I keep meaning to get on the roof, but we had Ruby’s 90th birthday party so Mr. President and I worked inside for a few hours then went and finished cleaning up and putting away items.  We sold our medieval pavilion after the party.  We don’t use it and we had an interested party.  

We added a floor at the top of the barn loft stairs so I van load the grain chute easily.  I took one of the turbinators and chained it in place to act like a chute into the grain bin.  I just need to add some sheet metal to the openings so the mice cannot get in.  I am going to put in a couple of rails next to the dumping station as I did not extend the floor out that direction.  I don’t want to stumble off and fall eight feet onto a sheep jug.  I am sure I would not survive it unscathed.  

We added a see through wall at the far end of the barn. I still need to add a small 18 inch gate so the sheep will stay out of the dog area.  I ordered the missing gate from premiere last week and it should be here Thursday with the other wall holes.  At that point I can install the sorting chute.  Annmarie showed me how to angle the walls of the sorting chute so the sheep cannot turn around easily. I hope it keeps them from turning around at all.  Tomorrow the second cupola work begins as long as it doesn’t continue to rain throughout the night.  We had a weather alert today for severe thunderstorms with lightning, rain and wind over 60 mph.  We got it all.  

Annmarie and I spent three hours trying to finesse the cows into the square pen.  They do not like the square pen, bad things happen to them there.  We kept Zeke under control and used him as a far away threat and it worked pretty good until we got down near the square pen.  We had to run them into the barn lot and then back into the square pen.  I am going to have to put a cross fence in the barn lot so we can do that every time.  One more chunk of fence to construct at some time in the not too distant future…

We left the bull in the back barn lot with free access to water and fed him a bale of hay.  That way he would be ready for the butcher.  Annmarie was going to be out of town and I was working so he needed to be easily accessible.  I happened to be there when the butcher came so I got to see him at work.  He is so fast!  The bull carcass looked really good at 13 months old and they called me later that day to say his carcass weight was 340 pounds, or half a normal beef carcass.  Exactly what we want, HALF!  The butcher kept out the tail, heart, liver, kidneys, and tongue for a friend who feeds their dogs an all natural diet.  Glad it can get used. 

I was out smoothing our driveway with the tractor when the semi truck delivery showed up with our sheep sorting chutes.  I helped with the tractor and it took about three minutes to get the load off the truck.  It had to sit out in the driveway for a week until I could get some free time, Mr. President could not unload some of the panels so it had to wait until today so I could help.

Wheat harvest was done last week.  It was the first year out of CRP and I was told the nitrogen load test was zero.  The club wheat only yielded 20 bushels/acre but it was not good around here in general.  So hopefully, next year will be better.



Soon to be dinnertime.

Sheep sorting chute.

Harvest in progress

Our first beef.

It is very hot here.  I have not gotten back onto the roof of the barn.  Annmarie and I are cooking for grandma’s 90 th birthday party so I have my four days allotted to setting up pavilion and popups and chairs and tables and food and cooking food.  So no barn progress for a while. I put in for a bunch of vacation on the next work schedule so I can finish it up. Mr. President and I arranged the new sorting chute panels in the barn. I need to order one more gate, two pegs and 15 wood holes to attach it all in place. Once that arrives I will secure it in place.  It is going to work out very nice.  One person and the dog will be able to sort an entire herd of sheep alone and do the tagging and banding alone. 

We added a lid to the internal old metal grain bin and I added an articulated handle made out of scraps I picked off the metal pile.  It works great and makes it so we can ensure a positive door closure. Now I just need to cut a hole in the lid and drop one of the turbinators through it so the bin can be loaded by just emptying the bag out at waist height into the turbinators, then passing into bin.  I will work on that a little at a time.  

I used the tractor and graded an area for the new cross fence in the barn lot.  I just need to get four railroad ties, two 4×4 and one sixteen foot gate and I will be ready to install it.  This will happen in next six weeks so it will be ready when we have to roundup other two cows for butcher.  Mr. President is moving the dirt so the lot will be empty with no obstacles. The dirt is going in the rocky part of the orchard so hopefully I can get some grass to grow.  

I picked our golden plums this week.  Another four days would have been ideal but the hornets had already eaten half of them so I braved the stinging insects and picked twenty decent fruits from the tree.  I tossed all the bad stuff onto the ground for the sheep.  We need another ten cow panels so I can circle the rose bushes and a few trees protecting them from the animals. It’s only another $300. 

I also need to order our wind vane for the barn roof this weekend. Eventually, I would like to get one on every outbuilding. I think they look cool. 



Steve cobbled handle from scrap.

New sheep sorting chute system.

Sheep chute needs another gate.

Horses, sheep and chickens all comingling peacefully.  Our ram is near the middle of the picture.

Future home of mom and baby pen inside barn.

It was day 4.  It was not better than day 3.  It was way worse!  The outside of both my hips feel like I was caned 20 times on each side.  It was pure agony going up the ladder to the roof.  I had to talk myself into putting on my safety gear and go up on the roof.  Once up on the roof, all I could think about was how I was going to fall off.  I had decided that it was too easy to just slide down the roof at a high velocity until my safety harness kicked in and left me dangling off the roof mere feet off the ground.  No, I was going to get wrapped up in the rope and flipped and turned on the way down, maybe break a leg or arm and go off the roof head first.  I did still envision the safety harness catching me a few feet off the ground.  It did not make my mission on the roof any less stressful.  We got one new panel installed and four old ones on the east side completed and a ridge cap over it all.  We are at the cupola and ready to begin work.  It was very hot and once the metal roofing started to burn my hands and arms through the leather gloves and my long sleeve shirt I climbed down.  It was only 0930. 

We went inside and started working on a new mom and baby pen that could be accessed without leaving the confines of the barn and had a route to the outside that did not involve trying to coax sheep past my new stairs.  Annmarie came out to the barn yesterday evening and we decided on a location and size.  Mr. President and I put it into place today.  We go the whole thing completed!  I love it when a project can be completed in a single day.  We attached two boards to the ceiling and the floor and one to the far wall to stabilize the pen.  We used an old gate that was on the milking addition to the barn that I removed last year when I rearranged the horse pens.  Plus, we were able to make the back gate long enough that when it opens up it blocks off the stairs.  No more loose sheep.  It worked out very nice.  Now I just need to figure out how to fix the handle on the grain bin and make a lid for the bin that holds an old turbinator  so I can just dump grain into the turbinator and it drops into the bin.  Which is why we needed the stairs so I can carry the bags up to the top. 

I was immensely grateful today when Mr. President informed me he had to work tomorrow.  No roof work for me!  Our sheep sorting chute system comes by semi truck tomorrow from 0900-1100.  Mr. President is coming out after his other job is over to help me load the chute materials into the barn, all 900 pounds. 

Completed mom and baby pen.

Double gates to outside of barn through pen.  This will be very handy for sorting sheep.

It really has only been three days since we started working on the roof. My body thinks it has been at least a week, maybe two.  I was very stiff this morning, many unknown muscles were complaining as I strapped on my gear to conquer the roof.  After a few hours you just get numb. We worked on both sides of the barn today.  New tin on the steep side and recycled tin on the other side.  We called for lunch at 1300.  Once I climb off the roof I don’t go back up till the next day.  It was over 100 F today and it was even hotter on the roof.  I will have to wear a wide brimmed hat and a neck kerchief tomorrow.  I have already been wearing a long sleeve shirt.  It gets hot but all the scrapes and cuts quit appearing so it was a fair trade off. My cell phone is not cooperating. I disabled Siri a few months ago but she just just keeps coming back!  I lean the wrong way and she starts hollering from my pocket.  My phone is in an outer pocket on my work pants.  I ended up leg dialing two different people and I stopped and talked to Anna while she was on a walk outside in Alaska. I finally just killed the power on my cell phone so I could get some peace and quite. 

We finished up the metal gate by the old milking shed after lunch.  Added a wooden handrail to the stairs. Stiffened the stairs by attaching them securely at both ends. Annmarie came out and we discussed another area for mommas and babies since I added stairs to their old spot.  We will be adding another small pen inside the barn with two more gates and I need to get the lid on the grain bin and a working handle on the guillotine gate. The new pen will be our afternoon, too hot on tin roof project. 

West side, almost to cupola, one more sheet of tin.

Soon to be cupola.  I had to use a whole can of hornet spray just to get near the hole!

East side with some progress.