December

Well, today is Saturday, the 18th of December. Hard to believe this month is almost gone and the year with it. Worked at Mcd today and have the next 2 days off.
We get mystery shops once a month or so and if you get a good enough score you get a bonus. Well, lucky me, I got shopped Thursday and we got the bonus!! Just what you need at Christmas.

So I got me a gas smoker off Craigs list yesterday. It is used, but they took really good care of it, doesn't look too old and they said they upgraded. So I'll be having smoked turkey for Christmas.
Got on here to look and see if I had written down when I put the turkey eggs in the incubator, but obviously didn't. So I'm expectignthem to hatch between now and Christmas. Think I have most of them sold when they hatch.
There are some pen things I want to get to use for turkey houses, but can't get around to them yet. I have 2 assignments left to complete for my degree, and then put it all together in a Teacher Work Sample (TWS) and I'll be done with my school. Plan to go to Utah in early February and graduate. From college. Imagine that!!

Sunday 5 December 2010

Last day of hunting season. Got up about 530am, got dressed and went out into the brisk 22 degree weather and the wind and went looking for deer. Lasted a few hours and saw nothing, so I came back in and got warm. Maybe next year. Yeah, maybe next year I’ll have better clothes to wear out there. And maybe next year I’ll have a better idea of where they are and when. And maybe next year I can put in some kind of ground feed to help attract them and keep them on the property. Or at least bring them here long enough to shoot one. Sad I know.

Monday 6 December 2010 Worked on school work, and had a managers meeting at McD. Not much has really changed there. Not sure if it is good to be back or not, and still way too much drama for me.

Jeanne and I decided we are going to get married in early February and then take a trip down to San Antonio for our honey moon. We will take the kids with us, guess that is only right. We were going to go to Corpus Christi and the beach, but the Spurs play the Dallas Mavericks then so we will go to that. And the Zoo and maybe some other stuff. We’ll take about 2 days there, then come back. We may take the next day and drive to the beach anyway. Non one here has ever been to the beach, so that will be great. But it could be cold, so we’ll see how it turns out. Jeanne said something about her van making noises. Maybe her alternator going out. Watched the movie “Pearl Harbor”

Tuesday 7 December 2010

Got up this morning and she said something about that was the noise her van was making. Oh and we got up late because I turned the alarm off yesterday. As in “Turned it off.” Not just disabled it for today. So she started about 15 minutes late. Then she called me and said the van died. Actually, the alternator belt broke and she was going to try to get to mom’s. So I went in and looked at it, and replaced the belt. Turned out to be the AC compressor froze. And that costs about $225 or so. But the have a by-pass pulley for $35 that you put on in place of the compressor to hold tension on the belt and then keep running. So she took the rest of the day off, and followed me home in my van. The water pump runs off the belts also, so the temp stayed rather high. Coasting down hills helped. And the power steering doesn’t work. Just outside of Springfield a Coyote came running across the highway and I couldn’t miss him. Got him with the passenger tire. She was following me and almost hit him, too.

So I’m off to work tonight (close) then off again tomorrow and she’ll bring the part home and I’ll try to replace it. I think my van is doing alright, and hers isn’t too bad. They just both need some TLC and maintenance and they should do alright for a while longer. We need to get something that gets better mileage and is more reliable for her to drive back and forth to Springfield. Who knows, next year we both might be driving someplace, or I could get a job here in Buffalo and she might look for something closer. So we’ll see that happens.

Wednesday 8 December 2010

Took the AC compressor off the van. Not the easiest thing to do. Then put the bypass pulley on, only to find out that the belt is just an inch too short to fit over all the pulleys. And not sure where I would have put the compressor anyway. So did some checking And it sure looks like the electric clutch froze up but the compressor is still good. The clutch costs $120. So she got that and brought it home.

Friday 10 December

Put the new clutch on clutch on, and it doesn’t seem to work right, like it is binding. And making it hot. Fear it will seize up also. But it got me out to the farm to check eggs and feed the birds. Got 4 more turkey eggs. Then went in to work from 1-9pm. When I got off we candled the eggs in the incubator. There are 6 that are definitely developing, 4 that haven’t been in long enough to tell and 4 that I just put in.

If I get all my paper work done in time to get my graduation notice by 7 January 2011, then in February we’ll drive to Utah and attend the graduation ceremonies. If not, the next ones are in July. Not sure why, but it would be nice to actually participate in a graduation ceremony.

Saturday

Went out and covered my cabbage plants with a plastic tent. Supposed to get really cold tonight and want to see how this helps them. They are starting to get small heads on them, but nowhere near enough to eat yet.

More Pictures of Birds

These are some of the pens we went and looked at last weekend. Well, we went to take the Black Tom and to look at the guys pens so I could get ideas for building new ones for myself.

He had a lot of birds, and a lot of different kinds of birds, too. Funny thing was, a few days later he had my Tom listed for sale. Not sure what the deal is. He only wants what he paid for it, claims his wife is getting him a tom for Christmas or some such thing. Who knows. Not my bird any more. And he was the one came looking specifically for a Black Tom, because we were going to eat it for Thanksgiving, but he wanted it. So why not sell it?

Back home.

The birds have taken to hanging out under a brush pile just beyond the back yard near the hay barn. Not sure what draws them out there. I can still see them from the back yard. Maybe it is that there is more grass and less mud and such like there is in the yard. I've been letting them run in the yard trying to save their run area for when it gets worse, but looks like they may have already trashed it. So they go out there and sit in the grass and soak up the sun. I think.

And so far nothing has bothered them. Not sure how much of an actual fight the geese or the tom would put up, but they surely wouldn't just roll over. And there would be lots of noise.

OK, the first pic is of some of my hens in the brush.

The second is actually one of my roosters. He has a small comb, but rooster still the same.

This is the brush pile and if you look close you can see them all back under the brush.

This is pretty much all the turkeys I have left. You can see the red tom and one red hen, the black and white tom, the 3 black hens and 2 of the slates. The little one right in front of the red tom is a chicken that has been adopted or something and hangs out with him all the time.

This is 4 of the 5 geese. They usually run with every one else. You can see a few chickens in the back ground. They are separate, but in the same area as the others. And they always go as a group. The fifth one was just to the right and didn't get in the picture.

Well it is the second of December already. Hardly seems like it so far. It was cold the other day and should get cold again, but today and tomorrow are supposed to be in the fifties. Nice out compared to other days. But then it is supposed to get colder, with highs in the low 30s and lows in the low 20s or teens.

Went out “hunting” a few times. That means dressing up and taking the gun out in the woods to freeze. There are tracks but I haven’t seen any deer. And this weekend is the end of the season. Last year I got my deer, my FIRST deer on the morning of the last day of the season. So who knows? I just want to make jerky out of it anyway. Sure made some good stuff.

Don’t have as many birds left. Which is nice because now my feed lasts a little longer. Took the camera out and took pictures of them. The first one here is the old red tom and the new red hen that I will pen up with the 2nd red hen. You can see the slate hen in the picture, too. In the second picture is the red tom with the other red hen, the one I had last year. In that picture you can also see the new black and white tom.

The next picture is the black and white tom by himself. I'll pen him up in another pen with 2 or 3 hens with him.

I have 2 slate hens and 2 black hens. And I wonder what the poults from the black hen and the tom would look like. The reds will be for breeders. I’ll try to raise several pairs to sell. They are pure breed, and they should do well on the market. The others are going to be for dinners. And so who really cares what they look like? But I’m going to try to see what kind I get and maybe something will come out of it. If nothing else a great looking bird. More than anything, the looks is what I’d be going for. I’d like to get big birds too, but that isn’t as easy as it sounds.