Finally I’ve gotten rid of the terrible head cold and cough. I still have a residual headache from sinus yuck, but with a couple aspirin, that’s bearable. In fact, two days ago, I climbed the scaffold and stained the whole 13′ high knotty pine ceiling in the new living room. I did find a shortcut that helped a bunch. (And when you’re as scared of heights as I am, ANY time not up high is great!) I used a roller to roll the stain on, then smoothed it out nicely with a brush. It worked well, and sure cut down the time.

Our weather turned suddenly Spring, with temperatures in the high 40s and even 50s today. Will got the outdoor bug and jumped on the bulldozer to see if he could enlarge and deepen our spring catchment basin. Last spring he made a two foot deep, one pass basin and that stayed full nearly all summer. As he plans on using spring water, drawn by a gas pump, to water our gardens via a black poly water line, he decided he wanted more available water on hand at any one time. So he spent a couple hours scraping away snow, ice and frozen ground to expose unfrozen gravel underneath. Soon, the basin was more than 30′ wide and 40′ long, still about 2′ deep all over.

But as he started scraping it deeper, there was a POP and the dozer stopped. He had hit a small stump on the side of the track and it popped off. Now a bulldozer track weighs about 500 pounds, and couple that with deep snow, slippery mud and no place to work and you get an idea of what we did for more than three hours yesterday. Working with a come-along, three pry bars and a bottle jack, we released the grease in the track tensioner to get more slack, pried, jacked, pulled and generally dinked around. But slowly the track went back into place.

I went back to the house to wash up and Will, elated, jumped aboard to continue digging out our spring. But I was just home when there was this awful screech and the dozer shut off. A fan blade had bent and dug right into the radiator! I got there, just in time to see Will finish twisting it off so it wouldn’t do more damage. Then he jumped aboard and drove “Old Yeller” for home, amid clouds of radiator steam. Not good! Luckily, he got it parked before the engine heated up too bad.

So today, he’s pulled off the cast iron “nose,” the hood, and taken off the damaged radiator and fan. Last night I shopped around online, and was horrified at the $500 plus cost of a new aftermarket one…IF you can find one. Eeeek. Maybe it can be fixed? We’ve got a couple of calls in and are waiting. Meanwhile, anyone have a good used radiator for a John Deere 1010 crawler? Bulldozers are SO wonderful until they break down! Thank God for Will and his mechanical abilities. I’d be lost.

Readers Questions:

Electric fencing for horses

We are in the process of acquiring a horse for my daughter and this horse is not use to electric fencing. What would you suggest to do to get the yearling to appreciate the power of the electric fence and how long would you suggest for him to be in the barn before we let him out in the field for we don’t want to be chasing a horse cross country if they run.

Thanks and hope you are feeling better.

Michelle Chapin
Fresno, Ohio

Thank you, I am feeling much better. I really, really wish you were going to fence your yearling in with more fence than an electric fence. While I use one for dividing our pastures and for enforcing our wire fence, I wouldn’t want to depend on one totally for keeping a horse contained. I know that lots of people do, but I’m just not at all convinced that it will always keep the horse at home, especially when it becomes frightened and doesn’t see the fence before it hits it.

If you must use only the electric fence, use the wide white tape electric wire, and use three strands of it. The white tape is much more visible and stronger than a single wire.

To get the horse used to the electric fence, first make sure it’s working strongly. Then fence off a smaller area, say 50′x50′ next to the barn. Put the horse in the enclosure and tempt it by putting some feed right next to the fence, outside the enclosure. You want it to touch the fence with its nose, which will usually happen then. I would have a lead on the horse, in case it leaps forward, through the fence, instead of backing away. After a couple tries, the horse becomes a believer. Let it free in the enclosure during the day to experiment further.

Once it is used to the electric fence, bring it out into the larger pasture and lead it completely around the fence so it learns the boundaries. Horses remember better than most people give them credit for. By showing the boundary, you will drastically cut down the running-into-the-fence accidents. Then free the horse, but stay close by with a bucket of feed and a lead rope…just in case. Always put the new horse in the new fence in the morning so it has all day to get used to the fence. Then put it in the barn for the night for a few days’ trial. If all goes well, you should be fine. Good luck. — Jackie

Goat with a stillborn fetus

I just had a disaster in the goat barn. My French Alpine (first freshening) had a breech, stillborn fetus. The little doeling was carried to full term. I do not know what caused this, but perhaps due to a slip and fall she had about a month ago? The fetus’ skin had begun to break down and even the umbilicus was no longer attached.

I am milking my doe about every 3 hours and am giving her Bio-mycin injections (4 cc’s, sub-Q, every other day for three treatments). I am trying to make sure that all the necrotized placenta makes its way outside of her body! There isn’t much milk at all (have to throw it out right now anyway).

What are my chances that she will stay in milk? Or will I have to rebreed her? Oh, and there are no vets in my area that will deal with goats. I am on my own.

S. R. Foster
Lockwood, California

You might try asking one of the vets in your area for injectable oxytocin. You give this in the muscle of the top of her butt. This natural hormone both causes the uterus to contract (helping expel afterbirth pieces/fluids) and helps encourage milk letdown/production. If you could insert a uterine bolus into her uterus (if you don’t have a vet that will do it for you), that would also help expel putrid fluids and pieces of afterbirth and kill dangerous bacteria lurking in there.

Your doe probably will come into some milk production as time passes, but as she is young, this stress may severely diminish it this freshening. Hopefully you can breed her back this fall and have a happy kidding and lots of milk next year. — Jackie

Hopi Pale Grey seeds

I have been researching for a place to buy the Hopi Pale Grey squash seeds, you wrote about. Could you please tell me where I could find them.

PS your home is beautiful, I enjoy watching all you are doing.

Patricia Treadwell
Marshall, Michigan

Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds has Hopi Pale Grey squash seeds, as does Seed Dreams (gowantoseed@yahoo.com). Thanks. We love how our home is coming along but I will be glad when it gets more finished! — Jackie

Canning Italian sausage

I was interested in canning home made fresh Italian sausage (hot and sweet) but have been unable to find directions on line. I have a new pressure canner which I would use.

Sandy Barber
Deming, New Mexico

I have not had much luck canning sausage in casings but have had great results canning sausage patties. Just lightly brown them until they shrink. Then stack them in a wide mouth pint jar. Make a broth from the pan drippings and ladle that over the patties, leaving 1″ of headspace. Process the pints at 10 pounds pressure for 75 minutes. It’s best to go lightly with seasonings in sausage you plan on canning; some seasonings get stronger and sage sometimes gets bitter. Otherwise, sausages can up real nice. — Jackie

Raising chickens

I have a 12 New Hampshire Red hens that have been laying since October last year. I really want 2 or 3 of them to sit on a clutch and hatch some more chicks to increase the size of our flock. I have 3 roosters that appear to be doing their job from looking at the backs of the hens. Two questions. what do I do to protect the backs of the hens, some of them are starting to show skin? Second, do I just stop collecting eggs for a couple days from 2 or 3 of the nests and see who keeps sitting on them?

Clint Johnson
Kennard, Nebraska

Three roosters may be a bit too many for 12 hens; i.e. naked backs. But your hens are fine, as long as they don’t begin to show scratches and deep cuts from their love affairs. Yes, just stop collecting eggs from a couple of the nests. Chances are that in a few days or a week, one of your girls will get broody and begin sitting. If she has more eggs than she can neatly cover with her feathers, take a few out. Usually a larger hen can set about a dozen eggs, give or take a few. To stop other hens from trying to get into the setting hen’s nest, put a netting over the opening for a few days after the hen is sitting all the time. The others will then leave the nest alone and you should be able to take the netting down so the setting hen can get a drink or eat as she wishes. In the mean time, offer her water and food in the nest. — Jackie

This entry was posted on Monday, March 16th, 2009 at 1:22 pm and is filed under Animals, Building, Food Preservation, Gardening, Self-sufficiency. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.