Playing Catch-Up.

This will be my attempt to bring you up to speed on what is happening around the farm. The fence(s) is/are finally finished. I had to do some after completion modifications to prevent my dogs from getting out. The way the fence is designed is that the yard and pasture closest to the cow shed are supposed to be completely secure. All of the fencing in these two locations should not allow for a dog to slip through.... or so I thought. I found out that Ranger was slipping out, under the electric wire and climbing through a section of the rock wall that had fallen over. Today, I filled that hole with a mass of old barbed wire that I had laying out in the pasture and, as of the last few hours, they haven't be able to breech the wire.
What else is going on? My kind neighbor agreed to swath and bail my south pasture this weekend (thanks Jerry). In order to get the ground ready, I had to clear out all the young hedge trees growing there. I came home from school on Friday and started cutting. Nothing is harder on a chain saw than cutting hedge trees at ground level. I worked until I couldn't see anymore and then got up early on Sat. to finish the job. I reverted to a hand saw and, other than the extra scratches on my forearms, I thought it went well.
He just finished bailing and he was able to get 19 smaller, round bails out of the field. I'm happy with that as I think it will give me more than enough hay for the winter.
I think I have my cows trained pretty well now to come when I call them. I had one get out on Friday and get into my neighbor's pasture. I went down to the fence that joins our pastures and called my cow over with the promise of some sweet feed. The good girl came, but unfortunately, I was out of sweet feed. '
Finally, we had some dear friends stop for a visit on their way back to MN from CA. Skip and Peggy are like Sam and Hannah's grandma and grandpa and are so good with our kids. Sam and Hannah always enjoy spending time with them and have fond memories of when they came and visited us in Guatemala. I took the day off from work and kept the kids home too. Skip and I were able to knock a few major projects off of the too do list and the kids had a great time hanging out with Peggy. It was a nice visit, but too short.
All is well on the farm. We look forward to many more visits from our friends and family. I'll post a blend of some of the more recent photos we have taken. D.

Fences, Cows Coming Home, and Back to Work

It seems like only yesterday that I was starting my fencing projects for the summer. Even though it has been over a month since my last posting, it's easy to summarize what transpired since that time. Fence building pretty much sums it all up. It seems there wasn't much else. My poor kids must have thought that their father forgot how to play and have fun. It wasn't all that bad but it was close.... and I'm still not done. I'll finish the house's treated wood fence, hopefully, this weekend.

The cows are in the pasture and getting along nicely. I had just finished the pasture fencing when I brought home 4 heifers. They spent the night in the pasture, up close to the cow shed, but by the next morning, two were gone. I walked out with a cup of coffee to look at the cows and imagine my surprise to find two gone. One had already gone over, or through the south fence and the other was pacing the fence looking for a weakness. When she found it, she went through it. In short, it took me two weeks, some good fence mending, and the erection of an electric fence before the two wayward cows were brought home. No problems since that time, thankfully.

School has started and a new year has begun. I am pleased with the work that was done over the summer and can breath more easily knowing that I only need to build a chicken coop next. I'll post some photos of the cows, the fences, and the new shop floor in the barn. It was nice to have my brother and his son Josh come down to help me pour. Thanks also to my buddy Randy for lending a hand. It should make for a nice work space when I get it all put together.

Other tidbits of information: chicken population is now down to 20. It seems my dogs will never stop eating them; saw a rattler the other day while working on the fence and last night, I killed a black snake in the basement of the house (Yikes!).