Workshop Update

It has been several weeks since I last updated everyone on my woodworking shop.  That has mainly been because not much new has been accomplished.  I have worked a few hours in the last few weeks and have a start on putting tongue and groove boards on the interior walls.  The biggest, or at least, the most visual addition has been the porch.  Yes, a porch on a workshop.

It sort of evolved.  I needed some sort of step at the doors and I thought of trying to move my table saw in and out and decided some type of floor extending out from the shop would be helpful.  And, a little roof or awning over the doors would be nice on a rainy day.  We had an old porch glider that came off of the house porch when we got our porch swing.  Connie suggested the porch be large enough to have a place to put the glider.  So, here is a photo of the result.  I have yet to finish the flashing where the roof meets the wall of the shop.

Read more...

From My Email

I received this quite some time ago and keep thinking I need to share, so, here it is.

Read more...

ALFALFA HAY

When I first got goats, way back in the early 70’s, I read all of the dairy goat magazines I could find.  I subscribed to Dairy Goat Journal and Dairy Goat Guide.  One thing that all of the articles seemed to agree on was that to get good milk production the goats needed good alfalfa hay.  That was no problem then.  I was living in Southern California and the only hay I could find to purchase was alfalfa hay.  It was grown where it was irrigated and where they were able to get it baled without danger of rain.  All of the hay was baled to be shipped and was in 3-wire tied bales, averaging 125# per bale.  One got only 16 bales per ton.

When I moved to Illinois I could get alfalfa hay occasionally.  I fed some clover hay and some other poorer hay from time to time.  But, moving here to South-Central Kentucky I didn’t find much alfalfa hay being produced in the immediate area.  I was able to get some orchard grass hay which seemed to be pretty good but not quite to the degree good alfalfa would be.  The last couple of years we have been able to bale enough hay here on Cedar Ridge Farm to feed Darryl’s cows and my goats, but it was just mixed grass hay.  This year, due to the dryness, we were able to only get two cuttings of hay.  Consequently there doesn’t appear to be quite enough to feed all of the animals all winter.  Darryl found some grass hay, which will do fine for the cows, at a fairly good price.

I wanted to look around a bit and see if I could find some hay of a bit better quality.  Darryl saw the ad first and drew my attention to it.  A man was advertising some alfalfa-orchard grass hay.  I made contact and Darryl and I made the approximate 50 mile trip two weeks ago to buy 50 bales of this hay.  Even though it is getting toward the end of this lactation the goats have actually increased their milk production a bit.  So, the better hay seems to be doing what it is supposed to do, and the goats seem to like it.

Read more...

Four Letter Word

We got SNOW, that four letter word often associated with winter.  Our forecast was for maybe a half inch to an inch of snow.  We received rain on Saturday (almost an inch) and it turned to snow Sunday morning.  It snowed off and on most of the day with about what the forecast had called for, but it forgot to stop.  It snowed Sunday evening and throughout the night.  This morning (Monday) we had quite a bit more around than the half inch to a inch.


You can’t tell how much snow is on the van from this photo but I went out and stuck a 12 inch ruler into that on top of the van.


If you look closely you can see the green ruler stuck into the snow.  It is near the center of the picture.


In this close-up you can see that there was 8 inches on the van.  I measured several other places and the measurement was from 8 to 9 inches.  I believe this is the largest snowfall we have experienced since moving here in 2004.

Read more...

INFESTATION OF MICE

A couple of evenings ago as I was leaving the barn after finishing the milking I noticed movement near the goat’s feed pan.  I stopped to watch

and it was a mouse, no, make that several mice.  They were not bothered by my standing and watching them eating the leftovers.  I decided then and there I’d needed to declare war on the little beasties.  Yesterday morning I drove into town and purchased some new mouse traps and some cheap brand of peanut butter to use as bait. 

By evening I had caught 3 and I reset my traps.  This morning I had another 5.  But, the one thing that is a puzzle is that one trap was totally missing, carried away by a very powerful little mouse I assume.  It may have been the one eating Nolan’s cheese.

Read more...