Glenn's Underground Cabin Update

[Redoverfarm]

Although appealing raising dairy cattle is a 24/7-365 X 2 .  A family of two would be hard pressed to use all the milk produced by a solitary cow.  Now if you wanted to increase your family you could probably use it all up.  

Yes Andrew you could probably set your clock by the udders when they are on a tight schedule.  They will start even though you might not be ready.   

[glenn kangiser]

That is udderly out of the way I do things, John.   I am not a great fan of punctuality.   

Milk mustache.... not me... I have a hard time with milk since I had to deliver it on my dad's milk route as a kid.  We had to use the older milk sometimes and too many times have hoisted a jug to my nose and got that whiff of sour milk.

:barf

The vomit reflex kicks in immediately.....

I just can't stand the smell....  but... fresh or Ice Cream  is fine. 

[speedfunk]

neat railing glenn.. to code? WHAT!!!!!!!!!!!!   

[glenn kangiser]

Very close to code, Jeff.... considering it's me, I think they would give it to me..

[Ernest T. Bass]

I can't stand sour milk either.. That's where our cats come in. We're getting around 7 gallons a day and could actually use more if we wanted to crank out cheese a little faster..

Maybe a goat would be more up your ally. Their almost as hard to fence as your beef cows..

[Sassy]

We had a goat - her name was "Cupcake" and she was a Houdini - also thought she was a human - quite the character - unfortunately, something got her...  

[glenn kangiser]

It is possible, Andrew.

I suppose I could train Spike to milk a goat, as he is here nearly all of the time.



....but fencing... the Inspector - our old dead goat, taught the sheep how to get out...... they may need a better fencemaster than me. 

[Ernest T. Bass]

I suppose I could train Spike to milk a goat, as he is here nearly all of the time.

Heey, now there's an idea!

Yeah, now I remember reading about your goat... She was a pretty amazing animal if she could teach anything to a sheep. We're lucky if we can teach our lambs to eat...

[glenn kangiser]

After she showed the sheep how to get out, we could never keep him in.

We had to tie him up for the rest of his life.  I think he had brain damage as he would go into uncontrollable rages and smash everything in sight.  He died on the end of his rope in a fit of rage when he came to the end of it and snapped his neck.  I don't suggest getting a ram for eating brush - or any other reason if avoidable......

[Ernest T. Bass]

Yeah, I'll second the motion... Our last ram really had a vendetta against our young calves last year and kept jumping the fence to pummel 'em. We thought we had finally made our fence ram-proof last winter when he managed to jump it during the night once more and broke the leg of our only heifer calf. Needless to say he didn't score many points with us... Despite our best efforts to cast the break with a pvc pipe, that cow is going to have a crooked leg the rest of her life...

[glenn kangiser]

My son came to visit once and parked his truck near where the ram was tied.  When we came back the side of the truck had ram head dents in several places.

They can be fine one second then breaking your leg or be trying to kill you then next second, with no reason.  I mashed him in the head with my fist or my boot more than once to protect myself. 

I'll take a goat over a Ram any day.

[considerations]

We had goats when I was little.  Every morning, out to the barn to line them up for milking.  Then back to the house for b-fast and off to school. The ram kept the goats in milk, and my dad in fence maintenance mode.  That ram gussied up for the does in heat by peeing on his chest ruff.  Odiferous is an understatement.

His behavior was ok unless one of the does was in the mood, then he was unstoppable.  Even the electric fences would not contain him.  He'd step into them, take the jolt, get a little farther, take the jolt, until he got through.  Kept the girls in milk and kids, but all the little boy goats that were born got "whethered". 

We had great cheeses and milk. My first remembrance of school lunch milk was that it was sweet and watery....turned out it was just cow's milk, which we had at home, but Mom saved it for baking, etc.

Great weed eaters, they cleared a lot of land for us.   

It was the herd leader doe that was aggressive with me.  'Course I was about 5 and she outweighed me by a bunch...and was plenty smart.  I had to walk through the main barn paddock to feed the chickens every day.  The does spent the night in the paddock.  She had her eyes on that can of chicken scratch, and knew she was bigger than me.  She honed her strategy over time and finally the day came when she got me cornered.  Mom heard me (screaming, I'm sure) and looking out the kitchen window, thought we were playing.  Right.

Eventually I got over the fence and back to the house.  The bite marks and bruises were enough to convince Mom that I wasn't imaging it when I had been telling her that "Clara Bell doesn't like me". From then on we fed the chickens together. 

[glenn kangiser]

What an experience.  Nothing like being a kid with a goat that didn't like you.   Great story.

I never really thought about the proper name for a male goat, but apparently he is a buck.   I always called them a billy goat.  We had pygmy goats years ago - maybe he was the one we named Buckwheat....  hmm   

Never had any to milk but we used to get goat milk from some people who lived nearby.....well, not actually from the people but from their goats....they milked them.

The Dodge Ram is named after the ugly smelly - pees on himself too- sheep. 

I guess if we had EM at the time we had the sheep or the goats, we could have pretty much eliminated the smell, but it is a bit of an ignored but slowly growing technology here in the US..... Glad Myo taught us about it.

[Sassy]

Considerations, that reminds me of when I was 3 or 4 y/o - our ewe had twins in the middle of winter in Ohio & died so we bottle fed the babies - the male was my older brother's & female was mine.  One day we were out playing w/the lambs when the male decided to buck me & knock me down.  I guess I just got up & bucked him right back   

That must have been awful scary being cornered w/a biting, pushing goat!  They're pretty tough. 

I used to have to go w/my mom to collect the eggs from our 100 chickens because she was scared of them.  They never pecked me, they were my friends, I used to carry them around & swing w/them... 

[considerations]

"That must have been awful scary"

I bounce back well.  It was scary, but the vast majority of animals I come into contact with don't go there.  She just had my number and she knew it.  I still like goats. They are generally quite smart and seem to have a wide range of personalities.   

Anyway I'm still looking for the perfect farm animal, one that you can ride to town, lays eggs, grows wool, gives great steak, and produces sweet milk.   

I spend a lot of time with various animals...more time than I spend with people -not on purpose, just worked out that way.

This morning the juncos were hovering around the living room window looking for me. The feeders were empty. 

[Redoverfarm]

"That must have been awful scary"

I bounce back well.  It was scary, but the vast majority of animals I come into contact with don't go there.  She just had my number and she knew it.  I still like goats. They are generally quite smart and seem to have a wide range of personalities.   

Anyway I'm still looking for the perfect farm animal, one that you can ride to town, lays eggs, grows wool, gives great steak, and produces sweet milk.   

I spend a lot of time with various animals...more time than I spend with people -not on purpose, just worked out that way.

This morning the juncos were hovering around the living room window looking for me. The feeders were empty. 

That I would like to see.

[glenn kangiser]

Warm days lately and a bit of fertilizer are making the rice in the greenhouse grow pretty good.  About up to my waist.  Here is a shot of it from this morning.



Hoping to get started on the hydroponics soon.  I have already ordered my nutrients from Hydrogardens in Colorado.  I researched several places the first time I did it and found that their nutrients got me the most for my money.  They supply the minor nutrients or different mixes and instruct you on formulas for using some of the heavy nutrients that you can purchase locally.  They also have some complete formulas as well as a great catalog full of helpful information.

http://www.hydro-gardens.com/index.htm

[Ernest T. Bass]

Ohh, don't let my mom see that.. We're just about out of green food from our garden here and she's going through withdrawal..

[glenn kangiser]

We have a bit of perpetual garden here, Andrew.

Picked two heads of fresh cabbage this morning and Sassy made fresh Berrocks tonight.  We also have lots of Swiss Chard and quite a bit of Brocolli.  The heads of green cauliflower - or possibly broccoflower are beginning to form - don't remember exactly which one they are.

Some various colors of lettuce, rhubarb is starting to grow, tons of volunteer carrots - some may be edible - some onions - some fennel - red and green cabbage- some celery if I didn't destroy it all planting the new rhubarb....

Then there are lots of bags of frozen stuff that Sassy put up last summer and fall.

Have your mom drop by...

[glenn kangiser]

Picked a pan full of fresh broccoli tonight.  We had harvested the big heads of it earlier, but leave the plants in the ground so that they put on a lot of smaller heads or  flower-lets  all over it.  Takes a bit to pick them but the still taste great....especially in February....[ouch]

Spent several hours today getting the sawmill running again... condensation in the gas tank and the crankcase was giving me a few fits.   A distant neighbor from the next town up had been given my number by the local lumberyard as someone who had a sawmill and could cut a special beam for him out of one of his own trees.  

Great... it was a good excuse to figure out what was wrong with the sawmill as well as make $20 for my lunch tomorrow.  Turned out he is a friend of Whitlock's after we got to talking a bit anyway.  

Also found out that he uses EM on his ranch in South Dakota? I think it was.  He told me of a way to make 300 gallons at a time using a water heater element and thermostat.  Keeping it on low he is able to insulate the 300 gallon cube and keep it around 100 degrees as needed for good fermentation....and he also drinks it.  

[ben2go]

Good work Glenn.Looks like you've lost weight and beard.I found them and you can have them back anytime. 

[Sassy]

Good work Glenn.Looks like you've lost weight and beard.I found them and you can have them back anytime. 

He's always running up & down the mountains chasing cows, building fences or prospecting...  it's amazing he isn't skin & bones! 

He's been keeping his beard trimmed better since we've been getting all the foreign students/professionals visiting...  he doesn't want to scare them too much    although he still wants to keep the wild mountain man look...   

[glenn kangiser]

You can keep the weight Ben, but I need the hair......

I many times have to eat two bowls of Ice cream for dinner just to be sure I don't waste away to nothing......

One of those days today ..... working in the bay area trying to put up a complicated set of steel stairs while the contractor who scheduled me also scheduled a grading contractor to work right where I have to work.... not like I have a choice... and he did not pour the concrete where it was supposed to be either so I am propping things up - welding braces to steel columns  ...welding nuts on to anchor bolts to get grade, etc. and they can pour the concrete after I am done.....

Its going in there one way or the other as my customer desires...and the builder wants that too --- just doesn't know how it will get done.... but it will get done...... I guess that's why they love me....

[glenn kangiser]

You want me to put it WHERE?  





Haven't been working on the house at all since I went on a two day job in the bay area,  and it has taken 3 1/2 and....I got kicked out of town today by the cops before I finished, as well as having added work for the general contractor that I haven't started.....

Two noise complaints... who me? 

At the start I thought it was nearly impossible....so I knew it would take longer ..... [ouch]



Oh well.... looks like I'll go back Tuesday and finish a few things on my project then do the other one I hope.

Whoda thunk there would be a city ordinance against working on weekends....


Guess I'm just a lowly working class peasant harassing the fine upper middle class city folk.......

I'm so ashamed....

[ben2go]

Only in California would there be such an ordinance.