May 31, 2008

ot, hot, hot day! Ok.. maybe just two hots. I had a spare couple of hours this evening so I worked on the hog pen and got some things done in the chicken house which I have wanted to do. I discovered although I drained the hog waterer this past fall, there still must have been some water in the lines as there are cracks, so I need to replace that hose. The hogs were very hard on equipment and housing  last year. So between them, the tree falling and taking out part of the fence, gate and barn, it took a bit of ingenuity on my part and recycling things to get it in order again today. It may actually look better (and more solid) than when I first moved here. I made sure that everything was on the pigs side of the shed. So when they push against it, like pigs are apt to do, that they are pushing it 'onto' and not 'off' the uprights. I have to get the other gate from a friend's house and then it will be ready for the pigs. I might have to get some help to sink a post for the gate however as I still do not have huge amounts of upper body strength to sink a pig-proof heavy wooden post. I may come up with an alternative system.

'Crystal' does not seem to be her usual self today. Nothing pinpointing to anything wrong in particular, so I will keep an eye on her.. she is pretty old though. My Broad Breasted Bronze turkey hen has now decided to go broody. She is sitting on a large amount of chicken eggs. I have not counted how many, but a schwack of them are tucked under her I am sure.

The mosquitoes have started to go amuck. I have mosquito netting to put over my bed (much like that picture) and I should get to that soon. I slept with the covers over my head the other night when a couple got into my bedroom in the late hours. I used to have it over my bed every summer, then moved my bed, so now I have to find a new place to screw the hook to hang it from the ceiling. I want to make sure I get it into something solid, like a beam and not just gyprock.

It is funny, the cow and goat love having the anti-mosquito wipe (recipe in one of the past DTTR issues) put on them, but the horse runs from it like it is the worst thing on the face of the earth. This is also the horse who freaks out over a tube wormer, but doesn't twitch an ear if you stick her with a syringe needle. Silly thing.

For myself, although the act of applying the bug wipe to the animals should have sufficed, I broke out the Buzz Away for myself today to spray my hair when I was working on the hog pen. Each year I manage to get bit where my hair part is. I have done side-by-side tests with this while trout fishing. My fishing buddy used DEET products and Buzz Away won to keep the Blackflies and mosquitoes at bay.