How Do Chickens Stay Warm?

This young pullet is saying, "Baby it's cold outside!" Note the fluffed up feathers.  She isn't kidding as the temperature was -13 F. when I got out of bed this morning. I wait to do chores in weather like this until it warms a bit for there has been a breeze of late if not a gale wind that plunges the temperature further to a wind chill of 38 below zero. Hubby went to work in a white out this morning. It lasted for four miles. We live in the worst weather spot for 20 some miles either direction. I tell the grandkids that all the lights for our exit off of the interstate, our exit only, is because we are so special but they know better. It's for the cameras that allow people to see the not so lovely weather we have in the winter time. Our spot is often the reason for road closures. Of course that means we have the greenest spot in the summer too because the snow piles so high. Our little beauty spot is nicknamed, hurricane, flats. Not as bad as where we lived before moving here but it does get breezy at times.

 My lungs protest are protesting this polar weather. They are difficult to treat. Found that out two years ago when in January I spent some time in the hospital. The smart thing is to just not get my lungs mad, so I wait until the temperature is above zero, if possible, before going out. It works out best for the animals too as they don't like coming out of their sheds to drink if it is above zero either. The water freezes almost immediately while the animals try to convince me to bring it to them with insistent bellers. Hauling water twice in a row is not my idea of fun. They prefer to eat when it is a bit more toasty too. The chickens usually don't come out at all except on rare occasion to bask in the sun that beats against the side of the barn. They think it is only worth it if the wind is not blowing. Don't blame them really. The minute I opened the door they feel the frigid cold and hustle to the roost, fluff their feathers out, and tuck their legs up under to keep them warm. Those warm cushions of air between the fluffed up feathers are a nice insulator against the cold.

Even the rooster, Sir Gallop, has his hackle spread out wide. He tucks one foot in his feathers and then switches the supporting leg to tuck it up under where it is warm. That is why they like the roost so both legs stay warm.

 The first thing to freeze on a chicken is the comb. Note Sir Gallop's. The black is the part that froze and it is dead now. It will drop off in a few months. Frost bite is not unusual up north where we live. I've had mild cases of it a number of times myself. For roosters in the winter, it is not so big a deal. Don't know if it lowers their sperm count or not but that is not a concern for who wants to hatch chicks now anyway? It is a problem if a hen's comb freezes. They will stop laying eggs until the injury has healed. The remedy is to create a warm insulated coop. With 22 chickens and six rabbits inside, it stays pretty warm. Yes, we brought home three baby bunnies. I'll have to tell you the story. It is rather funny but that is another blog post. None of the other chicken's combs have frozen but then none of them are as large as the roosters.

We've raised chickens for about 28 years and though we've become pretty good chicken herders, sometimes there is just nothing you can do to get one or two back inside. Sometimes you will get one that just wants to be free-range day and night. Usually it is because they are being bullied but not always. Most chickens are smart enough to head for cover. A couple Wyandotte roosters ended up living with the goats or sheep. They rode  on their backs out from the shed to get a drink or eat with them at the hay feeder, then hitched a ride back. Their feet never touched the ground except to get a drink and up they'd go again to the shed once more. They shared warmth in the insulated shed and did fine through the winter. But we had three chickens that paid the price for not finding a good place to weather the storm and their combs froze along with their toes. One froze both feet so badly we had to kill it because it could not walk. Chickens are just not meant to live outside in the winter.

If you look carefully, you can see a tiny black dot on the comb of this Wyandotte hen. It has been an exceptionally cold winter so far. It has not stopped her from laying or I don't think it has. I've now studied two different scientific studies about how to tell if a hen is a good layer or not. I have my suspicions now about her but we'll talk about that later. I have raised Wyandotte chickens for many year but I may end that as I've found the fox and coyotes here seem to really like them.  This girl is the only one left. They are a gentle, sweet breed, even the roosters.

What Makes Beef Tough?

I have had to buy -- or should I say have chosen to buy some meat from the store lately. Roasts in particular as we are out and I refuse to buy lunch meat loaded with chemicals and a fake flavor. The scary thing is I bought some chuck steak to cook roast like for lunch meat and the stuff increased in size instead of shrunk -- scary! What are they putting in our meat these days? Since the fox cheated us out of some chicken, we have purchased a little of that also. We don't eat much store chicken anymore and interestingly our cholesterol levels are lower than they have been in many, many years. Makes me wonder what they put in them? Motivation to do our own crops up everywhere. Much easier when you are feeding 2 but with the grandkids here most of the week it is 6, making it a much more difficult task.


As I walk the isles on sale day, I notice the only roast in my budget are the tougher cuts. Good thing I like them and know how to cook them to a tender point. The cooking of tougher cuts of beef, pork, and lamb and wild game is the same. We have eaten lots of wild game, yak, and bison which all are cooked in the same manner.

I knew very little about meat and the various cuts until we began cutting our own. Before that I found the meat section of the store confusing. What cuts do you purchase to do what with? In this confusion you might have had a very chewy meat experience because the cut was cooked wrong. Yes, there is some meat that no matter what you do it will be tough but with this meat there can be a flavorful broth made. You just don't want to pay 6 dollars a pound and have something not chewable when you are done. My mom was a pro at cooking a roast to the tough leather stage. She cooked it at too high a temperature, without enough moisture and for too short a period of time. Of course it was a tougher cut of meat to start with.


https://www.angus.org/pub/beefchart.pdf is a great site to see just where different cuts of meat come from. What we learned when we started cutting up our own beef was that you could get different cuts from the same section of beef. Customizing is a great lure of do it yourselfers. For instance, pork chops is the cut from which Canadian Bacon also comes from. Either you cut a little of the section for chops and make Canadian Bacon from the rest or you choose between the two. 

If you look at a beef, the top center of the beef and top of the hip is where the choice cuts come from, the loin, rib, sirloin etc., most of your steak cuts. Prices reflect this. The bottom section is where the animal gains its locomotion, hence, locomotion muscles. This is the hip and shoulder where the legs propel the animal forward. The top of the shoulder is where my favorite tougher cut comes from, Chuck. Chuck has the most awesome flavor. It is my absolute favorite beef meat and I will take it over T-bone steak any day.

There are other factors besides locomotive versus support muscles (the muscles that aren't locomotive muscles) that determine the tenderness of beef. They are Marbling, Stress, Feed, Aging, Slicing Across the Grain, Marinating, and Proper Cooking.

Marbling may be something you avoid because of fears of cholesterol. It is marbling though that gives meat a perceived tenderness because fat acts as a lubrication when chewing and aids in the separation of fibers. Fat lubricates between meat fibers making the fibers easier to pull apart giving those molars an easier time. Fat also stimulates the production of saliva which further stimulates taste. Fat also helps protect against over cooking. Don't avoid fat, just be smart about it and don't over eat.


Stress tightens the muscles and produces tough meat. Most animals travel a long distance to the butcher and if they are not left long enough in pens in order to relax some, then you taste the results. Our livestock die where they lived so they have no travel stress or stress from being corralled in a strange environment. They are placidly eating grain and then dead. It is that quick.


Feed plays a part in that corn fed beef is usually more tender because it increases fat levels and the animal gains weight quicker so it is butchered at a younger age. Younger animals are more tender. Our animals are closer to 2 years of age instead of 18 months. Pasture fed along with hay and a small amount of wheat is what ours eat. The increase in age gives us more natural flavor and because of the relaxed environment, taste testers have all chorused saying the meat is tender. My cousin and her husband came and had steaks with us but complained about how large they were thinking they could never eat it all. To their surprise they devoured it. They buy a half a corn fed beef every year but had not tasted anything quite as good as our beef. Feed choices equates to different flavors and different people like different flavors. In lamb this is especially true as it feed makes a large difference in flavor.


Our favorite beef is Coriante but they are not fun to keep in as they are wonderers by trait and they are much slower growing. This means lots more feed to meat ratio and time, lots more time to get to butcher size. Unless you have mild year round weather so little hay is need plus lots of pasture, it just isn't real cost effective. We bought a good sized Corianted to begin with and may do that again one day because I'm craving it. We eat mostly Angus since it is readily available. That is what will go into the freezer this year and a Angus /Semental calf that will grow and do the same.
 

Aging, marinating, proper cooking, and slicing across the grain, all help to tenderize meat. There are two kinds of aging, wet and dry. We do only dry and our meat does not hang as long as traditional corn fed beef. Diet plays a role here as does time in order to be able to process the beef. We have to coincide our hanging time with days off in order to get the job done - not necessarily when it is best for the meat. Yet we have been blessed with very tender beef. Dry aging does not work well on pork, lamb, and veal as they do not have the marbling to protect the meat from rotting. Corn fed beef can be aged longer because of the increased fat levels. I have to say our pasture, hay fed are not any less fat but they are babied. Most of you don't process your own meat so I won't go into aging. Marinating and cooking I will talk about in another post.

That leaves slicing across grain. That makes a huge difference as it cuts up the connective tissues in the meat. Fibers in the meat run in a direction. You cut in the opposite direction that the fibers run in order to break up the connective tissue. We cube a lot of our meat, almost all of our wild meat. We have a cuber that has knives that cut through the meat tenderizing it. Unlike the butcher or store meat that runs the meat through once. We run ours through from top to bottom and flip it so it runs through side to side so it gets really tenderized. Great if you have sever TMJ like I do. I have no trouble with mine but the dentist cringes when he works on my teeth.

T-post Remover

Thank you all for your kind words, I'm feeling a bit better. Some is just knowing what is lurking inside my half a thyroid. The ultrasound came back good and bad. Most importantly, the solid nodule I've had for some time has not grown. The same could not be said for the cysts I've had. And now joining them are multiple new ones.  In case you didn't know, misery loves company. 

When the ultrasound technician asked what thyroid medications I was on, she gasped. Yup, for years I've been on the thyroid treatment that is suppose to shrink these babies and keep new ones from forming but alas, my pony express rider must of lost the memo and it has never arrived. Tomorrow, I think I'll try upping my iodine for a while and see if that calms things down any.

For now, I'll just keep plugging away canning and getting ready for winter.

 

 One of the things I must do is clean the last goat pen and then put up a stretch of fence to block off access to the row of hay bales  in case someone should become greedy and think of helping themselves.

To take down the t-posts at the end of the goat pen, I'm going to use this. Don't get confused by the pipe at the top, Sorry, I didn't think when I snapped this picture. It isn't a part of the rectangular device.

You attach the hook on the end of a chain, the other hook attaches to the bucket on the tractor.

 Slip the t-post through the triangular cut out.

And make sure the bumps on the post are where the narrow end of the triangle is and lift the bucket on the tractor. Voila, out comes the post slick as can be. You don't have to have a tractor to do this. You can use a handy man jack instead to attach to the chain and crank away. Pictures of this little peice of metal in motion would have been better but I was on the tractor running the hydraulics Kirk was setting things up on the other end and was in a hurry to get the posts pulled.

So if you are using t-post, as most of us do in the USA, then  you've got to have this $14 dollar back saver. I wish I'd bought one years ago. I'd have far fewer bent posts and I'd of had fewer back aches.

Hauling Hay

"If it weren't for bad luck I'd have no luck at all, gloom, dispare and agony on me." Hear the hilly billy twang, no, well maybe you aren't from around here, the United States that is. If you were, you'd know that for many of us rural folks, this silly song has an annoying habit of popping into our heads when trouble comes knocking. It never fails to bring a smile to my lips for in all honesty, I have never had a bad day but I've had some powerful challenging moments.  It never fails for when I count my blessings at the end of the day they always far out weigh the troubles. 

So as I tell this tale of woe, sing along and smile because though things have continue to be challenging today. (I won't tell you what I accidental did to the lawn mower.) more has gone right.

See this beautiful load of hay?  It and three other loads are safely tucked in but getting it there was an adventure I'd just as soon not repeat for it wore on our nerves and gouged a whole in our savings.

Maybe I'd best just tell you the story. The day before we started hauling, the diesel price shot up and I noticed the tread on one of the trailer tires peeling off. The diesel prices I couldn't change but as for the tire I considered it a blessing I saw it before we started out and  Kirk could fix it at home.

It wasn't our last tire to say bye bye for on the way back from South Dakota, farm country, we had another tire peel. We felt lucky we had this new dilly bopper for it made changing the tire easier. It's for trailers and with the two tires on one side close together you just pull up onto this with the good tire and the other is elevated for changing. I'd just bought this last week before we left thinking it would be handy. I didn't expect to use it so much in so little time.

Home again, we bought another tire and off we went  for our second load. Yup, you've got the story by now, another tire shred. All set up to change it with our handy dandy helper and Kirk grabbed the brand new spare and discovered it had little air in it. (If it weren't for bad luck we'd have no luck at all, gloom despair and agony on me.) Kirk figured it would get us to the next truck stop just a short distance and so off we limp.

Hoping that putting in some more air would get us to the next town, Kirk attempted the feat and was met with a loud hiss. Nope, not a bad tire, a cracked rim this time though of course we also had a bad tire. Abandoning the trailer, we headed off thirty miles away to buy a rim AND a new tire. 

We decided to stop for a short while and grab a Quizno's sandwich to celebrate. Not our gloom and woes silly, our anniversary for it was Saturday 33 years before that we were married. No time to reminisce, we had nearly five tons of hay waiting our return so back again we went on that now, very familiar road.

The final day of hauling Kirk went by himself and you got it, a flat. But whoo hoo, it was only a flat. No shredded tire this time. He managed to pick up a screw somewhere and it impaled one of the brand new tires.  

Yup, hi ho, hi ho, it's off to get a flat fixed I go. No more trips for hay let's shout hurray hi ho, hi ho.

Have you noticed, when the going gets tough, I start singing?  I'm not allowed to curse so what's a girl to do?

We did learn a powerful lesson about tires for the others were in pretty good shape when we left. We began looking at the rating on the tires and we had D range and it became apparent with the increased weight of hauling round bales instead of small squares that we needed E range with the increased load capacity. Lessons learned the hard way can be so powerful and well, expensive.

Thank you all for your well wishes, I am feeling a bit better. Probably all that sleep traveling back and forth for hay. Pour hubby, I just couldn't stay awake.  

Glad to hear that it isn't just me who thinks faded and half worn out jeans are not a good buy.   

How about hay prices, what are they in your area?

Feeding Livestock

 Meet The Prom Queen. Yes, apparently this 1960's International tractor is a girl. At least to the previous owner. As for me, well, I'm thinking more on the lines of Stan as a new name. What do you think? Oh yeah, by the way, we bought this lovely tractor last weekend. That is after a three hour interview and after the previous owner deemed us worthy of purchasing her.

Think I'm exaggerating, hardly, ask our daughter who was with us and heard the previous owner say exactly that. "I have been interviewing you to see if you passed inspection." And after the extensive interview, we now know each and every part that was replaced and like a teacher repeating something so we won't forget, we can't forget because it was told to us so many times. Not all bad because I now have engrained in my mind the unique way to start this tractor. All older vehicles and tractors have their quirts, even if they are rebuilt. 

But it was worth it. So excited was I at the purchase of this tractor that butterflies kept fluttering in my stomach. I couldn't help but laugh at myself. Not a diamond ring or a beautiful outfit trips my trigger. It takes a tractor to do so. LOL I'm such a strange bird but this tractor is going to make my life so..... much easier as it will be able to do much of the grunt work for me.

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 We've been feeding hay on the ground, not a great way to do it since it means lots and lots of waste and an increase of the spread of worms. With hay prices and grain going through the roof, we had to spend money to save money. Luckily, I've been saving for the feeders for quite some time. The tractor will help me clean up the mess and the feeder will assist me in keeping the waste and mess from happening again.

 Before we bought this sheep feeder, we knew we would have to make a few modification to it. See all the hay that falls into the grain bunk? We are going to try adding two pieces of cow panel in a V, slipped into the feeder to create smaller openings to pull the hay through.

My father explained to me that animals should have to work for their food and I'm not talking about carrying large loads. When a animal grazes, it takes time and effort. The same should be mimicked in a feeder. We are told to eat slowly for optimal digestion; animals are the same. 

The other benefit is the psychological benefit. The animals are happily occupied eating, just like they would be for much of the time in a pasture.  Now with feeders, I can add the eating process to my feed program to enhance health.  

The wide spread drought complicates things. Crop failures and lower yields means hay and grains prices are going through the roof. I'm going to have to be creative to create the same level of health as before to keep a slick shiny coat on my animals. What I could afford to buy before will be out of my reach.





For now, the most important thing I can do is give them lots and lots of clean water. That is why I have these 10 gallon black rubber pans. I clean the algae out of them once a week. I can visibly see an increase of intake of water the day after.

Hay

Sorry, but since I need to leave to go and haul hay, I had to use an old picture of our hay shed when with a borrowed tractor, Kirk was putting grain inside.

I took the day a bit easy yesterday. I wouldn't say I did nothing for I did changed beds, straightened up the house- particularly the kitchen- did a little knitting, and had a really good laugh with a girl friend on the phone. But, over all I didn't do anything big. Oh yeah, I guess in the early morning I did stack three fourths (about 2 1/2 tons) a trailer of hay into the shed but that was done was ten. 

And the funny thing is I was rather depressed in the afternoon. I think it is the let down. Not that I was feeling let down but that I had a little while for my emotions to catch up with the stress load I'd been carrying. In my sad mood my poor husband had to settle for a store pizza for supper. He is such a good man.

But today I have to 'buck up' as we say and push my emotions aside because I've hay to haul from South Dakota and stormy weather is a brewing. That means the hay needs to be tucked inside the shed and covered with plastic since the shed is not weather proof.

If you can even call it a shed since it once was a piece of machinery that a rancher pulled behind his tractor. An auger was attached and hay was shot into it, compacted by a treadmill like base, and the hay came out of it in the formed a loaf.

The rancher had removed the bottom when I spied it and my little scrounging mind thought - hay shed. A little negotiating and it came home with us. We had good intentions to fill in the end and cover the vents but it just has never happened. None the less a good heavy sheet of heavy plastic works to keep the moisture that seeps in off our hay and it is far far better than setting outside and trying to keep it covered. We always lost a lot of hay to the weather when we used that method.

 The least enjoyable part of the whole haying project is shimmying along the top of the hay bales that reach nearly to the roof and spreading a HUGE piece of heavy plastic while dragging pickup tires to lay on top. Some how that job always falls to me.

This year we vow to not waste any of our expensive hay. Not only by preserving it in our shed but by buying efficient hay feeders and hopefully rebuilding another. You see I've my eye on a broken down hay feeder in a field but I can't find anybody home at the trailer nearby to try and make a deal for it. Beyond that hope, we've two more hay feeders to buy. 

"A fool and his money are soon parted" said Benjamin Franklin ( I think that was who said that.) and this fool is going to start being smarter about wasting money by wasting hay. My goal is to not allowing any to be used as bedding by the animals instead of food. You livestock owners know how it is for stock invariably spread their hay on the ground as they sort through it to find especially tasty morsels. Then of course they urinate and defecate all over it while they are looking for the tasty morsels and then of course they won't eat the hay on they've soiled.

"Waste not want not." has become a higher priority in this household - hay being one area that it is critical to be more frugal with. The price this year is especially high since the drought in Texas and Oklahoma's has caused semi after semi load to leave the country to feed their livestock. Otherwise we'd have low hay prices since the farmers and ranchers had an abundant crop.

So my advice to you new livestock owners. Don't just put your hay under plastic. Work towards building or scrounging something to use as a hay shed. You'll save hundreds of dollars each year as the weather won't be starting a mold factory in your hay stack and robbing you of your hard earned dollars.

Plus, use hay feeders and good ones for the bad are no better than just throwing your hay on the ground. Remember hay on the ground picks up worms and those worms then journey inside your stock.
I'll talk more later about my search and research into the area of hay feeders.
   

Fall Painting Chores

 Every year I paint the sheds just to keep them in one piece. You think I'm kidding but I'm not. A couple of our old sheds are pushing 25 years old and the one made of plywood is fairing much better than the one made of particle board. Take note. Particle board does not hold up nearly as long as plywood so spend the extra bucks -- it's worth it.  

As I debated about what to use to put the paint in that was out of the five gallon paint bucket, I settled on an old milking pail because I knew the paint would form a lovely skin that when dried would peel off in long strips leaving me once more a scrap bucket for the chickens. Since I don't use many packaged products from the store, I had no throw away container.

If it weren't for the goats I probably could get by every two years but they rub against the old buildings wearing off the paint. Then there is our tumultuous weather, (can I use the word tumultuous when I'm referring to weather?) a building won't last very long without some form of protection. I've tried helping hubby fasten tin to the outside of the plywood to try to make them last longer. (You know I had to come clean and say hubby did it or I'd get in trouble. You'd know the truth anyway since you've seen my new chicken coop. Handy man I'm not.) It does require less maintenance but still it rusts and you have to keep the dirt or manure from building up around the bottom because that holds moisture and it rusts. That's the case of one of the sheets of tin on the shed in the buck goat's pen. 

So painting it is to keep the two sheds lasting a little longer. I have to do it in the fall when most of the kids are sold and the one or two left are grown up a bit, not so inclined to bounce off the sides with their playful kid antics. With me once again being the primary grandchild babysitter, on this sunny school day I had our youngest who's two. This was a couple weeks ago so our oldest daughter was here and stayed an extra day to help corral our grand daughter. 

She of course is my little helper and had to paint too. Amazingly she painted for over an hour before once more returning to pouring grain from one bucket to the next. Her favorite pastime. Our oldest daughter may not of gotten much painting done but she was a huge blessing that day.   

Yakking About Yaks

 One of the reasons I went to Colorado last weekend was to yak about yaks. At home every time I step inside Jasmine and Gracie's pen it was like visiting a foreign land without knowing the language. All that head shaking left me wondering if they were saying, " I'd sure like to hook up with you." (meaning that literally), then proceed to rip my arm off or if they were just saying, " Howdy do."  with a head shake instead of a hand shake -- I mean hoof.

So Toni, our oldest daughter, and I early Saturday morning meandered the back roads of Berthoud, CO in search of yaks and Jason. We found him and his herd of four cows and one bull at the end of a pretty country lane. We yakked for over an hour about grooming, worming fly powders, and the like all the while wondered about in the pasture with his four cows and their two offspring. It was perfect, as I got to see the two cows shake their heads when uncomfortable and shake and lower them in a mildly threatening manner when they thought their calves might me in danger and Jason's reaction to such behavior. 

Then there was waddling Matilda. Okay, her name really wasn't Matilda but I have to call her something so pretend with me because I can't remember her actual name? Poor girl, she was well, to put it politely, cranky. Many of you might remember what it felt like when you were eight and a half months pregnant. A few of you might me there yourselves. But unlike you, she's due any day and wishing that calf would quit kicking her insides and pounding on her bladder and get itself outside where rough housing really belongs.   

A big thanks to Jason for his hospitality and giving a great boost in confidence in handling Gracie and Jasmine. I can already see improvement in our relationship. You can take a trip with your computer and visit Jason and his yaks at -- http://www.gillettefarms.com/yaks.html

The day before, I bent Jim and Eilleen's ears for over and hour. I meant that figuratively not literally as Jim is a good six foot five or so and I'd of had to jump to reach his. He was super gracious in giving me his time when he was conducting business selling yarn at the fiber fair. We talked about raising yaks, and the yak fiber industry. It was fascinating to hear about how they import yak wool from Tibet, then have it dyed and spun. Jim and Eilleen are the owners of Bijou Basin yarn company. They offer a selection of yarns that leave you thinking you surely must of landed in heaven for yak wool is often compared to cashmere in luxury and I'd have to agree. 

Look at these two skeins I bought. The warm autumn colors have me dreaming of fall leaves and so.... soft to the touch. These skeins are being produced and will soon befor sale. This is a pre-production run but if you want to place an order, feel free to go to their web-site and Jim said they'd ship as soon as it is available.  Be sure and check out their other selection of colors and fiber combinations. The alpaca/yak blend is awesome to the touch.  Visit them at: http://www.bijoubasinranch.com/BBR_YPfiber.htm

The Yaks Are Here!!!

Our girls have arrived, whoo, hoo!! Let me introduce you, Gracie is on your left and Jasmine is on your right.

At first I panicked. How was I going to tell the girls apart. No white marking, nothing. Then I saw their names on their ear tags and I breathed a big sigh of relief. By the way, this is Gracie. I can't see her ear tag in this photo but I have now got it figured out who is who without them. Beyond two brown hairy bodies I can see that their faces and bodies are nothing alike. 

No, really, there not. Look carefully. This is Gracie. One way you can tell is that her hair on her forehead isn't very full in comparison to Jasmines. Do yaks have foreheads? See, I know nothing --yet. 

Look here at Jasmine. Hint, hint, look at the name on her ear tag. But beyond that blatant clue, look how wide her head is and how full her hair is acrossed it. Gracie's hair is scant across her head and comes to a V. Give Jasmine another year and we may have to trim that hair so she can see.

Jasmine here has big wide, long chaps and her hair is much fuller than Gracie's. By next year her hair will be really long.  Jasmine is what they call a silky because of the way her hair is smooth and well, silky. It doesn't look soft in this picture but it is comparable to cashmere. It doesn't get much nicer than that.

She would be a good candidate to breed to an extreme wooly to come up with more fiber. She is one nice looking yak between the size of her bone structure, which is large, and her full hair. Jasmine will be one big cow when she grows up.  Her dad weighs 1780 lbs.,  a really big boy and her mother was a big cow also.

Now look at this side shot and ....

...then look at this one.  Yup, you guessed it, the first one is Jasmine and this one is Gracie. Didn't guess it. Well, note the smooth silky hair on Jasmine, the first side shot, and the crimp in Gracie's hair here in the second.

Gracie is the more friendly one and is very jealous of any attention given to Jasmine. They aren't comfortable around us yet and tip their horns in a, I can defend myself so watch out, kind of way. But then again, it has been less than twenty-four hours since we picked them up. I was thrilled this morning though when Gracie grunted at me. My mare was whinnying, the goats were maa...ing and Gracie grunted. It was so... cool. Yes, yaks don't moo, though they are a bovine, they grunt instead. 

I wonder which type of hair is more desirable to spin? Hm....? I really need that yak tour I've been wanting to take. I've questions and questions to ask the ranchers who raise yaks for meat, for fiber, and yes, we found one family that is working on a yak cheese line.

But right now I want to thank Larry and Christy from Spring Brook Ranch who were kind enough when they met us last night with the yaks in Gillette to give us a little yak meat to try and some fiber for me to spin. Since it is Mother's Day, we are having yak ribeye steaks tonight. Yum, yum! We've go to get the grill hot, hot for that's how you cook them. 

To all you Mother's out there, Happy Mother's Day.

Looking Stupid And Loving It

Did you think I dropped off the planet? Well, I didn't. Just real busy and no time to chat but I'll try to catch you up on a few of the things I've been doing. Today was a bit exciting. Some of you will remember that we always process our own beef, hogs, and chickens. Not this year, we just couldn't see our way to handling knives, a big electric meat saw, and a large powerful meat grinder with a curious six year old, a four year old who must touch everything, and a two year old who's in to everything and pleased as punch with every mess she makes. Yup, as much as we prefer doing our own, it wasn't going to happen this year so, regretfully we made an appointment with the meat processing plant to do our steer for us. That's when trying to simplify things became complicated.

All our beef before this time, except our halter broke FFA steers, have left their pen strung up dangling off the end of a tractor's bucket. In order to have someone else process it, we had to transport our steer 40 miles to my fathers where the gentlemen would come and begin the processing. The part we do behind a tall privacy fence so squeamish people who might be passing by won't complain because they saw a scene from real life.

But first we had to get the steer into the trailer. We soon learned where a thirteen hundred pound steer can go, anywhere he pleases if he's fenced in with cow panels. Though we pretty well had that figured out before we tried to load him as he's been busting down panels on a regular basis as he leaves his pen to visit our goats or heads over to have a chat with my mare. Only on rare occasion has he actually gone outside our pens and then he comes running when called, returning through the just opened gate. Yup, he's very tame having been bottle fed as a calf and has gone through manners training 101. You know, don't butt, don't shove me around, don't eat out of a bucket when it's in my hands, and move over when told. But, loading into a trailer was never covered since that's taught in class 102.

We might have tricked him in to teaching himself had we been able to leave the trailer hooked up to the pickup and put his feed in it each day. The trailer and pickup would have blocked traffic and we need it for transportation. No, we couldn't leave just the trailer as the pickup is needed to stabilize the trailer from the thirteen hundred pound steers movements.

In an attempt to do the same thing I tried tempting him with a bucket of grain as I walked backwards. He followed to the edge of the trailer and refused to go any further. I was almost glad. Where was I to go if he became frisky in the trailer. I know the danger of being in such confined quarters with such a big steer. Our middle daughter had four surgeries in thirteen months when her FFA steer pinned her in the corner and beat the tar out of her. She had just clipped him in preparation for a show and had led him in with a halter. I wasn't anxious to put myself in the same possible situation.

When the coaxing our beef failed, we resorted to herding him. He wouldn't herd. Oh we chased him this way and that and even resorted to a few whacks on his nose trying to convince him but he still wasn't convinced to go into the trailer. And after he'd shoved his way through the fence and took off with his tail in the air THREE different times. We decided that a fourth time he may head for the hills and we may not be able to get him back since we were on foot.

By this time, I was hopping mad. I ordered Kirk to go get his gun. I didn't care that I had a funeral I needed to be at that afternoon. I was too busy planning one that morning. Kirk stalled, letting me fume for a while, eventually he convinced me I needed to attend only one funeral that day and that we should reschedule for the next weekend, giving us time to call in recruits to help us load the steer.

When this week the steer tore up some more fencing, I didn't care that the temperature was hovering at 0 F with the wind biting making us miserable, the steer was going bye bye no matter what it took. But before I called in a small army, I asked the help of ONE of our friends who is also very skilled with horses. Little did I know how ignorant he'd make Kirk and I look. He simply whispered sweet nothing in that steer's ear and he trotted right in the trailer. Well, actually he just used a little body language and I assisted by doing what I was told. Oh we moved that steer around a bit but not more than a couple minutes and he was facing the trailer just staring at it. I thought for sure Tim would tell me to crowd him a little after he'd had a look see, but no... He said, watch, he'll walk right in. Danged if he didn't walk forward and right in all the way to the front of the trailer without any hesitation. I had to stop my jaw from dropping and Kirk later admitted so did he. This, the same steer that had said the weekend before, "No way, and no how!"

By this time I was so thrilled to concede that I was a complete idiot I would have announced it to the world. Actually I have since I'm blogging about it. But this idiot had her steer loaded into the trailer and was now free to hop back in the warm truck with the kids. That's success by any idiots standards. I figure being made to look dumb is a part of life and I don't really mind since it meant I'd found someone to whom I could learn from and you know how much I love to learn something new. So though I was freezing my fanny off in my blue jeans I stopped to quiz Tim a little. Next time, I just might be able to whisper sweet nothings in a steers ear and get him to load easily too. After all, he's taught me to do it with horses and this was a little different but not too much. But, if we are really blessed I won't have to because we'll be processing the steer ourselves.

Tomorrow, I'll be doing a photo challenge but I promise I'll blog about making orange extract along with showing you how I fixed the Intarsia hat.

The Hatch

Yeah, the first hatch is done. Out of 35 eggs, 33 hatched. With 2 eggs not fertile, and one chick hatching two days late, too weak to survive. In with the other chicks it was being trampled in since it couldn't walk decent. I had to quietly eliminate it in the garage out of sight from the wee ones. The oldest grandchild and I discussed what had to be done and she wasn't upset being very logically minded like myself but the middle grandchild, umm... to avoid the theatrics with incomprehensible livestock rules, I didn't even mention it figuring she wouldn't miss 1 chick amongst the crowded cage.

By the number of dark little heads and puffy black bodies it was clear that the 2 Barred Rock, 2 Wyadottes, and the Australorps were the ones doing most of the contributing.

I love my incubator as it keeps a steady temperature of 98.5 which not only insures a good hatch but means I won't have straddled legs and crooked toes which is a sign of too high a temperature. Too high a temperature also means the chick will stick to the shell because of evaporation of moisture and the chicks will hatch too soon and soon die. Too slow and the chicks don't mature quickly enough also causing weakness and death. That is why it is important to check your incubator's temperature often throughout the 21 days before the 1st day of hatching. I keep a thermometer inside that I can see through the viewing window.
Today, I'm going to take out the Buff Orpington rooster and insert a Austrolorp male. When introducing a rooster into a coop, it takes 48 to 96 hours after he has inseminated the hens for the eggs to be fertile and up to 3 weeks after some of the eggs may still be fertile. But, and here is the clincher, after 5 to 7 days the percentage of fertilized eggs will drop and 10 days later it will be unsatisfactory. The plan is to leave him in for 2 weeks and begin collecting eggs. A few eggs may have the semen from the 1st rooster but not real likely. If I was worried about a pure-bred line I'd wait the 3 weeks but then it may work out that way anyway. My life lately is definitely not going according to my plans. Of this second hatch I will save a few replacement hens.



With our daughter came an upright freezer and those of you who have been reading this blog know how I love freezer room. If there's room I have to fill it. So far I've added bread, cookies, and butter to hers. Only because I've little time left from watching the kids, doing laundry, cleaning house, etc.

Now I'm thinking strongly of ordering some chicks from the local feed store. Then I can get a few Auracanas and such that I wanted. Kirk and I agree the kids need colored eggs. The Buff Orpingtons just have to go since they don't lay in our winters though right now they are laying heavily.
When so many chicks hatched I had to set up another cage so they are presently in two rabbit cages in the basement. Why rabbit cages? They were free, cast off offered by the neighbors. I have been blessed because three times now a set of cages has appeared from various friends when ours wore out. These are wired together a bit but still in good shape. Underneath is plastic garbage bags and inside the cages I lay down old newspaper I've saved and haven't used to start the fire in the wood, coal stove. If I run short I just go to the neighbors and beg for their old newspapers. My newspaper is just the Midweek that has all the advertising for our area in it and comes free delivered to our door. Each day or as the chicks grow larger, twice a day, I lay down another layer and after a few days I clean all the newspaper out and haul it to the garden. It makes great mulch since it keeps weeds from growing, breaks down fairly quickly, and is fertilized. The old sheets around the cages block the heat from escaping.



What I'm not happy with is the pasties I'm seeing on my baby chicks. I'm wondering about the feed. What are pasties. You know the chicks with the butts pasted with feces. It sticks to the feathers, dries, and blocks further exit of excrement. The chick then dies. This dictates that I hold a very disgruntled chick's hind end under the faucet softening the mess until I can clean it off. Not a pleasant task for either one of us. I've had to clean 5 chicks so far, all of them yellow ones. Last year I had only one chick I had to clean and the year before none. I didn't hatch for a few years before that but going back all the years with my first incubator I didn't have much trouble either unless I used wood shavings and then that stuck to the hind ends and did the same thing, blocking the exit. That is why I'm thinking it might be the feed. Any of you have experience in this area and can enlighten me? My daughter picked up a bag at a store I don't normally shop for livestock feed at. It's close by and at the time I couldn't be picky being the upheaval going on in our home.

Call Me A Scrounger

Call me a scrounge for that's what I am. See these wooden frames covered in plastic. They came off a construction site yesterday. A new fire hall to house the fire department is under construction and these wooden and plastic frames were covering the window, then cast aside headed for the dump. Kirk saw the potential of making them into cold frames for the garden. Teasingly, he told me to put on my begging face and go to it. The site foreman was happy to get rid of them for it was one less thing they have to haul off when their done. Yup, we're finding construction sites a great place to find scraps for projects. I'm just kicking myself for not asking if they have any lumber they also want to get rid of . Now I'll have to go back. We've a big wooden box in the backyard that Kirk got from the coal mine that we were going to build a small chicken coop for the garden and we need some more lumber to complete the simple design I have in mind. Yup, Kirk's learned to put on his best begging face too. The large wooden box once held a piece of heavy machinery for shipping. I'd feel bad asking but the things we approach other for are either going to be trashed or have sat unused for a very long time. The ticket to asking is being very polite and with companies be brief for you're taking the boss away from their work.

"May I please have ____ if it is going to the garbage dump. I want to
use it for _________. I really appreciate this. Thank you. I'll hall it off right away."

Then be prepared to remove it immediately or very soon so it doesn't sit around and they wonder if your word is good, meanwhile an opportunity for them goes by when they could of gotten rid of it so they aren't real happy with you. Remember he might be the one ahead of the next construction site you want to scrounge from.

I think this scrounging mentality began when I was growing up, the youngest of four. My mother and father divorced and that placed us on a very limited budget. Hand me downs or second hand clothes made up the bulk of my wardrobe. Before school started mom would buy me a few new things and then again on Christmas I had something new but all my dresses were passed down from my sisters. You can guess that they weren't always the style or the color that I liked and in part that is why I learned to sew on my grandmothers old Singer sewing machine. The one she once sewed my mother's baby clothes on. I still have that machine all 45 pounds of it.

Because of medical bills, money was always a bit tight when we were raising our children. Cooking, sewing and gardening were a way of life and I made everything from their underwear on out when they were little while learning to cook from scratch and can or freeze food from the garden. The kids are raised and Kirk and I aren't poor like I was as a kid but stretching his hard earned money is part of what I see as my job. It's how I show my appreciation for all his hard work. Kirk's knives bring in a little income that allows him to buy a few extras but is really just an artistical passion that he pursues.

Something that you spend hours at does not necessarily have to have great financial benefits. His knives fulfill a longing to create -- something that is inherit in us all. We express that differently but everyone needs to be creative whether it is with fabric, food, garden, scrap booking, or whatever. God is creative and we in his image have the same desire. So Kirk pursues his talents, I pursue mine, and we work together on joint projects. Because we don't have a money tree producing an abundance of funds we become even more creative. Kirk builds or revamps machinery for his knives and we gather inexpensive materials or scrounge items for our projects. I think it's better this way. Not easier mind you but better. Because we don't have lots of money to spend we naturally recycle items, and become more appreciative of what we have., Creativity blossoms for necessity is the mother of invention. I'll show you a few things in the barnyard that were once scrounged and because they were they have lots of character and memories.

The A-framed chicken coop was once a blasting shed on the Jacob's Ranch Coal Mine. When it had served its purpose and it was headed for the dump Kirk hauled it home. The wood floor is is bad shape but some black heavy rubber belting from the mine now covers it up plus warms the floor. (Wish you could still get some of that stuff but the mines now sell their junk to companies for recycling.) The tin on the outside of the old frame is new something kind of rare in the old barnyard. There is a funny story behind it, I'll have to tell you someday.The two nests in the coop are a friend's old 4-wheeler tires that went flat. The hay shed is an old, now antique, loaf stacker for hay that has the floor removed. It once sat discarded on a ranch and having watched it sit unused year after year I asked about it, looked it over, and made an offer of $200. It was all we could afford at the time. We stack small square hay bales inside. The vents you can see on top don't make the shed exactly waterproof but we live in an arid climate and a covering of plastic over the hay keeps everything dry saving us lots of money we would normally have lost from weather exposed moldy hay we couldn't feed.

Part of the plastic is recycled and used in the springtime in the garden.

This shed was originally built for one of the first town parades for the judges to sit in and tally their votes. We've won categories in every local town parade we entered. Come summer I'll have to pull out the photos and show you some of our hilarious floats and costumes. The first parade we were in we did Beach Bums. Two, two month old bum lambs dressed in tank tops and shorts with sun visors on their heads trailed along side our kids dressed in shorts carrying cardboard surf boards. Our youngest, our son, was about three years old. They walked along as I held a tape recorder blaring music of the Beach Boys.

Sorry, my mind trailed off down memory lane for Halloween, Christmas caroling, parades, just about everything thing we did usually involved the animals and it was a fun time. If you want to check out Christmas caroling with reingoats. Clink on the underlined word reingoats if you want to read this past post.
We added a front and door to the shed, put it on skids, insulated it, and added a rubber belting floor making it easy to clean and much warmer. It has housed the goats for years.

When our neighbor quit raising hogs, I asked to buythe shed and received it for free. Sorry, no picture. We in turn have given a shed, feeders etc. that we no longer use to others for we appreciate the things given to us. Oh, I almost forgot the cow panels that fence in the animasl that we were given from a job site for free. Then there is the chain link fence that FEMA gave us after the tornado. They were going to haul it to the dump and called me instead. We put it inside the cow panels around the goat pen to keep the kids in. I almost forgot the round bale feeder that Kirk cut the good parts off and modified into a corner beef feeder. It worked great for one beef but when we put two in the pen there jostling competition for feed tore it up. Our son has agreed to modify it again and rebuild it in May in exchange for all the weeks I've babysat his hyperactive bird dog.

Yup, barter, ask for, and modify, to your use is something I think we will all need to perfect in the difficult days that will be ahead. I'm glad were already learning how.

I'm curious. What has been your best scrounged item. I'm always looking for ideas on how to convert one thing into another.