The last few days I have been on a sort of vacation. I'm not at my employers' establishment, but I am running my butt off! Hubster and I are cleaning out two garages and a basement room. These rooms are 40 year black holes. Everything that we haven't known what to do with has been sucked into them. Here is just a speck of the guest list: old computer printer, 8 track tape player, Playboy magazines, stereo speakers, bread machine (I was sure it could be fixed), bottles, a basket casket, cast iron wood burning stoves (yes, I do mean plural), a ten speed bike, rocking chairs, wicker chairs, tools, sad irons, baby bed, military memorabilia. We separate things into the trash pile, keep pile, and auction pile. I have been good about not bringing stuff back into the house. The picture of the young girl, goes. The little red wooden sewing rocker that is beautifully simple, goes. I already have 3 wooden rockers in my living room.
It is bitter cold here in Kansas. We are making extra preparations to keep our alpacas protected from the below 0 wind chill factors. Shelter for our females consists of a three sided carport. The shed is open to the east. There is a split down the middle with a gait on each side. Another gait in the middle is access to each side. When the wind blows snow around we get drifts inside. So we build a wall of hay bales over half the east opening. Hubster then wires the bales to the gait so the animals can nibble on the hay and won't pull it over. We have always had a heater inside the water trough, so we humans don't have to break ice. Our animals poop in the shed. I know. I know. This is the bane of most alpaca owners. There are acres of land to poop on! WHY DO THEY POOP IN THE SHED? Because of this we don't put straw on the floor. It is too huge a mess to clean every day. But yesterday we put a layer of straw down to provide a little extra insulation when they are cushed on the ground. They have warm, thick, fleecey coats so they will be fine.
Yesterday, we said goodbye to the reproductive organs of Trapper. They were gone before their prime, never put to good use, a loss to the feline species. But, NO BABY KITTIES ON SANETHA'S COUNTRY LANE!!! WOOHOO! I swear his MEOW is an octave higher this morning. Is that really possible?
...farm living is the life for me. Sanetha
Thanks for stopping by! How does one get into raising alpacas? Do you have to shear them? I feel a venture into alpaca learning coming on!!
ReplyDeleteWood stoves! Those things are valuable! I have mine aglow right now and sometimes cook on the one with eyes!