Our new Dorper/Katahdin cross 1 yr old ram

Today was the day we went to get our new ram!  All three of us loaded into the pickup for a three hour drive.  I had to spend 45 minutes unloading tools and trash out of the pickup before we left.  Plus making the pen in the back of the pickup for the ram to ride home in. 
His name is Oreo, this is the second ram named Oreo we have owned and we did not name either one.  He is hand tamed and we can rub all over him he is so friendly.  The people we bought him from were great.  He got wormed just before going into the pickup.  The ride to our house was stress free.  He rode great.  We did get some funny looks on the freeway as people passed us.  You would think they don’t know what a hair sheep looks like.  Unloading was a breeze, I just backed the pickup up to a sheep compost pile, dropped the tailgate and opened the fence up and he walked out.  We are going to leave him in the barn lot for a few days.  On Wednesday we will sort the sheep, we need to take out the one nutter baby ram and a couple of whethers to keep him company.  We will stash those guys in the back barn lot for a few weeks.  We are going to sort off the baby girls we are going to sell for meat.  They should be old enough to wean off their mommas.  All of the meat sheep will go into the upper prime pasture.  We also have to sort off the two oldest calves.  They are over a year old and are still stealing milk from the mommas that are getting ready to birth their new calves.  Those two steers will also go in with the meat sheep in the upper prime pasture. 

Sheep got out for a stroll

Herbicides are a glorious thing

I am going to have to hook up the mower to the tractor by this weekend and mow the entire property.  Their has been so much rain that the entire place is growing into one big grass patch. 
My herbicide spraying is starting to become visible.  It looks like I should be good for another couple of months before the next round of spraying. 
I really want to get some fence built but it just keeps getting pushed back.  I have been spending most of my spare time getting grandma’s house ready for Sarah.  I just about have the vinyl floor installed in the bedroom.  The painting is progressing well. 

I have still not mowed our front yard!  On the plus side I did pickup our mower four days ago from the repair shop and it does actually run.  I tested it today when I pulled it out of the back of the pickup (so we could go get the ram).  It had not been there very long!!  Now the mower just needs to chop down the 2 foot tall grass that is populating our front yard. 

Last night I set out the trap. I had seen a possum the other morning so I knew something was roaming the farm. There is now one dead possum. My chickens are safe for now. I will keep the trap out for a few more days before putting it away. I sprayed Roundup all over the driveway to take it back from the weeds. I will need to rinse out the tank before spraying another few loads of 2-4-D on the lower pasture. 

I had to fix the yard fence again as Zeke has figured out a way out again. I think he is jumping through the fence strands. I had to add three posts, tighten it and then add an upper strand and take loose wire to tire all the strands together. This way Zeke cannot spread them apart while jumping through them.  Now I have to wait 7-10 days for the spray results to start showing.  Tomorrow it’s back over to grandma’s house to get more work done on it 

Marshmallow baited trap

Fence fixed hopefully

Baby radish peeking through already!

Spraying upper prime field, just in time

Pump pond full now just got to fix the inlet seal

 

Kitchen cupboards with doors

A couple of new shelves and pull out shelves

I 

I spent the day trying to get the irrigation pump up and running.  This sounds easy but since there are NO local stores that sell anything to do with farming irrigation I had to drive to Hermiston.  First, I had to remove the clamshell clamp on holding the inlet pipe onto the pump housing.  It is made out of cast aluminum and I cracked half of it last year tightening it.  I figured I would remove, it drive to Hermiston and get another one at the irrigation store. We have no local irrigation stores any more. I drove to Hermiston only to find out that I should have taken some pictures of the setup before tearing it apart. The place was very busy, I am timely for once, so when my turn came I was informed that my part was obsolete. Very obsolete even ancient. So a suggestion was made for me to go across the street to the custom metal fabrication shop and get it welded. I made it across four lanes of traffic and talked with someone. It will cost the same for aluminum or stainless steel. I opted for steel. He only wanted to fix the broken half. I opted to redo the whole thing, about $300.  It will be done this week. I also bought 30 gaskets to go inside the irrigation pipe for a paltry $100. As soon as I have the collar I can fire up the pump and see if it works!! While in Hermiston I tried to get my plastic sprayer part. The store sold the sprayers but did not carry the part. I told the clerk that it needed to be remedied. When I got home my handle and the spare I ordered had arrived. I knocked the pin out and beat it back in place with the handle now aligned. I was able to start spraying Friday evening until dark. On Saturday I finished spraying 2-4-D, 220 gallons of mixed spray. I just have the lower fields to do now. The next thing is spraying Roundup on the driveway and fence lines. 

Our master bedroom walk in closet is done!!  It turned out great there is so much more storage space that we are unsure what to do with it. Annmarie loves it. Our downstairs cupboards are almost done. They just need knobs but the cabinet guy wanted to know where she wanted them exactly. 

Walk in bedroom closet done

lots of space

My corner

The shoe rack

It is broken!

Chickens don’t stick to the plan

Sunday was the day I was going to get caught up with the outside home chores.  Well not caught up, more like on schedule since there are always more chores than I have time to complete.  Annmarie and I had walked along the fields looking at water levels and grass height.  It is time to spray the upper prime field with 2-4-D.  I need to kill the broadleaf weeds and give the grass some room to fill in.  The field looks good just too many weeds.  My plan was to hook the sprayer up on the tractor and spray weeds!  A simple basic plan, hard for anything to go wrong. 
I was seriously mistaken.  Annmarie tells me I should plan better and anticipate the hiccups.  I like to think that I can just hop in on the tractor and do it!  I am all about doing it!  I love tasks and lists and things that can be accomplished in a day or less.  Probably one of the reasons I love working in the Emergency Room.  So, I ignore this sage advice every year. I did put the sprayer away into the machine shop this fall.  I did not stop the cows from going into said machine shop.  They broke the weed torch and may have injured the sprayer also. 
I backed the tractor into the shop and drug the sprayer tank over to the tractor.  I cannot use my quick connect on the tractor as the sprayer needs some welding modifications done for this to be possible.  So I got in place without too much difficulty.  The tank is pretty easy to move around when it is empty.  I noticed immediately that the power cord/switch wire was badly degraded in one place for about 8 inches.  I was storing the extra wire under the tractor seat.  It looks like the seat going up and down cut the wire and stripped off the insulator.  I had to wrap the individual wires with vulcanizing rubber tape then tape the two wires together with the same wrap and covered that with electrical tape.  It is sealed up well now and will tolerate moisture.  Once that was done I attempted to fill the tank with water but it kept running out the bottom.  So I lifted the tank up with the tractor and noticed that the filter I had installed underneath the tank was broken.  When I winterized the tank I forgot to unscrew the filter cap and empty the water out of the plastic cap.  It broke in the freeze. 

So I jumped into the car and buzzed into Pendleton, found what I wanted at the store and made it halfway to the checkout register when I realized I had left my wallet at home.  Now this was an actual decision I made first thing in the morning.  I have lost my wallet twice now while doing tractor work as it tends to ride up out of my back pocket after several hours on the tractor.  So I decided it would be safer to not carry it that day.  I had to hide my stash of stuff, drive home, get my wallet and drive back to pay for the needed supplies.  Once this was installed I turned on the spray pump and heard the pump kick on!  I then played with the recirculation line to get the pressure regulated.  Except I could not get any spray to come out of the wand or the three jets on the spray bar.  Nothing I did worked.  There is this fancy pressure regulating valve that I figured out was the most likely culprit.  I took it apart three times trying to figure it out.  I ended up back on the internet looking for an owners manual.  I found one that said I should have a plastic handle on the end of the valve that allows me to open the valve when I want to spray. I remembered this step in the spray process once I read about it.  On the off chance the store had this part, I bought the sprayer from them, I ran to town for a third time.  No go they did not have it.  I found it on the internet and ordered two.  I now order a spare of everything. 

I had to chase the hen off the nest.

I had wasted 6 hours trying to get the sprayer working.  The day was perfect, sunny with no wind it was ideal for spraying.  Instead I started installing two wires on top of our front fence, one would be a ground and the other one hot so we could keep Zeke, adult border collie, in the front yard.  I installed the wires and was working on Sprout proofing the side fence when I heard Sarah hollering.  She was out on the old house porch in flip flops doing some project painting.  She had fallen off the steps.  The middle one has been broken for over half a year.  The puppy chews on it incessantly and has worked it loose.  She reinjured her bad ankle.  There was a lot of speeches on the necessity of appropriate work attire.  I am not sure that the timeliness of my remarks is always good, but I seem to have trouble controlling myself when it comes to “teaching moments”.

My parts should be here by the end of the week.  Sarah is back to using crutches and her ankle brace, and the fence works at keeping Zeke inside the yard.  More work is still needed to keep Sprout in the yard.