Round One and Round Two

Round one, 

It started snowing Wednesday night. 

By midnight the power was out and I had to go to work Thursday.  When there is no power there is no water either.  We do have gas logs in the house and a wood stove in the garage so we have heat covered.

I decided to take the Rav to work since it was outside already and I wouldn't have to deal with the garage door without power.  The snow as beautiful sticking to everything.  There as about 6 inches of it. 

But when I got to the pine trees this was blocking the way.

So I backed back up the driveway to the house. (I actually didn't drive all the way to the tree;  I stopped as soon as I saw it and walked down to inspect the situation)

Anyway, I brought J with the chainsaw back to get the tree moved out of the way.

With the road clear, I headed on to work.  But when I called home that evening the phone wasn't working.  So now there was no power and no phone.  The power thankfully was restored on Friday around 2 pm.  And the phone came back on Saturday.  All just in time for round 2 - 5 more inches of snow Sunday morning! 
 

Meet Minnie

Well, that is what E wants to name her, short for Minerva.

She is a 4 month old, 1/4 Anatolian 3/4 Great Pyrenees cross.  As you can see from her markings, she got her looks from the Anatolian side.   Since Bumble is 11 1/2 years old now, we have been casually looking for a new puppy.  We finally found this one that had been raise with sheep and goats and not priced crazy high.  

She already weighs 43 pounds.  

We brought her home today and headed straight to the dog pen in the barn.  

We caught Maggie and let her have a closer look.  There was no aggression

so we turned Minnie out with Maggie.  

Still no aggression, just a lot of doggy sniffing.  

Ultimately, we decided to go with a pet goat to keep her company in the pen for a few days.  Once she seems more comfortable with us and her new home we will turn her out with the rest of the goats and dogs.  

Right now however, it is a standoff in separate corners.  
 

Car Camping Box

E starts a new short term job in Texas in a month.  She plans on driving there and visiting some family and friends along the way.  She is also planning on visiting several parks and camping with her car.  So she asked for a box to hold her stove and kitchen supplies.  

This is what I came up with. 

This was the drawing E presented to me with her idea of what she wanted.  I'm just saying, she is lucky to have gotten anything with that as a blueprint.  So here goes...

Stage one, the door opens to act as a little table.  There is a shallow top drawer and a deep middle drawer.  Maybe she would just need a surface to make a sandwich.  

But the main idea was a place for her camp stove.  Stage 2 pulls out the stove, but even with full drawer extensions, it wasn't far enough. 

So stage 3 pulls out the stove further so now it can be hooked to the propane tank. 

Stage 4 reveals a table area.  

Or the table can be flipped up to make it shorter.  

E came to test it all out.  

There was some trial and error with the stove but we finally figured out how to light it.  

E said it looked like Inspector Gadget made it.  I'll take that as a complement.  All the wood was scraps I have saved from various things.  I did have to buy the drawer glides.  That was something new for me to install.  It helped to watch a Youtube video.  Much better than trying to read the instructions.  Hope it works out for her car camping adventures. 

 

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

I have been waiting for the goats to come up around the house so I could give them the Christmas tree treat. 

Today was the day.

Whitey couldn't even wait until J let go of the tree.  

Oh no, here comes some competition. 

They really make it look tasty.  But that only led to more competition.  

Some fighting ensued. 

Soon the tree was engulfed.  Looks like we will have a tree carcass in a couple of days. 
 

New Year's Resolution

A couple of weeks ago I mentioned E wanting to move up on the eBird county list.  Well, she added a rock pigeon and is now tied for 5th in the county.  I decided for a New Year's resolution to try to make it on the list of top 100 for the county.  E said my stretch goal should be top 50.   So, I am starting with only birds I have seen in 2021. 

Can you even see this one though?  Hint, the Brown Creeper is to the right of the knot.  

There are lots of birds that visit the yard like this Song Sparrow. 

I just love the expressions on their little faces. 

A lot of my sightings are what eBird lists as "insidental"- birding not being your primary purpose.  I went to feed the calf at the barn and this hawk was trapped there.  It kept flying to the light panels and not out the door.  I got the door opened wide enough and he finally headed in the right direction and got out.    Now I am just waiting on E to come home and identify it for me.                                

I really do like using her old camera, there is just no point trying to take a bird picture with mine anymore. 

I picked a pretty difficult time of the year to start.  Yes, it helps that there are no leaves, but the cold, snow, and grey skies make it tough to go out.

But I have managed 22 species so far which puts me at #123 already.  I think I might be able to make my goal when we have a good weather day.  My problem though is not being able to identify them without a picture, and getting them to hold still long enough, well - they just don't. 
 

Coupon Saturday #53

Two scenarios again this week.

I needed a gallon of milk so I had to come up with $21 more dollars to use the $5 off $25.

The system shut down twice while I was trying to check out.  The first time it came back on the cashier said $9.50.  I said ring it up again.  Finally worked, $1.49 plus tax.  

Then the second one I did just because I could.  -7 cents plus tax.  But then I scanned my receipt on fetch and got another 75 cents back, so totally free.  $54 savings, I would really hate to be having to pay for this stuff.  Anyone need any Mucinex?  
 

Getting Vaccinated

You know this is for the cattle and not us.  

The calves have been weaned and are eating feed well.  It's almost time to send them out west to the feedyard.  

But first we needed to sort out the ones going from the ones staying.  We will keep back some replacement heifers and the smaller end of the calves. 

I think they look pretty good this year.  

Maggie came down to watch for a bit. 

It was nice to have E here to help.  

With her working the headgate, all I had to do was draw up 3 shots to give.  There was one bad thing that happened though.

You can see how much mud there is.  Well, we were trying to get some into the barn when a heifer stopped and spun in front of me flinging the nasty mud at and on me.  It even landed on my teeth.  I think I kept spitting for the next 15 minutes.  Just one of the hazards of working with livestock. 

Anyway, the rest of the work proceeded without incident.  Now they will be ready to go on their trip,  ETD Jan. 26th. 
 

Just Kit Sunday #164

Kit has been enjoying his time on the workbench.

In during the day, 

out at night.  Someone needs to be rested so they can patrol the grounds.