On Sunday, we went to see Herbies eldest and her family as it was Dakotas’ 4th birthday. We couldn’t go to the function they held for her on Saturday as Herbie was at work, so we drove over early on Sunday. After we’d left, Nanette texted me asking if I’d be interested in some old stained glass her Chad had rescued from an old house they’d renovated. Sure. Some of the glass was broken, and I asked my teacher today if it was a viable project to restore. She said yes on 4 of the doors, but the 5th, which doesn’t have a frame and looks as if it was driven over, she said isn’t workable - she wouldn’t touch it. But I think I could take the one row off, and make it smaller. It’s a lot of work - have to take them out of the frames, and the old caming is tin, not lead, so have to pry it off without breaking any of the other glass pieces. I was thinking they’d look great in my greenhouse. I could fit them on the back wall, the West-facing one.
Got home around 8:30 pm, and did my evening chores. The sheep were shouting, so I found the cows, in the lower barn enclosure waiting for me to give them the shredded beer pulp with molasses. I started giving them this every evening as the pastures have been poor in the bit of drought we’ve experienced, but it rained this past weekend and is expected to rain again tomorrow, so hopefully they’ll have fresh grass again shortly. Closed the lower barn gate after pouring out the shreds for them, then fetched a bucket of grain and opened the front lawn enclosure and the sheep shoosted out like bats out of hell, and all followed me to the back of the chicken yard where I poured their ration of sunflower seeds and corn on the ground and closed the gate behind me. I’d refilled their water trough, and that of the geese and water for the chickens after topping up the cows one in the channel.
The cows are so well trained :). I didn’t even have to call them tonight. But Gus hopped over the trough into the lower barn - I’d pushed it to the doorway so that they could eat without trekking mud into the lower barn, or pooping / pee’ing, but when I returned to pull the door down, Gus had pee’d in the lower barn :(. Well, there wasn’t any poop like they left for me yesterday.
This morning, the tractor started when I turned the key !! We’ve had to jump start it every time since I brought the top soil up from the end of our driveway. It’s a pain in the ass, drive the truck over to the tractor, open the bonnet, attach the farm jumper leads to the truck and to the tractors’ battery, go back around and start the truck, climb out, go around and climb up onto the tractors’ seat, start the tractor, jump down, disattach the cables, move the truck away from the way the tractor needs to go. I went out to the hayfield and picked up 2 bales, one for the cows, the other for the sheep. Wow, a 5ft bale is tall. I struggled to cover it with a tarp and then get the tyre on top to hold the tarp down. I picked up the yucky plastic, cut off the torn end, and draped the remainder over the back of the hay wagon after opening up the huge green tarp over the bed of the hay wagon to dry. We used both to cover our bales hay a few years ago so could use it again. But we’ll probably get the next cutting plastic wrapped.
I made knock-off Claussen pickles, and they turned out fabulously ! Plus I used my jar vacuum sealer on them so that they’re sealed without being water-bathed or canned. The vinegar keeps it from going bad, they’re refrigerator pickles, wonderfully crunchy. Now I need to go buy another bushel or 2 of pickling cucumbers and make more. Only filled 4 x quart jars - Herbie said he’d been eating them out of the jar !!