creek crossing reinforced now

I got a call from my mother-in-law on Wednesday while I was at work stating that the sheep were out in three different locations and they could not keep them in the field.  I left work early and came home.  I had asked my nephew to fix the loose sections of fencing the day before.  We had the tools and supplies already loaded in the back of the pickup so after a quick clothing change I was ready to go.  We checked on the upper creek crossing first and it looked like a sheep highway.  My nephew had pounded a post in but had left a gap that the sheep had just pushed open and were using as a highway.  We moved the panels around, clipped them together and even wired several together.  The sheep will not be getting through the fence in that location.  I will need fencing pliers to fix this crossing in the winter!  We then went up to the corner which he had done a great job in tightening.  The back fence had some sagging fence so we tightened and installed wooden stays for almost a quarter of a mile of fencing.  We lowered the woven wire and tightened as much as we could.  This took a few hours to get straightened out. 

Upper hillside tightened and stays added

I am running out of wooden stays.  I had 500 stays several years ago.  I have about 40 left and need another 500-750.  I would settle for another 500. I fired up the irrigation line also.  I want the wind to blow as it moves the spray away from my back during pump startup but it screws up the distribution pattern. There was no wind so I got soaking wet.  The pipe is still clogged about 2/3 of the way down each branch of line.  I figured it would have worked its way out by now but no luck.  So tomorrow I am going to have to pull that chunk of pipe out and move it to the end after reconnecting all the other pipe.  I want to move the pipe over  40 feet anyways.  I may have to run it and then on Sunday move it over.  We will see.  I have to clean up the house as Annmarie is coming home tomorrow.  

She keeps telling me I need to quit saying the fence will hold.  She believes I am cursing myself.  I say “Bring it!!”  I will get this figured out.  It just takes perseverance and hard work.  I am amazed that we have fruit in the orchard.  We just planted those trees last summer and they are already putting on fruit.  It is incredible.  I made sure and added a typical farmer selfie at the bottom.
I had another damn chicken be a chicken, it just up and died.  Sometimes they are so stupid I wonder why they don’t starve to death.  At this rate I may have to get chicks this fall if I can find them.  My nephew will clean out the coop and I will be able to make a new improved FIRE PROOF baby area!!  Then I will need to redo the entire baby enclosure area and make it sturdier and not so slapdash. 

apple tree

second apple tree

pear tree

Farmer selfie!!

Father’s day activity



This is why I prefer to fence in the spring, three snakes later no rattler found.

I had to work late last night so I decided to sleep in this morning.  After a long talk with Annmarie on the phone I was contemplating going back to sleep.  It was later in the morning but I had only had 6 hours of sleep so it was still an option.  The phone rang and Donna was calling me to say that one of the neighbors had called her and stated our sheep were out on the road.  The neighbors all know we have the weird animals and always call when someone gets out.  It is very nice of them to give us a heads up. I have learned that no matter how often you fix a length of fence the animals eventually figure out how to get through it.  This happens 1-2 times a year.  I got dressed, grabbed coffee, both dogs and loaded them into the truck.  Zeke was bouncing all over, he loves riding in the back of the truck.  I had to trick Mouse just to get a hold of him to throw him in the cab with me.  He hates any vehicle!!  He tries to crawl in your lap and drools all over everything.  We pushed the sheep up the road and back into the pasture.  Donna made sure no one barreled over the top of the hill at a high speed.  This is when I discovered that the sheep have been bedding down inside the old school house during the heat of the day.  It is a concrete enclosure and much cooler inside.  There is a bunch of old wood debris on the floor that needs to be moved.  I will get that cleaned out soon. 

I walked the fence line and found multiple loose wires and wooden stays.  I blamed the Bull initially but after starting my repairs I realized that the deer are making paths up to the fence and washing the rocks down onto the fence in certain places.  It took me a couple of hours to get all the fence secured and back into place.  I drove four new posts, and the 12 hours of rain we just had did not soften the soil at all!  I had to move several loose rocks that had piled onto the lower wire of the fence.  This reminded me why I like to do this task in the spring.  I found three separate snakes while moving rocks.  I let them be, they eat mice and mice are bad.  No rattlesnakes that I recognized.

 

I fed the bull some extra food tonight.  He looks lonely, I need to move him next weekend.  I am going to try and let Zeke roam the yard tomorrow.  I have installed another section of woven wire tonight in the yard fence.  I hope I have all the holes covered now.  The only true test is to let him run around and see if he is out of the yard by the time I come home.  I did not see the cows today.  It is time to lay some eyes on them so we know where they are hanging out at. 

Old school house basement.  The sheep have been hanging out as it is much cooler in here.



Good looking fence now sheep proof, again.

Bull doesn’t know this is old straw from the barn floor, he thinks its food.

Sarah’s old bedroom, soon to be office

Chicken chili

I came home on Thursday and attempted to move the straw bedding pile from the barn out to the barn lot.  My nephew is almost done cleaning out the barn and I wanted to shrink the pile leaning next to the barn.  Our bull thought I was going to feed him.  I did feed him later.  I use the tractor and drive over food and drop it over the fence for him.  He really wants to get out of the corral. 
I will have to chase the alpaca into the orchard, lock them in and then run the bull down to the schoolhouse area.  I am thinking that needs to happen this weekend. 
Sarah got all moved out of the house.  I had told Annmarie that we had one room 100% complete in our house and then after Sarah moved out it was discovered that there is no wall molding on the floor.  Oops, so I will be putting in a call to get some finished and I can cut and install it myself.  The other thing to install is some Ethernet cable from the living room downstairs, up into the attic and down into this room.  We want the computer hard wired in up here for speed and to add a second wireless transmitter upstairs.  The wireless internet is slow, there is a lot of interference in the house.  We cannot get a satellite signal for the internet or TV, again too much interference from landscape and trees. 
I am a bachelor, for a short while as Annmarie is off getting more school in Berkley so I made chicken chili over rice for dinner.  I have been eating it for four days now!  I still have two more meals left.  I am going to have to alter my cooking habits with just Annmarie and I at home. 

Last of the lambs.  Only 10 left alone.

I knew I was behind on my posts.  This one is from June 6.  I saved the pictures I thought and tonight when I was looking at my phone I realized that it was telling me to retry the upload.  I had a low light picture of seven bucks but it was too blurry to post.  I was walking down to turn off the irrigation pump and 9 bucks were drinking in our front creek.  I hope they come back during hunting season.  I still don’t know if I got a tag or not.  It would have been a cool picture.  The iphones just do not take decent low light pictures in my opinion.  Pretty quick it will be time to sort off the baby sheep again from the main herd.  They can go hang out with their brethren in the barn lot.
I put an add up on Craigslist for our two baby calves to be sold in mid July.  They will be six months old and can be weaned off of their moms. 

Our babies for sale, only one visible.

It only took two weeks to sell our sheep on Craigslist this time.  That is pretty fast for us.  Last time it took all summer long.  It helps when someone wanted all we had and we had to limit them to 30.  Annmarie and Sarah took care of that while I was off at a funeral.