Cool. Very cool most of the day and a brisk breeze. Made it seem cooler than it was.
In the morning I weed whacked the area outside the gate and along the road to the Dexter pasture. Then I went into the paddock that's attached to the middle stall and weed whacked there. When I was done I let the Dexters into the pen to chew down the grass. The grass wasn't very high but the critters seemed to enjoy the treat. They've mostly been eating baled hay since I have no grass left.
Chas made grilled cheese sandwiches and (ugh) canned beans for lunch. I hate canned beans for some reason.
After lunch I weed whacked the area to the south of the main gate into the road pasture. It looks a lot better.
Then I filled the tank and changed the cord on the weed whacker and went down to the potting shed and cleared the tall grass and weeds around the shed. I also went into the gazebo garden and mowed down a lot of weeds there. I made a lot of paths through the gazebo garden. Hopefully tomorrow I can finish off the gazebo pasture and maybe work around the potting shed and finish it. It always looks so much better when the grass is even and the weeds are gone.
Chas painted some more of the west side of the house in the afternoon.
I was amazed. It only took me half an hour this evening to do chores. Feeding the Dexters with the round bale feeder and having pasture that the Herefords can munch on makes it so much less time consuming to feed. Peeling leaves of hay off a 4x4 foot bale is no fun and is hard work.
I'm gradually easing the goats over to more of a grass/alfalfa diet because I think it will be healthier for them. The Boer goats are getting quite portly.
I made a wonderful stew from some of our beef and zucchini from the garden. I used store bought red potatoes and carrots. Spiced it up with some chicken bouillon and bay leaves as well as some rosemary. I'd made Zoom bread earlier in the day. It was a small loaf. I don't think I added enough water to the mix and it just didn't rise. The bread tasted great anyway.
I purchased 6 garlic heads online at eBay from crankycarlsgarlic406 (http://myworld.ebay.com/crankycarlsgarlic406/) for $12.48. I already have garlic heads from the grocery store but wanted some fancy heads to plant in my horse trough planter.
I purchased some fencing supplies from Premier Sheep and some rope halters from Nasco. I also purchased a California castrator and some bands from My MicroStore.com. The California castrator looks easy to use and you can band an animal up to adulthood. We're talking bulls, here, not goats.
Tonight was my time to spend some money on the farm, I guess.
Saturday, August 30, 2008
08/29/2008 Friday. Cleaning the Goat Pen
Overcast and humid. Not as bad as yesterday.
I noticed on my way to feed the chickens that some of the beets have come up. I'm pleased about that. And surprised.
Worked on my computer in the morning.
John McCain picked his running mate (VP) and it's a Governor from Alaska named Sarah Palin. No one seems to know much about her. She's pro-life.
When Ryan came we dragged the wheelbarrow out to the goat barn along with a pitch fork each. Ryan began cleaning the goat pen which really needed it. While he was doing that I picked up branches and pitched them over the fence onto the trailer. Later Ryan dumped the trailer onto the burn pile near the house. We then worked on barn cleaning. I guess we got about half done. Ryan had the hard job of dumping the wheelbarrow while I took layers off the top and put them where he could easily pick them up to put into the wheelbarrow.
In the middle of cleaning we stopped and did some fencing. Yesterday we took apart the duck pen. I moved the stock panels to the area near the small sheep paddock by tossing them over the fence. Then we took out the end of the fence and moved it to the south side and reattached it to the corner fence. The second panel was run from the other corner. The third panel linked the other two. We slightly rearranged the fence before I used my spiral connectors to attach two or three panels together depending on the configuration.
So now, I have a larger second paddock for the sheep to graze.
After we finished the fence Ryan and I continued cleaning the barn we worked for another 40 minutes and called it quits. I was really getting tired.
Tonight we are having round steak, pasta with cheddar cheese and swiss chard. Yum.
I noticed on my way to feed the chickens that some of the beets have come up. I'm pleased about that. And surprised.
Worked on my computer in the morning.
John McCain picked his running mate (VP) and it's a Governor from Alaska named Sarah Palin. No one seems to know much about her. She's pro-life.
When Ryan came we dragged the wheelbarrow out to the goat barn along with a pitch fork each. Ryan began cleaning the goat pen which really needed it. While he was doing that I picked up branches and pitched them over the fence onto the trailer. Later Ryan dumped the trailer onto the burn pile near the house. We then worked on barn cleaning. I guess we got about half done. Ryan had the hard job of dumping the wheelbarrow while I took layers off the top and put them where he could easily pick them up to put into the wheelbarrow.
In the middle of cleaning we stopped and did some fencing. Yesterday we took apart the duck pen. I moved the stock panels to the area near the small sheep paddock by tossing them over the fence. Then we took out the end of the fence and moved it to the south side and reattached it to the corner fence. The second panel was run from the other corner. The third panel linked the other two. We slightly rearranged the fence before I used my spiral connectors to attach two or three panels together depending on the configuration.
So now, I have a larger second paddock for the sheep to graze.
After we finished the fence Ryan and I continued cleaning the barn we worked for another 40 minutes and called it quits. I was really getting tired.
Tonight we are having round steak, pasta with cheddar cheese and swiss chard. Yum.
Thursday, August 28, 2008
Recovering the North Side of the Cow Barn
Overcast and humid. Not a fun day to work outside.
Sherry came to clean house today. She mentioned over lunch that she'd purchased some 6 foot t-posts at the Farm Store and they were $5.69 each. I was aghast at the price. I have plenty of t-posts that I bought from various sources fairly inexpensively and she needed several to re-fence part of her property - so I gave her 15. It hardly made a dent in the stack.
Chas and I moved the 250 lb protein block (actually a large round tub with molasses and soybean and other goodies that farmers use to supplement low quality hay) into the road pasture. We moved the tire I put the block in over to the other side of the road into the pasture so that we could work near the barn. We also put the 125 lb protein block in a metal wash tub and put that into the Dexter's stall. They'd been complaining that they didn't have access to a block for at least a week now.
After that we moved a rather large gate - about 16 feet long and very heavy- with the tractor and leaned it up against the east fence. And tied it into place so that it wouldn't fall on the cows with them rubbing against it.
Both of us worked really hard in the morning cleaning up the north side of the barn. We had put doors from the barn there intending on doing something useful with them. After we took away the doors we found lots of treasures including a tire, boards, metal pipes and steel channel. There is still a piece of funny-shaped metal under the stock tank. I'll get that out eventually when I scrub the stock tank.
Chas used the tractor to scoop dirt away from the barn. He used that dirt to fill in holes that the animals made around the protein block container and the hole where the horse used to roll. What he couldn't get I dug out using a shovel. That dirt got put into the bucket and spread.
In the afternoon Chas used the box scraper to level off the area by the barn. I think we still need to dig out the area around where I put the automatic waterer. We'll lower the gound level in front of the waterer and put in a layer of larger rocks and cover that with smaller rocks (gravel) so that the cows will have a firm but not mucky surface to stand on when they go to drink. I think we'll need to go down about 8 inches.
We'll need to pressure wash that side of the barn. It's all covered with mold and mildew and dirt.
As we went along we dumped quite a bit of trash over the electric fence including a tire, two long lengths of 1.5 inch pipe, a piece of metal conduit about 3.5 feet long, binding twine, boards, fence-posts and other stuff that had been piled up alongside the north side of the barn.
Ryan came about 12:30 to work. He and I did a lot of work today (even though I was already tired from my morning work). We cut additional horizontal space in the barn wall that we'd cut yesterday for the Dexters' round bale feeder so that we could get a 4 ft + bale through the wall and into the feeder. I do not know where my mind was; I certainly did not look at the bale to see just exactly how wide a wide round bale is.
Later I asked Chas to put a bale in the feeder. It was so easy, a piece of cake. I think Chas was not certain my idea would work. I really wanted it to be easy for him to feed when I went away for my San Diego trip.
The only thing I noticed was that we have to keep the sides of the feeder well away from the round bale otherwise the cows pull the grass through and waste it. About a foot on each side seems to work well enough. So, one of the things I did was to move the sides out. The sides were touching the round bale. We put the futon gate (funton backs that were welded together one on top of the other to make a gate) on the animal side of the barn and attached the feeder ends to the it.
As the animals eat the hay back I can simply move the wide ends closer together and tie the ends to the futon gate at the width I want. The gate stabilizes the feeder, keeps the animals out of the stall and keeps the round bale feeder ends at the the correct distance apart.
Ryan and I measured the Dexter lean-to addition. It's about 13.5 feet wide and 17 feet long. I want to turn that area into a fenced-in area, like a corral, so that I can separate babies from mommas for weaning and castrating. The sizes are so dang unusual. Not 12 feet long but wider by 1.5 feet more or less. Frustrating.
I had Ryan take 6 bales of hay from the cow barn and put it into the goat barn so that I could use it for feeding my goat barn critters.
After that Ryan and I disassembled the large duck pen made out of two 16 foot long stock panels and two 6 foot long end panels and put together five of Jim S's sheep panels which made a smaller pen for the ducks. I needed the panels and wasn't about to buy two new ones, not at over $42.00 each.
We put the 16 foot long panels over the goat fence (also made of stock panel). Tomorrow or next week we'll expand the size of the smaller sheep paddock by incorporating the two duck panels into the exterior fencing. The current configuration is set up so that I have two sheep paddocks. The second paddock is quite small but with the addition of the two stock panels, well, those two panels will definitely make the grazing area bigger. Plus, I'll be able to rotate the animals through two paddocks. Not ideal but better than one large paddock. Rotating the animals is important; it gives the grass a chance to recover.
Charles was in the road pasture grading the area we'd dug out this morning. He tried moving one of the former barn doors out to the burn pile but was having trouble keeping it on the tractor bucket. Ryan and I moved in to help load it onto the tractor and opened the gate so that Chas could put the door on the burn pile. It had rotted out which is the only reason we're getting rid of it.
Since we were in the paddock anyway Ryan and I picked up rocks from the north side of the cow barn. Ryan dumped them in the rock pile which is getting quite large now. We still have other rocks to pick up but the area looks quite a bit better - and there aren't so many stones to stumble over.
Ryan and I picked up all the trash Chas and I had pitched over the fence. The metal went to the scrap heap and the wood to the burn pile. We now have two large burn piles to light off when the county allows us to burn.
He and I picked up the gate I'd taken out of the Dexters' pen and laid by the tack room and put it on the ATV. I asked Ryan to put the gate on the south side of the goat barn. That way it's out of the way but still accessible if I need a gate.
By this time I was already dead tired. I'd worked physically hard most of the day. I paid Ryan for his time, gave him a Pepsi, and we sat and chatted for a few minutes before I sent him home.
When I did my chores and picked up the mail I also picked up some windfall apples for the pigs and MSB02 (second shorthorn bull calf). The calf is so funny, I'll cut a piece off the apple and hold it out to him. He sucks on that piece of apple for a couple of seconds before chewing it. This calf is mad for apple pieces. I cut up the apples for the pigs to make it easier for them to chew. It's fun watching them toss the piece of apple from one side of their mouths to the other in order to chew it. They sure know the scent of windfall apples. I took one perfect apple up to the house with the mail for later eating.
Dinner was salmon with tortellini and some of Sherry's pickled carrots. Yum. For dessert Chas prepared the strawberries which we ate with yogurt. Yum.
Sherry came to clean house today. She mentioned over lunch that she'd purchased some 6 foot t-posts at the Farm Store and they were $5.69 each. I was aghast at the price. I have plenty of t-posts that I bought from various sources fairly inexpensively and she needed several to re-fence part of her property - so I gave her 15. It hardly made a dent in the stack.
Chas and I moved the 250 lb protein block (actually a large round tub with molasses and soybean and other goodies that farmers use to supplement low quality hay) into the road pasture. We moved the tire I put the block in over to the other side of the road into the pasture so that we could work near the barn. We also put the 125 lb protein block in a metal wash tub and put that into the Dexter's stall. They'd been complaining that they didn't have access to a block for at least a week now.
After that we moved a rather large gate - about 16 feet long and very heavy- with the tractor and leaned it up against the east fence. And tied it into place so that it wouldn't fall on the cows with them rubbing against it.
Both of us worked really hard in the morning cleaning up the north side of the barn. We had put doors from the barn there intending on doing something useful with them. After we took away the doors we found lots of treasures including a tire, boards, metal pipes and steel channel. There is still a piece of funny-shaped metal under the stock tank. I'll get that out eventually when I scrub the stock tank.
Chas used the tractor to scoop dirt away from the barn. He used that dirt to fill in holes that the animals made around the protein block container and the hole where the horse used to roll. What he couldn't get I dug out using a shovel. That dirt got put into the bucket and spread.
In the afternoon Chas used the box scraper to level off the area by the barn. I think we still need to dig out the area around where I put the automatic waterer. We'll lower the gound level in front of the waterer and put in a layer of larger rocks and cover that with smaller rocks (gravel) so that the cows will have a firm but not mucky surface to stand on when they go to drink. I think we'll need to go down about 8 inches.
We'll need to pressure wash that side of the barn. It's all covered with mold and mildew and dirt.
As we went along we dumped quite a bit of trash over the electric fence including a tire, two long lengths of 1.5 inch pipe, a piece of metal conduit about 3.5 feet long, binding twine, boards, fence-posts and other stuff that had been piled up alongside the north side of the barn.
Ryan came about 12:30 to work. He and I did a lot of work today (even though I was already tired from my morning work). We cut additional horizontal space in the barn wall that we'd cut yesterday for the Dexters' round bale feeder so that we could get a 4 ft + bale through the wall and into the feeder. I do not know where my mind was; I certainly did not look at the bale to see just exactly how wide a wide round bale is.
Later I asked Chas to put a bale in the feeder. It was so easy, a piece of cake. I think Chas was not certain my idea would work. I really wanted it to be easy for him to feed when I went away for my San Diego trip.
The only thing I noticed was that we have to keep the sides of the feeder well away from the round bale otherwise the cows pull the grass through and waste it. About a foot on each side seems to work well enough. So, one of the things I did was to move the sides out. The sides were touching the round bale. We put the futon gate (funton backs that were welded together one on top of the other to make a gate) on the animal side of the barn and attached the feeder ends to the it.
As the animals eat the hay back I can simply move the wide ends closer together and tie the ends to the futon gate at the width I want. The gate stabilizes the feeder, keeps the animals out of the stall and keeps the round bale feeder ends at the the correct distance apart.
Ryan and I measured the Dexter lean-to addition. It's about 13.5 feet wide and 17 feet long. I want to turn that area into a fenced-in area, like a corral, so that I can separate babies from mommas for weaning and castrating. The sizes are so dang unusual. Not 12 feet long but wider by 1.5 feet more or less. Frustrating.
I had Ryan take 6 bales of hay from the cow barn and put it into the goat barn so that I could use it for feeding my goat barn critters.
After that Ryan and I disassembled the large duck pen made out of two 16 foot long stock panels and two 6 foot long end panels and put together five of Jim S's sheep panels which made a smaller pen for the ducks. I needed the panels and wasn't about to buy two new ones, not at over $42.00 each.
We put the 16 foot long panels over the goat fence (also made of stock panel). Tomorrow or next week we'll expand the size of the smaller sheep paddock by incorporating the two duck panels into the exterior fencing. The current configuration is set up so that I have two sheep paddocks. The second paddock is quite small but with the addition of the two stock panels, well, those two panels will definitely make the grazing area bigger. Plus, I'll be able to rotate the animals through two paddocks. Not ideal but better than one large paddock. Rotating the animals is important; it gives the grass a chance to recover.
Charles was in the road pasture grading the area we'd dug out this morning. He tried moving one of the former barn doors out to the burn pile but was having trouble keeping it on the tractor bucket. Ryan and I moved in to help load it onto the tractor and opened the gate so that Chas could put the door on the burn pile. It had rotted out which is the only reason we're getting rid of it.
Since we were in the paddock anyway Ryan and I picked up rocks from the north side of the cow barn. Ryan dumped them in the rock pile which is getting quite large now. We still have other rocks to pick up but the area looks quite a bit better - and there aren't so many stones to stumble over.
Ryan and I picked up all the trash Chas and I had pitched over the fence. The metal went to the scrap heap and the wood to the burn pile. We now have two large burn piles to light off when the county allows us to burn.
He and I picked up the gate I'd taken out of the Dexters' pen and laid by the tack room and put it on the ATV. I asked Ryan to put the gate on the south side of the goat barn. That way it's out of the way but still accessible if I need a gate.
By this time I was already dead tired. I'd worked physically hard most of the day. I paid Ryan for his time, gave him a Pepsi, and we sat and chatted for a few minutes before I sent him home.
When I did my chores and picked up the mail I also picked up some windfall apples for the pigs and MSB02 (second shorthorn bull calf). The calf is so funny, I'll cut a piece off the apple and hold it out to him. He sucks on that piece of apple for a couple of seconds before chewing it. This calf is mad for apple pieces. I cut up the apples for the pigs to make it easier for them to chew. It's fun watching them toss the piece of apple from one side of their mouths to the other in order to chew it. They sure know the scent of windfall apples. I took one perfect apple up to the house with the mail for later eating.
Dinner was salmon with tortellini and some of Sherry's pickled carrots. Yum. For dessert Chas prepared the strawberries which we ate with yogurt. Yum.
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
A Day in Town
08/27/2008 Wednesday: Overcast and rainy with the occasional five minutes of sun.
Chas and I went into town today and did our regular shopping. We went to the Farm Store where I got rabbit pellets and chicken layena and four gate handles. Chas reminded me I needed to take the M800 charger into the Farm Store to get it fixed. Rex worked on it and replaced an electronic panel. Now it works again. This means I have a backup charger in case my M1000 goes bad. Or, if my outlets on the north side of the barn weren't wired in parallel with the lights I could use the second charger on my east fencing.
When we came back for the charger I also got two salt blocks for the cows and one small one for the sheep.
We also hit the bank, post office and library. After grocery shopping Chas took me out for Mexican food at Plaza Jalisco. I had the burrito Colorado. Chas had chicken flautas. Mine was really good. But we're going to be so full that dinner will be very light, probably leftover chicken soup (made with onion, zucchini and carrots as well as rosemary and chicken breasts).
We also stopped at Sunbirds where I shopped their fall parking lot sale. Most of the good stuff was gone because the sale has been going on for at least most of August. I got a bunch of things on sale that I can use around the farm including 2 medium weight 50' hoses. I can always use hoses - at least until I get the water system in and running to the garden and chicken coop (south), to the cow barn (middle and end), and over to the green barn (south-west corner). We'll be running power at the same time so eventually I will have wire at the green barn and also at the chicken coop and potting shed.
So, I still have to unload the car and sort the goodies I purchased into their proper places.
When we got home it was nearly 2pm. I sat down in my chair to rest after we put most of the food supplies away and the next thing I knew it was 3:40 and past time for me to go do my evening chores.
I must say it is a lot easier to do chores when the Desters are munching on a round bale and the Herefords are out chomping down on grass. The grass is growing again. It's come out of its dormancy and has turned green. The road pasture where I fenced it off will soon look very good. The other paddocks will also start turning green soon. There's so much brown grass it's going to take awhile for the green to show through.
I went and took a harder look at the round bales. I thought they were 4'x4' but it looks as if some of them are much wider. That means that I'm going to have to widen the opening in the side of the barn or else I won't be able to push a round bale through the wall and into the round bale feeder. Oh well, sometimes it takes more than one go-around to get a project right. The height seems to be ok. Fortunately Ryan is pretty good with a chain saw. He can enlarge the opening with a few cuts.
Chas and I went into town today and did our regular shopping. We went to the Farm Store where I got rabbit pellets and chicken layena and four gate handles. Chas reminded me I needed to take the M800 charger into the Farm Store to get it fixed. Rex worked on it and replaced an electronic panel. Now it works again. This means I have a backup charger in case my M1000 goes bad. Or, if my outlets on the north side of the barn weren't wired in parallel with the lights I could use the second charger on my east fencing.
When we came back for the charger I also got two salt blocks for the cows and one small one for the sheep.
We also hit the bank, post office and library. After grocery shopping Chas took me out for Mexican food at Plaza Jalisco. I had the burrito Colorado. Chas had chicken flautas. Mine was really good. But we're going to be so full that dinner will be very light, probably leftover chicken soup (made with onion, zucchini and carrots as well as rosemary and chicken breasts).
We also stopped at Sunbirds where I shopped their fall parking lot sale. Most of the good stuff was gone because the sale has been going on for at least most of August. I got a bunch of things on sale that I can use around the farm including 2 medium weight 50' hoses. I can always use hoses - at least until I get the water system in and running to the garden and chicken coop (south), to the cow barn (middle and end), and over to the green barn (south-west corner). We'll be running power at the same time so eventually I will have wire at the green barn and also at the chicken coop and potting shed.
So, I still have to unload the car and sort the goodies I purchased into their proper places.
When we got home it was nearly 2pm. I sat down in my chair to rest after we put most of the food supplies away and the next thing I knew it was 3:40 and past time for me to go do my evening chores.
I must say it is a lot easier to do chores when the Desters are munching on a round bale and the Herefords are out chomping down on grass. The grass is growing again. It's come out of its dormancy and has turned green. The road pasture where I fenced it off will soon look very good. The other paddocks will also start turning green soon. There's so much brown grass it's going to take awhile for the green to show through.
I went and took a harder look at the round bales. I thought they were 4'x4' but it looks as if some of them are much wider. That means that I'm going to have to widen the opening in the side of the barn or else I won't be able to push a round bale through the wall and into the round bale feeder. Oh well, sometimes it takes more than one go-around to get a project right. The height seems to be ok. Fortunately Ryan is pretty good with a chain saw. He can enlarge the opening with a few cuts.
Ryan Comes to Work for the First Time
08/26/2008 Tuesday: Overcast and cold until 1:15 pm or so. Then the sun started shining and it warmed up.
I worked on Nancy S's evaluation letter for UFL all morning. It's due Friday this week. This kind of letter is really hard to write especially if you have a good candidate. So many things to choose from/emphasize.
Ryan came in the afternoon, around 1:00pm. He's the young man that Pat brought over last night. Ryan and I went out and started cutting out the barn wall. The bottom was rotten anyway and the wall is a non-bearing wall. I wanted to be able to push a whole bale of hay (all 500 pounds) into the feeder without peeling off layers (leaves) of hay and tossing them over the gate and into the feeder and without going into the lean-to. I especially wanted the cows to be able to feed themselves instead of me tossing hay to them twice a day.
I'm trying to make things as easy for Chas as I can. It worked beautifully.
I had Ryan cut a 4 foot wide hole with the chainsaw, basically wide enough to shove a 4 foot wide bale of hay through to the manger beyond. After we got the hole cut we moved the feeder into position and tied it together at the far end with wire and tied the open end to staples I pounded into the remaining wall.
If the opening in the wall isn't large enough to push hay through I may just enlarge the hole by about half a foot; it's currently 4 feet across but I could make it 4 feet 6 inches or even 5 feet across. I would probably need to bring in a larger gate to fill the enlarged hole. I really need to measure the width of the stall to see which gate would fit best. A 10 foot gate should fit.
The futon gate I've put in temporarily would be too small for an enlarged hole but now that I think of it, two smaller gates would be even better since I could swing the gates to each side and out of the way. A large gate would be more difficult to open within the confines of the stall.
I would need to pound in two t-posts to attach the ends of the gates to. The center opening would be closed with a single binding twine or chain.
As I said, I now have one of the futon back gates on the inside of the stall just in case one of the cows or calves tried to wander through the feeder. The gate will keep them out of the stall. This is good since it's hard to close the outside gate. It remains open to the driveway all the time. I would not want the cows to get out.
I wondered if the opening on the feeder which currently looks like a boat with the prow pointed away from the side of the stall might be too wide on the barn side but figured that I could always push the hay from the center to the edges using my pitchfork. So far the animals seem to be able to reach the hay.
After we admired our work Ryan and I took the ATV and went out to the highway and picked up three large loads of branches deposited by the Chehalis River during the December 2007 flood. We put the wood in the burn pile closest to the house.
We still have to pick up the little stuff but I want Ryan to weedwhack along the fenceline so that we can actually see what's there. Also I want Chas to smooth the land next to the fence. The river left a four foot wide swath along the fence that is about 6 inches high. That dirt should be smoothed back to blend in with the rest of the pasture or the dirt used to fill in holes.
We finished working about 3:50 pm. Ryan has another job to do tomorrow but will be back Thursday. I think he's not used to women who know how to farm and who tell him specifically how she wants things done.
Dinner was bangers and mash. Chas really wanted this meal and it is easy to prepare.
I worked on Nancy S's evaluation letter for UFL all morning. It's due Friday this week. This kind of letter is really hard to write especially if you have a good candidate. So many things to choose from/emphasize.
Ryan came in the afternoon, around 1:00pm. He's the young man that Pat brought over last night. Ryan and I went out and started cutting out the barn wall. The bottom was rotten anyway and the wall is a non-bearing wall. I wanted to be able to push a whole bale of hay (all 500 pounds) into the feeder without peeling off layers (leaves) of hay and tossing them over the gate and into the feeder and without going into the lean-to. I especially wanted the cows to be able to feed themselves instead of me tossing hay to them twice a day.
I'm trying to make things as easy for Chas as I can. It worked beautifully.
I had Ryan cut a 4 foot wide hole with the chainsaw, basically wide enough to shove a 4 foot wide bale of hay through to the manger beyond. After we got the hole cut we moved the feeder into position and tied it together at the far end with wire and tied the open end to staples I pounded into the remaining wall.
If the opening in the wall isn't large enough to push hay through I may just enlarge the hole by about half a foot; it's currently 4 feet across but I could make it 4 feet 6 inches or even 5 feet across. I would probably need to bring in a larger gate to fill the enlarged hole. I really need to measure the width of the stall to see which gate would fit best. A 10 foot gate should fit.
The futon gate I've put in temporarily would be too small for an enlarged hole but now that I think of it, two smaller gates would be even better since I could swing the gates to each side and out of the way. A large gate would be more difficult to open within the confines of the stall.
I would need to pound in two t-posts to attach the ends of the gates to. The center opening would be closed with a single binding twine or chain.
As I said, I now have one of the futon back gates on the inside of the stall just in case one of the cows or calves tried to wander through the feeder. The gate will keep them out of the stall. This is good since it's hard to close the outside gate. It remains open to the driveway all the time. I would not want the cows to get out.
I wondered if the opening on the feeder which currently looks like a boat with the prow pointed away from the side of the stall might be too wide on the barn side but figured that I could always push the hay from the center to the edges using my pitchfork. So far the animals seem to be able to reach the hay.
After we admired our work Ryan and I took the ATV and went out to the highway and picked up three large loads of branches deposited by the Chehalis River during the December 2007 flood. We put the wood in the burn pile closest to the house.
We still have to pick up the little stuff but I want Ryan to weedwhack along the fenceline so that we can actually see what's there. Also I want Chas to smooth the land next to the fence. The river left a four foot wide swath along the fence that is about 6 inches high. That dirt should be smoothed back to blend in with the rest of the pasture or the dirt used to fill in holes.
We finished working about 3:50 pm. Ryan has another job to do tomorrow but will be back Thursday. I think he's not used to women who know how to farm and who tell him specifically how she wants things done.
Dinner was bangers and mash. Chas really wanted this meal and it is easy to prepare.
Monday, August 25, 2008
Testing Out the Blogger System as a Venue for Hope Creek Diversified Farm Adventures
Ever since I moved into Hope Creek Farm I've been keeping a journal of the work we've been doing to try to return the place to its natural beauty. We've cut down danger trees, rearranged things in the two barns, gotten rid of lots of metal, removed and refenced the property and generally have had a really good time.
I'm hoping to figure out how to get the older pages into the system so that there's a complete record.
I'm hoping to figure out how to get the older pages into the system so that there's a complete record.
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