Well, today started off looking like it was going to be a continuation of yesterday. Flipped on the TV while I was wakeing up and getting around and the news was covering that there were more explosions this morning at the chemical plant that they were allowing to burn itsself out, then about 15 miles from there, and right by my dads house there had been a big crash with a couple of semis. One of the trucks was carrying a load of refridgerators and the truck and refridgerators was burning. While the news didnt make a big deal of this fact I know that the coolant in a lot of refridgerators especialy when burned creates nerve gas that is quite deadly. So made sure to call and alert dad on this one as well sincehe dosent turn on the TV much. All turned out fine aside from the 1 fatality of the crash. So after that was dealt with I went ahead and made a couple of phone calls then when Tina made it home we went out and I got the buzzsaw my dad left down here running so could cut up the load of slab wood he brought down. For those who have never seen a buzz saw it has a circular blade about 3' across and the top half sticks up through a small table thing. The blade is turned by an 8 hp gas motor and there is no real guard around or over the blade. A rather scary piece of machinery to think of what happens if you ever slip near it but it did allo us to cut a large trailer load of slabs into about 1/2 a cord of firewood in about an hour to and hour and a half. Im still a little sore after tha last few days of getting back to actualy doing something after the last 6 months or so of, at least for me, very little physical labor.
Yeah, I will have to remember to add more about them as I go along. At the present it really is just day to day stuff with them as far as the donkey has a big bail of hay so feeding him is just takeing out a small amount of grain now and then as a treat and he has a water trouph that holds about 400 gallons so we break the icewhen it gets to cold for the tank heater to keep up and other than that just refill it every couple weeks or so. On the goats and chickens we just toss them some grain and hay each day and make sure they have some water and the rabbits get hay and or pellets and water daily. As far as the breeding of the goats we just keep the billy with them in the fall and through the winter, more if we arent milking them, and watch to see when they decide to breed so we have an idea of when the kids will come. On the rabbits we usualy dont breed them as much right now since the cold winter takes most of the young with our hutches outside, so durring the spring through midsummer untill it gets up around the triple didgets we breed them every 6-8 weeks, then through the fall the same deal. Since we dont eat as much rabbit at this point as we produce we take most of them when old enouph and turn them loose in the yard and let them free range. Then if we want one for dinner they are easy to harvest and they also reproduce without ushaveing to keep them in feed and such. It has also increased the rabbit population all over the property and some of the neighbors as a bonus so rabbit hunting is a little better now. While we have a grain mill, its not a real great one and only gets to a coarse flour and since we can buy flour by the 50 lbs bag pretty cheap near us we go that route then store it in 5 gallon buckets and some 1 gallon buckets to use from and just have to get more 3-4 times a year.
