Snow Shoe Hill Climb, Fix Fence, Eczema Hell, Batch 78 Finished

Both boys were home yesterday and both held the couch down for most of the day. I had stuff on for them to watch as they worked on resting and recuperation. I woke to my skin in pain then as the day went on I suffered through multiple rounds of extreme itching and then pain following. It cycled throughout the day and I was applying regular applications of medication and moisturizers to try and calm the insanity.

It was near noon when I finally got myself outside for a bit. I had to get the snow shoes on to make the trek out to the bone yard to dump the butcher scraps buckets. Once back in the yard I grabbed the small axe and then headed for the hillside. I ended up post holing even with the snow shoes on, but made it up the hill to the downed tree and branches.

I hacked away all the branches and the tip of the tree that had hit the fence then pulled the fence back up. The snow is so deep the sheep aren't even attempting to make it to the branches and tree but I still wanted the fence back up.

The remains of the tree trunk is sticking up in the air and I will cut it down at some point. It seems that this is the only tree on the farm to come down in the snow, otherwise it was just branches.

I climbed the rest of the way to the top of the hill but had no desire to make the loop around the pen in the deep snow. I couldn't see much damage from where I stood so ended up making the loop to my new trail and back to the house.

The afternoon was spent futzing around in the house and keeping my hands and skin coated. It was a little after 4pm when the freeze dryer finished the batch. I was rather pleased with it only taking 25 hours and the pantry was cool enough that I didn't need the exhaust fan running.

All 5 trays came out perfectly done and I bagged them in ziplocks for now. We ended up with 5.25 pounds from the 20 pounds that went in. I will get it all bagged in mylar today and save out some for Hive account@stryeyz to take for snacks at work. It is all breast meat but the 2 trays ended up getting a bit well done in the oven.

We were all in bed early last night and I am skipping soaking a lot with my skin so jacked up. R is going to school today but J is staying home again. I need to get the oil changed on the freeze dryer then get another batch going, likely a rerun of stuff that has rehydrated. I need to get the old pulley off the tiller motor so tomorrow I can install the sleeve and get the snowblower up and running finally.