“It’s not true that life is one damn thing after another; it’s one damn thing over and over.”
Edna St. Vincent Millay
Now that I have retired, one of my goals is to devote more time to writing on this blog. The way I have been posting in the past is to write an essay about some event or thing that happened. But a lot of what happens on the farm is routine and really doesn’t deserve a full essay. Also, when I post an essay on the blog, a couple dozen people who have signed up for notifications get an email, and I don’t want to clog up their email every time I write a paragraph about feeding or how damned cold it is.
So I’m going to try developing a page where I can add small bits every few days or so describing daily life on the farm as I see it. If this works (technically) and is worth the time, I may also develop a garden journal this year.
Friday, December 18, 2020
Cold morning–21 degrees when we woke up–but clear and beautiful. As I’m writing this at 8:00am, the sun is shining on the frost and there is a freezing fog laying over the swale in front of the house.
Like most mornings when it’s below the mid twenties, I carried hot water up for the animals. I break the ice off their water bowls and pour in hot water. Hopefully, that will keep water available until the sun shines directly on the bowls and warms them. This morning wasn’t so bad–I just carried one five gallon bucket and a small container for the chicks.
I fed by myself this morning. Vanessa has pulled a muscle in her back, and she was laid up much of yesterday and probably will be again today. She can walk and stand up straight, but can’t bend over. She’s going to paint some boards for the closet in the laundry room today.
This week, we have been repainting closets–two in the laundry room and the linen closet at the end of the hallway. The first two closets went pretty easily–though I had to scrape off the popcorn ceilings, which was not that bad, considering the size of the closets. The third closet, however, has been more of a challenge. The drywall underneath the circuit breaker is in bad shape–old and with some holes. Not long after we moved in, I covered it with a piece of bead-board, which made it look better but didn’t keep out the mice. This time I cut out the old drywall and replaced it. That meant I had to take out the trim along the floor. That was difficult because the “maintenance supervisor” for the previous owners (or someone) had laid the hardwood floor up to the trim, not removed the trim and laid the floor to the drywall. I ended up splitting a lot of the trim, and now I’m replacing it and also re-doing the shelves.
I hope to finish the closet today, or tomorrow at the latest. Then we can start on the laundry room. The things you gotta do to do the things you gotta do.
I’m starting this journal this morning because I’m not sure what I want to spend my time writing. I’m working on a revision of Sam & Sammy, and that’s going okay, but I have some mixed feelings about it. I’m not sure why, either, but I do. I’m hoping that writing in this journal for a few minutes every day–or nearly every day–will help me develop some ideas.
Saturday, December 19
Another cold morning, but not as cold as yesterday. The temp was about 30 this morning when I went up to feed. Vanessa’s back is still bothering her, though not as bad as yesterday, so I fed on my own. Morning feeding is easy–about 30 minutes, 20 when we are both doing it.
I got the shelf for the laundry room closet built yesterday, and the walls are nearly ready to paint. All I need to do is sand down the ceiling to get the remaining popcorn off and wash the walls. Then I will paint and go to TSC to get some dog food and chicken scratch while the first coat dries. Vanessa will paint the new shelf, and then I hope to put it all back together this afternoon.
I noticed this morning that I still have a little leaf work to do–a couple of small piles and what’s on the far-side of the driveway to deal with. And, of course, I still have sections of tree trunks in the front yard.
I wonder, often, what I would be doing with my time if we lived in town and didn’t have all this stuff to take care of.
Wednesday, December 23
Closets are done, finally. The work just dragged on and on, scraping popcorn ceilings, patching holes, removing shelves, washing everything, painting, waiting for paint to dry. On one of closet, I had to remove a piece of drywall underneath the circuit breaker panel, which meant I had to remove the breaker panel cover, which always scares the hell out of me. It’s a 200 amp circuit breaker, with 240 volts–more than enough to make a big plate of fried Mickey if something were to go wrong.
Fortunately, it didn’t.
December 25, Christmas Morning
Very cold this morning–about 20 degrees when we woke up at 5:00 and down to around 18 when we went out to feed around 6:30. I locked Mike up in the barn with Pokey and Justine last night, which I only do when the forecast is for below 20. I usually try to put him in about 6:00 in the evening when I feed him. He hates being locked in, and I usually have coax/drag him in there once he realizes what’s up. But at least in the barn he will be warmer and out of the wind.
This morning, there was about an inch of ice on all the watering bowls and buckets. As I feed I usually kick the side of the bowls and buckets to break up the ice, then remove my gloves and pull out the big chunks. By the time I finish, my right hand is generally frozen, feeling sort of numb. Afterwards I come back to the house, fill up a couple of five gallon buckets with hot water, carry them back up, and pour the hot water into the watering bowls. This morning, Buck and Mr. G each took a long drink out of the hot water buckets.
We are not celebrating Christmas this year. It’s too dangerous to get together with the kids, since Tennessee is a world-class hotspot for COVID right now. So, we sent them each a check. The only Christmassy thing we did was get a bicycle for Sydha and take it to her last Tuesday. We didn’t decorate or put up a tree (we normally cut a small cedar tree from somewhere on the property), or buy each other a gift. It feels sort of strange.
This morning, Vanessa hung a couple of Christmas-themed dish towels on the oven handle. We also have a dusting of snow.
Monday, December 28
Today is Vanessa’s birthday. We don’t have anything special planned, since we decided to forego all Christmas and birthday and new year celebrations this year. (That’s been kind of nice, actually, the least stressful holiday season I can remember in a while.)
We are heading into town later to pay a couple of insurance bills and pick up some feed for the sheep, goats, and chickens. Normally, I would go alone–just me and Bobo. So maybe we are celebrating Vanessa’s birthday after all. I did spend about 40 minutes cleaning out the truck yesterday, so she wouldn’t get Bobo hair all over her clothes.
Later on, we are taking Mitt back to the vet–this time he has some sort of eye infection. Leaving the property twice. A banner day.
This morning while we fed, we talked about our end game for the sheep. Right now, we have six–two rams, two ewes, and two wethers. The question is how long do we want to keep them.
One option is to stop breeding after this year. Once we have whatever lambs will be born in March/April, we stop. In that case, we would have the two wethers butchered this winter, sell the two rams and two ewes this summer, and keep one or two of the lambs for butchering in winter of 2022.
Another option is to breed one more fall. In that case, we would keep the two ewes (Molly and Maude), one ram (probably Harold), and one wether (Beeline) as a companion. That means we would butcher the other wether (Wag) this spring and either sell or butcher the other ram (as of yet, no name).
I like this particular set of ram lambs and wethers. They are all friendly and playful–most of them like to be rubbed on the neck (which is how Wag got his name) and the two rams like to play “sc-ram” with me. I scratch their neck or pet them behind the ears, then they get playful, and back up a step or two, get into position, lower their head, and try to ram against my clenched fist.
It’s a guy thing.
Sunday, January 3, 2021
Just before the end of the year, we moved the sheep’n’goats around. We separated Pokey from Justine, since he had been lording it over her in the barn all fall (keeping her from the hay, making her stand in the drizzle). So, we put Pokey over with the Buck and Mr. G., and now both Buck and Mr. G are lording it over Pokey, despite the fact that Pokey is younger and stronger than both of them and also horns. He could kick their ass if he wanted to, but he won’t.
We put the two ewes, Molly and Maude, in the barn with Justine because they seemed to like each other’s company when they were in there together in the late summer. And we put all four rams lambs together in the pasture.
Then it started raining. I’m not sure it if was the rain or the re-shuffling or what, but pretty much all of them acted stupid for about three days–they wouldn’t eat much, spent a lot of time looking at each other through the fences, stood out in the rain way more than any of them had to. We’re pretty sure Justine was in heat for a couple of days, which would account for her erratic behavior (e.g. she dumped a whole bowl of grain on the floor). The others. Who knows.
They are all settling down now, though. They’re eating regularly and seem to be getting used to each other’s company. The one I worry about most is Pokey. Buck is relentless in his sniffing and poking at him, which was made worse by Justine’s being in heat.
Inside, we are painting the laundry room and replacing the sink and counter top. Yesterday, we removed the old sink out and counter top, pulled out the washer and dryer and painted behind all that. I also had to patch three small holes that mice had eaten through the drywall and were using as an entrance. I will be finishing up that side of the laundry room today, and then we will start on the other half.
Tuesday, January 19
Despite the fact that spring is still two months away, this morning felt like late-winter/early spring. It was gray, but relatively warm (mid 40s) when we fed about6:45. The garden is currently covered with a four or six inch mulch of leaves and grass clippings from last year, and the mulch seems to be keeping the early weeds at bay. We will see how things look in early March.
One thing I like about winter mornings is the birds. We feed grain outside when it’s not raining, and when the goats and sheep finish with it, birds come in to scavenge what’s left, if there is anything. Most common are doves, cardinals, and sparrows. This morning, though, I saw a red-headed woodpecker. I see a lot of blue-jays and a few bluebirds on the property, but not usually around the barnyard. The birds come and perch on the bowls in the buck yard.
In the evening, it’s chickens that gather around the bucks waiting for them to finish.
Sunday, February 14 – Valentine’s Day
It’s cold again this morning. When I went out about 6:30 with the dogs, the temperature was about 26 degrees, and there was a fine, freezing mist, which had coated the windshields of the cars and made the asphalt driveway a little slick. I dreaded going up to feed this morning, but after I got out and started moving around I warmed up and it all went fine.
Vanessa and I are taking some glass to be recycled this morning and then going to Publix grocery shopping.
We’ve been painting quite a bit for the past few weeks. We repainted the laundry room and the two closets in there, and we also put in a new countertop, sink and faucet. That all went pretty well, except that I did not cut one side of the counter top very well, so I’m going to have to figure out a way to cover up that mistake at some point. Fortunately, the side I cut poorly is next to the washer, so it’s not visible–or at least not glaring.
After that, we painted the hallway bathroom and closet. We took down the two big doors, the two folding doors on the closet, all the doors and drawers in the cabinets, and all the towel racks, etc. We got all the painting done except for one door–the one leading to the hallway and the door frame.
Yesterday afternoon, about 3:00, I washed and taped up the door frame, and was getting ready to paint. At 3:30, as I was pouring the paint into a smaller holder, the rubber “Easy pour” top came off the paint can, spilling somewhere between a quart and half-gallon of Dogwood Blossom interior semi-gloss all over the new countertop and recently painted cabinet in the laundry room.
I scooped as much of the paint as I could back into the paint can, using the a stirring stick that happened to be there at the time. The paint, of course, flowed over the edge of the countertop, down the cabinet and onto the tile floor.
It took me two rolls of paper towels, two or three buckets of hot water and Lysol, two or three stiff brushes, and an hour to get it cleaned up.
I still have to paint the door and the door frame.
Sunday, February 21
At twenty-two degrees, it felt fairly balmy this morning when we went out to feed around 6:45. Yesterday at the same time, it was nine. Most mornings this week have been in the low to mid teens. I read somewhere yesterday that this is the fifth coldest period on record in Nashville, with five days of temperatures below freezing. I seem to recall one afternoon last week when the thermometer on our back deck his thirty-three, but I could have been delirious.
It’s all coming to an end now, though. Yesterday afternoon, the sun came out and it started warming up. We got to forty degrees, and the snow and ice started melting. Today, it’s supposed to get into the low fifties and be sunny most of the day. Tonight, the forecast is for rain and temps in the low forties. There will be no snow tomorrow morning.
That means I can get my truck out of the swail. It’s been sitting there since Tuesday, I think, or maybe Wednesday. I can’t be sure because days all bleed together.
Enter picture.
Whichever afternoon it was, I went to Hartville to get a couple of essential items–canned dog food and beer–and I decided to take the truck even though it gets terrible traction in the snow and ice. I wanted to take Bobo into town so he could get out of a while. Bobo is my Traveling Buddy–he loves to ride in the truck (passenger’s side). We have half a dozen places we regularly go: the feed store, Tractor Supply, the drive-thru Window at Cedarstone Bank. Someone in all of these places knows Bobo, and they give him treats. We also go to Lowe’s (where he can go in), the parking lot of Al’s Foodland and the old Zips gas station across the street where he gets a walk before I go in to do whatever business I’m doing that day.
I knew the roads to the left were clear, because I’d been out in the car the day before. Our driveway is apparently the demarcation point for maintenance crews in two counties. Everything left (north) of the driveway is taken care of by Trousdale County and everything right (south) is cared for by Wilson County. Apparently, someone who lives on our road on the Trousdale County side is a big shot because the road is always clear and well maintained. In the summer, they even keep the weeds down with regular bush-hogging. From the Wilson county side, we’re just a bunch of yahoos.
Wednesday, February 24
After a week of cold and snow, yesterday was gorgeous. Sunny and in the 60s. I got my truck out of the marsh. The ground dried out enough that I could back up to the fence row, near the brush pile, and get enough speed to climb the hill. It took three tries, but I finally made it.
I spent some time yesterday afternoon clearing a bunch of vines and brush out odor the lower swale. I cut a bunch of vines that were as big around as my biceps and pulled them out of the grove of black walnut trees growing down there.
Vanessa and I are going down later this morning to do some more. Looks like good weather again today. It’s forecast to start raining on Friday for a few days.