All 3 of my daughters were home for the Christmas holidays. 2 have gone home and my last daughter, who loves the country the most, is dreading returning. She's enjoying every last moment with all of the animals before she has to leave.
Showing posts with label barn. Show all posts
Showing posts with label barn. Show all posts
Saturday, 5 January 2013
Farm Girl
Tuesday, 4 December 2012
Removing Cement in the Barn
The above are the 'before' photos and the below one is the after that I almost decided against posting. But I decided that the guys had done way too much work not to show the 'after'. They had unknowingly created a 'poop shelf'! Oh well, at least that big job got done.
Saturday, 17 November 2012
Sad and Lonely Calves
On our second farm, we had 'field cows' (my uneducated name for them), mama cows that lived in the fields all summer and had their calves there. In the fall, we would bring all of them into the barn for the winter. Not a bad life...outside all summer and in the warmer barn with fresh straw all winter. Except for one, little thing...we separated the calves from their mamas. After all, they're not babies anymore and they get fed differently. They're also too small to be in a pen with pushing, shoving adults more than twice their size who will actually trample them to death and not even notice. As with all mothers, nursing must to come to an end someday! Those poor mothers need the winter to recuperate! (That's just my feminine take on it!) There is, after all, another baby on the way that mama needs to get physically ready for.
Well, calves separated from their mamas bawl and bawl and bawl and...on and on. It's actually an awful ruckus that sounds like they're being slowly tortured (I guess they kind of are!) and murdered. It can go on for up to 2 weeks and uneducated neighbors would likely call the animal welfare. Thank goodness we had farmer neighbors and not city folk on acreages. Because we did this in the fall, they were long over it before the calves were sold in the spring so the new owners did not have to put up with it.
Which brings me to the here and now. Yesterday we bought 8 medium-sized calves and 18 smaller ones. A reliable buyer bought them for us and delivered them as our little horse trailer would never do the job and DH works full time and can't get to the stock yards to buy his own calves.
This is more like the truck and trailer that we need.
Ol' Blue Eyes!
Some of the calves that we bought yesterday are just fine, as were the 12 that we bought last week. Some, however, were not weaned and it sure is noticeable which ones are which. It may not show up at the stockyards as all the calves are upset anyway and don't mind letting anyone who's passing by know. Our calves are usually very quiet, not even a cough or a moo. They have everything that they need, fresh straw, water, feed and moo moo companionship.
The noisy calves all come from the same owner, Farmer R. DH reminded me that last year, we bought 44 calves from Farmer R. and it was the same bull. Calves bawling for 2 weeks just because Farmer R. is too lazy to do the weaning himself. I feel that it's pretty cruel to wean the little ones, load them onto - and unload them from - a trailer ('cuz they like that so much - NOT), put them in holding pens at the stockyards, parade them around the selling pen then off to a totally strange barn where they have to figure out the feed and water situation for themselves...all in 1 day. The selling farmer could have helped alleviate some of the stress by doing the weaning process ahead of time and getting it out of the way.
This isn't just an emotional thing either. Unweaned calves do not do as well because of the emotional and physical stress and lose a fair bit of weight. Say a calf weighs 500 lbs. The buying farmer pays for every one of those pounds then the unweaned calf loses, say, 50 lbs. The buying farmer paid for 50 lbs. that he's no longer getting and now has to pay for feed for that calf for quite a while (starting after the calf finally calms down) to put that weight back on and then the calf will finally start to gain real weight. (Just picking random numbers here.)
The selling farmer hurts himself in the long run as this is a business that is very much dependent upon word of mouth and your reputation as a seller is everything. DH informed our buyer to never deal with Farmer R. again. Famers will always return to reputable sellers and likewise avoid the disrespectful selling farmers forever.
You know it's cold in the barn when you can see his breath.
Some of the happy campers.
A few of the lost and lonely little souls protesting.
Well, calves separated from their mamas bawl and bawl and bawl and...on and on. It's actually an awful ruckus that sounds like they're being slowly tortured (I guess they kind of are!) and murdered. It can go on for up to 2 weeks and uneducated neighbors would likely call the animal welfare. Thank goodness we had farmer neighbors and not city folk on acreages. Because we did this in the fall, they were long over it before the calves were sold in the spring so the new owners did not have to put up with it.
Which brings me to the here and now. Yesterday we bought 8 medium-sized calves and 18 smaller ones. A reliable buyer bought them for us and delivered them as our little horse trailer would never do the job and DH works full time and can't get to the stock yards to buy his own calves.
New calves unloading.
Some of the calves that we bought yesterday are just fine, as were the 12 that we bought last week. Some, however, were not weaned and it sure is noticeable which ones are which. It may not show up at the stockyards as all the calves are upset anyway and don't mind letting anyone who's passing by know. Our calves are usually very quiet, not even a cough or a moo. They have everything that they need, fresh straw, water, feed and moo moo companionship.
The noisy calves all come from the same owner, Farmer R. DH reminded me that last year, we bought 44 calves from Farmer R. and it was the same bull. Calves bawling for 2 weeks just because Farmer R. is too lazy to do the weaning himself. I feel that it's pretty cruel to wean the little ones, load them onto - and unload them from - a trailer ('cuz they like that so much - NOT), put them in holding pens at the stockyards, parade them around the selling pen then off to a totally strange barn where they have to figure out the feed and water situation for themselves...all in 1 day. The selling farmer could have helped alleviate some of the stress by doing the weaning process ahead of time and getting it out of the way.
This isn't just an emotional thing either. Unweaned calves do not do as well because of the emotional and physical stress and lose a fair bit of weight. Say a calf weighs 500 lbs. The buying farmer pays for every one of those pounds then the unweaned calf loses, say, 50 lbs. The buying farmer paid for 50 lbs. that he's no longer getting and now has to pay for feed for that calf for quite a while (starting after the calf finally calms down) to put that weight back on and then the calf will finally start to gain real weight. (Just picking random numbers here.)
The selling farmer hurts himself in the long run as this is a business that is very much dependent upon word of mouth and your reputation as a seller is everything. DH informed our buyer to never deal with Farmer R. again. Famers will always return to reputable sellers and likewise avoid the disrespectful selling farmers forever.
Wednesday, 22 February 2012
Second Farmhouse - Bats and Renos
Hubby had hoped to leave renovating this house for some time in the future - the distant future, like maybe NEVER! There was too much work in the barn and the fields to be spending time on the house. The fields and the barns are where the money is made so it would be like a store owner or manufacturing plant owner saying that he would put off opening the store for a year or getting the plant up and running a year from now while he instead gets his house fixed up. He would still be needing to make rent or mortgage payments, not have any income and any and all investors would be slightly pissed. For generations, it seems that ALL of the money went to the farming aspect and none to the house. Just look at the farmouses of the past century - the wives considered it a big deal to FINALLY get a washroom!
The upstairs bathroom and my toddler son's bedroom were definite must-do's but unfortunately, we had to add a third room. Something flew past my head one night and scared the crap out of me and my screaming scared the crap out of the poor kids (ages 8 and down). Hubby was in the barn and there was no way that I was doing anything to get in the way of that bat. That bat was free to fly anywhere he (she) wanted. Far be it from me to interfere! Until hubby got in from the barn, that is -- and then he was even more scared the rest of us! But being the man of the house and all that - ah forget that. If he could have left that bat hanging somewhere, he would have but he didn't want to get woken up in the night from one of the kids screaming (or me!) and he didn't want to find it in our room in the night so he got brave and went after it.
Like lots of people, he'd heard that a badminton racquet would work well. Wrong! After trying that method for a while, he gave up and grabbed a towel, swung it and brought the bat down quite easily. Flushed him down the toilet and that was that -- so we thought. Over the next few weeks, we got 10 bats and our housecat got 1. The kids and I were hiding down behind the kitchen peninsula while yet another bat flew back and forth overhead and hubby was, of course, in the barn again. We were down there praying that bats like to fly high only and never along the ground. There was no use trying to hide in another room because bats can squeeze into any tiny space and besides, we wanted to know where the bat was when hubby came in because they can be hard to find if they land. We would peek around the corner of the kitchen cupboards occasionally to keep an eye on his flying progress. We found him on the floor being eaten by the cat (one good reason to run right out and adopt a cat from a shelter, as if eating all the mice in your house wasn't already a good enough reason!). There's no way that the cat jumped into the air and caught him so we figured that the bat must have flown into the ceiling fan in the dining room and been knocked to the floor. I still give full credit to the cat because if he hadn't been there, I would have had to do the dirty work and no thanks!
I don't believe the old story that bats try to avoid people. I'm quite convinced that 'our' bats loved to dive-bomb us outside, expecially if we were on the trampoline. The kids didn't pay much notice to the bats outside but the first time that I got brave enough to jump on the trampoline near dark was also my last and no one can convince me that they were not after me! Anyway, after 5 or 6 bats, we got to be old hats at bats flying around, we had stopped screaming every time we saw one and we learned to walk around with our heads held high (meaning we were looking up!) while scanning the ceiling and top halves of every wall. I still get squeamish to this day however, if I hear anything resembling the sound that they make. If you make 'fish lips' with your lips then make a smacking sound or put your lips and your hand and make a slight sucking sound (I know, I know - that sounds weird!), that's how bats sounded to me. And I still hate them.
It took us a while to trace their entrance hole into the house. We knew by then that there were plenty of them living up in the attic but there were so many places in this old house where the lath and plaster was broken or missing that it was impossible to tell just where they were coming in. The mystery was solved when hubby saw one actually come through one of many holes in the bedroom adjacent to the upstairs bathroom. This entire wall had been covered by nice enough looking floor-to-ceiling and wall-to-wall cupboards and it was only when this bat came out from behind these cupboards that we found the holes (and the beautiful orange and green 60's wallpaper). So this room also had to be redone at the same time as the other two so in the end, I guess I have to say thank goodness for the bats because now we were renovating a third room!
Sorry, no photos this time. I figured that you could find your own repulsive photos of bats if you wish. I just don't have the desire to look at them right now. They still have that 'ew' factor for me! I might have stopped screaming every time one flew by but...
The upstairs bathroom and my toddler son's bedroom were definite must-do's but unfortunately, we had to add a third room. Something flew past my head one night and scared the crap out of me and my screaming scared the crap out of the poor kids (ages 8 and down). Hubby was in the barn and there was no way that I was doing anything to get in the way of that bat. That bat was free to fly anywhere he (she) wanted. Far be it from me to interfere! Until hubby got in from the barn, that is -- and then he was even more scared the rest of us! But being the man of the house and all that - ah forget that. If he could have left that bat hanging somewhere, he would have but he didn't want to get woken up in the night from one of the kids screaming (or me!) and he didn't want to find it in our room in the night so he got brave and went after it.
Like lots of people, he'd heard that a badminton racquet would work well. Wrong! After trying that method for a while, he gave up and grabbed a towel, swung it and brought the bat down quite easily. Flushed him down the toilet and that was that -- so we thought. Over the next few weeks, we got 10 bats and our housecat got 1. The kids and I were hiding down behind the kitchen peninsula while yet another bat flew back and forth overhead and hubby was, of course, in the barn again. We were down there praying that bats like to fly high only and never along the ground. There was no use trying to hide in another room because bats can squeeze into any tiny space and besides, we wanted to know where the bat was when hubby came in because they can be hard to find if they land. We would peek around the corner of the kitchen cupboards occasionally to keep an eye on his flying progress. We found him on the floor being eaten by the cat (one good reason to run right out and adopt a cat from a shelter, as if eating all the mice in your house wasn't already a good enough reason!). There's no way that the cat jumped into the air and caught him so we figured that the bat must have flown into the ceiling fan in the dining room and been knocked to the floor. I still give full credit to the cat because if he hadn't been there, I would have had to do the dirty work and no thanks!
I don't believe the old story that bats try to avoid people. I'm quite convinced that 'our' bats loved to dive-bomb us outside, expecially if we were on the trampoline. The kids didn't pay much notice to the bats outside but the first time that I got brave enough to jump on the trampoline near dark was also my last and no one can convince me that they were not after me! Anyway, after 5 or 6 bats, we got to be old hats at bats flying around, we had stopped screaming every time we saw one and we learned to walk around with our heads held high (meaning we were looking up!) while scanning the ceiling and top halves of every wall. I still get squeamish to this day however, if I hear anything resembling the sound that they make. If you make 'fish lips' with your lips then make a smacking sound or put your lips and your hand and make a slight sucking sound (I know, I know - that sounds weird!), that's how bats sounded to me. And I still hate them.
It took us a while to trace their entrance hole into the house. We knew by then that there were plenty of them living up in the attic but there were so many places in this old house where the lath and plaster was broken or missing that it was impossible to tell just where they were coming in. The mystery was solved when hubby saw one actually come through one of many holes in the bedroom adjacent to the upstairs bathroom. This entire wall had been covered by nice enough looking floor-to-ceiling and wall-to-wall cupboards and it was only when this bat came out from behind these cupboards that we found the holes (and the beautiful orange and green 60's wallpaper). So this room also had to be redone at the same time as the other two so in the end, I guess I have to say thank goodness for the bats because now we were renovating a third room!
Sorry, no photos this time. I figured that you could find your own repulsive photos of bats if you wish. I just don't have the desire to look at them right now. They still have that 'ew' factor for me! I might have stopped screaming every time one flew by but...
Tuesday, 8 November 2011
Our First Farmhouse
When I got married over 20 years ago, I finally got my wood stove...sort of. The old farmhouse we moved into had a wood/oil combination furnace. It wasn't hard to run, even for a newbie like myself but it must have been a lot older than it looked. It only held it's heat for just over an hour, after 1.5 hours, there were only hot embers left and after 2 hours, nothing. I've read online that 6-12 hours is more the norm. Even replacing the bricks inside didn't help but this furnace always threw out good heat. It warmed the entire 2 full storied old house really well, even before we insulated, just as long as you went down to the basement every hour.
This became a huge problem for me when we had 5 kids over the next 7 years. It became impossible to get to the furnace every hour with 5 very small children upstairs. I had no problem going down when they were all asleep but when they were all awake, it took less than a minute for one of them to topple an infant out of a sitter, fall off a chair, table or countertop (which they'd never be on if I was there), hit each other with any number of items, fight like the dickens and hurt each other ... it just wasn't worth it to try to keep the fire going. I just turned on the oil instead.
Hubby would come in from the barn for lunch after 3-4 hours of milking the cows in an old tie-stall barn and have to start the fire over again. After 3-4 more hours of barn work in the afternoon, he'd have to it again at supper-time and guess what...! After 3-4 more hours of doing the evening milking, he'd have to again start the fire. Needless to say, he got tired real quick of this, really annoyed and tired of paying for oil he didn't really want. And neither of us wanted to get up repeatedly throughout the night.
For my part, I didn't really like the oil heat. Sure, I was happy and grateful to be warm, especially with small children but the off and on, off and on, off and on of oil can't begin to compare with the nice, even heat of wood. You warm up, cool down, over and over and we would shiver while waiting for the furnace to 'kick in'. The biggest downside to the furnace, whether you used wood or oil, was that it required hydro. In a power outage, you had no heat. Thank goodness we had a generator!
http://www.air-tech.ca/
A very similar furnace to our old one but probably not as big.
This became a huge problem for me when we had 5 kids over the next 7 years. It became impossible to get to the furnace every hour with 5 very small children upstairs. I had no problem going down when they were all asleep but when they were all awake, it took less than a minute for one of them to topple an infant out of a sitter, fall off a chair, table or countertop (which they'd never be on if I was there), hit each other with any number of items, fight like the dickens and hurt each other ... it just wasn't worth it to try to keep the fire going. I just turned on the oil instead.
Hubby would come in from the barn for lunch after 3-4 hours of milking the cows in an old tie-stall barn and have to start the fire over again. After 3-4 more hours of barn work in the afternoon, he'd have to it again at supper-time and guess what...! After 3-4 more hours of doing the evening milking, he'd have to again start the fire. Needless to say, he got tired real quick of this, really annoyed and tired of paying for oil he didn't really want. And neither of us wanted to get up repeatedly throughout the night.
For my part, I didn't really like the oil heat. Sure, I was happy and grateful to be warm, especially with small children but the off and on, off and on, off and on of oil can't begin to compare with the nice, even heat of wood. You warm up, cool down, over and over and we would shiver while waiting for the furnace to 'kick in'. The biggest downside to the furnace, whether you used wood or oil, was that it required hydro. In a power outage, you had no heat. Thank goodness we had a generator!
http://www.air-tech.ca/
A very similar furnace to our old one but probably not as big.
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