Birchtree Farm

Someone on another farm blog said, in regard to an accident that put her in the hospital for five days, "I may be too stupid to farm."

I know exactly how she felt.

Christmas Day Ken and I were invited to Ken's manager's house for Christmas dinner with her family. We were there approximately 3-4 hours, and when we got home it was dark. The sheep needed their afternoon feeding (which is normally done in daylight hours) so I went out to do it. We have a light aimed in the direction of the sheep paddock, but by the time you get out there, there's not a lot of light to see by, but just enough so you don't trip over anything. It took me a few minutes to realize there was something definitely wrong with the fence. The dividing fenceline, made from cattle panel, was all bashed up at the end, and this had dislodged the bracing on the main fenceline perpendicular to it. One brace was on the ground, the other was barely hanging on.

Now, in my infinite wisdom, I had thought that if the rams (on opposite sides of the fence) couldn't see each other, they wouldn't go to bashing heads. They had already proved me wrong earlier in December. Our method to provide a sight barrier was to wrap the cattle panels with tarps (see picture below in the "Jake" post). But where the tarps met, an inquiring nose could push them aside slightly, enough to maybe see through with one eyeball. We had already shored up one battered section with a piece of 4 x 8 plywood and reinforced with more t-posts and another section of hog panel.

The section that was newly bashed was not at an area where two tarps overlapped. It was at the end where the dividing panel met the permanent fenceline. The tarp was securely fastened and could not be tweaked out of the way. But apparently that wasn't necessary after all. Just knowing that the other ram was there, on the other side of the tarp, sneering a rammy sneer, was enough to set someone off, and the bashing began.

Imagine, if you will, a welded wire panel, made with galvanized steel "wires" that are about the same thickness as a number 2 pencil. The spacing between the wires is about 6 inches in either direction. Now, step back about 10 feet and get a good running start and slam the top of your head into those wires. Back up; repeat. Continue this while your buddy on the other side does the same thing from the opposite direction. Can you imagine the outcome? Nevermind, I'll describe it. First, you are bleeding from the top of your head (duh!). This apparently does not faze you in the slightest, because you are pumped up on testosterone (ever heard of "'roid rage"?) Next, the wire panel becomes deformed, and possibly welds are broken. The first incident actually resulted in broken welds and broken wire. Third, as the panel was securely fixed to the t-post of the main fenceline, that fence section gets pulled all out of whack and the bracing gets dislodged (we use the Wedge-Lock system, for those who know that that is) and the Wedge-Lock pieces themselves get mangled in the process.

You'd think after the first incident I would have known that this grand scheme of mine wasn't working. Apparently not. So now we have done what we should have done in the first place, which is to put electronet on one side of the fence, about 3 feet away, in effect creating a double fenceline, so that the ram on that side can't get anywhere near the fence and tempt or be tempted by the other ram to start bashing heads. Actually, two parallel cattle panel fencelines 3-4 feet apart would have been better, if I'd thought of it from the beginning. Or to be absolutely sure, I could have had the two breeding groups in separate counties, but that may be taking things a bit far. Oh, and another piece or two of plywood has been called into service to shore up the poor abused cattle panel and provide additional sight barrier, since the tarp at that point had been torn to bits. So far, so good. The sheep on the side with the electronet are not willing to test it. If they do, well, 5000V should be adequate discouragement.

I sure hope so.

December 14th we went out in our woods to find a tree for Christmas. We knew we weren't going to find one of those perfectly shaped trees that you can buy from a tree farm. But we wanted to find one of our own, and save the money besides. Well, here it is. We like it because the spacing between the branches lets the ornaments actually hang down nicely. We couldn't put any heavy ornaments on because the branches wouldn't take their weight, but we had enough lighter ones to do the job. What do you think?

Here are some photos of Jake from the last month:

These first four were taken on November 23, 2008. This was the last day before the first snowstorm. Jake is about 15 weeks old here.

This one was taken the day of the first snow, November 24th.

These next were taken yesterday, after we finished snowblowing the driveway and some paths through the yard to let us get to the sheep pens. Jake is now 19 weeks old.

I really need to keep up with this blog better. It's been another month plus since my last entry. So here's the news from Birchtree Farm...

The Monday of Thanksgiving week was the last day before the snow came. The rams were still over on the borrowed pasture and we needed to get them home so they could perform their required duties for the month of December. However, that required finishing the breeding pens and coming up with some way to keep the rams from playing head-bashing games with each other.

That Monday I went out and pounded all the t-posts needed to divide the paddock in half north-south and then take the one half and divide it in half east-west, creating two smaller areas approximately 30-32 feet on a side. Monday night I watched the news and they were calling for a "coating to 2 inches" of snow for our area. Well, we woke up the next morning to 6 inches and more still coming. By the time it was done snowing there was about 10 inches of snow... and then it started raining. We had to shovel the driveway as neither the snowblower nor the tractor wanted anything to do with the snow. The snow was already wet, and once it started raining, it just got wetter, and heavier. Ken ended up not going to work at all that day because by the time we got everything shoveled, including Ken going up and shoveling off the roof of the shed (which has a very shallow slope), it was 2pm and we were both about dead. But then there were still chores to do, including taking hay and water over to the rams. The hoophouses for the sheep had partially collapsed under the weight of the wet snow so those had to be shoveled off and then reinforced.

Wednesday Ken was back to work, and I went out and wrestled some fencing into place on one section of the new pens, and went over and delivered hay to the rams again. Thursday (Thanksgiving) we both were out doing the rest of the fencing, all except for the dividing line between the pens. We were going to use cattle panels for those, as they are taller than the regular fencing (to prevent amorous sheep from jumping over), and can be easily put up and taken down. We were so tired that we did not have our Thanksgiving dinner that day. I managed some toasted cheese sandwiches. Friday we drove to the farm store and picked up the cattle panels. I made Thanksgiving dinner that day.

Saturday was the big day. We got the panels in place, and covered them with tarps to provide a visual barrier between the two pens. Then we took the trailer over to pick up the rams. With a couple ropes and a bucket of grain for a bribe, we backed the trailer into the lane leading to the pasture, then walked down to the gate. They were waiting for us, probably expecting more hay. While they were focused on the grain bucket, we took the ropes which had a loop on one end like a lasso, and looped each ram around the base of their horns. Then picking up the grain bucket, we started back toward the trailer with the rams on their "leashes". Umbri did a lot of head tossing, and jumping around, but he kept following Falkur, whose only concern was that he not let the grain bucket get too far ahead of him. Up into the trailer they went, and we headed for home.

Once we got there, we led Umbri out of the trailer and down the lane. It took a bit of convincing until he realized there were ewes waiting. We finally got him into his pen, and turned around to see Falkur waiting for us at the gate. He'd jumped over the dividing panel in the trailer and come up the lane all by himself. So into his pen he went, and then the entertainment began.

Rams chasing ewes around can be quite hilarious. The rams chase each ewe in turn trying to see if she's receptive. They weren't. Well, one of Falkur's was, sort of, but she made him work for it. After a few minutes of running around in circles, the rams' tongues were literally hanging out, and they would call the ewes while their tongues flapped up and down. This is a family-friendly blog, so I will end the description there. They did finally calm down by nightfall, much to the ewes' relief I think.

We now have our new Resolute Acclaim stove installed, as of yesterday. Here are some photos of the final stages of preparing the hearth area.

The hearth floor - my first time laying tile. Not too bad, eh?

The hardibacker cement board mounted to the wall on one-inch spacers (to provide airflow behind the wall shields):

The hearth complete with the wall shields tiled and grouted. The grouting was done on Wednesday, and I came down with a bad stomach bug that day. I got the one side nearly complete before I gave up and called Ken and asked him to come home. I spent the rest of the day lying on the couch, moaning and watching him work. He finished wiping down the side I had grouted, and then grouted the other side.

And here it is, all installed and ready for action. To cover the ugly thimble, we mounted hardibacker board, and will tile it at some future date. For now, it looks fine! When the installers came, the one guy walked into the living room and said "Whoa - that's great!" He had seen how that corner looked originally, when he came for the site check, and I think he had doubts about how we were going to make it better, but he was impressed.

We started the break-in fires yesterday, so we should be ready soon for regular use. It's just so nice to have this project done! Ahhhh.....