Weed Oasis

I've been spending the last several days working on the mini's pasture. At present, they are in the pasture adjacent to the barn and have grazed most of the pasture down to the roots minus the weeds. Our plan is to move them into the neighbouring pasture on the other side of their present pasture. You can see it here in this picture.

That had been our plans from the beginning. But that pasture was far too overgrown for minis who can get very sick off lush pastures so we sent the boarding horses in there first to graze it down to a manageable height. Meanwhile, I surveyed their current pasture as the sheep will be coming out to graze the weeds down, and determined woven wire was needed over the cedar fence as I really, REALLY, don't want any escapees. And with the potential of increasing the flock in the fall/winter, I decided to go ahead and sheep proof it now.

Next to sheep proofing the fence, I confronted the wild oasis of weeds growing between the two pastures. I'm not sure of the proper name for this weed, but I do know they are detrimental to the growth of healthy brush and grass nearby and multiply like mad and nearly impossible to kill. You can see them in the above photo where they have killed the tree they have overtaken.

They are nasty buggers and the only way I'm aware of destroying them is with an ax and match. DO NOT let them flower if you find any on your property as that is how they multiple. I had been consumed with everything else on the property that I neglected this batch. And with it being in an area of not much concern, I failed to watch its rapid growth. But once the horses grazed down the adjoining pasture, I was able to really get a good look at the fence line and subsequent wild forest growing there. So with ax in hand, I began hacking away. I covered my body from head to feet as the weeds are loaded with velcro like burs. And bees. Lots and lots of bees who didn't appreciate me removing their pollinating buffet. But at last the job was done.

This is the area now free of weeds.

A closer look between pasture fences.

Nothing but grass. Which of course the minis helped mow the best they could.

Fencing

Our large pasture required the north side to be fenced properly before we could put any livestock in it. The previous owner had simply roped the fence line.

Not good. So I knew that the fence would need to be redone to safely contain animals. The main posts were already installed so all we had to do was add t-posts for extra support and page wire. Luckily, we already had both materials. All we needed was manpower.

That came surprisingly in the form of my 11 year old son.

Now, he didn't do the majority of the work but to be honest, I couldn't have finished the job without his muscle help. I always knew I would be grateful for his manpower some day, I'm just surprised it has arrived earlier than I thought.

We had to mow the grass along the fence line, then poud in the t-posts. Farm Girl managed to pound in about five a night and it wasn't until we got near the end that my son asked if he could have a go. Humoring him, we handed over the post pounder and was startled to discover he pound the post into the ground faster than his sister. Then when his sister got busy at work with lambing season underway and I not wanting the grass to grow back and having to mow it over again, I enlisted my son's help for unrolling the fence wire and nailing it to the posts. Again, his muscles surprised me. He was able to pull the fence taut while I nailed it in.

I'm super pleased with how it turned out. Better, actually, than I thought it. All thanks to my boy.

Starting Over

The pastures stand quietly abandoned, the sheep's favourite tree looks lonely without the flock sleeping contently beneath it's shade.

The holding pen is still and empty while the shelter sits incomplete.

It was a hard decision to make selling the sheep, but I know when I have been beat and way over my head.  The lack of a perimeter fence and barn was far too much of a challenge to contain 80 something sheep. When they left the property and started heading up the road on their last escape, I knew I was done.  The liability risk of them running into traffic or onto other farmer's properties was too high.  I called a sheep buyer and he came and bought them from me.  In the end, it was probably a good thing as he informed me that the breed of sheep I was raising had little value in this area.  They were considered more as goats then sheep.  So I guess I saved myself years of raising a huge flock of the wrong breed.  It is our intention to make money off this business and the most dollar we can.  I had lost $75 per head on the lambs simply because they were Katahdin.  It was very disappointing.  I loved my sheep.  I took pride in the breed I raised.  It was a huge set back but one that I should be grateful could have been worse.  I could have been deeper invested.

But we are not giving up and will rebuild our flock.  Before then however, we will ensure the perimeter fence is in place.  If I took anything from this harsh lesson was that no matter how wonderful electric fencing may work, it does go out and you need something permanent in place to keep them from escaping further.  Meanwhile, Chase has returned to the farm and has an overnight enclosure in the sheep's holding pen preventing him from having any crazy ideas about visiting the horse farm down the road again.

And the miniatures are still here along with the billy goats.

And of course the pygmy goats whom Delilah has been reassigned to guard.

I am saddened that the sheep are gone considering they were our main reason for coming here, but I tell myself it again was in God's plans for me.  If they had never escaped, if I had never realized my limits, if I had not called in the buyer I would never had known I was on the wrong track.  So until the flock return, I guess I will enjoy being a goat farmer.

Respect the Power

Yesterday morning, I could hear Dr. Ellie Sattler's words from the movie Jurassic Park, ring in my head, "I didn't have enough respect for that power and it's out now" as I ran around my farm trying to catch loose sheep.  After just posting about how wonderful the electronet kept my sheep contained and a day after I posted about Chase escaping his "pen" in the middle of the night, I had yet another escape.

I had checked the fence line, made sure there were no down lines or anything touching the net to disrupt the circuit, let the sheep out for the day and had returned to the house to prepare breakfast.  Delilah was outside the electronets playing with Max, the Boy was slowly waking up, the morning sky was shining brightly over the tall grass, it was going to be a wonderful day.  

Then I heard the dogs barking.  Not unusual.  More so at night as wildlife doesn't come around much during the day.  So when the barking continued I glanced out my window.  I could still see sheep in the electronet, but Delilah was bouncing wildly through the line of trees that separated the wheat field and the abandoned pasture overgrown in brush.  I went outside to investigate and the first thing I noticed was the goats all outside of the electronet in the line of trees browsing.  And further down a huge group of sheep also outside of the electronet in the abandoned pasture grazing happily in the brushes.  The fence wasn't down, just leaning over, so they had literally just walked right over it.  I ran back to unplug the net so that I could get them back in and discovered it was already unplugged.  I either forgot to plug in the net which seemed highly unlikely or a more probable scenario, Delilah and Max had accidentally unplugged it while they were running about. 

It was only me and the Boy home but we managed to wrangle all of them back into the holding pen.  Except for a handful that I locked in the chicken coop as it was closer.  It only took us all morning, but no sheep left the property and we got our exercise for the day.  I moved the electronet to the wheat field directly behind the house so I could keep an eye on them which took me close to 3:00 before I was done that job. (I have to mow a path in the tall pasture in order for the electronet to be effective which takes up most of my time.)  

Just as I was about to go into the house to begin supper, two of the sheep in the chicken coop escaped.  My kids were expected home so I was waiting to move the sheep from the coop to the holding pen with a little bit more help than the Boy.  However, those two sheep had different ideas.  To make matters worse, the skies opened up and it started raining.  While I chased two more sheep and their lambs down, the Boy stood guard in the pouring rain over the chicken coop door making sure no others escaped.

When at last I recaptured the two mammas and their babies, the kids arrived just in time to help herd the remaining sheep from the coop into the electronet where it was set up and ready to receive sheep.

Though the electronet can be a wonderful helping tool, I must never forget or take for granted that power that keeps them safely contained.

Electronet

There are very few times in the day that I utter the words, "I hate my job".  But when I do you can rest assured that I am working on the electronet and not with the sheep themselves.  I move it every 2-3 days, depending on how big the area I give them to graze, but it seems every time I do, I'm cussing and cursing the inventor of the electronet.

Light green areas already grazed, darker green to be grazed yet.

Not that I hate it or think its a piece of junk because I don't, it works fantastic.

Once the animals have felt the shock of the fence, they rarely test it again. I do prefer the white fence over the orange fence.

I own both and as you can see, the white fence is more visible and noticeable by the sheep. It also has more rigid vertical lines which stand up better without extra support.

The orange fence blends in more with nature and though great for photo taking, does cause accidental run ins with the sheep.  It is made up completely of ropes except for the plastic posts and require additional portable posts I had to buy extra to help support it.

Both are cumbersome to handle, tangle easily, and rip easily.  When gathering them up, it is almost impossible as my hands are too small.  One hand is to collect while the other gathers.  One hand is not large enough to gather.  And without fail I get my feet caught in the net and find myself falling over on my behind.  Hence is my reasons for cussing and cursing the electronet.  But it keeps Samson and his sheep in and happy, so all is well.  Cause nothing is worse then a missing animal.

ATVing

My daughter's boyfriend came out to the new farm on the weekend to reseed one of our field's that is heavy in wheat and low in grass.

It's later in the season then I would have preferred to lay grass but it's been a weird spring.  Farmers around here are just starting to plant.

He also braced the old shed we are going to transform into a winter shelter for the sheep.

But I think his real reason for coming up was to be able to bring his ATV and have fun in the woods and in our fields.

He loved showing off his skills.

And gave the kids the opportunity to play with it as well.

Farm Girl giving it a spin.

Even the old man gave it a whirl.  Oh no, I think he's going to want one.

Hard at Work

The kids hard at work putting in cedar posts in the new sheep holding pen at the new farm.

Fools

I don't know who's the bigger fool, me or my hubs.  I saw this hay feeder for sale online and thought it would be perfect for the horses so we went down to look at it and my reaction was that it was way too big to take home on the pickup truck.  But once my hubs seen it, he just had to have it.  The farmer we bought it from insisted we could not only get it on the pickup but take it home no problem.  Ha.  Relying entirely on this farmer's judgement, I allowed him to load it on the back of our pickup truck with his tractor.  That should have been a big clue right there.  If he needed a tractor to load it, how the heck would we ever unload it on our farm?  We don't own a tractor.  But as I said, hubs really wanted it and when hubs gets something in his head that he isn't leaving without an item he really wants, he will do anything to make it happen.  So on went the hay feeder onto our truck and believe it or not, we actually got it home.

It was well after dark when we actually unloaded it off the truck however.  It took all our imagination and muscle to get the job done.  Well almost done.  Hubs thought it would "cushion" the fall off the pickup by placing some hay bales underneath.  But that only meant it's now stuck sitting on top of the hay bales.  Oh well, at least it is off the truck.  I'm going to have to come up with some creative thinking to get it from the hay bale, to it's destination in the horse's pasture.

Progress So Far

In our continuing battle against mosquitoes and other biting insects, we have been busy removing all the overgrown shrubs, trees and weeds all over the property.  This is where we are at the moment. The huge mess at the front of the house which in it's glory days was once a beautiful perennial bed I'm sure, has been completely cleared out leaving me a nice clean slate to work with.

The goats have done an excellent job of clearing up the brush to their skeletons.

But still have lots more to finish.

All the overgrown shrubs in front of the bay window have finally all been cleared away.

As well as most of the vine along the chimney.  I was unable to reach the higher branches so will need to either have hubby climb up a taller ladder or onto the kitchen roof next to the vine to remove.

I actually was able to start tackling the huge forest along the lane way this afternoon.  If you look closely, you will see that one is able to actually see through the bushes and to the lane way beyond.

This is what I got from all that clearing.

And this.

It looks like I took down a maple tree but in fact, I took down about a hundred trees.  All baby trees that had been growing wild inside there.  They should have been taken down long ago because what has happened is that they ended up blocking sunlight from the full grown trees that were actually planted there on purpose.  The result is I now have three huge dead pine trees that I'm not entirely sure what I'm going to do with.

Our focus hasn't just been on the greenery around the house but also on the pasture.  Oldest and I mowed thousands of weeds down today as well.

The horses and sheep have been very good at grazing the grass and keeping it low, but the weeds were a different matter.

Thistle is a popular weed in my pasture.

I'm not able to mow the side of the hills in the pasture, but we do what we can on the flats.  

Not only will the removal of the weeds eliminate places for bugs to take up residence, but it will also help to stop the spread of weeds if cut down before they go to flower, as well as help to restore the pasture by keeping it healthier.  I'm really hoping in the next couple of days to have the remaining brush removed and do away with all possible habitats for unwanted guests.

Getting to Know Your Grass

Before I talk about grass, I just wanted to update how things were going in the mini pasture.  I think this photo says it all.

That's Blossom staying cool underneath the Willow tree with, well, Willow, and Tex.  And Mamma, Pixie, was comfortable enough with this scenario to graze at a distance.

But now, back to grass.  In the winter I did a post regarding getting to know your hay.  Just important, if not more, is getting to know your grass.  I am still learning so come along and learn with me.  

My pasture does not look as wonderful as this.  In fact, I am pretty certain even in full bloom it wouldn't look as plentiful as this. To the average person, this is a lot with unmowed grass.  That was exactly how I looked at it when I first moved here.  A nuisance, a pain-in-the-butt lot.  But to the horses, this is a smorgasbord!  Come with me as I get up close and personal with the different kinds of grass found within.  

This here grass I believe is orchard grass, or not.  The jury is still out on that.

This one is the only one I know for certain.  It is timothy.

I'm thinking this is some kind of fescue grass?

This photo is a bit unclear (the result of trying to take photos of grass on a windy day) but believe it is Bromegrass.

I'm at a loss for this one.

This braided looking type of grass I think might be quack grass.

This one I'm thinking is Kentucky bluegrass.

This is red clover, I'm pretty certain.

Hmm?  Canada Bluegrass maybe?

Here is that braided looking grass again.

Okay, so I hope noone comes to this blog entry hoping to learn to identify their grass blades, because it is a lot harder than you think.  They all look so different yet look exactly the same.  Whatever their breed of grass, the horses love each and every one.  As a treat I may take a bouquet of these grasses to the miniatures.

Or a bucket full for the horses.

Aussie enjoying his treat of yummy morsels.

They don't care what you name it, they can identify it with just one sniff.  Try giving them any other grass and they'll turn their nose away.  I think it would be fabulous to be able to identify whether a food is good and healthy for you simply by smelling it.

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