Two Day project

Ha.  What I thought was going to be a simple little thing is turning into quite a project.

Remember this little tuft of weeds?

Well, what you can't see is that when I stand in it, it's actually over my head.  The stalks on those things are quite thick and, despite being dead, hang on pretty good.  I got about 1/2 way through it tonight, and from the mold it holds, my nose is running, my head hurts and I have the heeby-jeebies from all the creepy-crawlies in there.  Not to mention my forearms hurt and it's making it hard to type.

It got too dark out, so I'll have to finish it tomorrow.  And then figure out what to do with all the crap I'm pulling out.  I can't burn it right there because of that lovely vinyl fence, so I'll have to drag it all up the driveway and burn it in my burn area. 

I hope I don't have to do this every year.  I'll be exhausted.

J

I got a egg!

There was an egg in with the hens this morning!  Woo hoo!

I'll lay it in with the ducks, and hopefully, they'll get the idea.

J

Happy Pigs Come from Nampa, ID

What a whirlwind of a day!  Got a lot done so far, and have tons more to do.

First, check out what I picked up today!  For the price I got it, I feel like I stole it!  It's really sturdy and just needs a little bit of work to make it into a stock trailer.  And a tongue jack.  No biggie.  Yay!  Another reason to go down and see my mechanic!  But this will be cool to haul all kinds of stuff, but especially the sheep for any type of herding events instead of depending on other people, some of which have an unwarranted superiority complex. 

And let's welcome the new additions, shall we?  I need names for these three fine ladies.  Suggestions?

Oh, and a few more new (albeit temporary) additions.  4 ducks.  3 of them are Indian Runners, and the other is a mix of some sort.  Looks like one of the Indian Runners might be a female, so I think I'll hang on to her, and one of the drakes.  I'll get rid of the other two drakes.

I think this one is the female.

I cleaned out the Quack Shack, and re-did their digs.  Here's their crib now.  Isn't it cozy?

Still needs paint, but I'm waiting for it to cool off a bit so the flies (from Wilbur) go away and don't get painted right on to the side of it.

I put the chicken coop in the duck yard.  I think they'll like it there.  I cleaned it all out, and added some clean, fresh straw.

I need to put a place for them to roost in there, but for now, here's what it looks like.

And here's where the bulk of the work went.

Hi Wilbur.

Wilbur seems to be ... so far ... much less aggressive than Bacon.  Good piggie.

If you saw the pig house before I cleaned it out, you know it was quite a job.  I raked out, shoveled out, and scraped out the floor.  I think I upset a bees' nest around there, so at one point, I decided I didn't want to push my luck.  So I grabbed the hose and power washed the cobwebs out.  Added fresh, clean straw, but could use some more to insulate this better.  Cold pig = bad.

Clean rafters!

And while the frame of this thing is well built, the floor could really use reinforcing.  And I think, at some point, I might insulate and dry wall this.  I could use it as a lambing shed once Wilbur is ... um ... well, you know.

This one is quite independent and makes quite a bit of noise.

Pretty, isn't she?  She seems to be enjoying her new surroundings.

What's funny is ... the chickens could care less about the ducks.  The ducks, however, are afraid of the chickens!

I imagine they'll all get used to eachother before too long.

Ok ... off to figure out the round pen, and to talk to the neighbor about capping off the sprinkler pipes.

Jodi

Off to a good start ...

I've stripped the bed, have a load of wash going, and the dye is in my hair.  Yes ... I dye my hair.  Just waiting for it to be done so I can hop in the shower and head to Walmart for some flour (need to make a loaf of bread for tonight) and maybe a shirt or two.  Then to start working on the straw.

I'll be back!

Busy day ...

Well, something woke me up, and now I can't get back to sleep thinking of all of the stuff I need to do today.

Yesterday, on my way home from work, I stopped and picked up ten bales of straw.  I'm sure this will only be a small portion of what I really need, but it's a start.  I also picked up three Rhode Island red hens.  Very cool looking birds.  I've never worked with chickens before.  Their feet aren't nearly as nasty as they are in a package in the grocery store.  Their faces are really cool!  I need to learn how to handle them, and what their habits are. 

So ... I need to clean out the new chicken coop and put some straw in it.  I need to rake out the duck house and put some straw in there.  And I need to clean out the pig house and put straw in there.  I know I don't have enough straw, but I'll see how far it gets me. 

I would also like to do some laundry, take a shower, die my hair, tweeze my face, and clean my bedroom.  The sheets need changing to the flannel sheets, the air conditioner (that I've used like 5 times) needs to come out of the window, and the whole room needs a good vacuuming.  And I'm not sure how much of any of this will get done because ...

I want to start putting up the round pen.

Yeah yeah. 

So I'm off to hop in the shower and get started.  We'll see how much I get done.

More later,
Jodi

Weekend Plans

I am looking forward to this weekend.  Phyllis and Glenda gave me a panel for the round pen.  I am going to steal three others from various spots around my place, and get it put up.  I will also buy some concrete and put up the wood posts for the gate into the round pen.  I'll use the railroad ties to line the bottom of the whole thing.  If I'm going to have a round pen, I might as well do it right considering I own the place.  (I rented my last place, and I always went int everything with the mindset of being able to take it down.  I don't need to do that now and it's hard to get used to.)  It'll be nice to have a good round pen, I think.  The best part is it will be out of my way ... completely.  It will take up a corner of my property that I'm not really using.  I am going to ask my neighbor if he can look at those two sprinkler heads and tell me what I need to property cap them off at the ground so no one is tripping on them, and then I'll make the round pen as large as I can.  I started feeding my sheep grain from a bucket in my hand.  I'll start putting a dog behind them while I'm doing that.  I imagine they'll break pretty quick. 

My mailbox looks so good.

So does my fence now that those three slats aren't broken anymore.  :-)

Hopefully, I'll get rid of the rest of those weeds this weekend. 

In thinking about this round pen thing, the path to get out to the round pen is a mess.  I'm going to have quite a bit of work to get it safe for other people to get out there.  I mean, I know people know how to walk, and aren't going to trip on everything in front of them, but between the driveway and the round pen is the concrete foundation where the mobile home used to be, roots from all kinds of trees, stumps, glass, railroad ties (which will be used on the round pen), large rocks, etc.  This is the pasture that I don't have flood irrigation going to yet because I haven't dug the trenches yet.  Water gets shut off a week from today, so the water will be a Spring project.  So, in the meantime, I can spend whatever time I can getting it all cleaned up.  It'd be nice to make it so others can come over and start their puppies. 

More projects.  At least it keeps me busy.

More later.

Jodi

The Round Pen Dilemma

Do I build a round pen and turn my sheep into knee knockers so I can train Reese?  I think I'm going to.  I won't need the round pen long, and by the time I turn the sheep into knee-knockers, I'm going to hate them.  But ... after taking Reese and her sister over to someone else's tonight, I've decided it's what I need to do.  Reese's sister Majia, I've noticed, is more like Echo.  Started a little rough, but widened up pretty quick.  I got her going both directions and took her off.  Not before one of the sheep decided that she'd rather run into the fence than contend with the dog.  Ugh.  I hate that.  I think, though, that Majia's owners could start introducing her once or twice a month for short sessions and see how she does.


Put Reese on, and she's more goofy.  Tail up, not all that serious, liked to split one off and chase it.  I let her grab a bit of hair to see what she'd do, and she wasn't all that committed, although she came up with a bit of hair to floss with.  She needs more time to mature.  And I'm good with that.  It will give me time to get the round pen built, and my sheep knee-knocker ready.

So where to put the round pen.  I measured tonight, and I could do a 50' diameter round pen on the far NW corner of my property.  It won't be perfectly round, but there will be no corners, and it will be out of the way.  Best of all, the only thing I need for it is about 4 ranch panels.  So, about $100 and I've got it made, literally.   Maybe I'll grab a couple of bags of concrete and set wood posts for the entrance gate.  That's something that's always bugged me about my old round pen.  I had those big horse bow entry gates fibertaped to some T-posts (the fine workmanship of the drunken ex-husband), and it always wobbled (big shocker).  So, hopefully, I can do this right this time.

Then I'll need more puppies to work.  Anyone got any they want to send me?

J