Farm life, the house, women drivers

We got to Bowie after 2 a.m. having left Amarillo after services on Thursday night. We all slept until about 8 a.m. Mama was expecting to sleep much later but it does not seem to work that way when we are near the farm. After doing the morning feeding Grandpa and I went to look at a hay rake that we had looked at some months earlier. We ended up buying it because of the way it was set up. We think it will be a great help to us as we begin to harvest hay, hopefully later this year, because it can be pulled by a 4-wheeler or a truck since it does not require a tractor to operate it.


On Saturday morning Grandpa and I killed and skinned eight roosters. We are trying to thin the flock to cut back on the feed required. The weekend after next we will do eight more and follow up with the final eight roosters some time in late February. That will put us down to a manageable flock of twelve laying hens and a couple roosters. We will begin raising butchering chickens in April.

Mama and Victoria were both fascinated and horrified by the exercise of turning our live roosters into edible chickens. I have to admit it was more effort than either Grandpa or I were prepared for. From now on, we will limit the amount of birds to be handled to the eight we did. The first one took us a full twenty minutes as we rediscovered how to get the job done. By the time we were on the fifth bird we were down to about five minutes each. Grandma then had to wash the chickens and bag them for freezing. It took her a good bit of effort also. The birds were a little small to be butchered, but it was good timing for us.

While Victoria and I were catching the roosters to put them into the cage we were using to house them for the final kill, two of the roosters got in with the hens and the large rooster housed with them. That did not make him happy and the fight was on. While that was happening, Mama left to coop door open and two hens escaped. So while our caged birds looked on, Victoria, Mama and I tried to catch the errant hens and separate the young roosters from the older one. I am pleased to tell that no hens were injured in the production of this episode. Eight roosters lost their lives and will be eaten soon. Three more were wounded in the fighting. They are recovering in the coop infirmary.

I tore into one corner of the house this weekend. There was already a hole in the floor by a large front window so I ripped out the wall and flooring from that point. What I found was extensive termite damage to the floor and floor joists. The joists were sitting on the ground and had been backfilled with dirt almost level with the floor. No thought was given to controlling termites and it shows. The walls are in good shape. Most of the damage is confined to the sheetrock layer which is attached to a solid interior wall of 1” Southern Yellow Pine boards.

All of the interior wall will have to be removed to properly insulate but we will make tables, shelving and cabinets out of the pine boards once they are removed and cleaned. I have decided to tear off the entire roof and redo it so it can be constructed with more available room and insulated properly. It will be a nice house when it is done; it will require only time and money to get it there. Any hopes of being ready for occupancy this fall may ill placed, but we will see. Victoria and Grandpa are fired up about getting the work done and Grandpa has surprised us thus far with the amount of projects he has completed by doing a little bit every day.

Cori told us about an episode this last week in which Mykenzie and Shepherd were playing on one of those battery operated trucks that Shepherd’s family owns. Shepherd, three and one half years old, was teaching Mykenzie to operate the vehicle, which was funny enough as Shepherd sped them around the yard with Mykenzie practically pulling Shepherd off of the vehicle as she made no attempt to lean forward as they drove together. If Shepherd had not has a tight grip on the handlebars, they would have both fallen off the way Mykenzie (arms wrapped around Shepherd) was pulling him backward. But that was not the end of the story.

Mykenzie, not one to let a little lack of training stop her, decided to drive the little truck herself – unbeknownst to either mommy. She came into the house a few minutes later and interrupted the mommy conversation with the casual announcement, “I’m really sorry. I ran over Shepherd.” Both of the mommy’s ran outside to find Shepherd literally under the truck, trying to free himself. He was not hurt. They lifted the truck off of him and all play resumed – without any motorized equipment. Fortunately it will be several years before Mykenzie will operate anything heavier than a plastic vehicle.

It may be several weeks before she is issued a permit to operate this one again.