Took A Day Off - Sort Of

I never really take a full day off...I just don't do as much, or everything I planned on.  I had some pain in my back Saturday, so I took it fairly easy for most of the day.  I cooked breakfast, unloaded the dish washer, fed the animals, folded clothes...paid some bills.  Then sat and chatted on Facebook, tried to answer some questions for fellow chicken lovers.  My husband was working so I just semi-rested a bit.  I had planned on getting the tools out and finishing dismantling the Lowboy chicken tractor...but decided it could wait.  Thought about peeling these 20 or so pounds of pears my husband brought home, but didn't do that either...they were free and we are thinking about making cider with them.

When my husband got home we took the dogs for a walk, discussed how bad we needed to clear some of the trees growing around the lake...I skipped trimming trees for several months and all the work I did last year...well, it is hard to tell this year.  The vines and weeds are all grown back, you can still tell I trimmed all of the branches up on the trees around the shooting range, but the piles of dead branches are still laying up there waiting to get burned.  We are under a burn ban now...so it won't be happening any time soon.  Trees have grown up on the shooting range in the markers, they need to be removed before they get larger, Sycamores and willows grow really fast, trees that were not there last year are ten to twenty feet tall!  I need some small trees for roosts anyway, so maybe next week I will get some cut down...I had cut one young Sycamore tree from beside the lake but it was hard to get to and there are a lot of trees around an area there were none.  I thinned out some red maples too, the smooth barked trees are easier on poultries feet than rough bark.  Some of the younger oaks are smooth too...so a lot of the trees we cut will be used for something...roosts or I may try and make gates out of some of the straighter trees, most of these young trees only have about a two to three inch trunk.

Today I may crack some more pecans...I did it last Sunday too, I got about a half gallon of meats out in about three hours while I was watching football.  Crew is smoking a Pork Butt today, it is nice out and cool...he opened all the windows and you can smell the meat pretty good all through the house.  We need some sort of press to squeeze the juice out of the pears, I need to think about it some, I have found a few scratters and presses on the internet that look pretty easy to make, if I make a press maybe I can use it for cheese too?  I don't know...I saw some on eBay too...a metal one would probably last a lot longer, maybe I can get one on eBay for less than constructing one.  I still need to make a top bar beehive too.  I would love to have our own honey bees, but that too will be a learning process...I have a lot of wants...dreams I guess, it will all come together eventually.  I still need to build another chicken structure too.  We have some metal posts and angle iron behind the shed I am thinking about trying to use, I just need to prioritize everything and get to work.