Creek crossing with no fence in place.

 We put up the temporary electric fence on the back hillside.  The yard deal just did not work out.  I still needed to cover the creek crossing and about 30 feet of fencing on the hillside.  It took three tries of stringing the fence to get it the way I liked it.  That doesn’t sound so bad but the hillside is very rocky and it was hard to find places for the poles to go into the ground.  I am sticking with the cow panel concept for creek crossings.  It is just easier.  If needed the panels can be lifted and moved fairly easily (doesn’t take hours on end).  I got the upper creek crossing done and then used some wire mesh to cover the last 30 feet of the electric fence. 

Creek crossing with fence in place.

I then went up on top of the hill and started working on getting the barb wire moved. I rolled up the bottom strand and cut it loose from the fence.  There used to be several rock cribs on the fence eons ago but they have disinegrated into a pile of rocks with the occasional piece of wood sticking out.  I needed one to pull the woven fence tight.  Luckily, right were I ran out of woven fencing is where an old rock crib used to be so I implemented my new rock crib plan and used a cow panel.  I used a 12 foot section and formed it into a circle and then bent the cut bar pieces around their neighbors.  It is mighty sturdy.  It took a lot more rocks to fill than I expected.  I had to toss rocks for over 20 minutes to get it full and the rocks were right next to the new crib. 
This is the design I saw when I went and picked up the cows in Antelope, OR last year.  They didn’t add the wooden post but I like nailing the fence to wood so I added it.  My total cost is $20 for this crib, not bad at all.  The sheep finally came out and explored the back hillside.  We will see how they do overnight. Tomorrow, I will finish getting the other two wires removed and then I can raise the four remaining strands and attach the woven wire.  Once that fence section is completed we can run the electric fence straight up the hillside and open up about 400% more pasture than is fenced now.  We opened the gate and are going to allow the horses to roam the upper pasture.  The fence won’t keep the sheep or cows in but since the horses won’t cross the creek and don’t usually try the fence we think they will be okay. 

Portable electric net fencing.

 The electric fence charger came yesterday.  We ordered an all in one unit designed and made for Premier fencing.  They do mostly sheep gear and are a working sheep farm.  Great products, worth the price.  This is a self contained solar charged electric fence charger with batteries, switch and clamps all in one heavy duty aluminum watertight box.  I wanted to hook it all up and see how it worked so I strung it out in the front yard.  Needless to say there were some issues. 

Solar powered with custom metal box.

 I did read the directions this time.  I had to finagle the fence around to get the extra strung out so that it was all off the ground.  I got it up, the charger on and the sheep in the yard.  I then waited to see what would happen.  The sheep would bump it and then jump 2-4 feet sideways.  The real trouble was all 50 sheep would shy.  I had a 20 foot tunnel that caused the sheep to bump someone into the fence.  The teenager panicked, typical teenager, and started running down the electrified fence.  Stupid idiot got physically tangled in the fence and ripped down 40 feet.  I had to run over and turn it off and physically unravel the lamb out of the fence.  I now have straight sections of fencing.  Zeke accidently hit the fence and you would have thought he got shot!  He squealed and ran away and followed me around for the next two hours.  The cat didn’t like it either, although she just yowled and jumped between the hot strands.  The sheep did get used to it but they are rough on it.  I need to put the charger on the opposite side of the fence away from the sheep.  They knocked off my cables once. 

Solar powered with batteries and fence generator self contained.

We took the pickup in to be serviced.  Not taking it to a shop for years kind of makes the little things pile up.  $2000 later it runs like a new vehicle!  I was quite surprised by the smoothness and having the passenger side mirror working again is a nice bonus. 

Yesterday morning our mother-in-law called to say the cows were outside the freshly completed fence and heading for the bulls and the road at the bottom of the pasture.  I said a few choice words as that section of fence was just completed last week.  Zeke and I went out to herd the cows back to their pasture.  Annmarie had to stop and help and Zeke needed a redo as he pushed the cows away from the gate while I was opening it.  Eventually, we prevailed and the cows ended up where they belonged.  I started looking at the fence trying to figure out how the cows got out.  I forgot to install one wooden stay near the apple tree so upon inspection I remembered why the stay was not installed.  There were two large sheep sized holes in the woven wire with four intact barb wire strands above it.  The cows had crawled through the fence!  I fixed the holes and added two stays to stiffen the fence.  The cows have not escaped since the fixit job. 

Egg with NO shell, just a membrane.

Sarah found this cool egg out in the chicken coop the other day.  It had no shell but an intact membrane.  Everything is there but the shell.  Pretty amazing.  We are still not getting very many eggs.  I counted chickens today there are 17 adult hens, 7 five month old babies and 1 rooster.  But I am still only getting 2 eggs a day.  I need to fix the chicken yard fence and then I am going to lock the chickens in the yard for a few days and see if the egg numbers don’t improve.  I just need to fill the waterer and fix the fence.  The babies should start laying next month.  I cleaned out the baby area today and bleached the walls and made a new sleeping stand.  I bleached all the food dishes and installed a heating lamp.  The babies should come next week from D&B, 2 dozen pullets.  Tonight I filled in the baby area with wood pellets and filled all the nesting boxes with fresh wood chips.  All in an attempt to get the girls to lay in the coop. 

I went outside to get some dirt to take to work.  We made elevated planter beds and I was supplying the dirt.  I went to hook up the trailer and noticed the electrical pigtail had been ripped off.  I rewired it (it still doesn’t work, I wasn’t sure what colors went where) and hooked it up to the pickup.  After three loads of dirt I noticed a new dent on the fenderwell on the left side.  After five loads I noticed the flat tire!  So I had to change the tire, using the handyman jack I almost could not get the tire up in the air.  Too much dirt in the trailer, I was hanging off the end of the bar to get the jack the last couple of inches.  I drove to work at a whopping 45 MPH, dropped off the trailer and took the pickup down to the shop.  I am having them fix the passenger mirror, tail lights, brakes, new shocks, transmission and it dies at idle for no reason.  They should call me on Monday with the damage.

Really it goes on forever and ever…

Phase 2 of fencing.

I went up on the hillside to do a little more fencing.  Our temporary electric woven wire fencing shipped on Monday.  So we are are trying to install all the metal woven wire we own to maximize the area covered by the temporary electric fence.  It was cold and windy yesterday but I decided I had better work on fencing anyways.  I went to the top of the back hill and rolled out my last large roll of scrap metal wire.  Unfortunately, I had not made it up to the top of the hill when I was burning so I had to clean up the fence by hand.  There was a lot of dead debris in the fence line and I had left the pitchfork down in the barn.  I just used my boots, a piece of broken wooden fencing and my arms.  I cleaned up about 300 feet of fenceline.  I stopped when I got to the end of the woven fence I had unrolled on the ground.  I then started to take the three strands of bottom barb wire off the existing fence.  I didn’t get it all loose before I had to go get ready for work.  I need to install a rock crib at the end of the woven wire so I can tighten that section of fencing, detatch and roll up bottom three strands of barb wire and raise top four strands and then install the woven wire then just tighten it all. 

While I was musing and working I decided to boycott all future wooden rock cribs.  It takes me about 16 pieces of split rail to make a single wooden rock crib.  The current price for a rail is around $8 each.  So each rock crib costs around $128.  I need to build 6-8 each time I run up the hillside, at a total cost of approxmately $1000.  Plus, I need at least 9 wooden posts to cross the bottoms at $15 each for a total cost of $135.  There needs to be a gate below and above at a cost of $125/each or $250.  Add in one roll of smooth wire at $85 and around $100 for woven wire.  Oh, and don’t forget the three panels to cross the creek for  $75.  Creating a grand total of $1775 to run a subdividing fence up the hillside.  Now it did not cost me that this time because I used on hand split rail and tied into an existing fence across the bottoms.  But due to labor and costs I am going to use the cow panel method of rock cribs.  You just take a 16 foot cow panel and cut it in half.  Now bend the eight foot pieces into circles and tie it to itself with its own exposed wire ends.  Tack in one wooden post (an old one from the ground) fill with rocks and you have a $14 rock crib that will not rot as fast as a wooden one.  So I am guessing the next subdivision will cost around $700.  I can substitute a piece of cow panel for one of the gates or save another $110 and just use cow panels for both gates and cut the price down to $600.  $600 seems a lot more reasonable.  I would like to subdivide up the hill four more times.  Once that is done I may even separate out the hillsides from the bottoms to allow us more flexibility.  We need to be able to rotate the animals around so that the pastures all have time to grow back without any livestock pressure. It is getting there. 

Phase 2 of the fencing I went down and walked the fence line headed up to the old well.  In the picture of the bottom pasture above the reconstructed fence would go almost to the power line on the left hand side.  It has woven wire in place for the first 400 feet.  I would just need to install a new H-brace at the end of the woven wire, tighten the wires and add one strand of smooth wire and about 25 metal T-posts to fix this fence.  I would need to cover the metal gate with a cattle panel also.  This would let us use the new electrical fence for the other two sides only. Coincidentally, this would be where I would want to subdivide back up the hill. Not going to happen this year, next year’s project.

 It has been very rainy here lately, which is good because we need the moisture.  The only problem is the ticks like a cool wet spring.  I was looking down at my leg and saw a tick crawling up my pant leg while on the hillside.  That was yesterday, and I am still thinking every itch is a crawling insect on my body.  The dog also had a tick on him, so I treated him with tick medicine.  I don’t like ticks. 

Fresh snow in April!

We had a productive weekend.  It has been raining for several days so I was authorized to burn weeds.  My track record in the past is a pretty grey when it comes to using fire as a cleanup tool.  Don’t get me wrong it works great, I just tend to burn down some “extra” stuff.  It was actually raining on Saturday when I started to burn, I had to get a cheap yellow plastic rain jacket to stay dry.  It was almost perfect burning weather.  I would have liked the weeds to be a little drier but eventually the wind started to really blow and that made up the difference!  I burned out about 80% of the fence line that needs woven wire.  I ran out of propane early and had to run to town to get more.  I came in from burning for dinner and Annmarie informed me I was not answering my cell phone.  I reached down and no cell phone was on me.  After dinner while it was still light we went back out and traced my burn path.  I lost it 20 feet from where I stopped burning.  Luckily, it stopped raining during dinner and had just started when we found the phone.  It survived. 

Hillside fence completed, upper portion.

 Kelly came by on Sunday and we went outside to work on fence despite the blowing wind.  We split all the wooden stays we could from my pile next to the road and loaded up on tools and tackled the hillside fence.  We strung three more strands, installed all the stays, erected a gate and completed the upper 16 feet.  Panels across the creek are the only thing left.  I have the panels they just need to be drug over there and installed.  By the time we finished the wind was howling!  It was easier to walk uphill then downhill.  I sprung the door on the pickup trying to get inside.  It took me almost a minute to get the door shut.  It was crazy.  We opted to quit fencing for the day and went into the old house to organize my tools and to see if there really was a floor.  A couple of hours later all the tools were put away.  The used toolbox I got this fall has tools in it now!  I used the wooden draws on the new dresser for bits and pieces and screws to get them organized.  My screw shelf was overflowing.  I am going to start putting bolts and misc in the the dresser and just screws and staples on the shelves. 

Hillside fence completed, lower portion.

Now the drawers just need to be labeled so I can find everything.  We did install my second fluorescent light (from my sister’s garage) over the workbench and plugged it in tandem with the other one so the wall switch operates both.  The lighting is much better now.  Our sheep pasture is very short.  We need a solid week of warm weather to get the grass to jump up and grow.  Since that is not happening I am going to use the last large roll of woven wire I have to go across the top of the hillside from the newly completed hillide fence.  We just purchased 450 feet of electrified woven wire fence on spikes and a solar energizer pack (panel, charger, battery and case) to electrify the temporary fence.  We are going to start moving the sheep out into the unfenced pasture.  There is a lot of grass out there just no good fence to keep the animals inside.  If we keep bordering our good fence we will be able to expand the area the electric fence covers. I ordered everything on Saturday (97#, thank goodness for free shipping) so it should be here this week.  I will go check the scrap metal yard today for more woven wire, it is going to become my habit until I have a mile of rolled wire, a weekly constitution. 

Kelly has offered to help me out a couple of days a week when he is up working at the base.  So I might be able to get the fencing done in a month with his help.  If I do it alone it will take me about 2-3 months.  We feed him well, plus he doesn’t even have to pay me for the exercise regimen I put him through.  I guarantee he can lose 10-15 pounds over the summer helping me out on the farm!