We caught a raccoon in the live trap down at my inlaw’s house.  So I went down this morning and dispatched it and took it up to the bone yard.  The weeds are over growing the road up to the bone yard.  I need more traffic headed that way.  None of the live traps outside the coop were tripped.  My super large clip was still in place so no chickens vanished last night.

Annmarie tried to set up the camera to watch the coop but there is too much interference for the camera to transmit into the house.  So we are looking at a wireless receiver that ties in to our internet page directly and it would be housed in the old house and then the signal would be clear for us in the house.  Still considering this option even though it will cost more cash.  The first batch of baby chickens are three months old so they have at least another three months before they start laying.   Next year I may have to ask around in January to find out which feed store is ordering chicks first and put in an order for 25 chicks right away.  I think the one store starts in February, that way my new chicks could start laying by August.

Hopefully, this was the critter killing my chickens and it stops.  I got the new part for the chicken butler in the mail over the weekend so I will go out and work on it today.  Once it is back up and running perfect the chickens will be safe.

I started spraying weeds today.  In reality this is a necessity.  There is currently no way I can control the weeds without using herbicides.  There is about 25 acres that I am trying to keep clear and there are not enough animals to keep up with all this rain!  Needless to say it took me over two hours to get the sprayer hooked up, strapped down, powered up, parts purchased (two separate trips) and running.  I sprayed a brand name called “Banvel-d” a couple of years ago.  When I went to buy more herbicide today that brand was not being carried so instead I purchased “Rifle-d”, much cooler name.  The sprayer has one small leak on a nozzle assembly, but it will work just fine.  If I am in Pendleton later in the week I can pick up the part and replace it, but for now I am going to keep spraying weeds.  Had a heck of a time in the orchard, the milk weeds and thistles are so tall that the mule kept getting high centered on the weeds.  Lots of forward and backing up to get over the weeds.
Annmarie and I were walking back from our in law’s house near dark and the weeds were already starting to wilt!  I may have the concentration a little strong, but I did follow the directions on the bottle.

We have been locking up the chickens every night since the Chicken Butler is currently nonfunctional.  Unfortunately, Annmarie informed me that the chicken door has been opened the last couple of mornings after she locked it up at night.  I have lost another 5 hens.  I am down to only 16 laying hens…  this is killing me.  At this rate I am not going to have any chickens.  We had a gate locking mechanism on the chicken door that has to be turned just right to lift off the latch.  So tonight I put a large carabiner on the latch.  I do not see a raccoon getting that off.  I have also expanded my kill zone.  I set up a trap at the in laws on her back porch.  Something is eating sunflower seeds off her deck at night.  I also set up another live trap outside the chicken yard.  I NEED to KILL the nasty predators before I have no chickens left.  Again, this is a stupid problem to have.

I have a weekend already lined up for my bridge endeavor.  The second weekend of July is the start of bridge construction.  I am going to tear out the old bridge and get the four pillars and footings poured before that weekend so it will be build time.  I have someone coming to help me finish it up.  Looking forward to getting this out of the way.

Ditch crossing before tightening fence and installing cable over the water.

Well I gave it a go today.  I was hoping to finish the orchard fence today and just could not get it done.  I got all the crossings buttressed and stabilized.  I strung up the woven wire fencing and put on the first row of smooth wire.  I had to cut the panels in half as I do not currently have enough available to make the entire crossing.
We turned the sheep loose in the orchard tonight.  When I came back from my parents one sheep was already outside the fence.  I am thinking she crawled under the gate and didn’t jump over the low fence…
I will keep thinking that all weekend long.

I had to run wire in X shape between both posts to stiffen fence end. I bought 60 feet of cable for the two crossings and ended up with an extra four feet.  Good thing I didn’t buy 50 feet like I was initially planning.

Annmarie was commenting on the beautiful sunset so I ran out and managed to snag this picture.  It was truly a very gorgeous event.  Glad I caught some of it.

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Old fencing by the equipment graveyard looking into the foothills of the Blue mountains.

Here is the view after we pared down the number of posts and cut off the extra height.

So what is wrong with this picture?  I did not think to look down the fence line (assumed they were all lined up) and Annmarie pointed out that I would be moving another post yet again tomorrow.  This will be the fifth time I will have moved a post on this section of fence alone.  The automatic post hole digger was nice but I sure did get the holes all over the place with it.

Sarah and I went out and pulled up the extra railroad ties today.  We loosened them with a chain and the pickup, then pulled them up.  This worked okay for the first two posts, but the third one was too heavy for us to pull out.  So we inserted a chunk of tall wood under the chain and cinched the chain at the base of the post and used the pickup to force the lever action.  Worked really well, should have done this for the firsts two posts.  
I trimmed off the tops of the posts today with the chainsaw and cut in ledges for the stiffening boards.  I only had to cut on nine posts and I had to sharpen the chain saw three times and fill the gas four times!  Those ties are very hard.  My poor chain saw bar was smoking and getting duller by the minute.  Sparks were flying.  I hate seeing sparks when I am using my chain saw.  Luckily there weren’t any more posts.  It is a twenty minute endeavor just to sharpen the blade each time.

Now that Annmarie pointed out the post that needs to be moved again, I will have to do that first thing in the morning.  After I get the post re-positioned then I can tighten the ends up against each other and install the cables across the irrigation ditch.  Once that is all completed I will be ready to string out wire.  Not sure I will be ready for wire tomorrow.  I will try very hard to get some wire up and in place.  If I can get just the sheep woven wire up we could probably turn the sheep loose in there this weekend.

I had to go to the feed store today to buy more metal fence posts, cable and connectors for the orchard fence.  I figure by the time we are done with the orchard and barn lot fence we will have spent over $1000 this year on fencing supplies.  They add up fast and that is with me getting used woven wire from the scrap metal guy.  Nice part is all the fencing I am doing is going to last at least twenty years without too much maintenance.  Learned the hard way that you cannot just haphazardly throw stuff up or you will be constantly fixing it.
Sarah read an article on how to raise colony rabbits.  You just create a large pen and they live in the large enclosure.  This cuts down on maintenance and upkeep (as I eye the far hillside by the creek).  I would have to bury the fence and ultimately put some bird netting over the top to keep the birds of prey away, but it sounds very doable.  They could just eat hay like every other animal we own.  I would have to run an electric fence around the outside of the enclosure to keep all the predators out.  I like the idea.

Hard to see the posts now that they are trimmed and quantity minimized.