Dispatches From The Farm

We Lost a Calf

Posted on by The Lord of The Manor

I had a farrier by last night to look at the hooves of our mare, which have not been done for far too long. just before he arrived, I noticed that one of the calves was lying about looking like he wanted to die. With the gent on his way, I could not address it then, and had to get prepare the horse for her appointment. Once the farrier finished with her, I went right back over to where the calf was and took to dealing with him. There was nothing I could do. I went in to tell Missus that the calf looked like he was on his way out, and by the time I got back, he was gone. I have no idea what did it. I expected one to die before we got them raised. That is just my luck and skill with them. But I did not really expect it to be this one, and so soon.

That was bad news.

The good news was having the tractor to deal with it. I chained his leg and pulled him down the alleyway to the main part of the pen, and then bucket loaded him and carried him across to the field and let him out near the swale at the bottom. He is far from anyone and will no doubt decay in the springtime. It was a snap do sort it out, and I really enjoyed having the cab on to keep warm while at it. It also helped to partition me from the gruesome factor.

That was the good news.

I picked up the cutting edge for the bucket, and the bracket to put on the SMV sign at the rear of the tractor. I am finally legal! I mounted that on tonight and feel a lot better about getting on the road with the machine. Mind, I don’t have to drive it far to get to the pasture. But it’d be my luck I would get the attention of the police in that little stretch. And now I don’t have to remember to put on the hazard lights every time, though I probably still will.

Our forecast for the next week is cold, but dry. Perhaps I can get some things done! I have the pallet forks on so I can take things out of the granary, and put some other things back in. It’s not that I can reach in with them, but I don’t have to carry things across the yard.

I have been getting the parts needed to put in the outlet for the welder on my panel in the garage. There is a bit more to it than there would be with a regular breaker. It has been unexpected, as I have not done this type before. So, I am learning. I think I have everything I need to finish it maybe tomorrow.

Autumn Proper

Posted on by The Lord of The Manor

The first week of November is already by, and I am already starting to lament the thought of that long period between Christmas and spring planting, when the seed catalogues come, and the season never seems to go. Everyone who lives with plants knows just what I mean. As for those with animals, unless they can afford plenty of hay, they will understand the anxieties I have right now about the amount of hay we have on hand, and how well the tarp is staying on it, or not. Anyone who survives the cold with only wood heat and limited access to the wood knows the other anxiety I am suffering right now. I know we could be a lot worse off in so many ways. It is just a part of the agrarian life that one lives with when each year one gets just enough to get by. I hope that during the coming year I will better this situation and get truly ahead.

I have got so much done in the past month since the tractor arrived that I am amazed. I am half done with the land bridge from the main property across the street to the other side of the swale at the bottom of the place. Once that is done, I will be able to wither carry on with the idea of planting trees along there and calling it Willow Bank, or I could let the livestock over to graze at their leisure and have about 4/10ths of an acre more land to feed from. It’s no small thing as that would support a cow for a while. Every little helps. But if we do the Willow Bank idea, it would be best to leave it as an untouched natural space for animals and picnics. Willow trees would just finish it over there, providing shade and play.

I went out to do some work in the shop yesterday but noticed the llamas giving attention to something at the bottom of the property. I could not see what it was, so I went over instead, and found three hounds had trapped a raccoon and were biting and barking at it. The raccoon was in a struggle, but I could not do much to interfere with frenzied dogs who would only ignore my pleas for them to stop and let it be. I checked with some people who I saw on the next property, but the dogs were not theirs. I went back and the raccoon was still alive, but had no fight left in it. I thought the dogs were being fairly inefficient at killing it, then realized what was going on. They had worn it down, then one bit on its throat till it choked to death. It was a maneuver that they could not have pulled off with the raccoon fighting back. It was a sad thing to see, but they were not my dogs and I could not stop them, and I did not want to get tangled up with a raccoon. If there are rabies, then I’d be the final victim. No thank you. I now know who’s dogs they are, but there is not much I can do about them, as they live close enough that unless they are going to keep their dogs permanently locked up, they will always end up over on ours. Also, we have had horses break lose and end up in their pasture before, too, so it is probably best to keep an understanding with these particular people. It was a raccoon. It was not one of my animals. But it does mean that I have limits to what animals I can keep over there, as small ones and waterfowl are probably out of the question. It is best as a grazing pasture.

I am nearly done setting up for a welder in the shop. I need to clean up in there, so I don’t set a fire or cause an explosion. I just need to install some gear I have got in order to plug the welder in, then I need to get some practice in. I have got me some learning to do. I put in all the electrics into the cottage for Missus, and now I am doing a bit of work on the shop. Much of it is done already, and things are working much better in there. For example, the air compressor is kicking on at full power now and runs without tripping a breaker. It sure feels a lot safer without worrying about all the power coming into the shop down a single extension cord from the house! That has also relieved a circuit in the house, too! The kitchen ought to run better, and we have finally closed that window on the front porch all the way. There is the door out there that could do with being replaced, and I think it will keep much warmer in there going forward from that.

Tractor Work

Posted on by The Lord of The Manor

So many years ago I picked up parts of an old walk that went from the front door to the roadside. I did it when we decided to put in a fence and cut off access straight in with it, circle drive, and a tree. I used some for crazy paving in Missus’ herb garden, and I used two big square pieces under the garbage bins so they could be sort of roadside, but on the outside of the fence, ready to take out on garbage day, and easily accessible with the kitchen rubbish on all the days of the week. It has worked really well, apart from the slabs having gone in crooked, and they were too heavy to fix at the time, as it took all I had in me to get them there in the first place. I promised myself then that when I got a tractor, I would fix it.

Today came the day it got fixed. I took out the slabs, and leveled the dirt under where they belonged, then put them back. It was nowhere that easy as the area is fenced in, and it took a lot of patience and care to avoid damaging the fence! But finally, when it was all done, I put the bins in, and instead of sitting all wonky, they are straight and true, and since they live near the roadside, we finally look like we did this with intention, rather than on accident.

In addition to fixing the bin slabs, I tried again at grading the roadside where the main driveways are. Water comes off the road in the rain and puddles right next to the pavement. Passing drivers easily come off the side of the road a little in that spot, in addition to our passing through from the drives, and with freezing temperatures, we have been at risk of the roadside crumbling into a massive pothole that we could count on the county not addressing. So, I have been trying to grade down the dirt next to the puddles to let them come off the roadside. That is not entirely straightforward as the place where the water should head off to is the front of our house. I needed to level the dirt gently, then slope it past the place where the garbage bins sit, and into a grassy area in front of the cow pens where nobody really drives. Hopefully this will eliminate the pooling of water in that spot! I’d like to prevent the road being destroyed in front of our house!

I finished putting in several electrical outlets in my wife’s cottage yesterday, making electricity available along her entire workbench. I need to set in some outlets in the comfy side of the cottage next. That should be easier. It is a lot closer to the panel, so there will be far less drilling involved, anyway.

I also started rewiring my shop, setting up for all of the lighting I want to have in, and outside of it. I also got some of the outlets sorted. I have been running power in the shop off an extension cord for the last ten years, so this has been very exciting to me!

A Storm Blows Through the Farm

Posted on by The Lord of The Manor

I woke up this morning around 2:45 and noticed the ghostly sound of children screaming. Turned out it was just the wind. I was out doing chores last night and noticed the tarp had blown off the hay pile. Well, that will never do. That is one of those fixes that has got to be handled immediately when the forecast suggests rain. I put the tarp back on and fastened it down as best I could with all the bungee cords I could find. The big tarp is not in great shape, and the grommets are not all in place. So, fastening it down was not straightforward. After waking up this morning, I found myself lay in bed listening to the wind and theorizing on the best way to fasten a tarp so that the wind does not catch it and flap it to pieces. The conclusion I came to was ropes pulled taught, not tight, and one on every grommet to prevent any flapping. No metal to prevent any tearing of the tarp too. But it’s too late for the tarp we have at the moment.

I finally got up and dressed, then went out to give it a look when I realized I had nothing else to do but worry about the hay. Our whole winter’s supply is in one stack, and if it gets wet, rots, then generates heat and catches on fire, then we lose everything all at one. That is not acceptable at all. I need to do something about that.

When I went out, I took the tractor along, and it provided lots of light and the loader provided a step to help me up onto the pile of hay to try to get a handle on the bit that I found flapping lose. That is very destructive to a tarp! It also left the two new big bales exposed. The grommets were gone along that edge, so I did what I could do, which was to grab the trailer for the lawn mower and put it on top of the tarp on the hay pile. Naturally, the lovely loader on the tractor did all the lifting! I should go out and buy a new tarp in the morning and put it on before the weather takes a turn for the worse. Saying that, it was nearly 60F out when I was out messing about with the tarp!

In other news on the farm, the electrician came to do the job of installing panels in our two outbuildings yesterday. I am at ease with the work that needs to be done from the panel to each light and outlet. But putting in a proper installation from the service to the panes was not something I was comfortable with. We put in an underground cable, and it required a splice to come to the two buildings, and that was also something I worried about. But having seen it now, I think I could do the same work to some sort of smaller scale if needed in the future. But I foresee only a single breaker from the cottage out to the chicken coop in my future. They could use light and some heat for their water. I also would love to see some lights on the exterior of the barn to help illuminate against the wild animals that come visiting.

In addition to electrifying the cottage, I also will be able to give the shop a proper installation of electrical outlets and lighting. I have been working off of an extension cord thus far, which is ridiculous and unsafe. It also meant leaving a gap in a window on the front porch for the cord to lead out of. I’ll be able to close that up and see how warm we can actually get it out there in the near future. Furthermore, I will be able to install things like my welder in the shop and run enough power to install dust collection and proper power tools and such. I would also like to arrange easy access for a fridge to sell eggs from the front of the shop, near the road. I would also like very much to get a bandsaw in the shop that will allow me to make some flat stock, do some resawing, and make some blanks for the lathe. This is all very exciting stuff! Let’s hope Home Depot has got the breakers I need in stock when I go later in the day!

Progress is always a wonderful thing!

First Snowfall 2022

Posted on by The Lord of The Manor

Today actually marks the second or third snowfall of the season, but how much does one count before it gets counted? All three might have amounted to enough to put on the car and measure half an inch of the white stuff. The reason I am mentioning it today however is because I went out to get firewood after some sleet had fallen and then the stuff coming from the sky turned to snow. While I was out there under the tarps, I thought I heard the tarps blowing and making a fair amount of noise in the wind, till I poked my head up and realized there was no wind. The sound was still going, and I realized it was thunder. It seemed a bit cold for it, but I guess not!

No matter how hard I look at it, I cannot imagine the firewood we have on hand lasting the whole winter and half the spring from now. Everything inside me says that this is going to be a cold winter, and that I better be ready for it. There are a few different ways to do that still. One guy on the classified ads is listing three cords of slabs for $300. That would last a month or two with aggressive burning. That could be enough to make all the difference. I messaged and am waiting to see what his delivery fee is, and if he’ll take a check.

He wants $150 for delivery here. Too much! I get my wood for free mostly, so that is a bit steep on top of actually paying for the wood. I am passing on it.

As for other things, the electrician is set to arrive here either Friday or Monday to put panels into both shops for us. We are finally going to have proper electric in my shop, and Missus is going to have it in her new shop. Honestly, I am kind of glad I waited to have them both done at once, as it should make the install pretty clean. Once the panels are in, I am doing the interior electrical installations. Should be pretty easy. At least it’s straightforward. Looks like I better pick up some basics like wire and outlets and boxes and switches when I am in town tomorrow!

Kioti CK 2610 SE HC

Finally, there is a photo of the little tractor. Having a cab in the environment we live in sure is nice. The truck is a GMC Sierra 2500, for scale. It’s not a huge tractor, but it’s not small, either. It sure keeps up with its work.

The New Tractor

Posted on by The Lord of The Manor

Well, I guess it was October 4th that the new tractor was delivered to the farm. It showed up and I must say, I was not impressed with the dealership’s delivery. They forgot the tiller, they brought it with a broken wiper fluid lid, and they brought the key to another tractor. The coolant was low, and overall, it seemed they just put the tractor on a trailer and brought it right off the lot without reviewing to see if it was ready for delivery or not. It didn’t even have an SMV sign on the back. There were no manuals, and they was no offer to go over anything with me when they dropped it off, but rather, they just wanted to drop it and go. I only noticed after that they dropped it off with only a quarter of a tank of fuel. I called and asked if that was their standard practice. When the guy came back with the tiller, he also replaced the wiper fluid lid, and put the manuals in and topped the coolant and fuel tanks. Later in the week I had to tighten the fan belts on the alternator and on the air conditioner.

Dealership problems aside, the tractor itself seems pretty good. I put it right to work and have put hours on it. I in fact am ready for the machine’s first service already! It wants a service at 50 hours to clear any metal worn from it being new. I’ll be talking to the dealer about it tomorrow. But the work I have put it through so far has cleared a ten year long to do list and caught up on as much as I could possibly hope to with this machine as it is. If I had a backhoe, then I would have cleared more, and that would have cost a lot more.

I killed a goat pen next to the barn, a mess in front of the granary, finished a driveway on the west end of the home lot, and made a pad to set a new shed down on. I have hauled home large round bales of hay and unloaded them and cleaned up messes and the like just about everywhere, including the wood yard, formerly the Service Yard. I also build a massive compost pile and loaded it with horse apples and llama poo from everywhere I could find it. I made a ramp down from the canal path over where the canal people piled tailings so high, I could not get my truck over it to haul down a dead llama last year. I cleaned up the dead llama finally and felt a huge sigh of relief when I put him someplace far less conspicuous till his remains are gone naturally.

Oh, and the firewood I have moved! I brought over the wood that was left across the street a few years ago when that massive cottonwood came down on the neighbor’s farm and delivered here. What a wonder it was to be able to move that at last!

I am set up to lift logs, till gardens, level land, haul trailers, and lift large bales of hay. And all of this with a tractor of only 24.5 HP! But it does have a cab! It has a cab that is more protective than one without if I roll a bale of hay over towards me, and against loose hay blowing in the wind, and the wind, and the rain, and the snow, and the heat. It has a radio, and it has all the bells and whistles I could want to grow old in on my little farm.

So, what’s the plan?

In the coming summer, I want to put the old dog to work making flower gardens and vegetable gardens and cleaning up the property across the street from the canal company mess. I want to be ready when they put the canal into pipes underground to make the land good and clean. I get to clear our own snow this year, and even keep our drives clean inside the gates. I hope that with the tiller, I can beat back more of the grass and weeds that come up in the gardens. I plan to compost the gardens well with the heap I have been building. I will be able to remove dead animals regardless of their size and weight!

There are so many things I can do! And that is the key to the whole deal. I can do! That is what excites me most! And with that, I have been doing. It was lovely today to go out and work in warm air while the weather was cold outside. I went over the road to collect more to feed the compost heap with, and it never bothered me in the least. Granted, this is the beginning of the cold time of the year. I have yet to plug in the block heater. But I suspect I will be doing that soon by the way the old dog started this morning. We are putting electric into two outbuildings where I will soon be able to install a dedicated outlet for that and sort out a proper parking spot for the tractor.

So, for now, all is better than well on the farm. I have not yet come to a chore the tractor could not do. I suspect that may change soon as I am getting the largest bales of hay I can get hold of delivered in the next couple of days. We’ll see if I can even move them once they are on the ground here. Luckily, I will have them put where I can take them apart to use if I really am unable to move them at all.

In other exciting news, the weather has changed from summer like to autumnal. We have gone from warm and lovely last week, to snow all the way down the mountains in the west and nearly as far in the east just this weekend. It has rained, which is a first for the month. But the temperature dropped, and the rain turned to snow overnight. My daughter came in with firewood this evening, and said she was going to go back out and after and watch the snowfall. We lit the woodstove Friday evening, and I suspect it is going to be going constantly from now till Spring. What a time it is! I am glad I got the tractor when I did and have been able to get the farm ready for wintering over and bursting out to life in the Spring!

I think we are in for a cold winter. The rheumatism is speaking clearly, and so is the dry patches I get on my hands. Everything about this autumn just feels like we are in for it this year. Only time can confirm this feeling, though. I have some machines to service this week, and a lawnmower to put away for the winter. Once all that is done, I think a trip to pick up some dry wood to bring back to split up and add to the winter pile is in order. I am not too happy with feeling like “I hope we have enough,” and am ready to call it “I KNOW we have enough.” I’d also like to start getting enough ready to start piling up a year in advance now that wood is probably going to be easier to manage, and I’d like to pile up enough to start selling on the side. I can procure in the cold and the hot, and I can saw and split in the temperate seasons. That ought to give some extra money.

I have been too busy to write since the tractor arrived. I have even been too busy running the thing all over the farm to shoot a picture of it. I am familiarizing myself with it from top to bottom and scoop to three-point hitch. There is still a lot for me to learn about it. But I hope to write more as I get settled with it. It has been so exciting to finally be able to start working this farm to live up to my dreams for it.

Without a backhoe I have a few things to either seek help for or hire out for. We have to replace the septic system here and put in a few hydrants to help with getting water to the animals and to the gardens. I think with those in, this place will be able to reach a much higher potential. The only thing it could do with more would be irrigation over in the pasture. Who knows? Maybe such a thing could go into the works. Again, time will tell.

Well, it is getting time to walk the dogs and have a bite to eat before bed. Tomorrow is Monday, and this week promises to be productive and to see a lot of things done to ready us for what could be one of our best winters yet here on the farm. Hopefully!

Late Summer Projects Update

Posted on by The Lord of The Manor

I have finished most of the fencing for the old llama pens in the side yard next to the house. These pens are conveniently located and make life easy daily, but especially in winter, for feeding and caring for the animals. I have two goats in the pen I am looking at keeping the calves in for their winter feedings, and I have let the calves out into the pen, too. The gates are in where I want them, finally allowing access to those pens for things like the lawn mower, and hopefully one day a tractor large enough to lift out anything that dies in the pens. It happens. Best to make it manageable. The only bit of fencing left to do there is along the east side of one of the pens where there is electric fencing at the moment.

The new driveway is serviceable to some degree now! It is rough and could really use a smoothing out. I have been hoping for years to get a tractor to do this sort of thing, but one never comes. The resources to do so may come soon, finally. If so, I would like to level it out and push a little out to grade and give it a smooth transition out to the road, rather than through the shallow end of the borrow pit, as is there now.

I have all the hay stacked in one place now, rather than sitting in a trailer. I need a lot more hay for over winter. I’ll have to have help loading it all, as there is too much for me to do on my own. I have about 75 bales now and need a total of around 300. So that’s an ongoing project. I also want to get a feeder to help keep the hay off the ground in the pen, though I have seen one farmer who successfully feeds on the ground in a field all winter. It is an opportunity to get one, and I probably should, though. It will serve more than just these cows.

Firewood had had a moment of pause as I have worked on the fencing and focused a little on getting hay. I have a decent pile in the Service Yard that I brought home in spring. It needs to be cut to length and split and stacked before I will really know how far I am from having enough for this winter. I do need a bit more, I am sure. With the summer being quite as hot as it has been, and the heat knocking out a good portion of working hours, I don’t think I am ready yet, at all, though I am close, and I would really love to be ahead or next year.

As I write this, we had one day of reasonable temperatures. There are more autumnal temps coming, too. Now is the time to act! It is time to boot the projects that need to be worked around the weather forward. Those include hay gathering, wood gathering, and things like getting up in the attic and running an electrical wire that needs putting in for the outlet I installed in an awkward corner of my den. The high temps are forecast now for two mid 80’s and the rest to explore the whole of the 70’s for the next ten days. There is also rain in the forecast, which would be a very welcomed relief from the dry summer we have had. Although, when I checked my weather records on our station, it was surprising to find this year was actually not the driest recorded. Quite the opposite! The summer months have recorded quite a lot more rain than in previous years. August pulled in 3.44 inches, while previous years have hovered closer to less than one inch, for example.

There are other projects to tackle in the cooler weather, as well. I can get back to the shop, where I can work on the lathe, and candle making. It needs a little clean up in there. I’d also like a proper workbench for wood working. In addition to all this, there is the apparently annual cleaning of the barn that is required before the snowy season starts. The granary has some things stored in it that should not be there. I want my cast iron out! The woodstove will need a servicing before the burning season begins, as well as the chimney cleaning out. I also have some firewood that wants splitting to use in the woodshop. There will be a period when the autumn is too cold, and the shop will be too, and it will want a little heat to keep it, till the winter sets in properly, and makes it all too cold to do anything in for more than a few minutes. That will be the time when I will have to transition any light work into my den, and I can make candles and do leather working in there. All of that must be arranged for.

So that’s where things are as of September 10th, 2022. Let’s see how much we can get done before the end of the month!

Projects Right Now

Posted on by The Lord of The Manor
This calf gets called Brownie. It is one of our calves we are feeding out.
Our four calves in a temporary pen while I get the bigger one ready for their winter over on hay feed.
A sampling of the old fencing that is being replaced with new like in the next photo.
New Fencing installed on the east end of the pen I intend to keep the calves in while they start out on hay over winter. It will be easier to feed them on this side of the street.
The Truck and Trailer with 57 bales of hay onboard.

We have a lot more going on here than usual right now, and in spite of the heat, though I do have to take it easy in the midday sun. We have started piling up hay for winter, finally. I have the firewood coming along, and we are bottle feeding four calves that will be sold, or butchered, or both, depending on the situation come the end their time being raised up. The kids are in school on top of all this, and I am their home liaison, or teacher, depending on the child. Meanwhile, Missus is trying to set up a home-based business and see how it goes. She is doing that while holding down a full-time job, as you do.

I was working on the fence in the south pen on this side of the street when the dogs out back started barking. Turns out the goat and dog that live together had got out again. That turned our priority yesterday into replacing the fence that kept the older dog safely in. That dog lives with a goat; long story.

We got the fence on the dog run replaced by the end of the day and put the Odd Couple back into it. This morning I put in an N-brace in the end of the pens that I had started working on yesterday. I am setting those pens up to have large gates at their west end, so I can get things in and out, like the lawnmower, eventually a tractor, and haul out anything that dies in them. It is a practical move.

A real question I am kicking around right now is if I should let the Odd Couple continue on like they are and eliminate the goat’s old pen, making more room for another firewood bunk, or should I put it back together and keep them separate? I could use the space!

On the far west end of the property, where the gates will let out from the pens, I am building in an access driveway. I could put firewood along that, or I could line it with some poplar trees. I think I like poplar trees to shade the animals in the pens in the afternoons and to shade a place to park the truck. Just another thing I am kicking around. The drive is meant to make it easier to access the back with a trailer in tow and allow me to not have to back it. I have no troubles backing trailers, but I don’t trust there won’t be someone there at some point. I don’t want to run someone down.

Oh, and today I am watering the orchard trees, as one of them appears to have died. That’s not good.

Today’s Calf Report

Posted on by The Lord of The Manor

The Holstiens did great today. Both feedings went well. They were eager to eat, and all of them got through their bottles fairly quickly. I dropped in a bit of hay to see how they might take to it. But as I recall, I need to feed them out on the bottles till the six-week mark because their digestive systems are not made to handle hay only right now. I’d not want to feed them and them starve to death.

Speaking of hay, I am figuring on the need for 300 or so bales of hay over winter. I started collecting that today. I went to the dealer I used to buy from before our neighbor started to deliver large bales. But he took the year off, so the old guy it is. He has an honor system with a mailbox for the money to go into, and the hay out in the open (under a shelter) to pick up.

I picked up 57 bales today. I am not fit to pick up 57 bales. Holy crap! I thought I was going to die while lifting them, I thought I was going to die after I got home with them. I napped twice and rested the whole day till after that second nap. Can I have my tractor now? The hay is, of course, still on the rig out in the yard. The new fencing is not up yet, and the firewood pile that needs to be stacked only grew after I got to feeling better this evening. So, I have got a chores list waiting for me tomorrow.

A Cow Update & Etc…

Posted on by The Lord of The Manor

The first two evenings we fed the cows, there was one during each feed that gave us troubles and did not eat. Aside from those two evenings, they have all eaten just fine. I don’t know if it was the stress of the move, but we have had the last two feedings, and indeed all others, go very, very well. We have three cages that we put the bottles into on the fence, and they all do a great job of keeping to their bottles and clearing them out. The fourth bottle gets held by our youngest daughter, and she does just fine with it. I need to go look for a fourth cage, to ease her efforts, as she has had enough time to get at least a rudimentary understanding of how strong a calf is, and the way it ‘bumps’ for more when it is out, or when the bottle nipple is not flowing fast enough for it.

The day before yesterday I went out to buy a roll of four-foot horse fencing, and the shop I went to had them marked at $199.99. I asked for one, and the lady at the till said they were in the computer at $209.99. It was clear they intended to raise the price, and they had not yet been marked on the actual fencing. She said she would sell it to me at the price marked. So, I asked her if she would sell me two? “Yes,” she said. So that is how I came to have two 100-foot rolls of horse fencing in the back of my truck. The plan is to measure out and use it for the original intended fence repairs to the dog and goat runs, and then sort out one of the llama pens for the calves to stay the winter in, then move the goats to that pen come spring, when the calves get moved to the pasture for summer grazing.

I kind of wish I could have blown another $200 on more fencing to put up on the property line and keep the over-all place in order. That fence is old, and of mixed type, and could really do with being replaced with something new that will hold in any animals that escape from their pens and into the main yard. There are plenty of places they can escape! In addition, it would make it painful for stray dogs and the like to get into the place.

Once I get that fencing up on the llama pen, I think I may allow the calves out of the hospital pen they are in together now and let them go around in the bigger pen for their benefit. I could turn some goats loose in there to rake down the weeds first, and to that end, it’s best I see how everyone is doing, and how I feel about it when the fence job is done. But if the goats will take to the weeds, that ought to save me a few bales of hay.

To do this fence update, I have to take down some electric fencing first. I will surely put up a wire at the top to keep penned animals from stressing the fence. Nobody likes the grass on their own side, especially among cows.

So, hay. That is going to be expensive this year. I will be paying $10 a bale, which is still $9 cheaper than the most expensive hay I have seen since coming back to America 12 years ago. There was a shop in Nevada that was selling them at $19 a bale, and that was back in the first year since we arrived. So, $10 does not entirely intimidate me. Besides, I may be able to talk the seller into a lower price if I am buying a hell of a lot of hay from him, which I will be, if he has it. I will be starting today, so maybe he will. But then again, with gas prices so high, I’ll understand if he doesn’t.

I’d go with another seller, and buy big bales, if I could. But I have no way of unloading them from the truck and trailer. That brings me to the tractor. I have none. I want one. I thought about buying a cheap one for the field, but I would still need one with a loader to do things like unloading the hay. So why blow an extra $3-grand? It gets hard when deciding priorities like a cab, which would benefit for long stretches of the year when the weather is bad. And after a recent sinus infection, that was a good reminder that protection around me from even little things blowing in the wind are worth the extra cost. I have picked up an infection before from just handing alfalfa hay. Conversely, that is a little more expensive than adding a backhoe to the tractor, which would help me get pipes for the water supply to places such as the garden, and the animal pens, rather than having to deal with long hoses that freeze in the winters. Sure, I could rent for that, but there are so many other jobs to do, too. I need a septic system installed, and I need to dig out old stumps, and sort out some of the waterways here. There is also the use in stirring compost, though to be fair, I could probably look at another way, using the loader, and should probably do that. Perhaps that is the crux of it. Otherwise, in a short amount of time, it would probably be cheaper to own than to rent.

I split more firewood last night. Looking at what I have got, I could probably make it through the winter with what is done and what is still on the ground. It won’t take long till the stuff that is cut is through the log-splitter, and I can get the last of the long branches into the mown clearing and cut them down to go through. At this point, I think anything I bring home from the wood-yard is ready to go towards next year’s burning. Then that wood will be properly seasoned! The miracle of being ahead! If I could just do that every year! Honestly, I am torn between getting firewood later today, or getting hay. But hay is in seriously limited supply if I don’t get it now and get a lot. So, it is probably best I do that. I have till about November to get the wood. And I still have permits to go into the mountains to get some maple, too! Hopefully that will come soon. I need the help of one of the older kids to do that. With no cellphone service up there, a person wants the help of someone who can drive to a hospital.

So, this turned out to be more than a cow update. It is just gone 4:00AM, and these are the thoughts that get to me at night. Now it is time to see if I can get some sleep, since loading hay is probably on the agenda for today.