Rob came to see us again today.  It is always a pleasure to have him come visit us.  The free food for labor plan we have is always available to any one willing for a little adventure.  The sheep have been having babies in droves and last time we banded and tagged was last time Rob was visiting.  So we did it again today.  Zeke came out and we tried to round up the baby sheep and mommas.  I always forget how painful it is to try and herd a bunch of new mothers and babies.  The Barbados in them causes the mothers to get all protective and they just don’t want to comply with the dog pushing them around.  We had to go into the old lambing barn to make sure it was empty of sheep.  Nope, there was a month old lamb with its head stuck between the tire and frame of the mule.  Luckily, it was still alive.  We usually go a week or two before checking the building.  It got lucky.  So now, I need to get the tractor and move the mule.  The sheep and horses love the old lambing building.  Rob did good snagging sheep.  He was able to catch each set of twins at the same time.  We had nine more sheep to tag and band.  We made the sheep run out of the barn through the chute.  They are starting to get used to it. 

Next on the agenda was the cows.  We had one baby that was born last month that had not even been gender checked yet.  We walked down and only saw 5 cows not 6.  So we walked down the pasture to the school house looking for a dead cow.  We didn’t find a cow carcass but boy did we see some game birds!  We scared up a big rooster pheasant, several covey of baby pheasants, a covey of quail, a covey of Hungarian partridges, some mourning doves and some fan tail doves.  We also saw a set of twin deer laying next to the old school house.  Once we hoofed it back to the apple tree where the five deer where located the 6th heifer showed up.  A couple of attempts occurred before we got the cows out of the field an on there way to the corral.  The corral was amazing!  It will be even better when we get the two custom gates installed in the actual chute. 

We got the calf separated from the herd and Rob went to catch it.  I had warned him that it was not the same as catching the baby sheep.  I don’t think he believed me until he actually tried to catch the calf.  Then he could not grab it or hold it down.  It took a few tries and then I could not band it.  we had to reposition the calf.  I was able to band it and tag it.  My mother will be happy, it is a baby boy so in 18 months it will be dinner.  Tomorrow if the weather cooperates, we are going to start bringing in some hay. 

Rob after a single encounter with a 3 week old calf.

Tractor tire flat.

July started out with a bang!  On the first day we got a flat tire on the right rear tire.  My nephew drove over a huge nail.  The next day I had him use a magnet all around the barn to pick up loose nails and metal scraps.  I knew it needed to be done, I was just putting it off.  I had to take the tire in to get it repaired.  I had the candy bar twin stacking rocks over by the new culvert in the barn lot.  I need to raise the dirt level at least four feet and the rocks are to line the sides.  Once I get the rocks and dirt level with both sides of the old bridge foundation I will cover the whole thing with gravel.  It is just one more thing I need to get done this year. 
Unfortunately, this has fallen down on the priority list along with the front fence.  It is still too hot to stain the fence and now we have hay baled and on the ground.  That hay is now a priority and needs to be brought into the barn.  I don’t have the old 9n tractor with hay lift working yet so it is going to be done the old fashioned way, hay hooks and muscle.  The new field is approximately 15 acres and had a bumper crop of hay this year, 5 ton/acre.  That is a lot of hay.  So I have to move approximately 270 small bales into the barn and then make room in the machine shed for at least 10 more ton of large 800 lb bales.  The good thing is we will have plenty of hay this winter.  Next year I will figure out how much we need to sell.
I have been having my teenage helpers dig out the front creek.  It is all done now down to the pump.  I just need to kill the weeds and we should be good for the year. 
Tomorrow a friend is coming and we are going to work the sheep and cows.  I need to tag babies of both varieties.  We don’t know what is the gender of the baby cow.  We have been talking and 3-4 more heifer cows may be in order next year.  Otherwise, it could take us ten years to get to ten heifers.  I still have six baby chickens from my two batches.  They are still alive!  The sheep continue to pop out more babies.  This has been going on for almost three months continuously.  We are so glad we pulled the ram off the herd and are looking forward to having all the babies in a one month period.  This continuous dropping of newborn is painful to keep track of everyone. 

 

New fence, staining in progress.

I tried out the stain on the fence yesterday. I am really liking the color and am excited to get it finished. Of course I cannot finish it for a couple of weeks. The instructions say do not use in direct sunlight and between 50-90 degrees surface temperature. Since the fence sits directly in the sun and temperatures will be over a 100 starting tomorrow the fence is on hold. 

I have been thinking about extending the side fence between the yard and the orchard.  I like the new fence look so much that if I just restretched the woven wire fence then I can just attach the three rails up and make it look the same. I am really liking the concept. 

I think its a grasshopper.

I have been working on spraying the star thistle.  Milestone and 2-4-D in the tractor sprayer.  I went a little heavy on the spray.  Unfortunately, the stuff is like gold.  Every 55 gallons is around $100.  Its painful to spray onto the hillside.  The worst part is the tractor is a lot higher than the mule and it is a lot easier to tip over.  I almost rolled it three times, I was wearing my seat belt but that is not very comforting when you are on three wheels and lowering the bucket is the only thing saving you.  I finally decided that taking Annmarie’s advice was prudent and started going up and down the hill.  In the rough rocky areas I used the hand wand, see I can learn! Another couple of spray tanks and I will be done.  I had to get up at 0400 to beat the heat but with the weather getting into six figures now, I am just holding off on all spraying.  On a positive note the star thistle I did spray was wilting on day 2.  I am adding picking rocks on the back hillside to my to do list.  Its the little six inch rocks that get under the back tire and rock the tractor just enough!.  I actually miss the huge rocks.  

Overhead walkway extended another ten feet.

We have been working on using up the old wood from the granary roof and floor supports.  Unfortunately, all the nails need to be removed from the wood before we can reuse it.  It is a slow painful process.  I want to extend out the walkway over the old jug area.  It will be used as a storage area. Plus I need the space in the hay storage room.  We should be getting more hay this year and I will need the space.  We also ripped out four of the old sheep jugs.  I want to install another feeder against the wall where the jugs used to be.  I just keep adding projects!  Eventually, I will be done with the big projects.  People ask me why I do it.  It is a ton of work, we spend around $15k a year on the farm getting it back into shape and don’t make it back yet.  It seems like a waste from the outside.  I enjoy it, it is my hobby and what keeps me grounded.  There is always something to do and I can see the fruits of my labor.  Compared to what the place looked like when we first moved here it is amazing to see all the changes.  I hope that when we retire the place will be perfect and in great working condition. 

Barn floor contents out behind barn.

Horse area framed and in progress. Zeke was supervising.

Things are really starting to progress around the farm.  My nephew is staying for a few days with Donna and is earning some spending money by helping us out around the farm.  Today we finished up the gutters on the barn and filled in the drainage ditch with gravel.  I decided to tackle the horse area after finding the entire wooden stall walls chewed up and on the ground.  The horses needed something that was impervious to cribbing.  In English, that is biting, the horses are literally chewing the walls apart.  My biggest problem once I decided on using the left over roofing was figuring out how to attach a support structure.  Luckily, there are lots of 2×6 boards left over.  Its pretty amazing to think we got the corral out of them, the front fence and now the new horse enclosure.  There may even be enough to frame out an Alpaca three sided lean to.  I had Heath do all the impact wrench utilization while I did all the measuring and cutting.  We got the entire enclosure done and got the center divider reattached to a solid board.  I just need to get the eyelet hangers screwed in so the horse feeders will stay in the corner. 
The pickup has been dead for a week so this morning we removed the battery and sent it to town with Annmarie.  The hope is it is just a battery and will be an easy fix.  She called later and said they tested it and instead of cranking 800 ma it cranked 10 ma.  So a new battery and some battery terminal cleaners are in order.  That will be a big relief if it just cranks over.  Heath is lined up to start digging out the barn tomorrow.  I figure it will take him a couple days.  I need to spray some weeds on the back hillside.  Annmarie called to say she picked up the stain and a new truck battery.  So now the new front fence needs to be stained.  While on the phone Annmarie mentioned a broken piece of concrete that appeared next to the bridge after we removed the yard fence.  I said yes it broke, she wants it repoured.  We are still in discussion, as it is a low priority for me.  I will be ordering the Alpaca shearing blades tomorrow and working on the irrigation lines after I spray weeds.  It is all starting to come together. 

A completed stall.  We are all done here, I just need to put wall anchors in to keep feeders in corners.

Barn gutters done.

Front fence completed, just needs stained.

I know I said the fence was done, but it is really just built.  Some would say it is not completed until it has been stained.  No man would say this, to a man the fence is completed!  See it standing tall and majestic with working gates!  It is completed, a veritable work of art!  But alas, I will be staining it soon after Annmarie gets back.  As an added bonus, the bridge will be getting stained at the same time so I can kill two birds with one stone.  Lee came out with a crew today and we got the fence in and about half the gutters on the barn.  I should be able to finish up the gutters in about three hours, should being the operative word. 

The fence turned out really nice.  I am actually very happy with it and like the way it looks.  I think Annmarie is going to pick a red stain and it will go with the trim and roof of our house nicely.  It will be pretty sharp looking.  I went to the dreaded Home Depot and bought cedar caps and solar light caps for the fence posts, every other post is a solar light with both posts next to the main gate lit.  They won’t have gotten enough sunlight to charge the battery today but I expect the full effect to be there tomorrow night.  I did install a gate for the propane guy to fill our propane tank.  He will be happy.  There was a pleasant surprise today, as I was messing around inside the trash can enclosure (aka outhouse building) I heard a momma bird in one of the multiple houses I attached inside.  We have not had a single bird nest in any of the six houses since I built the out house. This made me smile and gave me hope for the bird houses I am going to put on top of the corral posts.  Annmarie comes home tomorrow so I asked Mr. President (my summer helper) to come out and help me rip out the chain link fence in the front yard first thing tomorrow.  He can only help till noon, his band needs the practice more than I need the help.  It will be a treat if we can get the fence all torn out before I go and pick her up at the airport.  I will also finish cleaning up out front and move the tractor.  I will have finished the front fence and the corral while she was gone.  Next up is a functioning irrigation system.