Month: December 2013

Sheep/Chicken Show.

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It got very cold here in Eastern Oregon!  The beginning of the week we had record cold temperatures.  It was as low as -18 degrees Farenheit at our house.  The older chickens did just fine.  I still had a heat lamp for the babies (who are over three months old) on and it brings the whole coop up about 20 degrees at least.  All the walls have insulation in them so when the door and windows are closed it is airtight.   I had opened up the baby area to allow them to go outside and cruise around in the 360 degree enclosed pen.  Unfortunately, I forgot how stupid the chickens can be.  Two of them went outside and froze to death 12 inches from the entrance to the coop and 4 feet from a heat lamp.  So now there are only 6 naked neck turkens.  At our house this is not such a bad thing, if they are too dumb to come back to the coop the predators get them anyway.  There is only one safe place and that is inside the coop with a functioning automatic chicken door!  Otherwise every predator on the planet likes chicken.  
Annmarie and I went out to the barn and threw out some more straw on the floor for the sheep.  She said it needed to be clean and dry.  I reminded her that prior to us redoing the floor no one ever covered the floor.  The barn is so cozy I would sleep out there!  I would smell like sheep but it would not be a hardship.  The roof still does leak in a few spots, but hopefully I can finish the roof next year and take care of that problem.  We pulled in a couple more long baby feeders so we can feed grain to everyone during the winter.  We give them a little supplement due to the cold and nursing the babies.  We talked about the ideal herd size and are considering thinning the herd down next year.  We have almost 25 ewes now.  We are thinking 15 ewes is ideal.  They would have 20-30 babies every 8 months.  So even at max capacity we would not have more than 80 sheep for a couple of months.  There is talk of bumping the cows up a couple more.  Feeding 7 cows has caused us to use a lot more hay than last year.  The females are all pregnant and the babies are around 250-300 pounds now.  So it is more of a drain than anticipated.  I am sure we are going to have to buy a few tons of hay.  i should probably start asking around soon.  
We saw a nice passive heating system made out aluminum pop cans painted black and a heating tube with small fan to move air through cans.  It was pretty cool.  We are still thinking solar power for the barn is the way to go.  At least a couple more years off.  The roof needs to not leak before we bring in power, the little things do tend to matter.  I am hoping for another good snow storm so I can burn the other two wood scrap piles I have laying around.  There is a small one in the barn lot and the huge one up on the hill.  The one on the hill is going to be very large, house size almost.  
When it got so cold I had Sarah put some hay in the hole in our front yard.  I never got the frost free standpipe installed and I was afraid the pipe would freeze.  We had no straw only hay bales out in the barn.  So Gannon pulled a bale of hay into the yard and broke it up into the hole.  The cows started to lean over the yard fence the next day and ended up in the yard eating my hay!  I had to let Zeke out to chase them out of the yard.  He liked that a lot since he is still cooped up with his bandaged leg.  He was licking it raw after I took the stitch out.  Hopefully next week we can be done with the dressing.  I then had to go over and fix the fence to keep the cows out of our front yard.  The fencing never ends!
The last two lambs are sold and will move onto greener pastures in a couple of days.  So anyone interested in lambs we will have more in 10 months.  

Sheep shenanigans.

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I sold some lambs to a fellow coworker.  He did not want to send them to the butcher as he had a way to cut them up himself.  I offered to help kill, clean and skin them.  Annmarie and I were very excited to be getting rid of the last four whethers.  He was busy and had a change of plans a couple of times so it took us a while to get our schedules synced.  The plan was 1200 the day after Thanksgiving.  He called me that morning saying he had to stay over at work till noon and could we do it at 1400?  I said sure but I have to quit at 1700 to go to my other job.  Sarah, Annmarie and I went out that morning and we sorted out four whethers and put them out in the new momma area.  I tried to stick them in the barn but they kept leaping over four foot doors.  Sarah and I set up buckets, knives and a bucket of hot bleach water to sterilize the stainless steel table and clean off knives.  My coworker showed up after only driving by then entrance to the place once.  We went to catch the whethers and the little boogers pushed by the edge of the gate and got out with the main herd.  We had to take Zeke off of injured reserve (he has a foot lac that he keeps pulling the stitches out of) and chase all the sheep back into the barn.  Once in the barn it was decided to just catch two whethers at a time and kill them immediately so we did not have to keep catching them.  I was game to try the technique of slicing the carotid arteries with a fillet knife without cutting the trachea.  Just insert the knife behind the trachea all the way through and turn it sideways so the animals bleed out.  There was no great spot so we just put them up on the ledge and hung their heads out the barn window.  This technique worked good until the last one then I accidently knicked the trachea and i ended up covered in blood.  

We carried them over to the skinning pole and commenced with the messy work.  Trouble was it took us an hour to do the first part, so we only had two hours to go.  I am not a professional butcher.  I am capable but not quick.  At 1700 we still needed to finish skinning one animal.  I had to run in and get ready for work.  Sarah had to run to the boneyard and drop off a set of entrails so we could toss the second set in a bucket.  As she is driving through the gate I heard a crunch.  I was hollering across the field not to dent the new pickup.  We decided she should wait till the next morning to make the second trip to the boneyard.  She stayed out and helped clean up and carry carcasses to the vehicle while I got ready for work.  

To top it off, we still have two more whethers!  The second time around we found two more, we obviously need to update the spreadsheet.  The lucky tag numbers were 24, 30, 34, and 32.  

Water is not my friend.

Steve HardinLeave a comment

Every year it seems like we have a water pipe break, usually in the winter.  Last year the nozzle in the back yard standpipe broke for the first time.  I replaced the faucet valve and it worked great this year.  Annmarie wanted me to dig it out and put in a frost free standpipe but I did not.  It was not an issue until last year and it is only about 18 inches from a 40 foot tall maple tree.  I did not want to hurt the tree or dig the hole to gain access to the pipe (4 feet down in the ground).  On Monday, Sarah texted me this picture of the ice art on our lawn.  

The valve had cracked again (frozen) it is made of bronze and the standpipe is iron.  I had to go to the hardware store and buy some heat tape, a cap for the pipe, insulation and plastic to repair, heat tape and water proof for the winter.  I had to string an extension cord from the back door outside outlet to the standpipe.  So far it is working like a champ.  Annmarie and I had a discussion as to why this has only happened twice in seven years.  For all the previous years when the other pipe broke that stempipe was drained of water and when the water was turned back on there was an air lock in place so no water was in the pipe until I started using it in the spring again.  It made sense at that point.  We have a lot of water discussions and I am usually incorrect in my assumptions (wrong).  So in the spring I will sharpen the axe and Sarah and I will dig out the hole and attempt not to kill the tree.