Cold and windy....

It's been a rather cold week around here, so far. The wind has been out of the Northwest (mainly) and highs in the lower 50's. Night time lows are down to the mid twenties. With the wind outside, it has been hard to do any "finishing touches" on the OUTSIDE of the barn, so a few things INSIDE the barn have been getting taken care of. Stalls, doors, panels, feeders, and general cleanup have been the rule this week!

This morning, I managed to clean up and sift the last two 5 gallon buckets of milo I got for free a couple of months ago. A neighbor had given us a puckup bed full as he was cleaning it out of his silo. He had planned on dumping it out on the ground. I sifted it through 1/4" screen and then through a smaller screen to get most of the dirt out of it. I had trouble finding a sifter that was the right size. Window screen and normal "kitchen" type sifters were to small (and expensive). I ended up going to Walmart and buying a desk top "in basket" in their office supply isle. It is just about the size of a 9x13 caqke pan and works GREAT. I have been feeding the milo mixed with corn (2/3 milo, 1/3 corn) to my chickens. The rest willbe ground and mixed with corn, wheat and dried bread for feed.

I took my tractor over to my neighbor's house this noon. We worked on cutting the FEL bucket down to a more useable size. I will try to get some photos tomorrow. I have the correct LOADER for my tractor, but the bucket was too large. We also welded a couple of chain hooks to the top lip so it would be easier to hook a chain up to. It sure looks different! I can at least see what is going on in the bucket now - before I could not. The part we cut off weighs over 100#, so it makes the front end lighter. I could tell by the way the tractor steered, that things were different.

A couple of days ago, I used some of the deer we ground to make Salami. It takes a day and a half to make it (it has to sit in the fridge for 24 hours), so it isn't a quick thing. I only made 4#, so it will go quick. I'll need to make more before too long! I could eat a LOT of it in one sitting. I have to "ration" myself, so it stays around longer!

We also got another deer Sunday morning! This one came with the skin on and included the back straps. Skinning is not a problem for us to do, though. This one wasn't QUITE as large as the other deer, but we still got several pounds of ground, and several bags of steak or roasts. My wife also canned another 14 quarts of meat.