We've been busily working on winter prep for a couple days now. All the windows in the house have been sealed shut with removable caulking and our bedroom and upstairs bathroom windows have also been covered in heat shrinkable plastic. We still have to add the heat shrink plastic to Jess's room and the guest room.
We won't bother plastic-ing the downstairs windows, they've been caulked shut and that will do, I think.
A guy from Rogers cable finally came today... no not to bury my internet cable, I couldn't be THAT lucky (plus the ground is frozen) but he moved it... he tried running it under the driveway through the culvert, but couldn't get through there. The culvert is quite low and I imagine filled with "stuff". Yuck.
I finally talked him into running it along the overhead wires, across the driveway and then down the big evergreen tree in the front yard. It then runs from the tree parallel to the driveway along the front lawn to where it comes into the house. Now I hardly care IF they ever bury it.. I managed to not run over the cable on the other side of the yard with the lawn mower for the whole season, I imagine I can work around this. I'm happy now that it no longer interferes with the driveway. Now the snow removal guy can come when needed and I don't have to run out and disconnect the internet before the cable gets chewed! Yay :)
I also moved a small pile of scrap wood that was out by the new goat shed that had just been sitting there. I just threw it into the raspberry patch for now, but at least its out of the way of the snow removal guy.
The weekend before Shawn's surgery we also put up some tposts out near the new sheds to help keep the snow removal guy from hitting the sheds or catching the edge of the rubber mats I have out front. I think we're all set for him now :)
I still have a pile of "stuff" to move out of the yard next to the white shed... some plastic skids, some chainlink fence, a couple bags of soil... nothing major... I'm hoping to find space in the white shed and put it in there.
Shawn also clipped off the pop cans off the electric fence for the winter, so they won't fill with snow and ice and drag on the wires... he did that before his surgery.
I don't think you can ever be READY for winter, but I'm doing my best to plan and be as close to ready as possible. I'm sure I'll forget something vitally important... just not sure what that will be... YET :)
Monday, November 24, 2008
Saturday, November 22, 2008
I'm A Bad Not-Updater
So its been almost 3 weeks since i updated. Time just flies.
Lots of things have changed, but more has stayed the same, which is how we like it :)
We got a new goat last weekend from a local horse boarding facility that was not really looking after his needs. His feet were pretty messed up, I already posted pics of them to the FHH album. We renamed him Grover to fit in with our theme and it seems to suit him. I gave him a good trim this week and now he's moving around quite a bit better and is peppier. The first couple days he spent a lot of his time laying down.
Grover is also quite afraid of brooms, shovels and pitchforks and the first time I found that out was when I was done trimming his feet and I had the other 2 boys locked out of the shed and I thought I would sweep up the nasty hoof trimmings before I re bedded the shelter(I mucked it out before so I could have a nice work surface, right on the rubber mats instead of on the straw).
I took the broom and started sweeping and poor Grover went ballistic and ran blindly around the shed and tried to climb the wall to escape. I stopped right away and only continued once I had turned him out with the other 2 and even then he moved far away from the door while I did it. He's been slightly better since, but he doesn't hang around if I'm working, unlike my other 2 that are always right in the way, trying to eat the tools and stuff!!!
He's also enjoying treats here... at first he was sure I was trying to poison him with a carrot, but he quickly figured out that carrots bits are yummy. Now he's almost as grabby as the other 2 when I have treats. Tonight I took them eat a feed bowl with banana, carrot bits and some peanut butter muffin that I made yesterday. They all inhaled and looked for more! Spoiled? My goats? ha... never! ;)
Shawn finally got his wisdom teeth removed on Monday... all went well and he's recovering nicely. He's more sore now at the end of the week than he was right after, I imagine since the swelling has decreased now there's a bit more pain. Mind you, he's not taking the prescribed percocet, either, just ibuprofen and tylenol, so that's not bad.
It was about time he got the teeth out, he was supposed to do it many years ago, but never had benefits etc... he had 5 wisdom teeth to remove and 2 of them were in a cyst in his sinus cavity. (Yuck!) Now once he's healed a bit, he'll go back to the regular dentist and get some work done on one of the back molars that was against one of the wisdom teeth... it has a cavity in it from the wisdom tooth being in crooked and food getting stuck between where it was hard to get out. Then he should be good to go for a while again.
Its been quite chilly here lately... at least it seems chilly to me... I've been cold all the time and am already wearing as many clothes as I did last year during the coldest weather... I dunno what I'm gonna do when it gets colder... freeze, I guess. I did get some nice long johns from Walmart (of all places!!) this year... they are black, come in "chunky girl" sizes and cost about $6 for bottoms and $6 for tops. I've been wearing them as pajamas also, they are so comfy :)
Buddy has been cold too... he's not as young as he once was... this week I ordered him a dog coat from Greenhawk and it came the other day. Its the same kind as I had for goats last winter... his is black (cause he's a tough guy! ha) and he likes wearing it. They are reasonably priced and wind and water resistant, I think overall a good deal.
I technically have enough blankets of appropriate sizes now to outfit all 3 dogs. The 2 younger ones don't really need them yet, but they might when it actually gets cold. Oliver doesn't have a really thick coat and when the wind blows he can get a bit shivery if he's not running around like a maniac. Pixie generally only gets cold feet, but she's not as young as she once was either and may appreciate another layer eventually.
I'm doubting that I'll blanket goats this year since they have a good shelter now... I don't think I'll need to... I hope I don't need to. Keeping them from undressing themselves is a pain :) When the weather is colder, I may just keep them locked up during the day to help conserve the heat in the shed... when its cold they don't go outside anyhow.
I'm having a really hard time wrapping my head around the fact that Christmas is coming! It's like a month away! I think in general we're going to try to make it a little "leaner" Christmas than some...but there will still be a little something for everyone... just not overboard.
I have the vet coming this week to give the goats their shots... I would do them, but I vaccinate for rabies which only the vet can do, so she'll do them all for me... easier that way too, I often have to give them shots by myself and this way I can hold them still while she gets them. Plus, I like to have the vet just look at them now and then, at least once a year, to make sure I'm not missing something...another set of eyes and all that.
My internet cable is STILL not buried from last fall... I've been on the phone with Rogers all summer and fall and getting a run around. It MUST be moved before the snowplow needs to come and do our driveway. No way will they get it buried now, the ground is almost frozen. I had a brilliant plan that we would run it from the pole, through the culvert under the driveway and then just up the side of the driveway to the house. Seemed brilliant until we looked at it carefully and realized the culvert is very low and pretty much always under water... now ice. Poop.
Our latest scheme is I've scheduled Rogers to come out this week and assess the situation. What I want them to do is to run the cable back up the pole and along the overhead wires until its across the driveway and then run it down and across the front lawn. This would solve my snowplow issue and I'd be fine with waiting til spring to bury the damn thing. We'll see if I can sell the idea to the Rogers guy.
I found a local small engine repair guy through my mechanic up the road... I called him the other day about having our snow blower maintenance done... he came by about an hour after I talked to him and picked it up. We tried to start it to load it and when he pulled the cord we noticed it was just hanging by a thread... a very thin thread. He replaced that while he had it and did the maintenance (changed the oil, clean spark plug, checked belts etc, lubricate controls, inflated tires, checked gear oil) All that, plus he picked it up and delivered it for $81.95 bottom line. I thought it was really reasonable and great service. We had it back about 24 hours after he picked it up! So now our snow blower is ready and hopefully we won't need it :)
Our furnace guy is coming out this week to do a maintenance on the furnace and to get us set up with their maintenance plan. If nothing else, perhaps it will give us priority should our furnace go out like it did last winter, when my parents were here just before Christmas. He's also supposed to fix the furnace exhaust pipe and extend it so that maybe this year it won't get buried under the snow, which was what caused it to go out during that storm we got.
I'm sure I'm forgetting other very "important" updates, but that's all I can think of at the moment.
-- L
Lots of things have changed, but more has stayed the same, which is how we like it :)
We got a new goat last weekend from a local horse boarding facility that was not really looking after his needs. His feet were pretty messed up, I already posted pics of them to the FHH album. We renamed him Grover to fit in with our theme and it seems to suit him. I gave him a good trim this week and now he's moving around quite a bit better and is peppier. The first couple days he spent a lot of his time laying down.
Grover is also quite afraid of brooms, shovels and pitchforks and the first time I found that out was when I was done trimming his feet and I had the other 2 boys locked out of the shed and I thought I would sweep up the nasty hoof trimmings before I re bedded the shelter(I mucked it out before so I could have a nice work surface, right on the rubber mats instead of on the straw).
I took the broom and started sweeping and poor Grover went ballistic and ran blindly around the shed and tried to climb the wall to escape. I stopped right away and only continued once I had turned him out with the other 2 and even then he moved far away from the door while I did it. He's been slightly better since, but he doesn't hang around if I'm working, unlike my other 2 that are always right in the way, trying to eat the tools and stuff!!!
He's also enjoying treats here... at first he was sure I was trying to poison him with a carrot, but he quickly figured out that carrots bits are yummy. Now he's almost as grabby as the other 2 when I have treats. Tonight I took them eat a feed bowl with banana, carrot bits and some peanut butter muffin that I made yesterday. They all inhaled and looked for more! Spoiled? My goats? ha... never! ;)
Shawn finally got his wisdom teeth removed on Monday... all went well and he's recovering nicely. He's more sore now at the end of the week than he was right after, I imagine since the swelling has decreased now there's a bit more pain. Mind you, he's not taking the prescribed percocet, either, just ibuprofen and tylenol, so that's not bad.
It was about time he got the teeth out, he was supposed to do it many years ago, but never had benefits etc... he had 5 wisdom teeth to remove and 2 of them were in a cyst in his sinus cavity. (Yuck!) Now once he's healed a bit, he'll go back to the regular dentist and get some work done on one of the back molars that was against one of the wisdom teeth... it has a cavity in it from the wisdom tooth being in crooked and food getting stuck between where it was hard to get out. Then he should be good to go for a while again.
Its been quite chilly here lately... at least it seems chilly to me... I've been cold all the time and am already wearing as many clothes as I did last year during the coldest weather... I dunno what I'm gonna do when it gets colder... freeze, I guess. I did get some nice long johns from Walmart (of all places!!) this year... they are black, come in "chunky girl" sizes and cost about $6 for bottoms and $6 for tops. I've been wearing them as pajamas also, they are so comfy :)
Buddy has been cold too... he's not as young as he once was... this week I ordered him a dog coat from Greenhawk and it came the other day. Its the same kind as I had for goats last winter... his is black (cause he's a tough guy! ha) and he likes wearing it. They are reasonably priced and wind and water resistant, I think overall a good deal.
I technically have enough blankets of appropriate sizes now to outfit all 3 dogs. The 2 younger ones don't really need them yet, but they might when it actually gets cold. Oliver doesn't have a really thick coat and when the wind blows he can get a bit shivery if he's not running around like a maniac. Pixie generally only gets cold feet, but she's not as young as she once was either and may appreciate another layer eventually.
I'm doubting that I'll blanket goats this year since they have a good shelter now... I don't think I'll need to... I hope I don't need to. Keeping them from undressing themselves is a pain :) When the weather is colder, I may just keep them locked up during the day to help conserve the heat in the shed... when its cold they don't go outside anyhow.
I'm having a really hard time wrapping my head around the fact that Christmas is coming! It's like a month away! I think in general we're going to try to make it a little "leaner" Christmas than some...but there will still be a little something for everyone... just not overboard.
I have the vet coming this week to give the goats their shots... I would do them, but I vaccinate for rabies which only the vet can do, so she'll do them all for me... easier that way too, I often have to give them shots by myself and this way I can hold them still while she gets them. Plus, I like to have the vet just look at them now and then, at least once a year, to make sure I'm not missing something...another set of eyes and all that.
My internet cable is STILL not buried from last fall... I've been on the phone with Rogers all summer and fall and getting a run around. It MUST be moved before the snowplow needs to come and do our driveway. No way will they get it buried now, the ground is almost frozen. I had a brilliant plan that we would run it from the pole, through the culvert under the driveway and then just up the side of the driveway to the house. Seemed brilliant until we looked at it carefully and realized the culvert is very low and pretty much always under water... now ice. Poop.
Our latest scheme is I've scheduled Rogers to come out this week and assess the situation. What I want them to do is to run the cable back up the pole and along the overhead wires until its across the driveway and then run it down and across the front lawn. This would solve my snowplow issue and I'd be fine with waiting til spring to bury the damn thing. We'll see if I can sell the idea to the Rogers guy.
I found a local small engine repair guy through my mechanic up the road... I called him the other day about having our snow blower maintenance done... he came by about an hour after I talked to him and picked it up. We tried to start it to load it and when he pulled the cord we noticed it was just hanging by a thread... a very thin thread. He replaced that while he had it and did the maintenance (changed the oil, clean spark plug, checked belts etc, lubricate controls, inflated tires, checked gear oil) All that, plus he picked it up and delivered it for $81.95 bottom line. I thought it was really reasonable and great service. We had it back about 24 hours after he picked it up! So now our snow blower is ready and hopefully we won't need it :)
Our furnace guy is coming out this week to do a maintenance on the furnace and to get us set up with their maintenance plan. If nothing else, perhaps it will give us priority should our furnace go out like it did last winter, when my parents were here just before Christmas. He's also supposed to fix the furnace exhaust pipe and extend it so that maybe this year it won't get buried under the snow, which was what caused it to go out during that storm we got.
I'm sure I'm forgetting other very "important" updates, but that's all I can think of at the moment.
-- L
Sunday, November 2, 2008
All Moved In!
Today we got the goat fence moved over to the new goat shed. They are officially moved in now. I added some pics to the goat shed album. They've been sleeping in the shed overnight though for a few days, since the snow storm the other night. During the day, I would halter them and walk them over to where the fence was and they'd spend the day outside... then just before it got super dark, I'd halter them and walk them back to the shed. Worked ok, but now things are more convenient :)
Now in the morning I just have to open the gate and the door and they can come and go all day long... at night, I shut them inside to stay warm and safe. There's a few more bugs to iron out with latches and stuff, but nothing major and I'll get those done this week. All the windows and shutters are currently fastened shut with screws, we'll get on to installing the mechanisms yet, but depending on the weather, we may wait until spring. I don't think we'll need the windows open before then anyhow! Plus, even with them shut there's lovely ventilation in the shed.
We also built them a new hay feeder today... nothing fancy, just out of wood. Hopefully it will help stop the excessive hay wasting. (Bert likes to stand on a new flake of hay that I give them and soon after that, pee on it. Then of course its no good at all and they scream for more, which they usually don't get... I'm a mean goat lady.) Bert seems to be a bit put off about it so far, but I'm sure he'll figure out he could just pee in the deep straw now instead... you know, like he's supposed to!!
We got the second inside gate hung properly this weekend also. We also moved the goat ghetto, the 2 parts of the goat shack (the cubes) into one area inside the electric fence for winter "storage". I cleaned up one huge lawn tractor cart load of dirty hay and straw from where the 2 cube shelters have been for the last few weeks. It was pretty wet and smelly and normally I wouldn't have left it so long, except I knew we'd be moving them soon and I was kinda busy doing stuff in order to get them moved. Oh well, I'm sure it didn't hurt them, its not like they were spending much time in the cube shelter lately anyhow, with staying overnight in the new shed.
We moved a bit of stonedust also... did the final grading around the goat shed... mostly just added some to go under the rubber mats at the front and back doors. We also put a load in the low areas of the tarped building and some on the grass (that I had sprayed round up on) in front of the tarped building. There's still another couple cart loads to be moved and we'll put them on the grass in front of the tarped building too and try to make it more like a driveway.
I'm cooking a sirloin roast for supper tonight... it was on sale at Farm Boy. Hopefully it will be good enough, its not a cut I buy usually, but it was $3.99/lb.
We still have small amounts of snow left around... where the drifts were in the fence line and in other areas. Its spotty, just here and there... the rest melted. Its pretty darned chilly again this afternoon... we came in around 4pm and there was a real nip in the air already!
The dogs are doing fine... Buddy is moving a bit slower these days... I think the cool weather and his NEED to chase Oliver around are making him a bit sore. He was feeling much better in the summer when it was warmer. I've been trying to keep him from chasing Ollie by having them take turns outside, but it still happens sometimes that they all go out together. Buddy has also had a sick tummy for the last few days. I gave him some pepto bismol yesterday and that seems to have helped quite a bit.
I think that's all what's new around here.
-- L
Now in the morning I just have to open the gate and the door and they can come and go all day long... at night, I shut them inside to stay warm and safe. There's a few more bugs to iron out with latches and stuff, but nothing major and I'll get those done this week. All the windows and shutters are currently fastened shut with screws, we'll get on to installing the mechanisms yet, but depending on the weather, we may wait until spring. I don't think we'll need the windows open before then anyhow! Plus, even with them shut there's lovely ventilation in the shed.
We also built them a new hay feeder today... nothing fancy, just out of wood. Hopefully it will help stop the excessive hay wasting. (Bert likes to stand on a new flake of hay that I give them and soon after that, pee on it. Then of course its no good at all and they scream for more, which they usually don't get... I'm a mean goat lady.) Bert seems to be a bit put off about it so far, but I'm sure he'll figure out he could just pee in the deep straw now instead... you know, like he's supposed to!!
We got the second inside gate hung properly this weekend also. We also moved the goat ghetto, the 2 parts of the goat shack (the cubes) into one area inside the electric fence for winter "storage". I cleaned up one huge lawn tractor cart load of dirty hay and straw from where the 2 cube shelters have been for the last few weeks. It was pretty wet and smelly and normally I wouldn't have left it so long, except I knew we'd be moving them soon and I was kinda busy doing stuff in order to get them moved. Oh well, I'm sure it didn't hurt them, its not like they were spending much time in the cube shelter lately anyhow, with staying overnight in the new shed.
We moved a bit of stonedust also... did the final grading around the goat shed... mostly just added some to go under the rubber mats at the front and back doors. We also put a load in the low areas of the tarped building and some on the grass (that I had sprayed round up on) in front of the tarped building. There's still another couple cart loads to be moved and we'll put them on the grass in front of the tarped building too and try to make it more like a driveway.
I'm cooking a sirloin roast for supper tonight... it was on sale at Farm Boy. Hopefully it will be good enough, its not a cut I buy usually, but it was $3.99/lb.
We still have small amounts of snow left around... where the drifts were in the fence line and in other areas. Its spotty, just here and there... the rest melted. Its pretty darned chilly again this afternoon... we came in around 4pm and there was a real nip in the air already!
The dogs are doing fine... Buddy is moving a bit slower these days... I think the cool weather and his NEED to chase Oliver around are making him a bit sore. He was feeling much better in the summer when it was warmer. I've been trying to keep him from chasing Ollie by having them take turns outside, but it still happens sometimes that they all go out together. Buddy has also had a sick tummy for the last few days. I gave him some pepto bismol yesterday and that seems to have helped quite a bit.
I think that's all what's new around here.
-- L
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