Mr Dirtyclean

Winter is coming

Steve HardinLeave a comment

Winter is definitely coming, it probably should have been here already but it is time to get ready. Thinking about all the things that need to be done before it freezes. I am also trying to get the fields ready to be planted also. It’s a tough balancing act and I am hoping winter holds off just a little longer, maybe another six weeks!

My mother picked her apple trees so we now have over a 100# of apples. I loved the apple butter Annmarie made last year, I ate all of it! So I wanted lots more this time, unfortunately we thought we had purchased an apple peeler/corer/slicer for our KitchenAid. We had not and had even tossed out our old hand crank one. So while she was in Walla Walla both of us went to various stores until I got lucky and found one. This made processing the apples much easier. We ran them through food processor afterwords and then used an immersion blender in the hot pan. The single biggest takeaway from this was do NOT start apple butter cooking at 1900. This process involved many steps and cannot be rushed. I finished it at 0100. We did a triple batch and got 11 pints, one I ate the next day and two I talked Annmarie into over filling which caused the lids to crease. They are now in the fridge waiting for new homes. I have two people that are willing to eat them right up and not store them. We now have a plan and first thing in the morning I will help Annmarie with the corer/peeler/slicer and once it is cooking I can go outside and do farm work, Annmarie will finish canning them.

I had Mr DirtyClean come out on Wednesday and do four hours of discing. He had a few open hours and I needed the help. Thursday, I went out and disced for a little over five hours. I am averaging about 1.5 hours per acre to get them torn up. After I am done with the disc I will run the arena groomer over it again and knock up the clots and smooth it out. I also want to put the manure forks on the bucket so I can scoop up any weed piles while I am smoothing it out. I think I need about another 6-7 hours to finish field #1. The kestrel is definitely living up there somewhere. I see it every time I go to that end of the farm.

We had to load up two more cows for the butcher Thursday evening. I used the tractor to push the cows into the ram pasture. I was able to drive the new cow/calf pair but once she got into the ram pasture she got in a corner of the pasture and would not move. She kept trying to get at the tractor. This is of course the cow we wanted to turn into hamburger for this exact reason!! So now she gets to keep the calf and we have to keep her away from the bull for another 9-12 months.

Annmarie had to come out and get the cows to go through the gate into the back barn lot. I was having zero luck with my stick and with the newborn calf we could not use the dogs. After she got tire of me waving a stick around in the air and the cows just going around me she jumped off the tractor, started hollering and waving the stick and she had them through the gate and into the corral in about five minutes. I just told her they all knew she was pissed and wanted to avoid it. She does not appreciate my ineptitude at times. It’s a learning process and 13 years later I am still learning!! It seems so natural for some but definitely not me.

The next morning she had to come out and help me get the two cows into the trailer. I had a hard time getting the steer in through the chute. His horns were so wide he could not walk down the chute. His lolly gagging caused the heifer to jump back out of the trailer and now they were head to head in the chute. I kept running them out of the chute and trying to get them back into the trailer. After the third attempt I brought the dogs into the corral and used them on the steer. He did not like the dogs and kept going for them instead of going into the chute. Zeke likes to bite between the horns or on the nose, Mouse likes to bite the back heels or tail. So when the steer went for one dog the other got him. I had been at this a few minutes when Annmarie came out. I managed to get the steer into the trailer by using the dogs to push him down the chute unfortunately the heifer decided to go crazy and jump out. We got them into the trailer and when I delivered them they just calmly walked out. The attendant was surprised at how placid they were. I told him they were just tired.

Forever Friday 30/45

Steve HardinLeave a comment

Saturday was a good day for multiple reasons. I had a new helper out to work on fence with me. He kept with it and never complained. It took me longer than usual to come up with a name and I had 2-3 to choose from but I finally settled on Mr DirtClean. I watched him wash his hands with dirt on three separate occasions. I was not going to use this name as it does actually help get stickers out of your hands and we were working in the weeds, but when he spilled some fermented rice must on himself moving the large plastic container he rubbed dirt into it in an attempt to get the smell out! That single act cemented the name, and the smell did not go away with the dirt, it just made mud!

We hauled another three trailer loads of rock down to the barn lot on top of using the two and half loads we already had piled up. It took about four loads of rock to fill the three rock cribs on the far end of the ram pasture. We still have four more rock cribs to fill but they are all smaller than the main two we filled Saturday. There is probably only about another 1-2 loads of rock up on the hillside left in the area we are picking. I would have to drive farther down the fence line and find another pile of rocks. Mr DirtClean does not like snakes either, I spotted a three foot bull snake slithering away and pointed it out, he was not impressed. The momma/baby area fence is upright hanging up by two fence tighteners. I am unsure if I can even drive in the needed three T-posts so I may end up building a small triangle rock crib out of the old cedar posts laying around. It just needs to stop all the animals inside the fence from pushing the fence out. I will know on Sunday when I go out and finish it up. I am working solo on Sunday.

We got 0.01 inches of rain Friday night and Saturday morning we saw clear skies for the first time in almost two weeks. The rain cleared out all the smoke from the forest fires. It was just enough rain to clear up the sky and it was amazing!

We had some friends come out and we had pizza for dinner out on the front lawn. I need to mow the front lawn, a long discussion of pros and cons about using the sheep to mow the lawn was had. We need an outside dining area setup. I want to do it on the backside of the house, it just requires more fencing! They stayed until dusk and spotted an owl that came to visit and while we were out showing them the lavender garden a bat was spotted flying around behind the house. The bats live in the trees. The alpaca were even gracious enough to get into a screaming fight to add to the atmosphere of our farm life.

Annmarie was not impressed with the three different types of chairs and old warped table I found to put the pizza on. We definitely need to up our entertainment cred some more.