Going up - walls

 Now that I've reached an agreement with the county I can finally finish my small barn.  On this frosty day I'm cutting and tying rebar (reinforcing bar) and preparing to set the forms for the wall extensions.  My original plan was to frame the barn using timbers, but in the 3 years or so that I've spent arguing with the county to get the permits I've decided that going up in concrete will give me a lower maintenance building that is unlikely to be damaged in any way by the flood.  So up we go. 

This gadget is my rebar cutter.  I bought it...20?  years ago to help put a foundation under a rental house I owned -- it had a pier-and-post foundation and had settled badly, so I jacked up up, excavated and poured a foundation under it, and used this tool for the first time.  This tool allows you cut and bend rebar, so it can go around corners nicely. 

Concrete is a great material under compression, immensely strong when properly supported.  But it doesn't do well under tension -- when it gets pulled.  So adding steel rebar allows the concrete to resist cracking and spreading.  In this project, the floor is tied to the walls with rebar, and the walls are reinforced with it to allow it to resist any cracking or spreading. 

The concrete walls that I'm pouring are overbuilt for the load that I'll eventually put on them.  they're 8" thick; but the increased cost from 6" to 8" is a couple of hundred bucks of concrete, and  having it be tougher and heavier duty than needed means that there is no chance of damage in the event of the eventual flood. 

Pasture ornaments and hawk watchdogs - guinea fowl

This picture is pretty much the normal state of affairs for the guinea fowl.  This one is screaming at me while I'm taking photos -- even though I've fed and provided for it virtually its entire life.  They're pretty paranoid fowl, and they'll take turns in the flock.  one or two will screech and the other ones will all do what they normally do.  If they know you eventually they'll decide, as a flock, that you're ok and go about their normal paranoid business. 

Guinea fowl are a nice complement to having a free-range poultry flock.  for me, they act as an early warning system for airborne threats to the flock.  Hawks, eagles and airplanes all get a warning screech from these air wardens of the barnyard, and the other poultry take cover when they call the warning.  They aren't much into eating plants -- which means that that actually do better than chickens in the garden (not to say they're above lifting a tasty lettuce leaf though...)  and they LOVE bugs and foraging.  They have a range on my farm of around 3 acres; mostly they're hanging around the buildings and corral, but now and then I'll see them a couple of hundred feet out, foraging in the pasture. 

They're sunning themselves against a little outbuilding I built, using the wood wall to warm themselves further on this chilly winter day.  The whole flock is there and still, which is unusual.  They're usually roaming around looking for threats, eating random things, and terrorizing the chickens and turkeys.  They are the mafia; they work together as a single unit, the whole flock defending any member.  If you pick a fight with a guinea fowl, you are fighting with the whole flock in a matter of seconds. 

When you're mixing different breeds of fowl, you have to watch the guineas and make sure that the other fowl have a way to get away.  Once they've decided that a particular bird has annoyed them, the flock of guineas can be a relentless foe, and they can and will kill a larger bird if it cannot retreat.  They are not particularly aggressive; on my farm it's usually the young roosters who size up a guinea fowl in their little rooster brain and figure that they are bigger and can beat it easily.  They rooster doesn't really understand the concept of teamwork, but the guinea fowl do. 

I can imagine them in mugshots, with the case number underneath them.  "Wanted for feed theft, feather plucking and unprovoked screeching".

I've got my eye on you

You can buy guinea fowl keets at several national hatcheries, or sometimes at feed stores in the spring.  they tend to appear later than chickens, so look for them in May or June.  They are very independent, and mine make a very good living eating the food spilled from the hog feeder and foraging of the vegetables that I feed the hogs.  I do provide a secure roost for them and I keep an eye on them.  I lost a guinea fowl earlier this year, in July, to an unknown cause; it turned up dead one day, but the other 7 have been doing well. 

You first eat with your eyes

 When you're eating, there's nothing like a nicely displayed lunch.  A bit of color and some careful arrangement, and it makes the food all that much more delicious. 

Portion control is one of the keys here -- too much, and they won't be able to have dessert.  Too little and there will be squealing. 

 Carefully served, each portion ladled out with a special flair, the holiday season is here.  A salad course is often a way to clear your palate.  Celery adds a special sort of crunch to a hearty salad

But we can't forget the main course; here, bread and fruit predominate, with an aperitif of roses.  The pigs sure do love their food.  If they can't eat it, they'll lay in it.  Or do both.