Shari’s Gone Country

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.”

Here it is, the first Friday in October, and we have a 50% chance of snow tonight. Needless to say, we’ve been putting things away, cleaning up the garden area, and adding both manure and mulch to protect the soil.

Yesterday brought high winds and a dust storm. I was out in it, feeding and watering the animals. You could chew the air, it was so gritty. We’ve had a little wind damage, which we’ll repair this evening shortly before dark. The wind is forecasted to lay down a bit, and that will make it easier to put plywood panels back in place on the stable.

Tomorrow, we have to head down to the Beryl Community Center and sign up for our “care and share” boxes tomorrow. Because we’re considered “low income”, we get a couple of monthly food “drops”. Between them and the meals from the Enterprise Senior Center, we’re able to keep the food bill to a reasonable level.

Cindy will be out of work in about three weeks, so we really have to wrap up all the projects (at least the ones that cost money). That includes get the farm truck here, purchase one more frost-free hydrant and get both the chicken and sheep hydrants installed, and get the tin for at least the stable, if not the chicken coop.

After that, we’ll be limited to simply paying the existing bills and barely keeping our heads above water over the winter. At least Bev will be working all winter and she has gained some extra hours as well as a raise.

Time to return to work on “The Four Country Gals“, the book/blog I’m writing about how we all got together, and then got to where we are.

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.

This morning we woke to temperatures in the mid 40’s. That’s a sure sign that our first frost isn’t far behind. Average first frost comes anytime now, as the old-timers talk of August frosts that leave the tomatoes green and corn not yet ripe.

In 2005 the first frost came August 30 and in 2006, it came close on Aug 28 and finally got us in mid-September.

Bev and I got the sheep feeder moved, and the panels removed. Tonight, the sheep (and I) should both be much happier. They’ll be able to reach their food, and I won’t get alfalfa leaves in places unmentionable.

You can see in this first photo how we placed the feeder between two fence panels on an east/west line. Once we placed the wire panels, it was like a wind tunnel. The wind blows primarily from the south or west for most of the year, and with the hay laying on top of the panels… it was at the mercy of the wind.

We’ve moved the feeder adjacent to the gate and on more of a north/south line. Removing the panels will let the sheep reach their hay with no problem. I really don’t expect they’ll get hay all over the backs of their heads and necks, either. Until we have lambs, this setup should work fine.

Since fall is coming, we have to ensure that what can ripen or mature, will do so. I pulled the sugar snap pea plants today, harvesting as I was going. Most of the hulls were sunburned, so I took the time to shell them… ummmm, fresh, hot, buttered peas for dinner. Now the cucumbers will have more room, since the peas were crowding them.

As you can see, we’ll have some nice onions, but doubt if the corn will make it. It’s just now tasseling and I haven’t seen any little ears yet. We have a pumpkin on the vine. Of course, it will do ok in the first frost.

I heard Mom say she ate the only ripe tomato we have… and Bev told her that would be the last of that… you’re supposed to bring things into the house first.

Bev got my skirting table done, so looks like now it’s time to finish off the rest of the fleeces. I still have four or so fleeces that I’ve not looked at. Hope they stand up like they should.

The market lambs are being advertised on Craigslist. If we can sell them privately, we’ll make a little more money than at the auction. So far, I’m running the ad in the St. George area, and will expand it to Las Vegas, as there’s a huge ethnic market there.

Way back in 1998, I had the great pleasure of spending Christmas and New Years at Paamul aka Paa Mul, in Quintana Roo, Mexico. This incredibly beautiful little park is about 60 km or so south of Cancun.

My best friend’s brother and sister wintered there for years and had a “palapa” where they would park their huge diesel pusher motorhome from around the end of September until early April each year.

We found a way to serve as her mother and father’s caregivers (push them through the airports in wheelchairs as necessary) and got to fly at substantially reduced rates in 1st Class to Cancun. I also was the “designated driver” of our van once we reached Cancun and headed south to Paamul.

What a time we had! I’d never been to Mexico, let alone the Mexican Riviera. The weather was absolutely perfect, not even a breeze coming in from the Caribbean.

While brother and sister stayed in their motorhome, we had rented a couple of condo’s about a quarter-mile hike down the beach. Our place was perched right at water’s edge. Now I worry about whether that wonderful place will survive the coming storm.

For that matter, I don’t even know if it survived Wilma, in 2005.

Jim (my friend’s brother) always said that “palapa” was Spanish for “it goes plop when the hurricane comes through”. I know they had to re-build in the mid-nineties.

Now my thoughts and prayers are with all the wonderful folks I met when we were there. All the “ex-pats” who retired there (including the folks who owned the condo we rented); Pepe, the owner of the RV Park and restaurant; the folks in Playa del Carmen, where we enjoyed some of the most incredible food I’ve ever eaten; and the beautiful eco-park, Xcaret, where they are doing exhaustive work to preserve the green sea turtles.

I may never return to Paamul, but the memories from there will be with me forever. It was one of the most beautiful, serene, and friendly places I’ve visited.

I know, it’s been two days since I updated this blog. We’ve been a little busy here…

About 4 hours after I posted the previous pictures… I was once again out watering the sheep. I’ve got lots of time to look around while I’m filling a 50-gal trough.

This is just 25 miles or so west of us (thought it was more like 50… but that’s the rest of the story).

Before I took this picture, I notified Bev, who began figuring out which mountain was on fire. She called the BLM Fire Supervisor, who seemed somewhat aware of the situation, as well as the Cedar City Wildfire line… they said they’d send a plane over to check it out.

After dark, we could even see the red glow of flames WITHOUT the binoculars. Heck, I could even see it without my glasses… and I’m extremely nearsighted.

Let’s see, that was Tuesday, July 17.

Here’s what the fire looked like just 22 hours later on Wednesday, July 18 at about 3 pm.

This time I got on the phone to the folks who should care…

I started with the BLM. After all… this is most likely on their property. The first lady transferred me to another one, who said she thought they knew about this fire and had maybe sent jumpers to it.

Just to be sure, she transferred me to the Cedar City Fire Dispatch. Well, they thought they knew about it, but couldn’t explain how come after nearly 24 hours it wasn’t listed on any incident sites… like Utah Fire Info.

She didn’t seemed amused or concerned… but transferred me to the “Fire Information Officer”, where I got a voice message… no, I’m not telling you what I said. But I will assure you that I hung up before I left a message!

In disgust, I finally called Dixie to see if she could get the message through that we had a serious fire brewing. She called our “local guys” who said “they were watching it”.

Oh great… where I come from, we don’t wait for it to get bigger… we go put the damn thing out!

Ok, yesterday was our twice monthly trip to St. George to stock up on groceries and supplies. Bev drives the Enterprise Senior Services Bus, and I’m a “senior citizen” so it works out very nicely.

Boy was it ever smoky in St. George! They’re surrounded by several wildfires from Arizona on the south, to Zion National Park on the east.

On our way home, coming up the long hill (just south of “The Ledges”) Bev spotted a huge plume of smoke… “Hey, bet that’s the fire on ‘our mountain’!”

An hour later, we were home safe and sound, looking at this…

Mom had even called Dixie, our neighbor to see if our valley would be safe. Dixie assured her that as long as the wind kept coming from the S-SW, we’d be fine… and that is the prevailing wind this time of year.

Finally, I was able to get the following data on this fire.

When we reported it, it was apparently a “flare-up” from a lightening strike on July 16. It was less than 10 acres when we first saw it.

Within then next 48 hours, it first grew and “they began watching it” at 100 acres. Finally yesterday, it was given a name… “The Paradise Fire”.

It went from 100 acres to over 5000 acres in a matter of hours, and consumed 3 structures as well as caused the evacuation of all of Hamlin Valley.

This evacuation isn’t easy as that’s a very remote area. All services are “off grid”… satellite phones, solar and wind power, as well as unpaved roads.

Last night we could see the flames. It was amazing how far northeast the fire had traveled. This morning the fire (and smoke) had “laid down” quite a bit. But I would expect that it will pick up again later this afternoon when the winds pick up.

We’re expecting afternoon winds in excess of 20 mph… nothing unusual here.

With the forecast of thunderstorms, I figured I’d feed the sheep a little early. Good thing I did as there was thunder/lightening all to the east of us.

While I was watering the sheep, I spotted a plume of smoke to the east… just over the mountain ridge and near Antelope Springs road… the other end from where we live. I immediately stopped watering and hurried to have Bev call it in.

Would you believe, the dispatcher actually asked us if we were seeing smoke from the Iron County Dump?

Pardon me, we’re under extreme fire watch… there’s lightening all around… we NEVER see smoke from the Iron County Dump… this smoke is rising to about 15K feet…

Surprise! Surprise! Look at what I saw to the south… of course we hadn’t turned on the evening news yet. This fire took down power poles, and caused a county-wide outage in Washington County, starting about 15 miles south of us. The fire was in Dammeron Valley, about 35 miles or so south of us.

Now, our main concern was this little fire burning just east of us… Even the animals were paying attention.
When I went out to coop up the chickens, we were in the middle of what could best be termed a “pre-fire storm”… the wind was howling from the east at well over 40 mph… dust blowing HARD. And then there was the thunder, lightening, and reduced visibility from the smoke.

We took ALL the bird feeders down, the wind chimes… they weren’t singing a happy song, and made sure things were stowed safe and sound. Heck, we even discussed hose placement in case we had to defend our little patch of tumbleweed.

You should have seen our dogs… at one point Mindy, the big black Lab was on the couch to my left. Sarah, my Finnish Spitz was on the couch to the right… and the other three big dogs… Koda, Coco, and Kiki were at my feet. They were SO undone!

Sure the weather was bothering them… outside trips were short and too the point.

But what they really wanted was the potato chips I had… of course, I felt sorry for them, and gave in.

That wasn’t the end… the lightening continued until sometime around midnight.

Sarah snuggled as close as she could to me in my bed.

Cindy reported being unable to move in any direction in her bed… she had the other four on either side of her most of the night… including Mindy, who finds it a real challenge to haul her fat butt onto anyone’s bed.

This morning we awoke to an acrid smell of “old smoke”, but nothing visible all around us… and tonight, we’ll get a repeat of last night.

Oh boy… the “monsoonal flow” has arrived.

What’s that mean?

Well, it means higher humidity. Mornings now start out at over 50% and only drop to the mid twenties. That makes the heat index a few degrees higher. It also means afternoon and evening thunderstorms, mostly the “dry kind”.

You see, we have a lot of what is termed “virga”. That’s rain that never hits the ground because the air close to the ground is too hot and dry… it makes the rain evaporate in mid-air.

Lightening, is almost always the “to the ground” kind… and that’s really dangerous, not just because it hit’s things like buildings, animal, and even people… but because it starts fires in our tinder-dry area.

That means we spend even more time watching the horizon, looking for tell-tale wisps of smoke.

I’ve added a “weather underground” widget, so you can follow along with us… look in the left side-bar. Of course, you can all get more weather detail at my Weather “Wunder Blog”

So, what’s with the sheep these days?

We think “Merino” is pregnant. I’ve been giving her a handful of “sweet feed” each morning. That supplements her normal alfalfa ration. If she’s preggie… she should be due by the first of August, as she left the neighboring farm (and ram) in early March.

The rest of the girls “could” be pregnant and deliver as late as mid-October. That would be sweet as we’d finally have a crop of lambs for the spring market.

Algernon, our ram is getting lonesome…

Each time I go out to the sheep pens, he puts his front hooves up on the fence panels wanting attention. He just loves to have his chin scratched, his ears rubbed, and his name called. How do I know? He tells me so with contented (although stinky) burps.

The chickens are nearly grown… I’m having visions of chicken dinners. At least three of our young boys have learned to crow. That means they’re about ready to butcher. I’ve got several years experience, but still find it a somewhat messy job.

All the chickens have learned to beg. “Mom” generally has treats twice a day, so whenever any of us approach the run… they all come “a running”… it’s so cute!

Dusty is growing up so fast.

It’s been some time since he’s made serious attempts at biting any of us. Also, he’s learned that water is “good”, especially when Cindy holds the sponge to his face.

He’s learned that tying means he has to stand still. Fortunately, we’ve not done anything to him to cause him not to stand still… Even placing his saddle blanket and saddle on him was ok with him.

This last weekend, Cindy borrowed a bareback pad and cinched it to him.

Sure, he did a little bucking… and cow-kicking (those are the **** you kicks)… and even got too frisky and flipped over backwards… but soon discovered it was too much effort. That pad wasn’t coming off!

The other morning, Cindy had to leave for work by 6:45 AM. That meant both she and Mom were up before the sun came up… Oh, and so were all five dogs!

That meant Bev and I were up, too. You see, with five large dogs who love nothing more than running and jumping on beds… there’s no sleeping in.

Sarah, my Finnish Spitz has learned new tricks from Koda. She now leaps from halfway across the room, onto my bed (more like onto me, the big lump in the bed). Then she proceeds to talk “Finkie-speak” until I finally give in and love her all over.

Koda likes to pounce on us… and then sit on our heads. She’s such a happy dog… why wouldn’t we all want her love so early in the morning.

So, out of bed. Struggle to pull on the jeans and boots with the help of all the dogs, and trudge off to let the chickens out of their coop. All of this BEFORE my first cup of coffee.

Here’s a few pictures of morning at our little piece of paradise. That really long shadow is me taking the picture.

So much for completing another project. We’ve got the raised bed boxes dug into the front yard… just barely.

Got chased out by a wind/sand storm. The forecast for today was “in the 70’s and breezy, winds 15 to 25″. Right now, it’s 81 degrees and the wind is sustained in Enterprise at 20 mph. Highest gust has been 38 mph… and that is at the southern end of the valley (somewhat protected).

We’ve got dust kicking up outside to the point where visibility is down to less that 1/10 mile.

The animals all hunker down in this stuff. The sheep turn their backs and lay down. The horse goes into his stall and stands with his back to the wind. The chicks are pretty oblivious to a south/southwest wind as their windows face east.

The dogs are all inside napping… If they even think they have to go out, they wait as long as possible.

Our cars get pretty sandblasted and when it’s all over, we’ll have a couple feet of tumbleweed by the back door in front of the garage.

There’s just no being outside in this stuff. If it’s still blowing at feeding time, we’ll delay as long as possible until just before dark. Trying to get the hay from the wagon into the feeders is a real trick as it’s sometimes hard to even stand up.

Thank God for an air-conditioned brick house.