Catching Up: Sheep

Not much to report on them. They stay in the electro-net, eat grass and bushes and stuff, and baa at me every morning when I bring them water. We interact for about 4 minutes a day. They are, BY FAR, the easiest keepers on the homestead.

Pot Pie, right, Meatloaf, middle, and Meatball, left saying "hi" this morning.
We baa back and forth each morning.

The biggest challenge and time investment I have is when i switch the netting.

Reinforcing Combo Panels II

In the first installment of reinforcing combo panels, I took some 2x4's and nailed them onto the metal panels. This worked great - they were stronger and more easier to manipulate.

Unfortunately, time (and animals) worked many of the nails out, causing the boards to flop and the panel to bend. So, last week, I took some scrap metal cuttings and some heavy-duty screws and reinforced them....again.

The metal pieces wrap around the panel wires and screw into the wood.
I also overlaid it across the chicken wire to add extra durability there.

 The panels are now 10 times stronger, at least.

Flora of Middle Tennessee

The heavens shew forth the glory of God, and the firmament declareth the work of his hands. -Psalm 19:1

God also said: Let the waters that are under the heaven, be gathered together into one place: and let the dry land appear. And it was so done. And God called the dry land, Earth; and the gathering together of the waters, he called Seas. And God saw that it was good. And he said: Let the earth bring forth the green herb, and such as may seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after its kind, which may have seed in itself upon the earth. And it was so done. And the earth brought forth the green herb, and such as yieldeth seed according to its kind, and the tree that beareth fruit having seed each one according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. And the evening and the morning were the third day. -Genesis 1:9-13

Since I've been traversing the nether-reaches of the entire property to tether the cows to graze this year, I have noticed a TON of really cool plants that I've never really seen before. Some are recurring nightmares features, and some are brand-new to me. It's amazing to see the work of creation all around, and to notice some absolutely stunning works of God's art.

I do often take the time to stop in the stillness of the morning (post-milking, usually) to appreciate the season's splendor. I am richly rewarded with the smalls, the sights, and the experiences of the majesty of God. The perfection amid the imperfection makes St. Therese's "Little Way" come alive right here on the homestead.

I do hope to make this a series, as new species show themselves and I catalog them. I'll lead off Part 1 the series with this gem:

These stunningly beautiful flowers are only open before 5:30 AM.

To Tether a Cow

My property does not have fencing.

There are a few privacy fences, and about 200' of mangled field fence, but all of these end and do not form an enclosed area. In the very back, there are a few lines of barbed wire that the turkeys, deer, and whatever else have made more decorative than functional. I also have the movable reinforced combo panel garden paddocks, and the movable, solar-charged electro-net, but there are not permanent enclosures.

Instead of fully-fenced permanent pastures, I use these tools for an intensive managed grazing system. But the electro-net and paddocks do not account for the cows. The paddocks house the chickens and pigs, and the electro-net contains the sheep.

The cows? They're tethered.

Tethering cows: taking managed intensive grazing to new frontiers.

And So It Begins....

This week, I moved the chickens to the second "paddock" area, and the pigs to the third. I then took down the fencing to the first, revealing the garden area below.

Pigs and chickens use their natural abilities to work the land.
The combo panels keep in the pigs. The chicken wire keeps in the chickens.
The end result? Fluffy, tilled, picked clean gardens.

The utter destruction these two species cause in succession is startling. And for a garden, that's a good thing.

Sheepdate

(ba-dum ching!)  :: waiting for applause/laughter ::

Our 10-day old new Katahdin lamb, Meatball, is doing great.

"Baahhh!"

For the first few days, I had to help Pot Pie stay still so lil' dude could nurse. She was NOT having it. I used my legs as a head gate stanchion so she'd be still for more than 3 seconds.

I only had to do that for a few days. I moved the sheep into s new pasture area on Friday, and they've been doing great. Pot Pie has slowed down and chilled out a bit, allowing Meatball to finally nurse. He's getting very big, and his tail is constantly wagging. Good things.

One Thirsty Cow

The temps hit over 85 here yesterday, and Brisket got very thirsty. He let me know this fact by head-butting and flipping over his now-empty 17-gallon water bucket. The racket echoed all around the homestead.

Then the mooing began.

So, I filled up the cow cart full of cool water and watered him down.

Brisket Le'Cow slurping up water as it comes out of the tank.
Just like a water fountain for cows!

I took a lot of pictures of the watering event. He was very cute.

Our First Baby Lamb!!

This weekend, our very pregnant sheep Pot Pie had her baby lamb. We named him Meatball.

Me holding Thing #3, who is holding meatball. Thing #2 has a new baby chick.

Meatball is very healthy and doing great. He's nursing well, and as of today I think Pot Pie is transitioning from colostrum to milk. His belly is looking fuller, and he's even begun taking a few small nibbles of grass and sips from the water bucket.

Choose Your Own (Homesteading) Adventure

In the wide world of project management, there's an old saying that goes something like this:

You can do this project fast, cheap, and correct. But you can only pick two. -Old Saying

I would call the setup of a farm, the initial infrastructure build, as a "project." And in something like building a portable cow care station, or constructing a winter dry lot, or designing a movable chicken coop, this "law" still hold sway.

Where's the "all of the above" bubble?

But what about everyday life? Is there a pattern that can look at the bigger picture of managing the day to day activities of a homesteader?

I believe there is. I've found that day-to-day life on a farm follows a similar pattern - you can't have it all. I've said it before, and I guess now I'll say it in print:

You can make farming as difficult or as easy as you want it to be. -Bubs

For example, if you wanted to cut a hay field, driving a tractor with a sickle bar mower is faster than hand-scything it. However, there is a trade-off. You gain something and you lose something in each of these two very simple scenarios. In the first, you opt for "quality" and "speed," but pay out the nose for the equipment. In the second, going for "quality" and "price" means it takes longer.

Projects are one thiung, and we all undertake them. But I've been thinking about the everyday activities - stuff we do every single morning and evening, as opposed to one-off or once-in-a-while projects. I like to call this daily flurry of activity "farm management." I think farm management, especially hobby farm management, boils down to a dance between four distinct elements:

Getting the Sheep Back to Pasture

FINALLY!! The sheep are out of their winter dry lot after almost 4 months!

Happy sheep back on pasture after 3.5 months.

The grass is finally starting to grow, and I was running pretty low on hay, so it worked out quite well.  :)   Plus, the incessant "BAAA"-ing was driving me batty. So, Saturday afternoon, I moved them back to pasture.

Last time I moved them, back in November, I hoisted and carried them from the front pasture/hay lot to the dry lot. They were very heavy. This time, I had even farther to go, and bigger, more pregnant sheep.

The solution? Roll them.

March Homestead Update

Happy Feast Day of St. Joseph!

St. Joseph is my adopted patron. I am not named after him, and chose another saint at Confirmation oh those many years ago. Since being married and working, though, I've come to appreciate how helpful St. Joseph and his holy example are. So, in celebration of his feast day, I'm dedicating this update of all of my work around the homestead to him.

First, the pigs are growing visibly larger and more comfortable with us daily. Holy moly, they are fun to watch.

BB'q saying hello. Escargo nervously watches in the background.

All them piggies hanging out. They're starting to root up the area (yay!),
and go nuts for milk and eggs. It's hilarious.

I'll likely leave them in place for at least another week, partially because the area isn't rooted to my satisfaction, and partially because I'm not ready to move the chickens into the reinforced cattle panel pens yet - I need to add the chicken wire, at the very least. And speaking of the chickens.....

Reinforcing Combo Panels

As part of out big plans for 2014, I bought sixteen 16'-long by 52"-inch tall combo panels. They are a very thick gauge wire, and the horizontal wires are spaced progressively closer as you go toward the ground. The reason for these specific panels will become clear in a few weeks. Stay tuned.

But in the meantime, the cows have been hanging out in here while we wait for the grass to start growing so we can tether them out. Despite the wire gauge thickness, the panels are very flexible. After a few days, they all started bowing outward as the cows gently nudged them to bite off a few more lingering blades of grass. With the expectation of progressively more and more, uh, wear and tear, I had to upgrade them. So we made a Saturday family project out of it.

Finished product from the weekend's labor. Chicken coop in the distance.

This picture shows the reinforced edge of the corral at the moment. I only got halfway done on Saturday (8 out of 16 panels). I'll have to finish another weekend. But, let's step through how I made the combo panels stronger.

The Economics of a Backyard Milk Cow

Earlier this week, I explored the economics of keeping backyard egg-laying chickens. Since I want to get and keep a milk cow for the family, I thought I'd do the same thing for a cow.

Hey! I don't wear overalls!

We're going to need to make a few concessions and constraints based on my situation here, though.

1. A milking cow need at least an acre of good growing pasture. Add in a growing steer for beef, and you can effectively double that. So a cow/calf pair should have 2 acres of pasture during the growing season. Let's assume I have that.
2. A milking cow must be fed hay in the winter at about the rate of 25-35 pounds of hay a day. We'll crunch the numbers using 30 lbs./day as the go-to hay rate.
3. Hay can be harvested in three cuttings a year at the rate of about 5 tons per acre in zones 6 and 7 (we are in 6b), and potentially more if fertilized. I will assume less than the ideal and guess it's closer to 4. Let's also assume that I have a separate section of land for hay harvesting.

So, those things being assumed, let's dive in and see what we can see.

"Water-Front" Property

Our homestead was labelled a "water-front" property in real estate listing. And it's true on some days:

The "wet-weather creek" that cuts our property in half, full because of last night's rain.

When it's full and flowing, it's great - a peaceful, babbling brook in a scenic glen of wood.

Trouble is, most of the time it's dry and empty. I would LOVE to rely on this stream for livestock watering, centering pastures around it for free, unlimited, low-maintenance watering. But alas, I cannot. All it really does is provide a scenic (and peaceful-sounding) backdrop to the homestead after a good rain.

Why Are Self-Sufficient Family Farms So Big?

Short answer: horses.

Long answer: there are many factors involved. First of all, for a true "self-sufficient" farm, you need to produce everything you need from the land. That's all food, water, clothing, building supplies, medical supplies, cleaning supplies, heating, lighting, tools, books, recreational activities, etc., along with all of the other necessary to keep them up.

I think most farms are needlessly large and hyper-specialized these days.

Of course, one person (or heck, even one family) cannot reasonable do it all. Taking on blacksmithing, woodworking, animal training, dairying, crop growing, shearing, weaving, looming, tanning, medicine, home building, and general day-to-day repairs, on top of the routines of life with laundering, cooking, cleaning, and normal family life, is a big task.

So self-sufficient farms really DON'T do it all. Instead, they produce extra of whatever, and then sell and/or barter to fill in the gaps. Or, they maintain a separate income source and narrow their focus. But I often encounter situation where advice or "standards" are based on the first camp.

"Oh, you definitely need at least 60 acres to be self-sufficient."
"You can't have sheep and cows on less than 10 acres."
"You have to a barn, and 5 acres for hay, and this for that, and ...."

Bah!

2013, We Hardly Knew Ye

"...from such films as Andre the Giant,
We Hardly Knew Ye...."

Or, we knew Thee all too well for our own Stinking Goode.

Either way, it was a crazy-town, whirlwind year here at the homestead.

This time last year, I knew there was so,so much to get done, so I dubbed 2013 "The Year of Getting Things Done."

Boy howdy, was it ever.

I have a yet-unfinished list, sure, but I did complete some very major accomplishments this year. We will continue our self-sufficient journey in 2014 with some exciting new additions and expansions.

For now, though, let's look back at 2013: The Year of Getting Things Done.

Predator-Proof!

Last night, I went to lock up the chickens in their coop so I could move the electric netting this morning. I turned the charger off, naturally, before climbing over, filling up their feeder, and latching them in.

Upon re-engaging the switch, I heard a loud and distinct electric POP! coming from one end of the paddock. It being dark, I figured that a big blade of grass or something had blown across the hot and ground, and went inside.

Still, I thought it odd that I heard it leaving, but did not hear it coming.

Odd indeed, for this morning I came across this:

Outsmarting Motivated Chickens

I mean...not that we really needed to.
You see, we've discovered in our few weeks of chicken stewardship that they are really, really stupid animals - unless they really want something. I thought the sheep were kinda thick, but chickens?
Let's just say that in a match of wits between a chicken and a brick, I'd pick the chicken...but only because it would poop on the brick.
Anywho, despite (or because of) their intelligensia, they've been escaping through the electric netting.
Yes, the 3" x 7", 9,000-Volt-packing gap in the net has been little to no hindrance, as they bolt for the other side and voluntary get zapped over and over again in the process. They must really, really want those bugs on the other side of the fence, I guess. The grass IS always greener, if you're a chicken.
The clucking and the feather ruffling accompanying each zap is humorous, to be sure, but it ultimately leads to scenes like this:

Thing #3 chasing loose chickens in the kids play area. Not cool.

They were also inching closer to the garden each day, and getting bold enough to wander into the front yard near the street.

Instead of waiting for a definitive answer for why the chicken actually did cross the road, Wife and I needed to do something.

Moving the Electric Netting

Animal friends in the electric net system.

Every 7 to 14 days or so, I need to move the animals to a new spot. I have 4 pieces of electric netting, 164 feet long each, and a solar charger for the fence. I only use 3 nets right now, because the sheep and chickens are still so little, they're not eating enough to justify the increased area.
It's a pretty cool setup. Most of the time it takes me about 2 hours to move it. Between that and daily water checks, I really have very little other animal maintenance. This movable pasture system provides so many cool benefits:

• The periodic moves keep the animals on fresh grass all the time.
• The system prevents overgrazing.
• Parasites are unable to establish themselves given the time that passes between the animals grazing over a particular spot. I like to give at least 30 days rest between moving them back, allowing any existing parasites to die off.
• The electric fence, and the moving of said fence, keeps predators at bay.

So I decided to document what I do.

Bird's Eye View of the Garden

A view of the garden, with the orchard behind it, from the roof.

Well, roof's eye view anyway.

I had to finish adding the silicone caulk to the roof, and touching up the paint this weekend. I also did some gutter work. Whilst up there, I thought I'd snap a pic of the garden. It's a neat perspective on the land, being 30 feet up.

From the same perspective, I took a shot of this week's grazing area.

Sheep, chickens, and donkey in the new temporary grazing pasture.

I do enjoy the view from the roof, if not the work. Makes we wish sometime for a nice, tall balcony.
Oh well.