The first couple of paragraphs of today's entry might be something some of you would want to skip reading because it involves butchering animals. I know some people have a problem with the thought of that, so I wanted to warn you, just in case you are one of them.
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Yesterday we sorted the remaining 50 or so lambs into 3 different groups according to size. Some of them will be in a chill room at the meat locker by the time you read this, a quick end (much more mercyful than the coyotes would provide) to a happy life. Some of the other lambs are still quite small and they will be sold to a buyer who will put them on pasture until they reach about 100-110 pounds. Another group that went out to pasture for a few more days will be hauled to a butchering facility that handles organic meat.
We also brought the heifers to the corrals and sorted off 3 of the larger ones to be butcherd today. The neighbors sell organic meat to several customers who will take a half or a whole beef or lamb, and some of it is cut and wrapped for the restaurant trade. The restaurant meat must be processed in an inspected facility from live animal to cut and wrapped and flash frozen, so can't be field killed like the ones that met a mercyful end today when the mobile slaugher truck came to the farm.
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Yesterday while we were working with the cattle a wasp or yellow jacket got under my shirt and stung me. Ouch! and today I have a red, itchy welt about the size of an egg. I react to any kind of bug bite, so I started taking antihistamine as soon as possible. It will take another day or two before I notice much difference. Meanwhile, I keep putting Lanacane on it without much effect. I think it needs to be iced periodically. After thanking God that the horse I was sitting on didn't also get stung, I wondered why I needed to be. Many insects can sting multiple times and I was glad I got him out of my shirt before he got me again, and that he was alone.
A bull belonging to another neighbor had jumped the fence and joined the heifers, so when we were bringing them into the corrals, I was very mindful of exactly where he was. He didn't seem to be agressive, but with bulls you never know. When we got to the corrals we sorted him out right away and his owner came with a stock trailer to take him home. Hopefully he will stay home. He did the same thing last year.
Since most of my day was taken with moving animals around, I didn't get to town to do my shopping and errands until late afternoon. One place were I needed to go has closed their auxillary office and consolidated in another town, so now I will have to make about an 80 mile round trip one day soon. Hubby and I had dinner in town in a nice restaurant with air conditioning, then he came home and I finished my shopping.
Today it is back to more mundane types of things, watering in the flower beds and vegie garden, weeding, laundry, and deciding what's for dinner.
"This is the day that the Lord hath made", and I, for one, am going to rejoice and be glad in it. Now that scripture chorus will be going through my head all day, and your's too, I hope. We can't be rejoicing and grumbling at the same time.
Several weeks ago my daughter-in-law got a letter from the college she had applied to, saying she had not been accepted for the nursing program. I suggested that she write the college a letter thanking them for considering her application and asking that her name be put on a waiting list in case an opening became available. She was upset but decided the Lord must have this in His plan, and a few days later she got a job which she likes very much. Two days ago, out of the blue, she got an information packet in the mail, the ones they send to accepted students, and now she is getting all the things done that need to be done, which includes quitting that job. The Lord does keep things exciting.
Yesterday the "scattered showers" got us good! I had gone down the hill to the vegie garden to begin watering, and I had a big wheelbarrow of clippings for the compost pile because I had just mowed the lawn. I took Fritz with me and tied him to the fence outside the garden where he could see me. The sky looked black to the west of us and the mountain ridge in that direction had disappeared. Since we live on the dry side of the Baker Valley I thought all the rain would happen over on the other side.
Half an hour later the lightning was increasing and getting closer so I decided to take Fritz and go back to the house. He was very uneasy with the storm approching. Before we got to the house the rain had started with a few big drops. Two minutes later it was raining hard and the thunder was very loud. The wind came up, blowing from the west which is unusual, but when it does, we get some weather.
The storm lasted about 25 minutes and included some hail. When I saw that I said "oh no, Lord, please, not hail" and it changed back to rain! I think we got about 3/4 of an inch, and nothing will need watering for about 3 days. Later I checked to see how far the rain had soaked into the soil, and even where I had not watered for weeks it went down about 5 inches. The downside of the good rain is that it also got hay wet that was ready to be baled, and I think it was some of what I am buying. And I have some kinda flat cornstalks.
My hubby got another one of those coyotes this morning, so the sheep are just a little safer today.
I'm leaving for another endurance ride today and will not be back until Monday. It seems strange this morning not to be hurrying around moving sprinklers. All I have to do is water the greenhouse and house plants, pack my ice chest, load up the horse and go down the road.
We moved cattle to a fresh pasture yesterday. I was on my horse riding up the road about 5 or 6 miles while the day was still cool, and was joined by the owner on his little motorbike, and Nip the Border Collie, just when I got there. His cattle are trained to come toward him when he whistles a certain way, so he whistled and the cows started to move, but in the wrong direction. We think they heard the echo bouncing off the hills. By the time we got to them they were all together and close to the upper gate, so we went to plan B and took them the way they were inclined to go.
The cows and their calves and the bull went up the hill along the fenceline to another gate, then out on to the county road. The older cows knew where they were going, and after they got to the top of the hill they started to trot down the other side. At this point they definitely don't need to be pushed, they need brakes. I followed on Patch at a walk and Paul and Nip went ahead of them to try to slow them down. When they got to a patch of good grass about half a mile later, they stopped for a snack and I caught up. After that they mostly walked. There is almost no traffic, we only met one vehicle on a trip that takes about an hour and a half.
A neighbor's cow and calf were with them, she was allowed to come along and when we got to the ranch we got them into a corral and left her and her calf there while we finished the trip to the new pasture. They will be trailered back to where they belong, the herd they were with had left the area.
While we were at the corrals we were looking at a heifer that was brought in the day before with a badly swollen lower leg, probably from a rattlesnake bite. She is recovering and getting around pretty well. Then I saw something out of the corner of my eye near a shed on one side of the corral, and soon a very small face was looking at us.
This small creature was very curious about us, and didn't seem to be afraid although it was staying near a wooden ramp that goes into one of the buildings. It kept playing peekaboo with us while we watched. Finally we saw the whole animal, about 8 inches long and 3 inches high. It was a weasel, the first live one I have seen in the daylight. Our cats catch them sometimes in the winter when they have turned white.
We had something to do near the barn and this little weasel followed us there and was playing on some lumber watching us as we watched him! We just couldn't believe how unafraid he was. Nip seemed not to even notice him. She had just had a long trip behind the cattle and instead of being tired she was busy carrying a stick thinking one of us would throw it for her. Nip has recovered from the snake bite she got a couple of weeks ago and has unlimited Border Collie energy again.
After the cows had rested a few minutes and had a drink from the pond in the pasture behind the barn, we continued our journey for another half mile or so, and now they are in the meadow next to my place where I can look out my window and see them. The calves have grown quite a lot in the few weeks since we took them up the road to the pasture they just left. There is no water in the new pasture, so Paul set up two stock tanks and connected them with a hose to our outside fawcett. The cows each need about 25 gallons of water per day.
While I was unsaddling Patch I felt something bite my leg just behind my knee. I grabbed my pantleg and rubbed it around to squish whatever it was. A couple of minutes later it bit me again. When I got into my house and was able to investigate, I found what I thought was a small ant, but when I looked at him with a magnifying glass, saw a small bee type fellow, about 3/8 of an inch long, black with yellow stripes, and although mortally wounded, still alive enough to be trying to sting something! So, I am back on antihistamine and already starting to itch.
This morning I looked out my front window and saw my neighbor's cows going out of his pasture on to the road. Time for action! My neighbor was busy this morning with the inspector from Oregon Tilth, so I got on the 4 wheeler and zoomed down the road to turn them back before they all got out. Just minutes before they had been getting a drink at the water tank next to my fence, and now they were a quarter mile away getting into trouble. Cows love an open gate, it is an invitation.
I got past them and turned the ones on the road back to join the ones that were still coming out of the pasture. There are two gates in that corner, and the other one was also open, and so of course most of them got through it. Oh boy, another place to go! While I closed the gate to the road they went trotting down across the second pasture. I could see 2 more open gates, and zoomed down the fenceline to close them. While I was doing that they spread out and explored.
Since there are other gates leading out of this field I thought I had better make sure they were closed so theese rascals couldn't get to anywhere else where they weren't supposed to be. Then, knowing they couldn't get out unless they jumped a fence, I started pushing them back toward the rest of the herd, who for some reason had not found the open gate. Some jobs are a lot easier with more than one person, this was one of those, but I was more stubborn than the cows, and having just as much fun, and so eventually I got them headed back to where I wanted them to go. At times it was like herding cats! They didn't really want to leave.
Just when I got them back to the gate that lead into the pasture where they were supposed to be, the owner came driving down the road. He was kind of red faced about leaving that gate open, mostly because the inspector was with him.
And now I am back to less exciting things; watering vegies and flower beds, and doctoring Patch's wire cuts that he got on his front leg yesterday. Thankfully they aren't deep and he is not lame, so I am just keeping them clean and putting Desitin on the scabs to keep them soft. I want to go to the endurance ride this weekend, and am limited as to what I can use on them by drug rules which would disqualify us.
After dinner yesterday I helped bring the cattle to the corrals for some sorting. One cow has been feeding 2 calves but only one of them is hers. The other was rejected by it's mother and this nice 2 year old took it as hers. Both calves are ok, but not doing real well, so the adopted one will be taken off her and go to the auction. It is old enough now to be living on grass, and that cow needs a break! She also needs to gain a little weight and be in good enough shape to produce a calf next year.
We sorted all the heifers into a separate pen, then selected 2 to have their date with destiny. Another corral had 4 ewes and 11 lambs in it, the ewes need to be put back with the ewe flock and the lambs will go to the slaughter plant with the 2 heifers. There was supposed to be one more lamb but we don't know if a coyote got it, or if it slipped through the fence to be with the ewe flock. If it is a female it might just get to stay.
While we were finishing up with the sorting, and were trying to read eartags in the diminishing light, we kept hearing a screech, screech. It wasn't moving, and we suspected it was a young barn owl in a plywood owl nest box high up under the eves of the barn. Sure enough, soon momma owl landed on the top of the box, then went inside and the screeching stopped. I guess all the commotion woke them up early.
This morning after I mow the lawn and do some watering, I will go to town to shop and do errands, and meet my sister for lunch. Then I have to be back here to feed the heifers if my neighbor isn't able to get home in time. They are still in the corral and won't be making the trip to the hill pasture with the others, so we are keeping them separate and in a place where they won't try to follow the others when we drive them up the road tomorrow morning.
Today is kind of a sad day, our old Border Collie died this morning while we were at church. He had been failing for quite a while and last evening he could not get up, his legs wouldn't work and he couldn't drink water. I put him on a rug by his doghouse this morning, petted him for a while and prayed that his passing would be kind and swift. It must have been, because when we got home I thought he was sleeping but he was already gone. He's buried now, deep enough so the coyotes won't find him and with a large rock for a marker.
Last week we moved the cattle again, but the trip didn't quite go as planned. Day one we started out and the cows were full and wanting to lie down and chew their cuds, not wanting to travel. Then the bull was making himself a 2000 pound roadblock. He kept turning sideways in the road and the cows didn't want to go past him. We had only gone a mile and should have already been at the new pasture, and it was getting hot already, so we invented plan B on the spot and put them in a not so good pasture for the rest of the day and night, took them to the corral just after daylight the next morning, left the bull and one steer there and started out again.
They moved better and we were making good progress when we saw a herd of somebody else's cattle coming down the same road in the opposite direction. We got our herd stopped in time to let the other herd go past a T in the road and through a gate, down the fenceline and out of sight. It would have been great fun sorting cows in the road!
About 3 miles farther up the road a frisky herd of cows followed us along the fence for almost a mile, picking up more cows and more speed as we went. Thankfully ours were tired enough to not want to play, but the ones in the pasture were having a great time. I rode Patch between ours and the fence, keeping them from getting next to the other cattle and keeping the leaders moving. Paul rode his little motorcycle a ways behind me and we kept the herd over to the opposite side of the road. Nip was tired by that time and Paul had her on the motorcycle with him, so the cows were stretched out in a long line about 3 cows wide.
I wondered what would happen when this fun loving bunch got to the pasture corner. By this time there must have been close to 100 cows and 400 pound calves cavorting along the fence, raising quite a bit of dust and making plenty of noise mooing excitedly. I could just see a wreck in the making, fences being torn up and us trying to get the whole works stopped so we could sort them and put the goofy bunch back where they belonged.
As it turned out, there were about 30 cattle, including 2 big bulls already at the fence corner, standing there calmly chewing their cuds, so when the frisky ones came running down the fence toward them, they made a right turn and went down along another fence away from the road, and ours just kept going down the road. If all those had busted through the fence it would have been a real big mess and we would have been busy for a couple of hours getting everything sorted out and where they belonged and would have had a fence to repair, too.
This all happened during "rush hour" in the country, we met one neighbor on her way to work, driving down the road at the blinding speed of about 25mph, and slowing to a stop to let the cows meander past her car before continuing on her way.
Our days and nights are suddenly getting cooler. It feels a little like fall especially in the mornings. Of course, I shouldn't jump to conclusions, 3 days isn't really enough to tell what is happening, and we still have a few hummingbirds at the feeders. They are so enjoyable, buzzing around and doing acrobatics in mid air, and I will miss them when they decide that fall is falling.
My compost piles are getting bigger, and there is much more to add to them. Yesterday I started pulling an invasive flower out of the big lasagna bed, filled the large wheelbarrow twice and took it down to another area to dump it, since I don't want them popping up in the vegie garden. I already have enough seeds in the ground in the flower bed to last me the rest of my life.
Last weekend we took Fritz back to his family who just got back from the summer camp season in Romania. He was very happy to be back with them. We had a great barbeque dinner in their yard and then sat around a nice campfire and visited until the wee hours.
Patch and I will be going to another ride in the mountains of Idaho this weekend, so I am trying to get everything thoroughly watered plus 100 and 1 other things done before we go.
This narrative will be continued in Book 2 since this has become quite long and a bit slow to load. I had planned to wait until January to start it, but it needs to be done sooner.
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