First baby from our new ram, Oreo.

Winter is coming!  This happens every year and it is always a race to get ready.  There are always ten projects that need to be done before the ground freezes.  This year is no exception and I am having a hard time squeezing everything in.  I am not going to get every project done.  Our newest big project is getting new internet.  The internet blows, we cannot get satellite anything due to our Southern exposure being blocked by a 100+ year old tree and a 100+ year old barn.  What were they thinking? Did they not know we would need satellite access?  I am courteous enough to plan for the next 50 years.  Because of our super slow internet, we have to put every device in airplane mode to stream any TV and even then some nights the download pauses are treated as commercials from the olden days.  We have had W-tech link out to our house twice.  We live in a low spot between two hills and cannot pick up a signal from the radio transmitters two miles away in Pilot Rock.  The second time they came out they just used a boom truck and started raising it all over the farm to find a signal.  If we go 20 feet into the air over the old machine shop on the back tall corner peak we can pick up a signal from the Pendleton Airport!  Perfect, lets do it!  There is one slight complication, the receiver needs power and it needs to be mounted 20 feet in the air above the peak of the machine shop.  

Somewhere there is a baby out there!

So now I am frantically trying to get power over to the machine shop asap so we can have internet and have our driveway back.  I have had to drag the trash can down past the shop for the last two weeks so the garbage truck can just turn around like they used to do.  They always just circle around behind the machine shop to get out, it makes it very easy for large rigs and trailers.  A semi truck can do it also.  I needed more supplies so I went to Zimmerman’s hardware on Thursday to finish buying everything.  I had been contemplating going to 10 gage wire due to the distance and finally just did it, ouch $215 for a 250 foot roll.  I also decided that since I was putting all this work in we might as well get a light for the hay area so we can see when we are getting hay for the cows.  All the asundry hardware for that was another $100.  Plus, I threw in another five sticks of conduit.  It was more than I thought I needed but some things are cheaper compared to another trip to town.

I spent the day attaching a light switch box and an outlet box to the wall, everything has to be in a waterproof setting.  I got the overhead light wire pulled and then wired the light in and then attempted to screw the light into the round base with the screws provided.  They were very short screws and did not work!  I climbed down the ladder and resorted to reading the directions for installing the light.  I was desperate and thought the instructions might have a simple fast fix.  Nope, what crazy half baked manufacturer boxes a light with no installation screws!!  Their instructions “mounting screws sold separately”  What is this?  Two stupid screws was all I needed and the job would be done.  I had to leave the light hanging by its wires in the hope that tomorrow I could go to the hardware store, where I purchased the light and find the “sold separately” installation screws.
I didn’t get any conduit laid down in the ditch because it rained most of the day and was miserable.  Luckily, I did all my work in the machine shop out of the rain. 

What manufacturer does this?

two boxes in, light switch and outlet

I was dog tired last night, I was so tired I went to bed early after letting Mouse outside.  I was hardly able to keep my eyes open as I trudged up the stairs to our nice firm bed.  I got undressed and promptly flopped into bed and fell asleep.  It has been a long week at work and I have been burning the candle at both ends.  Next thing I know I kinda hear the phone ring, its late and no one calls us unless you are a solicitor or survey company.  We ignore both those types of calls and they don’t usually call this late.  I try and ignore it and fall back asleep.  I hear Annmarie talking on the phone as I attempt to burrow down under the covers.  Next thing I know Annmarie is coming into the bedroom and turning on the lights at 2300!  Its late and she tells me that the neighbors up the road just called because our cows are out in the road.  This sucks as it means I must get out of bed, get dressed and go out into the cold!  We get dressed and Mouse is bouncing all over the hallway as he knows something is up.  We put on his reflective vest and his clip on light before heading out.  I holler for Zeke multiple times and get no response.  So I go outside and stand on the bridge and holler for Zeke, no answer.
I am hardly awake, much less functioning so Annmarie tells me to take the pickup down to the other end of the farm and block off the road so we can push the cows back towards the house.  She and Mouse were going to walk up the bottom pasture and we would meet at the cows, wherever they were. This plan would have worked better if she was walking with Zeke.  In the middle of the night, using the dog by blinky light location only is tricky at best but near impossible with a puppy.  I drove around and found all the cows out on the road eyeing the fence keeping them out of the neighbors alfalfa field.  I shooed them out of the road then herded them toward the lower pasture with the pickup by driving through the stubble of the wheat field.  I finally spotted Annmarie and Mouse coming up the bottom.  By the time Annmarie made it to me she was covered in dust, her eyeglasses were crooked and her face vaguely resembled pigpen’s appearance.  She told me that Mouse spooked the horses in the barn lot and Mika ran over her pushing her down into the loose dirt.  We pushed the cows into the upper pasture.  Our leasee has just disced the entire filed and it is very loose dirt.  We ended up tossing Mouse into the cab and driving down the field.  The cows disappeared into the dark but they sounded like they were ahead of us.  They got out by pushing on the gate.  I had it chained shut but the chain was held onto the wooden post by two fencing staples.  I need the chain to go all the way around the post and chain into itself so the bull cannot push it apart.  We drove down to the barn and tossed out a couple of bales of hay.  The entire ride back, after discovering the gate, was consumed with wondering where the three boy sheep were at.
We could hear the cows coming so thought they were still in the bottom pasture, nope they had gotten back out into the wheat field.  So I had to open the gate for them while Annmarie tossed out some hay in the barn lot.  Nope, the cows went down to the lower pasture and waited for me to open the gate.  I will have to feed them later.  It was finally time to go to bed. I will not be counting sheep in my dream.  They are on their own.  Hopefully, we can spread the word and someone will spot them.  As I went out onto the breeze porch to kennel the puppy, there was Zeke!  He had crawled into his kennel and gone to sleep, a wise old dog move.  

It was RoundUp week and I managed to carve out a Wednesday to get our trench dug for the new power outlet in the machine shop.  We need a better internet provider. Our phone line internet provider is too slow. When we stream tv we have to put every device but Roku in airplane mode. It is a pain and we deserve better. So after two separate consultations if we can get an antenna 20 feet in the air on top of the 25 foot tall machine shop we can get an internet signal from the Pendleton airport. The only real big hangup here is the antenna needs electrical power of which there is none in the old machine shop.  

So on Wednesday after our telephone line was marked I rented a trenching machine for half a day. I figured it would only take an hour or two. I was off by a couple of hours. It took almost 3.5 hours to get across the driveway. The machine beat me up and is almost too big for me to wrench around.  I got the trench dug and the machine all cleaned off and back to the rental business in under four hours. 

I spent four hours on Friday hand digging under the concrete slab and digging out in the machine shop I was unable to get all the electrical parts as it was RoundUp. If you live here you understand that every thing stops for a week. So I will be shopping for the last few pieces, and waterproof outlet. Soon the skies will solve our internet woes!  

It is September now, I would like to say that it is still summer but the leaves are already turning. Fall is just around the corner. Annmarie has started walking in the mornings with the dogs. It’s not hard to see why we like it here. It is very beautiful. 

Mouse still has not caught onto the whole jumping thing. He watches Zeke do everything but he hasn’t figured out how to jump. So when they get to the cattle guard Zeke just leaps over but Mouse has decided to take his instructions from Annmarie. He walks over the cattle guard just like her!!  I have never seen a dog do that before. 

The weather was perfect for the quail this year, they were able to hatch two separate batches of babies. The current batch is pretty young but our quail population is on the rise. 

This is a picture of the farm from the opposite hill. The two huge trees hide the house pretty well. 

It’s been 36 hours since I recovered from a three day bout of the GI Bug from hell. I spent the first day sleeping on the bathroom floor and ended up having to be sent home from work and missing two days of work. It was tough. Unfortunately Mother Nature is not cutting us any slack and that hay needs to get put in the barn. 

I asked the daughter’s paramour to find more help and show up at 0545. It was supposed to get to 100 degrees that day. Now ideally I would schedule the work day for one when it is not so hot. Unfortunately, I have to schedule the work days around my paying job so I don’t get to choose them. 

I was up and ready by 0600, no helpers. So I texted the daughter then called and woke her up. Nope, still asleep so I jumped on the tractor and started leveling the area in front of the machine shop. I had a dirt pile from last year when I installed the gravel drain field in front of the shop. So I spent an hour moving dirt while they woke up and came out, by 0700 three young men were ready to do some work. They all forgot to bring gloves. Luckily I had three sets kicking around in the cab of the pickup they even matched!  I had every intention of being done by 1100 so we had 4 hrs to bring in 7 loads for a total of 210 bales or just over 36 minutes a load. The hard part of this time frame was the more bales we collect the harder it is to get them in the barn. The stack is 8 bales high and the bales have to be lifted/thrown/dragged to the top of the pile. It becomes much harder to unload as the pile grows. I drive fast and helped unload to speed up the process. 

We were finished in 3 hours and only six loads!  That left one hour so we reorganized the sheep side of the barn, tossed out straw and loaded all the supplement feed into the grain hopper. We are ready for winter for the sheep!!  I just need to get the large bales of alfalfa for the cows loaded into the machine shop. 

We managed to sell one of the pieces of farming equipment, the drill sets. The money will be used to fix up the old Ford 9N tractor. Once I get it running I will be able to lift the large hay bales. I will be able to stack them myself. We are looking forward to this!!  There is more old equipment for sell. 

This is the upper small wheat field 7 acres that produced 4.7 ton/acre of barley hay.  That’s pretty good.