would not be so dreary (it is set to go on/off with my natural light). That does not generate any heat to speak of, and the coop is not insulated. Last night I hung a 75 watt bulb over the water, shielding most of the light from the birds which worked to keep the water thawed but was still too bright for all-night. My next thought is to rig up a light inside a clay pot or cinder block that the waterer can sit on. Seems that would keep the water thawed and provide a bit of ambient heat, without being a blaring all-night light. I'm getting about 5-6 eggs/day from 10 layers so they have slowed down but still producing.

I like the idea of a bulb in a pot under the water.

We had a cold front come in this morning which dropped the temperature from 77 to 50 in a matter of minutes. Warm for you folks, cold for us - especially in the post office where they had the AC on!

I borrowed the idea from my Dad. He made home brew for years in a pickle crock in the basement and that is how he kept his batch warm while it was working. To this day, I cannot abide 'craft' beer - they all remind me of Dad's horrible home brew. He eventually upgraded to buying caseloads of Carling Black Label direct from the distributor and re-selling at cost to friends (an early co-op one might say).

I made my chicken water heater from ply-wood and a feed pan from walmart Use a 40 or 60 watt light bulb for the heat source Don't know what I will do when I can't get light bulbs any longer

I am stockpiling incandescent bulbs; I use them for heat in many different applications.

Maybe look in Goodwill or Salvation Army for a coffee-cup-warmer or aquarium heater?

Habitat for Humanity might have water-pipe-heating-tape.

Those first two types of heaters actually sit in the water which would not work with the typical chicken waterer. I still like the clay pot idea.

I was thinking of the kind of coffee-cup warmer that sits under the cup, like a coaster. But for that, you would need a flat metal surface you could clamp or glue the warmer to. So probably also a poor fit.

I'll post a pic of whatever it is we end up doing. Leaning toward the pot. If that doesn't work for any reason, I can put the pot to good use...

And, yes, good old incandescent bulbs are great as a source of heat. I haven't been following the politics of light bulbs - will they be phased out in the near future? I'm not a particular fan of the twirly bulbs and haven't really tried the LEDs. I had one unfortunate experience with an early halogen that rather scared the bejeezus out of me - a fly landed on a lamp guard above a halogen which instantly shattered the guard (some sort of acrylic-y thing). Yikes.

It is already difficult to find anything besides fluorescent bulbs around here.

Around our town you have to bag up your Fall leaves in clear bags and put them out by the curb if you want them hauled off by the City. I collect them from around my neighborhood and use them to mulch my garden. So I have been collecting and mulching for over two weeks now. Was mulching again today. Hope to get the garden done by tomorrow.

Recycling at its best!

Cold (for us) and very rainy recently - Wednesday should finally be clear. Meanwhile I have wet clothes hanging all over the house as I seem unable to do any chores and stay dry. I also did not plan ahead, so our fire wood is wet too. The horses seem to love it; even the old, lame pensioners are galloping around like idiots! The rest of the livestock apparently have better sense. One of the run-in sheds intended for the horses is stuffed full with cows!