Replacement Stream

 

Been Youtubing

I haven't really been doing much here lately. I've been doing more on YouTube. Since it's cooler outside, I'm able to be outside longer without getting too hot. And since I'm able to do more outside, there is more things to show on video that I can't just show with a picture. I usually only do a couple of minutes of video at a time and then I compiled it into a video of what I've done that week. Or what I hope to do in the future.

I would also like to get my YouTube subscribers up to a thousand so that I am able to monetize my videos again. I feel like such a sell-out having to do that because I used to say that I didn't care if I made any money or not. But right now we really need the money.

So with doing the videos, I haven't really been doing much here. Any pictures I take are usually put on Instagram. Whether I continue doing posts on here or not I don't know. We'll just have to see. Take care of and have a good night.

Still Here

Yeah, haven't really been doing much lately. Go look at my youtube channel to learn why. I could recap the whole thing here, but why? Right?

I do hope to get some weedeating done today. Get the pig area cleared and eventually get some of the runoff done. I honestly don't know if the pigs prefer the tall grass or if they would prefer it all cut down. I've asked them but all they did was yell for more food. Cutting all that down would then give them fresh green shoots to eat as it regrew. Does that count? I guess we'll see.

I called the staffing agency back yesterday. The only thing they had was an hour and a half away. Part of me is like, no way, too far. Part of me is like, hey, we need to money. So far, too far is winning. But not by much.

I really hate money.

Power Outage, Loving My Solar And Preparing For Lambs

Not much farm stuff going on this week. Several credit cards and other things have come due this week. Things that normally are spread between two weeks have landed in the same week. So the bank account is going to be tight again. And, of course, that means all projects go on hold.

We got a lot of wind and rain Friday night from TS Michael and our electricity went out. A lot of people lost power in our county. Michael went right over us so we got slapped with those heavier winds real good. But we didn't panic. Well, the kids and I didn't panic. My husband though was a bit unnerved. He's used to his creature comforts.

But the kids and I had candles ready. I'd already filled up a bunch of bottles with water and bought a camping grill from when Florence was a threat. We had things to eat. And, of course, we had the solar panels to power our electronic devices.

It was pouring rain and windy almost all of Friday. But the power didn't go out until 6pm. Major wind gusts. We were watching out of a window at the trees next to our house and I was pretty sure some of those trees were going to come down. But none of them did so that was good. The only thing we really got was some twigs on the electric fence wire. We've had more damage with less wind before so we got lucky this time.

But after the power went out, we got out the candles and played some card games by candle light. And these candles last a really long time. A pint mason jar, fill it with some vegetable shortening (like Crisco) and a stick candle in the middle. The only problem I've found with these is that the wax and vegetable shortening doesn't have anywhere to go when it melts so it can smother the flame. When I see the flame getting dim, I just power the extra wax and stuff into another mason jar.

Some people heat up the shortening before they put it in the jar to make it liquid and then it solidifies into a more uniform.... form. I don't know if that would help with the smothering problem or not but I'll try that the next time I make these.

Anyway, the solar battery was kind of low during the night because I hadn't been watching the power levels so we weren't able to charge any devices until the morning. But then I brought an extension cord in from the inverter and in a matter of hours, everything was back up to full. I also reattached the other 4 solar panels since I'd taken them off when I mounted the others up on the u-posts. (I really need to get those other 4 mounted as well.) So we are now back up to 800 watts. But we still only used a max of about 250 watts. So we've got room to spare. Looking forward to seeing how much farther I can push it.

That's even with me vacuuming while plugged into the solar panels. Yes, you heard that right. I vacuumed our den and kitchen with the power of the sun. You guys have no idea how much this tickles me. Now, this is a small vacuum and probably doesn't draw that much power. Some inverters will be sluggish when they first get that extra power drain and then pick up as they adjust to the demand. But my inverter didn't even flinch. I hope to power more things in the coming months.

But the electricity came back on about noonish the next day. The storm had also finally brought some cooler weather. Cool enough to fire up the fireplace. So I really need to get that firewood storage area done. I'm thinking of keeping it by the back of the house but maybe putting some kind of termite pesticide around it. 

I don't usually use pesticides if I can avoid them at all. But I'd like to get a load of firewood next week and I don't know if I can get the other area prepared in time. I'll have to actually build a wood shed and that's extra money. So we may just have to risk it up against the house for now.

(Hmm, I just looked up how to deal with firewood and a terminix website came up. It said one of the best ways was to keep the wood off of the ground. So this may actually work since I was working on that anyway.)

Besides, any wood right now needs to go towards the new sheep shelter. These girls are possibly due next month and I need to get at least three stalls built. I'll probably only have some wood slats and a tarp as the roof for now until I can get the whole thing built and a better roof put on.

I did move the sheep fence a bit yesterday so they could get some fresh munch. The grass seems to have just stopped growing out of the blue. Even before the storm brought the cooler weather. So I'm now having to buy hay to make up for the diminished browse. 

I also bought the sheep a bag of alfalfa pellets. I'm going to have to find a different brand though because these pellets are huge and I'm afraid the sheep will choke on them. For now I'll have to try to crunch them up to make them easier to eat. But the girls need the extra nutrition because if this is the last month of their pregnancies, the babies do the most growing now. 

I wish I'd seen them mate at least once so I'd have a better idea on a due date. But I also wasn't going to hang around outside like some psycho waiting for my sheep to do the naughty. So I'm just going by the date of when I first put them together. Males of any species usually don't waste much time if there's a female in heat. I did see him giving the girls attention months ago, but no actual mounting. But he's not giving them that same type of attention now so I can only assume the job is done.

Anyway, time to get the kids up so they can get ready for school. Then time to start my own day. Take care all and have a good day.

Crochet Projects And Other Things

So it's been a while since I've done a post. Haven't really been doing anything that I felt was something I could make regular updates about. I finished rearranging to electric wire. Mostly. I also moved over all of my posts from steemit. A lot of copy and paste takes more time then you think. Since then I've been mostly crocheting. Working on some cowls to sell, some as gifts. 

This first one here is a black and orange Halloween themed cowl.

One side in striped and one is varied like this.

I also made a cowl for my daughter. The yarn is multicolored in shades of blue. This one is the same on both sides.

I also made another gift cowl that is purple and teal. 

I also set up an area for a future firewood pile. This will probably hold about half a cord. A full cord is 4x4x8. If we end up getting a full cord, I will either have to extend this or widen it more from the wall. It was all grown up with weeds and I cleared those out and laid down some wood chips.

My sunchokes were also blooming last year. They are related to sunflowers. Which is why I call them sunchokes instead of jerusalem artichokes, since they're not related to artichokes.

But that's pretty much what I've been doing lately. Not really much to update about. Like, you guys wouldn't want to have a picture every day of how many lines I've gotten done on a crochet project. Next week I should be getting some more exciting things done so I'll update you then. For now, take care and have a good day.

Mowing The Garden And The Other Side Of Our Property

I actually got some stuff done on the garden today. Not as much as I would have liked but progress nonetheless. I was mostly able to mow between the beds. But things from the beds were hanging over the paths so much that I had to start on a couple of them also.

This is a picture of the front of the garden. If you look back on my video earlier you will see the difference.

First I cleared some of the stuff that was hanging over the into the paths. Then I started on these two beds in the back because they were less overgrown.

I did get a little bit of mulch spread in front of the garden. Only two loads but it's a start. The handle of my garden cart comes off with two rods and cotter pins so that I can securely attach it to the back of our big mower. It made the job of moving the mulch so much easier.

While I did more work on the garden, my daughter drove over to the other side of our property and remowed what we had done before. All of the rain had started to make it grow up again. I don't know how much longer her fascination with using the big mower will last. But I'll take what help I can get. She also does a very good job.

At one point she ran out of gas and I had to bring her the gas can. I don't know what the sheep thought I had but they kept following me back and forth across the runoff. You would think they never get fed.

Anyway, it's way past my bedtime and I need to get some sleep. Take care of all and have a good night.

Getting Things Accomplished.. Or Not.

So yesterday I didn't get done with quite as much as I had wanted. I did switch the bunny to a cleaner cage. So that was the most important thing. Today I cleaned her old cage out. So that's done too. Still not sure what to do about the sheep's fencing. I've got a lot of extra on the pig's fence. So I guess I could cut it off and attach it to the sheep's fence. But I really don't want to cut up the wire until I have all of the permanent fencing done and I know exactly how much electric wire I'm going to need. But I may end up not having a choice.

I did get some u-posts yesterday to start the new sheep shelter. I really want to get that done before the sheep start having lambs. I actually recorded some video this morning of the area that I'm going to put it. These clips are only a minute long each because I also put these on my instagram and that only takes one minute videos.

But today's plan is to try to start reclaiming the garden.... Again. I was going to use the big mower to pull my garden cart to get some of the mulch into the garden. But the husband just said that another tire looks like it's flat. So I'm going to call the garden center and see if they can fix it. I mean, we've only had it for a couple of months now. It's very much still under warranty. I'm just not sure if the warranty covers flat tires.

Anyway, I did a video clip about the garden too.

Ok, gotta get going to pick up the oldest. Then back to mowing the garden to prepare for the mulch. Take care all and have a good day.

After The Storm And What I've Been Doing

So let's start this off with a pretty picture. These are bananas that I forgot to take out to the pigs. But the butterflies are enjoying them so that's cool too.

It's been too long between posts again. Part of it is because we had a hurricane/tropical storm come through our area. Everybody is ok here but we got lots of rain and things are soggy.

I finally got the pig's new pasture fenced in. I haven't let them out into it yet because I need to weed eat around it and do a couple other minor things. Hopefully I'll get to that today.

I also need to fill up the sheep's mineral feeder. The feed I'm giving them doesn't have all of the minerals they need so they need the supplementation.

I need to clean out one of the rabbit cages. I had it sitting on the ground and the poop and spilled food has piled up which makes it unsanitary for my newest bunny. I didn't intend for her to be in there like that for that long. But as usual life and mother nature got in the way. But I've switched that bunny to another cage that is up on blocks so she's not sitting in nasty stuff. Now I can clean that cage out and put the little bunnies in there. They're big enough to be away from mom and have their own space. I also need to sex them and see what we've got. I do plan on getting a new zealand male in the spring for my breeding. But if one of these is a male, I can keep him for backup and genetic diversity.

I also need to figure out what to do with the sheep fence. I've got a spot that only has two strands of wire and isn't long enough to make 4 strands. Not sure how that happened but I need to get it fixed before the sheep realize what's going on. Kyle, my ram, has figured out that he can push through the fence when it's not on. Which is not good. For one, he could get loose and get hurt. For another, he's busting the little clips on the plastic posts that hold up the electric wire. Which means I need to spend more money to buy more posts. I really hate these plastic posts. But until I get things fenced in with better fencing, this is what I've got.

I plan on getting some u-posts today to start building a better sheep shelter. Kind of like the piglet pen/shelter. Each pen will become a stall and will almost be like a pole barn sort of thing.

So what have I been doing while I waited out mother nature's daughter storm? Mostly crocheting and watching youtube or movies/tv shows on netflix/amazon prime. Trying to crochet some things to finally put on my etsy store. Also been doing some more transcription stuff. Not as much as I was trying to do before. But enough for some yarn money. I crochet while I'm waiting for transcription things which helps pay for the yarn I use to make the things for my etsy store. Multitasking. Crocheting also helps me not to lose my mind doing the transcription stuff.

Anyway, I better get going so I can get to the hardware store and get my u-posts before I have to pick up our oldest from work. Take care all and have a good day.

Defining Pastures And Morning Glories

And another too long gap between posts. I'd like to post every day. But progress on most things is just so slow that I don't have anything to post about every day. One reason I don't do youtube anymore. But here's what I've been doing the past couple of days. In video format.

We've been at our property for 3 1/2 years now and I've been thinking and thinking on how I'm going to have what pastures set up. This will be a perfect area for the pigs because it stays semi wet for a good portion of the year so they'll have lots of mud to roll in. It's also an area that I don't really mind them tearing up.

Not sure how long it's going to take me to get the pig pasture completely done. I want to fence it all in with welded wire fencing and u-posts and then wood on the top and bottom to hold the wire up nice and sturdy. The wood will also give me a place to put the plastic wire holders like I have in the current pig area. Then when I don't want the pigs to breed, I'll keep my boar in the smaller fenced area.

But it's going to take me a while to be able to buy all of the wood, u-posts and wire that I'm going to need. So for now I'm just going to move the electric wire and then go from there.

I haven't been doing the transcription the past couple of days either because I've been doing the stuff out in the yard. Tomorrow I'm going to have to force myself to get some transcription done. It's not much money, but it's something that will forward my projects. I have to keep remembering that. It's not the transcription itself that I don't like. It's having to spend hours online just to get those couple of good transcriptions that will give me enough money to make it worth it.

Anyway, on a better note. These is the arbor/gateway that I built last year. Our wisteria has been growing up it nicely all year. It didn't flower this year because it's so young still. Maybe next year. But the morning glories are making up for it. In the morning (hence, morning glory) these guys are all over the arbor. By noon, they have faded and it's just the green again. But it's so nice to see that splash of color in the morning.

And I nice up close picture of what they look like.

Anyway, almost bed time. Take care all and have a good night.

Animals, Cotton Boll, Yet More Mowing And Transcription Progress

Does anybody actually read this thing? I feel like I'm talking to myself. Which is pretty normal. I do it all the time because nobody here listens to me either. But I guess that's the life of a mother. But I shall persist.

So first things first. We did catch all of the piglets. And then some got out again. So I went to the local big hardware store and bought a big tarp that covers their whole pen. Before I put it up, I took out the little wooden shelter and put a couple other boards between the top board and the next one down. They haven't gotten out since.

But now I'm having a problem with one of the sheep jumping into their pen when I feed them and eating their food. *facepalm* Tomorrow I'm going to take the sheep back to the other side of the runoff. I've been bringing them back and forth so they can graze both areas. But I'm going to leave them over their until I can get some wire to line the inside of the piglet pen that is also tall enough to keep the sheep out.

I swear these animals are going to drive me inside.

In other news, check out my cotton bolls forming. This is the same one with and without the flash. There are a couple of more on their but not as many as I was hoping. But I'm still getting blooms so we shall see what I end up with.

I also got on the big mower today and mowed around the garden beds. You can't see the garden beds because they are right in the middle of the tall stuff. But they're their. Hopefully tomorrow I'll be able to get the weedeater out and clean up some of the areas that I couldn't get with the mower. I say hopefully because nothing ever goes to plan.

This is in front of the garden beds.

This is beside the garden beds.

And this is to the left of the garden beds. To the left is the poultry netting where the muscovies now live and the tractor in the bad is where the ducklings are.

I haven't caught the escaped bunny yet. But he's still around so far. I'm thinking of doing the old trick where I prop a box up with a stick and put some food inside it. Attach a string to the stick and yank it out when he goes in the box. I also thought about getting a havaheart trap and setting that somewhere. But hubby says I need to wait. I don't know why. He hasn't responded to my text yet.

As for the transcription thing. I've made $22 so far. Would have been $24 but I went out and mowed so that took some time away from typing. I might try to make up for it tomorrow. But I think they pay monthly. If I can make $30 for 5 days work, that's $120 a month. Not a lot. But definitely enough to buy some fencing.

Most of it sucks because most of the messages are just dead air voicemails. You'd be shocked how many people don't realize their phone is still on. If I had more consistent things to type, I'd be able to make more money. But one nice thing is during those dead air calls, I am able to play on my tablet. So I get to play and make money at the same time. When I get something to type, I just put the tablet down, type it up and the go back to my tablet. Keeps me from getting really bored real quick.

Anyway, I've got ice cream sitting here while I've been typing this and it's probably starting to melt so I better get off of here and.... well, eat ice cream. See you all later and take care.

What I've Been Doing Or Not Doing

So where have I been the past couple of days? Well, after I did the mowing the other day, I had a headache for the next two days that wouldn't go away. I get these almost every month around a certain time of the month. Like a week or so before another 'certain time of the month'. I can't wait until that crap is all over. I'm 44 years old, definitely not having anymore children and that crap needs to go.

Then Saturday and Sunday I spent playing games with the husband and kids.  Partially because I like to play games with them. Partially because I was avoiding doing any work and starting my headache up again. Except for Sunday morning when I went and helped out at the booth for the local bee association. I kind of felt redundant though because there were plenty of other people there helping too.

Then Monday I had to take the younger son to school to see about getting his school issued laptop. But of course they changed it. AGAIN!!! This is like the third time they've give us different information about when we can pick it up. Partially our fault for forgetting to get it when they were doing it in the first place. But now they just keep changing it. Very frustrating. We thought about buying him a cheap laptop but then we don't know what we would do with it after the school year. Everybody here has a computer and a tablet or phone. So another laptop would just be unnecessary.

Also, Monday, I had a job interview. Which I totally missed! I totally lost track of time and it was almost an hour past when I was supposed to be there. I was so pissed! My husband told me to call them back and give them an excuse. But I didn't want to lie. I didn't really know what to do.

So yesterday afternoon I started doing online transcription. It's TERRIBLE HORRIBLE pay. But it's something. It's mostly transcribing voice mails. But a lot of them are butt dialed calls or something that sounds like music while you're on hold. So I spend most of my time clicking through those just to be able to get to the ones with somebody talking. Then half of those are either a terrible signal that cuts in and out or it's clear and in another language. The only ones I get paid for are the ones I can actually type. But it's still not too bad for just sitting in front of my computer. In fact, I'm doing it right now. I just change to the other tab if I need to type anything or skip to the next message.

But it's a little extra money for projects at least. I should be able to make about $50 a week so that's not too bad. Bad thing is that it takes up ALL my free time.

I've had some babies escape recently. A bunny got out of the rabbit pen. My own fault because I knew they were still probably small enough to fit through the wire. And the door on their cage was crooked and I kept putting it off fixing it. I still see him hopping around in the yard. But I know sooner or later he's just not going to come back.

Some of the piglets also got out of their pen. Not really sure how. There weren't any places that were big enough for them to slip under the boards. So the only thing I can figure is that they slipped in between the boards somehow. I might need to get some wire fence just to put against the boards until they get too big to get through it.

I did catch one of them and I plan on trying to catch the rest of them tonight when everybody is asleep. Usually the best time to catch most animals. That's why a lot of predators like to hunt at night. The prey is much more docile and less flighty.

Oh, we did get the mower tire taken care of Saturday. We took it off and we were going to take it to the auto place and see if they could patch it. But they were just about to close when we got there. So instead we decided to take a chance and air it up and see what happened. And it held. My husband also did some mowing Sunday and it still held. We don't know why it would have gone flat. But apparently it's fine now. *shrug* I just don't know. Life is not making any sense this week.

Ok, I'm going to go concentrate on this transcription thing a bit more. More coherent calls seem to come in about this time of day so it's my chance to make some project money. Take care all and have a good day.

Mowing And Grass Clippings

So I did some more mowing today. But not in the front area by our driveway. Instead I did some mowing around the garden. It has gotten grown up again after I mowed it about a month ago. I mean, I do expect some growth but this is ridiculous.

While I mowed, I had the bagger on the push mower and gave the grass clippings to the animals. They all love when I do this. Even the bigger animals who are already on pasture all day.

The Bunnies

The Bitties

The Chickens And Ducks

And Also The Pigs And The Sheep

And this is how much I got done. I still have the whole left side of the garden that I will hopefully be able to get to tomorrow.

The ducklings didn't get any grass clippings today but I'm including a picture of them because they're cute and I wanted to show how big they're getting.

And last but not least, I think I have a cotton ball forming. Or a cotton boll as it's called. For anyone interested, this is a long strand variety of cotton. Not usually grown by commercial growers. Not sure why. But if I get a bunch of these to form, I'd be willing to give some to anyone interested.

And I do believe that's all I've got for today. Take care all and have a good night.

Lightening Storm, Goodbye Pinky, Broody Hens And More Mowing

Sorry for the rather odd post the other day. We had a really nasty lightening storm the other night and it knocked out our internet for a little while. (It also killed the fan I had in the chicken coop and I thought it had gotten my smaller fence charger too. But the charger is ok so that's a relief.) So I was trying to do the post on my phone. But the screen was too small and the keyboard kept covering up the page so I couldn't see what I was typing.

So I tried the voice recognition feature. But with that I had to think of what I wanted to say and then say it without stuttering or tripping over words. Almost impossible for me because my mind is usually going in a million different directions and it works faster than my mouth does so I end up tripping over words and/or mashing them together to make words that don't make much sense. Unless you've known me a while and you're able to translate my insanity.

In the mean time, a couple of things have happened. For one, a tire on our new mower is already flat. I think I mentioned that in the last post. But when they installed our house (it's a manufactured house) they were kind of sloppy about some things. So sometimes we still find odd things in our yard. Also I've probably dropped a screw or two while doing some of my own projects.

We haven't taken the tire off yet to see what caused the flat. But we plan on taking it to the local auto place and having them patch it like you would a car tire. We figure that would be cheaper than buying a whole new tire.

But yesterday we lost our favorite piglet. His name was Pinky and he was a runt and we were going to keep him as a pet. We have no idea what went wrong and I'm keeping an eye on the other piglets to make sure it wasn't something contagious. But earlier that day he seemed perfectly fine. By the time I gave everybody their dinner, he had passed away. I know since he was acting normally, that there was no way I could have known. But there's still that guilt of 'What did I do wrong?'

In some sillier news, I've got two broody ducks and one and a half broody chickens. I say one and a half because the second hen will sit for a couple of days, whole broody attitude and everything. And then just piss off for a couple of days like nothing happened. Then go back to sitting again.

I don't think the chicken eggs are going to hatch though because they haven't had a rooster in a couple of months. And I would put one of my roosters in there but I don't want the drake to beat him up like he did my last rooster. But the duck eggs should hatch. Or at least some of them. I need to take a picture of the ducklings from the previous hatch. Some of them are getting pretty big.

Today I did just a little bit of mowing. This is one of those areas we didn't get with the big mower because we weren't entirely sure what was under there. Also, the runoff ends and goes under the end of our driveway so we didn't want to drive the mower too close to it and get it stuck. The weeds actually went all the way to the edge of our driveway but I had already started before I remembered to take a picture.

And then it started sprinkling so I had to drag the mower back up our 400ft long driveway and put it back under the solar panels. It rained for about half an hour and now it's sunny again. *facepalm* But I can't do much mowing because now everything's wet. If I feel up to it, I might actually get the weedeater out and try to get some of that taller stuff down too. If not, I'll get it tomorrow. Eventually I'll actually find the runoff.

Ok, it's about dinner time so I need to get something made. Take care all and have a good rest of your day.

Piglets in their new pen

Finally able to move the piglets out to the new pen  today . They did not like to be moved but I think they like their new pen.

There hasn't been any mowing going on because of all the rain and because we have a flat tire.

I think that's going to be at for now because I'm doing this on my phone and it's a pain in the butt. Take care of all and have a good night.

Piglet Pen Progress, Bantam Eggs And The Mowing Never Ends

Well, not completely nothing. Been slowly working on the piglet pen. I say slowly because I was trying to work with the supplies I had. 

Particularly screws. The screws I have work for if I have the boards laying flat against each other. But there are some that I have to butt the ends of some of the boards against the flat side of another board. These aren't screws aren't long enough to reach far enough into the end side of those boards.

So I tried some long skinny screws but they have a square head bit and that's a pain in the butt to try to screw in because it keeps slipping and won't turn the screw enough to get it into the wood. I've used the longer screws for the plastic holders for the electric wire. But I had to predrill those holes to get them to work. I can't do that with this project because of where the boards sit.

So I need to get some better screws with a better bit. I tried some deck screws with a star bit that I had left over from another project and those worked very nicely. We need to go into town tomorrow any so I'll get them then.

In other news, our bitties are starting to lay. For anybody that doesn't know, our bitties are what I call our bantam chickens. We have silkies, polish and old english game bantams. I got the silkies to hatch quail eggs some day since silkies are supposed to be excellent broodies. The polish I got just because I love the funny rock star hairdos. 

The old english I got because last year something got my daughter's favorite duck and I got this adorable little rooster and hen to make her feel better. That was also when we got the muscovy ducks. But the little hen got sick after a week or two and we tried to keep her warm and fed but she didn't make it. So when I ordered the rest of our chicks, I added a couple more old english to the mix. 

I used to swear that I would never get bantams because they're too small to actually be useful for much. But now.. The silkies are for a purpose, the polish are just funny looking, and the OEG bantams are just adorable. I know. I'm such a sucker.

But I guess now I need to build them some kind of nest box. This is actually the second egg they've laid. The first was so covered in mud from all the rain that I didn't bother taking a picture.

Speaking of rain, there hasn't been anymore mowing the past couple of days. But the area around the garden needs to be mowed again already. Have to do that with the push mower though because it's too tight to get the big mower around there.

Anyway, it's almost bedtime. Take care all and have a good night.

Piglet Pen Started And Sheltering The Push Mower

I've kind of been dragging today so I didn't get any weedeating done. It's just been too hot and my energy seems to get drained away. My daughter did get some more mowing done but it's been threatening to rain all afternoon so she had to bring it back and park it.

But I did get the piglet pen started. First I took two 1x4s and cut them in half to make four 4 ft long boards. Then I screwed two 8 ft long boards into the 4 ft long boards like in the picture below.

Then I set those upright and screwed in two more boards on each side like in the picture below. Making a large box. I also pounded in some u-posts to screw the vertical boards to. These are 7 ft long u-posts but normally I use 6 ft. That way 2 ft goes into the ground and 4 ft is the right size for my vertical boards. But the store didn't have the 6 ft posts so I had to get the 7 ft.

This would be enough to keep in the piglets because they can't jump over that. Pigs aren't big on jumping. But it is still low enough that the adults could probably get over it so I need a round or two more of boards to finish it off. Then I need to build a roof.

I also plan on building more 'stalls' next to this in the following months. Eventually I'll have a sort of open barn structure.

Normally we put the push mower and weedeater under the front porch. But with the big mower being parked next to our front porch, it's hard to get the other two in there. So instead I have been parking them under the solar panels. Not the most perfect place. But it still works.

And that's been it for today. Doesn't look like a whole lot but it's definitely a step in the right direction.

New Cotton Flower And Piglet Pen

I caught a newly bloomed cotton flower this morning. I love that beautiful yellow color. I'm going to try and remember to keep an eye on it and see how quickly it changes to that rose pink color from the flower yesterday. 

I don't know why I'm so excited about these plants. But there's just something about growing my own cotton that makes me really feel like a farmer. Even beyond the animals some how. Maybe it's connected to my southern roots.

Also love the flowers. They're so pretty. Before and after being fertilized. I'm going to save every seed and plant them next year. I'll have a whole crop going. Not just a couple of plants.

What I'm going to do with the cotton itself? Don't know yet. I was going to try to make thread/yarn out of it. That was the original plan. But not sure. I'd have to get a drop spindle since a big spinning wheel is too expensive.

In other news, we didn't get a whole lot done yesterday. We got out there kind of late and only got a couple of hours of mowing in before it started raining. Not sure if we're going to get anything done today either because there was a heavy fog this morning that lasted until almost 8:30. So the grass is still wet and get grass is harder to cut. And harder on the mower. Yes, it may seem like I'm really babying this mower. But that sucker is expensive. I want it to last a LONG time.

I can still do some weedeating and get some more of those small trees cut down. I also plan on building a small pen for the piglets. I definitely have to get them out of the rabbit pen. For one, they're making a mess as pigs will do. Also, my rabbits aren't breeding while they're in their cages. Yes, I could put the females in the male's cage and let them do it that way. But I've never had much luck that way. It's worked better for me to just let them do their thing naturally. And anyway, would you like to live your life in a cage? I want to give them space to run around.

Ok, I need to get going. Take care all and have a good day.

Getting It Done And Blooming Cotton

Got a lot of the other side of the property mowed yesterday. Today will be a bit of cleanup. Weedeating what I couldn't do with the mower. And I don't mean weedeat with just a string line. I've got a brush blade on the weedeater that I use for this purpose.

I also took a short video of me driving through some of what I'd mowed. Trying to give an idea of how much was done. Not sure if I got that across though.

My cotton is also officially blooming. The flowers start out yellow and then turn pink when they are fertilized. Or that's what I've read. I didn't catch any just after they bloomed but the first one I've got here is half way through changing. The other is full pink. I should have actual cotton soon!

Ok, I think that's it for now. Take care all and have a good day.

New Zero Turn Zee 2 Dixie Chopper Mower

So yesterday our new zero turn riding mower arrived! As you can see from the following picture, we've already been busy using it. I also got it stuck in a wet area but we got it out.

I also went and mowed part of the other side of our property but I forgot to take a picture when I was over there. Maybe if I mow more today, I'll get a picture.

I say maybe because I'm not sure if I want to mow today or if I want to use the weedeater to cut down the boggy area that I got the wheel of the mower stuck in. Also need to use the wedeater to cut closer to the runoff. I didn't want to get too close with the big mower because I didn't want to GET STUCK. So much for that.

But I'm torn. I want to clear an area completely and make it look nice. But I also want to get the rough cut done too so I can see what I'm working with. I don't know. We'll see.

Learning how to drive the mower was a little tricky. I've driven regular riding mowers before and you've got your steering wheel and your pedals. But with a zero turn mower, those handles literally handle everything.

Where the handles are sitting at in the picture, that's neutral. Push those forward and you go forward. If you want to stop, you pull them back to neutral. If you want to go back, you pull the handles towards you. But the handles also handle your direction. If you want to turn left, you pull the left handle back a bit. Opposite if you want to turn right.

My trouble was that I was so used to having pedals to use, I had a hard time adjusting to the stopping and slowing down. If the mower started going to fast or something, I had a tendency to brace myself with the handles and lean into them which just made the mower go faster. So I had to teach myself to sit back into the seat and not lean forward so much.

After that, the rest wasn't too hard. With turning, you just have to remember to pull back in the direction you want to go. After a while, I didn't even have to think about it anymore. I was zooming around the yard like a pro. Well, pro-ish.

So I'm going to be busy for a least the next week. Since everything is so tall, we have to go slow so the mower doesn't get bogged down. It can cut it fine. It just gets bogged down if there is too much under there at one time. So it's going to take some time to get everything cut down. But we're finally getting it done!

Oh yeah, I also took some video of my husband using the mower for the first time. Here ya go.

Zee 2 Dixing Chopper Zero Turn Mower

Cotton Development, New Mower Coming And Solar Lift System

I think this is the beginning of a flower that becomes a cotton ball. This is one of my long strand cotton plants. Hopefully they'll be able to develop before it gets too cold. They sure do seem to be taking their time.

So we bought a zero turn mower yesterday. More than we originally wanted to pay, but also a really good mower. But we're not going to have it delivered until Thursday because my inlaws are going to be in town so we'll be spending most of our time with them.

I did get two of the girl piglets sold the other day. So far the only thing I've bought with the money is these 4 u-posts so I can lift my solar panels off the ground. The grass and weeds were getting really high around them the other day and almost blocking all of the light. So now I'll be able to mow under them and keep the grass and weeds down better.

I also plan on getting some wood to make a pen for the piglets. The rabbits really want their pen back and the piglets are making quite the mess in there.

But that's pretty much it. Haven't been doing much because we've been getting lots of rain. Again. I swear the rain will be gone for days but I won't have the money for supplies or I just won't be motivated to get any projects done. Then the second I get some motivation and/or supplies, the rain comes. It waits for me to put my boots on to head out the door and then..... BAM! Downpour.

I'm actually motivated now to get things done but we should be leaving soon to meet up with my inlaws so I can't do anything until they're gone. Don't want to be right in the middle of rewiring the fence or something and then have to go over to see them.

Can't wait to get this new mower. I am so tired of our property looking like an overgrown mess. Time to make hay! Or at least make a lot of dead grass and weeds.

See you all later and have a good day. Take care.