Gravel in Winter

We got three pickup loads of gravel for the driveway. Two of the #57 which is the regular kind we use. The other load was the #4 which is bigger for the muddy area where the hydrant trench went through.

 It is a little hard to see the new gravel with the snow. The big gravel is behind the truck. The little stuff is next to the garage.

 We got more snow this go around than the last one. It wasn't as windy and the snow was wetter so more of it stuck.

 The girls got to play in the snow.

 It was great fun barking and running in the snow.

 The uphill sheep and Dolly stuck close to the barn in the snow storm. They don't like the rain or snow on their faces.

 Lisa was feeding Ally and delivering warm water for the sheep. We fixed the water deicing issue today.

 Ally's stall with heat lamp. She is doing well. She eats grain and hay plus her bottle.

 We only got an inch of snow. It melted off the driveway quickly.

 The downhill sheep have embraced their new run-in shed. It is a huge improvement with the side walls. No landscape murals yet.

 The cattle are eating the hay with wild abandon. At the rate they're going we'll be lucky to make it through February. Let's hope they slow down some or it will be a hunt for hay come March.

 I went down to lock Speedy in his catch pen. I was going to be working in his pasture and didn't care to have any surprises.

 This is how we solved the deicing problem. Libby is still a mamma's girl.

 Previously we had two tanks. One in each pasture with its own deicer. With Ally's heat lamp, the electrical circuit we would normally use wouldn't support the addition of the water tank deicer.

 We had this 50 gallon low side tank so I cut the bottom fence board and leveled the ground so the tank straddles the fence. The vertical board next to the tank is embedded in the ground about six inches. Now the sheep can drink from both sides and we only need one deicer. Problem solved as long as Duane doesn't swim through it to get to the ewes in heat. At first I thought the frozen ground would be an issue. It turned out that I only needed to remove about two inches on the upper portion. The ground was only frozen about two inches down so the dirt chipped off in blocks of dirty mud ice at the perfect depth.

Ally

Ally is the new lamb. She was one of Edith's winter lambs that got stepped on. Her lower leg was dislocated at the growth plate. We've had her for about four weeks and she just got her cast off today.

 She rode in the truck on the floor between Lisa's legs. You can see her little pink vet wrap cast.

 She wasn't supposed to get the cast off until next week but the vet thought she was doing exceptionally well.

 She didn't mind the ride at all. It's warm and dry there and her mamma was near by.

 She had a dog collar and leash. Luna wasn't using it.

Christmas and Chores

Since the animals don't celebrate Christmas we had to work today. The weather forecast is calling for wind rain and snow for the rest of the week so we wanted to get the shelter done while it was still nice out.It was cloudy all day but it stayed above freezing.

 We moved the hay and showed the sheep the new shelter.

 They seemed to like it.

 Carly trying to get into the hay ring.

 Carly in the hay ring.

 Lisa chasing Carly out of the hay ring. She just squeezes her little butt in there. A little poke with the stick and she squeezes it back out.

 Lisa the cattle wrangler.

Hay Port Lights

We had another hay day yesterday. The cattle ate an entire round bale in a week. We worked on the wind wall and had a nice outing to Southern Lights at the Kentucky Horse park.

 We moved the hay ring to the top of the hill next to the run in shed. I had to back up the driveway because the bales are quite heavy. I didn't want to tip over so it seemed safer this way.

 This bale is a little lop sided. I think it caught on something when Nelson pulled it off the stack.

 We started work on the side wind walls on the horse port. 4x4 posts and plywood siding.

 There was a long line waiting to get into Southern Lights. We listened to Christmas carols and talked so it was fun.




 Allen came to visit from New York.

 They had no trouble locating the new hay. Well, that isn't entirely accurate. All of them except Harvey found it. Lisa had to go out on the 4 wheeler  to lead Harvey over. He couldn't find the opening in the fence.

 We finished one side today. There will be trim on the corners and wall ends to protect it but it is functional as is. I dropped the drill off the ladder and broke it so we didn't get finished with the other side. We had to go to Lowe's and buy a new drill. We did find one with the same type battery. We have four good batteries and two chargers now. Speedy has to wait in his catch pen when we are in the pasture. We moved it over next to the fence so we can close him in from the outside. He knocked Lisa down the other day and gave her some big bruises. He might be getting some long time outs for a while until he learns some manners.

First Post-Apocalyptic Snow

We got some of the snow that has been sweeping across the country. There wasn't any accumulation to speak of, mostly just windy and cold. We still haven't seen any zombie alpacas so the Mayans may have got it wrong.

The snow was coming down sideways. We didn't do a lot of outdoor activities today, just the usual chores. Tomorrow is a hay day so I'll be out on the tractor for a while.

We're going to try and get a wind wall built in the horse port tomorrow. The sheep were cold, we felt bad even if they do have thick wool coats on.

The Ring

Hildi really wanted some hay. She couldn't get out so we're not sure how she got in. We had to lift the ring so she could escape.

The Llama Arrival

We went down this morning and let the llamas out of the trailer. I pulled it into their pasture with the tractor, the truck would have got stuck in the mud. We planned to take pictures or videos of them being turned out but it was raining.

The one in front is the male, Paddy. The girls are Bonnie, the light colored one. Martha is the brown one in the back, she's Paddy's mom.

Speedy was still a little agitated by the new arrivals but he seems to be getting used to the idea. The sheep don't care.

Paddy seems to be the dominant one. He stays out in front mostly. We plan on putting Bonnie in with Speedy. Martha and Paddy will be with Dolly.

I think Speedy wanted to go in with the new ones. They've been running around and grazing all day. It looked like he wanted to join in the llama games.

They like the spot there in the corner. It's the highest elevation in that pasture so it gives a good view. We hope they will provide better security for the sheep and young calves. Wish them luck!

Llama Transport

We got Dolly and Speedy some help. They are rescues out of Tennessee. They weren't abused, someone had them as pets and couldn't handle them. We'll put them to work.

 Corrine is from llama rescue and brought them up from Tennessee, we met her in London, KY.

 We loaded them on our trailer and headed home.

 We left them in the trailer overnight. Speedy knew they were there before we got the truck stopped. They were clucking and chirping at each other.

 We'll turn them out in the morning. Speedy will be a little more used to them by then. They'll go in the lower newly fenced pasture by themselves. We'll integrate them after they get more familiar with the surroundings. I'll have more pictures later.

Hay Day

We put out hay for the first time this winter. It's Nelson's good grass hay. Everybody loves it.

 Speedy found it first in the sheep pasture.

 The cattle got their hay earlier. They made a big dent in it and had to sit down and chew for a while. We got them a new hay ring. Lisa picked it up in Liberty at the same scratch and dent place where we get the gates. It keeps them from pushing the hay around and pooping in it. We're going to use the old hay rack in the second sheep pasture.

 As always there was some fencing to do. We added a second stretcher brace in the corner at the grade break. It made for a good transition to the lower area. There was some movement in the corner after the big rains last week. This should help with that.

 The debris on the ground is the old posts and chunks of lumber we used to plug the holes along the bottom of the old crappy fence. We shouldn't be needing any of that now. Lisa was compacting the dirt around the last post. I was driving around on the tractor. It looked like I was driving around randomly but I was making crop circles to signal the mother ship for the 2012 zombie apocalypse. Sorry, alpacalypse.

 The final stretch. It's ready for animals now. That t-post was already there. It was only a couple of inches out of line so we left it in place. It looked fine after Lisa put the clips on.

Furlough Special

It wasn't a holiday but I had three extra days off this week. We decided to fix the front fence in the bottom sheep pasture.

After millions of emails and comments I have to apologize for not posting in a while. To make up for it I give you 15 pictures and a video. Since all we do lately is fencing , the pictures and video are about us doing fencing.

 Demolition came first.

 Lisa pulled all the staples out of the old fence wire. I rolled up and hauled off the barbed wire.

 There was a lot of trash from the road and weeds to clear out.

 The post in the corner is leaning from when the drunk driver hit it a few years ago.

 After pulling the staples we cut the wire in sections and I pulled it out with the four wheeler.

 Everyone was in the same pasture here. 17 sheep and two llamas.

 Duane came home today so we have them sorted out now. He's breeding ewes for the spring lambing. This was the last day of really nice weather. It was in the 50's and sunny.

 After clearing we installed the new posts.

 We had two end braces and a corner to add the wood posts.

 We left the existing wood posts and added steel t-posts halfway in between.

 The existing posts were not evenly spaced so I had to calculate center for each t-post. The math wasn't so bad, in case you're wondering, I divided by two. The t-post pounder is a handy tool. We got all the posts in before the rain started.

 We started hanging the wire on Saturday. I drove the tractor down the road with the wire unroller while Lisa pulled it to the fence line.

 We had to use the tractor for the stretcher because it was too muddy for the truck.

















The tractor worked fine for anchoring the come along.
 We had to work between rain showers. We got wet a few times. This was a particularly heavy downpour rolling in.

 Lisa worked along the outside of the fence hammering the staples. I held the wire in place from the inside. We couldn't get it all finished because of the flood today. Some of the posts were loose to start with and they shifted in the high water. We didn't want to stretch to our new corner brace because the ground was so wet.