Gingerman

Beautiful spring day

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Saturday was amazing, the sun was shining and it was a near perfect day. Since it was going to rain on Sunday we opted to just make it a work outside only day. Once the sheep were done we started to look for my set of small discs. Mr Rainman and I went all over the farm. We could not find them anywhere. I ended up mowing all around the upper CRP field. I mowed down by four corners but hit a buried baling twine bundle and had to take thirty minutes to cut it out of the mower blades.

The kids brought down a bunch of concrete from their remodel. We are going to use it to help stabilize the bank. It keeps getting eroded by the seeps, water and sheep. They have at least three more loads and I think that will make a great addition to this corner. We should be able to stop the corner from falling in.

The seven yearling cows that will be sold or eaten this fall got pushed down by four corners. They are in amongst the trees. We are going to start killing the cheat grass in the two fields near the mother-in-law’s house. We hope to get water on them so we can keep getting the cheat grass to sprout then kill it and start the process over.

I was able to sell five, one year old lambs this weekend ($120 each) so there are seven left to sell by this fall. It was very easy as we just pulled them off as we wormed the entire herd. They came and picked them up a couple of hours later. We just ran them out into the corral and down the chute into their horse trailer. The corral makes loading animals very easy.

The gate gremlins were out in force this weekend. The teenager cows got out of the lower pasture the gate was open. The horse got out of the barn lot, the gate was open. The horse got into the ran pasture with the sheep and was trying to eat the green grass, the gate was open. The surprising part of this is that each gate was left open by a different person! No one was harmed and the animals did just fine. This stuff happens.

I was able to get down to field one and mow the newly made ditch. Mr Rainman spotted some fresh coyote prints in the mud. We have not seen any yet this season but they are obviously out there. I went to the other side of the creek and worked on getting it mowed down. I managed to get the huge hole filled in! That has been there for over 25 years. Someone buried two huge track backhoes in there and spent three days trying to get them out. They left a huge hole that was never filled in. The edges of the hole were straight walled and over eight feet high. It is not safe to drive the tractor in that area without knowing exactly where you going and where the hole is located. I got the entire thing filled in and now anyone can safely go back there and mow it down as needed. That has been on my list for over 15 years and I just never got around to doing it. Usually, when I wanted to do it the ground was so hard that I could not move the dirt. I even used the little John Deere 2520 to do it.

Sunday I was able to work on the baler. Unfortunately, I am missing two parts. One that never got sent to me and one I think I sent back accidentally when I sent back the wrong sprockets. I am pretty sure that one is on me. I have the part numbers written down and will get them ordered first thing on Monday. Otherwise, all of the other parts are all installed, tightened and adjusted. I can get those two parts and the new chain on in less than 90 minutes. Mr Rainman did remind me that we may need to do some maintenance on the sickle bar mowers before we use them. I think I have all the parts for those already.

Bathroom remodel day 41

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The bathroom is chugging along just like the little train that could. I spent all day Friday getting three valves onto the copper pipe sticking out of the wall. The toilet valve was the easiest as I had a long chunk of pipe sticking out that had to be cutoff. The sink side had two short stubs that I needed to heat up and remove the copper caps. I ended crushing one of the tips with a set of pliers and then had to cut it off. I had to use the sawzall to cut it as it was too close to the wall for a pipe cutter. This then made a not even cut which messed up my compression tightening valve.

I had to go to Pendleton for a second time that day to get a new brass compression ring and a 12” hose for the toilet. On the plus side the toilet works and after soldering on an extension pipe the sink valves are in place and they do not leak. I am just not very good at plumbing.

We installed a curtain as a door so the toilet could be used on Friday. I had been working on the door all week. I had a wood insert glued into the end of the door and I purchased a 1” and 3/4” dowel so I could drill out the old door handle and lock holes. Once I had that all dried, cut off and sanded smooth I filled the cracks with an epoxy based filler. After that was sanded down I drilled the new holes for the new handle. It just made it easier to start with an intact door again before trying to make new holes. I am going to brush on a little stain after the door is hung.

Saturday we moved furniture! Sarah and Grant were given a nice set of Spanish style bedroom set. We cleaned out the old room, moved the box bed back into the sewing room and moved out several items from both rooms. We then cleaned up both rooms and all of the furniture. All of this we did in the morning, then I had enough time to install the door handle in the bathroom door. I need the door gone so I can get the corner trims stained then start working on the custom bathroom cabinet. Gingerman went out to their farm and started discing a five acre field that he is prepping for seed. The disc he got last week is working great.

Early afternoon we went and picked up the furniture. It was heavy. We were able to get the horse trailer across our spring by driving through the spring. I had brought in 2-3” rock when we thought the septic truck was going to have to drive around to pump our tank. It still makes a land bridge that the water flows over 1-2” deep. The truck and trailer went over it just fine. We used arm lifts to help move the furniture and they made all the difference. I don’t think I could have gotten the one dresser upstairs without them. As it was I had to place both feet wide on either side of the dresser and lift it up one step at a time. By the time we got to step 16 I thought I was going to die. When we made it to step 19 I told myself there were only two steps left and if I let go Gingerman was still holding up the lower end and could not do that indefinitely. As soon as we had it on the top landing we took a five minute break.

I took the low side on the long dresser and the Gingerman was surprised at the different muscles used on the uphill side. The lower side carries more weight but it is in your legs not your mid back. I told him it was much worse with the heavier piece of furniture. We forgot a piece of the bed frame. Once we tried to install the bed frame we realized there had to be more parts. All the parts fit in the bedroom and the kids have an actual bed to sleep on. I told the Gingerman when we left to go disc until dark that I was done working.

I ended up installing the actual bathroom door. It was a tight fit but I was able to get it in place and adjusted. It looks good. I think I will still hit it with one more coat of conditioner to seal up the wood. I was able to do a little work on the crown molding on Friday after the plumbing and now we have crown molding in the main section of the bathroom. All that is left is the shower enclosure. Now that the door is in place Annmarie is already talking about finish trim! We attempted to put the vanity in place but there is a cross piece that needs to be routed out about 1” to make room for the wall plumbing. I will also need to readjust some of the drawers in the vanity. The plumbing is more to the right of the cabinet than I anticipated.

Lambing update

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We had two more ewes give birth this week. We think there are two left maybe three but that is it. So I flopped the barn back to its lamb starting position. The main area is now for all of the mommas and babies and the small portion is for the rest of the herd (14 sheep). We have also opened up the back hillside behind our house to the main herd of sheep. They are working on converting their intestinal bacteria from a dry food to wet food (green grass), it always makes for mandatory rubber boot ware.

The sheep are just really stupid. I was headed inside yesterday when I thought I heard someone hollering. I had already pushed both herds into the barn and almost let this single ewe stay outside. I did not realize that her head was stuck in the fence until I got closer. I just had to turn her head and trip her so her body dropped when her head was turned to get her head unstuck. She ran right back to the barn and wanted inside with everyone else.

I found a little boy lamb that I had to carry off the hillside yesterday. Today, I had put everyone away in the barn and was headed into the house. I had not gotten chicken eggs yet so I did that and went the back way alongside the creek. Normally, I go around and go through the yard but for some reason I went the back way. I spotted the lamb I had moved yesterday. Francine had only taken one of her two bottles so I fed this lamb and brought it inside the house. Momma made the cull list since she only had one lamb to keep track of and she is not feeding it or being a good mother. Our normal nursery caregiver came and picked him up to go home with her.

Francine is doing well. She drinks a bottle in the morning and evenings. Tonight she only wanted 16 oz, she had been up to 24 oz but seems to be cutting back. The lambs always look like they are dead when they are on sunning themselves on the back hillside. They love laying in the sun.

The Gingerman got a set of large discs moved off the property. He had to take down a section of fence to get it out of the alleyway. The fence is all repaired and now the cows and sheep cannot play on or around the equipment. I was able to spread a little gravel on our main road in the problem area.

The plan for this week is to take the four largest feeder cows to the auction this Tuesday. I am told the prices are really good and we have 11 cows getting fat on the lower part of the property. We have moved all of those cows into the fields next to the Mother-in-law’s house. They are cheat grass and we are getting the cows and alpaca to overeat and stress the field. We are going to kill it with Roundup and keep it killed for the year then replant in the fall or spring.

Spring is here

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This is where it gets tricky. Spring is here and there are things to do outside yet our main bathroom remodel is still in progress. I have to stay focused on the bathroom but some projects still have to get done.

The pears and plums are in full bloom but we have had two nights of hard freeze so I am not sure that we will get any fruit! I sure hope we do this year.

I am mowing the lawn with the sheep again this year so Mr Rainman moved our chive planters to the back garden for a week so the sheep don’t scalp them. They tried to eat the roots last year they liked it so much. Unfortunately, our little dog Milo has learned that he likes to chase the sheep. It is cool. Our side fence is not a barrier for our little dog, he squeezes around the end and our border collie just jumps the fence. We tried locking them in the orchard but then both got into the lavender patch and then got into the garden area. The fences don’t seem to be much of a deterrent or barrier. So on Sunday the Gingerman helped me install the side fence. We made it very tall and the dogs are now contained in the garden area. It works great.

Mr Rainman has been spraying 2-4-D and Milestone on the bottoms. He has already managed to spray fields 1-3 and will work on the schoolhouse bottoms tomorrow. He is also going to spray the edges of the CRP ground we just purchased. The weeds are starting to creep in on the edges, so we are going to spot spray and see if we cannot get them stopped. We will also kill a little spot alongside the fences so the weeds don’t choke out the fences. It is way safer than trying to burn the fence lines later in the year.

I had to add a small 1”x2” board on the end of the shelf in the mud room that is over the outside door. Opening and closing the door is causing the items to move closer to the edge and then leap off to their potential death. The board is installed and now you do not have to wonder if something is going to fall on your head when you use the back door.

Annmarie and I have made a list of all current projects and it has ten levels of priority. This actually works nicely as it lets me plan out projects better and if I have a project I want I can add it to the list. Finish the bathroom is priority 1!

Lambing coming to a close soon

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We had some help this morning with the lambs: Gingerman, Mr Rainman and the Lamb Whisperer. The Lamb Whisperer had not been out to the farm before but she fed Francine then caught lambs while I tagged and banded. It took us a couple of hours to tag and banded 59 lambs.

We had to bummer off one very healthy lamb as its mother rejected it. We are continuing to feed Francine morning and night and she must be getting milk from somewhere else because she is only taking a 12 ounce bottle morning and night. The nice thing is she hangs with her mother until the morning or evening feed then she hunts down a human and hollers at them until they feed her. She was so insistent last night that she ended up riding on the tractor with me while her bottle was getting mixed. She just rode in my arms without any difficulties.

One of the lambs had a piece of grass under its eyelid so the Gingerman washed it out and he and Mr Rainman got it out of the lamb’s eye.

We were able to catch lambs in one area of the barn and once tagged/banded they were let loose on the other side of the gate. This kept all the tagged lambs in one area, only a couple got out and back in with the mommas. It went fairly smooth. I was glad we waited as I had two boys that I was almost not able to find both testicles on when banding. I don’t believe I could have done it had they been any younger. By pure happenstance both genders ended up using #431. We use blue tags for boys and some form of pink/red for the girls. This makes it much easier to spot gender when looking at tags. Hard to believe that we have had over 850 lambs since we started raising sheep.

The Lamb Whisperer had done her part and proceeded to head home once she learned that installing the toilet was next on the list.

The stats had to be updated to reflect the number of lambs that have died and been born. Once we counted today it was a lot higher than I anticipated. We only have one lamb left to tag, the one born today. I think there are three more ewes that need to give birth. There is at least one for sure!

  • Date of update- April 13, 2025
  • # of Lambs born – 68
  • # of ewes who have delivered babies – 39
  • # of ewes still pregnant – 3, I think
  • # of single lamb births – 12
  • # of twin lamb births – 25
  • # of triplet lamb births – 2
  • # tagged male (weathers-neutered) lambs-32
  • # tagged female lambs-27
  • # of bummer lambs – 2
  • # of lambs who died in first two weeks – 6
  • Total # of lambs on farm -60
  • % birthing rate- 174%
  • % production rate -154%
  • % survival rate at birth – 100%
  • % survival rate at 2 weeks (bummers count as death as they need help and leave the farm) – 88.2%