Larry’s Homecoming

Lisa and Andy went up to Pine Ridge today to pick up Larry.

He was wrapped and put in paper bags. They transported him out in these totes.

Andy brought totes to put him in, Halsey wanted his back.

We had steak for dinner.

Thanks for your effort, Larry.

We won’t soon forget you.

White Christmas

I know a lot of the country had a white Christmas this year. Kentucky was no exception. It snowed Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, stopped for a while then started back up today. We’re getting a little tired of the snow and being stuck up here on top of the hill, but it was pretty out. We hope everyone had a nice and safe holiday.

  

  It is really nice having the animals up in the barnyard. Much better than going down the hill with water and food.

Piper is mean!

Smiling, yeah, she was smiling!

The snow was blowing around today.

The van has been down there since Lisa and Andy went to Winchester on Wednesday. It just won’t make it back up. The truck can get up but it has mud and snow tires with a limited slip differential.

Scraping Snow

I went over and picked up the box blade from Mr. Reece so I could scrape the snow drifts off the driveway. A box blade isn’t designed for snow removal but it will do in a pinch. We haven’t been to town since the ice came. The roads are salted and plowed but with the freezing drizzle we didn’t feel comfortable driving.

   Scraping downhill.

 

   I couldn’t scrape coming back up. There wasn’t enough traction and there was nowhere to put the snow up there.

It never did get cleared off completely. It’s supposed to be sunny tomorrow so the exposed gravel might heat up enough to melt some of it. I got the drifts out from in front of the garage so we should be able to get the van out now.

Ice Storm

This one wasn’t as epic as the 2009 ice storm but it was pretty good. The power stayed on the whole time so we didn’t need to drag out the generator.

The girls could walk on top of the ice without breaking through to the snow underneath. They did slip and slide more than we did.

Ice on the pine tree.

We left the truck out because there was a big drift in front of the tractor port. I got the ice off after heating the windshield with the defroster and breaking it with the scraper. I had to go down the hill to feed and water the ram and breeding ewes. Heidi got some grain too. I made it back up on the second try. I’ll try breaking it up with the tractor tomorrow. The weatherman says we won’t break freezing before Christmas so this stuff will be here for a while.

Checking out the ice, also known as playtime for the girls.

The Ram

I did three posts today so if you want to view them chronologically you should scroll down.

One of Edith’s rams came over for a visit. He’ll be here for about three weeks. We had just got the breeding ewe’s culled out of the herd and the rest moved up to the new pasture when Edith showed up with him. We set up a holding area for him with Larry and Louie’s corral panels. Since he is a lot bigger and stronger than the ewe’s he needs special handling facilities.

Lisa was trying to coax Moe up the hill to the barnyard. We put them in so they would get used to the barn and get to know where the food and water comes from. Moe finally came up on his own a few hours after this when we went out for the afternoon feeding.

He has a huge head compared to the girls and wethers. He has the black knee just like Tilly’s little girl lamb. He was one of the rams in the pasture when Tilly and Bess went for breeding so this could be the daddy.

Finished Fence

  We finally got the pasture border fence done. It was a lot of work but it will be worth it. The weather warmed up for us on Saturday so it wasn’t too bad working outside. Naturally, the higher temperatures melted all the snow and ice creating lots of slick mud. It would have been easier working in the snow and ice, just not as comfortable.

We started out using the truck bumper to anchor the come-a-long for stretching the fence wire. We had to go to plan “B” when the truck got stuck. It was actually stuck in this picture, we just didn’t know it yet.

Jersey Larry in the middle of everything as usual.

Video Section:

Larry’s Final Destination

We got Big Larry loaded up Friday morning. Lisa and Andy hauled him over to Halsey’s meat packers. We should have a full freezer in a week or two. We’ll miss having the big guy down there.

It took about 30-45 minutes to convince him to get in there. It wasn’t as bad as it could have been.

Lisa making sure Larry is okay for the trip.

Unloading at Halsey’s.

He wasn’t in there much more than an hour. He made quite a mess. Lisa got it all cleaned out and the trailer is parked.

Snow Ride

Nelson came over with more hay today. The sheep and Larry are eating a full round bale in ten days. Larry will be gone Friday so consumption should go down. Plus we will open up the top pasture so the sheep will have more forage area. There should be a lot left in there that the minis never ate. We got a fresh bale for the horses too. They just didn’t like that last bale.

I brought the trailer up to get it ready for Larry’s big day.

Nelson bringing the hay. Hay days are very exciting.

We had about 1 1/4 inches this morning. We probably got another inch before it turned to sleet.

Snowy Morning

Heidi was standing in the locust grove below the meadow when the sun burned off the wintery blanket of fog.

Burn Pile

We went to Halsey’s Meats to pick up “13”. She was the old ewe who we didn’t think would survive the winter. As it turns out we were correct. She’s in the freezer now and we are going to have mutton steaks for dinner tonight.

The processing facility.

:::WARNING!:::This picture contains graphic content. The large size picture is NOT pixilated. The deer doesn't appear to have been field dressed. Can you tell what type of creature is on the rack?

  We lit the burn pile. It was good weather for burning. Cold and a steady breeze. Jersey Larry is in the middle of everything. We can’t wait until he’s 1000 pounds!

 

We were aiming to get the two posts in for the bottom stretcher.

 

Pre-smoked beef.

 

Lisa brought down the calf toy for Barbara to sit on.

Big Larry was interested in the fire too.

Everybody getting warmed up by the fire.

We ran out of daylight and didn’t get the post holes finished.

Lisa went up and fed the calves while I stayed and watched the fire.

Fence Week

We got a good section of fence wire installed today.

The ground was still too dry for the auger without a little added moisture.

Jersey Larry is getting nosy. He wants to be in the middle of everything.

Jersey Larry was back, again.

Charley Larry isn’t as tame but he’s getting there. He came down to see what was happening.

With the barbed wire down the calves can use the whole ten acres. We had left the drive gate open and forgot about the garage doors being open. Jersey Larry showed up promptly and stuck his head in a bag of cracked corn.

Charley Larry was out in the car area so he followed along when Lisa relocated Jersey Larry.

I made a contraption to unwind the field wire with the tractor. It’s a 100 meter roll and weighs a lot. It hangs from the boom pole and worked pretty well for unrolling. We had hoped that we could use the contraption for stretching too.

It didn’t stretch the wire right so we used a come-a-long and fence stretcher hooked to the truck.

Barb Wire

We were getting the fence line ready for field wire today. We had to remove the four strands of barbed wire first. Next we’ll set some stretcher posts.

I haven’t introduced Charley Larry. My apologies for the oversight. He is a Charlois cross beef. He was supposed to have been a steer when we got him but when we got home with him we discovered he still had all his bull parts. We took care of things and now he is a steer.

Jersey Larry didn’t understand why the white bucket didn’t have food in it. White buckets always have food in them. Lisa was carrying her fencing tools in this one. Sorry, Larry.

I had already removed all the t-post wire connectors. Lisa was going in front of me removing all the wood post wire staples. If you look closely at the bottom you can see Big Larry. He seemed to think the white bucket should have food in it too.

The stack of wire after removal. It is quite heavy. I took it over and dropped it off for Nelson.

The view of our property from Nelson’s tractor shed.

Ivy on the right. The ewe lamb is on the left and the wether lambs in the middle. They are growing nicely. Tillie and Bess are good moms.