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Need to get the second batch of chicks moved into the larger tub on the porch. They're getting big and starting to smell in the back room. Also need to get on the computer and do some paperwork for the masters program that I'm starting next week. Meeting some gals from work for happy hour in the big town later so I may leave a little early to run a few errands before we meet.
 
Spent all morning on the phone trying to deal with the vehicle problems. I rented a Uhaul pickup to haul our livestock around. It's just big enough ( 6000 lb limit, and ours with livestock will be around 5800....) . What a drama. They wanted me to install some app on my phone, but my phone is too old. So I asked for an email, and they wrote my email down wrong. 3 phone calls later I finally got it. We have to pick it up in WV, nothing around here.
Tried to add 2 animals to our next meat processing date but no go. They are too busy.
Called someone new about hay that delivers. He has nice hay we know someone else that gets it there. I hope he has extra this year so I called early but didn't get a hold of him.
We usually get mostly square bales but round is cheaper and we don't have to haul it and put it up.
Made pizza dough when I remembered I defrosted some chicken. So I ended up making a white pizza with spinach, artichoke and chicken and it turned out really good.

It finally stopped raining !
 
I never thought about using a UHaul as a livestock hauler...Ha! How'd it go, Sonya?
Was surprised this morning when I went into the goose enclosure and a baby goose was staring at me inside the coop! Adorable! I have not tried to incubate their eggs because the females don't let me get near them. Had to go back in with some gosling feed in a low pan and a regular waterer. Too short for a bucket, of course. Husband got his allergy shots, and little granddaughter and I brought the sewing machine in for servicing, and got her class sorted out for next week. Our youngest pharmacy MD daughter took a look at mom's med list and said that the dementia meds they put her on recently has a side effect of decreased appetite and UTI, so I called her doc right away and she is now off of it. She's has two UTI's in 3 months, and she's lost over 10lbs or so recently, and is soooo skinny. Hopefully it was just the med, we'll see. I'll see how she reacts to another milkshake later in the week. Mama kitty decided to move her six kittens yet again, so that was interesting to watch. From the milkhouse to the little garage by the house.
 
Magpie said:
Away day yesterday- Visited my Dad and popped into a friend on the drive home, as we hadn't seen them in yonks. Planted a few turnips in the evening but the soil in that bed isn't great, realised I have no room for most of the seedlings, the other two beds aren't deep enough so will have to come up with a plan B. Heading off for a few days- on my own :dancing: one of my lecturers is having a book launch so I will stay with a relation and have a mooch around the city. Today is some chores and writing lists of what to water for the kids.
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That's so funny! Yonks isn't a word over here. I've heard it and read it, but fun to "hear" it in conversation. 😁
gloryroad56 said:
Today is going to be a busy day. I have a lot of cleaning up to do around the house and I also need to do some laundry. It's not my favorite task but it needs to be done. I'll start by picking up any clutter and organizing everything. Then, I'll move on to cleaning the floors, dusting, and wiping down surfaces. Once the cleaning is done, I'll focus on washing my clothes. I have a big pile of laundry that needs to be washed, dried, and folded. It's going to take some time but I know I'll feel better once it's done.
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If you don't feel like tackling that at your house yet, come on over and feel free to practice and refine your strategies at our place first. Then you'll be really efficient and get yours done in no time. I'm pretty sure that's a great time saving technique 😇
Amish Heart said:
I never thought about using a UHaul as a livestock hauler...Ha! How'd it go, Sonya?
Was surprised this morning when I went into the goose enclosure and a baby goose was staring at me inside the coop! Adorable! I have not tried to incubate their eggs because the females don't let me get near them. Had to go back in with some gosling feed in a low pan and a regular waterer. Too short for a bucket, of course. Husband got his allergy shots, and little granddaughter and I brought the sewing machine in for servicing, and got her class sorted out for next week. Our youngest pharmacy MD daughter took a look at mom's med list and said that the dementia meds they put her on recently has a side effect of decreased appetite and UTI, so I called her doc right away and she is now off of it. She's has two UTI's in 3 months, and she's lost over 10lbs or so recently, and is soooo skinny. Hopefully it was just the med, we'll see. I'll see how she reacts to another milkshake later in the week. Mama kitty decided to move her six kittens yet again, so that was interesting to watch. From the milkhouse to the little garage by the house.
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Hope that helps your mom AH. I think sometimes the combo of meds messes with folks' systems. Also hope little Granddaughter likes sewing and the sewing machine. It's really a great skill.
 
Well, I wound up making TWO town runs because I forgot some stuff... didn't make a list this time, lol. But no worries, I'm back and I have everything I need to do what I want to do in the next few days. I did buy brisket, but it's the choicest part, I didn't buy the whole slab. I'm not sure how much of a mess one of those full-sized brisket slabs will make in my BBQ... there's a lot of fat on those things, and I'm thinking it'll either burn hot or make a mess, or both, even with the smoke action from the wood chips. On a more positive note, I scored a good deal on some BOGO 80/20 burger patties, decent beef from Albertson's... I reckon I'll BBQ one value pack as burgers and make a burly meatloaf out of the other, lol. Bought everything I need for those meals, and I stocked up on cracked corn for the wild birds, as well as sacks & cans of kitty food. Spent around $500, but that's okay, I'm looking good right now, lol... :cool:

Ya know, we're not getting those cut-rate deals on the Crudweiser, in fact the prices on all Bud cr@p have gone UP, go figure. What's the deal with that? How come we're not seeing those "$1 per case" deals here in Alamo? Is it because the Injuns & rednecks would buy it all up at that rate, not giving a damn about the whole tranny grinder scene? It kinda chaps my @$$ that I'm not seeing 30-packs of regular Crudweiser for $1... I'd stock my shed with that cr@p, lol. Anyway, that's my rant for the day, lol. I'm already over it, and I'm sipping a Coors as I key this post. The good news is that I just started two jugs of busthead cider, since I'm tired of these ridiculous beer prices. I'm trying a new twist: doubling the yeast while still adding at least 1/2 cup of sugar to the mix (on top of the natural sugars in the cider). One gallon jug is actually regular apple juice, but I read that it can also be fermented... we shall see. 🤔

IMG_9448.JPG


Honestly, if I can crank out a gallon of busthead cider or fermented juice for approximately $10 (including the cost of yeast & sugar), I'm gonna start drinking this and to heck with the corporate BS beer. I'm really getting tired of these slimy corporate scumbags jacking up the prices on everything. Frankly, their products aren't worth the price, so I'm forced to find alternate party materials. That busthead cider may not win any competitions for taste, but it gets ya hammered... in the words of Mark Twain, each gallon jug is good for two drunks and one delirium tremens, lol. Yesiree, that cider sure gets ya ripped, no two ways about it. Maybe it's time to give the corporate brewmeisters the boot, and just make my own stuff, ya know? I think I'm gonna look into making moonshine as well, and no more paying $30 per bottle of tequila or whiskey or whatever. The greedy b@stards... I get so tired of the GREED, aye? 😒

P.S. Anybody who has smoked a large slab of beef brisket in a regular 4-burner BBQ (5-burner with the outer one on the side), please reply here with tips so I don't burn up my BBQ in a blazing grease or fat fire, lol. I DO have wood chips for smoking meats, I think they're applewood chips, I'm just a little concerned about how badly those big ol' slabs of beef brisket might burn. Maybe those big slabs are meant for larger smokers? What I'm trying to avoid here is a major grease or fat fire running out of control and blowing up my propane canister & BBQ, with yours truly wounded or KIA by shrapnel in the yard, BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! I wanna try one of those big slabs of Angus beef brisket, they're only $40 or $50, but I don't wanna ruin my BBQ, I need that bad boy, lol. Do ya have to keep "fire watch" while BBQing some beef brisket? Do I need to have the hose or some chemical fire extinguishers handy to put out the resulting 'Red Adair' oil well blaze? Oh, yeah, I should add that I've eaten plenty of brisket, but mostly from BBQ joints with much larger smokers, 10-4? :rolleyes:

Edit: I'm tossing in the burly explosion scene from 'THE WAGES OF FEAR'---couldn't find one from the 'SORCERER' remake. Meh, that explosion you see in this link will be my BBQ with that big ol' Angus beef brisket slab in it, lol. :oops:

The Wages Of Fear

"Wingnut! No more Wingnut!!!" 🤣

[Actually, with my Hazardous endorsement and experience in hauling such cr@p, the stupid SOBs in management should've hired ME for the ugly job, BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!] :thumbs:
 
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I have been tending the garden and other projects.

We scraped all of the old finish off the front stoop, puttied up the cracks and sanded all down. Tomorrow it may get a frah finish.

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Replaced all of the tires on the lawn tractor. My brother was helpful with that project.

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Staying busy.

Ben
 
Amish Heart said:
I never thought about using a UHaul as a livestock hauler...Ha! How'd it go, Sonya?
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I just rented it, haven't actually picked it up . I guess I should have said I made the reservation to rent it. It's just a pick up we are going to attach our livestock trailer to.
It is much cheaper than renting one from the enterprise truck rental for some reason.
Will let you know how it goes.
 
Depends on the weather. might go shopping or get back to my shop, might not.
Never plan. it will never happen.
Raw verb is the key to versatility!
 
Got off work at "noon fifteen" today. (That's still over nine hours because we started at 3am.) I came back to the hotel and showered, then I crashed from about 2:30 until 9pm. Like an idiot, I startled myself awake, and now I can't go back to sleep. Oh well, I gotta be up at 2am for work anyway. Wednesday should be a full 11 hour day because there aren't any passenger trains scheduled. I'm not looking forward to it...
 
Wingnut said:
Ya know, we're not getting those cut-rate deals on the Crudweiser, in fact the prices on all Bud cr@p have gone UP, go figure. What's the deal with that? How come we're not seeing those "$1 per case" deals here in Alamo? Is it because the Injuns & rednecks would buy it all up at that rate, not giving a damn about the whole tranny grinder scene? It kinda chaps my @$$ that I'm not seeing 30-packs of regular Crudweiser for $1... I'd stock my shed with that cr@p, lol. Anyway, that's my rant for the day, lol. I'm already over it, and I'm sipping a Coors as I key this post. The good news is that I just started two jugs of busthead cider, since I'm tired of these ridiculous beer prices. I'm trying a new twist: doubling the yeast while still adding at least 1/2 cup of sugar to the mix (on top of the natural sugars in the cider). One gallon jug is actually regular apple juice, but I read that it can also be fermented... we shall see. 🤔

View attachment 109328

Honestly, if I can crank out a gallon of busthead cider or fermented juice for approximately $10 (including the cost of yeast & sugar), I'm gonna start drinking this and to heck with the corporate BS beer. I'm really getting tired of these slimy corporate scumbags jacking up the prices on everything. Frankly, their products aren't worth the price, so I'm forced to find alternate party materials. That busthead cider may not win any competitions for taste, but it gets ya hammered... in the words of Mark Twain, each gallon jug is good for two drunks and one delirium tremens, lol. Yesiree, that cider sure gets ya ripped, no two ways about it. Maybe it's time to give the corporate brewmeisters the boot, and just make my own stuff, ya know? I think I'm gonna look into making moonshine as well, and no more paying $30 per bottle of tequila or whiskey or whatever. The greedy b@stards... I get so tired of the GREED, aye? 😒
:thumbs:
Click to expand...

You have me interested. Do you have a link for the recipe?
 
My weekend recap isn't very exciting. Home from work at 4am Saturday morning, set an alarm for 1pm, forgot to turn down the volume on my phone before going to sleep, slept through the alarm having no idea how long it went off before stopping on it's own because when I woke at 4:30pm the alarm was still on I just slept through it and never turned it off. Drug myself out of be and was dead tired from sleeping too much. I was too late to buy tasty food at the Farmers Market, they had all packed up and were gone by 5pm. Came home and stood around in the garage barely able to anything productive on my workbench because I just didn't want to move. I did get the last 8 feet of benchtop glued and screwed in place and added reinforcement and braces, that only took about 5 hours. I was in bed again by 11pm and slept to 6:30 Sunday morning so since the sun was up I let out the birds but the goose was being cranky and didn't want to come out of the duck house so I closed the door and left her there for a couple more hours. Turns out she has been laying eggs and is broody. I went out again at 8:30am and and noticed one of the turkey Jenny's OUTSIDE the gate to the bird area. It took me a minute to remember I did not let the turkeys out and this was a wild turkey. She wandered away to the back of the yard and around the outside of the horse coral and came back into the top of the side yard. I fed and watered our birds, let out the goose with a little nudging with a stick, and grabbed a hand full of food to place outside the gate and in the top of the yard to try and bribe the wild Jenny to hang around our yard a bit more. I then backed away and walked out to the road onto the side road at the top of our corner lot to gently scare her back into the middle of our property near the food. We have heritage Eastern Narraganset Turkeys and I think this is a Western Marriam's wild turkey. They may have different "accents" but I am hoping she wants to become friends with our turkeys. She has been coming around every spring for 3 years now all by herself, I would love it if she joined our flock. I told the girls to place a little food and water outside our bird area for the wild Jenny hoping she comes around more often. Across the road from our property is National Forest Service land and she is the only wild turkey I have seen up that way for the past few years. I think she needs a loving home.

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Since I put in my 2 weeks notice a week ago work has been a lot less stressful, except for knowing our team will have a near impossible time hiring a decent working to replace me. I am not that high and almighty, I just know it is less than a 1 in 10 chance of hiring anyone decent. Out of the last 4 only one has been good and stayed past the first few weeks. But, I have to remember that I am what I need to be concerned about so although I feel bad for the good folk I work with I am excited to be moving on to something better much closer to home.

I suppose I will head out into the garage and mix up another batch of epoxy to fill in cracks and holes in the new workbench then shower and head to bed. Good night for me, Good morning to all ya'all.
 
Have to do some shopping today. Woke up in the middle of the night and worried about if my Yukon will start and make it there....(it ran just fine last Saturday, last time I drove it)

It's still raining. Officially there is zero rain forecast nothing showing up on the radar but it's raining anyway. We put all the animals except the bucks up last night, so barn to clean. I hope the bucks are ok being in the cold and wet all night.

Do you ever feel like everything is out of your control and nothing goes well? I feel like that lately
 
sonya123 said:
Have to do some shopping today. Woke up in the middle of the night and worried about if my Yukon will start and make it there....(it ran just fine last Saturday, last time I drove it)

It's still raining. Officially there is zero rain forecast nothing showing up on the radar but it's raining anyway. We put all the animals except the bucks up last night, so barn to clean. I hope the bucks are ok being in the cold and wet all night.

Do you ever feel like everything is out of your control and nothing goes well? I feel like that lately
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We have had more than our share of vehicle problems lately! It's pot luck if my truck will start, and with 450,000+ miles on its a gamble to get to town! I always park where the wrecker can get it easily! I have to drive it today!!😮
 
Pearl said:
We have had more than our share of vehicle problems lately! It's pot luck if my truck will start, and with 450,000+ miles on its a gamble to get to town! I always park where the wrecker can get it easily! I have to drive it today!!😮
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You know how many miles my Yukon has? 140000....I have owned it for most of that, and did all the maintenance regularly. Other people's vehicles last that long, not ours. The broken truck only has 75000 miles on it. Son's Durango had a busted block last year with only 130000 miles on it. We take care of all the vehicles as best as we can, but everything breaks anyway. This is what I mean, we must be just unlucky
 
INresponse said:
You have me interested. Do you have a link for the recipe?
Click to expand...

Well, I have a thread going on hard cider, I just posted there... but as far as a recipe goes, I just add yeast and sugar to the "sweet cider" (nonalcoholic until the yeast kicks in and starts doing its job), then let the brew cook off until it stops bubbling, aye? Once it stops bubbling, I cap it and toss it in the fridge. There are some points to consider: raw unfiltered cider is best, with no preservatives, it's okay if it has been pasteurized. If the sweet cider or juice has preservatives, more yeast will be necessary to overcome those preservatives... better to find brands without 'em. Another thing: pour a little cider or juice out of each jug, in order to make room for the yeast & sugar water mix. Dump yeast & sugar into some warm water to mix it, then pour that into the cider jug. Leave just a little room below the airlocks, that should be enough to allow the CO2 to escape; CO2 is a byproduct of the fermentation, along with alcohol. Airlocks are cheap, they only run about $3 apiece. Everything else is like high school chemistry, and I routinely use my kitchen counter & sink to make each batch of hard cider... once I've shaken each jug for the last time (to mix everything well), I put the airlock in place and set the jug in the fermentation closet, which offers a warm dark place for the yeast to thrive and do its job. :rolleyes:

As for me, today I'm decorating the bathrooms... I watered the trees & plants already, I added some fertilizer to everything yesterday so I'm still trying to rinse that fertilizer into the soil. I'm gonna add fertilizer every month until these trees & plants show new growth, this ongoing drought has made for tough sledding where the trees & plants are concerned. I'm hoping the monsoon rains arrive in a timely manner this year, if they arrive in the latter half of June they will soften up this sun-baked soil and allow better root growth. I still have to buy that Azomite recommended by Peanut, but it's a hassle to buy it over in Las Cruces... so I went with various fertilizers from the Depot, some for evergreens, some for fruit trees, some for the veggie garden. I reckon the Depot fertilizers are better than nothing, and they'll tide me over until I can buy some Azomite. I wish they sold Azomite here in Alamo, that would make things easier... but they don't, so I'll eventually make a run over there to Las Cruces, it's just that my budget is fairly tight right now, aye? And the Azomite isn't cheap either, one downside to that whole purchasing scene. Meh, I'll get it soon enough, I'm just juggling bills and other costs in this Biden Era... living in the Brave New Fraudulent Third World ain't CHEAP, lol. :oops:
 
@sonya123 , I agree about vehicles. My jeep has 125,000 miles and for the past couple of years, it's been one thing after another. I would love to have a new vehicle, but finances say nope.

Walked first, this morning.
Took DH to pulmonary doc. Doc won't approve him to be knocked out for oral surgery. Saves almost $600, but rougher for DH.
Went to oral surgeon to get new date for surgery.
Went to VA clinic about ordering oxygen hoses and were sent back to pulmonary. Sigh I do get my steps in, though!
Stopped at day old bread store and got a few more loaves of my bread. $4.45 at Walmart and $2 at day old store.
Stopped at thrift store just because we went past it.

Home and have to package and vacuum seal rosemary that I dried yesterday.
Did month ending books.
Not sure if I will go to prayer meeting or not tonight.
 
sonya123 said:
You know how many miles my Yukon has? 140000....I have owned it for most of that, and did all the maintenance regularly. Other people's vehicles last that long, not ours. The broken truck only has 75000 miles on it. Son's Durango had a busted block last year with only 130000 miles on it. We take care of all the vehicles as best as we can, but everything breaks anyway. This is what I mean, we must be just unlucky
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I'm a bit surprised the Yukon is crapping out with 140K on it, usually you can get those up around 200K before they go bad. But I'm not surprised about your son's Durango. I will never, ever own another Chrysler made vehicle, including Ram and Jeep. I've only ever seen one, in my whole life, that wasn't garbage. My '96 Ram was 8 years old with 102K on it, and the entire interior fell apart. All the latches and handles were breaking, the radio quit working, the steering wheel controls only worked half the time, the interior door panels fell off, and the freaking rear view mirror fell right the hell off the windshield. What a piece of crap that thing was. It looked good, but everything else about it sucked...
 
Pearl said:
We have had more than our share of vehicle problems lately! It's pot luck if my truck will start, and with 450,000+ miles on its a gamble to get to town! I always park where the wrecker can get it easily! I have to drive it today!!😮
Click to expand...
And today it ran like a champ!! 🤔♥️
 
Today was a wonderful day as we traveled back to my hometown to attend my niece's graduation ceremony. She received her BS degree in Biology, and we couldn't be prouder of her accomplishments. However, I was surprised to find that most of the businesses were closed. Luckily, my friend Bobby was kind enough to feed the animals for me while we were out. We arrived back home around 5:00, feeling fulfilled from the day's events. Tomorrow, it's back to the usual routine of taking care of the farm. I'm excited to start my next project, which is putting a new roof on the barn. It will be a challenge, but I'm up for it!
 
There used to be a thing called Motor Medic, that would add miles and miles to a clunker, it had to be used right after flushing your engine, run it one minute, then add oil, apparently, it filled in all the cracks, and worn spots. I think STP made it, hell it was 35$ a can back in the '80s!
 
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