Death Defying Day

I picked up my chainsaw from the mechanic the other day and discovered the reason I couldn't get the chain back on. He told me that he added a link to the chain so it would be easier. I guess when he put the wide bar on there the chain was so snug I didn't have enough slack to get it back on. So of course I threw the chain again yesterday but managed to get it back on.

I had never thrown the chain before; now that's twice in a week. I have several ideas why-the bar, the chain, or the bar and chain oil I was using. I picked up another gallon of a better brand of oil yesterday and I didn't throw the chain today, and I cut a lot.

I was working in the goat pasture and the goats had just finished their hay. So they chased me from tree to tree trying to get themselves squished. Nothing like getting a tree half cut and having two or three goats stand in front of it.

Goats are sort of funny-if you chase them to catch them or take something away they will run like mad in the other direction. But if you try and chase them away from something they want, they jump away and dart back as quick as lightning.

I finally found a couple of things that would keep them busy- a hemlock and an ash. I wanted to take a pic and title it "goat candy". Well, once they had something to eat, I cut a bunch of maples they had killed by girdling and that I hadn't dropped yet, so they were basically standing dead wood and nothing the goats would want to eat. Of course the occasional goat would hear the tree fall and have to run over and make sure, so I would have to move to a different clump where I could cut without dropping one on a goat. Slow going!

Well, that was a busy morning! I took an hour lunch break and watched the noon news and made a huge steak and cheese sub with fried onions, then I went on the roof.

I bought a 6 mil 10X25 plastic sheet for the Firebird's roof, and had been putting that job off all week. Oh yeah, we had a downpour Saturday and his roof leaked-almost took out his TV and he had to move all his books and video game stuff...lucky the weather has been good since, so this afternoon after using up all the excuses, I went up on the roof.

The roof drops 2 feet over a twelve foot run, so I guess that makes it a 1:6 pitch. I started on the bottom corner, precariously leaning over the edge to nail the wooden lathes on the drip board to hold the plastic on, careful to keep the plastic flipped up so I was on the roof and not the plastic. I scared a flying squirrel out of the eaves and as I watched it soar to a nearby tree, I wondered if I could do that by spreading the sides of my orange safety vest if I slid off the roof?

carefully, carefully, working from one side to the other, I finally reached the top side and figured I was going to have to get on the plastic to finish the job. I had already discovered that the knees of my jeans did not offer any kind of grip on the plastic, so I wondered what to do, and I decided to strip down to my underwear, figuring my bare skin might grip a bit better.

Hoping I had no unexpected visitors and no one would look at the house while driving by, I continued working in my underwear. Then I realized the plastic was still too slippery to be safe, and hoped I didn't fall off the roof and be discovered lying unconscious in my underwear. I figured out how to avoid kneeling on the plastic, but that meant kneeling bare-kneed on the mineral roofing, and that wasn't much fun, either. Finally I finished.

Then I put my pants back on and moved over to the flat portion of the roof and started putting black tar on some weak spots. I could feel the warm air coming up through the hatch and smell steak and fried onions from lunch. I started thinking about those darn flying squirrels, since the roof was littered with empty beech nuts, and hoped they don't gnaw the plastic sheet off the roof.

Well, maybe they'll just use it as a slip and slide...

Veteran's Day

We had a productive day today, with all of us home from school and work.

The day started off rather ominous, with a goat, or should I say, three goat escape. The rest of our little herd was not happy and being quite vocal about it! So I ran out before coffee and grained and hayed the goats after yelling to the Firebird to get his butt up and help. He likes to sleep in- not today, Zurg, LOL.

Then he turned in to Mr. Super-helpful, and lugged a pile of green wood from the back pasture to pile close to the house, and then I fired up the chainsaw and cleaned up more of the seasoned stuff in the upper pasture, and he lugged that too.

Then I went back to the lower pasture to cut up some stuff I dropped a few days ago for the goats. They loved the ash bark and had that pretty much stripped. I cut it into haulable lengths, and the goats moved in and finishing stripping the bark. I rolled the pieces over since they can't get the bark on the underneath. They were butting heads over it!

I was sectioning up a birch and threw the chain off the saw. Grrrr. The saw has not been running right since I picked it up from the mechanic-it wants to stall out if I don't keep a finger on the gas, so that is why I was working the down trees today as I can keep it revved up while working. Well, now I have thrown the chain, and believe it or not, I don't know how to fix it- nor did I want to spend an hour trying to figure it out, so that was it for the saw today.

We spent the afternoon raking the lawn-what a pile!!! What a many piles!!! Those went into the chicken coop and the outside chicken pen that is resting right now as the hens are free-ranging. The leaves are about three feet thick in the chicken pen, but it will settle over winter and the chickens will be happy with that in the spring when they are locked out of the garden!

Willow and the Firebird helped with that-usually that is a huge job that falls on me and I was "some" glad for the help today! I did throw a tarp full to the goats, but they weren't too interested since they have access to plenty of leaves and tree bark and of course their grain and hay!

The best news of the day is that the chicks we bought this spring are laying!!!! YAY! They have been laying way at the top of the coop where we can't see them, and I climbed up and gathered 8 little pullet eggs! The adult white leghorn is the only older hen still laying-she is like the energizer bunny-and her eggs looks like goose eggs compared to those little pullets!

Still, great timing, it means we will have eggs through the winter. The black Australop aren't laying yet-I think their eggs are brown, and these new eggs are white. Anyhow, hard to think eggs can make your day, but there ya go- :D

Tuesday

Busy couple of days. Put a big push on to get the rest of the wood order stacked. That early dusting of snow, now pretty much gone, worried me. Hard to stack wood that has an ice glaze, and I hate to dig it out of the snow cave that happens if I leave it in a pile under a tarp.

I was sure that I was shorted on the order, but I was wrong. Looks like it was about right. 2.7 cords on that last order, about 2/3 cord left of S's order, 1/3 cord left of last year's, plus a small pile of goat wood. Hopefully it will be enough.

Oh, yeah, it's all stacked. I was shooting for four days of stacking and did it in three-2 days worth of stacking today just to get it finished.

Jenny (Genevieve) had her hooves trimmed today. She has major pockets between both front clews. I tried to flatten them out as much as possible, but one was quite bad and it would have required taking an awful lot off. Boss would have gone further, I am sure. I hoof and heeled it and will try and keep a good eye on them. Maybe go in for another touch up in a week or so.

Caesar, Jenny, Moonshadow all are showing loss of pink in the inner eyelid. Everyone is due for a worming, but I think I will use up the last of the wormer on those three and then hit them all again as soon as I get some more wormer.

Peko had a bath.

Missed a phone call tonight, no message, so I hit *69 to get the number. Was an out of state area code, sounded familiar, so I reverse directoried it. Was given a name an address, right down to the street address. Well, that didn't sound familiar, so I googled a bit tonight.

No kidding, within 15 minutes I was on a family blog with pictures of a young couple and their kids. Plus I had their phone number and home address. Isn't that scary? That just creeped me out!!!! Don't they ever watch those crime shows? Ack.

Sunday

Friday morning my other wood dealer called with my order ready. I was aghast. With all the wet weather, the drive is a mucky mess, and he wanted to bring in nearly 3 cord of wood on one truck.

Well, it could get even worse, so I finally agreed to have him bring it on.

We hurried through goat chores and put a big push on to stack the rest of S's wood so that the tarp would be free for the next load. Of course the driver took one look at the phone lines and said he couldn't drop it there. That only left the side drive-which can suck a big truck in up to the axles when the ground is soft. So be it. Of course he couldn't get it back very far and ended up dropping it all in the muck.

Once he left I had a good look at it, and the pieces are enormous. At least half of them won't even fit in the stove, requiring tedious back breaking hand-splitting. Lovely. I told the saplings I was going to make a note on the calendar NOT to use him next year.

Of course it then started to rain-a cold wet drizzle that thoroughly soaked the whole load even with an old lumber tarp over part of it.

So yesterday's priority was getting some of it stacked. The Firebird was a great help, filling one wheelbarrow with smaller pieces while I filled another with pieces I was splitting down. Then I would stack the barrow while he filled the next, and so on.

We had about 1/8 of it stacked and discovered Sir Nicholas had broken into the little goat pen AGAIN. Nic is my cashmere wether that had one testicle, which is long gone from elastration. That apparently rendered him sterile, but the retained testicle also retained his buck characteristics. He became quite possessive of the does as they came into heat, so I moved him out back with the big wethers, Caesar and Julius.

That worked out pretty well, actually, as the three get along. But the does have come back into heat and Nic has been breaking into the pen. So, I had to stop what I was doing and run a hot strand in front of a bit of fence that he was breaking through. Then we got to listen to his pathetic cries for his girl all afternoon.

We aren't breeding any goats this year. In fact, every so often I swear I am going to sell them all. The only trouble is that we all have different favorites and can't agree who should go. Nic is probably top of the list, except with his cashmere he is the only one that makes his keep. Figures.

Anyhow, after fixing the fence and some other chores, we stacked another row into sunset, so I estimate we stacked about 1/4 of it. Amazingly I am not sore and stiff this am. Hopefully we will be able to stack more this afternoon after I make a run to town for supplies.