June 21 - 29 in Reverse Chronological Order

06/29/2009 Monday: Sunny but it didn't get too hot, just around 71 degrees F.

After chores I dug a huge splinter out of my left palm. I can't remember where I picked it up but it was festering.

The new ram seems to be doing well. He's not as skittish as the two ewes. I'm trying to decide if I should put the ram in with the goats and run them together for a little while until I can sell the Welsh Mt. sheep. I want to keep the ram and ewes separate because those ewes are seasonable breeders but I think they're too young to breed just yet.

Worked at the Health Department today. I located some articles for Rachel W plus did some more work on the Indicators. I ran into Doug W and asked him to maybe find some small projects in addition to the Health Indicators for me to work on to give me some variety.

As of 2pm today I officially started an 8 day holiday. I need some time off to relax and get caught up with all sorts of tasks around the farm and elsewhere. Plus I plan to do a lot of sleeping and relaxing and maybe working on the house, like the basement.

Got a call from Joe F. He's coming by to check out the trailer tomorrow at 10am. He wants to borrow it to use to carry chickens to the slaughter house.

Ty called shortly after I hung up with Joe. He has some hay cut and baled that he wants me to look at. Then he'll organize a crew to haul it to my house and stack it if I like it. He wants $3.00/bale plus I'll have to pay the guys separately @ $10.00/hour. The hay is from the folks across the road. He also says he has some nice-looking river bottom hay. I'll have to ask him if I can buy more hay from him. Maybe we can get a trailer-load or two with our trailer and jeep.

06/28/2009 Sunday: Sunny all day.

I was expecting Enrique around 7am but he slept in. No wonder. He's been working two regular jobs and then working for me and the neighbors during the weekend.

I got my morning chores done before 9am and went in for breakfast which just consisted of a cup of tea and a nap. When Mike and Mary H showed up I dragged them out to the barn and asked Mike again to help us think of a solution to the problem of the collapsible feeder. It's intended to collapse but I don't want it to. The animals compress the feeder and then poop on the area revealed. When I try to push the feeder out I can't because the animals have developed a hard pack of manure and waste hay. So, I've got to clean out the area in front of the feeder so that I can open it. It's hard work.

The other issue is that as the larger cows collapse the feeder they make it impossible for all the cows to eat hay so some of the cows end up hungry.

Mike's solution was to suggest that we drill a hole in the concrete and drop in a pipe. Then get a long piece of rebar (or equivalent) to put between the two latches? (not sure what they're called but they hold a pin and there are two of them, one on top and one on the bottom of the join). Mike said he has the drill and will do it for us.

This is such a simple solution to the problem and exactly what I was looking for. Chas's solution, while a well thought out and extremely well designed solution, is way too complex. He was trying to solve two problems, one of which didn't really exist if the feeder was kept from collapsing. That problem was keeping the hay clean and dry. There's no problem with wet hay unless the animals defecate and pee on it. The second problem he was trying to solve was to keep the feeder from collapsing.

I like Mike's solution better. If it doesn't work, I'll have Chas build his solution.

While Mike and Mary were visiting Enrique and his cousins showed up to butcher NoName, my Boer buck whose useful breeding days are over. I wanted to replace him so bought a really high quality buck from Danette and Joe. I excused myself from the group.

They arrived around 10:30 am and butchered NoName. I caught him and handed him over to the guys. They killed him by putting a thin knife blade through his spinal cord near his head and then cut his throat. I would have just cut his throat and windpipe. Much faster and no yelling. Enrique was visibly upset by the butchering and I can't blame him. It's tricky to find the space between the vertebrae to cut the spinal cord.

Before Mike and Mary left Chas and I gave them a little money to go towards rebuilding Mike's shop. Chas and I have always appreciated the work Mike has done for us and this was just a token of our appreciation. I had a couple of green towels that just don't go with my kitchen. I gave one to Mary and told her I would give her the other one after I washed it. I took it out of the drawer without thinking and it was hanging up in the kitchen. I had a dozen eggs I shared with her and some strawberries that Enrique's cousin gave to me as thanks. Mary brought me some rhubarb since mine hasn't done anything after we took the three cuttings. I think it needs dividing this fall and the hole needs to be filled with compost while the other one gets replanted also with compost. Chas and I love rhubarb. I'm hoping to prepare it for freezing. Just wash, chop, fill baggies, and freeze.

After lunch (grilled cheese sandwich), I had a nap. Around 1:50 pm I loaded up the dog carrier and took off for Faye and Mike's place at Ternan Tails Farm. They live off Pleasant Valley road. I was a little late since I made a left turn onto their road instead of a left and ended up driving way the hell and gone out of my way. When I figured it out I turned around and tried again, this time crossing Pleasant Valley to the dead-end street section of their road and there it was.

My trip to their farm was to see their St Croix sheep and pick out a ram from their three yearlings. I found one I liked and we loaded him into the dog carrier. After a quick check to make sure he was ok I took a quick tour of their property. They have 9 cows but about twice the land that I have. Of course their land is very hilly. I would not have been happy with it. I invited them to come by some time as they were out and about so that they could see my farm. They also have pigs and Muscovy ducks.

Speaking of Muscovies, the hen who had 5 ducklings still has 5 but that may not last if they keep going into the pig pen. I can only hope they get too big to fit through the fence before the pigs figure out they could be lunch or a snack.

I didn't want to put the ram lamb in with the doelings since they still have some growing to do. Instead I carved out a section of the green barn beside Mystical and her babies.

Dinner was salmon ravioli with pesta sauce. We also finished up the remaining strawberries. I shared half with Mary since I knew we couldn't eat all of them. They were ripe.

06/27/2009 Saturday: Sunny all day. Nice in the shade.

The guys showed up at 7am. I'd just gone down to feed the chickens in the chicken tractor when they showed up.

Today we finished cleaning out the un-concreted stall and leveled it. We blocked off the area with stock panels so that the Herefords couldn't get in there to poop and pee and wreck the level area. When we get the foundation forms in for the deck and area to be concreted in the barn we'll get the concrete truck out and will pour cement in the barn and under the deck. That's after we lay in some foundation cloth and a load of gravel in the barn. Then we can think about doing the exterior pad. So handy to have concrete inside and outside a barn.

The guys lost one of our hammers. I think Oskar set it down and Enrique dropped a load of dirt on top of it when they were leveling the floor. Sigh. It was probably my good, long-handled, hammer that I've had for ever. I should never let guys handle my tools. They rarely put them back or away. Oh well, there are more hammers at any box store. Still, I sure liked that hammer.

After cleaning out the barn and setting up the stock panels I had the guys clean out the goat pen. It was really getting high in there what with all the hay the girls waste. They didn't clean down to the bare ground. They just took off the top several inches so that it's all level again. I'm going to see if I can find the time to spread some of that compost in the middle pasture where the lambs graze. That area needs weed whacking and fertilizing.

Before the guys left around 2pm they nearly finished digging a trench under the two south posts that I use for letting the Dexters into S1 and S2. The girls were in S2 today. I have no power surrounding that paddock. One of these days they'll get out and I'll be really unhappy.

Now I have to find some insulated (black) wire to put into the ground. I forgot to note which kind of wire I got from Premier but I'll bet I could find the order since I ordered online. I did find the order and will place an order for this and other luxuries such as a shepherd's crook for catching the little devils.

My little Nubian-Boer cross doe that had two doelings lets them nurse whenever they want. That's got them trying that behavior on their grandmother. Both does are skin and bones now from the constant nursing. I got tired of it and put the two doelings in with Mystical, the doe who refuses to nurse the paint doeling. I feel bad about having to put her on the barn floor so that the baby can nurse but she keeps stamping her hind foot on the doeling each time she tries to nurse when I'm holding her head. I just turn her over like I would a sheep and lay her down on the ground so that the two doelings can nurse.

Anyway, Mystical will kick the snot out of the two doelings that don't belong to her and will maybe train them that that is not acceptable behavior. On the other hand it could backfire and Mystical could be feeding them all the time, too. I'm trying to get some milk from Marcy (the Nubian) so that I can give the milk to my three piggies. I might try putting Marcy's daughter on the stand too and see what she does in the way of milk. She has pretty good teats.

After a couple of days of "where am I?" and acting bemused, Rule seems to have settled down and is slowly being integrated into the herd. The adults still butt him but only half-heartedly. He seems to have adapted to the goat barn and area.

He is wearing a loose-fitting dog collar so I can grab him for a little petting but I got a nice chain length for him with a screw-down fastener that I'll put on him when he's munching on his grain.

He's certainly a pragmatic goat and seems to love humans. He seems to think long and hard about everything. I really like him even if every time he brushes up against me he leaves green tattoo ink all over me. I'm really enjoying him. Actually I often just stand and admire him. Such a great body!

The guys will be coming by tomorrow morning to harvest my buck who is being replaced by Rule, the purebred buckling that I got from the Danette and Joe. Mike and Mary will be coming by shortly after 9am and I'll be heading off around 2pm to pick up a St Croix ram lamb, a yearling, from Mike and Faye at Ternan Tails Farm. Anne said that that was where she got her ram. He is a real beauty, Anne's ram is. I'm hoping I can find as good a ram for my duo of girls.

06/26/2009 Friday: Sunny and not very hot. I have not got an outdoor thermometer any longer. It got taken down when we took down the deck.

Well, no calls on my Welsh Mt sheep yet. I'll just keep placing the ad until I get a bite. I still need to take pictures of my goats so that I can put them on the market, too.

Got quite a lot done at work today. I'm not sure I'll go into work next week. I'm ready for a mini-vacation. It has been stressful what with decks being torn down and holes dug in the ground.

Chas wanted soup for dinner so I made soup. Unfortunately I left it on too high a temperature and the bottom burned. We each had a bowl full and enjoyed it even with the burnt taste but I might just go ahead and feed the rest to the pigs.

Chas and I moved one bale of hay that Wally delivered yesterday into the Dexter feeder and put a spare one in that stall for use the next time they run out of hay. We also put one bale in the Hereford's outside feeder.

Chas worked some on the un-concreted bay in the cow barn. Pat wants it down about 10 inches so that we can put gravel in over taipar and then concrete it in. I'll need to bring in two stock panels or two gates to put up so that the cows can't get into that section until the concrete is poured and set. One panel/gate will go from the fenceline feeder to the west wall and the other will go across the opening on the outside.

06/25/2009 Thursday: Overcast most of the day with heavy sprinkles. Around 7:30pm the sun began shining.

I checked out the worms in the round compost bin but fear I might have lost most of them to heat. I added the waste from the silver kitchen bucket and then sprayed the interior of the bin to make sure it was wet enough. It looked pretty dry to me. The contents looked a lot better after I added water but I didn't see many worms. I must admit I haven't been turning the bin - or even paying much attention to the bin.

Wally showed up and dropped off 10 round bales of 2008 hay. It looks awful but the Herefords are hungry enough that they'll eat it. After Chas and I put the hay into the feeder they scarfed quite a bit of the bale down. I've been feeding them quite a bit of timothy twice a day but I'm not sure it was enough judging by the amount of hay they ate.

Wally might be interested in purchasing two of my black baldies bull calves. I'd love for them to be gone. I want to sell them for $400-$450 each. They are about a year old. This is too low a price but I want them gone.

We rolled the hay into the barn. We'll put a bale in the Dexter feeder and one in that stall and will move the rest to the equipment shed after we take out the small trailer.

Pat came over right at dinnertime to discuss the concrete pouring project. We need to deepen the area in the barn so that we can put taipar sheeting and gravel into the space so that we can pour concrete over the top. I have to figure out a way to keep the cattle out of that third bay.

Chas made dinner tonight: spaghetti. It was really good and we have enough sauce left over for at least one more meal. Chas put the sauce into a 32 oz jar and filled it to the top. It was so nice to have dinner made for me. I must confess to feeling a little overwhelmed by everything going on in my life.

I put an ad on Craigslist to sell my trio of Welsh Mt. sheep for $375. We'll see if we can get that much for them. I paid $100. each for 4 sheep. I'll keep the two babies from this year and will butcher them later on along with last year's sheep.

Once those sheep are gone I will move the St Croix sheep over to the larger space. I may give the space a short rest to see if I can get any grass to regrow.

06/24/2009 Wednesday: Overcast. Faint sprinkles.

While I was at work Charles did some scraping of the barnyard with the box scraper and blade. The north bay in the cow barn is pretty much cleaned out except for the corners which Chas couldn't get in to. I'll have the guys work on that this weekend.

The barnyard is nice and smooth now in front of that north bay.

Before I left this morning I moved 4 - 50 lb sacks of All purpose livestock feed into the goat barn from the back of my Jeep. Marcy doesn't like the mix of livestock feed with the Boer feed and the other animals sort of turn up their noses at it. Any they don't eat goes to the pigs or sheep. I may end up giving the remaining two bags of the Boer feed to the pigs over time.

The little buckling, Rule, seems bewildered by his new home. I feed him grain in the morning and at night. The two doelings, Freddy and Blanche get their grain in the morning and maybe a little bit at night.

The St Croix sheep on the other hand are getting positively bold. They're just staying a short distance away from me as I pour their grain into their feeder. These sheep do not seem to be thrilled with the hay I'm feeding them. I did try a little alfalfa on them tonight and they did eat it.

The Red Ranger chickens look ready to butcher. I may try to do one or two each time I have a few minutes. Mary H says Mike doesn't really like home grown chickens so I won't give her any for cooking. No point in wasting chickens.

Useful videos on stock handling: http://www.handnhandlivestocksolutions.com/video.htm

Here's a picture of what a Bud Box looks like: [picture not displayed due to copyright restrictions]

Source: http://www.knox.unl.edu/files/file070213161949

Bud Boxes are used instead of a round pen to work cattle. They're sometimes 12 feet wide and sometimes 14 but rarely larger because you want to get reasonably close to the animals without actually getting in the pen.

06/23/2009 Tuesday: Alternating sunshine and clouds.

Busy day.

I saw my chance today and took it. Cheddar came wandering in along with her calf so I put some grain in the bucket and put it out for her to eat. With his mom in the Dexter stall the baby was easily persuaded to come into the stall where I could pen him in. While his mom ate I ran around and got the elastrator and the ear tag machine. Cheddar's baby was Red 0001. I'm keeping the red tags for the boys. I'd saved that number for him since he was the first bull born this year when I tagged the second bull calf of the year. That calf was born to Emma and there never was any question about my keeping him as a herd sire.

I put two halters on him. I used one to catch him. The second I put around his head and left him standing while I gathered the equipment. Once back I thought I would have a problem castrating him but I put the band on the elastrator grabbed the tip of his testicles, slid the elastrator on while keeping the ends open, checked to make sure the testes were in place and rolled the band off. It was so easy, he didn't even flinch.

Putting the ear tag on was a little harder. I had to watch for the main vein down the center of the ear. I didn't quite get the tag in the right place but I doubt if it will come out.

Richard, our electrician showed up. He was at Mark's log cabin. He let me know that Dil was coming over with his bulldozer/xx piece of equipment. We got the trench dug from the house to the well house. Richard is going to put in a heavier duty wire and run another panel into the well house. From there 110 wires plus a black plastic water line will run south to the chicken coup/potting shed and north to the green barn and then to the equipment shed. We'll put in at least three pump-like things that we'll run hoses from. The pump-things will drain the water into the ground so that my water lines don't freeze in winter.

Anyhow, Dil came and dug the trench including a right angle heading toward the chicken coop. Dil had to be pretty careful as there were stumps and flower beds to get around. My well-house flower bed is covered in soil from the trench. That will have to be dug out by hand and put back into the trench.

Dil also removed a large stump and one 3' x 5' x 4" slab of concrete and put it off to one side. We'll find a place to use that. He also pulled out and broke up two smaller pieces of concrete that formed a 1-foot wide path between where we park the car and the house. The area was covered with rugs that will need to be pulled out and put on the fire.

We'll dig the rest of the trench out to the outbuildings with a small ditch witch. Dil's equipment digs a wide trench when we really only need a 6 inch trench about 2 feet down.

I'm so happy I had the guys remove all the usable lumber. It really would have been in the way. As it was there were several things that needed moving out of the way including my hose to the green barn. Chas helped me put the hose back together just before I went down to do my evening chores.

Dinner was Zatarain's Jambalaya which I made with chicken, ham and shrimp with some celery chopped up and added for crunch. I also add an extra cup of rice. Chas has enough left over for lunch tomorrow. It's always nice to have food left over for Chas.

The Herefords knocked down more of my electric fence. I may just give up and let them graze the entire half pasture this year. Not much point in fighting the critters. There's just too many of them. It will be pretty easy to pull up the rebar and put it back in next year.

I downloaded all the pictures from my Canon camera and deleted them from the camera's storage disk.

06/22/2009 Monday: Alternating sunshine and clouds.

I went into work today. Before I got there I picked up 4 bags of Country Livestock, 2 for the cows and 2 for the goats. The goats don't seem to care much for the addition of the Boer goat feed, especially Marcy.

Oh yes, I've figured out why Marcy has no milk. Magic, Marcy's cross bred daughter from last year, must not have enough milk so her bucklings are nursing from Marcy. Grrr. I want the milk for the pigs.

The goats had gotten through the stock panel that Pat had nailed together. The nails didn't hold. I found some smallish staples and put in four as well as pounding in the nails again. Anyhow I chased all the goats out since I really wanted the wethers out with the others. The new buckling went out with the others into the herd.

I grabbed Mystical and her three babies and put them all in the same pen. Maybe being together will force Mystical to adopt all her babies.

I let the Herefords out for about 3.5 hours after I fixed the fences. Unfortunately the cows didn't stay where they were supposed to stay, in their paddock. Still they'd had enough to eat and went back into their winter pasture with alacrity when I showed up with my ATV. I have got to sell some of my cows.

06/21/2009 Sunday: Overcast and cold; some sunshine off and on with a few light sprinkles.

Around eleven am after a quick nap I went out and did some weed whacking between the coppices of vine maple. I didn't quite get it all done but did do most of it. The area looks a little better but I do need to weed whack it again in a week or so. The grass was so tall I couldn't get it cut low enough.

One of the things on my list of things to do ought to be to bring compost in from the Dexter yard one day when they're out grazing and level off the dips. It's really hard to walk out there. When the previous owners made the hillocks they must have dug into the ground with the tractor. As a result all the area around the hillocks has lots of low spots.

I also weed whacked the winter pasture and got rid of most of the Canadian Thistles in that pasture. I ran out of string and gas at just about the same time. By then I was tired and it was lunch time. Time to stop.

Before I went in for lunch I opened up the gate between Lucky Charm and her baby and the other Dexters. They all came trooping into the middle pasture to see what was going on. I thought I would move them out of there but decided it would be less stressful on the cows to have them leave the pasture on their own. So, around their dinner time when I put out their hay they all ended up at their regular feeder. I walked into the middle pasture and closed the gate. Simple as pie.

After lunch Danette and Joe were supposed to come by to drop off a buck and two turkeys. They were late so I did some weeding of the cottage garden and started watering the garden. I didn't get it all watered but can finish the rest tomorrow or Tuesday.

Anyway, when Danette and Joe got here we unloaded the buck and the turkeys. The turkeys went into the chicken coop and the buck with the two males I castrated yesterday. He had green tattoo ink all over him including his butt. This was Danette's first time at tattooing a goat. It's never an easy proposition.

I paid $170 total. The buckling was $150 and the two turkeys were $10.00 each. The buckling is a really good gainer of weight averaging about 1/2 lb every day. The turkeys are broad breasted bronze hens. Before I went into the house to prepare dinner I checked on the turkeys and put them into the chicken house. I also picked up the eggs and tossed out a few handfuls of cracked corn.

Dinner was baked ham for Chas and a tiny cornish chicken for me with squash and brown rice.