Author: Steve Hardin

Mowing completed

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Well it is definitely winter time as we ended up killing four stinging assholes in under 24 hours. They were fairly sluggish due to the cooler temperatures but they still would have stung us if we had stepped on them. Since this weekend we have not seen a single one, so weird. They were all wasps. We are down to 12 chickens, two roosters and ten hens. Now that we have the double chicken doors the raccoons should not be able to kill them as easily. So if you know anyone who is getting rid of chickens let me know we need more!

I fueled the tractor up and mowed for two solid days over the weekend. I was tired of going around in circles up in field one so I drove down to the schoolhouse for a change in scenery. I did not hay the area around the schoolhouse this year so it was very tall and I had a patch out in the field that needed to be mowed. Somehow I managed to hit an absolutely huge rock with the old mower/new blades setup and the noise that had worked itself out earlier came back. I think I hurt the blade some but it was still cutting grass so I ignored it. I figured it would fix itself or scream “uncle” and it fixed itself. I noticed that the fence needs to be moved to accommodate me running the mower alongside the top of the creek bank. The floods caused one of the curves to eat into the bank more than normal and now I cannot get a five foot wide tractor between the fence and the drop off into the creek. The real problem is the drop off is about 12 feet and I really don’t want to drop the tractor down a 12 foot embankment. I know that seems fairly cautious for me but occasionally I do see the wisdom of some safety choices. If I move the fence over I can drive by safely and I won’t be losing any hay ground as the hillside is too steep in that section to mow and hay anyways. I am not sure why that did not occur to me when I was installing the fence the first time.

After I got the bottom all mowed I started working on knocking down the sagebrush on the hillside. About every five years I go up on the hillside and knock down the sagebrush. It lets the grass grow back and stunts the sagebrush for a few years. It was easy to spot the parts of the hillside I had worked on clearing the loose rocks. It was super easy to mow but as I climbed up the hillside and got closer to the gate I started hitting a lot of rocks. I finally had to just randomly drive around and miss all of the rocks and hope I made a dent in the sagebrush. I really need to spend about a day picking rocks on the hillside to finish getting the area cleaned up. All little projects are just 1-2 days! The trouble is there a ton of them all over the farm.

On Sunday I went up and finished mowing field one. It is all ready to make hay in the spring. I am staring in on a road on the back hillside. I can only drag it after it has rained as the ground is too tough for my tractor at any other time. I have about 50 yards of road finished. My plan is to cut a road so that I can redo the fence down by the runoff stream. The stream-bed is dry currently but in the spring it will have water in it. I would like to be able to move the fence up the hillside. This would allow us to open up this area in mid summer so the animals can tear down the weeds while it is still green. The sheep will be able to go everywhere at that point as the creek will be dry again. This will help with our weed control issues.

Cows everywhere

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Annmarie had a thing this weekend so I was alone in the house for part of Friday and Saturday. Which really meant I stayed up late and watched movies. On Friday afternoon the neighbors texted to say that the cows and sheep were in their field. As I was headed up to get them another neighbor called to tell me her husband had seen them on his way home. He said the cows and goats but we have hair sheep that look very similar to goats if you are not used to them. Whenever I go to retrieve animals I always use the tractor. They are not very afraid of the tractor as they are used to seeing it and it usually brings food so they like it.

The cows and sheep ran onto our property up by the the 90 degree corner and there is no way to get to a gate that way. So I had to drive out there and chase them back to the road and down toward the wheat field. I really need to put a fence down there but the ground is horrible and I need a road a little higher up on the hill so we don’t sink into the mud in the spring. So I started to cut a road since it had just rained on Friday. I figure I can just slowly work on it every time it rains I will be able to go another 10-30 feet and eventually I will get the road in place. I would like to make the road wide enough that I can fence one side and it will be easy to work on .

The cows and sheep went back in and this time I actually shut all the gates necessary to keep them locked up in the pasture. I forgot one last weekend and it took them six days to find the open gate.

So Sunday morning, after I had mowed down by the schoolhouse, Annmarie calls to tell me that the butcher cows are out and on the driveway. I have no idea how they would get out and asked her if they were our cows. She sent a picture. So the Gingerman and I went out and again I fired up the tractor and raced the cows to the end of the driveway as they would not let me pass them in the tractor. The nice thing is since I widened the driveway down by the cattle guard the cows took a detour instead of running and jumping the cattle guard. I pushed them back towards the Gingerman and they ran right into the field. We opened up the gates so they can get to the hay in the orchard at any time. I am still not sure how they got out of the fenced in area. Honestly, I am not!

The Gingerman and I unloaded the compactor and I put it in the gazebo as that is where it will be needed next. We also unloaded the large frame parts for Annmarie’s new loom. I think it is going to take up about 35% of the room. It will be a pretty big loom once set up.

I found it!

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Last weekend I started mowing the fields on Sunday. When I cut for the hay season if there were a lot of weeds or cheat grass in spots I left them and did not cut them down. The cows and sheep have been working on eating those spots down but they are still don’t knock it down all of the way. I anticipated having to mow for a few hours and I would be done. Yeah, that is not going to happen. I spent all day Sunday mowing and I have 1-2 more days of mowing left.

I did hook up the old mower that the Gingerman and I fixed and gave it its first time out work up. It was a little rough for the first two hours. The new blades kept hitting something I had welded back in place. I figured that would eventually go away if they hit the same spot enough. I was correct, the second half of the day was much quieter than the first. I even got the mower back in next to the dry creek bed in field one. I don’t believe I had been in there for around three years. The weeds were 6-8 feet high! I ran into the missing disc set when I was mowing around the broken walnut tree! I took the time to pull the disc set out of the weeds and into the field. I will get it down to the house eventually. We have been looking for that thing for the last two years. I knew it was on the property I just could not remember where I left it last.

I mowed those tall weeds and then went along the second bank to clear out the weeds between the two banks. This was incredibly thick and I ended up overheating the tractor even though the outside temperature was only 50 F. We weed seeds get caught on the radiator and prevent air movement. I had to clean out the radiator and then wait for the fan to cool down the engine. The bees that the Gingerman put up there have a hive full of honey and are doing well. We cannot move them down to the house as it is not 2-3 miles away and the bees will get confused. No one wants that. I am also running low on farm diesel and am dreading getting the tank filled but I am going to have no choice but to call for a refill and just pay the price whatever it may be.

I have had a couple of people come out to hunt pheasants and I am encouraging them to shoot the pigeons and ring neck doves (invasive species). So far it does not look like everyone is making much of a dent in either population. I am going to have to start going out and blasting away on a more regular basis. We cannot go into spring with 100 pigeons. We will have 500 pigeons by next fall if we do. The Ring neck doves drive off the mourning doves (native species) from the food supply.

The wife wants me to defrost the freezer and fix the rubber seal. It is probably time to address the leaky seal.

Feeding complete

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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!

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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.