Canesister's 2025 journal - Bushel & Peck Farm

[Baymule]

This is no joke, in Lindale, we booked our next hogs when we took hogs in for their freezer camp date. A year in advance, for hogs that not only did we even have them yet, they hadn’t even been born and I had to find some to buy!

 

[canesisters]

I actually had every intention in making the apt for a year ahead, the week that it's born.
But now that I've found these guys & won't have to try to coordinate available days off with someone who has a trailer, I'll probably wait until it's nearly a year old & go with whatever is the next appointment.

 

[farmerjan]

Try Emlab/genetics.... P-Test urine preg test strips... I think Valley vet might have them...or try EmLab genetics web site? I don't know much about them... but several on the Cattle Today forum use them...

 

[canesisters]

Heat watch has come & gone - Eva is pregnant.

Work has been weird. Busy work for several nights. Easy money! But sitting in the breakroom for hours is killing my hip. Hopefully we'll be back up & running when we get back on Wed. I'll be starting with a new trainee then.

Looks like we'll be getting some rain Monday. I'm hoping not. I picked up some asparagus & some onion starts and I'd like to get them in the ground asap.

 

[Ridgetop]

I need to get some asparagus sets and plant them. They take a while to produce since you can;t pick the shoots the first or second year, have to give them time to spread. I did finally plant my 3 rose bushes. Hopefully they will grow. I still need to add another couple fruit trees. And DH wants to plant tomatoes. We will have to wait till next year for a larger garden. The rams are still in the fenced garden space! LOL

 

[farmerjan]

I need to get some asparagus sets and plant them. They take a while to produce since you can;t pick the shoots the first or second year, have to give them time to spread. I did finally plant my 3 rose bushes. Hopefully they will grow. I still need to add another couple fruit trees. And DH wants to plant tomatoes. We will have to wait till next year for a larger garden. The rams are still in the fenced garden space! LOL

Free fertilizer......

 

[Ridgetop]

I did suggest that DH plant his garden in the sheep night pen. A full year of fertilizer has been trampled into the dirt there. We are going to close that pen off from the barn and move the night pen over to a new location behind the barn. It has the advantage of full sun, no grass to till under, and will have water lines going to it.

Bryan is back doing the water lines. He brought a very large DitchWitch to do the ditching for the water lines. It is an enormous elongated chain saw on steroids mounted on a Bobcat. The yard and pasture looks like a scene from "Tremors" - a cult horror classic about giant worms that tunnel through rock and under the ground outin the desert coming up to eat people, livestock, cars, etc. If no one has seen "Tremors", visualize giant gopher tunnels running across the yard spewing dirt about a foot above ground level.

One ditch runs across the front of the barn and the ewes were waiting at the gate to get into the barn. The lambs thought the ditches were super fun and collapsed about 10' of them, jumping in and out. There are several of the lambs that are really looking good, long and wide, with good width through their escutcheons and briskets. Straight legs and good feet too. I was sneaking out with my marking paint to mark some of them when DS1 made me come block the opening of the night pen while Bryan was ditching through it to lay in a water line to the rear of the barn. He is trying to get the lines in tonight so he can return the Ditchwitch tomorrow. It costs $450/day to rent. DS1 wanted to mix some more grain and feed in the ewe pen. Then he opened the gate and everyone ran in before I could get over to mark anyone. We will have to sort and mark tomorrow.

DH has a dermatoogy appoitment in Greenville Wedesday. Thursday we have a vet appointment for Angel to look at an infection and get a microchip for Hazine. I also want to get a price for the OFA Xray for Ozel. We thought we had lost Ozel yesterday She didn't come for dinner, D1 waled out past the barn calling, and I even went out front to see if she had gotten out the gate when the gardener mowed. I remembered I had seen her when I planted my 3 rosebushes but then later when I walked over to the pond looking for lambs she wasn't there. Hazine went with me and found a turtle on the other side of the fence but no Ozel. I remembered that I had gone into the shed to get bone and blood meal when I was planting the roses. I didn't expect she would be in there since she was not making any noise but opened the shed anyway and out she came! Poor girl acted like she had been punished whichshe rbably thought she had been. We all fussed over her. DS1 brought the 3' garden fence pieces last night from the barn, but I did not get them up around the roses since it was dark. This morning DS1 called me out and showed me that all 3 roses had been dug up by one of the dogs. I replanted them and put up the garden fences.

I want to get a couple more roses and plant them along the fence. I have enough of the garden fences to protect them. Two of the pear trees have survived. I want to put up a couple of the Red River rodeo panels around them to protect them from the rams. I want a couple peach trees and a fig as well. The Sulphur Springs Lowes is out of apple trees so maybe we will stop at the Greenville Lowes and look for apple trees or I will wait until next year. We have to stop at Costco and pick up a heavy duty 6'w shelving unit for the pump shed.