It has been quite some time since my last blog. So many things have evolved, so many remain unchanged. I think of those unchanged as in a holding pattern. That's how we manage too many projects/obligations.
We have continued to hay in order to maintain the meek business income. The labor can be intense, especially when machinery fails or when our perception of our aging process seems accelerated, ie we feel old a particular day.
We still have most of our animals, but we are starting to be more selective based on their offerings; food, protection, or the tricky one, joy. Joy is the one we have to focus on limiting, which sounds depressing. But we have many animals for the joy of it. The joy is diminished when paying the feed bills or doing the labor day after day to provide them with their basic needs. The balance between joy and the feelings of begrudgery assist in the decision as to which animals we can maintain. We will only maintain the animals that provide us with joy if we feel unable to place them in perfect new homes.
In the meantime, we have increased the flock of sheep and intend to add more this summer. We have found that we feel comfortable with the physical handling of our sheep and we really love lamb burgers. We will eventually raise a steer on the property, but that requires the labor of solid housing and fencing. Our horses could be fenced in with paper tape, so we haven't prioritized sturdier fencing as a result. The meat birds are raised sparingly and now seasonally. Butchering is more likely to happen in the cooler season. Flies and heat are a big dissuasion for us, and meat birds can easily become layers if the butchering conditions are not optimal. Fair weather butcherers?
The girls are grown and are moving out for college. We are excited to see them make they're way in life. The ranch will fall to just the two of us and modifications must be made for us to continue and still enjoy ourselves.
We have added a hoop house for winter gardening. It is planted now for the summer to see if it will produce in the heat or if we will need a shade to be successful. Eventually we will add more beds, covered or not covered. The current hoop house is 40' x 20'. I love just walking through everyday and seeing the green growth. I had to re-wrap the rabbit fencing with poultry wire for some little critters were still getting in.
I will try to return with future plans and the progress soon.
Thursday, May 8, 2014
Tuesday, April 10, 2012
Lackluster Lamb
We have been anticipating Eweness' lamb for a while now. We moved Frank out of the large pen and adjusted her feed to include some alfalfa/bermuda pellets and a rye alfalfa hay blend. I made notes of her behavior changes at the first possible due date. We were able to see the lamb rolling around in her belly, so we knew it was active. She began some tail shaking, stamping, and panting. All of which could be attributed to the heat and flies. Her panting was done with her head level and it was hot enough to make her pant. The Thursday morning after her first possible due date, she started pawing at the hay bedding. I always have my phone ready to do quick searches on the internet for information, and found that this was a sign of impending labor...nesting. She also had "bagged" up finally.
As always when I have had to leave the ranch, I would drive down and do a quick peek on her. I left Thursday at 5:30 pm and she was standing and panting as normal, so I went on my way. About half way to pick up Emma, I realized that Eweness was panting, but with her head lowered. She had not done that and she definately looking less comfortable in this stance. I had watched numerous videos of ewe's in labor, and this stance was familiar. I began to worry that labor had begun and wanted to hurry back to the ranch.
By the time we got back, it was 8:00 pm and we drove down to the pen to find her licking a little spotted lamb. Emma and I jumped back into the car and drove to the house to get our lambing supplies. We wiped the lamb down some, she was very wet still and shaking as if she were chilled. We snipped and dipped the navel. Her momma was licking at her still, and we made sure her breathing was clear. We backed off to let momma do her job and sat and watched.
After some time, it became evident that the lamb was not getting up and seemed to be struggling to coordinate it's movements. She seemed to flop mostly and we decided we better get some colostrum in her to warm her up. This required milking Eweness; remember she is a miniature breed of sheep.
Emma got the job done. We strained the colostrum of the bedding that had fallen into the milking jar, and put it into the bottle with a lamb nipple. Emma was the one doing most of the "ground" work, she was much better at crawling around than I. The lamb appeared to have lost her sucking strength. We immediately grabbed a syringe and dribbled it into her her mouth for her to swallow. We were able to get several colostrum ounces in her and continued to do so every 2 hours. We attempted to stand her near mom to get her to latch on, but she just didn't have the coordination. She was definately "not right."
It was a very tiring night of milking, straining, bottling, syringing, cleaning and starting over. By dawn, the lamb seemed to be dry and warming, but still shaky and lacking coordination. Eweness was very hesitant about our assistance, but seemed to understand we were helping.
At this point, I was thinking that if the lamb didn't come around quickly, I would have to have her put down. If she was not able to suck, this was going to be a problem. We syringed an ounce or two into her and scooped her up and took her to the local vet that had experience with sheep. On the way Emma was doing a bit of research on the internet, and suggested that there was a copper deficiency in the ewe during gestation. I balked at that because I had been told several times to limit copper for sheep.
Upon arrival, the vet told us to drive home and get some more milk and he would do a blood draw and it would be done by the time we got back. So we zipped home, milked Eweness and zipped back to town.
The blood showed a problem with the liver function. He pulled out his sheep text and repeated what Emma had said in the car. I suppose Eweness could have been lacking, but it still seemed contradictory. I still find it hard to believe we have copperless hay! All the other blood readings were spot on!
He didn't give any real insight as to her future. I knew that if she didn't start sucking a bottle, the process of caring for this lamb was going to become very laborious. Emma was in the meantime preparing the bottle there at the vet's and squeaked, "she's sucking!" It was as if the lamb heard my thoughts...and she figured she had better try.
At home, Emma assisted the lamb as the vet had demonstrated, holding the tail up and giving some support to the front end to get her standing. I thought if the lamb doesn't have the strength to stand and walk, she would not survive. We both fell asleep between feedings and when Emma went out to give the next bottle, she returned to tell me that the lamb had gotten up and walked around several times.
I thought of the bottle feeding more of a therapy session to strengthen her sucking strength. She would start out well enough, but soon tire and we would switch to the syringe. But she was getting more with the nipple each time. We had been given a product called Lamb Lac Milk Replacer by a local sheep person. We began to supplement this and then would milk Eweness to keep the pressure off her and to avoid Mastitis.
As the lamb was getting a bit more from the nipple with a rather significant hole in the end, I decided to up the requirements for her and had a second nipple with a slightly smaller hole. I thought this would further strengthen her sucking. I would start with this one and switch to the less challenging and eventually eliminated the syringe.
I had forgotten how exhausting a newborn could be. I remembered the late feedings with my own girls and how similar it felt the next day when trying to function with a clear head. I had a couple down moments when I tried to be objective about what this lamb's future would be. She would not be used for breeding. I won't really ever know what the cause of this shaky, weak start is, and won't spend the money to analyse milk, blood, or whatever to determine it. On the other hand, she may have been breach and lying in fluid for a couple hours. Oxygen deprevation, hypothermia.....So to be safe, she will not be bred. I don't want to think about it, but she still may have to be put down. She wasn't latching on to the momma and this results in two maintenance programs; lamb feeding and ewe milking. That wasn't the plan. I decided I would put my best effort to get this lamb the best possible start and see where she took it.
And with that I went out and the lamb was nursing on her momma's teat. These markers were making me smile each time. I still don't know how much she is really getting from her momma, so I have developed a feeding schedule that remains conservative on my part, in order to encourage her to nurse from her mom. I have gradually increased the duration between feedings as literature suggests for "bummer lambs." However, I have not been increasing beyond an ounce at each feeding now. It seems to be working, as the lamb goes to her mom more and more. Of course, most literature regarding the quantity of milk is for a regular sized lamb, so I have been adjusting for her 4 lb birth weight.
I remembered reading about infants and something called "nipple confusion." I noticed that the tongue action of the lamb on the rubber nipple was more like what would be used on the teat. Because of the large hole in the rubber nipple, she was still getting plenty of flow, regardless of her tongue movements. I preferred her latching onto her momma, to being bottle-fed, so anything that supports that transition was fine with me.
I am now giving her an ounce every 6 hours and letting her nurse on momma in between. She is really effected by the heat of the day, leaving her panting and rather limp. I try to make sure she is getting the fluids, so that she does not dehydrate because of the heat. She is definately more perky in the cooler parts of the morning and evening.
I still haven't named her. I suppose I believe it would make it harder if she were to have to be put down. Of course the more time that passes, the more difficult that will be anyway. But I am trying to be objective. I have progressed from hour to hour status' to day to day status'. I will be neutral.
As always when I have had to leave the ranch, I would drive down and do a quick peek on her. I left Thursday at 5:30 pm and she was standing and panting as normal, so I went on my way. About half way to pick up Emma, I realized that Eweness was panting, but with her head lowered. She had not done that and she definately looking less comfortable in this stance. I had watched numerous videos of ewe's in labor, and this stance was familiar. I began to worry that labor had begun and wanted to hurry back to the ranch.
By the time we got back, it was 8:00 pm and we drove down to the pen to find her licking a little spotted lamb. Emma and I jumped back into the car and drove to the house to get our lambing supplies. We wiped the lamb down some, she was very wet still and shaking as if she were chilled. We snipped and dipped the navel. Her momma was licking at her still, and we made sure her breathing was clear. We backed off to let momma do her job and sat and watched.
After some time, it became evident that the lamb was not getting up and seemed to be struggling to coordinate it's movements. She seemed to flop mostly and we decided we better get some colostrum in her to warm her up. This required milking Eweness; remember she is a miniature breed of sheep.
Emma got the job done. We strained the colostrum of the bedding that had fallen into the milking jar, and put it into the bottle with a lamb nipple. Emma was the one doing most of the "ground" work, she was much better at crawling around than I. The lamb appeared to have lost her sucking strength. We immediately grabbed a syringe and dribbled it into her her mouth for her to swallow. We were able to get several colostrum ounces in her and continued to do so every 2 hours. We attempted to stand her near mom to get her to latch on, but she just didn't have the coordination. She was definately "not right."
It was a very tiring night of milking, straining, bottling, syringing, cleaning and starting over. By dawn, the lamb seemed to be dry and warming, but still shaky and lacking coordination. Eweness was very hesitant about our assistance, but seemed to understand we were helping.
At this point, I was thinking that if the lamb didn't come around quickly, I would have to have her put down. If she was not able to suck, this was going to be a problem. We syringed an ounce or two into her and scooped her up and took her to the local vet that had experience with sheep. On the way Emma was doing a bit of research on the internet, and suggested that there was a copper deficiency in the ewe during gestation. I balked at that because I had been told several times to limit copper for sheep.
Upon arrival, the vet told us to drive home and get some more milk and he would do a blood draw and it would be done by the time we got back. So we zipped home, milked Eweness and zipped back to town.
The blood showed a problem with the liver function. He pulled out his sheep text and repeated what Emma had said in the car. I suppose Eweness could have been lacking, but it still seemed contradictory. I still find it hard to believe we have copperless hay! All the other blood readings were spot on!
He didn't give any real insight as to her future. I knew that if she didn't start sucking a bottle, the process of caring for this lamb was going to become very laborious. Emma was in the meantime preparing the bottle there at the vet's and squeaked, "she's sucking!" It was as if the lamb heard my thoughts...and she figured she had better try.
At home, Emma assisted the lamb as the vet had demonstrated, holding the tail up and giving some support to the front end to get her standing. I thought if the lamb doesn't have the strength to stand and walk, she would not survive. We both fell asleep between feedings and when Emma went out to give the next bottle, she returned to tell me that the lamb had gotten up and walked around several times.
I thought of the bottle feeding more of a therapy session to strengthen her sucking strength. She would start out well enough, but soon tire and we would switch to the syringe. But she was getting more with the nipple each time. We had been given a product called Lamb Lac Milk Replacer by a local sheep person. We began to supplement this and then would milk Eweness to keep the pressure off her and to avoid Mastitis.
As the lamb was getting a bit more from the nipple with a rather significant hole in the end, I decided to up the requirements for her and had a second nipple with a slightly smaller hole. I thought this would further strengthen her sucking. I would start with this one and switch to the less challenging and eventually eliminated the syringe.
I had forgotten how exhausting a newborn could be. I remembered the late feedings with my own girls and how similar it felt the next day when trying to function with a clear head. I had a couple down moments when I tried to be objective about what this lamb's future would be. She would not be used for breeding. I won't really ever know what the cause of this shaky, weak start is, and won't spend the money to analyse milk, blood, or whatever to determine it. On the other hand, she may have been breach and lying in fluid for a couple hours. Oxygen deprevation, hypothermia.....So to be safe, she will not be bred. I don't want to think about it, but she still may have to be put down. She wasn't latching on to the momma and this results in two maintenance programs; lamb feeding and ewe milking. That wasn't the plan. I decided I would put my best effort to get this lamb the best possible start and see where she took it.
And with that I went out and the lamb was nursing on her momma's teat. These markers were making me smile each time. I still don't know how much she is really getting from her momma, so I have developed a feeding schedule that remains conservative on my part, in order to encourage her to nurse from her mom. I have gradually increased the duration between feedings as literature suggests for "bummer lambs." However, I have not been increasing beyond an ounce at each feeding now. It seems to be working, as the lamb goes to her mom more and more. Of course, most literature regarding the quantity of milk is for a regular sized lamb, so I have been adjusting for her 4 lb birth weight.
I remembered reading about infants and something called "nipple confusion." I noticed that the tongue action of the lamb on the rubber nipple was more like what would be used on the teat. Because of the large hole in the rubber nipple, she was still getting plenty of flow, regardless of her tongue movements. I preferred her latching onto her momma, to being bottle-fed, so anything that supports that transition was fine with me.
I am now giving her an ounce every 6 hours and letting her nurse on momma in between. She is really effected by the heat of the day, leaving her panting and rather limp. I try to make sure she is getting the fluids, so that she does not dehydrate because of the heat. She is definately more perky in the cooler parts of the morning and evening.
I still haven't named her. I suppose I believe it would make it harder if she were to have to be put down. Of course the more time that passes, the more difficult that will be anyway. But I am trying to be objective. I have progressed from hour to hour status' to day to day status'. I will be neutral.
Sunday, March 25, 2012
Spring 2012
This spring is a wonderful example of why we live in Arizona. The weather has been beautiful. I will have to come back to this post in the heat of the summer to remind myself of this. The leaves are spring green on the Mulberry. The grapes leaves are miracuously emerging from the dead twisted branches. The mice are prolific and the snakes have not yet come out to eat them.
As a result of this time delay, I adopted a cat for the barn. He has different names depending on which family member you ask, but I figured it didn't matter really because he comes to any thing, and everybody is happy that way. He has become a quick convert from his pampered condo living, to an adept barn cat, catching mice and sparrows. I am very happy to have him. The dogs have been resistant to the temptation to impede on his territory. He has a horse stall that is currently storing everything from feed to washing machines. The door is now left slightly open so he can swiftly escape into and out of his lair. I am hoping the dogs continue to be polite, keeping their distance. I would really like to have another mouse catcher to live in the poultry yard. I am seeing little mice at night and their deposits in the feed bowls the next morning. I know they're eating a lot of chicken feed.
Emma has decided to become more active in 4-H and her animal interests this next year. She purchased a darling Nubian goat doe, born January 25, 2012. She is named Lily. Emma has been bottle feeding her, and Lily has quickly bonded with Emma. We met a wonderful woman that sold Lily to Emma. I think she is someone I would be a great friend with if she didn't live so far away. She had a terrific garden, and raises goats for milk, pigs for meat and chickens for eggs. The goat milk sample she gave us was delicious and I can hardly wait for next spring when Lily will have milk. I even day-dreamed about getting a doe in milk now, but reality hit when I realized the labor of pen construction would stop that endeavor for now.
Eweness, our Jacob ewe had been together with Frank the ram since October. We had the two sheared (that was a lot of wool), and was surprised to see how small they really are. Anticipating that Eweness would look pregnant, we were all scratching our heads wondering if she really was. She had some signs, and her belly was a bit round, but not overly so. Her teats still resembled a fairly young sheep. One morning recently, Emma and I were watching her as she was resting, when suddenly her side was quivering with sharp punches. She walked a bit and stood staring back at us. That's when it happened, a nose or foot drew a long line from front to back along her side. It stuck out at least 3 inches, and we both gasped. She is definitely pregnant, but as to when she is due, we are still not sure. The very earliest due date calculated is April 4th.
I have been reading and watching youtube videos about Jacob sheep lambing. They all look much larger than Eweness, but they are not shorn or sheared (still have to look up the proper tense of that one). Their udders are much larger, but they had lambed before. So I really don't have a good reference to figure out how far a long she is.
Emma and I did move Frank next door to Eweness. I think it is good to have them close, but separate so that I can supplement her a bit and he can't push her out of the way to eat it all. She seems less stressed with him close by, now that they are accustomed to each other.
I am rather excited about a little lamb. And this will be a "little" lamb. I really want to make sure the lamb is tame, but I don't want to have to bottle feed it. And by the size of Eweness' teats, I'm not sure I could even milk her, even if she was more trusting of me. I will play it by ear. Maybe just a wee bit calmer than Eweness would be nice. If it is a female we will keep her around.
Emma incubated a few Freedom Ranger chicks. Mostly to have hatch when a friend was visiting, but I will raise them for 10 weeks and process them if I can handle the heat at the end of May. I will not raise chicks to butcher in summer ever again. That was a mistake. Incubate in August, hatch in September and butcher in November. That schedule works for me.
Spring has been wonderful so far. I will enjoy it while it lasts.
As a result of this time delay, I adopted a cat for the barn. He has different names depending on which family member you ask, but I figured it didn't matter really because he comes to any thing, and everybody is happy that way. He has become a quick convert from his pampered condo living, to an adept barn cat, catching mice and sparrows. I am very happy to have him. The dogs have been resistant to the temptation to impede on his territory. He has a horse stall that is currently storing everything from feed to washing machines. The door is now left slightly open so he can swiftly escape into and out of his lair. I am hoping the dogs continue to be polite, keeping their distance. I would really like to have another mouse catcher to live in the poultry yard. I am seeing little mice at night and their deposits in the feed bowls the next morning. I know they're eating a lot of chicken feed.
Emma has decided to become more active in 4-H and her animal interests this next year. She purchased a darling Nubian goat doe, born January 25, 2012. She is named Lily. Emma has been bottle feeding her, and Lily has quickly bonded with Emma. We met a wonderful woman that sold Lily to Emma. I think she is someone I would be a great friend with if she didn't live so far away. She had a terrific garden, and raises goats for milk, pigs for meat and chickens for eggs. The goat milk sample she gave us was delicious and I can hardly wait for next spring when Lily will have milk. I even day-dreamed about getting a doe in milk now, but reality hit when I realized the labor of pen construction would stop that endeavor for now.
Eweness, our Jacob ewe had been together with Frank the ram since October. We had the two sheared (that was a lot of wool), and was surprised to see how small they really are. Anticipating that Eweness would look pregnant, we were all scratching our heads wondering if she really was. She had some signs, and her belly was a bit round, but not overly so. Her teats still resembled a fairly young sheep. One morning recently, Emma and I were watching her as she was resting, when suddenly her side was quivering with sharp punches. She walked a bit and stood staring back at us. That's when it happened, a nose or foot drew a long line from front to back along her side. It stuck out at least 3 inches, and we both gasped. She is definitely pregnant, but as to when she is due, we are still not sure. The very earliest due date calculated is April 4th.
I have been reading and watching youtube videos about Jacob sheep lambing. They all look much larger than Eweness, but they are not shorn or sheared (still have to look up the proper tense of that one). Their udders are much larger, but they had lambed before. So I really don't have a good reference to figure out how far a long she is.
Emma and I did move Frank next door to Eweness. I think it is good to have them close, but separate so that I can supplement her a bit and he can't push her out of the way to eat it all. She seems less stressed with him close by, now that they are accustomed to each other.
I am rather excited about a little lamb. And this will be a "little" lamb. I really want to make sure the lamb is tame, but I don't want to have to bottle feed it. And by the size of Eweness' teats, I'm not sure I could even milk her, even if she was more trusting of me. I will play it by ear. Maybe just a wee bit calmer than Eweness would be nice. If it is a female we will keep her around.
Emma incubated a few Freedom Ranger chicks. Mostly to have hatch when a friend was visiting, but I will raise them for 10 weeks and process them if I can handle the heat at the end of May. I will not raise chicks to butcher in summer ever again. That was a mistake. Incubate in August, hatch in September and butcher in November. That schedule works for me.
Spring has been wonderful so far. I will enjoy it while it lasts.
Wednesday, January 18, 2012
Winter 2012
I have been busy with ongoing tasks and disasters that have prevented me from getting to my documentation. I am going to try to do a summary of events that I can recall since summer 2011.
The hatching of extra meat birds and turkeys for an individual to purchase, ended up falling through so that I had many more birds than I intended. The summer was hot enough that I could not inspire myself to set up the butcher station to process the birds until fall. By then many had gotten too large to be very good for meat, or had died from the heat. I gave some of the grown turkeys away to a neighbor that gives them to families from his church. It was an expensive "donation" as they were fed quality feed. I will never raise chicks with the intention of butchering in the summer again. The flies would have been horrible this past summer if I had actually done the deed.
The mosquito problem diminished considerably this past season with the exception of when the neighbor watered for 5 days after taking a couple months off due to a ditch squabble he was having with the other neighbor that shares with him. This summer season, the flies were obnoxious, but I would rather have them than the mosquitoes!
Eweness and Frank, our Jacob sheep pair moved in together the latter part of October. He had his mind set as to what he wanted to accomplish, so we should have a lamb the first part of April. I intend on supplementing her Bermuda grass hay diet with some reserved Timothy hay that I packaged up in the past.
Donald left the company that he was working for after 17 years in June 2011. He is much happier with his new company still today, but is home less than before. I tried to hire some help, but they either didn't show up or would not return calls. The sad part is I know who I would like to hire but he is currently in the country illegally. He is a good worker with many abilities, but I just can't take the chance. I tried to figure out how to get him a work visa, but it is a huge research project that I just haven't had time to pursue.
Our daughter started college locally. After the first semester, she applied to transfer to University of Arizona. She is interested in the Veterinary Science program and will start this fall. Our other daughter just got her driver's permit. When she gets her license, I will have many more hours to work on projects around the ranch.
We were able to get 10 more acres of Bermuda planted. It came in nicely, however, after the neighbor planted to the west of us (the wind comes from the SW and W primarily), weeds began growing in the field. The mower conked out on us during the last cutting of the third fields. We were unable to cut the new fourth fields before they went dormant and the weeds spread. We reluctantly will have to spray a broad leaf weed killer to eliminate them, as there are some that are toxic to horses. Morning Glory and some "horseweed" will be treated, but the Johnson grass (also from the neighbor's fields) would not be killed with a broadleaf weed killer. We are hopeful that the Bermuda will choke out the Johnson grass this spring. The first cutting will probably be sacrificed, meaning not sold to our hay clients.
We have made some progress on the barn electrical. We had to hire an electrician to do some conduit and wiring, because Donald just doesn't have any time now. The work was mediocre at best and a lot of the metal studs in the feed room were bent as a result of his work. This all has to be fixed in order to hang the drywall. Many fixtures were not braced properly and Donald has spent any spare time redoing those problems.
We have plenty of repairs to attend to this winter on the equipment as well as the normal maintenance. I'm not sure when I will post again.
The hatching of extra meat birds and turkeys for an individual to purchase, ended up falling through so that I had many more birds than I intended. The summer was hot enough that I could not inspire myself to set up the butcher station to process the birds until fall. By then many had gotten too large to be very good for meat, or had died from the heat. I gave some of the grown turkeys away to a neighbor that gives them to families from his church. It was an expensive "donation" as they were fed quality feed. I will never raise chicks with the intention of butchering in the summer again. The flies would have been horrible this past summer if I had actually done the deed.
The mosquito problem diminished considerably this past season with the exception of when the neighbor watered for 5 days after taking a couple months off due to a ditch squabble he was having with the other neighbor that shares with him. This summer season, the flies were obnoxious, but I would rather have them than the mosquitoes!
Eweness and Frank, our Jacob sheep pair moved in together the latter part of October. He had his mind set as to what he wanted to accomplish, so we should have a lamb the first part of April. I intend on supplementing her Bermuda grass hay diet with some reserved Timothy hay that I packaged up in the past.
Donald left the company that he was working for after 17 years in June 2011. He is much happier with his new company still today, but is home less than before. I tried to hire some help, but they either didn't show up or would not return calls. The sad part is I know who I would like to hire but he is currently in the country illegally. He is a good worker with many abilities, but I just can't take the chance. I tried to figure out how to get him a work visa, but it is a huge research project that I just haven't had time to pursue.
Our daughter started college locally. After the first semester, she applied to transfer to University of Arizona. She is interested in the Veterinary Science program and will start this fall. Our other daughter just got her driver's permit. When she gets her license, I will have many more hours to work on projects around the ranch.
We were able to get 10 more acres of Bermuda planted. It came in nicely, however, after the neighbor planted to the west of us (the wind comes from the SW and W primarily), weeds began growing in the field. The mower conked out on us during the last cutting of the third fields. We were unable to cut the new fourth fields before they went dormant and the weeds spread. We reluctantly will have to spray a broad leaf weed killer to eliminate them, as there are some that are toxic to horses. Morning Glory and some "horseweed" will be treated, but the Johnson grass (also from the neighbor's fields) would not be killed with a broadleaf weed killer. We are hopeful that the Bermuda will choke out the Johnson grass this spring. The first cutting will probably be sacrificed, meaning not sold to our hay clients.
We have made some progress on the barn electrical. We had to hire an electrician to do some conduit and wiring, because Donald just doesn't have any time now. The work was mediocre at best and a lot of the metal studs in the feed room were bent as a result of his work. This all has to be fixed in order to hang the drywall. Many fixtures were not braced properly and Donald has spent any spare time redoing those problems.
We have plenty of repairs to attend to this winter on the equipment as well as the normal maintenance. I'm not sure when I will post again.
Tuesday, July 19, 2011
Now How Did You Get Into Farming?
Some one asked me how Donald and I got into farming the other day. I have been thinking about how to answer that. I suppose the short answer is that we had some horses that needed good quality hay, so we decided that we would have to grow our own to get what we wanted. We ended up selling the surplus and people were so happy with our hay the word spread and the demand increased.
The longer version would involve the building of a barn, a lawsuit, and general frustration with the food produced and sold to us in this country (including that from other countries as well). As I stated in an original post, we intended to run a show barn and breeding facility. We designed a barn and the property layout for this purpose. The barn included a breeding barn attached to the main raised center aisle barn with tack, utility, and feed rooms. The interior was wood paneled with various niceties for ease of use and practicality. We signed a contract in 2004 with Arizona MD Barn Company to have the barn built. We subcontracted the concrete with the company recommended by the owner of Arizona MD Barn Company, as they had worked together through the years. And the process was to begin.
We had some trouble getting the concrete guy to commit to a date, and the barn materials were ready for delivery. The barn guy said they would go ahead and deliver, they did it all the time, and the concrete would be done soon anyway. Remember he was in communication with the concrete guy on a regular basis. The materials were delivered in July 2005. There were many redrawings of the barn plan. The owner hand-drew the plans everytime there was a correction to be made. He would then make another error that would require a new drawing. It was rather comical at the time. What we didn't realize was that all these copies would end up getting intermixed, so the accurate drawing was never drawn. There were further code changes that year, so the engineering was slow as well.
Just after the delivery of the materials, Donald realized that we had extra parts (obviously large items that were identifiable like palpation chutes), and missing parts (feeders, doors, and other identifiable parts). He sent me an email, as I was in Oregon with the girls until September, telling me of this fact and that he would contact AZ MD Barns to let them know we needed to do an inventory of the materials. When the materials were delivered they were unloaded from a couple trucks and no bill of lading or other document was signed or received. We had know idea whether we had the essential parts or not. Of course not being in the barn building business, we had no idea what some of the parts were anyway.
The owner was in Texas and said it wasn't a problem that the barn we ordered would be built. We felt reassured and continued to finalize the concrete installation. We finally got Wimer Concrete out in October of 2005. Needless to say we were irritated with both companies as they were in cahoots and were putting us off. In the meantime, the ranch was hit with a microburst. That's a mini-tornado in the desert. We had 90 mph winds that threw barn parts all over the desert. The wind was so powerful it ripped a mare motel out of the ground and blew it a half mile north of us. It looked like a dead spider with all its legs crumpled. Donald called the owner of AZ MD Barns and was once again reassured that we would get our barn.
The moment the concrete was complete, it started cracking. They tried to tell me that it was normal. It was terrible. I had videotaped the pouring of the concrete for Donald for he was away for work and couldn't be there. If you know anything about concrete you know it can't be too wet and you don't throw dirt into it as you are pouring it. The job was too big for this crew and they couldn't keep up and the temperatures were working against them too. As it turned out they had not put the metal mesh in the concrete, but had opted for a fiber material. They didn't order the concrete with that either. It was a disaster.
After researching our options, we had an inspector come out and he told us that the concrete was not acceptable. We filed a claim with the Register of Contractors and Donald had to go to the hearing without an attorney. They twisted everything around and decided that we had blocked access to Wimer Concrete to come on the property to do repairs. Repairs? We had to tear out the entire pour and have it disposed of in truck loads. We didn't pay Wimer a dime, thank goodness. We were still out the expense of the removal, and still didn't have our barn.
We had a friend in Oregon that poured concrete and asked his advise. He wanted to come down and spend some time in Arizona and visit family and get out of the cold for a bit, and said he'd come help us out. So he and his son stayed with us on the ranch and we got the concrete poured. It was perfect. Not a single crack. Don't let anyone tell you it can't be done. We have the concrete to prove it.
In the meantime, the barn guy finally came out to the property. We really wanted an inventory of the materials. We just didn't want to have something crucial missing. There were parts that he had directed his workers to come and take with out notifying us. We were panicked that someone was stealing the materials. When we called him he told us that they had taken them. At this point we had no idea what was left of our materials or as it turned out some materials that others had ordered and were unloaded on our property.
When he looked over the materials after the storm, he told us that boxes of fasteners were missing. Now these would be 12" square boxes filled with nuts and bolts and such, not something the wind could blow but a few feet. We had no idea what he was talking about. We had never seen such boxes.
He suggested that they were stolen. Donald asked who would want to steal such a box? He immediately retorted that maybe we had taken them. How absurd? Why would we want to delay the construction of the barn, and what would we do with them? Is there a blackmarket for barn parts? Unless they worked in a field building barns there wouldn't be any use for these. Perhaps one of his guys would have stolen them? I suggested this in a later phone call, when he again suggested that we had taken the boxes!
He later sent us a bill to replace the missing parts, in order to construct the barn. We told him we were not inclined to pay for them again since we didn't know if they ever arrived on the property. We had no inventory. He had decided to charge us for the parts again.
It was now the spring of 2006 and the second concrete pour was completed. After the first pour we had contacted the barn guy and told him we weren't sure about the concrete and asked if he would advise us. He never responded. After we rejected the first pour, we got a threatening letter from an attorney stating that a lien on the property would be put into effect by Arizona MD Barns. We were confused, as we had been actively preparing for the barn installation and expected to have the installation as we had contracted. Everything had been paid as the contract dictated.
Arizona MD Barn Company was refusing to build the barn now. They claimed that they didn't trust that we would pay in the last payment. Everything had been paid on time through the process. He had gotten enough money to cover the cost of the materials with a big profit. The remaining cost would be for the labor to construct the barn. He wouldn't lose a thing at this point if he just refused to build.
We met with an attorney to be advised. He suggested we hire a third party to construct the barn to find out what was missing, since we had no idea. And we would file a breach of contract claim against Arizona MD Barn Company.
Barn construction companies aren't a dime a dozen. This was a large complicated barn, so it took some searching to find someone willing to take the job. In my research, I some how got the address of the owner of the MD Barn Enterprises. I wrote him a letter in desperation explaining the situation and our feelings of helplessness regarding any progress with the owner of Arizona MD Barn Company in resolving this issue.
We hired another barn construction company to determine what was missing and what was damaged through the construction of the barn. Remember the materials had been lying in the desert since July 2005. It was now January 2007. Weather and termites had had some damaging effect on the wood panels for the interior of the barn. Donald and I were wandering the property looking at the mess when we discovered a pile of wall panels. The cardboard that separated the panels had deteriorated to the point that we could see in between the panels just barely. What we discovered was the top panel was a solid wall, but underneath were the panels that had the openings for the stall doors, so there was a space under the top panel. Low and behold, the missing fasteners that the barn guy was trying to make us pay for again! We notified him immediately, but he would not acknowledge us. We were told by his attorney that he would not construct the barn.
By the time the third party finished the barn, the owner of the MD Enterprises had contacted our barn guy and told him to get the missing parts to us. We had UPS, DHL and FedEx trucks coming non-stop with more barn materials. We had to pay the third party to erect the barn, knowing that it was possible that they may be missing something crucial that would not enable them to finish. They were able to get the barn up, but it was such a disappointment.
The termite and water damage was terrible. The owner of the MD Enterprises contacted me to make sure we were happy with the barn. I was honest and sent him pictures. He immediately contacted the head of manufacturing out of California and sent someone to evaluate the damages. When he arrived he took a look at the barn and made a list of parts that needed to be replaced. The list was longer than ours. He then ordered the CA crew to bring the missing parts and replace them at no cost.
It was the summer of 2007 when the barn was completed. We loved and still love the barn. It is a beautiful building. But what the owner of Arizona MD Barns had done was wrong. So we continued with our suit against him.
The legal system is a fiasco. We did our depositions and we all decided to have an arbitration hearing for the decision. The arbitrator found in our favor. The barn guy appealed. We were to have a jury trial. When we arrived, the court had not selected a jury and wanted to know if we could have the judge decide. At this point, we all just wanted to get it over with. We went through the trial.
The judge took almost five months to make her decision. It was not in our favor. So we appealed. That's where we are now in 2011.
I have skipped over some of the details, because it is really more of a book than a blog post. Needless to say, circumstances caused us to rethink our objectives. Farming was underway, so we expanded, adding more fields and tried other grass hays. We decided to add some livestock, poultry and garden produce. That is the long version of how we got into farming.
The longer version would involve the building of a barn, a lawsuit, and general frustration with the food produced and sold to us in this country (including that from other countries as well). As I stated in an original post, we intended to run a show barn and breeding facility. We designed a barn and the property layout for this purpose. The barn included a breeding barn attached to the main raised center aisle barn with tack, utility, and feed rooms. The interior was wood paneled with various niceties for ease of use and practicality. We signed a contract in 2004 with Arizona MD Barn Company to have the barn built. We subcontracted the concrete with the company recommended by the owner of Arizona MD Barn Company, as they had worked together through the years. And the process was to begin.
We had some trouble getting the concrete guy to commit to a date, and the barn materials were ready for delivery. The barn guy said they would go ahead and deliver, they did it all the time, and the concrete would be done soon anyway. Remember he was in communication with the concrete guy on a regular basis. The materials were delivered in July 2005. There were many redrawings of the barn plan. The owner hand-drew the plans everytime there was a correction to be made. He would then make another error that would require a new drawing. It was rather comical at the time. What we didn't realize was that all these copies would end up getting intermixed, so the accurate drawing was never drawn. There were further code changes that year, so the engineering was slow as well.
Just after the delivery of the materials, Donald realized that we had extra parts (obviously large items that were identifiable like palpation chutes), and missing parts (feeders, doors, and other identifiable parts). He sent me an email, as I was in Oregon with the girls until September, telling me of this fact and that he would contact AZ MD Barns to let them know we needed to do an inventory of the materials. When the materials were delivered they were unloaded from a couple trucks and no bill of lading or other document was signed or received. We had know idea whether we had the essential parts or not. Of course not being in the barn building business, we had no idea what some of the parts were anyway.
The owner was in Texas and said it wasn't a problem that the barn we ordered would be built. We felt reassured and continued to finalize the concrete installation. We finally got Wimer Concrete out in October of 2005. Needless to say we were irritated with both companies as they were in cahoots and were putting us off. In the meantime, the ranch was hit with a microburst. That's a mini-tornado in the desert. We had 90 mph winds that threw barn parts all over the desert. The wind was so powerful it ripped a mare motel out of the ground and blew it a half mile north of us. It looked like a dead spider with all its legs crumpled. Donald called the owner of AZ MD Barns and was once again reassured that we would get our barn.
The moment the concrete was complete, it started cracking. They tried to tell me that it was normal. It was terrible. I had videotaped the pouring of the concrete for Donald for he was away for work and couldn't be there. If you know anything about concrete you know it can't be too wet and you don't throw dirt into it as you are pouring it. The job was too big for this crew and they couldn't keep up and the temperatures were working against them too. As it turned out they had not put the metal mesh in the concrete, but had opted for a fiber material. They didn't order the concrete with that either. It was a disaster.
After researching our options, we had an inspector come out and he told us that the concrete was not acceptable. We filed a claim with the Register of Contractors and Donald had to go to the hearing without an attorney. They twisted everything around and decided that we had blocked access to Wimer Concrete to come on the property to do repairs. Repairs? We had to tear out the entire pour and have it disposed of in truck loads. We didn't pay Wimer a dime, thank goodness. We were still out the expense of the removal, and still didn't have our barn.
We had a friend in Oregon that poured concrete and asked his advise. He wanted to come down and spend some time in Arizona and visit family and get out of the cold for a bit, and said he'd come help us out. So he and his son stayed with us on the ranch and we got the concrete poured. It was perfect. Not a single crack. Don't let anyone tell you it can't be done. We have the concrete to prove it.
In the meantime, the barn guy finally came out to the property. We really wanted an inventory of the materials. We just didn't want to have something crucial missing. There were parts that he had directed his workers to come and take with out notifying us. We were panicked that someone was stealing the materials. When we called him he told us that they had taken them. At this point we had no idea what was left of our materials or as it turned out some materials that others had ordered and were unloaded on our property.
When he looked over the materials after the storm, he told us that boxes of fasteners were missing. Now these would be 12" square boxes filled with nuts and bolts and such, not something the wind could blow but a few feet. We had no idea what he was talking about. We had never seen such boxes.
He suggested that they were stolen. Donald asked who would want to steal such a box? He immediately retorted that maybe we had taken them. How absurd? Why would we want to delay the construction of the barn, and what would we do with them? Is there a blackmarket for barn parts? Unless they worked in a field building barns there wouldn't be any use for these. Perhaps one of his guys would have stolen them? I suggested this in a later phone call, when he again suggested that we had taken the boxes!
He later sent us a bill to replace the missing parts, in order to construct the barn. We told him we were not inclined to pay for them again since we didn't know if they ever arrived on the property. We had no inventory. He had decided to charge us for the parts again.
It was now the spring of 2006 and the second concrete pour was completed. After the first pour we had contacted the barn guy and told him we weren't sure about the concrete and asked if he would advise us. He never responded. After we rejected the first pour, we got a threatening letter from an attorney stating that a lien on the property would be put into effect by Arizona MD Barns. We were confused, as we had been actively preparing for the barn installation and expected to have the installation as we had contracted. Everything had been paid as the contract dictated.
Arizona MD Barn Company was refusing to build the barn now. They claimed that they didn't trust that we would pay in the last payment. Everything had been paid on time through the process. He had gotten enough money to cover the cost of the materials with a big profit. The remaining cost would be for the labor to construct the barn. He wouldn't lose a thing at this point if he just refused to build.
We met with an attorney to be advised. He suggested we hire a third party to construct the barn to find out what was missing, since we had no idea. And we would file a breach of contract claim against Arizona MD Barn Company.
Barn construction companies aren't a dime a dozen. This was a large complicated barn, so it took some searching to find someone willing to take the job. In my research, I some how got the address of the owner of the MD Barn Enterprises. I wrote him a letter in desperation explaining the situation and our feelings of helplessness regarding any progress with the owner of Arizona MD Barn Company in resolving this issue.
We hired another barn construction company to determine what was missing and what was damaged through the construction of the barn. Remember the materials had been lying in the desert since July 2005. It was now January 2007. Weather and termites had had some damaging effect on the wood panels for the interior of the barn. Donald and I were wandering the property looking at the mess when we discovered a pile of wall panels. The cardboard that separated the panels had deteriorated to the point that we could see in between the panels just barely. What we discovered was the top panel was a solid wall, but underneath were the panels that had the openings for the stall doors, so there was a space under the top panel. Low and behold, the missing fasteners that the barn guy was trying to make us pay for again! We notified him immediately, but he would not acknowledge us. We were told by his attorney that he would not construct the barn.
By the time the third party finished the barn, the owner of the MD Enterprises had contacted our barn guy and told him to get the missing parts to us. We had UPS, DHL and FedEx trucks coming non-stop with more barn materials. We had to pay the third party to erect the barn, knowing that it was possible that they may be missing something crucial that would not enable them to finish. They were able to get the barn up, but it was such a disappointment.
The termite and water damage was terrible. The owner of the MD Enterprises contacted me to make sure we were happy with the barn. I was honest and sent him pictures. He immediately contacted the head of manufacturing out of California and sent someone to evaluate the damages. When he arrived he took a look at the barn and made a list of parts that needed to be replaced. The list was longer than ours. He then ordered the CA crew to bring the missing parts and replace them at no cost.
It was the summer of 2007 when the barn was completed. We loved and still love the barn. It is a beautiful building. But what the owner of Arizona MD Barns had done was wrong. So we continued with our suit against him.
The legal system is a fiasco. We did our depositions and we all decided to have an arbitration hearing for the decision. The arbitrator found in our favor. The barn guy appealed. We were to have a jury trial. When we arrived, the court had not selected a jury and wanted to know if we could have the judge decide. At this point, we all just wanted to get it over with. We went through the trial.
The judge took almost five months to make her decision. It was not in our favor. So we appealed. That's where we are now in 2011.
I have skipped over some of the details, because it is really more of a book than a blog post. Needless to say, circumstances caused us to rethink our objectives. Farming was underway, so we expanded, adding more fields and tried other grass hays. We decided to add some livestock, poultry and garden produce. That is the long version of how we got into farming.
Friday, June 17, 2011
Already Mid-June
I am feeling thankful for a very mild introduction to our summer this season. June is supposed to be the hottest month and we have been very fortunate to have had what I would describe as reasonable temperatures for the desert. I am not sure if it is the mild temperatures or my new mosquito management program that is responsible for the minimal pest population this year. But whatever it is I am very happy to have had the relief so far.
I have been diligent, if not a little frugal, with the distribution of the larvaecide Altosid. I have spent hours next to the ditch sprinkling the granules into the irrigation water. I feel like I have been holding my breath waiting for the onslaught, but with the exception of one short-lived outbreak last month, we have been been rather comfortable. The granules are supposed to be spread across irrigated land prior to flooding. I tried using a fertilizer spreader, that I spent a great deal of time on the phone trying to crack the settings code to determine the best setting for the tiny granules, only to discover in the end that the settings would not go low enough to distribute appropriately. After that I spent time putting the product into the water, which is not the recommendation. I aborted that plan when I realized the product could be ending up on the bottom of the ditch caught in the silt and debris and not flowing onto the field. I then took to the Gator. I had pre-measured baggies to be distributed per acre. I then would mark out my target area and throw scoop fulls out into the field driving along in the Gator prior to irrigating. This got the product out, but my distribution was probably a little spotty, and my trapezius muscle has started to bulge with spasms as a result.
I finally ordered the backpack blower, the Maruyama Blower. It will come in next week sometime, along with some more of the granules. So I will be ready for the next distribution. I only have to spread the granules every 21 days. So we should be set until into July. I have dropped the briquet products into the neighbor's standing water in their ill-maintained ditches. Those last for 90 days.
Donald and I were feeding horses in the barn last night, and he reminded me that it has been a very long time since we have not had mosquitoes in the barn at this time of the year. I am still not ready to be convinced that there is another explanation yet, but I am hoping it is my treatment.
I irrigated this past Tuesday and ended up with standing water on the horse pasture 1B. The ground has become so compacted that even .6 of an acre foot of water is not being absorbed like it should be. This will be a real test of the mosquito infestation. I am guessing there will be mosquitoes present by this weekend. The field was treated, but I have never had such poor absorption on a field. I question whether the product will be effective in this situation. Time will tell.
The horses are all in the barn, as the pasture 1A has been plowed and disked in preparation for re-seeding of the Bermuda. This is the side that we planted the winter pasture and the condition of this field is very nice for growing. The 1B side will need to be cultivated and re-seeded eventually. Because I irrigated 1B, the horses don't have a pasture to graze in at this point. We will level 1A ourselves prior to planting. We are able to do a level field, but not one with a slope with our laser equipment.
The 4A and 4B fields have been plowed and disked and we just negotiated a trade with our neighbor to have him laser a slope onto those fields. We will pay the diesel and we will lend him a piece of equipment that he wants to borrow. I feel like it's a little in our favor, but I may give him some turkey poults to make me feel better, if he is interested.
We have enough seed to do the pasture, but we will have to order seed for the fourth fields. The price was ridiculous this winter for Bermuda. We are hoping to find a better price now that some of the seed farmers have started getting some seed off this year's fields. We will have to hire a guy to seed with a Brillion. Bermuda seed is extremely small and broadcast seeding does not work. The Brillion drags a little trench, pushes the seed into the trench, and covers it up at a specified depth. The depth is something like a quarter inch and this really makes a difference in your growth success. We will put some phosphate to stimulate the initial growth of the field.
We have had a lot of diversions with the start of the hay season, preventing us from getting the railing on the arena finished. But the fields have to be done as the season dictates, so once we are done with those, we will return to the arena in between cuttings and deliveries.
Our first cutting this year was a disappointment. The temperatures have been fantastic for humans and animals, but the Bermuda really needs those miserably hot nights to thrive. We have had evening temperatures in the 50s even into June this year. So the growth rate was slow and uneven. 3A grew better, so we only sold the hay from that field. 3B was too short to make nice flakes in the bales, so we set those aside for our own use. The yield was low on 3B, so at least I don't have too many of the bales that fall apart. I just put them in the big cart, so all the hay is in the cart when I open a bale that doesn't hold its flakes well. The horses sure weren't complaining, so I guess I'll make it through until I can put up some more manageable bales for ourselves.
I got some information regarding some hay we sold last year to a client through another client. Apparently, her horses would not eat the hay. She ended up selling it to another woman (also a client), but didn't tell us about it. This was last fall, so we couldn't piece together any information as to what field, if it was fertilized, or watered in some different way....So we don't know what went wrong with that batch of hay. The other woman's horses ate it without any problem, so the gal didn't say anything to us. On the other hand, we got a call regarding this year's hay from another client that said the hay was fantastic and her horses don't leave a single blade. She wanted to make sure we put her on the list for the next cutting. We don't really don't have enough hay to supply the demand this year. People really are having trouble getting hay. I suppose the shipping over-seas and to Texas is really limiting what is available locally this year.
I should mention our rather extroverted Kingsnake has obviously become more comfortable with our presence this year. He or she has been known to follow Erin around the horse barn while she is feeding horses. I have watched him nose into mouse holes around and in the poultry barn, coming out the other end into some of the stalls at times. Yesterday while feeding the latest clutch of chicks and poults, I discovered the Kingsnake in their stall eating mice. He finished both while I was standing in the stall with him. I have to admit, I was surprised at my calm state, and patience as he finished his meal. When I saw him shrink his body small enough to fit through the 1" metal fencing hole, I decided maybe a smaller screen needs to be applied for the stall housing the smallest chicks or poults. I will have to add this to the list of things to do.
There are lots of positive things happening with our family and progress is forward with the ranch, even if it goes slowly sometimes. If we are successful in managing the mosquitoes this year, I will feel like there is a future for me here in the desert.
I have been diligent, if not a little frugal, with the distribution of the larvaecide Altosid. I have spent hours next to the ditch sprinkling the granules into the irrigation water. I feel like I have been holding my breath waiting for the onslaught, but with the exception of one short-lived outbreak last month, we have been been rather comfortable. The granules are supposed to be spread across irrigated land prior to flooding. I tried using a fertilizer spreader, that I spent a great deal of time on the phone trying to crack the settings code to determine the best setting for the tiny granules, only to discover in the end that the settings would not go low enough to distribute appropriately. After that I spent time putting the product into the water, which is not the recommendation. I aborted that plan when I realized the product could be ending up on the bottom of the ditch caught in the silt and debris and not flowing onto the field. I then took to the Gator. I had pre-measured baggies to be distributed per acre. I then would mark out my target area and throw scoop fulls out into the field driving along in the Gator prior to irrigating. This got the product out, but my distribution was probably a little spotty, and my trapezius muscle has started to bulge with spasms as a result.
I finally ordered the backpack blower, the Maruyama Blower. It will come in next week sometime, along with some more of the granules. So I will be ready for the next distribution. I only have to spread the granules every 21 days. So we should be set until into July. I have dropped the briquet products into the neighbor's standing water in their ill-maintained ditches. Those last for 90 days.
Donald and I were feeding horses in the barn last night, and he reminded me that it has been a very long time since we have not had mosquitoes in the barn at this time of the year. I am still not ready to be convinced that there is another explanation yet, but I am hoping it is my treatment.
I irrigated this past Tuesday and ended up with standing water on the horse pasture 1B. The ground has become so compacted that even .6 of an acre foot of water is not being absorbed like it should be. This will be a real test of the mosquito infestation. I am guessing there will be mosquitoes present by this weekend. The field was treated, but I have never had such poor absorption on a field. I question whether the product will be effective in this situation. Time will tell.
The horses are all in the barn, as the pasture 1A has been plowed and disked in preparation for re-seeding of the Bermuda. This is the side that we planted the winter pasture and the condition of this field is very nice for growing. The 1B side will need to be cultivated and re-seeded eventually. Because I irrigated 1B, the horses don't have a pasture to graze in at this point. We will level 1A ourselves prior to planting. We are able to do a level field, but not one with a slope with our laser equipment.
The 4A and 4B fields have been plowed and disked and we just negotiated a trade with our neighbor to have him laser a slope onto those fields. We will pay the diesel and we will lend him a piece of equipment that he wants to borrow. I feel like it's a little in our favor, but I may give him some turkey poults to make me feel better, if he is interested.
We have enough seed to do the pasture, but we will have to order seed for the fourth fields. The price was ridiculous this winter for Bermuda. We are hoping to find a better price now that some of the seed farmers have started getting some seed off this year's fields. We will have to hire a guy to seed with a Brillion. Bermuda seed is extremely small and broadcast seeding does not work. The Brillion drags a little trench, pushes the seed into the trench, and covers it up at a specified depth. The depth is something like a quarter inch and this really makes a difference in your growth success. We will put some phosphate to stimulate the initial growth of the field.
We have had a lot of diversions with the start of the hay season, preventing us from getting the railing on the arena finished. But the fields have to be done as the season dictates, so once we are done with those, we will return to the arena in between cuttings and deliveries.
Our first cutting this year was a disappointment. The temperatures have been fantastic for humans and animals, but the Bermuda really needs those miserably hot nights to thrive. We have had evening temperatures in the 50s even into June this year. So the growth rate was slow and uneven. 3A grew better, so we only sold the hay from that field. 3B was too short to make nice flakes in the bales, so we set those aside for our own use. The yield was low on 3B, so at least I don't have too many of the bales that fall apart. I just put them in the big cart, so all the hay is in the cart when I open a bale that doesn't hold its flakes well. The horses sure weren't complaining, so I guess I'll make it through until I can put up some more manageable bales for ourselves.
I got some information regarding some hay we sold last year to a client through another client. Apparently, her horses would not eat the hay. She ended up selling it to another woman (also a client), but didn't tell us about it. This was last fall, so we couldn't piece together any information as to what field, if it was fertilized, or watered in some different way....So we don't know what went wrong with that batch of hay. The other woman's horses ate it without any problem, so the gal didn't say anything to us. On the other hand, we got a call regarding this year's hay from another client that said the hay was fantastic and her horses don't leave a single blade. She wanted to make sure we put her on the list for the next cutting. We don't really don't have enough hay to supply the demand this year. People really are having trouble getting hay. I suppose the shipping over-seas and to Texas is really limiting what is available locally this year.
I should mention our rather extroverted Kingsnake has obviously become more comfortable with our presence this year. He or she has been known to follow Erin around the horse barn while she is feeding horses. I have watched him nose into mouse holes around and in the poultry barn, coming out the other end into some of the stalls at times. Yesterday while feeding the latest clutch of chicks and poults, I discovered the Kingsnake in their stall eating mice. He finished both while I was standing in the stall with him. I have to admit, I was surprised at my calm state, and patience as he finished his meal. When I saw him shrink his body small enough to fit through the 1" metal fencing hole, I decided maybe a smaller screen needs to be applied for the stall housing the smallest chicks or poults. I will have to add this to the list of things to do.
There are lots of positive things happening with our family and progress is forward with the ranch, even if it goes slowly sometimes. If we are successful in managing the mosquitoes this year, I will feel like there is a future for me here in the desert.
Tuesday, May 10, 2011
Being Stalked by a Coyote
We have lost three of our Bourbon Red Turkeys to a coyote. We have been stalked by him and he has figured out when the dogs are all fed and has made his move. So we adaptted and rotated the feedings, so there was always a dog on duty. The coyote has been patient. We had to lock up the turkeys with the intention of removing the predator before they would be allowed out again. I gave in Sunday evening and decided to let them out for a hour before dusk. We were working nearby so we could keep an eye on things. When we went to lock them up, one hen was missing. We knew she hadn't been nabbed, but had probably found a spot to hunker down for the night. We searched into the darkness for her hiding spot. We couldn't find her, but we knew she was still around. The next morning Donald went out to do a quick recovery and get her back in the pen for the day, and found the coyote with her freshly killed carcass next to the irrigation ditch. The coyote had gotten her moments before.
I was so mad at myself for letting them out. And Donald was so mad at himself for missing his shot. He had cleaned his gun and taken the scope off and had not re-sighted it. He still hasn't made it to the range to make adjustments and two mornings in a row the coyote has been back. The dogs tell us it's here and we scramble. Sometimes it's someone driving on a distant road or a neighbor's dog visiting, but we have had so many coyote visits, we aren't ignoring any warning barks. Bear just isn't enthusiastic about a big chase these days. He goes out to a certain imaginery line and then turns back once the coyote starts to trot away. Donald says "Bear has retired." We have to figure out a way to put one of the Pyrenese out to do Bear's job.
The problem is Zeus could probably do the job, but he'll probably kill Bear if we don't isolate him from Zeus. Titan gets along better with Bear, but we're not sure he wouldn't wander off. So much talent, but so many traits to neutralize their value! What's a soft-hearted rancher to do?
The horses have been doing great on the pasture. They are all looking much fuller and have shed the winter coats, so they have a shine these days. So far they aren't being bothered by any bugs, specifically mosquitoes, so life is good for them.
We are going to have to irrigate one more time before cutting the hay fields. We were hoping to cut this week, but there just isn't enough growth to make good flakes in the bales. We will irrigate the next couple days and we should be able to cut at the end of the month. It always seems to be the end of May for our first cutting. I just hoped it would be a little early this year.
We have had a lot of maintenance and repairs to do around the ranch. Just recently we had to dig up the drainage pipe for the washrack on the barn to put in some clean-outs. The muck had built up in the pipe, so that the washrack was not draining to the trees anymore and there was standing water in the wash rack. That was completed, but now we have to re-plumb the cut water lines to the trees on the perimeter for the lines were in the way of the work we needed to do for the clean-outs. The intersection where we put the clean outs is directly in front of the round pen gate. There will be boxes when we are finished that will house the clean outs for access. We will have to switch a couple panels to relocate the gate to the round pen. We don't want to have the horse traffic over the boxes for safety reasons. It is yet another job that requires a couple people.
The first batch of chicks and turkeys will be moved out to the pasture in the chicken tractor today. The visiting coyote makes me nervous, but the tractor is pretty secure. We have another clutch due to hatch this week. We have some people interested in buying chicks and poults, so I have put extra into the incubator. My fear is that they will change their minds and I will have a lot more chicks than I want at a time. I am anticipating the butchering process and I know my limitations. I am not an endurance butcher :)
As I spend so much time in the barns, the house is progressively getting dustier and more cluttered. I tell myself that the extreme heat will be here soon and will chase me inside again. I will take care of the interior when the heat drives me inside. In the meantime, I can barely stand to be in the messy house.
Time to go back outside and avoid the nagging irritation of the dusty piano and television!
I was so mad at myself for letting them out. And Donald was so mad at himself for missing his shot. He had cleaned his gun and taken the scope off and had not re-sighted it. He still hasn't made it to the range to make adjustments and two mornings in a row the coyote has been back. The dogs tell us it's here and we scramble. Sometimes it's someone driving on a distant road or a neighbor's dog visiting, but we have had so many coyote visits, we aren't ignoring any warning barks. Bear just isn't enthusiastic about a big chase these days. He goes out to a certain imaginery line and then turns back once the coyote starts to trot away. Donald says "Bear has retired." We have to figure out a way to put one of the Pyrenese out to do Bear's job.
The problem is Zeus could probably do the job, but he'll probably kill Bear if we don't isolate him from Zeus. Titan gets along better with Bear, but we're not sure he wouldn't wander off. So much talent, but so many traits to neutralize their value! What's a soft-hearted rancher to do?
The horses have been doing great on the pasture. They are all looking much fuller and have shed the winter coats, so they have a shine these days. So far they aren't being bothered by any bugs, specifically mosquitoes, so life is good for them.
We are going to have to irrigate one more time before cutting the hay fields. We were hoping to cut this week, but there just isn't enough growth to make good flakes in the bales. We will irrigate the next couple days and we should be able to cut at the end of the month. It always seems to be the end of May for our first cutting. I just hoped it would be a little early this year.
We have had a lot of maintenance and repairs to do around the ranch. Just recently we had to dig up the drainage pipe for the washrack on the barn to put in some clean-outs. The muck had built up in the pipe, so that the washrack was not draining to the trees anymore and there was standing water in the wash rack. That was completed, but now we have to re-plumb the cut water lines to the trees on the perimeter for the lines were in the way of the work we needed to do for the clean-outs. The intersection where we put the clean outs is directly in front of the round pen gate. There will be boxes when we are finished that will house the clean outs for access. We will have to switch a couple panels to relocate the gate to the round pen. We don't want to have the horse traffic over the boxes for safety reasons. It is yet another job that requires a couple people.
The first batch of chicks and turkeys will be moved out to the pasture in the chicken tractor today. The visiting coyote makes me nervous, but the tractor is pretty secure. We have another clutch due to hatch this week. We have some people interested in buying chicks and poults, so I have put extra into the incubator. My fear is that they will change their minds and I will have a lot more chicks than I want at a time. I am anticipating the butchering process and I know my limitations. I am not an endurance butcher :)
As I spend so much time in the barns, the house is progressively getting dustier and more cluttered. I tell myself that the extreme heat will be here soon and will chase me inside again. I will take care of the interior when the heat drives me inside. In the meantime, I can barely stand to be in the messy house.
Time to go back outside and avoid the nagging irritation of the dusty piano and television!
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