lambs

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.

Predators 13/Farm 1

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Last week was another kick in the teeth and yet super productive. Mr Rainman came out and spread grass seed on field #1 and the triangle. He then proceeded to mow field #2 then sprayed Rejuvra on field #2, 3, 4A. We are going to try Rejuvra it was designed for CRP and grasslands. It creates a 3/4” deep barrier that kills newly germinated cheatgrass. So as the cheatgrass seeds germinate they are killed. Since the seeds can sit around for years this process is essential to remove the weed seed. This is a fairly new product. Our cheat grass was so bad this year that we are willing to just spray it on and see what happens. We didn’t get to hay or use the fields until after we mowed because the cheat grass was horrible. I need to buy one more quart of it to spray the lower fields. The joy of this is that it lets the preexisting grasses thrive and grow through the chemical barrier. As long as they spread by root propagation they can continue to grow and thicken while the cheatgrass is choked out. This was great and he just kept after it until it was done.

The kick in the teeth came when he went down to the lower schoolhouse field. It needed to be mowed to get ready for the spray. As he was driving the tractor around the field he found two more dead ewes! One had just been killed that day or the day before. It looks like something grabbed it by the throat and it bled out. The other one had obviously died earlier as there was nothing left but a skeleton. There is no question that the coyotes are winning this year. We have had a serious coyote hunter out here all last week. He had in around 24 hours combined for the week and on the last day spotted a coyote running up the creek bottom. He did not get a shot off. I have another hunter who came out today with a call and to get shown around the property. He did wonder if he could come out at night with a thermal scope and hunt coyotes. I of course agreed to this! I have another hunter coming on Sunday to be shown around. I am hoping that between them they can figure out how to kill several coyotes. There is no way we have one coyote killing this many sheep. We have not lost a single cow. My mother-in-law is losing kittens and cats quickly. We think the coyotes are eating the cats also. This is a stupid problem.

I will say the 300K lumen light I now use when going out at night combined with a green laser and silencer on a 22 pistol is amazing. Unfortunately, this setup is not helping me with the coyotes. If they are howling and just over the hill I remove the silencer and pop off a few rounds into the ground to scare them away. Let me just say that a guard dog would cost us around $1500-2000 annually for seven years. We are not even close to having lost enough sheep to justify that expense. Now that the barn is open the sheep can hole up in the barn every night and we have never ever had a predator kill anything in our barn.

Today I had to take our only cow left and two sheep in for butchering. I got the six feeder cows into the corral and managed to separate off the large one going to slaughter. The cows are crazy! I ended up spending almost an hour and half chasing them all over the fields until I managed to corral them by just shutting every gate the closer we got to the barn lot so there was only one place they could run. I locked the sheep into the little spot in front of the barn. I figured I could just wade in and catch two whethers. Man, I needed way more coffee this morning before engaging with the animals. The steer was crazy! He ran into the stock trailer. But I had to get in the trailer to release the dividing door, he ran at me and I had to scrunch up in the corner while he ran out. I released the door then went and chased him back in and again had to get into the trailer with him. I managed to slam the door closed before he jumped back out again. He raised hell while I went to get the sheep. Nope, they would not go into the barn. I finally had to go get Chance (border collie teenager), put her on the lead and then we walked the sheep right into the barn. I shut the barn door then tried to catch a whether. Nope, they were too fast. So I made a pen with a 2’ entrance, pushed all of the sheep into it then bum rushed the sheep from one end. They form a mob before they try to squirt past me on all sides. That is time to grab your victim and drag them to the back door of the barn. The first one had horns which make great handholds. The second one I had to drag out by its head and it almost got away a couple of times. I ran them into the corral and then down the chute. They jumped right into the trailer, but after the cow fiasco I rushed down the alley to get to the outer door. Nope, dame sheep took a leap at my head trying to get out. I had to toss a 90# sheep back into the trailer twice! I imagine it feels like being a hockey goalie. I managed to get the slider door shut and the animals transported with no other incidents. Once unloaded the cow did try and get at me through their pen. I don’t know if it was saying goodbye or using my name in vain as it tried to get at me, either way the outcome was the same and someone is going to eat good.

When I got back I went to the barn and fixed the lights in the barn and finished that last string. It was not my splicing connection. One of the lights had a bad connector and I had to cut off the first two connectors I had used and after replacing them they worked perfectly. We now have lights in the barn! This is going to be great, I just know it. More to come as it starts getting dark and we have to start feeding.

Round-Up Week

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It’s been a while since I blogged. I blame it on the Pendleton Round-Up. All the locals say time stops and all projects go on hold while it occurs and the reality really does reflect the saying. I have been picking fruit non stop every few days and Annmarie has been drying it, canning it or freezing it. We managed to get the 50 lambs sold before the coyotes ate any more! A person from the west side of the state came over and got all 50, he was gone 20 minutes after arrival. We had them all ready to go. Honestly, this is the best way to sell lambs, all at once. We got a fair price $100 for all over 60# and $80 for all 40-59#.

The apprentice came out for a few hours a couple of days and weeded the hillside again and went in and cleaned up the lavender patch. The patch looks great, I just need to trim it all for the winter and we will be ready for next year. We have about five plants that have taken off on their own and need to be replanted. She is about ready to go off and learn to be a farrier at the end of the month. We will have to tear out our garden soon as the temperature has started to dip down to 45F at night. We have prunes drying in dehydrator now as soon as they are done we will dry the last of the spices before winter.

I had another project for my mother that I was able to get completed before it froze. I said I would be able to do it at the beginning of summer and managed to get it done with a lot of help from a lot of other people. My mother and sister did a great job. Now I can start working on the back bridge foundations.

The quail are everywhere! You literally cannot walk around anywhere on the farm without running into a covey or if you sit still you can hear them calling from all over. They are so used to people that as long as you are 30’ away they will just ignore you. This bodes well for a healthy population going into winter. We also have two covey of Hungarian partridges. We usually only have one on the farm. We also have a bunny rabbit living along the driveway again.

When I leave for work and the moon and stars are out I always try and take a picture with my phone. Sometimes it works out, sometimes not. I keep trying.

Predators 11/ Farm 1

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Sunday morning we went out to do more fencing. The Apprentice just keeps coming back for more, which is a good thing. On the way out to field #1 we passed two dead lambs! Both kills occurred in field #4 near the barn lot, one near the old well and one near the dry creek bed. The one near the well was about 2/3 eaten and the other one was barely touched. After some righteous anger outbursts, now there are only 50 lambs to sell, we continued on to field #1 to fence. I did text the person who was supposed to come buy lambs on Monday. They eventually texted back and had some issues of their own and will not be able to come get lambs until Saturday. So we need to keep all 50 alive for one more week.

When we were installing the H braces we used a rolling measuring wheel to mark out 315’ approximately as each roll of woven wire is 330’. The plan was to be able to tighten one roll of wire at a time. A single roll weighs 185# so tying more than one together and trying to get it tight is brutal. It’s hard enough trying to get 185# of wire to stand upright using a hand tightener. I made sure and brought along a four foot section of pipe to use as a cheater bar when the tightener got too hard for me to tighten by hand. This allowed me to get another 6-12 inches of tightening.

On Saturday the black walnut tree was fine (see pictures from previous post) and then this morning the thing had split in half! It looks like there was a natural wishbone and the amount of walnuts caused the tree to just split in half. We are going to let it see if it can live by spending half its time on the ground. Who knows, maybe it will survive and do well. The turkeys roost in the tree also so maybe we should blame them instead of the huge number of walnuts.

We fixed the H brace and then tightened the fence to it. Once that was done then all of the T post clips had to be installed. I showed the Apprentice how to do this but it takes quite a bit of practice to be fast at it. I am doing about 2/3 of the fence. But I have had a lot of practice! We then did the wooden stays. This really makes the fence look good and it keeps the animals from pressing down on the smooth wire. We then rolled out another roll of fencing and got it up! Due to to curved nature of this fence we had to go on the outside of the railroad tie H braces in two spots. We clipped and stayed that section and then rolled out another 330’ of fence and called it a day. We are both getting very tired and sore.

I opted to do coyote patrol that evening and night. We don’t own a spotlight yet (it’s on order 300k candle power). But the moon was supposed to be out and I lined the pickup headlights to cover the area and used a powerful flashlight. I stayed out there from 1800-0000, 6 hours and never saw a single predator. Honestly, this is the most stupid problem ever. I am looking into a thermal scope and a flat shooting rifle. What we really need is a drone with a thermal camera on it that can be auto launched, flown over the farm then allow it to auto land back at it’s starting point. This way I would know whether to go out and deal with the predators. I am also looking into some thermal binoculars. The thermal binoculars and the spotlight with a good scope might just be enough. I have done the math, a protection dog costs about $1600 a year by the time you count for food and vet costs. This is a cost that continues year to year. A rifle and binocular cost is a one time event.