Grab-bag

Most of the new drywall is up on the walls. I redid the two worst walls and intend to do spot repair on the other two.

Prep seems to take a long time. The drywall goes up fast once the walls are ready.

Side story

Southern Belle is my oldest daughter and she is a planner and get stuff done kind of gal. At fourteen she decided she wanted the basement remodeled so she could entertain her friends down there. She helped me frame it in but where she real shone was in drywall work. Some people just have an affinity for it.

Fast-forward to Summer 2008.

Mrs ERJ and I decided to follow in the footsteps of the Steve Pettinger family. Steve had a pile of kids and he and his wife decided that the typical "Senior Class Trip" was not in alignment with their family values. 

So they told their oldest child "We will go any place in the Continental United States for your class trip but it will be a FAMILY trip. You plan it. You figure out the location, transportation, lodging, the sights we see and the activities we do."

Southern Belle's first plan was to go on a cruise. That was a no-go for a couple of reasons. "...Continental United States..." and it was not in alignment with our family values. As children of parents who survived the Great Depression, Mrs ERJ and I define ourselves by what we produce, not by how many extravagant pleasures we can consume.

I was a little bit concerned that Southern Belle would nibble the ears off the chocolate rabbit to make it fit in the box but she surprised me. She slalom to the other side of the road. She decided that a vacation in New Orleans', post-Katrina Lower Ninth-Ward was the ticket.

Adventures included rehabilitating flooded houses...where her skill with drywall was much appreciated. In fact, she was adopted by a wreck-of-a-man who was the other drywall specialist. He was so happy that he showed her many of his tricks.

The "wreck" had been living in his car for the last two years, was diabetic and struggling with circulation issues in his feet. And he drove down to N.O. and was helping to rehab shotgun-shacks for people he had never met. There was no pay involved but they were fed hotdogs and soda pop for lunch. Maybe "Hero" is a better description than "Wreck".

Other adventures included planting aquatic plants in the swamp, cutting grass in the LNth Ward because the New Orleans zoning people were issuing tickets for long grass. Mind you, the owners of the houses were in Houston and the house had been swept off the slab and New Orleans was starting the process of confiscating the property because the grass was longer than three inches.

The only really touristy thing we did was to visit the aquarium. 

Cutting firewood today

My nephew plans to cut firewood today. 15-to-20 mph sustained winds. 30-to-40 mph gusts. Current temperature is 10 Fahrenheit. I will be there to help.

Cattle

We are getting to the time of year when it is hard to keep cattle in the pasture. They chewed down all the grass.

Hay quality is an issue. Sprite brought over a bale and 3/4 of it disintegrated on the way.

Sprite offered to let me move the cattle over to her pasture but the fences are in bad shape and the ground is frozen so it is hard to pound in posts.

Five pounds of grain a day per calf goes a long way to keeping them happy.

Zeus

Zeus is the Junior Partner, that is, our surviving German Shepherd.

Last night he puked inside the house. Puked repeatedly.

A German Shepherd is capable of holding a great deal of vomitus.

He seems OK now but I only fed him a half-ration of food this morning. I will give him the rest later.

Comments

A thousand thanks for all of the comments on chocolate and chicken incubators.

The Aldi's chocolate was delicious. It was also made in Austria which has been even more aggressive regarding Covid vaccine than Canada. Another issue with Aldi is they announced that they are abandoning the North American market in 2022.

Lidl (also a German chain) carries Heidi's brand chocolate which comes from Romania. Romania has no plans to implement mandates. While we have no Lidl stores locally, Heidi chocolate can be purchased on-line.

Regarding buying an incubator ready-made, that would be the smart thing to do. But I enjoy projects and I can crank out many, many dozens of chicks per batch with a beer cooler sized unit. The part about the chicks needing room after they hatch means that I need to listen for peeping after day 19 and then decant all of the eggs to a space warmed with a heat lamp. I will burn that bridge when I come to it.