Shari’s Gone Country

Just after lambing, we began to hear that we’d want to kick up a project I’ve been working on for the past year or so. You see, shortly after Bev, Cindy and Mom arrived here in Utah back in 2005, they got wind of a really sweet “local government contract” that could become available at any time.

That’s actually one reason I joined them here. It’s a contract to provide food service for the Senior Citizen Center and Meals on Wheels in the neighboring county. The folks who have the contract now may be retiring by December. At least that’s been the consensus amongst the seniors.

We’d like to have that contract. So I’ve been preparing the full business plan, finding recipes, building menus and costing them out for the past couple of months. It’s quite a task.

Additionally, Bev and I are the relief cooks for the folks who hold the contract and we’ve been asked to fill in for them a couple times this spring, including the past week.

How’s the farm?

The lambs are growing up fast. Tuesday we’ll be loading up the ewe’s and lambs for a short trip to the neighbor’s farm. There, we’ll have the ewe’s sheared and then return home. Then it will be back to the neighbor’s to pick up our ram, who’s been enjoying “ram camp”.

We’ve begun work on the basement. By the time we’re done, we’ll have a full walk-in pantry, enclosed storage for all our extra “stuff”, an office, a family room, and I’ll finally get my own bedroom… No more sleeping on the hide-a-bed in the living room.

We’re also replacing the fascia and soffits starting with the back of the house. The front will wait until next year.

The greenhouse is up and loaded with plants. We built raised boxes for Mom. Now, that was a chore, indeed. As of now, we have tomatoes, egg plant, broccoli, spinach and some herbs planted. Mom also has some flowers waiting for it to stay warm enough at night so they can go to the front yard.

All the tulips have been removed (they’re being relocated), and that area is ready for other plants.

We’ve expanded our outdoor garden patch to include the area in front of the chicken coop. Last fall, we threw some pasture seed out there, but between the birds and the wind, the seeds never had a chance.

This year we’ve planted potatoes, onions and garlic. At least those are fairly “critter-proof”.

Next up will be the “tender” stuff, like carrots, beans, cucumbers, melons and squash. Between the weather and the critters, those crops have been a challenge for us.

Bev and I are going to a “food show” later this week, but hopefully I’ll find time to get new pictures of our little piece of paradise in the desert.

Guess Bev and Cindy thought I either felt left out, or looked out of place, as I was the only one of us NOT to own a set of Dickie Bibs.

Now, you gotta know that around here, unless you’re wearing either jeans or bibs, you’re probably going to church or a funeral (generally at church). Well, I’ve got the jeans… and the boots, too. But, I didn’t have a set of bibs for that really serious farm work.

Finding bibs for me wasn’t exactly easy. You see, I’m portend (that’s fat)… and my waist is way bigger than my inseam, unlike most of the farmers around here. When it was all said and done, I ended up with bibs that were 4″ too long. Oh, Mommmm!

Well, just in time Mom got my new bibs hemmed up. Just in time, I say as we had ordered a stack of hay from one of the local farmers. So, on New Year’s Eve morning, the three of us donned our bibs so we’d at least look like we were farmers.

Now, last year, I learned all about this hay business. About two weeks after I got here, we had to go get hay. That was a 30 minute trip to Enterprise, back up to a barn, and wrestle, carry, turn, and otherwise cuss 12 bales up, and onto the Avalanche. At 120# a piece, these weren’t the bales I remembered as a kid.

Cindy would climb up on the stack, and kick the bales off so Bev and I could wrestle them to the back of the truck. Generally, we would stage the bales and wait for Cindy to get done knocking all twelve off the stack. She’s the only one among us that is the least bit comfortable climbing hay stacks.

Well, we’d cuss a lot, and somehow wrestle these bales to the back of the Avalanche and then have the usual argument about how to stack them. I’ve got no idea why we never took notes about how best to stack them. Within an hour, we’d have all 12 bales wrestled, stacked, and tied only to make the trip back to the farm, where we had to unload the hay.

With sheep here and horses there, we would somewhat divide the stack. We have a little utility trailer that provides hay storage, so we’d put four or five bales there, and then go to the little stable with the rest… knocking them off the truck, wrestling them through the door and finally into their final resting place.

Well, we’ve grown up a lot… Now, our hay gets delivered to us, 80 bales at a time. Our neighbor, Clyde has hooked us up with a couple of the local farmers who are happy to deliver as long as we’re willing to pay… You betcha!

So, here we are in our bibs (it’s cold outside) when Clyde and Steve arrive with the hay picker. We’ve already wrestled the remaining bales from our first stack out of the way. We’ve got about 12 bales left for the horses and 10 or so for the sheep (most already moved up to them).

Our job is now to stay out of the way… that’s it. We just stand and watch as they back the picker down the area between the corral and the round pen, and then stop and tip the stack carefully, back a little more and finally set the stack down. No muss, no fuss, no wrestling… just write the check!

Being women, we just felt that it wasn’t enough to pay for the hay… these guys had gone out of their way to help us… so, we got Mom to agree… Clyde, here’s some eggs for you. Steve, here’s some eggs for you. And, John, here’s some eggs for you. After all, our girls will give us more tomorrow.

Thursday, with the big storm coming in, Cindy and I hustled out to put the tarp over the top. Good thing she’s a “monkey” as she had to climb up on the roof (the back fence was in the right place). We tied baling twine to each grommet and then used all the possible leverage. Thankfully there was no wind, and the temps were slightly above freezing. It took us about 30 minutes, but we were in no hurry. Better to get it done right.

The stack isn’t as straight as we’d like and the tarp is a little crooked, but in a couple weeks, we’ll be ready to divide the stack… moving the top half to the empty space behind the new stack, so we can more easily feed the horses.

That day, I’ll be in my bibs again, as we’ll take the entire bottom layer, wrestle it onto the Avalanche (or maybe our “new” farm truck) and move it to the sheep. They don’t mind a bit of mud and mold. Then Cindy will go up the stack, and start rolling the bales off for Bev and me to put into position.

It’s been a while since I posted pictures of life here in our little corner of the world.

One of our most prized possessions is our digital camera. It’s not real fancy, and we’ve had it for more than a couple of years… but we use it to record the good times and the bad. Even as relaxed as life is here… we use the camera a lot. It’s a huge memory helper!

The last photo journal was of all the “get ready for winter” projects; the wood is cut and stacked, the ewe’s are bred, the horses have new and expanded shelter, the hay is in and covered… and the chickens… well, they’re happy in their home, giving us nearly a dozen and a half eggs every day.

So, here goes… when it’s winter in Beryl, life slows down a lot…

The first week in December, just after getting the decorations up, we had snow in the late
evening. I was the only one still in my boots… so, here are two very quick pictures taken during the snow and wind. Later in the month, we had “thunder snow”, and twice we had to bundle up and hustle out to shore up the nativity scene and get the trees upright.

What an amazing site, to have the wind blowing better than 40 mph, snow coming down sideways, hearing thunder and seeing lightening within just a second as the storm passed directly over our house.

Sunrises are beautiful every morning… but some mornings they’re better than others. And yes… it’s really as cold as it looks.

We have time for more leisurely breakfasts, and with plenty of farm-fresh eggs, French Toast is a family favorite. Throughout the year, we most always have one meal together each day. On the weekends, it’s breakfast, generally on Saturday.

“Mom” always makes sure there’s enough for all five dogs, once we’ve had our fill. Now, the dogs… well, anytime we’re (make that “Mom”) are (is) at the table, once the serious cutting of food begins, it’s time to line up for “bites from the fork”.

This is December in Beryl. The first snow has come, and the very bright sunlight returned… time for some awesome picture-taking. About the only trees that grow well are the Chinese Elms. We have a row to the north of our driveway, and next year will plant a row on the south and then to the north west of the house to provide wind protection for the horses, and sheep.

The other day, Cindy heard a little noise outside her open bedroom window. Lo and behold here’s a little Screetch Owl, who’s obviously looking for a warm spot. He let me get as close as I wanted to get his picture. We’re not sure, but we think he’s probably the same little owl we found a week later in our driveway, cold and dead after yet another snow storm. Close inspection revealed a broken wing… was it a critter, or did he fly into the truck? We’ll probably never know.

Christmas in Beryl is fun… Bev plays Santa Claus (ok, so she’s not exactly “santa”) for the Senior Center. I thought this was a cute picture of “Mom” with Santa. Funny how their tops nearly match.

This year we got really lucky and “Santa” came to visit the dogs… boy, were they impressed. As long as Santa had treats, they thought that was pretty awesome, but pictures? Come on… as Coco put it… “You’ve got to be kidding!”

Kiki, Koda and Sarah figured Santa smelled familiar enough to hang around, especially since there were treats involved… the lunch mouths!

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!

I know, you’d think I ran away. Well, not really.

You see, there’s something about me you don’t know… once an entrepreneur, always an entrepreneur.

A couple weeks ago, I got an e-mail about a business launch… and it really turned my crank HARD!

First there was all the research…

I looked this thing over from the bottom up, the top down, left to right, right to left, inside out, and outside in. I discussed it with the other three gals, and we all agreed… I should jump on it.

So, after interviewing some other business owners, I chose to get started.

Come to find out, there are several teams rolling out the new business opportunity, and I’ve joined one of the top teams. Since doing that, I’ve been assisting with a full upgrade of the team site, so it will correctly reflect the corporate site.

So I don’t really taint this blog with all my “business stuff”, I’ve started another one where you can see what I’m doing to completely start over. I’ve got no list, and until Saturday, no online web site.

What’s been going on around here?

We’re “waitin’ on winter”. It’s really cold, but not as cold as it was last winter. Friday after Thanksgiving we started our first fire in the wood stove, and have had one going every day since then.

Morning chores now include bust serious ice off the water troughs. In fact, this morning there was ice all the way down the sides on the sheep trough. The chickens are getting alternate water containers… one gets thawed in the house and taken to them, and the other gets picked up to thaw, refill and start the process again (morning and evening).

Tuesday, I took the day off and went with the other senior citizens to Cedar City, where we shopped all day. Lunch at the Sizzler was excellent!. Our neighbor (Susan) and I got to shop to our hearts content in downtown Cedar City, where there’s a collection of the neatest little local businesses. Too bad all I could do was “window shop”.

Ok, time to get back to updating things… more about the business launch later, as it will have a positive impact on our little farm.

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.

I know… Who’s Algernon, and why should you care.

Algernon is our big ram. He’s been visiting a neighboring farm for the last month, hanging out with a couple dozen ewes. Well actually, he’s been working.

His job? Breed every last one of them at least once… more if necessary or if he feels like it.

We weren’t watching the roundup when Clyde and Bill put a rope on him and got him into the truck to go visiting… but the coming home was a lot more peaceful. At least Amber said she didn’t see any fresh wounds on Clyde.

Coming home… With Bill slowly navigating the gravel road and finally our dirt driveway, and Clyde and Amber riding in the back of the compact pickup truck along with Algernon, it was a picture of one happy ram returning victoriously.

Before unloading him, we put our brand-spanking new breeding harness on him. One of our mentors (the gal we got him from) always uses one of these devices so she can tell her ram has at least attempted to breed.

Algernon has been through this process, so getting it on is no problem. He’s such a gentle giant.

Time to let him get off the truck and into the pen with “his girls”.

Clyde played “cowboy” holding onto his lead rope. Cindy and I were the ones who would help him turn right into the pen.

With Algernon in a hurry… Clyde was doing his best to keep up long enough to get him securely into the pen before giving Al total freedom.

In a matter of seconds, Al was reunited with his girls. Let the party begin!

“Let’s see… this one smells pretty good. Oh, she tastes good, too. Come to daddy, sweetie.”

“Wham, bam… hey… come back here! I’m not done yet!”

And so it goes. Algernon is one busy boy. He’s busily checking each girl. He grunts and growls and licks ears. The girls are getting interested. They show him “their stuff” stopping to pee so he can become aroused.

Thirty minutes later, we’re sure he’s bred two of the girls and we head for dinner.

As of this morning. Score two for Al. And, he’s got a “maybe”. This evening will be another “go around”.

Come April, we should have some little very cute little black lambs running around.

Over the next few weeks, I’ll be posting an autobiography.

Why? Well, because I believe you’ll find my story inspiring… and hopefully, you’ll discover no matter what you’ve done in life, there’s always more to be done.

I’ve got it pretty much written (had it posted on the domain in past years) but need to polish it a bit… that translates to take out some of the “sales talk” from a past life. I’m sure you won’t mind a bit if that stuff has gone missing.

Oh boy, the little chicks are rapidly becoming young birds. Monday they turned 2 weeks old and got the run of virtually the entire coop.

The coop is 8 x 8 and built on a concrete pad that was already here. Their outside run hasn’t been fenced yet, but will extend about 32′ west of the SW corner and 25′ north of the NE corner and then complete the rectangle. We’ll then divide the pen diagonally back to the NW corner, establishing two separate runs.

I’m finding an inward opening screen door made from 1/2 inch hardware cloth would be a perfect addition. That way I can leave the door open and also when I want to go inside the coop, it will sweep the curious birds inward.

Tomorrow we’re building a “junior roost” to help the youngsters get up the the bigger roosts. I found one dropping, so someone has been working on their flying skills.

As soon as I see birds flying 4 feet or higher, it’s time to clip wings. These are all heavy breeds, so don’t really expect to repeat the process more than twice as they’re growing. After a while, they’ll learn flying isn’t something they have to do.

The final home for both water and feed will most likely be below the nest boxes (which aren’t completed yet).

Our plan is to hold off on a lot of the final construction until we can let the birds outside in about three weeks.

One thing we did learn, and will be correcting is that our big black lab could dig her way into the coop with not much effort. She’s dug into the engineered “plywood” enough to get our attention. Now a roll of flashing is on our list. We’ll be installing it around the coop base and up the corners.

Last week was one of “those” weeks.

Just after I wrote the last post, we had a quick family meeting…

Bev was asking us to approve her reasons for leaving the job she got in St. George. You see, she’s a cancer survivor, and the chemotherapy really slowed her down. She’s a retired cop and thought sure she could handle a dispatcher’s position.

Unfortunately, learning the new computer system and having to type while carrying on two different conversations, was more than her stress level could handle.

On top of that, fuel and food was costing about 40% of her take-home pay. And gas just keeps going up.

We all agreed that it was best. It would get her back on a regular schedule instead of shift work, and with Cindy going back to work at the farm, the income difference would be minimal.

After that, we settled in for a week of nasty weather… wind storms, rain, maybe snow and sleet. About all we did from Tuesday to Friday was go out to feed while struggling to stand up.

Bev returned to her “old job” driving the Senior Center bus. Thursday included a trip to St. George. Since I’m 61 and eligible to ride the bus… I am able to do the “animal feed” shopping and bring it back on the bus. At least that’s the feed that is bagged and any other equipment we can fit into the bus. Sure beats spending our gas money!

This weekend, Cindy, Bev, neighbor Dixie and I attended the “Downunder Horsemanship” seminar by Clinton Anderson. What an awesome time. Cindy and Dixie are the horse owners. In fact, Dixie is a breeder/trainer. Bev and I both love to ride, but have never owned our horses.

Starting later this week, I’ll be working a horse under Dixie’s tutelage.

While I grew up riding horses, took a couple years of English riding lessons, and earned my “horsewoman’s badge” in Girl Scouts, as an adult, I’ve had very limited time on a horse. I don’t really remember doing any “ground and foot work” with any of the horses. So this is all new territory for me.

About those fence post holes… we managed to fit everyone into our current configuration. We’ll dig a little later.