Shari’s Gone Country

I know, I’m digressing from life on the farm, but it’s a necessary side trip, not some rabbit trail.

Have you been to Change.gov yet? President-elect Barack Obama sincerely wants to hear from you. He wants to know your concerns, and your vision for our country.

I don’t care if you voted for him or against him, this guy is asking for our help. For the first time im my lifetime (some 62 years), the guy in charge really wants to know what we think… and I believe if enough of us tell him, he’ll get it!

So far, I’ve relayed my feelings about this “bailout” stuff, telling him he needs to put it directly into our hands, so WE can get out of debt and become more prudent about credit. I explained that keeping us in debt is like servitude and that’s a very dangerous, depressing position.

I’ve also laid out my vision for energy independence for rural America, based on the old REA concept. As I flesh out my vision, I’ll blog about it here, and maybe you can help me promote the whole idea.

So, here’s what you need to do… go to Change.gov and give him a piece of your mind. Lay out your vision on any of the various areas you choose. It could be energy, the economy, health care, education, security, or our “worldly” image. Then, come back and tell my you’ve been there.

If you want to share what you told him, I’m happy to let you do so in the comment section. Who knows, I may even pick up and write about it.

After having been “weathered out” over that one weekend, we returned to remove the roof boards, rafters and finally down to the walls. That took three of us (Clyde, Cindy and me) the entire week. Most of the 12 foot or better roof boards were salvaged as were all the rafters (nicely notched), the beams, and the headers. Most of the boards on the walls were in pretty sad shape.

We were able to save several of the studs. Now, all this lumber is the “old stuff” meaning if it’s a 2 x 4, it really is 2 inches by 4 inches as opposed to today’s wood that is 1 1/2 by 3 1/4 for a “2×4″. All the bigger stuff is rough sawn, too.

Once we had the walls off, it was time to go to work on the floor. The top floor was a “lap style” rather than tongue and groove, so once we figured out where to start, it came apart quite nicely. We saved quite a bit of it. The sub-floor was laid diagonnaly and is “yellow pine” of quite poor quality. We saved what we could, but will most likely use it for firewood.

Now, about those railroad ties…

This barn is 12′ x 16′ and the ties are stacked 9 high. We agreed to split the number of ties with Clyde as his payment. Besides he’s the one who was in the cellar taking them apart and lifting them out. I was on the “nail removal” crew, as they were way too heavy for me. Believe me, they had plenty of nails, some very large and others smaller.

Things wouldn’t have been too bad, except for the one morning being about 25 degrees with a 15-20 mph North wind. My nose wanted to run down the street! It was cold and miserable and every time I bent over, the cold took my breath… not to mention my nose wanted to run away.

The second day of tie removal was better… NO WIND. Still cold, if not colder, but no wind.

By Thursday, we had the entire barn apart and some of it ready to come home. We’d been kind of sorting the lumber as we were dismantling. There are piles of “firewood” with nails, clean boards to be saved, studs and rafters to be saved that still have nails, and of course… the railroad ties. All told there were better than 50 8′ ties and maybe 20 or so “shorties”. Those are generally about 4′ long.

When you have to buy railroad ties, they cost at least $15 a piece and more than likely you’ll pay $20-25 each, so those have all been hauled home and safely stored. Friday, we took both the old Ford and the Avalanche, while Clyde and Amber brought their pickup and a trailer. Our original plans had gotten a little fouled up when another neighbor had to make a quick trip to Calilfornia with his 16′ flatbed trailer. We had been promised that trailer, but understand there are emergencies.

This next week we still have to haul the rest of the wood home. I think we’ll bring home wood with nails and work on it here (at our leisure), as well as all the other stuff. Bev wants to get started on the addition to the chicken coop while we still have good weather.

A couple weeks ago, Bev and Cindy saw a “Free to a good home” sign… it was “you tear it down and you can have all the wood, for free” deal…

So, we’re tearing down a small old barn, complete with a small loafing shed and a full “root cellar” lined with old railroad ties.

We began by asking our neighbor, Clyde, for his expertise. Last thing we want is an accident, like pulling the wrong boards first. He agreed to join us this past week to help get us started.

First, we “rescued” anything that was salvageable inside the barn. That included three old doors, two of which are solid wood and beveled glass 36″ exterior doors. We also found a lot of junk which we loaded onto the pickup for a trip to the dump. We also found 10 dresser drawers which we can use for things like “nest boxes” for the chickens. In the mean time, they’ll be great for storing the old cedar shakes… aka “fire starter”.

Then, it was time to start demolition. We started by removing the tin roof. It was in pretty bad shape, but we think some of the tin will work on our horse stable.

We were able to remove all the side boards from the loafing shed before letting the rest of that structure collapse. It was held by only a couple of nails, so we had to be pretty careful, as the neighbor’s chain-link fence was only about a foot away. Using ropes to pull, Cindy, Bev and I applied pressure away from the fence as Clyde pried the loafing shed from the barn. Within just a minute, we had the rest of the roof (cedar shakes and roof boards) on the ground.

Later in the week, Clyde started on the roof, removing several layers of asphalt shingles. Bev and Cindy got there in time to remove their share, and pile all of it up. Another neighbor will be filling in the hole later, so we’re stacking the shingles to be dumped into the hole.

This past weekend, we got weathered out, experiencing about 1 inch (10% of our total rainfall) in just 24 hours. Fortunately, we’ve brought home the drawers (loaded with all the cedar shakes) and the usable side boards and doors.

Oh, while we were at the dump, we saw a fellow dumping half sheets of OBS plywood. After a quick chat, they were diverted onto our truck, and we were off to his place to round up more plywood. In all, we salvaged about $150 worth of plywood that’s good enough to use on the addition to the chicken coop and shelves in the basement.

But wait… we’re not done yet!

Clyde and Amber put a bug in our ear about FREE POTATOES. Yeah… it’s a “gleaning operation”. The big potato farmer has mechanically harvested his potatoes and the field is now available to all the “locals” to hand pick the leftover potatoes. Bev and Cindy stopped by today and gathered up about 30 pounds. Friday we’re all going back for more as the farmer still has two more fields to harvest. Sure helps on the grocery bill!

Last week, one of our dear neighbors needed a week off to go north to be with her hubby who is a school principal in Altamonte. That’s about a 6 hour drive or so. They spend their summers here, and then the whole family goes north for the winter. With our awesome weather, their garden isn’t quite ready to leave for the winter, so Jill stayed behind to get things finished.

She asked if we would feed the goats, sheep, chickens, cats and dogs. Of course, we’d be happy to… and that meant learning how to milk the last two nanny goats. So, a week ago last Friday night we went to learn how to milk goats.

I’d milked a few cows as a kid, but I was much skinnier then, and the “old bones” weren’t as stiff either. Cindy got the hang of it right away, even she was only milking “one handed”. She preferred to hold onto the bucket with the other hand. As for Bev, well the flies were a problem so she declined on the milking task.

Here’s the really good news. All the milk went back to the animals. The cats and dog got several saucer-fulls. There were three orphan kids to feed, and they weren’t real shy about letting you know they were ready. Then the chickens got whatever was left.

In my opinion, the sanitation could have been better, but that would have added to the job. Because the animals got the milk, there was no washing or even rinsing of the buckets (plastic pails), bottles, or pans. This system works for this neighbor, as she has rarely ever had a sick animal as a result of lack of sanitation.

Feeding the goats was a challenge as the kids could get through the cattle panels with no problems. So here we are, pawing around a haystack, determining which flakes have no mold (a common problem with hay that’s a year old), and trying to throw it to the right place, while we have three or four kid goats “helping”. They were in our faces, on our backs and in general just really pesky.

The first night, I tackled the milking. Both goats know the routine by heart… Sure wish I did!. I got the first gal out and she climbed onto the primitive stanchion kinda’ sorta’ looking at me as if to say…”Hey stupid! Where’s my grain?”

I was getting it… just not fast enough. I barely got her collar hooked to keep her in place!

On to the task of milking. You probably imagine me (all 250 lbs of me) sitting on a little stool, just doing my thing. Well, instead of stool, it was a cinder block, not quite as high as a stool. Folding my legs under caused them to “go to sleep”… not good when you have to stand up. Finally, I stretched one leg to behind the goat, risking she’d back off the stanchion and and step on me. The other leg really had no where to go, but into kind of a “half crossed leg” position.

The wind was blowing about 20 mph, and the flies were still atrocious. Oh, and it was about 80 degrees!

I got enough milk to hand the bucket off to Cindy to get the first bottle filled. Oops, the wind blew the bottle over just as she was pouring… Someone’s gonna have a short dinner. We repeated this process a couple of times, getting just enough milk to feed two of the kids and the dog.

Second goat… named “Schizophrenic”… get the picture? Flies kinda freak her out, so I had still more spilled milk. Oh yes, and I wore plenty of it, too. Even the kids Cindy was feeding were wearing their milk as they pulled the nipple right off the bottle!

And this was just the first night… It was gonna be a long week.

Cindy’s experience wasn’t much better at first. But we all agreed, it was more sensible for her to milk, and for me to feed. Bev joined us after the first night and we split the chores. I’d head for the chickens to feed, water and collect the eggs, returning the eggs to the truck so we could take those to the house. Bev would head for the hay stack to feed the various goats and sheep. Cindy would immediately begin milking.

We’d trade off the watering depending upon who had how much to do when it came to getting hay distributed, etc. I pretty much handled feeding the three kid goats. Two of them always came to the fence for their bottles and a third one had to be “coaxed” from the hay. I hardly ever had to really try to catch her… she learned right away that I was “good news”.

By the end of the week, three of us could do what the neighbor does… ‘cept it took us three times as long.

Like I said, our little boys had been sent to the holding pens awaiting their turn in the auction ring. Considering how they’d acted since being taken from their cushy surroundings, God only knew what they’d do in the ring.

Sheep and goats auctioned earlier would run around the ring. Some posed, as if to say… “I’m worth more money!” Others acted frightened, wanting only to escape through the rails, or out the wrong door. Most, however, seem to know “you go in this door, and out that door”, only pausing for about 30 seconds in the ring.

Our sheep refused to come into the ring voluntarily. They had to be pushed and prodded. Once there, the three of them huddled together for security as if to say… “If I hide my head, maybe all this stuff will quit happening.”

Picture this…

All the other sheep have been the classic Polypay or Suffolk breed raised around here. They’re all pastured and self-confident. Sure, there were a few “old gals” who looked pretty scruffy. There was also a small flock of lambs that looked as though they were closer to yearlings than lambs.

On the other hand, our “little” guys had been raised in a pen, with lots of personal attention. They weren’t bottle babies, but we spend a lot of time taming our animals to make them somewhat easier to catch and handle.

They were all black, and still had their gonads, two things that are considered major mark-downs at auction. Considering the prices for the other sheep were going in the neighborhood of 78 to 83 dollars per hundred weight, and knowing the mark-down (as much as $25/cwt), we figured if we got $50-60 per animal, we’d be doing well.

The first comments I heard from the old men behind us were… “4-H sheep!”…”I didn’t know anyone raised black on purpose!”. From a woman who manages a 1500 head sheep ranch… “You’re gonna lose $25 a head to price on them.”

And the bidding continued… 88, bid-a-bid-a-bid 89, 90, 91… 92, sold!

The buyer? The largest wholesaler at the auction, who had also purchased our ram (their daddy) a couple months earlier.

At $92/cwt, that was the highest price paid for any lambs since the day we took our ram to market. On that day, our neighbor got $99/cwt for his lamb crop.

With that, the ringmen shoved, pushed and otherwise pleaded with our boys to go through the “out” door. As for the old men… they were speechless.