Third Annual TCT Northeastern Regional Gathering

Brief description of event: The Third Annual Gathering is being presented in the spring rather then the fall as the first two Gatherings. This Gathering has proven to be the place to be for vintage owners.

Date: May 20 th -23 rd , 2010

Location: Sampson State Park, Finger Lake Region, New York

Number of units allowed at event: 60 sites have been reserved – they sold out in 2009

Registration procedure: on line at www.tincantourists.com or by contacting the Fletcher’s fletch@vintagekingpins.com or Denise at Denise@vintagekingpins.com or call 607-387-5838

Contact person(s) – Bill Fletcher at fletch@vintagekingpins.com or Denise Fletcher at Denise@vintagekingpins.com or call 607-387-5838

Running water at the Goat Yard

A $15 dollar outdoor faucet for the goat yard... works a lot better than just a garden hose!

You'll need a faucet with a screw plate (ca. $4), a piece of threaded pipe (ca. $1,50), an L shaped coupling (ca. $3) and a swivel gardenhose connector (ca. $3).

Drill a hole 7/8ths (or 1 inch, depending on what drills you have lying around) from the side of the faucet at a 90 degree angle. Use plumbers tape to waterproof the pipe connections.

Obviously only works when it does not freeze! Disconnect hose and drain water before first severe frost to protect faucet parts.

what an old bike chain can be useful for...

I'd never have imagined when I packed this old bike chain for our intercontinental move I would be using it to keep our goat fence closed!

my muscovy nest!

Here's a sneak peek at the nest my black & white Muscovy duck made... She's due sometime this week, after 33 days on the nest! I found with both the ducks and the geese that they'll cover the eggs with down when mommy's off for a stroll... so I can't count the eggs. We're very curious to see what she'll hatch, and how many :-)

The grey and white Muscovy started brooding as well. And of course, the day before the Backyard Poultry Day at the Ithaca Farmers Market where I wanted to bring her and Moe for show and tell! I knew when I picked her up and she started whistling... but she only had two eggs, so I brought her anyway, hoping she'd stay in the mood. And after the big day I filled the nest with the left over duck hatching eggs, put her out in the yard, and next time I looked she was on the nest, all snug and cozy! I do have a feeling her nest will be less successful since it's most likely a mix of khaki campbell and Muscovy eggs, and the one needs 28 days and the other 33 days to fully develop...

a DIY Goat Hay Feeder

A well working hay feeder, made from scrap wood in a weekend! I followed the plans of the "I did it all by myself Goat Feeder" website - except I made it slightly bigger to accommodate the size wood I had and to make it to a full hay bale size. I found that the width space between the slats got screwed up that way - they're too small for (growing) goats with horns, and I also found I never feed a full bale at one time anyway! If it rains while it's out there it gets damp and the goats don't like that and won't eat it anymore...

I found somewhere else the standard width between slats for goats is 7 inches. If you use that any of the other diameters are whatever you prefer! I did add a lid, which I really like. The piece of angled wood at the back helps the lid to stay open without opening all the way so I can open, load and close with one hand.

Because of the lid, kids like to sleep on top of the hay in the bin :-) Reminds me of that fairy tale of the princess on the pea!

Address of the website is
www.goatworld.com/articles/feeders/feeder.shtml

The new goats arrived!

Please meet our new mommy & kid goats! From left to right: Thirteen (eartag number), Mountain Goat (likes to snuggle), Mountain Goat's girl kid (small black horns), behind Mountain Goat's boy kid (large yellow horns) and Thirteen's buff colored little girl.

Mountain Goat is the first to come meet anyone visiting the goat yard. She's also first into the "milking parlor" (tent) and when I bottle feed Jamie she'll come up to my other side, lean into me to get some nice head and neck scratchings... Her teats are on the small side and I have a bit of trouble milking her, on the other side, she's raising two kids so there's probably not much spare milk anyway :-)

Thirteen (Dertien) is a little shy. It took her a couple days to get into the new routine. She's always second for milking - though now she knows the routine she'll come right up to the little tent door, get in and hop onto the milking stand! Mountain Goat wiggles around to get as close to the coming feed as possible, Thirteen stands patiently until I dump it into the feeding pan. She's got a nice big udder with two bit teats, easy milking and a lot of milk (only has one kid though).

The three kids are very happy with the tractor tires, and started playing with Jamie and the Boer brothers as well. They'll tear up and down the ramps, ploink from one tire to another and generally act like little kids :-) The boy I storta call Whitey - he'll most likely be for meat - the two other girls have no names as of yet. I think to keep the buff one - I like her looks and if her udders are like her mom's she'll be easy & good milking...

The milking tent, you can vaguely see the milk stand in the middle and two bins beside if for food. The tent is open (the feed bins have good lids!) so the momma's and kids have shelter from the weather - the pick up truck cabin is too small for all of them, that's the bachelors' pad! Will need to screw a piece of wood in the entrance to make is smaller, though, the mommies squeeze in and steel the boys oats...

Metzendorf update

We got the camper back a couple weeks back and I've removed all things metal (coat hooks, shower curtain and window curtain rods, god knows whats) and sanded all the wood surfaces in preparation for a nice new coat of paint. Initially I hoped to strip and varnish the cabinetry back to it's original paint (just like our kitchen - our house is from 1960) but the plywoods used are not that high grade, and different types - plus, it's just to darn hard for a lonely gal!

The left side of the camper, with the beds, kitchen and part of the table area. As you can see, I went ahead and stripped the kitchen cabinet to see what grade of plywood it was. Even though the bed frame is made of nice fine grain plywood the kitchen cabinet is made of cheap looking, course plywood - similar to several of the cabinet drawers... So instead I decided not to restore the original finish on the cabinetry but to sand and paint everything instead. Which takes a lot less time anyway!

Here's the right side of the camper, without the kitchen table and couch pillows. Eileen has offered to sew couch covers (and maybe even some throw pillows) and we're waiting for the ordered specialty fabrics to arrive. Clearly visible is the new piece of plywood which covers the replaced water damaged wall piece. I think I would have liked more of the wall to have been replaced, but it would have cost much more money (difficult angles) and it will mostly be covered by the couch pillows anyway... I'll just make sure to paint nice and thick around that area.

Here's the right side of the camper, with the new aluminum strip covering the hole in the wall / roof line. Fletcher did a good job! Now we only need to clean up the old roofing tar mess so the new shiny strip does not stand out so clearly :-)

Three more weeks until the Tin Can Rally at Samson State Park! And three more coats of paint to go... plus curtains, door knobs, cleaned hinges, cleaned floor tiles, new upholstery... plenty of time left!