Month: February 2020

A little flash flood

Steve HardinLeave a comment

It snowed yesterday and then rained all night.  I of course had not taken the fence out of the creek crossings yet.  I had been talking about it for the last two weeks and just never seemed to get around to it.  This morning while it was still dark I told Annmarie I was going to have to come home early and get those fences out of the back runoff creek.

As I was headed out of work early this afternoon, a coworker texted to remind me I was going to show him around the farm so he could come out and shoot coyotes.  I had of course forgotten this and had told him he would need to send me said reminder but this dovetailed nicely with me needing some help to get the panels out of the back creek.

My Doppelgänger came out and proceeded to help me pull the panels out of the now raging back creek.  It has rained 0.68 inches in the last 24 hours and has rained 5.63 inches since Jan 1, 2020.  We used to get 12” of rain annually.

144D9260-C85A-485A-8110-B128EAEC81E4

We pulled the fence out of multiple crossings and at one point I noticed my Doppelgänger was bleeding all over the fence.  He managed to cut himself on the very first piece of panel we moved.  This did not slow him down and I managed to not fall into the rampaging creek.  I escorted him over the property and showed him where the coyotes were most likely to be hiding and were it was safe to shoot.

Best last minute didn’t know they were gonna help, help I have ever had.  I would have been at it for at least a couple of hours trying to wrestle those panels out of the runoff by myself.  On the way back to the house we stopped off at the barn and Mr Doppelgänger and his girlfriend helped me feed the sheep while they played with the lambs.  Lamb snuggles are worth the wait.

My baby chickens have not been liking the rain and have started to protest and not lay eggs.  They need to just get over it and start laying consistently.

 

 

If only all studs could be this lazy

Steve HardinLeave a comment

These are not Siamese twins, some sheep are just greedy.   They were trying to get more grain than was their due and figured that crowding their way in would work.  Sarah wanted to know what to do about them.  She thought that she would have to cut the feeder apart to get them loose.  I told her to just ignore them and continue feeding, they would get themselves loose.  They figured out how to get out of the feeder on their own with no human assistance.  Just like a cat figuring out how to get down from a tree!

On Sunday, Sarah and I went outside and worked the sheep.  We tagged and banded all the babies and turned everyone loose into the main herd.  It took almost three hours in the barn to get everything done.  I even hung some hooks for the buckets so you can now find a needed bucket quickly and they are out of the way.  26785DDE-C95E-4B9A-9048-23236CEAEE45

79387D2E-45C5-450A-B7B3-80410F08D701

It seems like a fairly simple idea, but not one we had put in place.  I blame all of the LEAN projects I have been doing at work on getting the right supply to the right place as fast as possible and as conveniently as possible.

I am still working on the upstairs bathroom.  I really want to get it to a place where I can lay down tile.  I cut the first piece of hardiboard with the skilsaw and had dust everywhere!  It took 20 minutes for the dust to settle down on the breeze porch and I still had to open two windows to get it.  I switched to a utility knife and breaking it along th escorted line afterwards.  It takes longer but there is no dust.  I just need to get the 3” tall wall pieces installed and the bathroom backsplash done and I can start painting the Redgard water sealant on.  That is going to be key to making it waterproof.

8251352E-6741-43D4-8F8B-B8B3A5C385B9

Annmarie and I are tired of lambing season dragging out.  The ram was definitely taking his time.  We have been lambing since Christmas and are just over half way done.  We are in serious discussions on getting a second ram, maybe that will spur some competition?