Month: November 2026

Feeding complete

Steve HardinLeave a comment

I spent Friday and Saturday getting more winterizing completed. I was able to set out a cow feeder in the orchard and empty the rest of the hay from the Naked Gardener’s fields. It filled the entire feeder and should last the single alpaca and the three yearlings at least a month. I opened the gates up to the orchard so the feeder cows would come in. I think I am going to lock them into the orchard and just keep them near the house. They are a lot less crazy when they are around people.

My new $60 chicken door came a few days late but I did get it installed. The chickens are so stupid, I shut the main door, one foot to the left of the chicken door and the chickens were not sure how to get back into the coop. I had to wait until they all went inside the coop and then shut the main door. The chicken door had closed so now the only way for them to get in and out of the coop is to use their chicken door. I know the door worked as I saw them the next morning. We only have 12 chickens left and only ten are hens! The raccoons decimated the chickens this year. So I am on the lookout for more free adult chickens. I guarantee to give them all the food they can eat and let them free range to their hearts content. The raccoons have different plans for them but the strong and savvy will survive.

I went down to four corners and hooked up the old pickup bed trailer that has been down there for over three years and got it emptied and the tires all pumped up. I am going to use it to feed the round bales to the cows. I can get 16 round bales in the trailer and four on the tractor forks. It is enough to fill one round feeder full. So it will only take me three trips to fill up all the cow feeders. I also spray painted the sides that said “for sale” a grey putrid color again so that no one thinks I want to get rid of the trailer. Although no one ever called me asking to buy the trailer when it was at four corners. The rust helps it drain so that it doesn’t hold any water.

The ewe lambs just eat with the cows. They are not coming into the barn every night yet. Mr Golfpro has all the raspberries done and is finishing up the blackberries. He is almost done for the winter. I saw these inflatable animals at a kid’s birthday party and knew that the Grandson had to have one. I ordered it while we were still at the party. Little did I know that it would go with his Halloween costume! I did not know what the kid’s were going to dress him. He loves the big cow!!

Barn clean out done!

Steve HardinLeave a comment

Well I finally got it done, the annual barn clean out is complete! I had to hand dig for about 6 hours to get the last little bit done. I put out old straw/hay onto the ground for the sheep to spread out and I put a couple of bales of good hay into the feeders. We only have the 12 ewe lambs that did not go to Hermiston at the farm.

I still need to fix the Y gate and redo the entrance fence to the barn. I will work on that next weekend. I did get the box blade onto the little tractor and drag it around the barn lot collecting all of the surface dirt/poop to put on the compost piles. I did this for a couple of hours until I had all of the poop onto one of the piles. I also cleaned up all of the horse poop from the barn lot. I like to do all of this before Winter sets in so we are ready.

The next thing to do is fix the entrance fence/gate and to trace all of the light wires and attach them securely near the lights. I am positive that the raccoons have disturbed some of the wiring and that is the cause for two strings of light not working. I will have to run all of the wires to figure out where the loose connections are located. It is a lot easier to feed when all of the lights work.

We are going to have to start chasing the sheep into the barn at night so the coyotes do not get them. The coyotes keep getting closer to the house every day.

I also need to order our winter diesel for the tank but with the price of diesel being so high I am dreading the final price to fill our 125 gallon tank.

All of this is in preparation for winter. I keep thinking I am ready for winter and I think of something else that I need to do.