February Has Returned.....

It looks as though our nice warm days of 50's and 60's have decided to fly south for the winter - again.

Today, the forecast is 30°, wind chills in the teens, and 4" to 8" of snow.

I never count snow until the storm is over, though. The Weather gypsies are pretty good at calling the temps but, usually are lacking when it comes to forecasting snowfall amounts. We will see how accurate they were, when this storm is all said and done.

Today sounds like a good day to go to the barn and clear some nails out of some old lumber. It's pretty much a "sit down job", so I can (hopefully) get several done. I still need to build some stall dividers for the goats, so this will be a good time for that.

Which brings me to an interesting subject.

Is it worth keeping all those used nails?

I know from personal experience, that you cannot use every single nail that you pull out. Some will be bent to unusable, some rusted, some heads will be broken, etc. I also know that nails are EXPENSIVE. We bought nails when we built our barn a couple of years ago. It cost us over $700 - nearly HALF of the cost of the ENTIRE building (salvaged materials....). If we had not used about a bucket full of used nails, then it would have been more. I don't fight with nails though, if they start to bend after I've straightened them, then I pull them out and get another.

I know that I have used a LOT of "pre-owned" nails over the years. I also use two buckets when I pull nails - one for good, one for bad. It helps the sorting process along....

I got a call last night from a gentleman who owns a farm near here. I had asked him about a few concrete culverts that he has laying in his pasture. I figured that they would be a nice addition to my "Goat Playground".

They are only the 12" type, but will still work, nevertheless. He told me that they were just gathering dust where they were at, so I might as well put them to good use.

I will take any of this type of items I can get! The goats LOVE playing on them. I guess it reminds them of their "mountain goat" ancestry. They THINK that they are some sort of wild goat, scaling the side of some foreboding cliff in the mountains of Asia.....

For me, it just means that my wife has lots of funny antics to take photos of....

Some of which are here.

As long as everyone is happy, and more culverts will help with that - then I'm all for it.