Wednesday, September 22, 2010

19-21 September, 2010 - More rain ...

It's been raining every day but the forecast shows some clear weather coming our way soon. 


Susan has been harvesting some of the mullein.  We seem to have a bumper crop of it this year.  This is just a small 1/2 acre section of it.


She isn't the only one with an interest in it.


She pulled up a couple of plants to dry in their entirety.


She's also drying some of the leaves.


Some more squash from the garden.  We're hoping it continues to ripen in the house.


The buffalo were waiting when we came back from a trip into Fortine.  (We spent a rainy afternoon at the tavern eating hamburgers and shooting pool.)  I don't like feeding them when they're waiting like this because I no longer get in the pen with them while they're there.  That means I have to break the bale open on my side of the fence and throw the flakes over the fence.  The wind is always in the wrong direction and I get hay all over me.  The bull is in front and always the first to eat.  He simpley runs the others off his portion.  The old cow is next in the pecking order and she allows her younger calf to eat out of her pile (and will come to it's defense if it's older brother tries to but the younger one out of the way).  The old calf is lowest in the pecking order and gets to eat after the others have taken the edge off their hunger.


The bales weigh about 80 pounds.  The hay stack is about 20 yards from the fence.  In a couple of more months there'll probably be snow on the ground.


Susan is cutting up some of the summer squash to dry.


This is the dryer we picked up for $5.00 at the yard sale a month or so ago.


The generator is running so we have both dehydrators going.  We actually have two of the white ones but we usually just use one at a time and stack more trays onto it.


Oregon (wild) grapes drying.  We put them in a shallow pan (in this case a pie pan) set on the blocks to the left of the stove.  When the generator is running we turn the fan on to blow air over them to speed the drying process.


Time to clean the chicken house.  (Uhg!) 


One egg was in the lower box so I moved it up to the top box.  I'll add hay to both before I finish.  I wanted to make sure the dog didn't help herself to the egg when my back was turned.  She's suspected of eating the eggs that were missing last week but she can't reach the top box.


First load ready to dump int the compost pile.


I shoveled it out down to the wood floor then added new hay.  Straw is our favorite but we didn't have any so hay will have to do.  When I opened the small door into the run (outside area surrounded by chicken wire) one hen had to rush in to see what I'd done to destroy her home.  They'll have lots of fun for a couple of days scratching through the hay looking for bugs and seeds. 


I thought it would be a good time to put the new chain on the 18 inch Homelite chainsaw.


New chain on and ready to put the side plate on.


Finished!  The new chain doesn't have the anti-kickback links.  These increase the chance of kickback but make cutting with the tip a lot easier.


I picked up some of the small fuel line the last time we were in Eureka.  I'm putting it on the weed-eater (the old fuel line had gotten brittle and broke).  I didn't get it started.  It was having problems before the gas line broke.  It has good spark so I'll pick up some carburetor cleaner the next time we're in town and go through the carburetor.  this is my wife's favorite string trimmer and I'd like to get it running again.

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