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.

Stretching Wire

We got the first roll of fence wire stretched this weekend. It was a lot of work, we had to use the come-a-long at every curve break instead of the tractor stretcher. The curve on this side of the driveway is concave and we were inside the radius so we couldn't position the tractor to use the attachment.

 It rained the other day and we got a double rainbow.

 The unroller/stretcher. It was just an unroller this time.

 My straw hat is getting worn out.

 The ratchet is on the bumper of the truck. Lisa is getting ready to put in the staples.

 We both hammered staples all the way down.

 We just kept re-positioning the truck and setting the stretcher.

 Thirty-two posts.

 Ben or Jerry.

Jerry or Ben.

Fencing in the Rain

As usual there was some fence work to do. All the posts are set with concrete. They are packed and cleared and ready for wire.

 It rained today but it has been dry so the cleanup around the posts wasn't as bad as when the clay is all wet.

 All the posts are in down to the wide spot turn-around. The plan is to turn in at the last post here which is below the drain field. We'll go in about 50 feet and then turn back toward the road.

 The cross pieces are in place for the culvert transition.

 The tension wire is done on the transition structure posts. TSC had the fence wire on sale for Labor Day so we got a roll. It should reach to this post.

 This is the site of the sewer line rupture. It was repaired and filled. We got 150 lbs of non-abrasive sand to pack around the pipe then filled in the hole by hand. We had to dig out the side of the hole to reset the fence post. It is off to the side of the pipe and still had about 50lbs of concrete attached to it. It should be okay.

Wormer

We wormed the sheep again today. Worming day is always fun and exciting. By fun and exciting I mean, of course, sweaty and smelly.

Lisa made hot salsa from the tomatoes in our garden. I ate most of a jar already.

I’ve been mowing. Yesterday was the cattle pasture. There was poo. The new tires are getting broken in.

  Worming is a regular chore so we have a system. First we get all the sheep in a stall then one at a time pin them between a panel and the wall. I hold them down while Lisa squirts the medicine in their mouths. We just tip the smaller lambs.

The syringe goes in the corner of their mouth and she shoots it down their throat.

  That shirt started out white.