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!

Since my last update, we’ve dug a 160 foot trench two feet deep and put new heavy wire into our well, dug out a broken water line, received two more bummer lambs, ordered and received another 2000 redworms to re-start our worm project, and have finally ordered our chicks.

The water line issue was really an emergency. It was supposed to be a “dig, find, and replace” of an old leaky frost-free that’s in our way at the chicken coop. Well, just 8 inches under the soil, we found dripping… that’s never a good sign when you expect the junction at a depth of at least 30 inches.

To complicate matters, the idiot who built this place ran underground electric wire in the same hole. He had both 220 volt and 110 volt. Thankfully our neighbor across the road had a tester so we could confirm it was not hot. What we still aren’t sure of, is whether or not it’s connected to either the main service or our panel.

Oh, that project took over 10 hours and we had to call more neighbors in to help us… Not a fun day!

The electric wire to the well was to solve a safety issue. For whatever reason, the previous owner allowed a contractor to run 14/3 wire 160 either just a few inches below the ground or on the ground, up and over the wall to the well. Last year the pump had to be replaced and this is most likely one of the causes.

We were finally able to get the project done correctly, digging a two foot deep trench, and encasing 10/3 wire in plastic electrical conduit from the point of exit at the house to the well head cover. Strange but for whatever reason, with the turning on and off of the water… the hot water heater is now screaming for replacement… does it ever end?

The chicken coop is nearly ready for the chicks. All that’s left is to temporarily close off all the “ventilation” and build the rest of the brooder. Cindy and I will get that done this weekend.

Freezer is growing fast. I’m starting to wean him now as he’s getting more than enough nutrition. He’s so funny when I let him out to play. Since his pen is only about 8 by 16, I like to let him run around when I’m working outside.

Our little female bummer is a screamer. She’s so loud we had to move her to the garage, just to get some sleep. She screams for attention… not because she’s hungry. Here she’s meeting Sarah.
Last night, a neighbor brought us a crippled up bummer. Now, this may sound cruel, but we’re using him as a “bed warmer” for her. He wants to live, but will never be able to stand. I’ll keep him for about five days or so, and then return him to the sheep ranch to be put down properly.

Cindy has re-started the worm project. We had a 100% total failure that may have been caused by our alkaline soil. Our worms disappeared… and no, they didn’t go walkabout. We frequent a forum of worm raisers and the only things we can identify are perhaps (no way to measure) a high ph and or salinity, and also not enough moisture.

This time, the worms are being raised in shredded paper, and are living in her bedroom. The temp is about 9 degrees warmer, so that should also help.

Our 35 chicks will arrive this week. We scaled the project back a bit to better fit our house as well as our budget.

The first 2# of red worms arrived Wednesday. Cindy has prepared a home in the basement for them. Later we’ll move the adults to the big outdoor bin and keep the basement as a nursery.

This plastic bin is plenty large enough for about 5# total.

The worms will help us use up food waste, paper waste, horse and sheep manure, and spoiled bedding. In turn, they’ll produce nice black casting, which contain a ton of nutrients for our garden.

They’ve settled in very nicely… working away on food waste and paper waste. Since they’re not happy when you shine light on them, I didn’t want to peel back much of their bedding. If you look closely above the pear core, there are a few little wigglers who didn’t dive fast enough to avoid the picture.

The plan is to actually create windrows and generate enough castings in a couple years to sell to folks in Enterprise, Cedar City, and St George.

That will become our major cash crop, with market lambs as an additional income generator. The horses are for hobby, and the chickens will provide meat and eggs, as well as add their droppings to the composting operation.

With only an acre-foot of water, it’s important for us to find ways to conserve (be good stewards) while also creating a way to show that we use the water we are allowed. If you fail to use your share, you can have it taken away… and it’s very expensive to get it back.

Here’s a long look at Dusty’s new round pen. When the weather abates, we’ll set to work getting him trained. So far, he’s had his halter on a few times, and has let us place a blanket on his back.

He responds favorably to a “carrot stick”, but has such a high “play drive” that it’s a challenge to keep his attention.

This is the area where the two-gate system works. We open the gate to the round pen and then open the gate to the corral. That lets Dusty go from place to place. This space also gives us direct (as in truck) access to the manure pile and we can back a trailer in when he has to go to the vet.

Here’s the “escape route”… the man-door.

If you scroll back a few posts, you’ll see the “debris pile”. The man-door is just about in the same place.

Being a newcomer to this area, I’ve got a sneaking suspicion this really good weather I’m seeing right now is gonna turn on me in a few weeks. For the last week, we’ve been thawing and going through the “muddies”.

Fortunately, the soil is so sandy that even if you track it in the house, it quickly dries and sweeps up very nicely.

When the dogs come in, there are many sets of muddy prints all across the carpet, into the kitchen, up on the couch and beds. I’ve got sand in my bed just from them coming in to greet me in the mornings.

I drew up the rough sketches for the first worm boxes. If all goes well, we should have enough castings to radically improve our own soil later this year. From everything I’ve read, success is a matter or trial and error.

I really believe that our biggest challenges here will be the temperature extremes. It’s been very cold (at least 10 days below zero) at night. We’ll have to plan for some kind of insulation from the cold for the worms.

In the summer, it’s typically 85 to 95 but rarely over 100. By placing the beds against the north side concrete block wall, that should provide some shade, as well as some insulation.

We’ll insulate the box with foam around the perimeter and on the lid. Since the worms will go pretty dormant in the winter, I think covering them with old hay and a tarp should provide decent protection.

We have several railroad ties and a bunch of lumber and some plywood on hand. Not sure how much is truly usable.

As for worms, Dusty has created a decent pile of manure and if we can’t find enough worms there… the dairy down the road has acres of manure piles. Bet we’ll find plenty there.

What are we gonna feed them?

They love raw veggie and fruit scraps. They’ll also devour shredded paper, news paper and cardboard. Once we exhaust our own waste supply, I plan to contact the medical clinic for shredded paper, and the local grocery store for other scraps. Oh, they also like horse manure and we’ll have plenty of that.

Bev got her “city job” so that will help support Cindy’s and my farm/computer projects. We don’t expect much out of “Mom (Cindy’s mom) as she’s recovering from serious surgery. That’s kind of a bummer, too as she’s the “chief cook”.

With Bev starting work on Monday, I’ll be providing what little additional brawn I can to the projects. Either that, or the “heavy lifting” will have to wait for her days off.

This weekend, she’s drawing the plans for the barn (to be built early fall), the chicken coop (that goes up within the next 2 months), and the worm beds… first project.

About those worm beds…

That’s one of the reasons I joined forces here. We had been discussing projects that could eventually become economically viable that would be very thrifty to start and manage. Verminculture meets those requirements very nicely.

We don’t have a lot of water, only one acre foot, so we have to really be careful of how much livestock we get. We’ll probably be limited to a couple of horse, less than 6 lambs/sheep, a steer, less than 2 dozen laying hens, and maybe a llama.

Verminculture (raising worms) won’t put a strain on the water, will improve our sandy soil, and will give us a use for the manure and other waste. Later, when we have more worm castings than we can use, that can easily be sold to other valley residents.