Since the cows got out fencing has again reared its ugly head.  I have taken a club and am attempting to beat it back into submission.  Annmarie thought the cows were getting out right next to the road so I spent 7 hours cleaning up the fence line (lousy 100 feet), removing each strand and retightening it, patching the old sheep fencing and repairing it where I could.  It is in the upper 90s these last two days.  It is miserable.  I finished that all up today and the fence looks great, good for another 5-10 years with me doing nothing to it.  The deer are going to be pissed as there were two different deer highways crossing the downed fence. 

I happened to be driving along the CRP to the house and thought I might check the interior fence going into the hay pasture.  The gentleman leasing the pasture had already tilled the ground.  I drove up to the dried creek and found a huge gaping hole!  The cows did not crawl through the fence I just spent 7 hours repairing.  They just walked up the dried creek or went through the hole in the fence next to the creek.  I another three hours dragging the panels back in place over the creek and repairing the fence on both sides of the creek.  The power company had pulled the meter out of the old pump junction box and disconnected the transformer from the power line.  They used to back up the creek and install a pump into the back creek and irrigate the pasture.  There is a whole row of 4 inch aluminum pipe alongside the fence.  I need to empty the irrigation pipe trailer and start snagging all the pipe I have found since last year.  I am still trying to get it all into one location so we can get it repaired or scrapped. 

I ended up retightening about 60% of the sheep wire in that whole fence line.  It looks a lot better, but the upper three strands of barb wire need to be tightened also.  The fence bordering the CRP along the upper pasture has multiple low spots were the deer have created their own crossings.  The deer are lazy and don’t want to jump over the fence.  Instead, they crawl through the fence and push it apart in the process. 

One of the hens has decided to sit on some eggs, so I am letting her.  We should know in 21 days if this works out or not.  We will see if she can stay on top of them.  If they hatch I will put them and her into the baby area alone so no one can pick on them.  More fencing tomorrow, I will add some more sheep fencing up at the cattle guard and fix our four gates so they open and close easily and attach boards to the bottoms of the gates so the sheep cannot crawl under them. 

Barn roof done for the year.

Granary skeleton.

I took these a couple of days ago, things are always changing but this should get the big picture update completed.  We were short two pieces of metal roofing to complete the entire animal covering. I had visions of completing all the windows this summer.  No way can I get it all done this year.  The two hanging doors need to be installed.  We built the one by the tack room today and hung the 1/2 door over my fancy door today.  Only two more exterior doors to complete the “necessary” work on the outside of the barn.   The floor inside is all down!  I need to screw down three sections, but I used the impact hammer for over 8 hours two days ago and my right hand was numb and almost twice its normal size (it was over 100 F).  So I have been careful to only use the impact hammer for a couple of hours a day.  I don’t want a repeat of the club hand.

Cleanup almost completed.

Front of the barn, still needs some work.

Fancy door within a door for the sheep.

Old granary door now tack room door.

Tack room with ceiling.

Front floor completed.

Back corner floor completed

This area to the right of the rode needs to be fenced in to make a small pasture for the mothers.  They will have access to the front creek.  Everyone needs access to the always running front creek.  I really want to install this fence but the barn needs a few more things before I can move forward with any fencing. 

My tractor sprung a leak the other day when Mr. President was loading sheep dung.  Luckily, he just shut it down and told me.  It was just a loose hydraulic connection on the front bucket.  The real problem is I don’t know how to replace the hydraulic fluid.  I had to read the manual and find out that the transmission fluid is the hydraulic fluid.  It is low so no driving the tractor until I refill it.  The tractor has 68 hours on it, at 75 hours I have to change the oil, oil filter, transmission filter and transmission fluid.  One more solid day of cleaning up the barn lot and we will be at the maintenance mark. 

Trophy wall.

Those light eyes in the middle are the storage room above tack room.

Grain dispenser

The large opening at the top of the peak on the barn is going to have a window in it.  I have a four foot by eight foot window ready to go.  The opening is plenty big enough for this window. 

I am going to drag a couple of railroad ties over to put under the door so the sheep won’t have to step down 1.5 feet.  I will build the area up with some rocks and dirt. 

Jug completed and ready for sheep.

All this stuff was down inside the walls buried in hay dust and sheep dung.  Most of the horse shoes are from draft horses and still have the nails in place.  We figure they are from shoes that were thrown off by the horses.

There is another storage room above the tack room now.  This is going to be the staging area for the large window.  I don’t want to try and drag the window up the entire outside of the barn. 

We spent the whole day cleaning up, it is not very sexy.  There is one more load to be thrown into the trailer.  Mr. President is going to do that tomorrow and finish cleaning up inside.  When he is done with that the roof piece that blew off the barn needs to be cut up with the sawzall so it can be hauled up to the hillside.  Mr. President is afraid of bees/hornets/yellow jackets.  It is official.  I wanted him to cut up the old grain elevator with the sawzall while I took a load up to the pile and dumped it off.  When I came back the sawzall was out but nothing had been cut.  There were about 10 hornets buzzing around and he didn’t want to get stung.  I cut the whole thing up without getting stung.  We loaded 1/2 of it but by the time we filled the trailer there were probably fifty hornets flying around.  I told Mr. President to pick up some spray and hose them first thing in the morning.  Even I didn’t want to move the wood with that many hornets flying around. 

I need to go get clean.  It is hot and dusty outside, running around 90 F.  Zeke was filthy so I hosed him off and found a tick.  Tonight I will put tick medicine back on him.  The ticks had gone away, but that rain a couple of weeks ago brought them back out.  

We have started to turn the cows and sheep out onto the main pasture.  Just not enough green down by the house.  Next year I am going to have to get a water pump in the front creek.  If I can get the one right in front of our house up and running I can probably put off the main irrigation pump for another year.  I need to get the aluminum pipe straightened and repaired before the irrigation pump can be used.  I want to plant some grass seed this fall, but who knows if I will have the time. 

I figure one more day to finish the roof, one more day to finish the floor, one more day to make all three doors and two days to side the front of the barn.  Then two days to make the feeders and 10 days to move the fencing all around.  This is my goal, this is my pronouncement. 

I spent the afternoon with Mr. President constructing a work of art.  A door to last the ages.  I wanted a door within a door.  I wanted a small sliding door for the sheep to go through inside the whole door.  The trouble was how to make it stiff enough to have a hollow center.  I ended up using 2×6 on the outside and then creating two frames and joining them with the 2x6s. We then sheathed the door with 1×12 rough cut boards.  The door weighed almost 200 pounds.  It is massive, four feet high and six feet wide. 

We wrestled it into the door opening and used large long bolts to attach them to the main beam.  I have 8 more bolts to attach before we can test the door.  There is a sliding door inside the door, 2 feet wide and 3 feet tall.  We can open the sheep door without opening the large main door. 

I was giving Mr. President some flack about getting stung this afternoon.  He said he hadn’t been stung in three years.  I told him that was too long ago to truly remember what it felt like.  Not ten minutes later as I strolled by the honey bee hive opening I got stung on the back of the neck.  It did not feel good, but it was tolerable.  I caught quite a bit of flack.  I think I was just too close to the hive opening. 

Tomorrow is hay pickup day.  We are going to start up early and bring in all the hay left in the field, about 6.5 tons.

2/3 finished with low section of the barn.

Screws are killing me.  We were doing the upper layer of roofing and 1.5 inches was not long enough.  We had to stop and I had to call four different stores before I found one in the whole town that had them.  I went in and bought 10#.  We used about 12# of screws just today.  I also special ordered another 10 bags (1000 screws) of the 3/8 screws (big).  I need those to cover up the big holes left in the sheet metal when pulling the old nails was difficult.  I have to go to town tomorrow and I will get the last of the long roofing screws at the hardware store.  They are 2.5 inches long and all the boxes were covered in dust.  I am guessing not a popular item.  Sucks to be the next guy that needs some.  By the time I am done with the barn I figure at least 100 pounds of screws will have gone into it, screws run any where from $3-$8/lb. 

The tin is going far further than I thought it would.  We found another 11 pieces in the old granary.  Those are the shiny new pieces on the top left of the above picture.  They were brand new with no holes.  The long pieces are 16 feet long and the new pieces were 12 feet long.  The old ones that are bent and going up the steep roof are 14 feet long.  Mr. President and I just kicked and beat them into a bend to make the angle change.  It is working so we are going to stick with the method.  The steep roof is 16 feet to the peak.  I am not going to get this covered.  It is a project for next summer.  I do know the measurement now so I will be able to predict how much tin I will need for that project.  We still have over 10 pieces of the 16 footers and more than that in the 14 feet.  We are going to be so close to finishing the entire low roof!  If we don’t get the whole thing done there will only be a couple of feet unfinished.  I will go and buy what is needed to finish it at that point.  I had only envisioned about half the roof done. 

Twin girls in the yard next to momma.

The sheep escaped from the orchard pasture this afternoon.  Annmarie and I went and walked the fence line.  There is a large hole down at the other end where the flood had removed four feet of dirt.  The weeds had made a nice barrier.  The sheep ate all the weeds.  So now I need a panel to cover the V-shaped hole under the fence.  This meant that we needed to go get the sheep and bring them in.  Zeke has been in puppy prison since his attack on the ewe momma.  I have been keeping close tabs on him when we are outside and he doesn’t even get to go outside without sitting and waiting for a release command.  It was test time for the dog.  We had one ewe in the yard and I took him out to scoot her to the other side of the yard.  Zeke was pretty good.  He would lay and stay on command.  The ewe was not good.  She kept stomping her front hooves in the ground and would not give way.  I had to walk up to her and give her a knee to get her moving.  I had Zeke scoot a little closer and finally the ewe charged him.  He raised hell, growling and jumping on her side.  I called him off and in the mayhem one of the babies got separated from the momma and ran with Zeke.  He left the baby alone and she finally cried so momma would come get her.  Not perfect but not his fault either.  So Annmarie and I went out the upper gate and onto the back hillside.  I am proud to report that the spray is killing the star thistle.  Most of it is dying.  I saw a handful of healthy plants on the hillside while we were walking (thousands died).  First, Zeke spotted the sheep, Annmarie and I were headed left, the sheep were actually to our right.  He herded the sheep back to the ram pasture with virtually no input from us.  It was quite amazing.  He did a fantastic job.  By next year I hope to be able to open the gate and just tell Zeke to go get them and bring them to me.  Totally think this is going to happen.