Shopping, cutting up, chicken roundup

Mama and Victoria went out shopping yesterday and to hear them tell it they made quite a haul. They spent the day in Denton going to some shops they knew and then took the time to look into several others, one of which was a furniture store they were very impressed with. Mama found a dining room table there that she would have bought right then – I did not say yes. It was the only one they had in the store. L

They did not get home until an hour or so behind me. In that hour I manually rolled a round bale of hay about 100 yards from where we store the bales to the next lot so I could get it to our heifer. She had eaten the last one down to a few handfuls of hay and was searching for any little sprigs of grass to fill her belly. I learned that round bales are not easy to roll at all.

In fact they are only round in the sense that they are not square. My shoulders were worn out by the time I got it into place. Mama’s request was that I put it in the barn so it would stay dry; another 60 yards through manure and muck. I did not get that far.

Once they were home and I helped get the groceries and sundries unloaded I got the chainsaw and cut up the tree that had been removed from our driveway. I had cut up the dead tree he dug out for us the day before.  Once we get the tractor running again (one of the kill switches went bad) I will load it all up and move it to the pile we have been accumulating. We are getting quite an impressive pile.

It will become more so as I take out several other dead trees as well as a few living ones that are in our way. Add to that the hundred or so small trees that need to come out by the dam and we should have many cords of wood available from our initial culling of trees.

My hope is to sell enough of the firewood to buy a pellet stove insert for the fireplace. I had been thinking of getting a wood burning insert but in future years I think it would be much easier to have the pellet stove. I had not really considered the pellet stove until Terry Cobb suggested it again to me. I can always use split firewood to heat the shop when I get that built.

In spite of the head start I was given on the koi pond I still have several days of work to complete it. Rain through this week and next will ensure that that is postponed for the present but it is a pretty obvious project since it sits right outside our large window that looks from the living room to the back yard.

Mama has been letting the chickens out a couple hours every evening we are home. They have certainly enjoyed it. We will not be able to do so for much longer. Once she starts on the landscaping she will not want them to go scratching through her bulbs and bushes. Every evening is a challenge to get them all back into the coop. They have not figured out how to get there on their own so they require some coaching.

The night before last, one of the chickens spent the night in the garage. I saw the door open when I left for work and shut it before I pulled out. When Mama and Victoria opened the passage door from the house to the garage later that morning, the chicken was looking for a way out. Last night it was the very last chicken to leave the coop and the very first one to return.

Our garage must have been terribly frightening. I can only hope it did not look into the freezers.