Dances with Llamas

Heather and Andy came over to get the trailer to take Bahloo to the vet. She's ok, just needs a checkup and shots.


Heather pulled it out and parked on the driveway.


We took the compressor down to fill the tires.

 There comes a time in every man's life when he must make the difficult decision. Sometimes the correct answer is not readily apparent. All possible outcomes must be carefully considered. Who will the decision effect? How do the positives balance against the negatives? Protracted discussions with friends and family will help in making the decision. Painstakingly created lists of pros and cons can help in the process at these difficult decision making times. This was not one of those times. I was NOT going to dance with that llama.


Lisa and Heather went to a rabbit show in Frankfort on Friday.


The staging area.


The judging.


The rabbits in their judging benches.


The judge carefully examining the rabbit for breed conformation.

Lambs in the Field

44's lambs are six days old and had their last set of shots yesterday. Today they got to go out into the pasture with the big sheep.

The End is Near

We can actually see the light at the end of the tunnel. We got the next big section of wire up on the driveway fence.


We unrolled with the tractor again but used the come-a-long for pulling it extra tight.


We couldn't get it tight enough with the tractor. It's still nice to have it to move the roll of wire around.


The 2x4 has an engineered steel bracket on the other side that holds the wire. There is a series of carriage bolts that tighten it down. Since we were at the end of the run we tried using the tractor to stretch the wire. It wasn't anywhere near tight enough and the wire broke in two places. Luckily it was past the last post but it was too short to go around the corner to the gate post.


The chain and come-a-long are not provided, we had them already.  We were able to get it tight. It looks crooked in this picture, but the post is plumb, the fence and the stretcher are on a downhill slope. Everything here is on a slope.


We had to use a separate piece of fence wire for the short section. The break was about a foot short.


The truck bumper works well for fence stretching. Most of today was spent twisting the wires around the corner and end posts. It's a tedious job but makes a big difference.


All done, ready for the gate. We didn't go to Liberty last week. We called and they didn't have any of the type of gate we wanted in the scratch and dent yard. We'll still need to make a gate run.


Fence on both sides now!


Lisa left the upper gate open for Paige. She went to sleep in the shade of the truck after exploring the pastures. She had several burdocks in her fur after that.

Lambs in the Daytime

44 had her lambs today. She was nice enough to wait until daytime. Usually they deliver in the middle of the night.


Ewe and lambs are doing well.


The smaller one with the white streak on its head is a female. She wasn't positioned correctly during delivery. Her legs were folded back instead of sticking forward so she got stuck. Lisa reached into the uterus and lined her up and she popped right out.


It cleared the way for her brother with the solid black head. He came out on his own. Good job Lisa for saving the day! That is the second time 44 has done that.


Meet Dudley the ram lamb.


Meet Penny the ewe lamb.


It was nice of 44 to go into labor during the noon time cud chew. Everybody was in the barn for the festivities. Remember Lulu, last year's bottle lamb? This is her all grown up. The green things on her shoulder are burdocks.


After the excitement everyone went back out for afternoon grazing.


Lisa went to Flemingsburg to pick up the mutton. This was one of Edith's retired ewes. The turkey is just a turkey.


Luna is looking good.


Paige, Satin and Piper waiting at the gate.


They like it when I take pictures. They always ham it up for the camera.


Luna was racing around me in circles.


Satin and Luna tangle every now and then. They look all soft and fluffy but they have sharp edges.

Definitely Not Sheep

I know this is a lot of posts in a short time. I hope you all can handle it. The weather has turned nice so we've been getting a lot done. As I said yesterday I had today off. Andy came over to help notch the corner brace and take care of a couple of rabbits.


Sorry about the angle, Andy. You may wonder why I wasn't helping him hold the cross beam. I was busy standing guard. This is an old piece that fell out, not the new ones.


You see, we were in Speedy's pasture. Speedy doesn't like anyone in his pasture except his sheep and we were most definitely not sheep. I had a big stick and was keeping Speedy at bay while Andy fixed the post.


This is one of the bunnies Andy helped with this afternoon. The white ones are much easier than the red ones.



Lisa finishes them up in the kitchen then weighs them and puts them in a freezer bag. This one was 4 lbs. 14 oz. The other one was 6 lbs. 3 oz. They go in the freezer the next day. We saved the livers for Anne (on the plate) , she eats them. We still like her anyway. Lisa breads the hearts and fries them. We call them popcorn hearts.


This is the corner after setting the posts in concrete and adding the cross beams and tension wire. They get painted black of course.


After painting and clean up.


Ready for wire!

Corner Post

I have today and tomorrow off since I worked over the weekend.  Today we put in the first corner of the turn around. It will also support the gate to that pasture.

 Lisa canned some more tomato chunks.

 There are so many tomatoes in the garden we don't like seeing them go to waste. These will be nice to have in the winter.

 Clear sky and a crescent moon. It got down to 42 degrees here last night. 44 is the forecast for tonight.

 It warmed up to near 70 by this afternoon. We dug the holes with the auger and then cleaned them out.

 We took turns on the post hole digger.

 I parked the tractor and came back down on the four wheeler. It's nice having the four wheeler on these jobs so we can run up to get things from the house. This time I forgot to bring the level. It's always something.

 Speedy was dancing around so I brought him some grain when I went up to get the level.

 I had walked around the cattle trailer to get a better angle. Speedy didn't like me sneaking around.

 Just three posts but they are important ones. The fence will go perpendicular from the driveway here for about 50 feet then turn 90 degrees to the left.

 Andy is coming over tomorrow to cut notches for the cross pieces. I'll put in the tension wire and we'll hang the field fence on it this weekend. We're getting close to having this pasture open for business.

Wild Bunnies

We inadvertently destroyed a wild rabbit warren in he front yard while pulling weeds. There were five babies still in it so we put them in a cage to see how they would do. Two of them are still alive after about a month. We've read that wild rabbits don't do well in captivity but it seemed better than leaving them out in the yard to die. When they get big we'll eat them.

 Fiver.

 Hazel.

 We trimmed the posts on the driveway fence today. Lisa rode down pulling the trailer with the generator.

 The chainsaw is electric, thus the generator.

 After dropping off the generator and saw we went back down and picked up the tops. I got to drive this time.

 We took them to the burn pile and visited with Abbey and Libby.

 Freshly trimmed posts. Lisa will paint the exposed areas.

 I finished the wire end and hung the gate.

 To finish the ends you pull the wire around the post and weave it around itself. It makes a nice tight joint.

 This was one of the scratch and dent gates from Tarter Fence Co. in Liberty. We're making another Liberty run this week. I have a day off since I worked all day Saturday.