Month: August 2023

Mowing lawn

Steve HardinLeave a comment

It’s hot in Eastern Oregon, this means everything that doesn’t have water on it all the time is dead, brown and ready to burn. Due to the coyote problem we are now feeding the sheep last years hay in the ram pasture so they cannot get out to be coyote food. We have been watering our front hillside to get the clover well established. It is loving the heat and the water. I decided it was time to let the sheep into the yard. Now after the earlier fiasco this summer with the puppy jumping the back yard fence to get in with the sheep we cannot use the back yard fence as containment anymore. So we are resigned to using the two overhead runs we have in the front yard. The runs work well but the dogs are used to tearing up the front yard and running all over usually. They don’t like the runs. Unfortunately, the sheep getting chased all over the front lawn is a bigger problem so the dogs get some run time.

The screwy part of this is that the puppy, Chance, has been doing great on the 30’ lead when working the animals. She listens, she stops, she goes left/right, rarely do you have to use the lead to stop her. She is just over 1 year old but doing very well. This lulled me into complacency. Friday I put both dogs in the back yard, opened the gate with them both laying down and then took chance by the collar while Mouse stayed down at the open gate. After Chance was on the run, I got Mouse, no problems. The sheep got to stay in all day and at dinner time I ran them out of the yard. They wanted back in at one point for an evening snack but I told them they would have to wait until the next day.

Saturday, I was feeling pretty confident. I let the sheep into the front yard and got the dogs into the back yard again. I opened the gate, both dogs were in a down position and I took Mouse first this time. I was almost to the run, 6 seconds, before Chance broke and took off after the sheep. Fifty sheep tearing up the yard is rough on standing structures, two sheep almost knocked themselves out by hitting the upright grape posts, one sheep slid across the bridge and pushed out the paneling to fall off the bridge, two smashed into the already sheep broken outside lamp. I could not call the puppy off. I was standing in front of the sheep trying to get her attention when she singled one out. She just kept after it. I finally tossed a very large branch at her along with an impressive amount of vocal discouragement. I missed her but the combination got her attention and she ran off to an empty hillside. Annmarie had heard me “discussing” the sheep issue with the dog and hollered out for her to lay down, she did. I calmed down and was able to tell her to stay and walked over to her and got her collar and walked her to the run. The hardest part is to praise her for listening. The sheep got to finish eating in peace. Last night I again used the lead and she pushed them out of the yard without incident.

Sunday morning I again let sheep into the yard and put the dogs on the run. I used a leash and took Chance first! Mouse tried to rush past me when I wasn’t looking but he will drop at command as long as he is not locked in on an animal. I got him on the run. Now here is the weird part if we leave the dogs loose they will harass the sheep incessantly. But if we put them on the run I cannot count on the dogs to keep the sheep away from my plants! The dogs will lay down, hold still and allow the sheep to come in and eat the yard around them. The dogs are not even suckering them in close. They will just lay there and let the sheep eat. It is so weird!! The puppy is on the right side of the picture and our older dog is on the far left side. Neither one is reaching for or harassing the sheep. The dogs obviously got the instructions for the leads memorized. I think, they think, they are still on a lead and are following our instructions.

Annmarie got our upstairs bathroom panels covered with cloth. She just needs to run a ribbon around the edges. We needed stronger magnets if we were going to run the fabric over the edges and over the magnets. She tried and it did not work. It looks good and the fabric was a gift from a friend who is no longer. We can look at it and remember her every day.

Barn dig out happening

Steve HardinLeave a comment

I happened to have Tuesday off this week so I spent it fencing! I need to dig some fence post holes but the dead of summer is the wrong time for this to happen. I pulled on the broken railroad tie and fenced over the gate opening. I drove in T posts on either side of the railroad tie and wired it to them. Then I was able to drive in three T posts over the opening. I stretched out fence and tightened it all down. I am now about half way down the fence alongside the wheat field. I am going to continue the fence repair along the road next. This means I will only need to install one new section of fence along the creek side. I need the animals to get into field #1 to eat, half the field is still green due to subterranean water. I need about three days with a helper to get this done. Alone takes about 125% more time. Some things just take longer alone.

Thursday, Mr Flow came out for a couple of hours and dug out the chicken coop. I went and bought more wood pellets to put in there. I use the deep litter method and only dig it out once a year. The wood pellets work great to absorb moisture and keep the smell down. I get the cheapest kind they have, made here in Reith.

The plan on Friday was for him to come out and help me shear the last three alpaca. Nope, he got sick and called off around starting time. I cannot shear the alpaca alone, it takes at least two people and when they are not cooperating that is a hard two. I decided that I might as well start in on digging out the barn as it needed to be done also. It took a couple of hours to tear apart all of the panels and drag them outside. I have to leave one section as it is permanently attached to the wall. The sheep kept jumping over two gates so I created permanent panels to stop that and they cannot be removed.

I managed to get the manure forks installed on the John Deere tractor bucket and started digging out the barn. The tractor is small enough to get in and out of the barn. After two days of digging it out I am about 60% completed and I have only been at it about 7 hours so far. Yesterday, the tractor overtemp light came on. I ended up having to blow down the entire tractor, clean out the radiator and I even took out the air filter and cleaned it out. The tractor has two air filters, one inside the other and the inner was clean. Once I had it all cleaned out and filled with fuel I was able to go right back to digging out the barn. I have it dug out far enough I have to use the pitchfork and shovel out the edges and near the feeders. I just toss it into the middle and scoop it up with the tractor. For some reason I did not use a hat, just a do rag on my head and by that evening I had a lot of sun on my face! The horse has been bugging me while I am doing this so I took the time to give her a total brush down and brushed out her mane and tail. She just stands there and lets me do it.

Annmarie sent me a link from someone who wants to work before going to college. So far, in two days I have not been able to connect or get a commitment. I am hopeful I can as I would like them to help me with the alpaca. I am hopeful they will reach out on Sunday. She also sent me some information on old equipment for sale, yard ornament type. The exact same manure spreader that I already have two of was for sale! I called and got the third one! I will now have enough parts to get one going for sure. I had to back the trailer up to it, toss down the ramps and come a long it into the back of the trailer. It took about 30 minutes to get it onto the trailer. I will pick it off with the tractor forks. It will be a lot easier that way! She had an old 10’ hay rake but honestly it makes the piles too big for my baler and I am looking at putting less money into the farm not more.

One of the staff at the hospital had asked if her son’s could come out and shoot at the coyotes. I totally agreed to that. They have been out several times in the last week without coyote success. They are working on the pigeon problem. We had none this spring and now have about ten. They multiply rapidly if not kept in check. We are starting to have problems with ring neck doves again also. They are pushing out the native doves. One of the boys, now called Mr Hornet Tamer, has been walking all over the property scouting coyotes. He has found their crossing points and two old dens so far. Unfortunately for him, he also found the hornets living in one of the gates. The gates are metal tubes and the hornets love building nests in them. I usually pay attention and just open the gate quickly. He got popped several times and then called his mom to tell her he was going to the ER. She made him drive back out to me while I was building fence. Nah, he just needed some Benadryl. He slept most of the next day I am told. He did come out later in the week!

Predators 8/ Farm 1

Steve HardinLeave a comment

Friday I went up to field #3 first thing in the morning to attempt to call the coyote in. I am using the new electronic call I got this week. I hung out for about an hour and did not see a single coyote. The quail did not see me as I was hiding behind the cattle feeder. The sheep ran by without seeing me either, yet no coyote showed up. I went down and picked wild blackberries for a little over an hour. I filled all my containers I had brought. I only picked two patches and skipped another three. It was starting to warm up and the hornets like the berries when it gets warm. I went inside and washed them all off and then repacked them into individual bags and froze them. I ended up with 25 snack size bags full. Annmarie uses a single frozen bag every morning in her breakfast smoothie. I try and collect them for her and I will need to collect more in 2 and 4 cup quantities so we can make pie and cobbler throughout the year.

I got all the tools together to go up and work on the fence surrounding field #1. It is a green seven acre field that the sheep and cows need to get into so they can eat for a few more weeks. I had the tractor bucket full of tools and wire and stays to drive up there. Of course I did not take a rifle, there is no place to put it on the tractor, I would have to hold it the entire time. Of course I saw two coyotes running out of field #3 and a dead lamb in the field. They had just killed it and it was almost noon! I dumped off the supplies and went back to the house to get the rifle and call. I spent another three hours trying to call them back and had no luck. We have now decided to lock the sheep into the barn lot and feed them last years hay from the machine shed.

This is honestly a stupid problem. This weekend alone I have spent about 6 hours trying to spot coyotes. Each sheep lost is $100 down the drain. I will keep going out every day until I can kill them. The next evening when I walked up to the find the carcass and hopefully catch someone snacking I had to walk around looking for the carcass. The only thing left after 24 hours was a hide and a spine with a few ribs attached. Nothing else! I of course did not see a coyote.

Sunday I went out to get Annmarie some blackberries for her breakfast, as I froze all the others I had picked. I went out and checked on our thornless berries in the garden. I had to come back inside three times to get more containers. The berries are huge compared to the wild ones. I left some fresh ones for Annmarie and froze another 16 bags. I will need to pick berries again in about four days. I had plans to go up and look for coyotes again but ended up cleaning house instead. Sarah said she would help me shear alpaca after she got done at church. My helpers are gone again for a couple of weeks. So we need to get the alpaca done.

When she got home we rounded up the alpaca and ended up shearing four more in about three hours. The only ones left are the three babies. One of them had crawled down into the ditch and was covered in water so he would not have been easy to shear. We are planning on shearing the rest on Tuesday or Thursday this week to get them all done. Annmarie has been washing the alpaca and is on her second saddle. It is amazingly cleaner when she is done.

My priority now is the fence around field #1, coyotes and finishing the freezer room. I want to store the cleaned and ready to be cleaned alpaca fiber in the freezer room. This will get it out of the house and into one spot. I just have one piece of OSB to install on the wall and it will be ready. Okay, I need to wire five outlets also but that will only take an hour. I can wire the light later. I am pretty sure I stole power from the next room for the overhead light. Basically, I need to get some more stuff done on the old house but it will have to wait until this winter.