Long Dry Spell

It's been a long dry spell.  And I'm not talking about the weather because it has been pretty cold and damp around here.  I had all good intentions of blogging more this year but I have been spending more time on things that may not be that interesting.  There has been less ranching and animal work for me and more Triplex work.  And even with the triplex, I haven't managed very many pictures.  

 The end unit is coming along nicely.  And there is no longer any smell!

 The upstairs is nearly done.  They will start on refinishing the floors next week.

 We did have an incident with a tree at the back of the apartments.  One of the pine trees fell across the neighbor's fence. 

 J had a pretty difficult time getting it cut off. 

 But he managed and there was no damage to the fence.  Afterwards, I decided that it probably wasn't even our tree.  I think the property line is back there with the line of other pines.  This one was out of the line and closer to the fence.  Oh well,  good deed done anyway.   Then the people moved out of the middle unit early.  Their lease was until May but they had the opportunity to move to a house.  So, I have spent the last 10 days, cleaning, getting it ready and showing it.  The new people move in tomorrow, so no time lost.

 And I have been slacking off with the coupons.  I really don't need any of this stuff so it's a little hard to get excited about it anymore. 

I did manage to bring the milk down to $2.35 with everything else free.  Ok, so a little bit excited about that.

Early Billy Sale

We have tried selling billies at different times of the year.  It seems we usually end up waiting until the nannies kid.  But this year, our local sheep and goat club was having a transport to the New Holland, PA livestock market.  This is a better market to sell at and we get a discount on hauling by adding ours to others from the club. 

 If the nannies aren't bred by now then too bad.  We really don't want them any later anyway and we are trying for a short kidding season.

 We rounded up the billy with a few nannies Saturday because V was there to help.  It is always nice to have an extra hand.  Can you tell it was cold and rainy?

 The dogs don't help any but at least they aren't a hindrance.

 One little hiccup was trying to get them through this gap.  There is normally an electric cable across the opening and no one wanted to test it out.

 After making a few circles and studying on the situation,

 there was finally a brave soul that lead the way.

 The next gate was no problem. 

 After hanging out in the barn lot overnight J loaded up the billy to take him to the collection point.

 Lots of trailers of all shapes and sizes.

 Everyone got a club tag,

and each farm got a spray paint color and location.  Ours was pink around the neck.  Hope there are some good buyers at the sale.

Coupon Saturday #40

This is actually two Saturdays worth of couponing. 

 Remember my goal is to get what I was going to get anyway cheaper.  In this scenario, I was getting the Coke, 3/$10. 

 I think I did pretty good, 1/2 price on the Coke and everything else FREE!

 Once I got to my car, I decided to work up another scenario because I saw that the store was stocked on Flintstones, and there was a great coupon for those.  This was what I came up with.  I can alway use dishwasher detergent so that was my goal. 

 They almost paid me to take it away. 

 Then last night was the milk run.

Yes, milk cheaper and everything else FREE!

From A Distance

J said it was time to move the bred heifers from our rented farm across and down the road to our farm for the winter.  So, most times when cattle need to be rounded up I help, from a distance. 

 This time I stayed in the truck.

 But with my zoom lens, I could see the heifers.

 Once they were in the pen, I was allowed in a little closer. 

This little one was a bit of a surprise this summer.  J came in one day and said he thought one of the heifers had aborted.  But when he checked on them the next day, he found this little one.  Apparently, there was some hanky panky J didn't know about.  The rest aren't due to calve until March.  This one was just 6 months early.

 Anyway, back to my job.  Now I am supposed to be running around the outside of these fragile pens to keep the heifers from putting any pressure on the fence while J squirts wormer on them.  It must have worked because he got them dewormed and nothing broke out.

 Now time to back way away while J drives them into the road. 

 We had pulled the truck down the road in the direction they were going to be going in hopes it would block them until J got them all out then could drive down to the next gate and open it.

 And it worked.  I just had to hold them in the road until J got to the truck, then turn them and herd them the 1/2 mile to our gate.

 They were very cooperative.

Home again jiggity jog.

Bad Horse For Sale Pictures #33

I sure you have been missing this feature.  It’s been awhile since I posted some bad pictures. Hope these don’t disappoint.  

First, here is the description, 

I have 2 horses for sale. One (the palamino) is dead broke and he is blind in one eye but still is rideable. The other ( brown) is not broke but has had kids on his back without a saddle, he also had good ground manners
Ages:
Palamino is around 18-19yrs
Brown is around 4-5yrs
Wanting to sell them together cause they’ve been together for years
If buying them together I’ll take $800 but if separate I want $500 each

So, looks like the brown is a bay. 

Just in case the first picture wasn't close up enough.

Now for the "palamino" (but I really have no room to make fun of someone else's spelling, just couldn't resist since my spell check is highlighting it)

Looks like the brown knows how to paw. 

I am really worried about that fence but missed the head in the picture. 

Not to worry, here's one with the head.  Hope they find a good home.

Christmas "Tree"ate

During Tuesday's Snow storm the goats had made their way to the field behind the house.  

 I thought this would be a good opportunity to give them the Christmas tree.

 At first there wasn't much interest, just one brave soul to check things out.

 Jewel kept watch over the proceedings.

 Pretty soon, everyone was getting in on the action.

 Even the billy goat was enjoying himself.

Today, this is all that is left.  Eaten down to the bone.  I think the Christmas "Tree"ate was a big hit.

Coupon Saturday #39

Got a few good scenarios in this last week. 

 

Holiday scents are 50% off, and there was a coupon making the Fabreeze free.  Same for the Crest and Swiffer, all free, just tax.

Then there was a Special K deal Monday.  J hasn’t tried it but was I told him it was 50 cents a box, he said “ that is cheaper than bird seed”.  So, of course I had to get some.  I had overage with the razors and another $1.50 back on Ibotta for the trivia, so technically I was paid to take this out of the store.

Then I was going to get a gallon of milk when J asked it I could get Raisin Bran.

A little adjustment to the deal...

And it actually came out better.  85 cents plus tax.