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Holy cow
Finally got some free time.
We ended up passing on the biggest of the second crop. It turned out to be less than sparse.
Not the best year for second crop in most places.
I bought 22 acres of standing alfalfa that Tammy and I got made. It turned out pretty good but not as thick as I'd hoped.
Still we should have enough for all the goats till next year.
I never got our corn sprayed so it turned quite weedy. I turned the big steers loose in it and it kept them fed while their pasture tried to recover from lack of moisture.
Been busy making firewood, keeping snow pushed, and keeping the animals happy.
Our goats are doing well but we are down to 2 milking. We get a gallon a day. We are drying off Misty so will have to rely on pretty Petunia to keep us supplied.
The young ones are looking very good.
I built an 8x10 shed and stuck it next to the garage and cut a hole in the wall so their pen is 7x13 plus the shed.
I added a lean to on the chicken coop for a feed room. Got the walls insulated and hung silver backed foam for a ceiling. Not the warmest cuz I keep the hatch open so they can go out but I think later we will close it all up and gather all the birds and put them in there. We have quite a few that are hanging out in the goat barn including all 8 guineas that made it through the summer.
I was hoping to be out of the rabbit business this summer but somehow a load of lionheads showed up.
Down to 2 old meat does and the lionheads. We'll see if we can breed the lionheads and try to turn them around for a few bucks.
We traded a bunch of our meat chickens, some ducks, and a couple of rabbits for firewood this fall.
We also sold 3 halves of beef off our steers this year instead of just 2. Our freezer was pretty full from the pigs yet and one half was all we could squeeze in even after giving some to the folks.
We gave most of our ducks to our friends. Not much market for them near as I can tell....
Found a brand new flat rack at an auction for a decent price. I put it on a wagon gear I dug out of the weeds around our shed. Needs new tires but it should hold some bales. Got most of my stuff under roof this year which is nice for the machinery.
Have 4 little Holstein heifers and 2 steers in the cow lot this winter. The first crop we made should be plenty for them.

Just have to keep the driveway to the shed open so I can get it up here for them.
Overall a very busy but good year.

sammyd on 12.24.09 @ 05:45 AM CST [link]