lambs

Predators 6, Farm 8

Steve Hardin1 Comment

The sheep are still giving birth one at a time on the occasional day. The one a day trickle is very annoying. We are only two weeks into this birthing process. The rams only had eight weeks with the herd so we should only have about 8 weeks left as we should take into account any late births.

Newborn about two hours old

I lost more chickens again to the raccoons. The weird part is they did not kill them at night. They came up the dry creek bottom and killed them in the morning, three chickens gone. Mr Rainman managed to shoot at one as they were running away. They have not returned but since there was no body we don’t get to count them on the predator dispatch count. Otherwise, it would be artificially inflated! The predators are coming in closer to the barn and house. I had two lamb corpses to go up to the boneyard that I had placed over the fence. Mr Rainman went to take them up to the boneyard the next day and the coyotes had come down to the gate and taken them. There were no bodies. We use woven fence to keep the sheep in but it also helps keep the coyotes out. They usually have to dig under the fence to get past it. This is why it is recommended that you run a single strand of barb wire at the ground level on a sheep pasture fence. I don’t do this but it is the recommendation. I usually just fill in the hole but after losing so many sheep last year I put a snare in the crossing now.

Last night when the progeny was returning home after dark she spotted a possum leaving the mother-in-law’s back yard. The Gingerman jumped out and dispatched the possum. I had been noticing a steady decline in eggs recently and figured there was a possum around. They will sneak into the coop during the day and eat the eggs. They rarely kill the chickens but they love the eggs! They are super hard to get rid of because we are gone during the day usually or out and about on the farm.

It is dove season now so we are starting to thin out the doves. There are over a 100 now on the place and they are competing with the quail. We like the quail over all other birds and have worked for the last 20 years to protect and grow them. There are several coveys on the farm but we won’t know how many are on the place until it starts getting cold and they all come down to the houses to winter over. They know where the easy food is located. Hopefully, the population is over a 200. It waxes and wanes pretty significantly. We have had as few as 30 and over 200 over the years. The last few years we have managed to keep over 100 at any time on the place. But this is the most doves we have ever had on the place. Only about 25% of them are the ring neck version. These are invasive and quite a bit larger than the native doves.

We are now seeing bunny rabbits on a regular basis but still only seeing one at a time and only in a couple of places on the farm. They are the dwarf bunnies native to Oregon. I think the owls and hawks love rabbit and they just cannot reproduce fast enough to get ahead of the depredation. They are maintaining a small population.

Mud room progressing

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Mr Rainman stopped at the lumber store on his way out this morning so we would have enough lumber to finish up the walls. We had to frame in the door opening to the rough dimensions on the door receipt. I kept the receipt as it did have the needed dimensions and so that I could argue with Home Depot in six weeks when my door is not in yet.

We had to finish the door opening and the frame above the door. The door is 34” so that caused some problems framing the door, we got it worked out. The hard part was the corners. Each corner is an old iron pipe with 6” square 1/4” thick ends and then bolted to the concrete and the porch. The real problem is the pipe is welded in different spots on each end and neither pipe is identical. We had to try and frame around the pipes to get the corners stiffened. This was not easy and we kind of had to piece things together where the wood would actually fit.

When we went out to the barn this morning I tagged and banded the last pair in a jug. It was a little boy and he had pasty butt! The new momma was not keeping him cleaned up and it had frozen to his hair. It was a mess, I got it cleaned enough for him to poop. But it needs to get above freezing so I can get it out of his hair. We may have to bring him inside and get it all cleaned up. I will keep an eye on him. I had to do the same thing again this evening.

It did rain off and on throughout the day and we are under an ice advisory. You can see how the snow is turning into one big ice sheet with water on top. I finally had to start locking the dogs into the laundry room. The puppy’s injured foot was getting scraped up on the ice edges when her foot broke though the ice covered snow and she was leaving blood on the ice. She did not like not being outside while I was outside. It’s supposed to warm up so flooding may be a thing before the week is out.

Mr Rainman and I then worked on getting the plywood sheeting up onto the frame. As things started to get closed in I was able to really see how big the room was going to be and start thinking about what needed to happen on the inside. I think another $1k by the time I buy insulation, sealant and 12 more sheets of plywood with one smooth side. That doesn’t include sealing the plywood or building the countertop, bench stool and two open fronted shelving units. I think we will be into it about $4500 by the time we are all done with it.

No new lambs

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The sheep never cooperate, we have been locking them up in the hopes that the babies would start popping out. Not a single one has had a baby since the first set of twins! The twins are super healthy and active so I don’t think she had them early. Mr Rainman came out yesterday and we spent two hours in the barn setting up jugs, alleyways and future expansion areas. We usually just set up a few jugs then expand as we need. The same is true as we move the large panels inside to change the overall space arrangement. The trouble with this is as the floor bedding gets deeper it is harder to move the panels. So we set up the entire thing, moved all of the heavy panels and are now ready for lambegeddon. We have eight jugs ready to go for newborn pairs and two future expansion areas for the mommas/lambs pairs. This was a much better plan than fighting with it later. We did run out of steel rods for the panels and had to use some rebar. It works but I should probably order another ten large steel pins. The changes we made last year with the creep feed area and setting up eight jugs takes a lot more pins. We did have enough panels, so the last few we purchased the previous year caught us up to where we need to be. We also have enough buckets and feeders finally. It seemed like we could never find a bucket when we needed it. We have plenty now, after hanging them in the jugs we still have extras hanging up near the wall. Again, this makes things much faster when we are out in the barn at 0400 trying to sort lambs, get pairs into jugs and then feed and water those pairs before going to work in the morning. We had visions of the sheep having babies all Thanksgiving weekend while we were home and so far they have not had a single lamb. They are going to wait until its super cold or a work day, I am sure of this.

I have been driving up to the far end of the farm every morning while I am off looking for coyotes. So far I have not see a single coyote. Mr Rainman found another old skeleton last week that we had not seen before so the coyotes got another one early in the summer that we had not counted yet. Predators 17/Farm 5 definitely not a farm winning year. On the plus side, a nice coworker who is leaving the area brought out some extra chickens this week. I am the proud owner of 12 new laying hens! The only real problem is they are not going into the coop at night so I have been catching them and tossing them into the coop at night. Tonight I only had to chase 8 into the coop but there is one stubborn long legged silver hen that is crazy and fast. She was flying around after dark when I tried to catch her to toss her into the coop. She is either going to learn to go in at night or we are going to find out just how fast she is at night when the raccoons come for her. So far my bet is on her, she is pretty agile.

The puppy has no fear and will crawl up onto anything. Her latest trick is to sleep on top of the table to either look over the porch railing or into the large window staring at us in the living room. She currently has the cone of shame on for licking a spot bare on her side. She hates the cone but has finally learned to walk around in it. The only down side is she just pounds into things with the cone, so you have to be careful if she sneaks up behind you so she doesn’t knock you down.

The main sliding door into the barn is dead. It has warped and is currently unable to be opened or closed. So Mr Rainman and I took the door off and then took the track down. We straightened out the track, closed up the track hangers and rehung the entire thing on a 2×10. Our hope was that if we pushed the door away from the barn a couple of inches the bow in the door would not rub on the side of the barn. The door is fairly easy to open but still very hard to close. We used the tractor to hold the door while we moved it off and on the track. The door weighs several hundred pounds. I ordered two new wheeled hangers and when they show up we will attach one and then cut the door in half and hang both sides of the door. This should take out most of the bend in the door. I like to use this door to go in and out of the barn. So hopefully in a couple of weeks we will have it back up and functioning. Mr Rainman convinced me to work smarter not harder by using the tractor to move the door around instead of fighting with it and trying to muscle it into place!

Lambing has begun!

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Slowly but surely we continue to get little things done but nothing holds back Mother Nature. Yesterday one of the ewes gave birth to our first lambs this birthing cycle, a set of twins! Of course the sheep were on the back hillside about halfway down to the schoolhouse. Annmarie happened to spot them from the driveway when she was returning home. I walked out and tried to catch both lambs but could only get a hold of the little brown one. Both lambs were still wet and the mother had not passed a placenta yet. The little black one ran with mom all the way back to the barn. Annmarie caught it as it was trying to get into the barn. She used the lamb lure to get the mother to run into the momma/baby area. The barn lights are amazing! You can clearly see in the needed areas but you have to plan ahead as you can only use two light strings at a time. It is a huge improvement, I should have done it two years ago when I saw the conversion on YouTube. We will keep the momma and babies separated. We have the momma/baby barn lot run locked off so the grass is about eight inches tall in that area. The ewe will be happy. In three days we will let her out with the twins and they can start to get in and out of the barn by themselves. I believe there are 38-39 ewes and not all of them are pregnant. We will count as we go. I will start the statistics after we get a few more lambs. There were no new babies this morning. I will be doing morning duties so when I wake up at 0400 I will now be going to the barn to check for babies first thing and feed and water any new mommas and let everyone out of the barn.

Mr Rainman came out midweek and got the large hay bales covered. The grass in field 4b is very tall. I may end up putting up a fence around the hay with a large removable wire gate for the front. I would need to put it far enough away from the bales that the cows and sheep could not reach through it to get the hay. The old road sign tarps are very heavy duty! We will see if they can last through the winter and wind over the next four months.

The new chicken door came and Mr Rainman installed it. The door closes just after it gets dark. It has a built in solar panel so the AA batteries will keep charged. It has a flashing red light that starts up and means the door will close in 30 minutes. I know this as I have been looking every evening to see if the door actually shuts. I am doubtful that the chickens will learn that they have 30 minutes once the red light starts flashing. It has been pretty dark and the door is still open. The door does cycle and the chickens really are that stupid. Some know to get into the coop before dark but others want to be out late and miss the curfew. Those chickens have to wait outside until the next day. My hope is with the new run door they will be protected despite their tendencies to stay out late partying. The last step will be to put in some overhead 2×4 rafters and run chicken wire over the top of the run so that the chickens are truly protected from all predators.

I got a new outlet wired in the root cellar stairs so when the new LED lights come I can install them quickly in the ceiling of the root cellar. I had left a empty wire conduit for just this purpose on the side of the box. What I failed to realize was how much harder it is to add things after the fact. I did actually have to turn off power in the box so I could get it all wired up. I also cleaned up the last of the barn wiring supplies so the barn is ready for the lambs. I have been doing a lot of little tasks. They all need to get done but I get frustrated, it feels like I am working the last 10% of a project; I am but it is still annoying.

Fall is definitely here and since the ewes cannot go on the back hillside anymore I am using them to clean up our front hillside and make the leaves in the yard disappear. The dogs do not particularly like staying in the house all day, especially the puppy. She wants to be outside digging, I filled in four huge holes in the yard yesterday. But after she learned to jump the low fence from the garden area she cannot stay outside. I don’t want to install that side fence permanently until after we manage to get the siding replaced. We are still looking for a contractor! It is very hard to find someone reliable and good.

Freezers moved, winterizing begins

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This has been a very productive last couple of days. Mr Rainman and the Apprentice came out on Sunday. The Apprentice is coming down with something and slugged through the weekend but it wasn’t easy. She managed to get the dirt shoveled mostly into one end of the new bridge. We think that there was a blacksmith shop right outside the old house next to the creek. There would have been water in the creek then and we are finding layers of coal scraps and a whole lot of iron scraps and horseshoes. They were storing coal in the old woodshed on the right hand side. The space is about 11×4 feet and has a side door on one end so you could really toss in the coal. There is a high hole cut into the wall at the far end to allow you to unload coal into the storage area.

We emptied the big freezer into coolers, unplugged it and hooked up a heater to blow into it while we went out and worked on the coal side of the wood shed. I had “borrowed” the wife’s really good (expensive) hair dryer in case I needed to get the ice out of the freezer, but the heater was the bomb and had it all melted out in a few hours. We kept wringing out towels, finally used a plastic tray to catch the melting ice.

I sprayed foam insulation into the cracks of the walls in the woodshed. Unfortunately, the can top was leaking and spraying foam all over my hands. I refused to quit using it and ended coating both hands with foam. I have only ever done this one other time and it was years ago. Thirty minutes later I realized why I had only ever done it once, its miserable. The only way to get the stuff off your hands once its dry is to peel the skin off your hands. This does not work out well until day 2-3.

We unwrapped the old billboard vinyl sign I purchased and attempted to get it on the walls and floor of the space. We got it about 80% installed before we needed to go get the freezer moved and filled again. The vinyl is 6 mil and was not very expensive, a 14×44’ sign was only $125. The idea is to line the entire inside of the room with vinyl and with the new metal screen over the window opening I think we can get to a fairly bug free storage area for all of the bee hive extras. We are going to use the metal hanging shelve holders as a way to put our frames up on the wall and hanging free. I think Mr Rainman and I can finish the room in one more day and then we can fill it up with all of the supplies.

We were amazed at how easy it was to move the large freezer! It’s the only one we actually emptied prior to moving. We got to the freezer room entrance and could not get the handle portion of the front door through the opening. Nope, we could not just take off the door handle. We had to move it back out and take the entire door off the freezer and then put it back on once the freezer was through the doorway. Hamburger is in the small chest freezer, fruit and vegetables have a couple of shelves in the small upright along with lamb and the tall freezer has beef and a little pork. We have another pig coming soon. One can never have too much bacon as evidenced that there is no bacon left in the freezer.

Mr Rainman and I got the stock trailer hooked up to the pickup and backed right up to the corral. In the morning we needed to sort sheep and load them up so I could drop them off. Afterwards, I spent about an hour shoveling dirt into the low spot by the gate in front of the bridge. It won’t get filled in by itself.

Monday started at 0600 by attempting to chase the sheep into the barn. They were down in the barn lot area and went to the back of the barn easily, but we could not get them to go into the barn. Mr Rainman and I were not effective. I went and got the puppy, Chance , put her on a lead rope and she had them in the barn in about three minutes. She is doing great! Stays when I want, lays down on command. She broke once but went back down within three feet of the original spot. I really think that by next spring we will have the “off” command (down) drilled in well enough that we can stop her even when she cannot stop herself. She is almost there. Mouse pouted as he had to stay in the yard. Mr Rainman took one of the best pictures of a sunrise we have seen on the farm.

It was still dark outside so we did a light check in the barn, our first one when it was actually dark! The lights are amazing and are going to make things very easy this winter. We tried to just push all the sheep to one end of the barn then I wade in and snag all of the boys. I did this four times and we could not find the fifth boy. The stupid rams kept trying to mount the pregnant ewes so we decided to pull them off, it was time anyways. We have two rams and 40 pregnant ewes and four whethers, not five. The coyotes ate our lamb, we had the other four sold. I dropped off the lambs without any difficulties and Mr Rainman spent the day winterizing the watering system and trimmed the lavender.