chicks

Predators 5/ Farm 0

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It’s been a long week and when I start haying every evening and weekend I get behind on the blog. I am tired when I come inside after long day, eat and shower and I am too sleepy to do the blog. So now I make little paper notes to myself so when I do find the time to blog I can remember and keep everything accurate.

We have our first set of live, raised on the farm cow twins! Annmarie got a great picture of her and yes, she is skinny, she is feeding two calves and they are not very old so she has not had a chance to really recover from the birth process. The calves are doing great! So far this year we have five calves. I think there may be one more pending but I am not sure.

The predators killed another lamb, this is four for the year so far. We have definitely had an uptick in predator kills the last few years. We know there is a big coyote living somewhere near and we think we may have a bobcat living nearby. Their preferred snack seems to be an occasional lamb. The coyote has only been spotted once this year but we have them all around us every night. This week when I went outside at bed time to get the dogs there was a coyote on the top of the hill barking at the cows and sheep. I hollered but it did not stop. It was just dark enough I could not see the top of the hill. I ended up going inside and grabbing the 22 pistol and shooting three rounds into the dirt next to the yard to just scare it off with the noise. It did not stick around after that.

The predators got one of the chickens from the first batch I let loose in the coop, there are only 11 of 12 now. The 12 in chick Fort Knox are still alive. So 23 of 24 is pretty good, I usually have one of the chicks just up and die but not this year. It is still a couple of more months before the first batch will start laying eggs.

I have come to realize that predators are just part of living out here in the country and having animals. We do try to keep them down but they just keep coming,

We have six calves from last year for sale in the spring. They hang out all together but since it is a bunch of teenagers, they are crazy, hot headed and full of piss and vinegar.

Weekend, all better, maybe

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I did have to do a few things this weekend. On Friday I went out and cleaned up the baby chick area in the chicken coop. I have a separated 4’x4’ section that is in my main coop that I use for babies until they are fully feathered about three months old. This lets the adult chickens get used to them and it means I don’t need another building for the babies. The chicks were too big to stay inside anymore. I got the new bedding in, big hanging feeder and hanging nipple waterer all set then put the 12 chicks into their next two month home. I had to use a heat lamp and this time I zip tied it into place in two separate locations so the chicks cannot knock it off its holder. No more fires allowed in the coop. We have another 25 chicks coming in the next month. So by this fall we will have a very nice egg production rate.

Annmarie ordered a Bluetooth controlled single outlet. You plug it into a preexisting outlet then you can program or control on/off with your cellphone. It was only $15 and she uses it now for her laser exhaust fan. So she can leave a job printing in the office and then just program or manually turn off the fan from the house instead of having to walk back out to the office. My chicken light controller burnt out a couple of months ago and I am going to go with this same item for the coop! It’s a great idea and it remembers your last program even if Wi-Fi access goes away.

I fed the last two large bales of alfalfa, one to the sheep and one to the cows. The cows really are not interested as there is plenty of fresh new grass. The sheep have eaten all of the grass in the barn lot so they liked it better. I even locked the cows up into field 4A & 4B and the alleyway only. This will let the upper fields grow so that they can be turned into hay. I spent the rest of the day resting.

Saturday Annmarie worked on the garden. I cut 4×4’ cow panel wire sections for her to use in the garden as trellis. We had to order in garlic and I ordered two Carolina Allspice bushes. Those are now out in the berry area, we will see if we can keep them from dying in the winters. We are going to plant garlic and potato in laundry baskets. She managed to get the carrot seeds planted. I went out and worked on wiring the horse trailer. I worked on the trailer for three hours. It was too much. I spent all of Sunday doing nothing and had to take a nap. So I will be pacing myself better for the next couple of weeks. I think I can get the horse trailer done in another three hours. It needs to be functional to take the cows to Lagrande on May 4.

The honey bees are finding lots of pollen! In the picture you can see the pollen stores on their legs. We got a second hive, I still need to assemble it and I have found a third for sale and we are contemplating getting it. We are going to move the hives out into the orchard but I need to make some concrete block risers to keep the weeds away from the hives. I am hoping we get a lot more honey this year.

Sometimes it is all about the little things

Steve Hardin1 Comment

I keep wanting to be more timely with the blog.  I am learning that after working all day on the farm I am tired and don’t have the gumption to sit down and write.  Also, Annmarie tells me when I do write something at that time it is very dry and factual because I am too tired to be animated.  I actually agree with this statement so I have taken to making notes so I can remember what was accomplished and can sit down and write it all out when I am not exhausted.  I had to work at the paying job on last Friday so the only thing I managed to accomplish was ordering the extra battery cable and a charging control switch so I can mount a large marine battery under the driver’s seat of the side by side and run two batteries.  I already have the trickle charger on it and we just purchased another new battery as the other new one was destroyed and would not hold a charge any longer.

Saturday morning Annmarie wanted to go up and check on the cows.  She swore that the green tag cow was bursting at the seams pregnant.  We went up first thing in the side by side.  The side by side needs a tuneup bad!  The new battery is nice and the second battery will be nicer.  The far upper gate was off its hinge and open.  The cows were all still in the correct field but Annmarie was convinced the cow had a calf.  We drove back and forth over the entire upper field to make sure there was no calf.  I do not believe she was pregnant but sometimes its just better to listen and do what the wife wants.  This is not a common theme in our marriage so it is something I am working on.

There was no calf.  I went to town after that and picked up tools, yard hoses and an electric mower.  We are also now watering our yard so I fired those up before I left for Pendleton.  While I was in Pendleton I priced a new calf table for a paltry $1650!

I came back and cleaned out the baby area in the chicken coop.  I had  friend want to give me straight run 3 week old chickens but they needed a home.  So I dug it out and refilled it with pellets, wood chips, food and water.  I called my buddy and told him he could drop them off in the coop at any time now that it was setup.

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I took the tractor and drove the few miles down back roads to pickup the manure spreader!  I know it needs some work but the price was great and all but the top piece spun around.  After I got it home I started in on the bolts and grease zirks with an all wire brush and some W-D-40 attempting to get the 40 years worth of buildup off.  It’s going to take a few days and a couple of cans of W-D-40 to get the fenders off and hopefully all the parts moving!  I may have to weld in one piece of angle iron at the base of the machine on each side to accommodate the chain.  It needs more cleanup and some more W-D-40 to get a couple more bearings free.  All of this is to be expected for the fixer upper price I paid for it.  It will probably cost me about $500 to get it up and running.  I have been looking for a manure spreader for years.  Everyone that has been getting composted manure from the barn lot pile is going to be disappointed.  I will only be letting the manure sit for one winter then spreading it out the next year.  I am hoping this can prevent me from having to purchase fertilizer.

Lamb in hand

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We have had the ram isolated and in with the steers for the last two weeks since we had a lamb born on the 9th. We figured it was the tip of the iceburg and the babies would start popping out everywhere. It has been two weeks and no more babies. The sheep come into estrus every 3 weeks so she must have been the only one in heat. So babies should start up in 1-2 weeks.

I had to kick the baby chickens out of the coop today. I just went out there and chased or threw them out one at a time. Only about 10 managed to get out on their own. I went out just before dark and after the automatic chicken door had closed and had to chase 24 back into the coop. Only six had made it inside before the auto door closed.

Annmarie and I had a discussion about what to call the side by side UTV. She did not like the name “side by side”. She did not really care for UTV either. So she opted for “buggy”. I tried to explain that a buggy in recreational vehicle terminology is something you use on the sand. We are calling the side by side a “buggy”.

I did go down and feed the cows another bale of hay and spotted a new calf! It looks good. How can it come out ready for winter?

I have started to wire the machine shed. It is going to be a slow process but hoping to have it down before the new year.

We killed two lambs today, it was our part of the trade two sheep for a pig deal we have been doing the last couple of years. It seems to be working out for both of us. Again we were able to salvage an amazing amount of items courtesy of an Indian friend. He took both heads, all 8 forelegs, lungs, kidneys, hearts, livers and some diaphragm meat and some scraps from the hide. I started a fire in the fire pit and burned off the hair for him. But I am not taking the blame if I overdid it. He said last year when I started the bonfire it was so hot he ended up over cooking the heads and legs. He blamed it on the heat, and his wife blamed him! So I did it at a lower heat and smaller fire. Hopefully, it will meet wife approval standards.

Annmarie is violating the Christmas rule by hanging out a Christmas decoration before Thanksgiving! I went out to let the dogs back in a mere few hours and discovered that the Christmas decoration had fallen apart. It would appear that the powers that be also agree with me on the Christmas rule.

Annmarie used the upstairs bathroom to stain some wood for the laser cutter. Its a great space as we can shut the door and turn on the ventilation fan. It may become a permanent craft location for this reason.

Multiple irons

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I have been playing catch up last week.  I am trying to do multiple things at once.  This is not working well for me. I just keep flitting from one thing to the next. I had to put the baby chickens outside. I wanted to paint and they are so dusty I needed to dust every day. I called it quits when they started sitting on top of the water dish. They are growing like weeds out in the baby area of the chicken coop. I have also managed to not catch the coop on fire this time with the heat lamp. I have enough concrete board to line the baby area this summer so it is fire proof.

I am currently trying to convince a coworker to raise two geese for me past the gosling stage or about 2 months old. I want to try keeping them up at the spring head and see if they cannot keep the waterway clean. If they can then I will move them to different sections of the waterway to keep it clean versus me having to pitchfork it clean three times a year. I am trying to let some livestock work for me. I hope it works. img_5553

I have one wall in the dining room done and the kitchen done. Next up is to get the color on the wall near all the windows. Our trim is stained and ready. I just need to get it delivered and then start installing it. That will be a big job. I figure it will take about 2-3 weeks to get it all in.