Shari’s Gone Country

That’s right, I got here a year ago yesterday. The weather is eerily similar. There’s snow on the ground and we’ll be lucky to get above freezing today.

So, what have I helped get done in the past year?

The first project was to help get the sheep bred. That was the “cross-country hike” in boot-high snow with our two ewes to the neighbor’s farm. Of course we also had “the great sheep roundup”.

Next up, we built the chicken coop and got the little birds… how grateful we are for the fresh eggs. Can’t say we’re totally thrilled with the meat as we let the boys get a few weeks too old. It’s tasty… but chewy.

All winter long, and into the summer I helped with hauling hay, a chore that definitely put my body to the test. We now have enough animals that we can purchase our hay by the ton and get it delivered.

We built raised beds for a vegetable garden. After two years here, the family finally had a few veggies from the garden. Nothing to store away… but at least I’ve shown that it is possible to grow stuff here.

We’ve got the worm bin started. In fact, we’ve got two now. That amounts to about 10k or so worms happily munching their way through shredded paper and fighting for leftovers that don’t go to the chickens.

I raised my first “bummer lamb”. Freezer is still with us. Guess we’ll keep him for company of our ram, “Algernon”.

My suspicions about Chiquita a Polypay sheep that was supposed to be a ewe. “She” had horns, and like to butt whatever was in her sight. About May, her baaa began sounding like she had laryngitis, and got really deep. Our shearer (named “Flip”) confirmed she really was “Bruce”… and away he went… couldn’t produce a lamb, so of no value to us.

In May, we went to see Clinton Anderson “Down Under Horsemanship” and I got the bug… my prayers were answered late in summer when our mentor asked us to keep her yearling, Dakota.

Until the weather turned sour, I’d been training her in the round pen. It will be a couple years before she’s ready to ride, but want her to have solid ground training first.

In November, our ram returned from a visit to a neighboring farm to do his studly stuff. In about a week, he bred each of our girls… oh yes, our mentor had sold us the rest of her black Merino sheep. I am the shepherdess!

So, what about Sarah, the “Spinach Fits”… aka Finnish Spitz?

She’s loving every minute here. I don’t let her get up in the computer chair so she’ not been able to update her blog for a few months. She’s growing quite a crop of fur… even beginning to look like a Finnish Spitz.

She’s learned beds (the one’s belonging to us humans) are for sleeping on… and she wants her half out of the middle. She gets along well with the other dogs, unless they step on her feet… then she creates a real ruckus.

She’s discovered the chickens, sheep, and horses as well as lots of rabbit holes. About once a month, we go out on the acreage and “hunt”. Other than that, she has the run of the big back lot, where she and the other dogs dig, run and wrestle to their hearts’ content.

Most recently, I’ve chosen to get back into network marketing with a company called BookWise. It’s something that makes total sense for folks who live in “the boonies”. You buy books, we donate a portion of the profits to help children learn to read, and get away from abuse.

I would say, I’ve had a most fulfilling and successful year!

For the past two months, we’ve been getting ready for winter. The wood is chopped and stacked… in fact, some of it has been moved to our little front “patio area” under the carport overhang.

Today, we even bucked a bale of hay into the stable for use over the weekend. We’ve been working from under the blue tarp… You know… open the closest bale and pull books from it as necessary until it’s gone. We use about 9 books a day, and there are about 27 books in our bales… so we’ll have Friday, Saturday, and into Sunday covered.

The sheep are just fine… got three bales of hay within a short distance. The only problem is, it’s uncovered. So, the snow will be an issue… that’s life.

The chickens now have a heat lamp 24/7. We’re bringing in one of their 1-gallon waterer’s and rotating them morning and evening.

Bev works tomorrow and Mom is supposed to go with her to the Senior Center. I would be surprised if that plan changes, even though we’re expecting snow.

Last Saturday, we got three inches of snow in about an hour, just as Cindy and I were heading out to feed.

Bev and I had been watching the sky on our way home from Enterprise… it really looked mean. The closer we got to home, the meaner the sky got. I barely had time to tell Cindy “lets go feed now”.

I got to the chicken coop with their feed, when all of a sudden… the wind came up. I mean it shook the coop to the point the birds were startled. I had my winter coat on, but my cap and gloves were in my pockets.

So there I stood amongst all the birds clamoring for to get to their feeders, fumbling around trying to get my hat and gloves on… when Cindy trudged by, leaning into the wind to stay on her feet.

It was already sleeting… stinging our faces as we worked our way to the stable and the sheep pen. Within a minute or two, we were in a white out. The stable is about 400 feet from the house, and Cindy reported she couldn’t see the house from the stable.

I battled the wind to load hay into the sheep feeder(and get it to stay there), and to fill the water trough. Within just a couple minutes, our normally black sheep were light gray.

I retreated to the protection of the chicken coop and watched for Cindy… some 250 feet north of me, when all of a sudden… here came Bev. She and Mom were concerned that we wouldn’t find our way back to the house… the weather was that bad!

So, we’re ready for a repeat as once again the jet stream (and very cold air) is dipping down across SW Utah, and there’s a huge wet storm riding on the “Pineapple Express”. When these two collide over us… we get “heavy weather”, and that could result in snow.

The ski area a hundred or so miles east of us is expecting up to three feet of snow. They’ll be skiing in waist-deep powder!

And just in time, too!

The forecast for next week, about Thanksgiving Day is for rain/snow. We’re going from 10 degrees above average daily temperatures with little or no wind, to 10 degrees below average and a small gale.

So much for going from summer to fall and then to winter. This fall has been like a cooler (Oregon) summer, aside from the leaves turning on the trees.

So, about those winter projects…

Starting with our newly expanded horse stable, we now have an indoor walk-through where we can feed the horses without having to go into each stall with the animals. The walk-through also has room for halters, bridles, and grooming equipment.

What was the combination tack and feed area now stores saddles.

We also have arranged for hay delivery, thanks to Clyde (another of our mentors). We were able to get 72 bales (3-string 125# bales) at $8.00 delivered. We can’t get anymore from the same supplier as he has the rest of contracted to IFA, but will pick up and deliver from a neighboring farm for us… Pretty cool!

Our sheep have their winter home. Now the question is… are they smart enough to go inside?

As of yesterday, Al has bred all five of our girls, so looks like we’ll have a good time lambing starting in early April 2008. This breed is known for multiple births, so we can expect anywhere from 10 to 30 or more lambs… Somehow I can’t imagine it yet.

A few months ago, we had a “greenhouse disaster”. The company sent us a new cover and we’re choosing not to reinstall it until early spring. That way we should avoid a lot of wind damage from winter storms.

In the mean time, Cindy and Bev have wrapped each of the connectors taking all the slack out of the ribs. That may have been a contributing factor, even though there were no instructions to stabilize these joints.

Just yesterday, Cindy finished splitting the two cords of Aspen. That’s sure a nice looking stack of wood. Considering we’ve yet to light the first fire, we should have plenty of wood. We’ve got better than a cord of cedar/pine combination to go with the Aspen and we generally only build a morning fire and then an evening fire, choosing not to keep either stoked.

Finally, we got the trench completely backfilled, with the additional frost-free hydrant at the sheep pen. No more dragging hoses around (I’m talking about the really long ones), and then having to manually drain them in the sub-freezing weather.

The horses are a little undone. We’ve moved most of their water containers to a central location, adjacent to the frost-free at their corral. Dakota will continue to have her water barrel, as she still gets confined from time to time. You see, Dusty still thinks he’s “alpha”… Neche, the mare has yet to show him who’s boss.

We got two cords of aspen a couple weeks ago, and Cindy has been taking out any frustrations on the pile. She splits, and sometimes, I go out and stack. We’re stacking between the trees this year instead of hauling it around to the backyard. That will keep our dogs from using the wood pile as a personal toy box, hauling chunks everywhere.

Algernon, our ram has gone visiting.

Neighbor Clyde (the guy who helped us with leveling the stable area) has sheep, and his ram is a little young. Also, some of his ewes are cousins to Algernon, having been bred from his father.

At any rate, Bill ( a neighbor with a pickup) and Clyde came over Thursday night and got him. It was really funny, ’cause I knew they would be over, but thought they’d at least come to the door and let us get pictures of the great caper.

I went out after dinner, about an hour before sundown and noticed Algernon wasn’t in his pen. Well, that required a trip over to Clyde’s, where we found him in the height of glory. He was “grinnin’ and pickin’ “, having bred about half the ewe’s within the last hour.

I mentioned to Clyde that I thought he’d at least come to the door. His response…

“We thought we’d just go into the pen, put a rope on him, and put him in the truck, then come get you. Things didn’t turn out quite that way. Once I got a hold of him, he was more than a handful. It was all Bill and I could do to get him into the truck… so we just kept going.

After we got here, the dogs wanted to help, and he wasn’t ready for that… what a rodeo it was, just getting him from the truck into the pen”.

Later, I heard from one of his fellow church members that his arm is pretty skinned up… the result of Al dragging him around the pen. Even Bill asked Bev how much Algernon weighed. Bev’s answer: over 300 pounds.

Saturday brought more lousy weather, so once again, we laid low, doing only what we had to do. That meant getting chores done, and cleaning the horse pen. I needed the manure for the expanded compost pile.

Sunday… time to work the horses.

I got Dakota into the round pen and had a very good session. She remembered “back” with the rope wiggle, and even did a pretty good job of yielding her hindquarters, remembering to step over with her lead foot.

I lunged her for a while, without a lead line, asking her to change directions and turn inward to me. I can sure tell she’s a “right-brained” horse. Asking her to turn left and getting the proper result is challenging, so we’ll be doing extra repetitions on that side.

Neche was next. She was saddled, and Bev took her to the round pen. After some short lunging, Bev thought it would be time to ride her. After all, she’s well-broken. Things were going well enough that Cindy took Mom with her to Clyde’s place.

The idea was that Clyde was going to help Cindy with more of Dusty’s breaking. Well, Clyde wasn’t home, but his new calves had arrived. That kept Cindy and Mom there a little longer than expected.

Just before they left, Cindy had suggested that Bev ride Neche out of the round pen and onto our acreage. So far, so good.

Now, I’m not real sure if Bev has ridden much in the last 20 years, or how much she had ridden while growing up. I do know that no matter what she wanted to do (neck reigning), Neche wasn’t real responsive. Maybe is was the hackamore bridle that Bev wasn’t used to using.

At any rate… Neche wanted to go back to the round pen… so that’s where they went. Bev was tiring of walking in circles, and besides, her butt was starting to hurt. Maybe she should get off…

I wasn’t thinking, or I’d have offered to hold the reigns while she dismounted. Like me, Bev’s got short legs, and neither of us have enough “stretch” to get either from the ground to the stirrup, or visa versa.

Next thought… maybe Bev could ease Neche over to the rail, and just dismount onto the rail… yeah right.

At any rate, Bev had somehow taken her foot out of the right stirrup, and couldn’t get it back into the stirrup. Wearing tennis shoes wasn’t helping. Besides that, the stirrups on her saddle are real narrow.

All this time, they’re still walking around the edge of the round pen. That is, until Bev’s foot banged the round pen rail…

Neche is a bit spooky about the darndest things… The banging rail was all she needed. Let’s go to the left. Let’s go straight really fast for a couple of steps… gotta get away from that noise. Wait… what’s that on my back? Oh, it’s sliding off… going, gone.

And Bev was in a pile face-first, in the soft round pen sand. At least there was no manure.

I quickly checked to make sure she was conscious and then went to get Neche. I didn’t think she’d want Neche to walk on her at that point.

Fortunately, Bev’s only bruised… deeply, but no broken bones, and she’ll live to ride another day.

As for Neche… Well, when Cindy returned, she hopped on her and rode for quite a while. I’d love to have ridden, too, but Neche wanted no part of me, or the hay bale I was standing on to mount her. Talk about hurt feelings… it’s as if she looked at me and said, “No way, heavyweight! Bev was enough for one day.”

Yeah, I know… it’s been nearly a week since I last posted.

Here’s why… another one of those simple, “dig a trench, lay a water line, cover it up” and you’re done projects.

First, to bring you up to date… we didn’t get any snow over the weekend, but it was pretty cold on Saturday. We pretty much “hid out” inside that day. I guess you could say we kind of took most of the day off, with both football and baseball games on the TV.

Sunday was more of the “get ready for winter” stuff, and that included work on the compost pile. Bev and I spent about three hours cleaning the horse pen and stalls so we’d have hot, fresh manure to add to the compost pile. When the wind came up, we declared ourselves done for the day.

Monday, I hand cut cucumbers, onions, tomatillos, green tomatos and sweet red peppers so we could can “sweet relish”. Got enough for nearly 8 quarts. Yes, we can our relish by the quart since we use it so much. We managed to get the first 4 quarts done before running out of spices… and even though we’d already run to the corner store… 17 miles one way, we were content to make do with alternate spices for the next 4 quarts.

Tuesday, we spent the day getting ready for our neighbor, Ray to bring his big backhoe over for the “trench project”. The first issue we always have here, is where do all these old irrigation lines go, and what happens if we cut one? Do we have a geyser?

Bev and I cleaned the big hole we’d excavated last spring. This is the one next to the chicken coop, where the first frost-free hydrant will go. In the process, we found a one-inch galvanized line (about 36 inches deep) heading somewhat north from below the nipple for the frost free. Where the hell does it go? What does it feed? We know it’s a “charged line”.

We tried several times to locate the line, even having Ray do a couple of “pot holes”, but were unable to locate it. Oh well… we’ll just have to keep an eye on any wet spots, or if we here the well pump running at odd times.

By dark Tuesday, we’d managed to dig about 25 feet of the trench. I has to be 36 inches deep to be below the frost line here. It was particularly difficult as the chicken run limited access with the backhoe… no room for the stabilizers.

Add to that we just knew there were two lines about 6 or 8 inches below the surface that we had be locate, cut and cap. Again, no idea if they were hot, or charged… or even where they came from or went. Cindy and I had both encountered them when we were trenching in the chicken run… just 8 inches from where this really deep trench was going.

We probed, we tickled the dirt with the backhoe to no avail… Those lines weren’t to be found

Yesterday, we really settled in to all the hard work. This trench is 60 feet long, 36 inches deep, and better than a foot wide… dug in very sandy soil. The real “hard pan” is at about 30 inches, so that meant the backhoe really had to chew hard, and since Ray couldn’t get a direct (inline) shot at the trench, it often meant he was chewing from the broadside.

That meant the trench walls would semi-collapse with each “chew” to go deeper… Enter the “three-man”… well one man, one fat woman, and one young boy… shovel crew. I gotta’ tell you… I really didn’t know I could do all that! I shoveled in that trench for about 5 hours, until finally we had it deep enough, and could move to the next step.

By then, Bev had come home from work… just in time to miss the shovel detail. That’s ok… her job was to help Ray with the plumbing… cut all the PVC, and configure all the valves and angles.

We needed hay to insulate the lines. The worst hay was in the horse barn, so off we go with the backhoe. Now, I had two choices… walk to the horse barn in the 30 mph wind with all the dust swirling from the backhoe, or jump up on it, and ride on the fender. This old lady actually got on the backhoe and rode… both directions! No small feat when you consider all the “lead in my butt”.

Ok, hay in the trench, water line laid, time to backfill. Once again, we’ve got the same issue… The backhoe can only get “so close” and is unable to really compact the fill. I’ll be raking, and watering for weeks.

Ok, I know… it’s been way too long since I brought you up to date about things here at “The Four Country Gals”‘ little spread. I really do spend a fair amount of time “out and about” with the animals, and my roommates.

With excellent weather this past weekend, we worked to get as much protection up for the horses as possible. Oh, we also spent time in training with both Dakota and Dusty.

I’m working with Dakota, who really believes she’s a “pocket pony”. While I love her to death, I’m really working to get her out of my personal “hoola hoop” space. It’s gonna take a while, since she’s a real lover. Together, we’re working on “back” as well as “yield your hindquarters” correctly. That means pick up your inside hind foot and cross it over in front of your other hind foot.

Cindy spent some real quality time with Dusty, and lo and behold… She actually got on him.

All by herself, she saddled him, prepared him for weight with the “jump, jump, jump” and lay across his back. He was such a perfect gentleman, she took time out to get Bev and the camera… just in case.

Here’s the proof! She’s up in the saddle. Looks like she really belongs there, too.

Oh, the chickens… well, they’re laying up a storm, to the point that Mom has asked me to post ads for her… Farm Fresh Brown Eggs For Sale as low as $1.75/doz. We’re getting anywhere from 8 to 10 eggs a day… more than any of us should eat.

Our sheep are still getting fatter. Sure wish I could tell if they’re really pregnant or just getting fat. I’m giving them until October 20 before I turn Algernon (our ram) loose with the ewes. If they aren’t preggie now… they will be all winter!

Yesterday afternoon we had our first “disaster” of sorts. The greenhouse blew apart. We had been aware (to the point of filing a claim against the warranty) that we had wind/sun damage to the greenhouse cover.

Earlier this week, we received a replacement cover, which we’ve not yet installed, as we were busy with the horses, and also waiting for the right time… gotta have little to no wind to install the cover.

Anyhow, yesterday we had a huge windstorm with gusts somewhere around 50. The greenhouse was up when I gathered eggs at 2:30pm and it was down when I went to feed at 4:45pm.

When Bev and Cindy got home, we at least stabilized what we could and laid down both end covers to prevent further damage. I feebly suggested we should maybe move things in case it rained. With a 40% chance of rain, my idea was ignored… not the smartest thing to do.

In about 2 hours, we had a series of hellacious thunderstorms roll through the valley. Lightening took out our new DSL connection for over 3 hours. We got close to a quarter inch of rain… see, I told you so!

Mom checked things over this afternoon and was very relieved to have only lost one small box of “plant food”. Everything else that got wet was ok, so there’s no dog house visits for any of us today.

Over the weekend, Small Town Living, an online magazine dedicated to promoting a simpler life and small town America released their latest issue.

“Oh give me a home…” can be found on page 21 of this fantastic bi-monthly magazine.

Just so you know I’m not the only one published… you can learn how to grow winter squash… with enough to share with your neighbors. There’s also some awesome recipes for Acorn Squash.

Got bats in your belfry? You don’t? Maybe you should. There’s a whole article on the value of having some “local bats”.

If you’ve got the hankering to carve pumpkins, you’ll find tips and ideas for creating that special face as well as ways to stay safe.

Oh, and if you love the Appalachian Trail… then you really want to grab this issue.

So, what is “Oh give me a home…” all about? I’d tell ya… but then you might get lazy and not click on the link to Small Town Living.

Saturday morning breakfast was a full dozen over easy eggs, fresh from our chickens. Our of the first dozen, we even had two “double yolkers”. Haven’t seen those since I was a kid.

Add to the eggs, a big pile of hashbrown potatoes topped with homemade salsa verde and thick sliced bacon, toast with butter, and fresh ground “Creme Brulee” flavored coffee… and we were stoked for the day.

Good thing, even though most of the day was rainy, as soon as it quit, we were out at the horse stable fixing up the new corral. It took us until just before dark to get the corral finished… way too late to move horses.

Sunday, we put all three horses into the corral and showed them their own stalls. We locked Dakota (the yearling) into her stall just in case our gelding “Dusty” got a little too frisky. We gave Neche (four-year-old filly) the run of both her stall and the corral. She also had access to Dusty’s stall if she dared.

There was a little ear-pinning and teeth showing, but other than that, they got along pretty well.

After finding an additional three eggs, Mom said it’s time to sell the first dozen to a neighbor who’s been patiently waiting for farm fresh eggs. She got $1.75 for the ungraded box containing beautiful brown eggs ranging from peewee to large.

After taking time yesterday to “recover” from a very late night, it’s now Friday… and it looks like we’ll be working on “indoor” projects most of the weekend. The weather forecast is calling for high winds today and tomorrow, with thunderstorms on Sunday. Can you tell our season is changing?

Yesterday, I took the time to modify the chicken nest boxes a bit… just like in marketing, gotta find a need and fill it. In this case… I’m asking the pullets what they want for their nest boxes. I thought a nice fluffy warm sheep’s wool lining would be comfy. Cindy says they’re using shredded paper out at the farm and those girls love it.

Well, this batch of hay we’re using to feed the sheep is really ratty… It has rye heads and alfalfa roots, as well as pretty good-sized stems. They’re really wasting a lot of it. Since straw isn’t something readily available, I’m trying this hay in one box.

Wouldn’t ya know it… so far the first and only egg to land in a nest box, has landed in the one with the hay.

Oh, we’ve also added a couple of antique glass eggs to give them the idea.

Wednesday afternoon, when we returned from the Senior Center, Bev noticed Dakota, our yearling wasn’t in her usual pen. It looked like she was in one of the new stalls.

Closer inspection revealed she was actually standing in the back walkway area where we’ll be feeding from… not a place for horses.

Now, the big question… How the hell did she get out of her securely closed pen? It’s only 16×16x12×14 feet, so she didn’t have room to run around and then leap over the standard height horse railing.

There’s no sign she went under the fence either as it’s only 15 inches distance. Also, the panels hadn’t been moved around… What a mystery!

We’re pretty sure she’ll do well with Dusty now, as she was standing nose-to-nose with him for some time. She left more than enough evidence of time spent in our walkway.

The horse stable is taking shape. This weekend, we used virtually all the lumber we had left. Got the rest of the north and east walls up, as well as a “sag beam”. That will allow the 12 foot span to have a resting point at about 8 1/2 foot.

It’ll be after the first of the month before we can buy the joists… 13 2×6x12 footers and a truck load of 8 foot 2×4s for the cross pieces. Then we’ll have our work cut out for us! We’re covering with both “obs” plywood and roof tin.

While we were working on the stable, I heard a car coming east on the road bordering our south property line. I quickly determined things didn’t sound quite right. My eyes confirmed what I heard as I saw an older Saturn approaching at a high rate of speed (close to 60 mph) and begin fish-tailing.

Within just a second, it had slid off the shoulder and rolled over sideways, then end over end three more times.

As it was airborne, I was hollering for Bev to head for the house and call 911. Cindy and I immediately jumped into our truck and headed for the accident scene about 1/2 mile away. Imagine our surprise to find the driver, a teenage girl scrambling out of the upside down car and very quickly running up onto the road.

We quickly checked her over. She was begging us to take her home… down the road about a mile to tell her folks what had happened. After a quick chat, we agreed, Cindy would run her home. I would stay at the scene.

About that time, Bev was trying to find out if we needed an ambulance… well that got canceled when the kid left the scene. Our neighbors all showed up within minutes, as did Cindy, the young girl and her parents.

Almost an hour later (told you we live in the middle of nowhere) the sheriffs got there to do their investigation. Mom took the young gal into the hospital, some 40 miles away, promising to let us know how she was when they got back home.

Poor kid, she totaled Mom’s car, is getting a citation at least for speeding (almost 60 in a 40 mph zone), and also slightly separated her shoulder. That was a seat belt injury. Thankfully she was wearing it. She’s also bruised and had a few small cuts and abrasions, and probably hurt like the dickens today.

Oh, we did get the horse stable finished as far as we can before getting chased into the house by the ever-present afternoon thunderstorms.

Today (Sunday) we re-located the chicken’s nest boxes to the outside of the coop. With a nice slanted lid, Mom can reach in to get the eggs. Also, the chickens have a lot more room to play in the pine chips.

No more eggs today, as we really upset their routine… In and out, banging on stuff, running the saws and drills.

Our girls have cushy digs… their nest boxes are lined with sheep wool that has been saved from skirting several fleeces. Our Merino/Suffolk cross sheep really do triple duty.

We gave them a special ramp to get from the roost to their boxes. While they’ve had lots of parades, we’ve yet to see anyone go into the nest boxes. I was able to pick up a couple of hens and place them into the boxes, so we know they’ll fit ok… they weren’t ready to stay, though.