Barn cleanout

Barn clean out done!

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I managed to finish getting the barn dug out this week. I figure my total time on the barn was around 12 hours. This is a far cry from the 40 hours it used to take me. Using the manure forks on the John Deere and just figuring out how to make it into most crooks and crannies with the tractor has cut way down on the hand work. I probably only had to do about four hours of hand digging. The next big thing is to haul the old round bales from the lamb shed and put them into the overhead walkway so we can use them as bedding. They are three years old and have virtually no nutritional value but will make great bedding. I used to buy straw but using old round bales has zero cost associated with it. I used to spread it out when I put it out on the floor. Now I just spread the rolled bales evenly throughout the floor and the sheep break it apart and spread it out throughout the barn. If I have a gap or two a week later I just dump another bale in the shallow spot and the sheep do their magic again. I do need to reset the chute and bring in the four feeders from outside. This will need to happen next week as I am thinking about taking some sheep over to Hermiston next week.

Annmarie wants me to work on getting the old compost out of the barn lot so the horse will quit digging in it for a snack. About 1/3 of the way into digging out the barn I remembered this so I started to put the bedding into the momma/baby area. This has a very shallow soil depth and does not hold water very well. I am hoping to increase the soil depth so I can add some seed. I figure this area can take next year’s material also and I will hopefully have something to work with after that. As I was filling that area I noticed our chickens in the front ditch eating out of the water. They had waded into the shallow water and were eating bugs out of the water. I had no idea chickens would do that! I have only ever seen water birds do that. The chickens do have all you can eat grain available so it is not because they are starving. It was pretty weird.

We had several people send us pictures of Annmarie in the Mounted Band so I picked a couple I liked to add in here. Roundup is pretty much nonstop for us with me having to work in the ER and Annmarie working and doing Round-Up stuff also so not a lot gets done on the farm except feeding animals and collecting eggs.

Our honeybees are still alive from the nuc we purchased this spring. The flowers are fairly sparse this late in the season so we have had to start feeding the bees sugar water. So Annmarie took out one frame so a one gallon frame feeder could be dropped into the hive box. I scraped it and let it gravity drain into a bucket, we got almost a quart from the one frame. We are using it all for ourselves! We are hopeful that we can get one more hive next year and then we can start to actually harvest some honey. I set the frame and wax back outside so the honeybees can clean it up and get it ready to be used next year.

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.

Barn Dig out completed

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Last week went fast and slow at the same time. The Apprentice stated that she wanted to work. The barn needs dug out and I have to go to the paying job. This seemed like a match made in heaven, to me. I attempted to teach The Apprentice how to drive the little tractor in and out of the barn. It is a tight fit and you have to watch the rear tires and the front bucket simultaneously so you don’t smash either one into the barn or knock out a roof support. After 20 minutes I realized that the time to just get in and out of the barn was going to be too long. So I had the Apprentice start shoveling the barn in areas the tractor would not go. I used the tractor to break up stuff it could reach and had the Apprentice make a long pile of poop in the center of the barn. She kept digging every day and I had to come home, eat dinner and then go out on the tractor and spend a couple of hours digging out the piles that were made in the center of the barn. She had that entire thing done in four days!

The barn floor is now drying out before we lay down some new bedding. I have to repair three boards that I managed to tear up with the tractor. This is only the second time I have torn up some boards when I was digging out the floor with the tractor. I just have to screw down three 4 foot long boards. It will take the impact driver to get the screws into the ancient wood I reused as the subfloor.

I had the Apprentice attempt to clean up the ground outside the barn with the tractor. The wind was blowing and after she ate about a half a pound of dust and poop she called it a day. I will have to come back later to scrape the ground clean. The Apprentice wanted to keep working but we were headed out of town on Friday so the apprentice agreed to come out early on Saturday and we would start in on the fence around field #1. I need to get that field fence up so the cows and sheep can get in there and eat it down. I have also been spending some time in the evenings picking blackberries. Annmarie uses them in her breakfast smoothies and we freeze them in individual serving portions. I have been picking wild blackberries and our domesticated thornless ones. The domesticated ones are huge in comparison to the wild, but the wild ones are much sweeter. The domesticated ones also have NO thorns, it is so pleasant to pick them. My hands look like I have been dragging them through rose bushes after picking wild berries for a couple of days. I was able to swing a deal with a friend for jam. I pick the blackberries and they make the jam! This way we both get some. They don’t like the hornets. I have not been stung a single time by hornets this year. I have managed to “pick” a couple off the blackberry bushes that I thought were fruit. It’s always a surprise when you go to put it in the bucket. I wash it, measure it and freeze it in known quantities so we can use it for jam and pies later in the year. I need to pick about four more gallons.

12 cups of wild blackberries

Alpaca are sheared!

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I was able to finally catch up with a new helper, The Apprentice. They messaged me this morning and stated they could come out later in the day. This gave me enough time to work on some inside chores and do some laundry. I like to write blog entries on Sunday morning. I made breakfast shit on a shingle as there was extra time. It turned out very nice, I sent a picture to the child as she was not here for breakfast.

Once The Apprentice messaged me I headed out to get ready. The third manure spreader needed to be unloaded so I picked it off of the trailer with the tractor and put it next to the other two. We flipped gates and got everything ready to push the alpaca up toward the barn. We walked down and I fed apple slices to the three Musketeers and Snoop on the way to the barn and The Apprentice walked behind them encouraging them to follow. Once we got them into the barn lot we snagged one and let the games begin. They are so painful to shear. I had to use two blades for each alpaca. I really needed three blades. I think if we had done them earlier in the year there would not have been as much grit, dirt and rocks at the base of the hair. This would have made the blades last longer.

At one point on the last alpaca as I am trying to milk the second to last blade I stopped cutting any hair. Yet I still managed to slice out a divot of skin from my left thumb tip about 3/32” deep. It bled a lot. The Apprentice told me to just pore some of the powder dust for the alpaca toes onto my wound. It’s some kind of styptic powder designed to stop the bleed. I did it and it burns! The blood kept breaking through so I had to go find a first aid kit, a nonstick cotton pad and a roll of tape to get the bleeding stopped. I then forced my left hand into a leather glove to hold it all together. This worked very well for controlling the bleeding. I managed to barely get the last alpaca sheared. I had to use an old blade to get the final hair cut off.

We then went out to check on the red plums in the orchard, they were overripe and had fallen off the tree. I tossed them over the fence to the sheep. The Italian plums are just starting to turn colors so I give them 1-3 weeks still. The nectarines were all red and fairly big but still very hard. I think they need another 1-2 weeks. We tossed apples over the fence to the sheep and the Asian Pear has another 1-2 weeks. I will need to pay better attention to the orchard for the next 3 weeks. We swung by the garden and picked 3 pints of blackberries. Annmarie will now have fresh fruit for breakfast.

We then went out to the barn to discuss how to dig it out with the tractor. I had forgotten how hard it is to drive the little tractor in and out of the barn. After walking The Apprentice through the process I decided that they could dig out the edges of the barn and hand dig the momma baby area. The tractor can be used to move the debris once it is tossed outside the barn. They will be out in the morning to give it a whack. We will see.

When I came inside and took the bandage off of my injured finger it was black from the weird styptic powder. After a shower the edges of the wound are black. I think I chemically cauterized the wounds with the styptic powder. It never started bleeding again even after I held it under the shower for 10 minutes. Now I will have to wear a weird bandaid until it heals.

Barn dig out happening

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I happened to have Tuesday off this week so I spent it fencing! I need to dig some fence post holes but the dead of summer is the wrong time for this to happen. I pulled on the broken railroad tie and fenced over the gate opening. I drove in T posts on either side of the railroad tie and wired it to them. Then I was able to drive in three T posts over the opening. I stretched out fence and tightened it all down. I am now about half way down the fence alongside the wheat field. I am going to continue the fence repair along the road next. This means I will only need to install one new section of fence along the creek side. I need the animals to get into field #1 to eat, half the field is still green due to subterranean water. I need about three days with a helper to get this done. Alone takes about 125% more time. Some things just take longer alone.

Thursday, Mr Flow came out for a couple of hours and dug out the chicken coop. I went and bought more wood pellets to put in there. I use the deep litter method and only dig it out once a year. The wood pellets work great to absorb moisture and keep the smell down. I get the cheapest kind they have, made here in Reith.

The plan on Friday was for him to come out and help me shear the last three alpaca. Nope, he got sick and called off around starting time. I cannot shear the alpaca alone, it takes at least two people and when they are not cooperating that is a hard two. I decided that I might as well start in on digging out the barn as it needed to be done also. It took a couple of hours to tear apart all of the panels and drag them outside. I have to leave one section as it is permanently attached to the wall. The sheep kept jumping over two gates so I created permanent panels to stop that and they cannot be removed.

I managed to get the manure forks installed on the John Deere tractor bucket and started digging out the barn. The tractor is small enough to get in and out of the barn. After two days of digging it out I am about 60% completed and I have only been at it about 7 hours so far. Yesterday, the tractor overtemp light came on. I ended up having to blow down the entire tractor, clean out the radiator and I even took out the air filter and cleaned it out. The tractor has two air filters, one inside the other and the inner was clean. Once I had it all cleaned out and filled with fuel I was able to go right back to digging out the barn. I have it dug out far enough I have to use the pitchfork and shovel out the edges and near the feeders. I just toss it into the middle and scoop it up with the tractor. For some reason I did not use a hat, just a do rag on my head and by that evening I had a lot of sun on my face! The horse has been bugging me while I am doing this so I took the time to give her a total brush down and brushed out her mane and tail. She just stands there and lets me do it.

Annmarie sent me a link from someone who wants to work before going to college. So far, in two days I have not been able to connect or get a commitment. I am hopeful I can as I would like them to help me with the alpaca. I am hopeful they will reach out on Sunday. She also sent me some information on old equipment for sale, yard ornament type. The exact same manure spreader that I already have two of was for sale! I called and got the third one! I will now have enough parts to get one going for sure. I had to back the trailer up to it, toss down the ramps and come a long it into the back of the trailer. It took about 30 minutes to get it onto the trailer. I will pick it off with the tractor forks. It will be a lot easier that way! She had an old 10’ hay rake but honestly it makes the piles too big for my baler and I am looking at putting less money into the farm not more.

One of the staff at the hospital had asked if her son’s could come out and shoot at the coyotes. I totally agreed to that. They have been out several times in the last week without coyote success. They are working on the pigeon problem. We had none this spring and now have about ten. They multiply rapidly if not kept in check. We are starting to have problems with ring neck doves again also. They are pushing out the native doves. One of the boys, now called Mr Hornet Tamer, has been walking all over the property scouting coyotes. He has found their crossing points and two old dens so far. Unfortunately for him, he also found the hornets living in one of the gates. The gates are metal tubes and the hornets love building nests in them. I usually pay attention and just open the gate quickly. He got popped several times and then called his mom to tell her he was going to the ER. She made him drive back out to me while I was building fence. Nah, he just needed some Benadryl. He slept most of the next day I am told. He did come out later in the week!