This weeks preps check-in

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Arcticdude said:
The last couple of weeks have had some ups and downs. On mother's day I noticed that one of our heifers was having problems having her calf. I figured that I'd have to pull it. The wife and I managed to get her into the corral. By that time the calfs nose and one foot were showing and I could tell the calf was dead. I reached in and tied a strap around the calfs leg and hooked the other end to the winch of my 4 wheeler. Finially got the calf out.
A couple days later a neighboring rancher gave me an orphan calf. At first the cow didn't want anything to do with the orphan, so I sewed the hide from the dead calf on to the orphan and locked them both in a stall in the barn for a couple days. The calf is nursing and they're both doing good now.
Still working on completing repairs on the perimeter fence, building the new working corral and finishing up on some new fencing. Last week I picked up a trailer load of posts, barb wire, several tube gates, new squeeze chute, lumber, auto gate opener and various tools and hardware.
A couple days ago I got word from the state that they approved our new brand request. Now I need to find a blacksmith to make our brand. Currently all of our new calves are unbranded. Once the corral is finished I'll run all the cattle through and put our brand on the calves.
We've had some rain, and even a little snow the last week or so.
The house is painted inside and out now and the flooring should be delivered any day. Need to start installing the light fixtures and celling fans next.
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That was a smart move. . . . normally I would just bottle feed if I have a orphan or total rejection.
 
Arcticdude said:
As long as the cow accepts the calf it saves a lot of time and trouble. I have one more heifer left thats due to calve any time now. I'll go look for her tomorrow and see how she's doing.
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Yes It does! I have one cow that accepts all babes no matter what. She even helps out with cleanings when mamma is not doing what she should. I just havens gotten a good momma in my goats yet that would accept a orphan or reject.
 
Hunny and I went to the BIG city for test. . . Doc came in afterwards and said he wants to see him back ASAP. We have to wait on a call for an appointment. I did get to come home to my Gertie who had 2 new healthy babies. Ar least that was a highlight in my life.
 
Danil54grl said:
Hunny and I went to the BIG city for test. . . Doc came in afterwards and said he wants to see him back ASAP. We have to wait on a call for an appointment. I did get to come home to my Gertie who had 2 new healthy babies. Ar least that was a highlight in my life.
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Hope it works out for the best for y’all. We will as well.
 
I spent several hours yesterday looking for one of my heifers that I figured was going to have a calf any day. I found the heifer over a ridge on the edge of some timber and I could tell that she had just given birth but couldn't find the calf. As I approached her a big brown bear took off running. It's amazing how fast these bears can run. Way too fast for a shot. Finially found the calf hidden in the brush. A healthy little black heifer.
Last week I bought a couple electric gate openers. One opener will be up by the house and the other will be down the road. Both will operate on 12v deep cycle batteries with solar chargers. These things are nice! Also tried out the new welder today. I welded some gate hinges and checked to make sure that it'll run my well pump.
The weather service posted warnings for severe thunderstorms tonight. So far it's still clear out so I hope they're wrong.
The painters should be done with the exterior of house tomorrow and the flooring will be delivered in the morning.
 
Arcticdude said:
I spent several hours yesterday looking for one of my heifers that I figured was going to have a calf any day. I found the heifer over a ridge on the edge of some timber and I could tell that she had just given birth but couldn't find the calf. As I approached her a big brown bear took off running. It's amazing how fast these bears can run. Way too fast for a shot. Finially found the calf hidden in the brush. A healthy little black heifer.
Last week I bought a couple electric gate openers. One opener will be up by the house and the other will be down the road. Both will operate on 12v deep cycle batteries with solar chargers. These things are nice! Also tried out the new welder today. I welded some gate hinges and checked to make sure that it'll run my well pump.
The weather service posted warnings for severe thunderstorms tonight. So far it's still clear out so I hope they're wrong.
The painters should be done with the exterior of house tomorrow and the flooring will be delivered in the morning.
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Glad you found the calf and the bear didn't run off with the newborn.
 
Danil54grl said:
Hunny and I went to the BIG city for test. . . Doc came in afterwards and said he wants to see him back ASAP. We have to wait on a call for an appointment. I did get to come home to my Gertie who had 2 new healthy babies. Ar least that was a highlight in my life.
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Hope he gets through all this ok, and you as well.
 
Today I committed to buying next winter's hay. I've got 2 sources of hay now. They plan to start cutting around the first of July and said they'll load my trailer too. This new place is around 50 miles from home.
I'm thinking about putting in 30 acres of hay next year to reduce the amount of hay that I need to buy. Maybe another 20 acres of hay the following year and I'll be self sufficient in winter cattle feed. Of course that will mean a couple more miles of new fencing.
The wife just ordered 30 meat chickens and some ducks, ugh. I think she ordered some bees too. I can't wait until she "retires" too, and spends more than 4 months a year here.
 
Arcticdude said:
Today I committed to buying next winter's hay. I've got 2 sources of hay now. They plan to start cutting around the first of July and said they'll load my trailer too. This new place is around 50 miles from home.
I'm thinking about putting in 30 acres of hay next year to reduce the amount of hay that I need to buy. Maybe another 20 acres of hay the following year and I'll be self sufficient in winter cattle feed. Of course that will mean a couple more miles of new fencing.
The wife just ordered 30 meat chickens and some ducks, ugh. I think she ordered some bees too. I can't wait until she "retires" too, and spends more than 4 months a year here.
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It seems like you do more work since you retired from working. You may want to consider retiring from retirement.
 
Acrtic, you will be very happy to be able to produce your own hay. . . I wish we had the acreage to be able to do that. Yes, I am envious :) You do have a lot on your plate and I can sympathize. Its is nice if you have someone else to devy the work load up with.
 
I would love to get a horse here but with just 2.5 acres I realistically don’t have enough room. I figure if I can’t grow enough grass for it then I won’t have one. If it was all grass then I might be close, but I have plants and gardens all over so might actually only have 1/2 acre of grass now.
 
Arcticdude said:
I spent several hours yesterday looking for one of my heifers that I figured was going to have a calf any day. I found the heifer over a ridge on the edge of some timber and I could tell that she had just given birth but couldn't find the calf. As I approached her a big brown bear took off running. It's amazing how fast these bears can run. Way too fast for a shot. Finially found the calf hidden in the brush. A healthy little black heifer.
Last week I bought a couple electric gate openers. One opener will be up by the house and the other will be down the road. Both will operate on 12v deep cycle batteries with solar chargers. These things are nice! Also tried out the new welder today. I welded some gate hinges and checked to make sure that it'll run my well pump.
The weather service posted warnings for severe thunderstorms tonight. So far it's still clear out so I hope they're wrong.
The painters should be done with the exterior of house tomorrow and the flooring will be delivered in the morning.
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I would have run away faster than the bear. Glad the cow and calf are okay.
 
Hunny is missing his travel time. . . I have to admit we have not gone anywhere for a long while. . . We have cows that mainly keep us home. Hunny knows that I will never give up my goats and if we got rid of his cows minus my milk cow I would be fine with that. Goats are more controllable for me and he is getting up in his years with health issues now. I would be ok with even processing some of my billies, which I have never been open to before. I would just normally sell.
 
I got a case of C2A1 canister filters for free from a friend for our gas masks. Bought 2 more personal water filters for my new daughter in law and my soon to be born grandson. I need to finish upgrading my supplies for +2.
 
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Still waiting to move. Bad storm dumped a huge amount of rain and of course the neighbor up the roads illegally built dam burst, it washed out a bit of our road in 2 spots. At least a (different) neighbor said we can use their road to get to our place, right neighborly of them. :) Got the electric poles put up and now it's on us to trench and run wire from the poles 100ft to our place.

Even though we aren't living out there yet, did get about 7 different veggies planted. The temperature is starting to climb around here. It's quite shocking. it can be 90 degrees in current home, running AC's already, and I can drive out to our place, in the midst of trees in a hole and it's instantly about 15-20 degrees cooler. This has me so excited!!! We don't have a porch yet, just some chairs and a bench under the trees in the front yard, but sitting out there you don't feel hot in the least, or even warm. We get a light cool breeze. Even in the house, with no electricity and doors and windows open, was very pleasant. I can imagine this summer really only using future window units to cool the 840sqft a fraction of the amount the current house uses. Ceiling fans and box fans will do a world of good. Here in Oklahoma we often see 100 degree temps in summers, so I am really, really thrilled about this, prepper-wise.

Truth be told, I'm threatening to move out there, even though the place isn't finished. We do have water from a water hose. Have a composting toilet. A single burner butane stove and outdoor grill. A solar shower. An ice chest. And until we can get the funds together to get the remaining wire bought, trenched, and hooked up can use an extension cord for any needed electric needs or run the genny. Hubby off this weekend, we'll be puttering a lot out there I'm sure. Maybe I can talk him in to moving one of the beds, haha. Hey, roughing it would be good experience, right?

Sorry so long winded, just anxious.
 
Celeree said:
Still waiting to move. Bad storm dumped a huge amount of rain and of course the neighbor up the roads illegally built dam burst, it washed out a bit of our road in 2 spots. At least a (different) neighbor said we can use their road to get to our place, right neighborly of them. :) Got the electric poles put up and now it's on us to trench and run wire from the poles 100ft to our place.

Even though we aren't living out there yet, did get about 7 different veggies planted. The temperature is starting to climb around here. It's quite shocking. it can be 90 degrees in current home, running AC's already, and I can drive out to our place, in the midst of trees in a hole and it's instantly about 15-20 degrees cooler. This has me so excited!!! We don't have a porch yet, just some chairs and a bench under the trees in the front yard, but sitting out there you don't feel hot in the least, or even warm. We get a light cool breeze. Even in the house, with no electricity and doors and windows open, was very pleasant. I can imagine this summer really only using future window units to cool the 840sqft a fraction of the amount the current house uses. Ceiling fans and box fans will do a world of good. Here in Oklahoma we often see 100 degree temps in summers, so I am really, really thrilled about this, prepper-wise.

Truth be told, I'm threatening to move out there, even though the place isn't finished. We do have water from a water hose. Have a composting toilet. A single burner butane stove and outdoor grill. A solar shower. An ice chest. And until we can get the funds together to get the remaining wire bought, trenched, and hooked up can use an extension cord for any needed electric needs or run the genny. Hubby off this weekend, we'll be puttering a lot out there I'm sure. Maybe I can talk him in to moving one of the beds, haha. Hey, roughing it would be good experience, right?

Sorry so long winded, just anxious.
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I moved into this house with Sheetrock on the walls, no joint compound or paint. The floors were bare plywood. The cabinets were just the lower units with countertops but no doors or drawers. Most people wouldn’t think about roughing it like that, but it saved a lot of money so we decided it was worth it. One thing I will say though, it is a lot faster and easier to finish a place when your not living in it. Just having to clean up tools and dust every time you do something makes more work over cleaning up once at the end of it all. As far as which choice is best, that’s just up to each individual.
 
Brent S said:
I moved into this house with Sheetrock on the walls, no joint compound or paint. The floors were bare plywood. The cabinets were just the lower units with countertops but no doors or drawers. Most people wouldn’t think about roughing it like that, but it saved a lot of money so we decided it was worth it. One thing I will say though, it is a lot faster and easier to finish a place when your not living in it. Just having to clean up tools and dust every time you do something makes more work over cleaning up once at the end of it all. As far as which choice is best, that’s just up to each individual.
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And that's exactly why we're living in my workshop until the house is completely finished. A couple years ago I bought a new 35' travel trailer that we lived in for 1 year before I sold it. RV living in the mountains isn't a good choice. Too hard to heat, the pipes kept freezing, and I had to shovel the roof everytime we had a heavy snow.
I modified my workshop (fur shed) for us to live in by adding a bathroom with a shower and sink with a tankless water heater.
When I was a kid we lived in a house that dad was remodeling. That wasn't a good experience.
 
Celeree said:
Still waiting to move. Bad storm dumped a huge amount of rain and of course the neighbor up the roads illegally built dam burst, it washed out a bit of our road in 2 spots. At least a (different) neighbor said we can use their road to get to our place, right neighborly of them. :) Got the electric poles put up and now it's on us to trench and run wire from the poles 100ft to our place.

Even though we aren't living out there yet, did get about 7 different veggies planted. The temperature is starting to climb around here. It's quite shocking. it can be 90 degrees in current home, running AC's already, and I can drive out to our place, in the midst of trees in a hole and it's instantly about 15-20 degrees cooler. This has me so excited!!! We don't have a porch yet, just some chairs and a bench under the trees in the front yard, but sitting out there you don't feel hot in the least, or even warm. We get a light cool breeze. Even in the house, with no electricity and doors and windows open, was very pleasant. I can imagine this summer really only using future window units to cool the 840sqft a fraction of the amount the current house uses. Ceiling fans and box fans will do a world of good. Here in Oklahoma we often see 100 degree temps in summers, so I am really, really thrilled about this, prepper-wise.

Truth be told, I'm threatening to move out there, even though the place isn't finished. We do have water from a water hose. Have a composting toilet. A single burner butane stove and outdoor grill. A solar shower. An ice chest. And until we can get the funds together to get the remaining wire bought, trenched, and hooked up can use an extension cord for any needed electric needs or run the genny. Hubby off this weekend, we'll be puttering a lot out there I'm sure. Maybe I can talk him in to moving one of the beds, haha. Hey, roughing it would be good experience, right?

Sorry so long winded, just anxious.
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Sounds like you've found a good place and you're making progress. Be patient with yourself and you'll get it done and it will be everything you dreamed of.
 
Well my power backup plan got a good little fire drill last night. Around 6:30 the power went off and stayed off until 2 am.

I learned that some of my inverter batteries are getting long in the tooth. No big surprise since they are way past their "use by" date, LOL. They quickly dropped to below 12.5 volts as soon as I put a load on them. I thought I was going to be able to run the fridge on a 2000 watt pure sine inverter and just one battery. Nope.

Rather than break out the big 6000 watt inverter, I hauled out the propane genny instead and ran a heavy duty extension cord from the carport to the kitchen. The big inverter and batteries is actually heavier than the generator, but it's safe to use indoors and much quieter than the genny. It's been a while since the genny was cranked, and I got a pretty good workout getting it started. But once it fired up it ran like a champ.

The 2000 watt inverter with one battery did run the freezer downstairs fine so I didn't have to run an extension cord all the way down there.

I was pretty comfortable with just a small fan running on a tiny inverter, so I didn't have to break out the small window A/C unit I have for such circumstances. It's still in the box, so I'd have to mount it in a window, etc. and I didn't think the power would be out long enough to justify that.
 
DrHenley said:
Well my power backup plan got a good little fire drill last night. Around 6:30 the power went off and stayed off until 2 am.

I learned that some of my inverter batteries are getting long in the tooth. No big surprise since they are way past their "use by" date, LOL. They quickly dropped to below 12.5 volts as soon as I put a load on them. I thought I was going to be able to run the fridge on a 2000 watt pure sine inverter and just one battery. Nope.

Rather than break out the big 6000 watt inverter, I hauled out the propane genny instead and ran a heavy duty extension cord from the carport to the kitchen. The big inverter and batteries is actually heavier than the generator, but it's safe to use indoors and much quieter than the genny. It's been a while since the genny was cranked, and I got a pretty good workout getting it started. But once it fired up it ran like a champ.

The 2000 watt inverter with one battery did run the freezer downstairs fine so I didn't have to run an extension cord all the way down there.

I was pretty comfortable with just a small fan running on a tiny inverter, so I didn't have to break out the small window A/C unit I have for such circumstances. It's still in the box, so I'd have to mount it in a window, etc. and I didn't think the power would be out long enough to justify that.
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There’s nothing like a real world test to see how your preps and plans work out.
 
I was going to offer my big inverter to my next door neighbor to run his fridge, but he wasn't home. I guess he just went and stayed with his brother. I thought about all those people in the neighborhood with spoiled food in the fridge...:(

At first I didn't think the power would be out that long so I just decided to go out to eat and not open the refrigerator. But when I got home and the power was still out, I opened the fridge briefly to look at the thermometer I keep in there and it was 41° so I knew I had to get some power to it. It got up to 47° before it started coming back down once I had it on the genny.
 
I had 3 trees in my yard trimmed. We have discovered we have roof leak. We paid some guy this winter $600 to fix it. He didn’t do it right. Now we have a roofing company out too look at it. Hopefully it won’t be too expensive. This same company quoted us 1800 about 6 months ago. We thought we were saving money by paying the other guy $600. Lesson learned. Cheaper isn’t always a good deal.
 
DrPrepper said:
I had 3 trees in my yard trimmed. We have discovered we have roof leak. We paid some guy this winter $600 to fix it. He didn’t do it right. Now we have a roofing company out too look at it. Hopefully it won’t be too expensive. This same company quoted us 1800 about 6 months ago. We thought we were saving money by paying the other guy $600. Lesson learned. Cheaper isn’t always a good deal.
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1800 is a pretty big repair. How old is the roof?
 
I am a big believer in DIY. you can watch you tube videos on how to fix just about anything. Sometimes though, like if your roof is really steep, it’s worth paying someone. I would consider getting three bids though, and go with the guy in the middle. There are other things to consider, like will they offer a warranty, how long have they been in business, etc.
 
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