I finally have a few minutes to sit down and put up a new post. I always think that the next week will be calmer and things will slow down and then BAM, a whole bunch of stuff comes up and I am running all over again!
I got the opportunity to tour a stone quarry in Scranton PA this past week. I found some new materials that until the last few years were not available. This quarry is producing some of the most beautiful cut to pattern stone and irregular stone I have ever seen in my life!
The graining in these stones are amazing! I am so ready to build a patio here at home out of this material.....if only it were free I would start tomorrow!!!
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| West Mountain Stone |
Here are some other pallets of material ready to be shipped. If I had a truck with me I would have brought a few pallets home! Good thing I was driving a prius....I could only brings four small pieces of stone back.
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| West Mountain Stone |
I got a chance to see their new saw shop they are almost ready to fire up. This is one of their medium size saws. It has a 10' blade on it. They have three or four other bigger ones that are 11'6" and can cut up to 5' thick. They also have a cnc water jet table that can cut through up to 2' thick material.
One of the West Mountain Seams that they get the really colorful rock out of. They have to drill holes through the slab and then use cone shaped expanders to pop them out. Then they cut them to order.
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| West Mountain Stone seam |
Some of the natural edge stone cut and flamed to give a level surface that is not slippery and really makes the color explode!
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| West Mountain Stone Irregular slabs |
This is the also pretty awesome. Because they have such huge saws they are able to cut boulders the size of my truck into slabs. So, if you want matching natural edge steps, tables, benches, etc., you can pick a boulder out and have it cut.
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| West Mountain Stone step and bench slabs |
Some more slab material. I probably looked like a little kid running around on top of all these rocks taking pictures. However, I have not been this excited about new material since I set my first toprock 10 years ago!!!
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| West Mountain Stone with some White Mountain in the slab |
Another beautiful slab. I couldn't walk any where without seeing something I liked!
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| West Mountain Stone |
If you want to know more about it simply email me at ken.r.merrick@gmail.com and I will get you more information. The quarry name is Scranton Materials LLC. They sell mostly to contractors and distributors.
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| West Mountain Stone |
Now, on to the reality of the farm! I was finally able to get my new feeder for the cows. I now have too many cows for the one feeder that I have. So I put in an order with my father to get them in one load and it came in a couple weeks earlier than expected. I got them both from Klene Pipe Structures. They have some awesome feeder and great prices. I took pictures of both feeders in use to show the difference. They both have 8 actual feeding holes for the cattle to eat from. However, the new one is square and the calves can access the bale from the ends while the cows can comfortably eat four to a side. There are also slotted panels inside the feeder that lay against the bale so the cows cannot pull large amounts of hay out onto the ground. It is a C-7 hay saver feeder. You can find it on their website at
http://www.klenepipe.com/. They have many many more options!
As you can see in the picture below, even thought there are 8 holes in the bunk feeder there are only 6 cows eating. This is due to the cows being wider than the holes and they argue over who is gonna eat first. Now that I have two feeders I am already noticing a difference in growth of my steers. Normally when I take them off the pastures and they go onto just bales the steers stop growing as fast because of limited access to the feed. Now they are actually growing faster because almost everyone can eat at the same time without fighting for it!
I have Kiko Custom Construction coming soon to help me rebuild the cattle shed and put roofs on both feeders. This will help me save even more hay during wet weather and help the wood in the feeders last much much longer!
I also wanted to show a picture of our feeder piglets having a special treat. My buddy Steven is travelling to different cattle shows clipping and showing cattle for people. One of the by products of this is leftover milk from milking them while at the show. So, at the last show he put about 150 gallons of milk in barrels and brought it home for the piggies. They love it!! They are gonna be huge by the time January rolls around to get them in to the butcher! YUM YUM!!!!
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| Our berkshire x tamworth cross piglets eating milk. |
I also spent one of my evenings a week or so ago rebuilding the Boar's Nest. We tore it all apart to put the new barn wall in last spring and I never got it back together. I also wasn't happy with the temporary OSB panels that we used for all the walls. It doesn't last if it gets wet and the pigs were just eating it off the walls. The boar had also shoved the main sill plate almost completely off the foundation on the wall to the left. So I beat it back into place and then rebuilt the walls and put rough sawed 1" boards up on the walls. They will not be tearing that up any time soon!
The left side wall that I had to rebuild. So much stronger now than it was before!
Well, I am headed out to enjoy the nice weather before the rain hits. I may go get the auger and set some posts in the cow pasture for the new pen. My wife is canning tomatoes and making beef jerky and the house smells wonderful!
Talk to you all soon!
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