Chicken Feed and Baby Cows

We had a jolly good weekend here on the farm.  We made a gravity feeder for our chickens out of a feed pan, a bucket and its lid, a bolt and a scrap of two-by-four.  Ready made – and without a lid – it would have cost over $40 dollars.  A farmer better stocked with miscellaneous junk probably could have done it for free.  We purchased the raw materials for $11 and spent about 15 minutes on the actual work.  Times two feeders, we netted a $60 savings.  Not bad!  Next week, we’ll make five-gallon water tanks for the slightly greater cost of $16, because I can’t figure out how to do it without the fairly expensive sealed and air-tight gamma lid, but we’ll still save about $25 per unit.

David was working under his truck Saturday and discovered that his universal joint was in desperate need of replacement.  He knew it was a cheap part, but he figured the work would best be hired out to a local mechanic…until he started googling instructions.  Sunday morning before Mass, he purchase the part and borrowed the tool he needed.  (Auto Zone loans out tools.  How cool is that?)  Sunday afternoon, he rolled his truck up on ramps and did the job in less than two hours himself, saving two billable hours of our mechanic’s time.

(We saved quite a bit of cash this weekend, didn’t we?)

Here’s our most exciting news, though, and I’ve been waiting a long time to mention it, just to make sure.  Two of our three female cows were in heat this weekend, which makes for a noisy farm as the ladies are not shy about bellowing for a fella when they’re in the mood.  It’s Ellie’s first heat since T-bone was born and we’ll be sure to have her bred at her next cycle in three weeks.  It’s Daisy’s third heat, but she’s only eight months old and can’t be bred till she’s fifteen months.  We’ll be waiting till she’s 18 months so we don’t have a winter calf.  The last cow, my beloved Maybelle, has not been in heat since we had her inseminated June 16, so we can probably assume she’s an expectant mama.  We’re very excited about that.  This will be our first start-to-finish calf out of our favorite cow.  If all goes well, we’re expecting it to be born around April 1.  Here’s hoping it’s another heifer!