"Free Range" Turkeys

It has been a busy fall season for us. The kids' activities rev up to full throttle to culminate at the end of the school semester and of course there are the preparations for the holidays. In addition, we have been trying to get fields plowed, disked and planted (not with much help from the weather). The last of the hay deliveries are dwindling now, so the ever-present list is revisited to contemplate which projects to take on or continue.

This year we raised a lamb and had it butchered at University of Arizona. It is now located in our freezer awaiting my final selections for recipes for the various cuts. In addition, we raised Bourbon Red turkeys, and Freedom Ranger meat chickens. As Thanksgiving came closer the accumulation of equipment for the inevitable butchering of the birds was gathered and set up at my "processing station." I intended to do the work outside and had a location selected. After last year's party at the neighbors, I decided that I would try to emulate Joel Salatin's setup on a very small scale.

Donald fashioned a restraining cone or killing cone from some sheet metal. True to form, he started doing mathematical calculations referring to old textbooks, until I threatened to duct tape the metal together myself. It was the last of the equipment necessary for me to get on with the deed.

I decided to just do one turkey by myself. I was feeling a little like the "Little Red Hen." No one wanted anything to do with the work, but they would be willing to help me eat it. I set my goal of one turkey, with the option of continuing if things went smoothly and I was up for it. The night before Donald and I were taking care of animals and we witnessed a large turkey Tom mating with a young female too young for such activity. It was brutal. She was covered in blood and she didn't look like she was going to make it through the night. Donald was livid. He announced that that was the first bird to be butchered. I agreed. We rescued the hen and tried to clean her up some and relocated her in a barn stall by herself to recuperate with any hope. Later, when the birds had roosted Donald caught the offender and put him in a crate.

The next morning I drove Emma to school in Chandler, returned to the ranch and went out to my station to get the propane flame going under the giant pot of water. The water needed to reach between 140-145 degrees. I knew it would take a while for the water to reach temperature, so I fed all the other animals and brought the chosen Tom in the crate down to the station. I had set up on the west side of the horse barn on the fence line between the second field and the horse facilities. It was about a 1/16 of a mile from the turkey pen to the processing station. I figured I didn't want to subject the others, in case things got disturbing. No need upsetting the others if it would indeed be comprehended in some way.

I moved the little red tractor over with the forks on the front end. The trash can was lined with a plastic bag and the knife and loppers were at hand. Then I waited for the water to heat, and thought that tweezers would come in handy and I got some. And I waited, and figured I would get some duct tape to tape some plastic to the table and got that and taped the plastic down. And I waited, and decided to go ahead and fill the cooler with the final rinse and chill water and tore open the bags of ice. And I waited for the water, and went and got some paper towels for they might come in handy. And I waited, and donned my latex gloves as the water was getting closer to temperature. The wind was picking up slightly so I imagined that it was prolonging the heating of the water. And as I waited, I rehearsed the procedure over and over. Sometimes shifting the killing cone tree, sometimes re-adjusting the height of the forks of the tractor. I had thought of everything that I might possibly need for the job. I even got some water to drink in case the job proved a little too much for me. The first part was the part that I had never done. Last year the guys chopped the head off the turkey and it violently flopped around on the ground. I didn't want to do that, so the initial step was unfamiliar. Rehearsing in my mind was my attempt to familiarize myself. I had read several sources and viewed several youtube videos of this initial step.

It was time. The water was heated. My adrenaline was pumping (well that and the latte I had on the way back from Chandler). I was to get the turkey from the crate, carry him to the killing cone tree, step up on the upside down half barrel to get the large bird up and over the lip of the cone, head first, and pull his head through the hole at the bottom of the cone. I closed my eyes like the olympic skiers visualizing my task one more time and then moved forward with purpose and determination. Bear the dog was hanging out with me through my antics.

When I took the bird out of the crate, I was surprised at my strength (may have been the adrenaline) or the manageability of the heavy bird. I did as planned (and rehearsed), and made it to the cone and inserted the turkey head first. The next step was to pull down on the head, so as to slice the jugular vein on each side of the neck with out cutting the trachea. The book said "pull down hard on the head," but I thought there was no reason to be aggressive, all was going well. When at that moment, the bird bucked and kicked, backing out of the cone and went running through the desert! Running through the desert! He left me holding the knife feeling like I had been duped for I had thought of everything, but what to do when the bird went running off.

When I told my dad this story, he said, "now I know why they call them free-range turkeys." Yep he was running free on the range, leaving me with my mouth gaping, with Bear by my side. Bear looked from me to the turkey about four or five times. About that time I got it together and realized that I was going to finish what I set out to do and got to work. I eventually was able to recapture him. And took him back to the cone tree and this time I pulled down firmly and got the job done.

Now I will not lie, it was very difficult to wait on the bird to finally fade. I honestly asked for forgiveness just in case the idea of raising your own food and taking care of the processing, is not looked favorably upon by someone upstairs. I had to make myself not look as I waited. And then I realized that during the time I was chasing the turkey through the desert, the water was still heating and had reached over 20 degrees above my target. I now had to wait for the water to cool! Somehow I kept looking over at the turkey, head down in the cone and willed myself to look elsewhere. I eventually added cold water to the pot to speed up the cooling and was able to continue.

I had used a piece of wire to tie between the turkeys feet and lifted him with a broom stick and dipped and lifted and dipped and lifted and then tested the feathers. When the tail feathers pulled out relatively easily, I carried the bird to the forks and placed the broom stick across the forks so the bird hung in front of me. I took the trashcan from the cone tree and placed it under the turkey for the feathers. I removed the more difficult feathers from the wings and tail first. This went smoothly, really not difficult at all. At this point, I decided I would be able to pretend that it was just a turkey from the grocery if I got rid of the head. So I did and dropped it into the trash can and removed all the feathers and was aware that my revulsion had subsided.

I removed the oil gland from the back above the tail. My back was starting to ache a bit and I realized that I was hunched over the job and started up the tractor and lifted the forks again. Over time I realized that the hydraulics on the tractor would slowly, imperceptively lower the forks. I had to continually re-adjust them for I was becoming more determined to remove all of the pin feathers. It was no longer that turkey from earlier in the morning it was this never-ending pin feather removal job. I was going cross-eyed and had to rinse repeatedly to make sure I had gotten them all, only to find a few more.

Now the removal of the crop on the birds still eludes me. I don't feed for at least 12 hrs before butchering so there won't be any food left in the crop and won't contaminate the bird if it is accidentally torn or cut spilling its contents. Well I have not been able to figure this one out yet. I know that the esophagus connects to it and have located that, but the crop collapses into tissue when its empty. I just clean it all out in the end, so I know I've gotten it, but I can't do the identification in the disection.

I then lowered the bird to the table onto the previously placed plastic. I opened up the vent end, removed all the innards. This is not as gross as I thought it would be. It all comes out sort of together if it is done right and then its a matter of rinsing thoroughly and removing the newly discovered pin feathers here and there. Then I put it in an ice bath in the cooler. I tied up the trash bag and took it to our dumpster to dispose of and got the scale out to weigh the dressed bird.

This first bird weighed about 12 pounds and I was so sore across my shoulders when I finished I could barely get it bagged and carried to the refridgerator to chill for 48 hours. The goal had been reached, but I wasn't about to take on any more that day. I did it. One down, nine to go.

The next session a couple of days later, I did two more Toms. And the next session, Donald helped me. His job was to make sure no one bucked their way out of the cone and to look up at the sky until the bird was underwater. He actually sped up the feather plucking process, but then started feeding Bear the organs; big mistake. Now I can't leave anything unattended for he overturns the can and carries parts off to bury all over the ranch. I found a chicken head by the horse's water trough the other day. I am sensitive enough that I know Emma would be repulsed and disgusted by such a discovery, so I have been stalking him to relocate other parts that he has made off with and re-buries seemingly on a whim.

I am still not done with the butchering. I have to take a couple days off after a batch for my shoulders and upper back to recover. It is definitely easier with one other person, but I wouldn't dream of asking anyone for help. I will persevere and get them all done and then pack up the equipment until it is time to start again next year some time.

Thanksgiving was rewarding for me. Donald really dislikes turkey meat, but he really liked the turkey this year. And no he wasn't just saying that. He won't eat what he doesn't like and he ate several helpings this year. I did cook it breast side down initially and will do that in the future. It makes for a much moister breast meat. The chicken that I have prepared from our flock was very good. Knowing that they have been raised organically makes me satsified.

I feel like I am doing something good for our family by avoiding some of the unknowns of factory-produced food. Our animals, yes they end up on the table just like the ones we buy at the store, but for the time they are alive they are raised humanely and in a healthy enviroment. I wish there were more small farmers raising food like this so that I could support them and reap the benefits. These products do tend to cost more and I know that makes it difficult for many to justify in their budgets. Sometimes I just can't afford some items at times and have to forgo, but with the increasing health problems in this country, I am not sure we don't just pay for it in the end anyway.

I was in a situation last week that I had to eat at a fast food place. I knew I wouldn't get anything else to eat for a while and there was no other reasonable option where we were, so I ate it. I, by no means intend to sound righteous, but I felt horrible after eating that food. I was dying of thirst too. I had forgotten about the high levels of sodium in processed foods. I just hadn't eaten anything like that long enough I had forgotten the effects. I would rather have a block of cheese with some crackers or whole grain bread and a few apple wedges anyday! It was a real revelation to me.

So now I know from where the term "Free Range" comes. If you can't laugh at yourself, you're going about things the wrong way.

Fall Harvest

Now is the time of year when I love being in Arizona. The temperatures are fantastic, the star-filled skies can be enjoyed, and inspiration to be outside working on projects takes over. This is my favorite time of the year. Even when I lived on the east coast, fall was always appreciated.

On the ranch we have at least half a dozen turkeys that are ready to be processed immediately. Twenty or so broilers will, with good maintenance, reach a nice weight by the second week of November. One of the lambs is already at the University of Arizona Meat Lab, and will be ready to pick up in the next week. I have a plan A and a plan B in regards to the poultry. Plan A is to process at home. Plan B is to take the birds to U of A.

In order for plan A to go into effect, I must accumulate the equipment necessary for the job. I have the knife. I have the experience, but that is it. I still need a cone to humanely kill the birds, a very large pot for scalding, and buckets for offal, and a very important part of both plan A and B is the freezer in which to put the birds. I have done several hours of research looking for the various items on line, and have come to the conclusion that things are so over-priced. The killing cone large enough for the turkeys, I will have Donald fashion out of sheet metal. I will probably need a large and a medium sized for the different sized birds. The best prices that I have found for these range from $40-60. I find that ridiculous, but I suppose if someone didn't have someone like Donald they may have to pay for the expertise in constructing one. I must say that I never take Donald's abilities for granted. He is amazingly creative and effective in designing and building just about everything. If only he had more time on the ranch...

I continue to look for a very large scalding pot. For the start of this endeavor, I intend to spend the least amount of money as possible. I have never been one to shell out the bucks for something new only to find that I have no further interest and then the materials go in a shed or closet, until a charity run is made. The scalding pot may be my biggest expense. I am looking into the possiblity of using a 55 gallon barrel cut to a reasonable height (by Donald), that will be set upon a gas burner that we already have. The water will be heated in this in order to loosen the feathers for plucking.

There are all kinds of feather pickers available, but I will not invest in one until I know that I will try this again or that plucking all those birds by hand is too laborious. I do know that I need to restock my latex glove supply. I learned from my neighbor before last year's turkey processing that the gloves protect the hands from a lingering smell of poultry innards. That is one of my mom's memories from her younger years on the family farm.

I have a large chest that I will fill with chilled water for the final rinse and I think I will look into purchasing some sealing bags for the birds. I have one of the heat sealers, but the bags I have will definitely not be large enough for the turkeys.

After last year's Thanksgiving Turkey Jerky disaster.... I will try out a turkey before Thanksgiving to avoid embarrassing myself again and ruining one of my favorite holiday meals. I have learned a few tips that should eliminate the problems that I had. I am very hopeful I get it right this year.

In anticipation of our lamb meat, I have been looking for recipes for all of the different cuts we have ordered. I have a terrific lamb chop recipe, but have many more to decide upon. The lamb was 80 lbs on the scale, so we expect somewhere around 40 lbs of meat in the end.

Our pastured broilers are ravenous grass eaters. I am moving their chicken tractor two times a day now. I supply them with an organic crumble feed and they have all remained healthy. The importance of the green food for animals is disregarded in so many settings. The green or chlorophyll detoxifies the animals system, allowing for a healthy immune system. The fact that they are consuming the grasses also cuts down on the expense of the grain. I wish we had a mill that provided organic feed here in Arizona. Currently, the closest is California, so the added expenses of trucking is tacked onto the cost of feed. And we are not able to order large amounts to reduce the cost.

I will have to select a breeding trio from the Freedom Rangers that I will use for future re-supply of meat birds. I am counting on the next couple weeks to reveal which are cockerels and which are pullets. I am not sure Emma will be enthusiastic to help me with this task, as she is not interested in the meat production aspect of chicken rearing. I will go forward alone....and with luck pick what I need.

Elsewhere on the ranch, we have the last Bermuda grass cutting to do this weekend. We should be able to provide all our clients with their orders for the winter and put up enough for us. We are determined to get the winter pastures in for our horses grazing. But we will have to wait till spring to reseed the fourth fields with Bermuda. We have not ordered seed yet and have been so busy with all of the demands of ranch and family that we are behind on our list of things to do.

I haven't given up on the tilling of the garden, but can't allow myself to focus on it until we take care of other priorities. We have the underground plumbing operational to the garden again, but I will be patient. I really would like to plant the vegetables and herbs that we consume regularly. I love being able to go out and pick what I need as I am preparing meals.

The horses are being ridden more and more, especially with the wonderful weather. Erin has been inspired to work on reorganizing the barn again. We still so many projects within the barn; electric, plumbing, dry wall, flooring. If we could just get enough time or find someone to hire to take care of some of these projects, we might be able to see more progress. It is so frustrating at times, but I have learned patience is the only way for me to keep my sanity.

October has been fabulous. I am hoping the weather continues into November. That would be lovely.

The End of September

I was so excited today when I realized that today is the last day of September. I was agonizing through the month of August. I thought it would never end, and now September blew by without me noticing. It is still in the triple digits, but October is sure to bring cooler temps....I hope.

We have been busy with lots of things this past month. Donald has had to travel out of town more this month than usual, so that has kept me even busier (hence my surprise at the seemingly sudden end of September). The Freedom Ranger chicks have officially been moved to the pasture and are of little interest to the mares sharing the acreage. The chicks are busy pecking the bugs that wander into their space, nibbling the grass, and gorging on the grain supplement. I was able to purchase a bag of organic chick starter from the Modesto Mill in CA. I have since been informed that a local feed store will now have the organic grains available, so I can just pick up a bag while I run my endless list of errands.

The waterer that Donald designed for the chicken tractor was assembled and installed and has worked perfectly. There are no leaks and the 7 gallon bucket has provided 4 days of water so far. It is still half full (feeling optimistic today apparently) and I am keeping track so that I have an idea of how often it will need to be refilled.

The chicks are all very healthy and have adapted well to their environment change. They are now going on their 4th week. At ten weeks they will be processed. I will hold back a few for future breeders so we can continually replenish our stock.

The Bourbon Red turkeys are getting to be of age now. I have about 6 that are ready. It looks like I will be doing some small scale butchering on my own in the very near future. My biggest challenge is to find a pot or container large enough to put the turkey in to heat in water in order to loosen the feathers to clean the birds. I have several items I am searching for to get this job done.

We will need to get ourselves a freezer very soon, as one of the lambs will be heading to the University of Arizona meat lab. With a minimum of 6 turkeys and a lamb, we will be appliance shopping soon.

I was able to purchase some grass fed beef from our Casa Grande Farmers Market. I made a batch of sloppy joes with it and I really think it was the best I'd ever made. I don't know if I just got the seasonings perfect or the difference in the meat was really the key. I stopped by this week, but he was not there. I was very disappointed for I was going to test out another batch of sloppy joes. Maybe next week?

We have separated the chicken breeds and genders in the poultry barn. This makes the care and maintenance so much easier. We still need to install automatic waterers and feeders, but the end is near.

We did have to hire someone to hay for us this cycle. Donald was out of town and I didn't feel confident I could do the entire job without his assistance. We were surprised at the relatively low fee charged for the ten acres. The bales are three-string at 100lbs. Some of our clients will not like this as they prefer the lighter two-string bales, but more of concern to me is Donald having to load the 100 lb bales by hand and then unload them for deliveries. I am thinking that we will save the heavy bales for smaller orders. I know he is not looking forward to the extra weight. In the end, we were relieved to be able to find someone reasonable and not have a disaster occur trying to coordinate Donald's schedule with the haying. The job is done and the fields are irrigating as I type.

Speaking of....gotta run. Time to check the fields.

Resident Ranch Dog, Bear

I feel compelled to dedicate some time writing about Bear the dog. Bear came to us here at the ranch several years ago now. He originated somewhere up in the valley with a young family that couldn't keep him. They had young children and he was still an energetic pup that apparently knocked the kids down, and as those of you that are parents know, the kids' safety comes first. Bear is a Rottweiller/Labrador cross, so he has significant mass as a male dog.

From the city, Bear was relocated with a new owner, our neighbor, about a mile or two away to act as a guard dog. From what we are told, he was already a few years old when he was relocated south of interstate 8. He lived there for several years, but soon took to wandering in search of company. He eventually found us and our neighbors, both with several female dogs. He oscillated between the two of us, perhaps indulging in his "male" status and the admiration he was given by the "girls. He still returned home at this point, but was soon driven to visit us frequently as a result of one of our female dogs....not fixed.

It became a real challenge to let our dog out, because Bear would be camped out waiting for her. We would have to try to lock Bear in a horse stall, so Star the yellow Lab could go out a couple times a day. He grew wise to this and would steer clear of us in his pursuit. We used a horse halter at one point to control him. It took at least two to let Star out. Donald decided to lock him in our laundry room while Star went out. This worked a couple of times, although Bear was extremely leary of entering the house. Donald would spend the time petting him while Star went out. Eventually, Donald thought that this was the solution and went out to do some work with Bear in the laundry room and Star outside. When Donald returned, Bear had dug his way through the drywall next to the door, ripping the insulation out and starting on the exterior siding. The door trim was splintered. Star was lying outside the door waiting to go back inside and he knew she was there.

We tried to get the owner to take Bear, but Bear would run back, escaping from whatever containment was used; a regular Houdini. Bear, eventually adopted our family after his past owner beat him, mistakenly thinking he had killed a visiting toy sized dog. As it turned out the little dog had choked on a chicken bone and Bear had carried it to the owner. They assumed he had killed the dog. Bear never returned and has stayed with us ever since.
Bear especially enjoyed running with our other Lab, Moon. She was a chocolate Lab that would go hunting for rabbits or whatever lurked in the desert with Bear and our other neighbor's dog, Dozer. The three developed some rather advanced techniques for flushing rabbits and other rodents from pipe and holes. Here's a link to see Moon and Bear in action. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aHxRVQBt0eQ They weren't very successful in this specific attempt, maybe because a member of the team was missing.

As we were putting the fencing around our house to contain Moon and some newly acquired pups, Bear discovered the cooler temperatures under our house. He was determined to have access to the underside of the house, but still have the freedom to roam. He promptly dug under the fence and allowed all of the other dogs access to their freedom. Unfortunately, the pups were never focused enough to stay with the older dogs and would distractedly wander until they were lost. We took several late night, early morning trips into the desert searching for them. We drove stakes into the ground where Bear would dig out or in, and had to invest in an electric line that ran the base of the fence. Late one night as Bear was digging in or out, he got the one shock that put an end to the digging for good. He now lives outside the fenced in area of the house. As the pups grew to size, Bear lost his reign on the pack. For his safety, we keep him separate from the Great Pyrenese. Zeus is now the Alpha male inside the fence, Bear is Alpha male for the rest of the property.

Before Bear learned his lesson, he let Moonie out one time to many. We have since lost Moonie, she drown in an irrigation ditch. Dozer still visits early in the morning and the two old men go through the motions of hunting rabbits. But they don't leave the property, and they don't really give it their all anymore.
Bear steals turkey and duck eggs and buries them in the horse stall shavings. He buries my horse fly masks, and I have yet to find one that I had custom made. He is innocently destructive, causing all kinds of extra work for us. He will smell a rabbit or something around a bale of hay, and he will rip into it and throw hay everywhere trying to get to whatever it was he smelled. He lies in the water wells under the trees absorbing most of the water so the trees get short-changed. He crawls into the horse water troughs to cool down for a bit, muddying it for the horses.

Bear spends the night running the property, barking at whatever is out there. During the day, he mostly sleeps unless someone comes to visit. He is intimidating looking. He has a docked tail, so there is no indication that he is wagging when strangers approach. He is lithe and silent, so he sneaks up on people. Several people that have come out to do different services at the ranch, ask if he is "okay." They are obviously worried that he may attack. I have been known to tell them various threats like, "as long as you don't have a criminal record, he will be fine. I don't know what it is about him, but he can always sense that." Or, "as long as you stay 5 feet away from me, he'll be okay. Just don't break that barrier or he'll become extremely protective and violent."

Bear has been bitten by rattlesnakes at least three times that we know of. He has developed quite a calloused nose from lifting metal pipe by sticking his nose in and using it as a lever. His ear swelled up one time and we drained it, but it has a rather lumpy-cartlidge feel to it now. He used to have to be wormed regularly, as he consumed so many jackrabbits and such. In his later years, he seems to be keeping clear of that diet. Maybe because his girl Moon isn't here to catch them for him, and he doesn't have the energy to do it himself. Winters are harder on him than summers. He gets very stiff and sore in the winter. He has been given old horse blankets for bedding some winters. Donald has been known to wrap Bear up when Donald returns late from work, and the next morning Bear will still be curled up underneath.

Bear has never been house trained and won't get into a vehicle. I am not sure what would happen if he needed to be doctored. We would probably have to sedate him to get him into a truck to transport him. He was never "fixed," so he continues to be a nuisance. I know that he fathered a litter to one of the neighbor's Heelers a couple years back. We feel guilty, but Bear really doesn't belong to us. He doesn't belong to anyone. He is a survivor.

September At Last

I am so relieved that it is finally September. Of course, that is primarily because of my memories of the month in other parts of the country. In Ohio, September marked the ending (sometimes abruptly) of summer, Black Swamp Arts Festival in Bowling Green, jackets becoming a requirement (although they never were packed for the summer), and the start of the school year at the university. Maryland, was a little delayed compared to Ohio's temperature decline, but started the process of the color changes in the leaves (and there were lots of leaves to change compared to the sparse sprinkle here in the desert). Now September gives me strength to push forward through the end of the very hot season here. I believe this year has been the most difficult for me personally.

As Donald's work load has required him to be away so much of the time, the farming responsiblities have fallen to me. Now I am not a strapping young buck that has the strength to toss bales around or wrestle with heavy machinery, so when those challenges would arise, I simply had to wait until Donald came to take care of things for me. If I ran into a problem first thing in the day, the progress for that day would come to a halt. This has made me very frustrated at times. The solution, albiet late in the season, was to try and hire a helper. That proved to be a challenge in and of itself. With the controversy involving the immigration within the state of AZ, the risk of hiring a worker of Hispanic descent could get one in trouble if the worker proved to be illegally in the country. So we looked to high school aged kids that might be looking for summer work. Many leads fell to the side, as calls were not returned. I really need someone available during the week to help as needed as I am working the fields or any of the other projects around the ranch, but high school has started back in session. We finally had some help this past weekend from a young man from Casa Grande.

As Donald and I are scrambling to get things done on the weekends (assuming Donald doesn't have to work), the tumbleweeds are continuing to grow. I decided to have the tumbleweeds cleared as a starting point for our helper, and then have him load some hay for delivery. The idea was that Donald and I were to try and get some repairs done while our helper worked. As the day wore on, I realized the tumbleweed clearing was being done, but not to my expectations. A lot of the weeds were left and with just the humidity in the air it seems, could rejuvenate and would probably be as lush as they were in a matter of a week or two. Not really, but those blasted weeds are hardy pests. So that task was not going to be done by this particular helper to my specifications. He was able to load hay and worked with Donald so that Donald could show him how to organize and eventually load on his own. Donald usually takes an hour tops to load a full trailer for delivery. As it turns out our helper was not able to keep up with Donald in strength or speed. The next load we had him work on his own and it took him almost two hours to get the job done.

Our time is valuable, and we have worked hard to make sure that expenses are always kept to a minimum for the obvious reasons. We decided that the per hour payment was not effective and the tasks were not being done to our expectations. We have offered him a project for a price and have calculated how much time it has taken Donald to do the work in the past. We offered him a price that allows him double the time it should take. We want him to shovel the last section of the concrete irrigation ditch that accumulates the sand and dirt from the irrigation water. We need it cleared so that we can move forward on preparing the fourth fields for planting. Something that is becoming more pressing as the season wanes. We will see if this chore is accepted, and evaluate the work to decide if we need to try someone else.

The mosquitoes have been an issue, but we are hopeful to have a solution to this problem soon.

The house that was on the property when we arrived is another culprit in the frustration factor. The house is very small for four people, with no real storage, and it provides a constant flow of repairs to keep the basics functioning (water, electric, and structure). "Cabin Fever" was definitately a contibuting factor to the difficult season. The ongoing diversions of the repairs on the house has taken our time away from the ranch projects that we have wanted to complete.

It seems that the demands of the ranch as a whole really have stolen from our family this season. Maybe the realization that Erin is a senior in high school and will potentially be leaving next year makes my feel guilty for not spending more time with her and the family in general. I suppose everyone has these concerns to some extent. I have made a family getaway a priority in October when both girls have a fall break. I just hope I am successful in the preparation, planning and execution of what turns into another project.

I have ordered our broilers for our first attempt at raising meat chickens. I am excited about this and have worked out a setting that will be minimal work on my part once the chickens are put to pasture. I will talk about this at another time. The lambs should be going in for processing later this month, early October at the latest. I am seriously considering holding on to one of the rams and getting a ewe to provide us with some "workers" for next season.

I would like to put together a mobile pen that would conform to the borders that divide our hay fields. The sheep would be put in the pens and they would eat down the grasses that grow on the borders, leaving the fields to grow for haying. They would "earn their keep." I have lots of these ideas, just no time to move on them....

The fall should be exciting with the processing of our first bunch of Bourbon Red turkeys. We will have a surplus for our needs, so I will calculate the cost of raisng the birds and sell accordingly. I intend on doing the same with the broilers. With all the uncertainty of our food industry, the opportunity to avoid the unknowns as much as possible is satisfying. The fact that we have the ability to do so is rewarding. Rewarding in so many ways.

Nonsoon for Us

As it turns out, we have not really gotten any significant rain for our fields this monsoon season. Now don't get me wrong there has been rain, some severe flooding rain, but not for our fields. At one point the rain came down so hard and fast that it couldn't soak into the desert fast enough and flash flooding almost prevented me from returning home one afternoon. The Greene Wash was running at 3 feet and there was no way I would attempt crossing anything like that in my Toyota Prius. There is a rather round about way to avoid the wash, but the road runs high above the wash and is a rather frightening 60 foot drop. As the rain water runs off this high road the sides erode making it very dangerous if you were to break away the edge of the roadway. Ironically, we had only gotten approximately a 1/2" on our fields, as the rain all fell just north of us.

It rained just the other evening. It was a powerful downpour in the city of Casa Grande. I was very frightened that we would have wet hay and felt devastated. I contacted our neighbor and we hadn't gotten anything. I was very relieved, but we sure haven't caught any breaks in the "free water" allotment.

We put up about 25 ton of hay this past weekend. I experimented with higher stacks, trying to maximize the space under the hay barn. I am getting rather spoiled having my car under shade this season. It is truly amazing the temperature difference in the car when it is in the shade versus direct sun. I will be busy scheduling deliveries for the next couple weeks. Of course, Donald will be busy loading and unloading hay, which will be exhausting in the heat we are having currently.

I am trying to find someone to help out around the ranch with some of the more strenuous tasks that I can't managed. With Donald working as much as he does for his "real" job, many of the tasks fall to me and I am not capable of doing many of them. My first lead panned out, but fear not, I have another lead. It is discouraging not being able to make any progress, only maintaining (and barely at that).

We had to have the baler "tuned up." And when we started baling this current cycle things were not going well. The bales were bursting open because of the string adjustment and the wiper arm. I had to deal with the service guys that were sent out to re-adjust the baler. I suppose most guys don't expect a woman to be out doing farm work and these guys didn't seem sure as to how to interact with me. I found them patronizing. I don't fault them, it is probably a novelty to deal with a woman in such circumstances, but it is offensive. It took them around 4-5 hours to finally get things baling properly.

As a result of their intentions to just bale one row of hay to test the baler (that didn't prove enough since they failed to get it adjusted in that length of time), and then another, and then another.....they ended up baling erratically. What I mean by that is they chose random rows to bale and ended up dropping bales into windrows that then had to be rolled off. When I bale a field, I usually come up the eastern most row and then return down the middle. Each looping pass is repeated this way starting to the east and returning just west of the last baled row. You can only turn the tractor with the attached baler to the right, so you are limited to the pattern to take on the field.

By the time they got done testing the baler, the rows were a disaster for me. When it came time to run the bale wagon through to pick up the bales, which also turns to the right, the bales were in total disarray in the field. After you have developed a routine and time is of the essence, this is not appreciated in the least. What normally can be a comfortable ride in the air conditioned cab of the tractor, picking up bales, turned into an aerobic workout (climbing up and down the stairs on the cab to reposition bales) and a sun burn to boot! I was picking up bales for 6 hours with a delivery in between and then another 2 hours to finish up at 11:30 pm Sunday night.

The experience of stacking hay with this particular bale wagon is nerve racking. You really are as tight as a guitar string anticipating the crash of the stack. Knowing that the stack has to be rebuilt for the next to have a chance at staying upright, leaning on the last stack, is enough for me to do my absolute best manuvering and placement to avoid. By the time I got done, I could not get to sleep for hours.

I met with the mosquito guy today. He incorporated me into a trip from Texas. I am excited about the possibility of decreasing the mosquitoes by 90%. Yep that's the percentage he quoted. Not that I could figure out any real quantitative measurement of that (I'm sure there is some way, but I'm not standing out there counting them!). He told me the real problem is my neighbor's dirt ditch that is located just to the south west of us. He showed me the larvae that consumed the available standing water in the ditch left from my neighbor's watering this weekend. He told me in this one relatively small area, millions of mosquitoes were developing. UGH.

There are two products forms that we will use according to his plan; granuals and briquets. The granuals will be spread over the neighbor's dirt ditch a day or so after he waters (I will have to coordinate with him to see if he is willing to cooperate with this). These will also be spread over our fields just after a cutting cycle on dry ground. After watering, we are to deposit the briquets into the port holes where standing water accumulates at the head ends of our fields. He told me we were doing a good job at managing the water to minimize the time that it stands on the fields. I was pleased, for this has been our intention. The briquets are designed to last for 90 days. They are reactivated each time they are in contact with water. The granuals will need to be re-distributed every 30-45 days. He suspects that this may be lengthened for our fields don't seem to be the culprit for the mosquito egg deposits.

We do have 3 different types of mosquitoes, with elaborate latin names. Two are what he referred to as vectors, meaning they have the potential for spreading West Nile Disease. The one that we have the most of are not carriers, but have the unique gift for laying eggs that remain dormant until water arrives. It seems that through the past 6 years of irrigating and the addition of neighbors that irrigate, we have increased the population of this particularly gifted mosquito. The vector mosquitoes are the ones that would be developing in my neighbor's ditch. As he described the population explosion, these 100.000 mosquitoes breed and each have 100,000 more and they each have 100,000.....and if they didn't hatch this watering they will the next opportunity.

He developed a plan for us that would be the least expense for both product and equipment. He explained that there are better ways and more convenient ways to distribute, but this plan will keep the cost to a minimum. He also recommended a "knock-down" product that we can put in our sprayer that we currently have, for times when the wind blows the mosquitoes in from distant fields and they grab hold of things on our property and hang around for blood meals. He recommended having this handy.

He was an interesting fellow that has traveled all over the world to mosquito-problem areas. He has survived West Nile Disease and had frightening statistics on the other mosquito-related diseases that are prevalent even here in the US. He was able to talk about the mosquitoes by their names and geographic locations, life cycles, diseases carried, and other such information that just succeeded in making me itch!!

I am hopeful that his 90% decrease is accurate. I just can't see continuing our work here if it will be overrun with mosquitoes preventing us from getting our work done, let alone enjoying an evening under our star-packed skies.

Time to go and get the meter reading for the books.

Working With Nature

We will be cutting this weekend again. We had to adapt to Mother Nature's contribution a couple weeks ago. We had flash flooding just north of us. In the end, our fields probably only got about a half inch. You wouldn't have thought it after seeing the condition of the roads and desert and the rushing waters. We irrigated to fill out the fields' growth for this next cutting. Now we have a tremendously thick and long stand to hay.

The thicker and longer the grass, the longer the curing time....theoretically. But with the desert temperatures we are forecast it won't take too long. It will be interesting to see how the baler handles the hay. We had to replace the knives that cut the baling twine and general maintenance completed these past couple weeks. I hope that it works like a charm, for it will be taxed with the workload of the next cutting.

Summer is dragging on, but we are making plans for the fall. We intend on seeding the horse pastures for a winter pasture this year. We have in the past, but we really didn't put too much effort into the planting. We used a broadcast seeder and watched oodles of black birds feast before the seeds could germinate. Drill seeding may be the way to go. We decided that the winter pasture will be our main focus for our horses' feed this year. The summer Bermuda pasture was a dismal failure this season. The Common Bermuda has taken over the field, but really is not growing well. The mosquitoes prevented the horses from being out like we would like for their peace of mind and of course feeding. We're hoping that the mosquitoes won't be a problem through the winter and we will turn the horses out as much as possible this year.

Time to get the mower on the tractor for the first phase of this cutting.

Tumbleweed

This past weekend was spent entirely on clearing tumbleweed from the sides of the irrigation ditches. I included a link giving some more information about this incredibly invasive, fast-growing, prickly menace (just click on the word Tumbleweed above). I have heard that at some point Russian Thistle aka tumbleweed was used to try to prevent soil erosion. Like so many things we try to use for some seemingly good purpose, there are side effects. These weeds grow so quickly and are so opportunistic. If a jack rabbit pees these tumbleweeds set up shop and start growing. I also have heard that in their very early tender beginnings that they are edible. I haven't tried them, but the stage is short-lived at best, for they develop into little prickly branches very quickly. Gloves are a must, for the needles are very fine like some cactus, and difficult to get out of the skin.

At the edges of the concrete irrigation ditches, the tumble weed seeds are deposited and make use of any water leakage to get started. If you sat long enough, you could probably see them grow. The problem with them of course is that not only do they make things look unkept, but they become huge vegetative walls blocking access to the ditches. Eventually, the wind blows and they collapse into the ditches and drag at the top of the oncoming water. They catch debris in the water and create back ups that can overflow (that water new seeds to start their growth). In the meantime, another row has started to replace the now fallen wall, continuing the cycle. When it comes time to check the water levels or ports, you can't see through the tumbleweeds if left unchecked.

The other problem is the little seeds drop into the ditch and catch in the silt and begin growing within the ditch. Before you know it more silt has been built up around the weed and all kinds of weeds start growing in the ditch. With the growth of weeds in and around the ditches, the plants provide a hiding place for all kinds of creatures. The ground squirrels/gophers, lizards, rattlesnakes, snakes in general, and my least favorite, mosquitoes. The mosquitoes are blown through the air and hit the tumbleweed obstacles and hunker down and wait for me.

First we put the scraper on the tractor and scraped just to the outside of the ditch. Unfortunately, a lot of debris falls into the ditch during this process. Sounds easy enough, but the time it takes to change implements and drive the length of the ditches at a mile an hour if you're speedy, takes most of the day. Next the blade is put on the tractor. This tilts and angles so that we can grab more of the tumble weeds that are hanging on and drooped into the ditches. During this process a mound of dirt builds up in the middle of the access road. There are still a lot of tumbleweeds that even survive this scraping. Again, it takes hours to go through all of the ditch edging. Finally (at least for us this weekend), the scraper goes back on and Donald goes into the ditch. He cuts any surviving tumbleweed trunks still rooted in the soil, and flips the entire plant up out of the ditch so that the scraper can scoop the stragglers up and take them away. This also re-levels the mound of dirt that has built up. That doesn't sound too bad, except for the 115 degree temperatures that we have to work in, because if it is during the cooler time of the day the mosquitoes are 20 times worse. And they are bad even mid-day, because their hiding places are being rustled and disturbed. Donald worked with a long-sleeved shirt and mosquito netting, and the ditch edges are now clear.

Unfortunately, we still have to manufacture a ditch bucket to scrap the ditches clear of the silt build-up and any remaining weeds that have rooted within. They have ditch cleaning machinery, but Donald has some ideas for a modified back hoe bucket that we will try. It is a rather delicate procedure to scrap the ditches, because the concrete is rather fragile in places. It can easily be cracked. Any cracks become more area for weed seeds to take root, and water to leak out from the ditch and not necessarily into our fields.

The third fields look fantastic. We even scraped the field edges just for good measure. We are hoping to irrigate by this weekend to keep the fields growing their best. We also received the analysis back from the lab for our hay this week. And gained another client.... the owner of the lab purchased hay this week too.

I will take the time to post the results with an explanation at another time. It is time for me to put on my taxi cab hat and pick Emma up from her first day at high school. This fall should prove to be rather tightly scheduled, especially until haying season is over.

Monsoon Season

Saturday evening our first sign of the monsoon season reared its ugly head. The dust storms are incredibly dangerous if you are unfortunate enough to have to drive through them. It is equivalent to the "white out" of a blizzard. We arrived home safely and really anticipated only the dust and strong winds. However, the thunderclaps boomed around 1:00am and the rain began to pound the roof.

It was the first rainfall in years that I didn't awaken to a panic worrying about the hay being uncovered or a tarp being shredded by the strong winds exposing the hay. Our hay barn did its job and I slept with an occasional explosive thunderbolt jolting me awake, but drifting back to sleep fairly easily. Of course the next morning when we realized the mud was bad enough that we could not get the truck out to deliver hay, we had some concern. Fortunately, the heat dried things up and we were able to get the deliveries done, albiet in the heat and humidity of the day.

This season will not be as stressful as past because of the hay barn. The devastation of losing tons of hay to the rain was very difficult. The tarping of the hay was futile. The sustained winds that we get turn heavy duty tarps to gauze-like material. We invested in a tarp that was used on a tractor trailer and could never get anything heavy enough to keep it from being air-lifted and thrown clear of the hay stacks. So we are thankful for the hay barn this season. As the hay accumulates, the vehicles will get moved from the highly sought shade. Eventually, vehicle shade, well reservoir shade, pasture shade and tree shade will be added through out the property. "Grow little trees, grow...."

I am trying to be positive and acknowledge the progress through the worst of the hot summer. The girls begin school next week, and I always have associated the start of a school year with cooler temperatures. It may be an illusion, but it gives my mind fleeting moments of peace. With the start of the school year, Emma will be gone for the full day of school. She has been my ranch buddy for many years now. I will take on some of her chores when necessary, so that she can go to traditional school. Erin will be a senior this year and will spend part of her day riding some of our horses. The fair-weathered rider that I am, will hope to join her when the temperatures really do cool some.

With the start of the school year, the ongoing concern regarding flooding begins. As the rain floods the Tucson area the water is somehow diverted north to the Greene wash. When this wash runs to high we really have no access out. When the rains were anticipated in the past we would have Erin stay at her grandparent's. But they don't return from the Oregon ranch until mid-October, so we have to be creative. There is a rather tricky route that follows dirt farm roads along the wash west for awhile, and we can use that if there is no rain here, as the roads are passable. If it rains here, the roads are very muddy and we can't drive on them safely. So the monsoon season that extends into the school year always leave my anxious. Now if I could find a monster truck for the express purpose of crossing the high water in the wash and manuevering on the muddy roads, that would knock a few points off my stress factor.

The other change that has occurred since the start of the monsoon season is the return of the toads. We were just questioning what had happen to the enormous number of toads that we had had in the past. We had not seen a single toad until the Saturday night the rain came. They must have known it was coming for they came out and started eating the numerous crickets that have suddenly appeared. The Colorado River toad and the Spadefoot toad are our resident species. The Colorado River toad is poisonous and excretes its poison from glands behind its eyes when tormented. We have had a dog get a hold of one of these and luckily survived. The neighbors' dog was not so lucky. "Moonie" the chocolate Lab halucinated for three days, salivating buckets of slobber. When you looked into her eyes, her eyes would roll around unable to focus. If you can catch a dog with a toad, you must imediately flush their tongue with a long blast from a hose. This will remove some of the poison. I worry about our young Pyrenese getting a hold of one this season. They love to play and something as tempting as a toad may be a problem. They have however seemed to have learned that the rattlesnakes are serious business and have developed a distinct bark that alerts us now. We had our second rattlesnake in the yard just last week. Even the next morning the dogs were jumpy when they smelled the lingering scent of the snake. If the toads are back, they better eat their share of the mosquitoes or they are not welcome at all.

Hot, Humid July

We've been very busy with the latest cutting. This is the second cutting for the season on the third fields and will probably be one of the best. We will take a sample in to have it tested. Of course, now is the laborious time for Donald, as he hand-loads the trailer and unloads to clients. I will organize the deliveries, depending on the number of bales different clients are needing. I think Donald prefers the partial loads, as he gets a break as we travel to the next delivery site.

The irrigation water is running now as I type. It will be interesting to see how quickly the water is able to travel to the end of the field now that the grass has been mowed. The last irrigation on field 3B took 12 hours. Normally, it would take 5-6 hours, but the grass was so long and thick, the water had to really push its way through. As it was pushing through it was also soaking into the ground, so it took a great deal more water than our "flash" waterings.

The weather is incredibly hot. The thermometer here has read between 110-117 degrees for the past couple weeks. Now the humidity has arrived. Monsoon rains seem inevitable, but nothing so far. The horses have been able to go out to the pasture at night, since the mosquitoes have waned. I bring them into the barn by noon, so they're in for the heat of the day. Pasture 1B finally has enough growth that it is worth it to have the horses out to graze. 1A is still too short, so I toss some hay in from time to time.

Time to get back to irrigating.

June Status

We have decided to focus our energy on the established third fields and planting the fourth fields. The second field is not growing like it should. We suspect that a common Bermuda has taken over completely and compaction is limiting the roots efficiency. Common Bermuda is like turf grass for a lawn. Some giant Bermuda seed that you purchase will have a small percentage of common. Unfortunately the common chokes out the giant over time. In the meantime, the same is true of our horse pastures. We have decided to fence off the second fields and put the horses out to graze the fields. The horse pastures will be given some time to put some height on and eventually we will put the horses back on the pasture. We will have to rip and replant the second field with giant Bermuda at a later time.

The third fields look fantastic; weed free and lush green. This cutting will be terrific. We plan on having the cutting tested at the Wetmore Labs, so that we have an idea of the nutritional content. I would love to put some of this away for our horses, but I suspect it will all be sold before we can get it out of the field. We have this huge hay barn ready for stacks, but we are selling the hay so quickly it never makes it into the barn.

The animals seem to be dealing with our high temperatures. I was concerned as to how our Jacob lambs would handle the heat. They are in complete shade and have an enclosed area for privacy/security. So far they have only been eating our Bermuda grass hay. I also have a salt block for them and give them baking soda every few days to help their tummies. They have "hay bellies" and giving them the baking soda makes me feel like I am doing something to help prevent bloat. I am told that the alfalfa is generally the culprit when it comes to bloat, but just to be safe they will get their baking soda. A "hay belly" is just a big round belly.

We set up an poult pen next to the turkey trio. It too is completely shaded. Today I set up the mister so that both turkey pens have a mist spray. The little ones are doing well so far and are thriving. I took a couple turkey eggs yesterday (Emma has stopped incubating until the weather cools again), and stuck them under "Quacky" the mutt duck. I may have a couple more poults in a month.

"Quacky" is our resident duck. She really doesn't serve a purpose other than she is the offspring of a couple of Emma's favorite ducks. "Quacky" is a devoted mother to her her infertile eggs; poor thing. Yesterday when I put the turkey eggs in her nest, I removed some of the older duck eggs to throw out. She seemed perfectly happy to accept the speckled eggs and was on them this morning when I fed and watered her. This duck is one of the loudest I've ever heard.

The chickens are coping with the heat so far. The misters were moved into the coop house, so that the Orpingtons in the hutch can have some cooling as well. I repaired a hanging metal feeder and hung it in the coop yesterday, so that there will be less waste (ground feeders get dirt kicked into them and get kicked over occasionally) and the bugs or rodents don't have easy access. I can also fill the container with a generous reserve, so that the chickens always have food available.

The tortoises are active morning and evening. They are enjoying their open pen and have been chowing down on the greens, vegetable and fruit scraps. They are voracious eaters and rather interesting to watch at mealtimes. They remind me of the computer generated dinosaurs in movies. I remember thinking that the movie dinosaurs didn't look real to me, but after watching the tortoises I see how the robotic movements actually are realistic.

The grapes and trees seem to be doing well. The blackberries are struggling. I may have lost one already. I noticed this morning that it looks like some rabbits may have gotten to one of the Thompson grapes. I will have to secure the chicken wire to keep those cottontails and jackrabbits out.

The chicken stalls are still in progress. We work on them as we have time or temperatures allow. When the thermometer is reading 114 degrees, it is hard to get motivated to go back out into the heat to do anything. We are getting ready to put up the panels that will seperate the first two stalls.

The dogs are all shedding out their hair coats. Titan the pyrenese has the thickest coat of all. We take turns brushing him daily. Some days we can brush out a couple grocery bags full of shed hair. Needless to say the vacuuming chore is demanding. We let Titan in for the day and out at night. Zeus stays out day and night. He has claimed the underside of the house for the cooler temps, but doesn't allow Titan under with him. Bear is making due with horse and hay barns for shelter from the sun. He occasionally will take a dip in the horse trough, and always enjoys when we irrigate. Generally, he is a muddy mess, but he is a desert survivor.

We will be irrigating again this week, so that we will have our next cutting sometime during the beginning of July. We want to make sure we get a good length for nice bale flakes. I think we will do an overnight watering, so that we can get it all done and over with. We will start around 2:00 pm and switch fields through the night until all the fields have been watered, ending sometime the next morning.

We have almost made it through June. May was pleasant. Not to bad, but we still have July and August to survive. Here's to desert survival.

First Cutting

The first cutting usually is rather bumpy (literally as well as figuratively), as the fields grow at different rates, machinery seems to need to work out kinks after resting for the winter, and our tolerance for the heat has not developed. The growth rate for the fields is varied, resembling a bad hair cut growing out. As the ground has compacted the growth is slower, where the gophers have tunneled the aerated soil produces a long-bladed, dense, green patch. As a result the mower has an inconsistent feed of grass to cut, sometimes sparse, sometimes choking. We were fortunate this first cutting that the mower didn't choke on wads of hay, locking up, and overheating. When this does happen, the PTO has to be shut down immediately, and the task of clawing through the grass to free up the cutting blades is required. I have to admit when this has happened in the past, it was early morning and lying on my back under the mower (turned off), the smell of the freshly cut grass was so fragrant, I actually took a moment to enjoy the smell. Of course by the end my fingers were cramped and the moment of enjoyment was a fleeting memory. But no problems with that this time. Donald and I rode together on this part of the process and it went smoothly.
Raking requires the mower to be removed from the tractor and the next implement attached. Sometimes we just use the little red tractor with the open cab for this, but the back hoe was still attached and we will be needing it soon for other projects. It is not the easiest implement to remove nor re-attach. So the big John Deere pulled the rake and all went well. The trick is to figure out which way the rake throws the wind row and make sure there is enough room for the tractor pulling the baler to make it through for the next step of the process.

Dust devils are a very irritating phenomenon in the desert when you have light, airy hay neatly arranged in wind rows on a field. For our first cutting, I arrived with the tractor towing the baler all ready to bale the hay, when I discovered that a devil had driven its way across the field dragging my beautiful rows with it! Progress was thwarted! I went back to get the gator with a pitch fork to re-assemble the rows for baling. Now this is 10 acres of hay. The tractors were claimed by other implements, so re-raking didn't seem like the solution. Needless to say after the first 5 acres, I squinted through my sweat-filled eyes at the pick-up truck and decided it was going to work, pulling the rake. The devils had reeked havoc and re-raking was a necessity. As I fired up the truck the low fuel light lit up for me. Our teenage daughter, in attempts to make it home by curfew, had not filled up the truck and left it empty for me to discover. My nice morning of baling was delayed. But once the truck was fueled up and the rake was on, progress began again.

The day was hot by the time the baler was chugging away, but the air conditioned cab kept me going. The baling went smoothly with only one broken bale. Sometimes when the strings transfers to the next spool, there is a glitch in the first tie or two and the bale drops out the back of the baler and explodes. I leave them till the end, re-bale them, and drop them crosswise on the field so that they don't go to hay clients. The re-baling re-cuts the grass and the flakes of the bale don't hold together well. I take them for our animals and open them in a hay cart, so that they are contained and feed from it. Overall the baling went well. The way I proceed with each part of the process is that if something goes wrong and I am not able to muscle through, shake/jiggle or kick something to work, then I quit until Donald comes home and fixes it. Normally, that keeps me sane. However, Donald has been sick the last couple of weeks and the pressure was on to get it all done, so that he didn't have to fix anything.

The final portion of the job; picking up all the bales and stacking them. Now I have developed a rather refined stacking technique of which I am rather proud. I enjoy showing the stacks to Donald when he comes home and he expresses his relief that he didn't have to do it by hand. Simple pleasures. The bale wagon picks up the bales as you drive by, drags them into a rack, tosses them up on a table and continues until the table is full. The table then lifts up vertically and tips the layer slightly past vertical, leaning against some fingers. This continues for each layer, with a slight modification in the arrangement on the tie tiers, until the stack is loaded. I then back the wagon into the hay barn and tip the whole stack to a vertical position on the ground and push away to leave it standing. During this pushing, I chant to the stack "stay up, stay up." And if it does the process continues, leaning one stack against the next. It is very satisfying.

Oh but not this time. The first layer loaded and lifted, and dropped one bale off the uppermost corner. I shut everything down and proceeded to crawl up on the table and hoist the bale up to my thighs, pressing against the layer of bales still in place. My technique, because I lack the upper body strength to throw bales at will, is to roll the bale up overhead and finally push it onto the open space above. I discovered while the bale was overhead why it had been rejected. It was what we refer to as a "banana bale." One string ties tighter on one side of the bale than the other and the bale has the inclination to bow like a banana. As I realized this, I was able to lower it and remove it from the wagon for a later pick up for our use. I tricked the wagon into picking up one more bale and called the girls for help. Remember these are teenage girls that are not predisposed to farming activities. Begrudgingly they arrived. I gave them instructions on how we would lift, roll and press the bale up to the top. I forgot Emma wasn't as tall as Erin and I, until the bale was at an angle pointing down towards Emma, with Erin screaming, "push Emma!" And Emma screaming, "I can't reach that high!" Erin and I scrambled into new positions and strong-armed the blasted bale into position. We were covered in hay, spitting it from our mouths. But I was then able to move forward, and the girls zipped back to the house before more was asked of them.

I should have known things were not going to go well from there. The wagon started pulled stunts like leaving the table up and then after pushing and shoving on my part, lowered itself at an excrutiatingly slow pace, almost in spite of me. The rail that tosses the bales to the table would stay up and finally a bale was stuck in the shoot. I wrestled with that bale and pulled and tried to push it back where it came from, until I decided that my attempts to save Donald from any additonal labor were defeated. I took my gloves and left the tractor in the field with the bale wagon choking on the bale, and dragged myself back to the ranch house.

As it turned out Donald had to hand load all the bales into the trailer. He also had to fix the bale wagon. Which was the bale wagon's fault because it didn't put something back where it belonged before I shoved another bale in its throat. It better get its act together before the next cutting or I'm not sure what I'll do to it.

I am hopeful that the kinks are worked out, and I am more tolerant of the heat if I do have to assist the machinery in its part of the job. The first cutting of the season was anti-climactic because of the mechanical difficulties. But it is done and the irrigation waters are flowing as I peck.

Anticipating the Heat

I suppose the word anticipating could really be replaced with the word dreading. The forecasts are predicting triple digits starting Sunday. We have been fortunate that they have held off this long. Usually the triple digits hit in May. In anticipation of the heat, we have to get organized to provide shade, mist, and plenty of water for all living things on the ranch.

Last year we added misters for the poultry. I find plumbing one of the easiest tasks with pvc and all the neat little fittings available. Misters just require the little mist fittings placed in couplings and set between lengths of pvc. We also put "quick release" attachments on most of our hoses. This allows us to easily change from a spray nozzle to an animal waterer to tree or plant waterers. Every little task that can be shortened makes it much easier to withstand long enough to get the chores done before the intensity of the sun roasts you. A quick release versus unscrewing a hose to get the next task done is appreciated, not to mention prevents your hand from getting burned on the metal end of the hose if the sun has already been at work.

Animals need to be watered early in the morning after the water in the lines has cooled. If we run water mid-day out of the hose, the water is so hot it could scald. The animals should be fed early as well, so that they have an appetite. We are learning that the Great Pyrenese (which are not a hot climate dog) are more apt to eat early in the morning than after the heat of the day. Once the heat comes on full force the animals are looking for anything to protect themselves from the heat, so eating is not a priority. Just after the sun comes up, the animals are the most active. The chickens seem relieved to have the opportunity to run around and scratch in the morning.

I had always learned, coming from the east, that watering at night is not preferred because of the potential for molds to grow. Well, the lack of humidity in the desert seems to negate this watering no-no. I find that the early morning watering works, but night-time allows enough time for the water to seep into the earth. Otherwise, evaporation pulls the water away from the plant. I believe that the night watering works best for trees and larger plants. Gardens with lots of mulching and such seem to be okay with the early morning watering as well. The mulching and overgrowth of the plants limits the evaporation somewhat. Watering in the day where water pools can increase the potential for scalding of plant leaves from the reflection of the sun upwards onto the plant.

Shade for plants and animals is helpful as well. I had tomato plants that survived an entire summer under a sun shade material. The direct sun just seems to be to intense for any plant that is labeled for direct sun. Short of the succulents and cacti, afternoon shade gives plants a much better chance of survival. The sun gets to be too intense for the horses as well. We currently have not put our shades in the horse pastures, so the horses come in for the day and out at night. That is, until the mosquitoes get to be so bad that the horses have to be in at night also. I will rotate them out for a few hours in the early morning and evening and in during the heat and mosquito feeding times.

Lifestyle changes are also in order to get through the desert summer. Outdoor chores really need to be done at sun up and sun down. I understand how the "siesta" came into being. You get up extra early, nap in the heat of the day, and stay up late finishing the day. Unfortunately, there are things that have to be done in the heat of the day, so I have yet to accomplish a "siesta" schedule. The other problem with this schedule is that it is also the mosquitoes' schedule. So clothing to protect from the biting pests becomes a necessity. I dress in Donald's old jeans with a long sleeve shirt buttoned to the neck and down to the wrists. Socks (not ankle-socks but crew or something that covers the ankles) with closed-toe shoes prevent the nasty bites on the feet. I always regret the attempt to dash out in flip flops to do something quickly. I always end up with nasty bites that are quite embarrassing when I'm in public with sandals!

Domestic chores have to be modified to keep the house cool. The use of appliances such as the dishwasher, oven or dryer really need to be during the night. Trying to cook or bake in the summer is miserable! If wash requires cold water, you're just out of luck until late fall when the night time temperatures cool enough to cool the water in the water lines. We now officially have warm or hot water from the water lines only. Cool water has to be cooled in the fridge. Showering requires the cold dial only, because if you add the hot dial, you will burn yourself. And that is coming from someone that likes HOT showers.

I am very thankful that we have an air conditioned cab in our tractor. This allows us to do fieldwork anytime of the day if necessary. Occasionally, I will use the little red tractor that is an open cab for raking or other ranch work in the summer. I have to do it at dawn though, and I have driven with a can of mosquito spray, spraying as I ride through the fields. I set the tractor at the highest speed possible to get the job done without throwing the hay into the next field, just to outrun the mosquitos and create a breeze. I much prefer the John Deere.

Visit to Polyface, Inc in Virginia

We returned from our trip to the east coast. While we were there Donald and I visited the Polyface Farm in Virginia. We spent the morning hiking around the farm, studying the chicken trailers, hog hangouts, broiler rotations, cattle clean up, and poultry butchering station. We talked with several people working on the farm as interns. Matt was spending a year at Polyface learning about the sustainable methods of farming in order to eventually run his own place to provide food for his own future restaurant. He'll spend next year in New England at another farm.

The poultry are all grassfed with lay mash for the layers. They hang out in a fenced in area with a large shelter that is moved every three days, guarded by a Great Pyrenese. The shelter provides the obvious shelter, but also numerous nesting boxes. The shelter is set upon a frame like a sled that makes it mobile. There are also numerous low boxes with 3/4 sheltered, 1/4 wire-topped, that house the broilers, located over another hill. These are moved daily. The manure is high in nitrogen and the constant relocation provides fertilizer for the fields. The cattle were previously located in these fields, evident by the cow pies, from which the birds eat the bugs. Closer to the farmhouse there are several large laying hen barns as well.

The hogs were up over another hill in the woods. We were told that they were there to eat the tubers/roots, and were munching on branches when we visited. The cattle were located around a cluster of outbuildings and we were told that they were "cleaning up." Indeed they were. They were chewing through the weeds that had grown up from the spring rains. We appreciated the fact that the cattle were provided with 24 hour grazing opportunity, so that lying down in the grass, chewing their cud was not thought of as a waste of good grazing time. Grass is plentiful.

We watched the butchering station for a while and talked to a visiting family (ironically from Prescott, AZ) that were helping. They butchered 350 birds that morning and were preparing to cut up many into pieces for sale. A large majority are sold as whole birds, but the pieces drew a larger price for the additional labor.

We are planning on starting some meat poultry during the winter months this coming season. We will attempt to replicate some of the methods that are implemented at Polyface Farms. We will work on a much smaller scale to begin, really just wanting to provide for our family and friends initially. I am curious to see what Salatins' from Polyface think of the Freedom Ranger chickens that they are now just raising.

I chatted with a beef rancher at the Casa Grande Farmers' Market about his farm and our visit to Polyface. He was very excited to hear about it as they will add poultry to their processing this coming year as well. He was familiar with the Freedom Rangers and interested in alternatives to the Cornish Cross commonly raised here for the breast meat. I will have to look into these birds as an option. Emma is opposed to raising most of the birds for meat, but told me that at least the Cornish cross are doomed anyway. They grow too large for their frame and if were not butchered, they would not enjoy a long life anyway because of their mutated size. I appreciated that perspective.

All the trees, grapes and blackberries were mulched this morning. It looks like we will be at 100 degrees very soon. The mosquitoes are terrible already. I contacted the company that manufactures Altosid for information on application rates. I will continue to research mosquito eradication for the rest of my life it seems.

Prison Follow Up

Wonderful news today. The private prison company has withdrawn its proposal for the Casa Grande site. People came together and worked to spread the news and generate community support. The local businesses that would have suffered if the proposal went forward, were instrumental in organizing and providing support for our efforts. It is very satisfying to see the power of the people have an effect.

I started a Facebook Group, NO PRISONS in Casa Grande, AZ that allowed people to post relevant information regarding the opposition to the proposal. I posted all the links I could find regarding the private company and its business relationships in other parts of the world, Letters to the Editor from local papers, and meeting notices to gather everyone to organize. I had never created a "group" on Facebook, so I learned a lot during the process. We ended up with almost 200 members in just a short period of time.

It looks like the company had other sites that they were also pursuing and will put their bid in with another city. My condolences.

Busy Spring

Various activities are in progress around the ranch. Plan B on the tree watering trench was implemented. Plan B was to add water lines with drip heads to water in between the pasture irrigations. My trench slope only allowed the water to travel about half way down the perimeter line of trees. We'll probably have to create a reservoir and add a pump to get the water to travel as far as needed.

I planted a pomegranate tree, one lemon tree, and three blackberry vines. We have an area that we have devoted to the "orchard." This is to the west of the garden area. Currently, around the chicken yard (south of the garden area), we have chain link fencing to keep the predators away from the "ladies." I have always found chain link visually unappealing. So I planted grapevines last season to grow up and cover the fencing. The black berries are now planted in between the grapes to add to the eventually fence cover. We have a long way to go, but they are doing well so far.

Recently, in our attempts to create an easier maintenance schedule for the care of the ranch, we have started to install divided chicken runs. Emma has been very busy hatching and raising her new generations of Black Orpington bantams, Bourbon Red turkeys, White Call ducks, and Black Crested White Polish chickens. Now it is necessary to separate them. We will add six narrow runs with one roof over them. The back side of the shelter will be situated so as to allow us to remove a section of the chain link material. The grapes and black berry vines will be trained to cover this wall and provide some cooling effect as well.

Donald has been spending all of his spare time doing maintenance on the tractors and implements. Changing filters takes an entire afternoon, as there are so many on one tractor. The expense of hydralic oils, engine oils and filters (fuel, air, hydralic, A/C) is high. This is something that really has to be monitored for the annual budget. We will probably have to have the knives sharpened on the baler this year. The baling string that ties the hay bales together is knotted and then cut by the baler. We work with a two string baler so the knives get a good deal of work in a season. The knotters are greased after every cutting. After all the oil changing, the oil has to be contained and transported to a location that recycles used oil. Finding containers that are manageable to do this is a whole other project. The pickup truck is next in line for care.

For identification purposes, we have labeled our fields as 1A and 1B (approximately 2.5 acres each) which are the pastures for the horses to graze, 2A and 2B (10 acres each) where 2A is currently not planted and 2B has the original Bermuda from the previous owner, 3A and 3B (10 acres each) both of which were planted with a giant Bermuda last season, and finally 4A and 4B (10 acres each) which will be planted in the next month or so with giant Bermuda. The giant Bermuda grows taller but maintains a leafy length, as opposed to some varieties that grow tall but develop a stalk on the undergrowth, limiting the nutritious leaf for the hay.

I discovered that all of my Bougainvilla plants did not survive the winter freeze this year. I am very disappointed as they looked so nice in front of the property last fall. The early December freeze was the culprit and I was unaware until it was too late to help them. Live and learn. I really want to replace them for they are very hardy once they are established. I will have to think on that.

The trees are all green now and the winter weeds are turning brown already. I've seen at least six rattlesnakes this spring. Our Great Pyrenese warned us of the one that had made its way to the foundation of the house. The fear that one of the dogs will get bit is on-going for me. Donald takes the rattle snakes with a rake or fork and puts them into a tall barrel and drives them away to relocate them. I am of the mind to just chop them, but Donald has always had a great admiration for all things herpetological, so I respect that. He tells me if the snakes are coming it is because there are rodents to eat. I have become a great fan of the King snake. After watching one eat a Side-Winder rattler in my barn, they are always welcome. We have several that live around the property and I am protective of them. They will eat the young rattlesnakes and that is just fine with me.

It won't be long and the opportunity to open windows at night will be long gone. I am enjoying the refreshing mornings. The mean little biting gnats have had their meals on the horse's ears, but seem to have run their course. We haven't officially broken 100 degrees yet, which is unusual. The first part of May generally brings the triple digits, so I am thankful.

Irrigation

One of the most important jobs when growing grass for hay is irrigation. Through trial and error our irrigation process has evolved. When we first arrived at the property in 2004, we made a visit to the local irrigation office. The Maricopa Stanfield Irrigation and Drainage District (MSIDD) is the group that organizes the distribution of irrigation water from the Central Arizona Project (CAP) canal system to us and our neighbors. This CAP started many years ago and the repayment for the project to the federal government by the state was based on the projected price of cotton many years in advance. The state owed the feds for the construction of the canal system and the details have elluded me despite some shallow investigation. "Desert Cadillac" is a book about the wheelings and dealings of the possession of water in the southwest. Water is like gold to people in the desert.

We made a deposit to MSIDD so that we could order water to irrigate our fields. We call at least 24 hours in advance to schedule the amount of water, approximate time duration, and to what water box it should flow through. In 2004 the cost of water was $21.00 per acre foot. That is a foot of water on an acre of land. The water box houses a meter which tells us the flow rate of the water and a numerical reading that informs us of the total acre feet that runs through to our fields.

The guys that drive all over the district monitoring the meters and starting and stopping water, start their day at 7:00am and make it back to the office by 3:00pm. If you need anything done after hours it will cost us $50.00. The start of our water is delayed by the amount of time it takes for the guys to drive from the office to our water box and the shut off is early enough to give them time to get back to the office by 3:00pm. That means that we have between 8:00am and 2:30pm to get assistance. We have to have their personnel open and close the gate for our water or adjust it to increase or decrease the flow rate. That is the rule, and the big padlock on the chain on the wheel that opens and closes the gate enforces that rule.

Before we could begin watering we had to do some modifications to our ditch that runs from east to west at the southern end of our fields. The previous owner had applied for a grant through the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) to have the ditches (previously dirt) converted to concrete ditches. To make a long story short, the contractor did not do an acceptable job in the opinion of NRCS and told the previous owner not to accept the work. The previous owner told NRCS that he would accept the work, took the check and then told the contractor that he didn't accept the work and wouldn't pay them. So he stole the money. As a result, we can not get any further assistance with the ditches and they are very thin in places and crack easily. We spent time mending cracks and knocked out pre-cut circles in the ditch to attach corrugated pipe to direct the water into the fields at three points on each field. This required hauling a trailer with a generator, concrete mixer, and water in a barrel (gravity fed) to install these. The project seemed endless, but we finally got all but two ports complete. The two remaining port holes are on a field that we have not at this point planted. Donald also spent a great deal of time and energy hand shoveling the ditches of accumulated silt and debris. This has to be done regularly to keep the ditches clear to handle thewater volume, otherwise the water will overflow.

When we started we asked lots of questions about how much water we should expect to use for our fields from local farmers. The advice was to call for shut off when the water reaches 2/3 of the way down the field. Each of our fields are 1/4 of a mile long. The meter measures the amount of water used to calculate our bill. Our very first irrigation was a family affair. We all waited excitedly for the water to make its way down the ditch. Our yellow Lab, Star, was present and made the best of the experience. We even videotaped the "irrigation celebration."

Through the years we have made some changes to our irrigation process. When the mosquitoes hit mid-summer in swarms so thick, the horses had to be put in the barn to prevent them from hurting themselves in their frantic runs to get away from the pests. It was miserable, and we all still dread mosquito season. In attempts to at least minimize the mosquitoes, and decrease water usage (as the price has gradually increased to $45.00 per acre foot by 2009), we began working with calculations of acre feet of water per field. We now take a meter reading and switch water to the next field when the prescribed acre footage has been sent to a field. So at this time we water our 10 acre fields with approximately 1.5 to 2 acre feet per field each irrigation session. This helps to minimize the standing water. Of course, insects have become very adapted to the infrequent rain fall of the desert and complete full life cycles within days when water becomes available. So we still have a mosquito issue, but it certainly is not as bad as when we took the advice of the locals, waiting for 2/3 of the field to be covered.
We have investigated non-toxic products to add to the water in attempts to eradicate the mosquitoes, but haven't found anything that works with our ditch system as of yet. If there is anything that would drive me from this lifestyle it would be the mosquitoes. I just can't tolerate them myself, let alone the severe irritation they are to our animals, and the fear of West Nile disease. We have two Mosquito Magnets running all season long and the horses wear flysheets and fly/mosquito spray. Each horse stall has their own sprayer misting fly repellant intermittently throughout the day and night. As soon as the sun starts to go down, we go inside and don't come out until daybreak through the summer season. The grasses are full of mosquitoes looking for cooler hiding places, so that the horses' noses are covered with mosquitoes while the graze. They have blood spots all over their bodies from smashing blood-filled mosquitoes with their noses.


We receive a monthly statement from MSIDD which informs us of our usage and the balance. We must maintain money in the balance in order to receive water. There are mistakes that appear at times, so it is very important to keep accurate records of the meter readings to compare to the statements. We currently have four land owners that share the leg off of the canal in which the same water box provides the meter readings. It is manageable at this point because for the most part we are able to communicate when we are planning to water and coordinate any "handing off" of the water. I always will call into the dispatcher to make them aware of the meter readings and time at which any exchange from us to another or vice versa occurs. In the future as we increase the number of users on the ditch, it will be necessary to start our own group with a designated water master to coordinate water assignments with the locals and MSIDD. We still haven't gotten too far with this project, probably because we know it involves a great deal of research and clarifying the legal ramifications of the responsibility.

One of the on-going challenges of the irrigation process, particularily for me, is the tumbleweeds that tumble across the desert and into the ditches. There are points along the ditch that have turns or piping that the debris will get clogged. I try to clear the ditches when they are dry. I am strong enough to toss dry tumbleweeds, but if the wind is blowing them in once the water is in the ditch, I am in for a weight lifting experience. There have been times that a clog has overflowed and I have to fork the compressed debris out as fast as possible, so as not to wash out a roadway or waste gallons of water (that we pay for). I have been in tears struggling to continue pulling debris out, laughing at myself crying in self pity and from the burning pain in my shoulder muscles. See I irrigate during the week when Donald is away at work, and I am on my own to do the job. I am very thankful when there is no wind on an irrigation day.

Another challenge to the ditch system is the gophers that dig from upwards of 50 yards away, up to the concrete ditch. They dig out vacancies below the ditch that make it vulnerable to cracking. Once a crack occurs the water will leak through the gopher's tunnel system to a lone hole yards away, where the water accumulates quickly. The vegetation is always thriving in these areas. We have tried to pour concrete into the holes to fill, but the space is so vast that we discovered that it never fills. We patch cracks now. We also drive heavy equipment next to the ditches in order to crush any pockets that the gophers have dug and to smash the tunnel systems to stop up the water passages.

At this time we have developed a day to day irrigation which allows us to sleep through the night, or a one-nighter that requires us to switch from field to field after approximately 5-6 hours if the flow rate is 5 cfs. The flow rate has to be below 7 cfs or the water will overflow the ditches. At that speed the water can't force itself through the port holes fast enough and will eventually spill over the ditch. We have worked it out so that the 4.5-5 cfs flow rate allows us enough time to water the three planted fields overnight with out requiring the assistance of the irrigation personnel that would cost additional money. This is assuming that they get the cfs set correctly before they leave or that there are no scheduled changes in the night that may increase or decrease the flow rate. Decreases are less of a problem. We just water longer. Increases are a problem. If the water is coming too fast we finish watering before any one is on duty and we have no where to send the additional water.

Today is and irrigation of one of the horse pastures. This field only requires approximately .5 acre feet to irrigate sufficiently. However, today I will be testing the tree watering trench that cuts into the northern or low end of the pasture and feed northward to all of our newly planted trees. I am hoping to use this method of watering so that I can eventually discontinue the process of hauling water from our well in the front loader of the tractor to water each individual tree. I will have to do so until the trees are established and from time to time when the summer temperatures become extreme this first year. Eventually, I would like to add trenches with tree wells around the various horse areas (arenas, roundpens) in order to provide some shade and of course the beauty of trees.

I have to go and close the neighbor's gates so that the water will make its way to our property and dig out a few clumps in my tree trench, so the water will make its way to the trees this morning. Nothing like a little manual labor to start my day.

Balancing Ranch, Family, and Community

Lately I have been very busy with the challenges of juggling the various tasks and obligations of the demands of the ranch, family schedules, and concerns regarding the developing community. We have two daughters that have their areas of interest. Many require lengthy drives to get to scheduled classes, lessons, or activities. As we are situated out of the limits of the nearest city, Casa Grande, even simple tasks such as grocery shopping require at least 45 minutes driving round trip. When there is a trip to town planned, it is just that "planned." Every errand is coordinated with the mental map drawn out, so as to mark everything on the list. When we are going to the "city," that is further north in the valley, coolers are packed to take advantage of the markets that are currently unavailable in Casa Grande. It becomes a race around the city to accomplish all the errands before a class or lesson is over. I use my Blackberry task list to organize the errands, with accompanying alarms, so that I am urged forward to the next, for time is running out and then "Ding" time to pick someone up and go back to the ranch.

The day to day chores of the ranch generally have become automated. The care and feeding of the animals is a pretty set routine that we take for granted now that we have worked out all the kinks, making it all flow without any real disruptions. I suppose the dogs are the ones that require the attention to detail. We have acquired several dogs that have been abandoned in the desert. One adopted us after realizing there was usually someone or something here at all times to keep him company. His name is Bear and he is truly a desert survivor. He must be upwards of ten years of age at this point. I will be supplementing his diet with some glucosamine, as his hips seem to be giving him trouble these days. We have two Great Pyrenese/Border Collie mixes. They were abandoned by the guys managing the sheep at one of the fields several miles away. I suppose the fact that the pups were crosses was enough of a reason to leave them behind. The pups had a rough start and have a tendency to be too aggressive for my comfort, but we intended on them to be our "security patrol." We had both the Pyrenese, Titan and Zeus, neutered to avoid complicating the dynamics of our "pack." I can't imagine how aggressive they would have been if they had remained "fully intact." Their aggression is directed at other dogs, but they do their job alerting us when something or someone is skirting our property. They have worked out a heirarchy within our "pack." Fearing for Bear's safety, he has been banished from the immediate area surrounding the house, staying outside the fence. Zeus is the alpha male, often putting Titan in his place. It is disturbing to all of us to have to witness these battles, but interfering only makes it more aggressive and longer lasting. Over time Zeus seems to have developed a specific posturing that signals his dominance, standing rigid with his long tail curled around the back of Titan, growling momentarily, until he is assured that Titan understands his place once again, avoiding the snapping teeth and all-out fights.

As a result of this continual heirarchal battle, care and delicacy is required at feeding time. These dogs all know that the humans are the real leaders and have been through all of the training establishing this fact. We can take away their food at anytime during their meal or make them sit and wait until given the release to eat. But we have learned that the easiest way to get through their meal time is to physically seperate them. The release back into their territory must be done in a certain order as well to prevent any squirmishes.

So why do I acknowledge these conflicts? When it comes time for the family to make a trip away from the ranch, it is necessary to find someone to take over these chores. We have never done this in all the years that we have been here. When we traveled to the John Day ranch, we hauled all the animals with us, even the rabbit that we had at the time. But once we invested in the Bermuda fields in Casa Grande, we were required to be here through out the summer growing season. As we accepted our long summers in Casa Grande, we accumulated more and more animals and chores to go along with them through the years. As I have said, we have a comfortable routine that any one of us is capable of doing if it falls to our charge. But to ask someone else to step in conjures images of training sessions to review the processes and procedures, making the temptation to leave someone behind if travel is required, very appealing.

And so we have continued now for the last six years that we have resided on the ranch, always having a family member present. But the time has come to make a family trip back to Maryland. Donald's mom has passed away and it is time for all of us to return to the east. We have not been there together since 2000. The girls were just little toddlers really. To make the trip, Erin will have to miss a couple days of school, and Emma will miss a couple rehearsals for Les Sylphides, a community service obligation, and piano lessons.

It is so tempting to bail out and stay home, sending the rest of the family off to Maryland. But it has to be done at some time, so I have begun to pre-plan. We have to consider the irrigation schedule. In order to keep the fields alive, the irrigation schedule has to be manipulated so that the fields will not require watering while we are away. The irrigation of the horse pasture must be planned so that both sides of the divided pasture are dry enough for the horses to be turned out while we are gone, but not so dry that we lose the pasture. Refilling water and visual inspections of the horses would be necessary. If the fields aren't dry enough then the horses have to stay in the barn, requiring hay feeding twice daily and stall mucking. I would like to make less work for someone, so that we are not imposing as much. Of course, if we actually were to get rain while we were away, then the horses would be in the barn requiring more attention anyway. All the trees will have to be watered in advance.

The dogs feeding procedures will have to be reviewed and demonstrated, so as to prevent our care giver from running away in fright after a dog fight breaks out. The little Chihuahua will stay with Grammy giving them both some companionship and hopefully not too much inconvenience for Grammy. The Lab will inhabit the house for the most part, but letting her out to do her business requires the containment of the big boys from the yard, so that she is not bothered by the youngsters. Star the Lab is pushing twelve years and really can't take the enthusiasm the pups (over a year now, but Star can literally walk under their bellies). She adds the additional challenge of being allergic to just about everything and requires a special diet and monitoring.

The poultry shouldn't be too much of a problem. Collecting their eggs, feeding and watering, along with turning on and off their misters to survive the heat of the day should cover their requirements. Although, Emma has a huge new flock of ducklings and chicks that will all need special attention. I am going to have to convince Emma not to put any more eggs into her incubator that would have a hatch date while we would be away. That will be hard for her to agree to, since she is having a very successful hatching season with some rather difficult birds to hatch. The Emu is intimidating and will also require training and demonstration for the feeding and watering. I am always leary of that giant, inquisitive bird. I always feel like Pebbles the Emu would really like to take a peck at one of my eyes. We joke that one must wear goggles, gloves, and males must wear an athletic cup, when entering her pen. She is curious and attempts to peck jewelry, freckles, and logos on your shirt.

I have contacted the president of our local 4-H club to manage the ranch while we're gone. If she can confirm, I will feel much better about leaving, as she has had a great deal of experience with animals. She has raised lambs too, so my new Jacobs would be in good hands. With technology today, she can call or text if there is a problem. So the pre-planning and set up for the ranch is on the agenda for the next three and half weeks.

In the meantime, the proposal for the prison is still being debated and will be presented to the council during the time we will be gone. Opposition to this prison is extremely important to our family and ranch business, so missing the first official presentation is a little frightening. Not that I personally can stop the proposal, but I have done a lot of research on the company making the proposal and they are not impressive. I will have to share this with others that will speak at the meeting, so that this company's indiscretions are fully revealed. I will have to trust others to be articulate and thorough.

Leaving for even a short time will require a great deal of work in advance to make things run smoothly. There are always those unpredictable disasters that can destroy even the best laid plans. I suppose I should have instructions for what to do if the well stops functioning. The air conditioning could go out on us, leaving poor Star in the heat after being pampered with cool temperatures indoors for the last eleven summer seasons. I better find a number for a repairman for that as well. The utility company's number will be necessary for power outages. Those happen randomly out here in the desert. I'll have to leave Bear to ward off the coyotes. In addition, I will have to convince myself to let things go into the hands of others for the week. Now that may be the biggest challenge of all.