PictureStory

Here's a Little Tail from today.

 (Sometimes the preschool teacher in me pops up.)

 So I was heading out to build a new paddock, and all the girls were staring at me, ready to move.

 I looked down and discovered a newborn calf!

It was adorable.  Seriously adorable.

And oh so sleepy!  It's mama was hanging out with the other girls, not paying ANY attention to it.   So I scooped it up (as easily as one can scoop up a 75lb baby) and we got it back to the squeeze chute at the barn.

We put mama in the chute, opened the sides, and gave the little guy a chance to eat!

He was SOO hungry!  Slurp slurp slurp.

Mama was very patient, baby nursed til he was full, and now they're in the barn together, bonding.  

The End.

Countrified

I've lived in Santa Cruz, Spain, Santa Monica, Portland...and now Sweet Home.

Today I:

• waded through a stream in pursuit of a bull
• banded said bull and cut off poopy tail-dreads
• built a paddock
• moved/fixed irrigation
• ran through the [irrigation] sprinklers
• had a corndog for lunch
• banded bull calves
• collected eggs
• transported a goat and kid
• herded some other cattle

And then, at the end of the day, for fun I skinned a snake (for the first time.  And did I really say that?  So weird.)  The skin is now hanging/curing in the shop.

My attempt at taking a pic of me and the snake skin.  Didn't quite work out.

I never in a million years could have imagined a day like this would be an average work day for me. 


Maybe I should've been on the Oregon Trail.

SnapSnapper

This one can apply rivets, regular, and large snaps.

I used to think these tools were silly, and stuck with my pliers, hammer, or whatever heavy object was nearby for putting snaps onto clothing, but...I finally broke down and bought one of these snap-applicators from JoAnn's, and it turns out they're AWESOME.  So much for being stubborn, pinching my fingers, scratching the decorative finish, misplacing the snaps, messing up fabric, and smashing them beyond use.  (The main benefit is that both sides of the snap are aligned while you apply pressure; I always struggled with trying to hold them in place with the teeth lined up.)

Sooo easy!

 Anticipate more cowboy shirts and shirt dresses to be adorned with these guys in the near future...

PyreneesExperiment--part1

Bette

I don't know how many of you are familiar with guardian dogs.  We use Great Pyrenees guardian dogs to protect our herds and flocks from predators such as coyotes, cougars, and birds of prey.  We usually pair up the dogs, and they spend most of their time with one herd.  For instance, Belle stays with the hens, Bert and Beau with the sheep, and Barks and Bette with the goats.
Goats and sheep are fairly similar, except that goats need copper, while copper is toxic for sheep.  Since we have free-choice mineral (meaning there's a tub, and the animals eat when they want/need mineral) program, we hadn't run sheep and goats together (meaning in the same field) because we figured either way, one group wouldn't be getting their mineral needs met.  A few months ago, my brother and I gave all the goats a copper bolus (basically a copper pill that's supposed to meet their copper need for a year) so that they could go in with sheep, and eat the same mineral, (without anyone being deficient or poisoned, yay!) and reduce our labor/management.

Barks and Bette, on their way to meet Bert and Beau.

From L-R: Daniel, Barks, Lucy, Bette, Beau, Bert.  (And Goats in the Distance.)

Bette with Sheep in the Distance

Anyway, the copper isn't the point.  It's that the other day, we put the sheep and goats, as well as their respective pairs of dogs in the same pasture for the first time.  Although Barks is the papa, and Bette, Bert and Beau are all litter mates, the pairs have little to no interaction usually.  We weren't sure what would happen--would they fight?  Stay apart?  Run as a pack and abandon their herds?  Would they fight and create different pairings?  The herd animals often self-segregate, so we were pretty curious to see what would happen.  (haha aren't you??)

BaGawkers

I was trying to write the noise chickens make, because it ISN'T "cluck-cluck", it's more...I don't know.  I don't think there are letters to represent the sounds...but I took some pictures in any case.

She'll peck you, no joke.

IrrigationStation

It feels like we spent weeks and weeks bemoaning how wet it was...rain rain rain, drizzle drizzle rain...and now, all of a sudden everything is DRY.  Did the growing season really only last a week?  Not good for grass farmers (we're essentially grass farmers, with ruminant herds eager to consume said grass).

At Sweet Home Farms River, we have water/irrigation rights to the lovely Calapooia River, which flows right behind the house.  (This gives us the opportunity to keep the grass growing and extend the length of time the animals can graze--for this reason, the finishing cattle are here!)  Today was the day for the arduous task of setting up the irrigation system: pump, pipe, and sprinklers.  I can't stress how important it is to water the grass BEFORE it dries out, so timing is essential!

I'm sure other places have newer, fancier equipment...ours is a bit funky and clunky:

Danny and The Pump.

The foot valve, which will draw in the fresh water.

Upstream Calapooia.

Downstream Calapooia.

The fuse box.

Red to red, white to white, black to black, and the ground.

Serious electrical cord.

Water gets pumped up from the river...

...And out to the field.

View from the orchard, water is pumping!

PrettySlime