#stewartcreeksomethings

Farm projects progressing

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The siding contractor is done with the siding. We just need our gutter fixed and a screen replaced. Mr Rainman has been working on getting our porch ceiling painted. He used a thick primer to fill in the gaps between the boards. We thought about painting it white but were afraid it would be hard to match our siding. Annmarie remembered the porch ceiling being blue when she was a kid. I had to look up why blue and the reasons vary quite a bit. It was supposed to keep away evil spirits, it represented the sky so it made the porch feel bigger and it repelled bugs. We are going with the first one.

Primer done
First coat

The annual barn clean out has been happening over the last two weekends. Mr Rainman started it by getting a main path dug all the way through the barn (5 hours). I have worked on it two more days a four hour day and a three hour day. We have managed to get most of the barn dug out in 12 hours! This used to take 40-60 hours to do. We started earlier this year and it is really wet still inside the barn, so there are no hard sheets of dried stuff. It is scrap-able with the manure forks. I took the forks off yesterday and used the bucket to scrape the muddy material loose and then just leave it to dry for a while. Mr Rainman had ambitions of finishing it next week. The rest all needs to be hand dug. It should take about six hours.

Beginning spot

We will have gotten the whole thing done in under 20 hours which is pretty amazing. I keep getting better and better with the little John Deere tractor. I think the real reason is I don’t want to get off and pitch fork as much crap as I used to, before becoming more aged. I am getting more efficient as I age!

We have been having some trouble with random people coming down the driveway. We had installed a ring camera this year and are now having to monitor it. For some reason we have someone on a motorcycle who keeps coming onto the property. Annmarie is making another sign to do down by the driveway cattle guard. Once we have the gazebo up we are going to install a 16’ gate across the driveway down by the first house. Initially, we are going to keep the gate open and only close it when we work the animals. If we keep getting unknown visitors we may have to install a solar automatic opener with a battery backup. This will force everyone to stop and push a button to open the gate. If we install an auto gate opener we will bury an auto sensor from our side that will open the gate so you can leave. I am hoping that we won’t have to do that but when we install the manual gate I will weld new hinges on the gate and install a double post and offset post for latching. This will make the installation of an auto opener very easy.

We got the side fence temporarily back up so the dogs can no longer steal cat food or harass the cats. This week we will start in on the gazebo! This is our next big project. I am thinking it will take us about six weeks to get it all up in the air. We will still need to finish the floor inside, create countertops and an entrance cover and ramp. For now just getting it up with the roof on it is the goal this year.

I had to order more parts for the micro hay baler. I needed another $500 worth of parts and am probably going to have to pop off the wheel on one side to be able to reach all of the gears. I will definitely be ordering a spare chain and will only allow myself to take out links one time before just replacing it. The chain only costs $150, all of the gears are over $2k.

Farm 7, Predators 3

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It’s that time of year again where the predators start to enjoy fresh chicken and lamb. We have not had much rain in the last three weeks, about 1/10” last week. This has not been enough to keep anything green around us. The raccoons start to think that chicken is a great meal and the coyotes start to like the idea of lamb. Mr Rainman has been going out in the mornings when he arrives and trying to shoot the two coyotes in the upper fields. So far he has missed on three separate occasions. I have been up there seven times and have yet to see a coyote. He thinks he may be scaring them away, we are humoring him at the moment.

The dogs have been barking early in the morning before we go to work. I was able to spot three raccoons running in front of the driveway headed to the barn. By the time I grabbed a pistol and got through two gates to the barn I was able to get one shot off as the coon climbed into the barn and on top of the hay stack. We know they are in the barn as there are two huge piles of raccoon dung in there, like 20-30#/each. They can make a heck of a mess. This is the third time we have seen them but only the first time I have managed to get a shot off. My mother-in-law states they have started coming to her house again to eat the cat food. They pick on the cats and can kill them. Not to mention can add about 50-75# of animals to feed depending on their size.

Friday evening she called me to say that there were several raccoons on her front porch. Normally, I just grab a pistol and walk down there but the raccoons always start to run before I can get close. So I decided to drive the pickup down this time. I grabbed the suppressed 22 pistol and three extra clips. Unless you manage to hit a raccoon directly in the head it takes about an entire clip to put one down, especially if it is very large. We try very hard to not just wound them so lead poisoning by quantity is my strategy.

Luckily, I also have a green laser on the pistol. This helps dramatically when shooting around buildings and other animals. If I would spend some time practicing with the pistol every month I would probably not need the laser. Unfortunately, I don’t have time for that. I could be building more fence or completing another project. So I use a crutch to help me. Plus, in the middle of the night the laser is essential when running around in the dark.

I ended up killing four raccoons. I took 40 rounds of ammo and used 36 rounds by the time I was done. If there had been six raccoons I would have run out of ammo! So I will need to buy another couple of clips. I just fill my front and back pockets with spare clips before I head out of the house. I do keep the empty ones and put them back in a pocket instead of dropping them on the ground. I would lose them nonstop if I dropped them on the ground.

No cats were harmed despite them running all around while I was trying to kill the raccoons.

We put the live trap in the barn but as usual no raccoon is foolish enough to go into it. It has been up for a week with zero results.

Fire everywhere

Steve Hardin1 Comment

Summer is grinding on with our entire region surrounded by wildfires. Luckily for us, the wheat field next to our houses was harvested last week. The wheat crop did very well, they harvested almost 48 bushels/acre. I realize that may seem low to a lot of people but for a dryland wheat crop in Eastern Oregon foothills with marginal soil that is fantastic. As an added bonus they disced a fire break around the entire stubble field so even if the field did catch fire it would be contained. The family leasing the property are great!

The smoke is bad. So bad I have started to snore nonstop due to congestion. We have two carbon air filters going in the house at all times in an attempt to cut it down. The fires are all around and have now moved into the surrounding mountains.

There is a small grass airstrip on our neighbor’s property parallel to the road. He uses it to fly his small plane. It has been taken over by fire fighting helicopters. There are 5-7 helicopters with assorted fuel tanks and support vehicles all over the runway. They fly mostly during the day and are dipping water from rivers, ponds and dams. This means they don’t have to bring any water out to the airstrip. There are all kinds of helicopters. I took the one picture from our front window.

The foot is improving but by the end of the week work my limp is back and I need some rest. We were sick on Friday but I did manage to go out and get started on fixing the Abbriata M50 round baler. The chain drive gears have worn down so badly that the chain no longer drives anything. It’s not hard to see why as some of the gears are worn down to nubs. I had looked at this a couple of months ago (before broken foot) and ordered all of the parts I thought I would need.

I am no mechanic. I don’t claim to be one but I am capable of doing it, I just don’t like it at all. That being said there is no one in the area that is used to working on a mini Italian round baler. Nor anyone that has better access to parts than just calling the same place I do. So I started to tear into the baler to get to the gears. By the time I had replaced three small gears I had almost everything off the one side. I am working on taking off two gears at the top that are chained together now so I can pull the gear off behind them. I really only need to pull one gear but I either break the chain or pull both gears off at the same time. It’s a toss up as to what is easier but by pulling off both front gears I can inspect and or replace both gears behind if needed. I know one gear needs replaced.

I need to get down below to the lower drive gears but after really looking at it I think I am going to have to jack up the one side of the baler, block it in place and remove the left wheel and all of the covers to gain access to those bottom gears. By the time I get everything fixed there won’t be anything on the drive side of the baler but exposed gears. This is why I hate doing mechanic work. I of course do not have all of the needed pieces to repair everything. I lost a key when I was pulling a gear off, so I need a replacement. I need to replace a small gear but it is not bolted in place it is welded to another piece so I did not order it before, will need to order. That special gear probably needs a bearing but I cannot tell yet as I have not removed it. I need a special shear pin I don’t have. Also, those double gears at the top I think are special and need another sprocket and gear setup I do not have.

I scrutinized the parts catalog and think I have the correct part t numbers now. On Monday I will call the dealer. The dealer and I will go over the diagrams together and I can walk them through what I am trying to replace. They are very good about helping me order the correct parts. I am replacing all of the bearings as I put in the new sprockets. The bearings feel good but I am not doing this again and you should never really reuse bearings. It just sets you up for failure.

Our siding is completed! It only took three and a half months. It looks amazing! There is a small piece of gutter to repair and we are going to get gutter installed over the back door. I don’t want an ice puddle forming directly outside the back door in the winter. This has allowed us to start watering the front yard finally. The entire yard was almost dead and the cheat grass is trying to take over. Water will help this dramatically. The dogs are coming in covered in dead grass all of the time.

Hopefully, we can start in on the gazebo this week. Mr Rainman will be out this week to help with that. There is one more field to finish mowing and all of the mowing will be done.

Only a little Gimpy

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On Tuesday I did a walk around the house with the contractor. He wanted to return the overhead lift so he spent a couple of days finishing up the caulking on the upper part of the house. It is looking good. They just have to fix a corner of the front gutters, replace a screen in a window and finish caulking the lower part of the house. They got the yard all cleaned up and we are going to start putting some water on it to cut down on all of the dry weeds the dogs keep bringing into the house.

Mr Rainman came out to mow the fields and has missed coyotes two mornings in a row. Gingerman and I went out Thursday evening and Friday morning and did not see a single coyote. So maybe he managed to scare it off, no body, no credit.

On Wednesday, we had another big event, the dreaded lightning strike fire. We had a storm pass over Pilot Rock and lightning started four fires in a very short amount of time. A couple of the fires got controlled fairly quickly but the wind picked up and started to really spread the flames. The lightning continued to start more fires as it moved. Our area ended up with several big fires. Four days later and there is a state disaster team, agencies and assets from all over the state fighting fires around us. Highway 395 is closed down 39 miles outside of town and we are surrounded by smoke. The fires are continuing to grow. Luckily for us the fire never jumped the highway before town so we were safe and the wheat crop next to the houses is intact and ready to be harvested, not everyone was as lucky. I spent a couple of hours driving around looking for our Border Collie, Chance. She got out of the yard during the storm. She came back to the house as I was headed down the driveway. Annmarie called me to let me know she just showed up at the front gate ready to be let inside the yard. Milo is doing great, he is going to the vet to get neutered next week. He doesn’t know it yet.

Well I am officially out of the boot and able to bear weight on my healing foot as long as I wear a stiff soled shoe. I heard this on Monday so I started walking around with the boot as I did not have any shoes for the right broken foot. It hurt, pins and needles and stinging when I bore weight on it. After only six weeks no weight bearing I expected to just jump right back into the hard manual labor and, per the wife, I did not listen again. I didn’t want to listen, I don’t want to rehab, I don’t want to take it easy! But after having to sleep 10-12 hours each night after bearing weight I would say it is a lot harder than I expected. First thing in the morning when I put my foot down the whole thing has pins and needles. I am walking with a slight limp that progresses if I push it too much. So I am trying to take it easy for me.

Mr Rainman came out on Saturday and we went out and wormed the sheep. Most of the sheep look great but some of the ewes are pretty skinny so we worm when that happens especially since they are out and about on the farm. I was able to use the drencher device and it is so much faster than filling syringes. It still took us a couple of hours to go through the herd. He jumped in with the sheep in the chute and held them so I could dose them. You always get your feet stepped on when you are in the chute and I do not need that yet. One ewe had an abscess on her chin that I lanced. They get them from the cheat grass. We have been mowing and spraying the cheat grass but this year it is winning. We are planning on spraying Rejuvra on the fields this fall to help us control the cheat grass. This time in the barn pointed out that we still need to dig out the barn and the chicken coop. They are on the list. Mr Rainman wants to put the heavy panels in the hay room so he doesn’t have to carry them as far. Normally we take them outside the barn. This is a valid strategy he employed today to get the barn opened up today so he is ready to start digging it out with the manure forks on the John Deere 2520 tractor. The smaller tractor is the only one that will fit into the barn.

The plan was to hook up the small sickle bar mower to the John Deere tractor but Mr Rainman had to move equipment around in the machine shed first. I put away my auction winnings that the progeny, Gingerman and I picked up on Friday. The tools were brand new and looked unused, I should have bid on more tools. I did not win the large toolbox I wanted. I am looking to create a metric toolbox and a standard so that I can easily find the correct tool. I am filling up the big tool box and cannot fit any more open end wrenches or sockets in it. We wrestled the mower onto the tractor then spent an hour getting it greased up and the teeth oiled. I needed to mow the orchard and for it to be feasible we needed the smaller tractor and the smaller sickle bar. This was not the offending sickle bar that I broke my foot on. Except we were not sure that this sickle bar was in working condition. After doing everything possible to make it work I cut the orchard with it. It was brutal as the grass was too high. I also managed to hit one of the metal horse panels encircling a tree. Luckily, the mower belts started to slip and I quickly turned off the pto, usually I pop off a bar tooth when this happens. I was able to pry it off and get back to cutting. The plan was to just pick up the downed grass and toss it over the fence for the animals. The sheep and eater cows can get to it.

After all that I was whooped and needed a shower and some rest. I took a nap!

On Sunday, I cleaned house and moved upstairs back into our bedroom. I have been sleeping downstairs so I did not have to try and maneuver the stairs with a bum foot. So the puppy and I are now back in the master bedroom. Things are starting to get back to normal.

Calves tagged and banded

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Mr Rainman brought out a friend (Mr Interested) who was interested in seeing us tag and band calves, one of our nephews came out and the Gingerman offered to help. I was dead weight but was able to provide directions. Annmarie had spotted a ewe last night that had an abscess on her neck so the sheep got locked in so we could deal with it after the cows. We had to push the cows down to the corral and of course they were at the farthest field. They actually went in fairly well. They only back tracked once which is amazing as this late into summer all of the animals are crazy. They get fairly wild since they don’t have to rely on humans for food. We ignore them as long as there are no issues also. There is quite a bit of green grass up in field two. It snapped back nicely after we cut hay. All of the fields need mowed to knock down the cheat grass, but now that Mr Rainman is off of vacation he will have that done in a few days.

Once the cows all got pushed into the corral the mommas were sorted off and only the seven calves were left in the corral. I forgot to have the dogs moved inside so they were right at the corral trying to help. This was not keeping the calves calm at all so they had to be removed. Chance ended up on the run hollering at us and whining as she wanted to help. We had the calf table all set up but the small calves don’t lend themselves to the table at all and since there were four grown men it was decided they could man handle the calves. Yeah, it went as well as you expected. This is something that you really have to know how to do to tip a calf fast and easily. If you do not do it correctly the first time a fight will ensue in which a lot of effort must be exerted and a few bruises obtained to get the job done. I sat behind the corral fence hollering instructions. The calves all got tagged and banded. The wrong numbers and colors were used but the job got done! They only had to cut off one set of bands and redo it as there was only one testicle in the first attempt. Everyone was pretty dirty by the time it was done. The Gingerman just started to finally tackle and bear hug them which resulted in a lot of cow poop and dirt everywhere.

The sheep got chased into the barn, for this Chance did get to help on her lead rope. Gingerman ran her, but the sheep are so tame that they will just ignore humans. Once in the barn we proceeded to catch every black sheep and could not find any with an abscess. We did catch and sort off the one with a limp but there was no abscess. So I did not have to lance and treat an abscess.

All in all a successful venture with the cows and we are done for another year, there were 5 male and 2 female calves. We had three calves die for unknown reasons. We have had two momma cows die and most likely it is due to old age. We have not been rotating off the older adult cows. So we may have to start doing that every 3-5 years now.

Four weeks left on the broken foot.