Happy Pi Day!

I stopped by Charlie's feed store today to change my Meat King chicken order.  I'd originally thought it would be a good idea to take delivery of the chicks in intervals.  That way I wouldn't feel overwhelmed with my first experience at processing time.  But I'd spread the deliveries way too far apart and Kookum raised a good point - better to take them all at once and have one big batch under a heat lamp than to take three smaller bunches and pay for three months of heat-lamp electricity.
So smart, that girl!

So, we changed our chick delivery to middle of May at which time we'll take delivery of 25 straight run chicks.  Straight run means we won't know if they are male or female, only that we have 25 fluff balls running around.   That said, they won't be fluff balls for long, nor will they be running around for a very long time either.  Apparently these birds have been bred specifically for meat - so specifically that they're ready for the freezer in 8-10 weeks!

They must do a lot of eating and pooping, because a bird that has a dressed weight of 7 pounds at nine weeks has to grow quite fast!  For those who haven't had the pleasure of sitting down to a bird that big (and I didn't until we moved here, when Kookum gave us a 7lb bird!), that's two suppers for the three of us, plus two days of sandwiches, then stew and a carcass for soup.  Isn't that amazing? One bird big enough to feed a family of three for at least six meals!

So, we'll have 25 of them in the freezer. Good thing we don't eat a lot of beef (we were planning to have a half or at least a quarter for the fall, but our beef man convinced us that it is fresher to just buy what we want, when we want it. It's the same price and it's fresher than eating one animal which has been in the freezer for several months), and pork is relatively small!  We may find ourselves with another freezer once we start putting up veggies!

So, we were at Charlie's changing our chicken charts when I noticed that he had some quail eggs in the cooler.  I enquired as to their taste - he said that they taste so similar to chicken that he cannot tell the difference. He said they make wee little fried eggs, about the size of a toonie and that many people make them for kids!  And, he just gave them to us!  I am so amazed at the generosity of people.  True story - he has them for sale, but he gave us 10, gratis!

Quail eggs look a lot like cookies and cream balls!

In other news, Mooshum and I went to Kentville to pick up my logging winch.  He was so kind to allow me the use of his fantastic flat-bed trailer to bring the winch home.  I purchased the Wallenstein FX65 from King's Equipment in Kentville.  Mooshum helped me attach it to the tractor, but we still have some fine tuning before I can use it.  Pretty exciting to consider all the wood I can now yank off the hills.  The winch came with three choker chains, the three sliders you see in the photo and the safety screen. 

I had considered several other brands, but it came down to Wallenstein FX65 and Farmi JL351.  I chose the Wallenstein for several reasons.  First and foremost, reviews of the winch are excellent.  It also comes with a standard safety screen and three chokers.  The Wallenstein also holds 15' more cable. A small difference, but a wee bit more nonetheless.

The Wallenstein weighs a bit more which is reflected in the diminished pulling capacity.  Price differences are negligible.  At the end of the day, I chose the Wallenstein - excellent reviews, similar quality, slightly less costly and comes with everything I need to get started.

Final consideration? Made In Canada. Boom! Sold.

As you can see, I've got it hooked up to Bert.  The only thing holding me back is the PTO shaft is a wee bit too long.  The dealer did cut it down, but he had no way of knowing exactly how long it should be, so thankfully he left it a bit long.  Because it's a wee long, the tractor can't pick the winch up all the way.  I'll have to pull everything off and and cut it again.  Kind of a drag, but best that it's done properly!

The weather is supposed to get crummy again for the next week or so, but I'll be taking it out for a test drive real soon.  Stay tuned for some exciting, unadulterated, uncut, unedited completely raw logging action!

 1854hrs.

I took the winch off the tractor, shortened the PTO drive shaft, hooked everything back up and VOILA!   The winch lifts!

Ta da!

 Pretty (probably unnecessarily) proud of myself!  Gerard helped me put it on in the first place.  Once I did that, I was confident I could take it apart, cut the drive shaft and put it back on. 

Yippee!