It's so cold here this morning. Not like really cold like it is in other places in the country right now, but pretty cold. In case you don't know, have never been here, or don't remember, our house is an old barn, and by old barn I don't mean rolling meadow romcom barn, I mean old poultry barn full of chickens kind of barn. It's basically like a giant 1960's double wide with minimal insulation and single pane windows. Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't want to live anywhere else, but when its cold or hot outside, its cold and hot inside too. During the summer we have one window, in the back bedroom we can put an ac unit in, and in the winter we heat with a pellet stove that kind of keeps things warm. Our utility company, PGE here in the Portland area is making it pretty difficult to keep the lights on, and there's NO way we can afford to use the baseboard heat which was the norm when the house was built. I looked into solar, but I'd have to Craigslist a kidney in order to go that route, so we layer and make the best of it. Keeping a dog on your lap is also a pretty green solution to the problem. We keep our dogs fat and our legs warm.
I started Katie on some loose minerals a few days ago and I've convinced myself it's helping (I don't know if it actually is). I have been doing a lot of reading on White Muscle Disease and with the help of our amazing vets at Eagle Fern Equine in Estacada I think we're making good progress. White Muscle is the equivalent to muscular dystrophy and I don't think she will ever have full mobility, but I do want her to have quality of life. Besides the "physical therapy" she gets throughout the day, I also push her to be as independent as possible, so she scoots, crawls and pulls herself around the house. She's unable to get herself to a standing position, but once we get her up she can hobble around to where she needs to go. Every time I see her struggle I get so angry with that flat earth farmer for not making sure his pregnant ewes received the proper nutrition they needed, and feel its so unfair that she is the one who will suffer for it. I drive by his farm and see a pasture full of healthy lambs and I'm so glad that they're ok, but also wonder how many aren't or that didn't make it. Katie has had the selenium and vitamin E supplements that were required for treatment and the rest is up to sheep Jesus I guess.
Speaking of sheep Jesus, or just Jesus in general reminds me that today is the day that Jack Swafford, AKA husband # 4 and #5 went to be with Jesus. It was for the best, he had some very difficult last few years, and it definitely prevented him from becoming #7, but its a hard day for Wyatt. So tonight we will remember him with pan fried oysters and a half gallon of vodka. Just kidding about the vodka lol.
The eggs came yesterday!! I'm so ridiculously excited about these eggs. I have all their names picked out and decided if I end up with roosters, they will need to identify as hens because I couldn't land on any strong boy names. I'll keep working on it though just in case. Watch, I'll end up with eleven roosters and a hen that identifies as a rooster. Katie G said I should wait until they can tell me what pronouns they prefer, but I'm not having a bunch of Zenith and Moonshines in the coop. Not that there's anything wrong with that.
Have you looked into the cost of a mini split system to heat and cool? We did our whole house on our own, 4 heads and it was $8k. Super easy to install and super cheap to run.
ReplyDeleteI was JUST talking to a friend who's husband does HVAC about this!!! Does it work well?
DeleteYes. And we use it for a/c in the summer. Look at the Mr. Cool DIY system. Precharged lines make is super easy to install yourself
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