Sub Zero

Minus eleven degrees F to be exact.

January has been a rollercoaster of above freezing temperatures which then drop to single digits within a day.  This morning was one of those deep cold ones.  The sky was pretty but you didn't want to stand still long to admire it.

The snow underfoot squeals and grunts with every step like angry geese.  You can gauge the temperature within 10 degrees by the tone of voice the snow uses.

We take hot water from the sink in the wool shop up to the ram barn and mix it with the cold well water to keep it liquid longer.  Some of the boys like it lukewarm but for those who don't it gets chilly pretty darn quick.  You know it's cold when the hot water bucket is empty and still steams like mad.

When it's very cold and windy we close the barn doors to keep the temperature tolerable - for us that is.  The sheep are fine with cold.

Bunny.   "Since you're here, are you going to feed us now?"

Foxy, Mickey and Fortune.  "Yes, please, yes, please, feed us now, we're starving!"

Coconut, still with the crazy eyes ;-)

It's a pretty comfortable place to spend the day if you're a sheep.  Sit around, eat, chat with friends....

Star in mid-chew and Flower

Then Flopsy charges over for petting and disturbs the peaceful mood.  She looks downright demented in this picture but it's just the way her bangs are hiding her eyes (and the crooked ear set doesn't help).  She's really very sweet and loves attention, even hugs, which some sheep find too touchy-feely for comfort.

The sunset was quite pink so hopefully we'll see an increase in the temperature tomorrow.  Banging ice out of water buckets multiple times a day is a chore we could happily skip for a few days.

Halfway through January...... at least three months to go.  

The Next Step

With the new concrete floor in place the next step in enlarging the ram area is actual construction.  To build something you need lumber.  To get lumber you need logs.  To get logs you go to the woods.  (Ahem.  Your own woods.  Not trying to suggest that timber theft is an approved method of obtaining materials.)

Hemlock number one.

Hemlock number two.

Logs cut to length and brought home on the dump trailer.

And put over the mill and sawn into the needed sizes.

Meanwhile, in the barn one of the cats has given the new floor the seal of approval.

It wasn't us.

Don't worry guys, you were never under suspicion.

Floored

The concrete company had time in their schedule today so we got the floor poured for the new ram barn pens.

Andy had the forms built and ran down to the rental place to get a power screed for the day.  Thank you to whoever invented it.  We have done our fair share by hand and there's no particular glory in it, especially since we both have shoulder issues.  He got this one with a twelve foot bar to accomodate the wider section.

The truck arrived shortly after lunch.  Because the barn doorway is only eleven feet high Andy had to ferry the mix in with the skidder.

That worked out fine since it allowed him to put each bucket where he wanted it.  We filled the narrower section first.....

...and screed it as we went.

Then he laid down re-rod and did the wider section.

Bob, the truck operator, was really helpful and grabbed the stone rake anytime I didn't get there first.  ( He's a former farmer, it turns out.  They just won't. stop. working.)

We actually had about half a yard more than needed so Andy did some quick work with pick and shovel and leveled the ground around the box that houses the water pump.  That used up the extra perfectly.  Hopefully that will make it less enticing to the mice in winter.

We finally finished around 4 PM.  The floor looks good and should last longer than we will.  And it's got good mojo going because of the requisite good luck love note.











Written in stone :-)





Need More Room at the Inn

For at least a year we have been contemplating making more housing for the ram lambs up in the Bachelor Barn.  When they are first weaned and moved up there the accomodations are more than adequate but as they put on rapid growth things start to get tight.  During a dry spell last year (not as long in duration as this year) we convinced ourselves that we ought to plan an enlargement *soon* since it was conceivable that we would have to house them inside and feed hay during a drought and there was simply not enough floor space for them to be comfortable especially if we had a 'ram year' and had more bodies.  Because Fate works as it does, this spring we had 35% more lambs than expected AND a drought that began in June and continued right though weaning and beyond.  Nothing like dire necessity to move a task to the top of the priority pile.

Adjacent to the area already built for sheep lies an equally large floor space that was being used for storage, primarily lumber that was stickered there before we were married (22+ years, but who's counting?) and other items that weren't really being used but "might come in handy later".  Farm people never throw anything away which is why the American Pickers are so often digging like honey badgers in old dairy barns, hay barns, tractor sheds and chicken coops.  Seeing the writing on the wall, way back in May Andy started moving the lumber to another building, doing a ruthless triage while handling it and getting an early start on the winter's firewood in the process if you get my drift.  Heifers had been housed in the area once and started trampling the dirt out from under the walls of the building, which is just a pole structure, various woodchucks had also dug burrows under the lumber piles over the years and kicked out more dirt and time had worn some away too so that was going to requre attention.

Once emptied (for the most part), Andy brought in a lot of rock and gravel to fill the sizable gap between floor and wall.





Next he decided how to space out the posts that would form the walls of the pen.  We didn't want the actual building's walls involved with it for a couple of reasons.  One nice feature is that a gap between the buildings wall and the pen will provide a walkway for us to use when feeding there without having to carry hay over the sheep.



Next came the post hole auger on the back of the tractor.  It was a tight and awkward fit (it's a big tractor) so he still had to dig three holes by hand, but it was still a huge savings in time and effort as each hole was two feet deep.

Holly checked each and every hole - a couple of times - because it just seemed like there HAD to be a woodie at the bottom of one of them.  I don't think it crossed her mind that she would not want to meet a woodie capable of making a hole of that magnitude.  Dogs have no sense of proportion.





The next order of business - today's task - was to set the posts.  Each one was anchored by two bags' worth of concrete, mixed in the wheelbarrow and shoveled in to really secure the posts.

We waffled over whether or not to pour a concrete floor.  On one hand, a dirt floor does offer some drainage so the area should stay pretty dry with a decent amount of bedding.  On the other hand, a smooth hard surface is easier to clean with the skidder and will stay level and flat over time.  Andy also didn't want bare dirt under the feeders he's going to build because that's just going to invite rats to tunnel under and set up house.  So, we decided to go for it and we'll be calling the concrete folks on Monday.

Tomorrow we're scheduled to run all the adult ewes over the scale to check eye scores and body condition, deworm anyone that needs it and replace any coats that are getting snug.  I know I've seen a few.  We did the rams a few days ago and they are growing well.  The ewe lambs will be checked in a couple of days when time allows.

Yesterday and today we got a very welcome 1.6 inches of rain without the tornadoes that touched down in Corning and Elmira (less than 50 miles away).  This is super good for the corn which is just starting to tassel, the alfalfa which needs to grow so we can make second cutting, and the pastures which have been a scary pale tan color for several weeks.



Red sky at night....means at least we won't be working tomorrow in the rain.  ;-)

The Task Du Jour

Some days you know just what you have to do from morning till night.  Other days you look at priorities and weigh them against the weather, time available, what else needs doing and then figure out what the job of the day is.

Today there were a couple of big jobs.  First Andy serviced the haybine and mowed the first field to make hay.

We mowed hay - expect rain in 2 days.



This is actually the upper section of the ram's pasture.  They have been excluded from it so far this year.  We let the field grow, take off a cutting of hay, and by the time it regrows to a nice lush carpet we'll be bringing the weaned ram lambs up here to live with the menfolk.  So far the strategy has worked out quite well.

While Andy was doing that I finished washing the last of the 3-ply sport weight yarn, and then we tackled this.

Doorway to the ram barn

  This area hs been churned into a deep muck hole by all the tramping in and out the rams do.  They drag litter out all winter and then with the constant rain in April and May they've turned it into a morass they can barely slog through and can't jump over.

Two pitchforks and 8 tractor buckets of slop later.........

Down to bare dirt

And then half a dump wagon of mixed rock from the gravel pile.......

Problem solved

Driving the skidsteer back and forth over it a few dozen times packs it down pretty good.  Heavy sheep feet will finish the job.

And while we've been doing that, Holly has been on her self-appointed job of waiting for Woody Woodchuck to make the mistake of poking his nose out from under the woodpile.

I know he's in there.  I can hear him fartin'.

Woody Wood's days are numbered.