blackberries

Granary repair closing in

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I should really break this up into a couple of blog entries but I did a little bit of everything over the weekend so I am just going to lump the whole weekend into one big blog. Let’s start off with the great news, the wheat has been harvested and it did very well for this place, it came out to 47.65 bu/acre, anything over 45 bu/acre is very good for this soil. This is even more amazing considering how little rain we had to finish off the growing season. They disced a fire break around the entire outside of the field so that worry is gone.

My outside plant is now on a drip line so it is loving having all the water it can drink. It is blooming for the first time ever! Our deck plants have water also but we got it to them a little late so one planter has died and the other is struggling. Our system is working, so we are going to add two more hanging spots so we can have flowers across the front deck next year.

I was cooking breakfast yesterday and saw a black cow out the back window. I asked Annmarie to go out and let our cow back in. I thought that one of our cows had gotten out and wanted back in. I saw Annmarie go out to the ram pasture and open the double gates. This was the go signal for all the sheep in the barn lot. They ran Pell Mel for the open gate. Annmarie blocked the gate and told the sheep to stay but when she moved the sheep bum rushed the gate and ran out onto the back hillside and then down to the orchard. All the cows ran out onto the back hillside. Annmarie came running inside for help and I made it to the lower hillside gate before the cows got down below. We tried to push them down but then we realized it was not our cow! Instead we just left the gate open. There is not really any food on the hillside we knew they would come down eventually.

I posted a photo of the brand to Facebook and we eventually had someone call us today and say they thought it was their cow as they are now running cows on the Broken Spur land. They came up today and we walked up and pushed the cows back to the corral. Their cow sorted right off and the cows loaded right up. Chance got to go out with us and work the cows. I am sure he thought it was a little weird when I started hollering at her to go “left” to circle around the cows and she did! She does know her left from her right when she wants to pay attention. We get someone’s cow about every two years, they wander onto the property.

My goal for the weekend was to get the granary bottom welded and together. Since I am a fairly inept welder and am now learning to wire weld instead of stick weld I have been having some problems. Mostly I have not figured out how to fill in with wire when I have air gaps between the metal. I am also having a hard time adjusting the wire feed speed to match my use and hand movement. I started at 180 speed and ended up at 250. I was having some pushing back going on at that speed so I probably need to be welding at 240-245. Using the higher speed I was able to keep a continuous bead going. I did figure out how to fill in but it was not very pretty, but I got it done!. I welded the wire to the copper center thingy on Saturday. I watched a video that said there was a tool you could use to clean out the hole so the wire would thread easily. I do not own such a tool but there were three extra tips with the welder so I swapped out a tip. I kept a longer wire by speeding it up so I was not welding so close to the tip.

Saturday after the cow debacle I decided to go pick blackberries. We are not going to get hardly any fruit this year so I will need to fill the freezer with blackberries. I figure I will need to pick about 30 gallons. I spent three hours picking and managed to pick three gallons. Annmarie got them all packaged up for her breakfast smoothies. I will need to pick some and package them in 6 cup increments, we use those for pies! The wild blackberries make the best pies, especially if you keep the sugar to a minimum.

I spent three more hours on the grain bin today and got the entire bottom welded on! I just have to drill the holes for the grain gate and get it installed. I am going to put a foam seal on the lid so it doesn’t leak water but it should not. I will need to install three bolts to block off three holes in the side. I am going to just install the bolts and washers instead of fighting with welding something over them. Basically, I am going to take the easy way out! Once I get that done I will need to make an elevated wooden stand about 16 inches off the ground to place the granary on and it will be in service.

I was going to make another grain bin but the sheet metal alone was going to cost me $660. I was able to purchase a 28’ tall grain bin for $750 this weekend on Facebook Marketplace. I have already leveled a spot and filled it with six inches of gravel. We will need to get our large grain elevator functional. I would like to get it running off of the tractor’s pto instead of the old gas engine that is on it. I think I saw an old fill trough somewhere on the farm but I cannot remember where. It slides under the feed opening of the auger so the grain stays clean.

We purchased some cow feed and I was able to get it unloaded and moved into the machine shed with Clementine. This doesn’t sound very exciting but the lift capacity on the tractor is only 1100# and the pallet weighed 2000#. The guy dropping it off stood on the back of the tractor when the back wheels came off the ground as I was trying to slide it out of his horse trailer. It was all the weight I needed to get the feed out of the trailer. I was then able to drag it backwards with only the front tires touching the ground. You have to steer backwards when the front tires are the only thing touching the ground! Once I had it lined up with the machine shed I was able to just push it into place! I was sure I was going to have to break it up and move those 50# bags by hand. Where there is a will there is a way!

Winter duties completed as spring arrives

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Mr Rainman came out last weekend to help out and on Sunday I decided that the we should actually finish the last of the winter duties since spring is here. We tore the bird netting off of the raspberries and tame blackberries. The berries had thoroughly integrated themselves into the netting, it just had to be cut away and rolled off the top. The berries needed to be trimmed anyways. So we hacked out everything in between the rows then started to trim them back. Removing the dead out first always makes it easier. A few of the raspberries have migrated over into the blackberry row. We cut some out but others just got left.

The netting did its job and kept the birds out so we could actually collect a crop. It’s the raspberries that the robins love. As soon as they start to turn colors the birds eat them without the netting we get none. It was not fun to remove but the year before we did not get any berries so it is worth the hassle. I learned to cut the raspberries short and tie them to a central wire. It helps control them and makes it easier to pick. After talking to Mr Rainman everyone treats their raspberries differently. I had no idea, I learned from my father so that is what I do. I do use sisal or cotton cord so it can just rot on the ground afterwards. It makes cleaning up easier.

Annmarie went out and checked on the bees again. They survived the winter! We have one hive only right now. We are buying another nuc the first of May. We had some moisture get into the hive over the winter and this is a bad thing. I am going to install a gutter on the back of the bee enclosure to keep the wind from blowing water from roof into it. I am also going to cover the back. We have been talking about a tarp but I am afraid the wind may tear it up. I am still thinking about what to use. I have some old tin that with four support boards I could just install along the back wall. I am also trying to be a cheapskate and use stuff we already have on the farm. I am hopeful we will get some honey this year. She did not get stung and the bees got sprinkled with freshly made powdered sugar and another chemical treatment for mites. The sugar helps the bees shed the mites which fall through the mesh bottom then the chemical knocks down the rest. It is an eternal battle.

Our bulbs are starting to come out of the ground and are now blooming. If we don’t get rain soon I am going to have to hand water the flowers to make sure they get enough water. Also we now have six of the big bushy roses planted alongside the side fence. In three years they should totally obscure the fence.

I want blueberries next and someone in Pendleton is offering 10+year old plants for $120/each. The price of a pack of blueberries in the grocery store is $8/ea. It will not take long to save money on owning our own plants. I have four 3 foot metal troughs set up in the orchard on the other side of the berries. I drilled holes in the bottom so they can drain and have filled the bottom with four inches of gravel. I am hopeful that I can get the plants next week and get them into the troughs. We really like container gardening. Not having to get on your knees and bending over all the time is wonderful and as we age it is even more wonderful!

The strawberries are trying to take over their container. I just started grabbing dead leaves and pulling. I figured as prolific as they grew last year they would have no trouble filling in again this year. The bamboo poles are where our asparagus plants are located in the bed. I bought a few more metal troughs at an auction last year and am going to create an asparagus only bin. We read that you could overgrow the asparagus with strawberries but the type we were given (free) are super aggressive and just grew like weeds. It was hard to find the asparagus. This should be our first year that we can harvest asparagus if it grows. Hence the reason for asparagus only bin, it will be obvious and we can fill it up with plants to get a nice crop from. I have a 12 foot circular bin! I cut the bottom of the bin off, it was rusted through, so the plants can go down further into the soil if they want. They have to be planted 18” deep to begin with so I figured growing down another 18” would be easy for them.

The horseradish that was given to me last year survived the winter. I planted it in the ground, away from the sheep and it is just now starting to peek out of the ground. I will dig some up in the fall and see how it tastes. I am told that fresh horseradish is amazing.

Barn is now ready for the winter

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The Apprentice came out for a couple of partial days early in the week and got the frost free faucet holes filled in. She stated that she is constantly hurting all of the time due to the laborious nature of the work she is doing on the farm. I stated that it was merely training for her apprenticeship at the end of September. Plus, she keeps returning and working every time I ask. This is a win/win situation for both of us.

I have some extra time off of work so I am playing catch up before winter starts. I have several projects that are on hold, the old house freezer room, the back bridge, bee hive storage room and moving the old lamb shed over near the machine shed. Instead I am working on the barn. It needed to be set back up so we can use it. So on Thursday I cleaned up the house some, then picked two more gallons of thornless blackberries and then the Apprentice came out to do some more work.

We gathered some tools and drug them out to the barn. We needed to install more hooks for the buckets. It’s so much nicer to be able to find a bucket when you need it, so we installed another ten hooks. We installed bungee cords on all of the doors so they auto close now so the sheep cannot get into any area that we forget to use the latch on. We installed the sorting chute and even put some hinge joints into the chute so when we start using the chute panels to block off portions of the barn it will be easier to move the panels. I think we need another six metal pins as there are only two left unused. The door into the momma/baby is always out of commission early as it get stuck open due to the level of the bedding rising quickly. So we raised it another three inches. It cannot go any higher or the lambs will fall under it when they lay next to it. They all lay next to something that will potentially allow them to fall under it. The extra bungees were all placed in the bungee hanging spot and all of the bucket straps were placed on the wall in their appropriate storage spot. We added three more rails in the momma/baby area to hang feeders from. We added two more eyelets for the creep gate so the area under the stairs can be converted to a baby feed fattening area.

The big thing was to put metal support hangers under all of the cross braces holding up the bedding. One of the boards had split and another was cracking. We had to force the broken one back together and install the hanger. Now that they all have a hanger we don’t have to worry about the space above the feeders crashing down onto the unsuspecting sheep dining below. We just need to toss out some straw bales but literally you just toss them down and the sheep will tear them up and spread them around themselves.

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

Predators 8/ Farm 1

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Friday I went up to field #3 first thing in the morning to attempt to call the coyote in. I am using the new electronic call I got this week. I hung out for about an hour and did not see a single coyote. The quail did not see me as I was hiding behind the cattle feeder. The sheep ran by without seeing me either, yet no coyote showed up. I went down and picked wild blackberries for a little over an hour. I filled all my containers I had brought. I only picked two patches and skipped another three. It was starting to warm up and the hornets like the berries when it gets warm. I went inside and washed them all off and then repacked them into individual bags and froze them. I ended up with 25 snack size bags full. Annmarie uses a single frozen bag every morning in her breakfast smoothie. I try and collect them for her and I will need to collect more in 2 and 4 cup quantities so we can make pie and cobbler throughout the year.

I got all the tools together to go up and work on the fence surrounding field #1. It is a green seven acre field that the sheep and cows need to get into so they can eat for a few more weeks. I had the tractor bucket full of tools and wire and stays to drive up there. Of course I did not take a rifle, there is no place to put it on the tractor, I would have to hold it the entire time. Of course I saw two coyotes running out of field #3 and a dead lamb in the field. They had just killed it and it was almost noon! I dumped off the supplies and went back to the house to get the rifle and call. I spent another three hours trying to call them back and had no luck. We have now decided to lock the sheep into the barn lot and feed them last years hay from the machine shed.

This is honestly a stupid problem. This weekend alone I have spent about 6 hours trying to spot coyotes. Each sheep lost is $100 down the drain. I will keep going out every day until I can kill them. The next evening when I walked up to the find the carcass and hopefully catch someone snacking I had to walk around looking for the carcass. The only thing left after 24 hours was a hide and a spine with a few ribs attached. Nothing else! I of course did not see a coyote.

Sunday I went out to get Annmarie some blackberries for her breakfast, as I froze all the others I had picked. I went out and checked on our thornless berries in the garden. I had to come back inside three times to get more containers. The berries are huge compared to the wild ones. I left some fresh ones for Annmarie and froze another 16 bags. I will need to pick berries again in about four days. I had plans to go up and look for coyotes again but ended up cleaning house instead. Sarah said she would help me shear alpaca after she got done at church. My helpers are gone again for a couple of weeks. So we need to get the alpaca done.

When she got home we rounded up the alpaca and ended up shearing four more in about three hours. The only ones left are the three babies. One of them had crawled down into the ditch and was covered in water so he would not have been easy to shear. We are planning on shearing the rest on Tuesday or Thursday this week to get them all done. Annmarie has been washing the alpaca and is on her second saddle. It is amazingly cleaner when she is done.

My priority now is the fence around field #1, coyotes and finishing the freezer room. I want to store the cleaned and ready to be cleaned alpaca fiber in the freezer room. This will get it out of the house and into one spot. I just have one piece of OSB to install on the wall and it will be ready. Okay, I need to wire five outlets also but that will only take an hour. I can wire the light later. I am pretty sure I stole power from the next room for the overhead light. Basically, I need to get some more stuff done on the old house but it will have to wait until this winter.