Sheep

Winter feeding, a trial experience

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Annmarie has a friend that offered to let us put our sheep on about five acres of grass. The grass is over a foot high but the ground gets pretty wet in the late fall and he wants the grass knocked down so he will have a good crop of hay in the spring but he doesn’t want cows in there tearing up the ground. We went and looked at it last week and it has woven wire all around the outside and just needed a trough and some wooden stays to pull up the woven wire where his cows pushed it down trying to eat outside the fence last year.

We have never tried this before and did not know how many animals would fit into the 16’ stock trailer as the field is about 40 miles away. In all reality, we didn’t know how many sheep we actually had. But I figured we would count them before moving them so all was good. A month on good green grass is wonderful, when they get back we will sort them, keep our 13 lambs that are pre-sold and then take the rest of the lambs to the auction. They will be 10-11 months old and at their heaviest weight all with just grass feed.

So Mr Rainman and I cleaned up the farm on Thursday and got wooden stays and tools together to fix the fence and move sheep on Friday. I needed to buy another box of staples for the DeWalt fence stapler. I love this thing, it’s awkward and heavy but it slams out fencing nails like it is nothing. I was able to finish wiring up the power to the Gazebo and he got the lights strung up. We need a remote control to turn the lights on and off, it is already ordered and coming. The shelf supports also lean a little too much so I will need to add some spacers to make the countertop/sitting/shelf only tilt a little towards the outside. This way the water will run off outside the Gazebo. My customer from Tricities came over and bought a cow/calf pair that afternoon. We found the calmest pair possible out of the herd that were not polled and that is who we sent with him. They loaded fairly easy and he messaged me back saying they are doing great. He has them in with his small herd of goats. He brought out the heads of the two steers that we had taken to the butcher the previous week. Their heads will go on the old plow to just sit and let Mother Nature remove all of the skin and hide from them.

Friday morning we ran all of the sheep into the barn. There were a lot of sheep! I counted them as they came out the end of the chute to get into the barn and there were 93 sheep! This included the ten baby lambs that we got this summer. There was way too many to go in one trip. So we only tried to load 1/2 the herd into the trailer. Well, not all of the sheep thought that was a great idea and after they got 2/3 of the way down the chute they decided to turn and try and crawl over the backs of everyone still coming. All this did was create a logjam and Mr Rainman had to wade into the chute and grab them individually and toss them the other direction before pushing them into the trailer. This meant it took us about 20 minutes to get them loaded instead of five if they had cooperated. There was still some room, but not more than enough to fit another ten sheep, so dividing the herd was the right way to move them.

Off we went! Did I mention that when I started hauling the cows the trailer spare tire was flat so I had taken it to the shop to get repaired? I had not yet picked it up. We got to the outside edge of Pendleton and one of the stock trailer’s tires blew apart. I knew what it was the instant it happened so I pulled over and we called the tire store. I reminded them that my tire was already there so they put together another tire and brought them both out for us, we only waited 45 minutes. It was less than five minutes once they got there and we now had a spare tire. Of course we did not have a jack or tire speed wrench so I am not sure how much good that would have done us but that is not their fault. I will be buying a scissor lift and tire wrench to be mounted inside the trailer for just this reason. I am pretty sure both sides have the ability to mount a spare tire, and having a spare spare is a really good thing.

We had looked at the weather the previous day and it said rain most of the day so we packed rain gear just in case. It rained the entire time we were building fence. The DeWalt stapler does not like the rain. About 3/4 of the way through the job it started acting up and not wanting to staple. We fussed with it to keep it going but it was starting to slow us down. We ended up losing one of the lambs on the first trip, it got suffocated. I think it was when we blew the tire out the sheep ended up laying down for an extra 45 minutes and just laid on the lamb. We had to make a second trip to get the last of the sheep and they traveled without any problems but there were only two lambs in the second load and mostly larger sheep. Our rams are in with the sheep and Wil put his eight sheep in with ours also. He turned his ram loose into the herd so we are both hoping rams cross groups. By the time we showed up with the second trailer load of sheep both of the herds had finally started to co-mingle. Initially, they were staying separated.

I had Mr Rainman drop me off at the tire store so I could pickup “Little Dumper”, 1957 one ton truck. They had finally finished the brake job and some wheel bearings. The trouble is it would not start, so the owner and I tried for about five minutes before someone finally told him it was out of gas. They took me down to get two gallons and it started right up! I drove down to the gas station and put 16 gallons of non ethanol premium fuel in it for the drive home. It was starting to get dark and I don’t think the headlights work. I had just gotten to the edge of town when it started to act up. Like it was not getting enough fuel or getting too much. I kept milking it and slowing down then speeding up. I was driving the back gravel roads and waving everyone by me. I had called a friend whose house was on the way and asked her if I could just park it there until I could tow it home, she said yes. The problem was as I was coming down the hill towards her house it was running great! So I just took a risk and kept on going! It died within sight of her driveway and I could not get it started again.

I had called Annmarie when it started acting up and asked her to drive the back way in case I got stopped somewhere. She had heat and lights in her car. I had two people stop before she got there asking me if I needed any help. This is so nice in a rural area. I told them I was fine and help was on the way. We called my nephew again and he went to the farm and grabbed my heavy duty tow strap, purchased to pull the tractor out of the mud, and brought it out. He towed me back to the farm and I messaged Gingerman. He will tear out the carburetor and do a clean and rebuild. He said one of the floats kept sticking when he was getting it started the first time. The brakes work great and since they are 100% manual, no power was required to operate them on the tow home.

Finishing up winter prep

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Well I got the cows to the butcher and we will be eating #34, his carcass weight was 370#. I will smile every time we have beef for the next year.

On Saturday we were going to make apple butter. My mother had given us about 25 gallons of apples so I wanted to make a big batch. Annmarie had to go to work so I was left alone. I just kept filling up the huge pot we had on the stove. Once Annmarie was back and added my requested “triple normal spice amount” and we tasted the concoction it was decided that another 16# of apples were needed. By the time we taste tested the mixture to perfection the poor pot only had a couple of inches of empty space at the top. We ended up canning almost three gallons in half pints and still had two gallons leftover. Out came the large yogurt containers and we ended up filling eight of those. In about fifteen minutes of texting I had them all given away. With the beef coming we did not want more stuff in our freezer and we have plenty canned!

Sunday I worked on the corral. I dug out the dirt and weeds around the loose railroad ties, then mounded gravel around them. I used a seven foot breaker bar to drive the gravel in around the posts. I was able to tighten up all but two. The post on the end by the gate that took the most abuse would only tighten up so much. In an effort to rectify this issue I realized that we had an unused circular pen gate that I thought would fit perfectly in the opening. I brought it over with the tractor and it does indeed fit in the opening with zero modifications. I ordered some all-thread, nuts and washers so that I could weld a piece of 1/2” pipe on the end of the all-thread. I will then drill a hole all the way through the railroad tie and install one above and below the attachment points on the gate. I am then going to drop a piece of half inch rebar down the entire side and duplicate this on both sides of the gate. This will tie the entire gate and pen together at its weakest point. I am too old to be working that breaker bar for an hour. I had to rest between posts.

We have combined all of the sheep. The ewes that were fat and we thought pregnant have not given birth and are way past when they should have had babies. So all the sheep and the rams are mixed together. Annmarie and I went over last week to look at a place in Hermiston that someone wants grazed down. This weekend I am taking the sheep over and with a few hours of fence repair they should be good for at least a month. The field is all green grass about a foot height. The field is pretty wet so anything heavier than sheep would cause divots in the field. This will help us both out. I will definitely have to count sheep before we go as I am not even sure how many we have!

I have been working on the Gazebo after work. I have managed to get a cable up near the top of the pillars shaped like a hexagon. We are going to string lights from the cable. I would have got that done today but I realized I did not have any small zip ties. I also need a short extension cord. It is going to look pretty cool at night with the lights in it.

We are also now starting to plan our downstairs bathroom remodel. We needed some more tile and are going to go with one that looks like linen wall paper. I measured the bathroom and Annmarie drew it up in a CAD program so we could see the layout. We can get all of the Schluter parts to create a waterproof base to lay all of the tile on in Hermiston from the same store as the tile. We want to get a custom granite top cut for the vanity like we did upstairs. The vanity was a wash station from Annmarie’s grandmother. I will have to modify the top drawer to accommodate the plumbing. Once we get the sheep moved I will be able to load up the vanity into pickup and go to the Tricities to find someone who can create the top.

Staycation day 5

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It seems like every project is two steps forward and one back. I was able to work on the machine shed ridge line install yesterday. I had found some small two foot peak sections somewhere on the farm but they were not enough to cover the entire ridge line. I purchased some trough metal that I turned upside down and used as ridge cap. It was at a close out and I only paid about $8/piece. I was trying to use up my leftover roofing screws from the barn. The only problem is I ran out with only 27 left to be installed. They are oversized as I was reusing metal tin and needed a larger size to go through the existing holes. This meant I had to drill a pilot hole first. I drilled those 27 holes before climbing down from the roof and of course could not find a #14 screw anywhere in town. I had some #10 but they were red! I ended up ordering some and they should be here this week. Luckily, I ran out of screws as the sun was heating the roof up to unbearable temperatures but I kept trying to get it all done so I would not have to climb back up on the roof. I ended up going to town to get some oak, some trim for the cook stones enclosure, sheep and lamb pellets and some bolts to fix the gazebo door.

I had enough time to repair the gazebo door, cut off the door handle bolt and install a new one. I still ended up beating and bending the door into submission to get it on. Our original plan was to use the door to get to the grill outside after I built a lean to on the back of the gazebo. Nope, not going to happen. That door will be staying shut, it took a hammer and a couple of minutes to get it shut the first time. The grill will be going inside the gazebo. I just have to figure out where the grill is going to go as I need to run the power to that spot.

Today I took the second repaired cattle feeder out into the alleyway and got it ready for a large bale. I dumped some more scraps onto the burn pile. All the burn piles are starting to grow pretty fast now as we continue cleaning up. I got the weight box for the tractor and took it over to the machine shop so it could be repaired. The supports keep bending from the weight of all the metal horse shoes. I beat on the three point supports with an eight pound sledge hammer then proceeded to weld some supports on all three attachment points. I am hopeful that it will keep them from bending now during the winter use. I am still welding pretty roughly but it is holding and that is the main purpose for my welding skills.

I took 1000# of sheep and lamb feed out to the barn. We are storing the sweet feed in the large grainbin we have in the momma/baby area. I put 450# in it today and I am pretty sure I can fit another 1000# in it. The lamb creep feed gate is up and we are now feeding the lambs where the mommas cannot reach. This should hopefully help the mommas not slough so much weight. I took all of the leftover feed bags and net wrapping and bagged it all up and took it out of the barn. Annmarie had been complaining about there being no box knives out in the barn. I found two knives in the trash bin, some lamb nutrient mix and some hoof treatment powder. So now we know where all of that is located.

Annmarie really wants the house number holder completed so I started welding that project today. I am a mediocre welder so hopefully this turns out well. I got the rough frame welded today but had to let it cool off before I could work on it some more. Tomorrow I will grind it smooth and try and make it pretty. Hopefully the tile will still slide into the end. We will know tomorrow!

The porch lights went out for the third time! This is after I wired the new ones in. I took the main one down again, took it all apart and used a voltmeter this time to check everything and the switch. It turns out that it was the cheap porch light bulbs. They had blown up with all of our power losses. I bought LED this time!

Gazebo ready for roof

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Well it was time to make some progress on the gazebo. The final step in the assembly process is to get the roof up. Since the crane thing was not an option for me, I needed to use Plan C. I mounted the two ten foot posts on the front of the pallet forks on top of a pallet. I drilled a hole in one and attached a bolt with a hook thinking I could somehow attach it to the fork railing. Instead I ended up running a tie down through the upper slats and cranking it tight. I used a chain around the bottom of the post tied to the fork. I did not want the bottom to give out at all. I then drove over to the Gazebo opening and tried to get the posts through the opening. I could not tilt the platform enough to get the posts inside the Gazebo. So I had to tear down my post setup, toss the posts to the side and drive the tractor into the Gazebo. Once inside I mounted the two posts then proceeded to use the scraps of 2×4 from the house window trim to stabilize the posts and to build a top that is hollow. This is because we will need to put a ladder up through the middle to bolt the center roof pieces in place.

Once I had the platform built I went over to the pile of roof pieces and dug around and tried to figure out how to attach the roof to the outer wall. There is a weird small attachment piece that is bent on three angles. I could not figure out how it went onto the gazebo edge. Gingerman helped me roll the center piece over to the gazebo and then lift it up onto my fancy dancy platform. This would not have been possible to do alone it weighs too much. We took the pickup and trailer over and loaded up the roof pieces. Because I have the tractor with the pallet forks all tied up! I should have moved the roof pieces over with the tractor before building the platform.
I went inside for the day and was talking to Annmarie while she made homemade tomato paste. This is not super easy and not very much is obtained but it tastes great! We were talking and I told her I was unsure how the gazebo roof kept birds out of the tall peaked ridges between each piece. Then it dawned on me, the little weird triangle piece on the roof attachment is the part that goes up into the ridge! Now it will be super easy to get all the roof pieces installed.

Gingerman and I got an impact driver, drill and some large head treated wood anchors. The floor in the barn is coming up in a few places as the old screws have rusted off. It was perfect time to work inside as it rained for a whopping 15 minutes. The rain gauge did not even register the rain. Once we had the floor repaired we set up the sorting chute and unwrapped the old hay so the sheep can tear into it and create bedding. They will spread it out as they tear through it. We will need the chute to tag and band the lambs in a couple of weeks.

Calves tagged and banded

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Mr Rainman brought out a friend (Mr Interested) who was interested in seeing us tag and band calves, one of our nephews came out and the Gingerman offered to help. I was dead weight but was able to provide directions. Annmarie had spotted a ewe last night that had an abscess on her neck so the sheep got locked in so we could deal with it after the cows. We had to push the cows down to the corral and of course they were at the farthest field. They actually went in fairly well. They only back tracked once which is amazing as this late into summer all of the animals are crazy. They get fairly wild since they don’t have to rely on humans for food. We ignore them as long as there are no issues also. There is quite a bit of green grass up in field two. It snapped back nicely after we cut hay. All of the fields need mowed to knock down the cheat grass, but now that Mr Rainman is off of vacation he will have that done in a few days.

Once the cows all got pushed into the corral the mommas were sorted off and only the seven calves were left in the corral. I forgot to have the dogs moved inside so they were right at the corral trying to help. This was not keeping the calves calm at all so they had to be removed. Chance ended up on the run hollering at us and whining as she wanted to help. We had the calf table all set up but the small calves don’t lend themselves to the table at all and since there were four grown men it was decided they could man handle the calves. Yeah, it went as well as you expected. This is something that you really have to know how to do to tip a calf fast and easily. If you do not do it correctly the first time a fight will ensue in which a lot of effort must be exerted and a few bruises obtained to get the job done. I sat behind the corral fence hollering instructions. The calves all got tagged and banded. The wrong numbers and colors were used but the job got done! They only had to cut off one set of bands and redo it as there was only one testicle in the first attempt. Everyone was pretty dirty by the time it was done. The Gingerman just started to finally tackle and bear hug them which resulted in a lot of cow poop and dirt everywhere.

The sheep got chased into the barn, for this Chance did get to help on her lead rope. Gingerman ran her, but the sheep are so tame that they will just ignore humans. Once in the barn we proceeded to catch every black sheep and could not find any with an abscess. We did catch and sort off the one with a limp but there was no abscess. So I did not have to lance and treat an abscess.

All in all a successful venture with the cows and we are done for another year, there were 5 male and 2 female calves. We had three calves die for unknown reasons. We have had two momma cows die and most likely it is due to old age. We have not been rotating off the older adult cows. So we may have to start doing that every 3-5 years now.

Four weeks left on the broken foot.