A simple water level gauge for 5 gallon buckets on the farm

This is clearly one of those “why didn’t I think of this sooner” kinds of inventions.  Actually, the final design and prototypes came from a listener of our farming podcast (episode 031 to be exact).  

The trouble with using 5 gallon buckets to supply water to turkeys and chickens is the fact that you can never tell how MUCH water is left without walking right up to the bucket, taking the top off (if you have one) and looking in.

The solution is simple - a flat section of closed cell Styrofoam with a bright orange indicator sticking up from it.  The foam disk floats on the water and the indicator lets you see how much water is left in the bucket.  We did modify the original design and spray painted the TOP of the indicator black so it’s even simpler - how ever much orange is showing is exactly how much water is left in the bucket.

We did find having a lid helps (with a hole drilled for the indicator to slide up and down in).  In the case of the turkeys, it keeps them from messing with the foam in the water.
The bucket is about 1/2 full… how do I know - I see the orange indicator from afar!

Animal, vegetable or both?

When I was a kid I used to love to play the animal, vegetable, mineral game with my family.  We used to get REALLY difficulty and try our hardest to stump each other.  I even remember using encyclopedias to get super difficult examples to use.  It was a good game and really made us all think.

Well now Kelli and I play that - only it's a game of long term farm planning...  do we focus on animals or vegetables?  There's pros and cons to both sides and they are oft debated around the dinner table here (as we are eating them - of course).

As you can see with some of the recent announcements both sides of the debate seem to have won this year - the veggie CSA is bigger than before and in not too short order the farm will be bustling with chickens, turkeys, pigs (and anything else Andy can sneak in).  We are looking forward to a very busy season ahead but think the rewards will be well worth the work.

Aside from the intrinsic rewards in all these different enterprises we will be closely chronically the financial side of the equation and looking at the pros and cons of each enterprise from that perspective as well.  Factor into that questions about ACTUAL consumer demand vs STATED consumer demand (some might say the "put up or shut up" equation of money) and, well, about the only thing we are sure of is that there will be one heck of an interesting year ahead!

For starters, we have to get some sort of greenhouse going...  but after the big winds in mid-February I'm concerned the "build your own hoops" solution might not withstand our environment...  so we are back to looking at possibly purchasing something (money there!).  The pigs have a shelter but there's a lot more to do - not the least of which is buy a bunch of fencing equipment (money there!).  Then there's a roost for the turkeys to live in / around.  There's gardens to get going.  There's brooders to build for the meat chickens (and turkeys - but separate).  There's a water diversion project long overdue.  And then there's the business as usual...  the unknowns...  like the fact the frost free yard hydrant I installed under the lean-to...  is now frozen.  Heaven only knows what project THAT could spawn when things finally thaw out.  Yes - things will start to get busy in just a few short weeks.