Pea Pickers

It was a lovely day today. It was about 50 when we got up this morning
and got to around 72 this afternoon. Humidity was hovering around 55%
so it was nice. We got some stuff done. Lisa painted more on the
porch. I mowed the front yard with the walk-behind mower and Andy
mowed the upper sheep pasture.

Why we love our porch.

If you look closely you can see all the animals in this picture. Well, the livestock type ones anyway.

The sheep were taking a siesta.

Arizona got left behind by the herd and had to catch up.

Andy and Lisa went out to harvest. They got cow peas and green beans. I got a bunch of corn.

Lisa applying the deck treatment.

This is how far she got with the first gallon. It won't take as much as we thought it would. You can also see the color she is painting the railing down at the end.

Finishing Heidi's Fence

I got the rest of Heidi's shock wire installed today. It does seem to be working. We watched her testing how close she could get to it. After it got her a couple of times she stayed clear. I had to try it to see if it hurts. It feels like a strong static electricity shock. Of course I didn't have four hooves grounding me to complete the circuit so a horse would get a stronger jolt. After my last post I had several hundred people ask how an electric fence works. Click Here for a good explanation.
Bill is doing a good job scaring the birds away. We have more tomatoes than we can eat now. We're eating lots of taco salads and sandwiches with tomato slices.
The corn came in too. We've had corn on the cob for dinner a few times. It's the white and yellow sweet corn. Very good.
I had to clear out around the fence first. There was just this small section to do behind the barn. We ran out of daylight on Saturday and I had a work emergency that took all day Sunday. I had today off since I worked yesterday.
Hanging the tape on the insulators.

Attaching the end to the last post. They have a special connector clamp you can buy for this. I used a half-hitch knot.
Cutting the tape for the gate entry.
The gate entry handle. Don't touch the metal parts, they will shock you. I know this for a fact.
Lisa was putting fly ointment on Arizona. Everyone had to come and see.
I had the camera out. We must always bark at the camera, it's a rule.

Heidi's Shock Wire

Heidi keeps cutting herself on the barbed wire. We’ve seen her rubbing on it so we thought the shock wire might help.

Lisa attached the insulators.

I hammered in the grounding rods.

And strung the tape. It's the big tape for giant horses.

The girls came out while we were sitting on the porch.

Cave Run Lake

Andy, Barry and I went over to Cave Run Lake today. It was hot and
being out on the water was great. We pulled into one of the many coves
and jumped in the water. The water was about 87 - 88 degrees according
to Andy's fish finder. It was fun. Be sure to look at Andy's blog for more pictures.

Barry helped mow the pastures.

Lisa was sanding the railing. She started applying the sealant last week. You can tell the part that she did. She painted some of the railing today.

Barry rode in the back of the truck.

The ramp was crowded. Lots of jet skis. These tiny girls were on those huge jet skis.

Leaving the ramp. Andy's boat smoked a little after sitting for the winter, but this wasn't all his. The jet skis were blowing smoke too.

Leaving the ramp.

This is in the cove where we swam.

Andy jumped out in the shallow water and wiped the dust and grime from the boat.

There was a rescue crew training in the cove.

This is one of the rental houseboats. I liked the slide.

It was a pretty good size lake.

There was a lot of this sort of thing going on.

The water was deep right up to the edge. This was a typical shoreline.

Dorpers Phase Two

We went to visit Edith today. She had the lambs cut out of the flock and weighed up. She sells hers by the pound. Larry was 119lbs. What a big boy! The two little girls Lucinda and Clarissa were 60 and 80 lbs. Clarissa is the black sheep. Edith has two big rams and said we could bring our ewes over to breed with them. We'll probably take Dolly and Lulu over this fall for a spring lamb.

We had seen Edith's ad on craigslist so we went over Tuesday to have a look. She lives over on Wades Mill Road only about 5 miles from here. She has been raising sheep for about 5 years since she got out of the horse business. Sheep are smaller and easier. And you can eat them.

We loved Edith's barn. It has four roomy stalls and a tack room. It has a bathing stall with hot and cold water and heat lamps.

Edith directing me to load the sheep.

Larry and Clarissa. Lucinda got her own trailer stall.

Edith was happy to answer all of our novice sheep questions. She's sitting on her own monolithic concrete steps. She uses them for a horse mounting block.

Edith's flock.

She has a guard dog for the sheep. He's a Great Pyrenees. I wouldn't go in that pasture.

It is really beautiful over on Wades Mill Road.

The new sheep sniffing at the old sheep.

They fell right in together. One big happy herd.

The horses all came to see.