Back to Grass

Weather made to order, that is all I have to say about this week. Yesterday, the sheep and cattle went back out on the pasture. Sheep are so much easier to move then cattle.  I put a scoop of corn in my bucket (long moves are the only time I feed corn to my sheep) and give it a shake then start moving. The ram is the one you have to careful of. He will tear that bucket out of your hands and go after you if you are not careful. Anyway, the sheep are pretty easy, they follow the bucket, but the cattle have to be pushed from behind (they don't know what corn is) so there is much less control. Couple that with the fact that if and when cattle do run, they run much further then sheep. It took a bit to get all the livestock from the corral and into the pen I set-up in the orchard. From here on out, I will take the portable paddock and just build the next days paddock adjacent to the current paddock, so no corn and much less drama. There is not much grass yet so the moves will be everyday until the pasture catches up.

On another note, my neighbor Cornie got the tractor started. We had to drag it up the the road and pull start it. The starter is likely bad and the wiring is questionable. I don't really have the money to dump into the tractor right now so we parked it on a hill (no shortage of those) and blocked it there so I could use gravity to start the tractor as I rolling rolling down the hill. Not a great solution, but it is an improvement too six months of siting in the way of everything.

South Fence Line 

Fiberglass Wood Composite Post

Sunday was very productive. I finished a section of fence along the south property line. That fence line is five strands of high tensile wire with wood corners and fiberglass and wood composite posts in between.

On Sunday, I also installed a yard/dinner bell I found on craigslist.  When Janice and I were first married we got a gift jokingly labeled marital communication devise, it was a meat tenderizer. I think the dinner bell is a much better tool for that task.

Marital Communication Device

All of our chicks have been ordered. The first round of broilers arrives on April 15th, so the clock is ticking on getting the building ready for them. We still have to finalize our delivery dates, update the order form on our website, and finish the customer newsletter. We hope to have all of that done here by Monday and be ready for business.