First Frost and a Walrus

There hasn't been much going on this week. Lisa has been out of town and the weather has been wet and cold. I still took some pictures on our walks so I can share those.

Wednesday morning it was 34 and frosty.

It's good weather if you're a sheep.

Llamas and rams don't mind it. They have frost on their backs.

I think the ewes and Dennis had frost on them too.

Friday it was warmer but foggy.

Poppy

Walrus

It was raining this morning. We took our morning walk at noon. The creeks were still full.

Box Blade and Walnuts

I scraped off the sheep hay feeding areas today. They get a build up like the cattle side but not as bad. I use the box blade and scrape it down to the low spot in the ram pasture. Some of it roots in and builds up with silt. The lighter stuff washes away and gets stuck in the fence over the creek. I thought about composting the stuff but it always has pig weed and nettles in it. The composting action would probably kill them but I think I have enough material from other sources.

Tequila has a sheep friend.

I think it's Bunny. She was a bottle lamb so she's friendly. She seems to like Tequila who is very gentle with her. She sniffs her nose and licks her ears through the fence.

The box blade on after I finished and put the rams back in their side.

The track where I dragged the material. I'll have to go down and shovel out the llama dust bowl.

Ready for hay.

I think she's trying to make a cow friend to match her sheep friend. 

I cracked some walnuts.

It's a lot of work to get them out.

I got more than that, not much more.

Festival of the Worm

We went to Beattyville today to see the Woolly Worm Festival. It was fun. We saw woolly worm races and had some kettle corn and a red velvet funnel cake. There was live music and a lot of vendors and side show games. 

The Raceway

This was just practice.

We don't know the kid but there's a worm on a string.

You could get woolly worm racing supplies.

Woolly worm gifts and toys.

There was a petting zoo with a fancy rabbit.

and llamas

One of the llamas was pink.

Compost Post

Thousands of you have asked for an update on the compost pile. Okay, hundred of you. Well, tens of you. Fine, nobody asked but here it is anyway. As you know I've been bringing up the organic material that had accumulated in the lower feed pasture barn. There were seven or eight full dump carts. The volume of composting material increased dramatically. I had to merge it into the existing so I piled it up on one side and buried it under the old. Sort of like I did with the horse manure over the summer. 

The new stuff is there on the left. I broke it up some and spread it evenly before I started shoveling. 

I got it mostly covered last night but it started getting dark before I could finish. That and Lisa was making ham fried rice for dinner and it was getting close to dinner time. 

The Britneys have found the compost now and they do good work. I'll let them have it for a few weeks then I'll flip it over again.

It might be a pile of crap but it's my pile of crap.

Sunset and flame bushes.

I had an early meeting today so we took our morning walk at lunchtime. 

The Flying Dog

 I got the barn done finally. Lisa will move the ewes back to that pasture tomorrow and they'll have a nice clean shelter to stay in.

I did the fence wall with rough cut poplar fence boards. The ground was low in back so I added a pressure treated 2x4 to block it off.

The trailer is parked back in the shed. It fit completely inside this time. The tongue was sticking through the gate before. Maybe it's squared up against the back wall better now. 

Much fancier now.

Tequila playing with Betty., just running back and forth in front of her. Betty was not amused.

Tequila gets some serious air at feeding time.

Post Rack Post

 I did some work in the feed pasture barn. I got another load of muck shoveled out. The upper half isn't as deep doo-doo. It must have flowed downhill and collected in the lower back corner. I also got the rack set up to hold the fence posts. Some are new but most of them are used. 

I leveled the spot for the blocks.

The left side blocks were about 1-1/2 inches lower so I put a 2x6 on top to make them even.

They were dirty but should stay dry.

The t-posts are the ones we removed from the aisleway. 

I took the generator, compressor and nailer down to do the fence wall tomorrow.

Farm dogs.

Poppy in motion.

The Britneys are growing. 

For the Festival

 Last weekend while I was cleaning up the flood debris I saw a small blue SUV drive by several times. It was going slowly and would abruptly slow even more and stop. A woman got out of the passenger seat and walked a few steps then bent over and picked something up from the road. They did it four or five times. Every time stopping, getting out and picking something up. It was something small and I couldn't really see anything from where I was. They eventually drove off and that was it. 

Then on Sunday Lisa said she saw a silver pickup truck behaving the same way. It would stop in the road, the driver got out to pick something up and then slowly drive away. The truck came back by a few times and did the same thing. So, I had to go down to investigate. I walked down the road to Eddie's driveway searching the roadway and the small area that passes for a shoulder in the country. Nothing. I thought maybe they were looking for lost coins or jewelry. Or maybe a new Pokémon Go like game  had come out. I walked back on the opposite side of the road and still nothing. I saw a few pieces of trash and some bugs but nothing that would make someone stop. 

Then the Silver truck approached. The driver was a woman in her 50s or 60s. She came from behind me and slowed as she got near. She stopped when she was along side me and got out. She said " Hi, you're right next to what I'm looking for!" She went a few steps and reached down to pick up a woolly worm. 

I said, "Is that a woolly worm you just picked up?" "Yep, it's for the festival".

The Woolly Worm festival. I talked to her for a couple of minutes and Heather spoke to her later. The people are collecting woolly worms to use in the festival events. They have races and judging. The woolly worms can predict the weather based on their coloring. They collect them on country roads because they are easy to spot and there isn't any traffic. 

It's true, I'm not kidding. Here's the link. woolly-worm-festival-2021 The mystery was solved. Here's a video of one that walked by the other day.

Cleaning out the Barn

I moved the trailer out and started mucking out the barn in the feed pasture. It's dark and wet in there. When I get the drainage sorted out it should be able to dry out. It needs a window or a skylight, it's too dark.

I pushed the hay rack over so the trailer could sit on the gravel.

The area where the posts were is pretty much cleared. 

You can see the mark on the bottom board where the muck was piled up to.

I got three heavy loads out. The pile on the left is all from today.

They saw me working in their favorite pasture. They were sure it was moving day. By "favorite" I mean whichever pasture they aren't in at the time.

Good night.