Coffee anyone ?

[Baymule]

@promiseacres have a great camping trip!
@Mini Horses im glad you are finally getting rain!
Going to take litt granddaughters to Robert’s today so they can watch him make boards on his sawmill.

 

[Ridgetop]

LarsenPoultry: You need to install misters. Super easy to do but need a water source like a hose or water line.

Check on line for the special PVC connectors for 1/2" PVC pipe. They are specially designed to take the screw in water nipples or mister heads. Just glue them in at the distance apart you want, then connect the pipe to a water line through a shut off valve. If you want to get really high style, they sell thermostats that will turn on the misters when the temps reach a certain amount. If you plant veggies around the bottom of the shade the misters will help to water them. Although in high heat the misters put out so little water that the mist evaporates before reaching the ground. However, planting veggies around the base of the rabbit shade can contribute an extra cooling effect. You can plant them in raised beds that are movable too.

DS3, whose raised beds in horse troughs we copied last year (unsuccessfully), has made a new raised planter bed out of 4 x 4 posts and galvanized roofing. He gets the 4 x 4 posts for free since they are old cross arms being dumped by the utility after being replaced. He attached the metal roofing pieces on the inside of a 6' x 12' area. Then he lines the bottom with hardware cloth, then weed cloth, then fills it with planter mix and dirt. His dirt is just like beach sand so he needs to add good dirt, horse and poultry manure for it to grow anything. He also bought a 12' diameter stock tank to use this year instead of the shorter livestock troughs. He had the same trouble with ground squirrels we did but he sits our during the evening with a really powerful .357 (?) air rifle and shoots them. Excellent marksman - killed 27 in one evening at 70 years. He uses a scope. Says those little critters are good practice for his marksmanship if he can't get to the range! LOL Coyotes came in a month ago onto neighbor's property and killed and completely ate a sheep in the middle of the night. Now all the neighbors are shooting at the coyotes and they don't come around much anymore. And yet people say deterrents don't work. . . .

 

[messybun]

LarsenPoultry: You need to install misters. Super easy to do but need a water source like a hose or water line.

Check on line for the special PVC connectors for 1/2" PVC pipe. They are specially designed to take the screw in water nipples or mister heads. Just glue them in at the distance apart you want, then connect the pipe to a water line through a shut off valve. If you want to get really high style, they sell thermostats that will turn on the misters when the temps reach a certain amount. If you plant veggies around the bottom of the shade the misters will help to water them. Although in high heat the misters put out so little water that the mist evaporates before reaching the ground. However, planting veggies around the base of the rabbit shade can contribute an extra cooling effect. You can plant them in raised beds that are movable too.

DS3, whose raised beds in horse troughs we copied last year (unsuccessfully), has made a new raised planter bed out of 4 x 4 posts and galvanized roofing. He gets the 4 x 4 posts for free since they are old cross arms being dumped by the utility after being replaced. He attached the metal roofing pieces on the inside of a 6' x 12' area. Then he lines the bottom with hardware cloth, then weed cloth, then fills it with planter mix and dirt. His dirt is just like beach sand so he needs to add good dirt, horse and poultry manure for it to grow anything. He also bought a 12' diameter stock tank to use this year instead of the shorter livestock troughs. He had the same trouble with ground squirrels we did but he sits our during the evening with a really powerful .357 (?) air rifle and shoots them. Excellent marksman - killed 27 in one evening at 70 years. He uses a scope. Says those little critters are good practice for his marksmanship if he can't get to the range! LOL Coyotes came in a month ago onto neighbor's property and killed and completely ate a sheep in the middle of the night. Now all the neighbors are shooting at the coyotes and they don't come around much anymore. And yet people say deterrents don't work. . . .

A few years ago we had our neighborhood get together to drive out a den of coyotes. They really weren’t causing much trouble actually, only one or two chickens. But the people didn’t kill them all (coyotes hunt in the day if they have babies or if it’s safer) and lo and behold the coyotes moved out of the woods further into the neighborhood and actually killed some goats and other livestock. Because they are so smart if you kill a family group another will move into the territory and you’ll have an even worse coyote problem. Some have even been shown to have more litters if some were killed, even from another pack. So, if you’ve killed some keep an extra eye out for more moving in, especially young males will territory grab, so the newcomers will often be more vicious. Just keep up the “deterrent”. Oh, and if anyone out there thought that releasing your bum hound dogs would keep the neighborhood coyote free... it won’t. Not that I have any experience with people who did this, .

 

[Bruce]

DD, 3 granddaughters and a new 12 week old longhair mini wiener dog puppy came in last night. They are gone now, things to do, back this evening. Puppy is in my lap.

I hope it is better than the mini long hair doxie my old neighbors had. Yappy little thing.

Been busy, pool got opened

Our was opened 3 weeks ago. DW went in, the temp was 74°. Then we had a cool spell, the temp today was 64°. Supposed be warming again now and hit 90° Monday. I suspect DW will be back in the pool.

 

[Ridgetop]

Predators fill territory to the limit of what it can produce to feed them. If there is enough prey (natural or domestic) to support a pack or family group, that is how many will always remain. If you eradicate that pack another will show up to fill in that territory. In the case of the pack moving into more populated neighborhoods, it would be because they learn they won't be shot in the suburbs. Since coyotes are omnivorous and can subsist on fruit, vegetables, garbage, etc. as well as on wild prey they kill they, can live comfortably in towns and cities. In addition, there are lots of feral cats in cities as well as racoons, possums, and those tasty pet dogs and cats for their enjoyment.

 

[Baymule]

DD and granddaughters left this morning at 9. We hit the road for Sulphur Springs, 45 miles away, for feed. We got sprinkled on coming back, but the feed was ok. We got it all put away, ate lunch and BJ is snoozing.

 

[Ridgetop]

Haven't even finished my first cup yet! Reheated it several times since 8:30 am but haven't finished it yet!
I keep getting sidetracked by other stuff - sorting ewes (on paper) for lambing and breeding, downloading about 1000 more photos - still haven't gone in to delete all the duplicates - holding Baby Robert and changing his diaper -
finishing the baby blanket I was knitting . . . .

 

[Baymule]

Good morning y'all. Coffee is ready. We have been picking wild plums, small fruit like a cherry, tart and red. I have 2 half gallon jars in the refrigerator of juice and pulp, plus what we picked yesterday. Today is jam making day. I'll be busy in the kitchen probably all day. We pick on a tree that is in the fence row across the road from our place. Then we go pick on a few trees in the fence row on a neighbor's place, George. George is an old bachelor, never married and loves the plum jam I make. He tagged his trees to keep the county from trimming them back to the fence and we always give him jars of jam. Busy day today!

 

[Mini Horses]

Weather is supposed to be hot but lovely all weekend here. We've been having a week of wet and overcast but, I couldn't complain since it was preceded by 3 weeks of hot, drought like weather. Rain was just needed!! Grass was brown and crunchy -- now back to green and growing. Yah!! Hay is expensive.

So I worked a couple days extra during the rain and have earned a great weekend of farm work. Better get any "have to" done...next week is a heavy work schedule, looks to be last of the season for overwork. Just in time. I'm looking for some slack.

Mid 70 out there already, heading to 90, or real close. Will dry off the morning dew pretty fast. I'll go check the garden to see if it's dry enough to till, or if that's a tomorrow job. Want to get these plants out there. If the beans don't start showing, that will get ripped and replanted. The cukes came up well and need to transplant those. Two more rolls of pasture fence to get up.....looking like I'm way over my time budget for this weekend! Gotta love farm life. Need to separate those goats kids, too. I'm sure there's more to do!

Another cuppa and it begins.

 

[Mini Horses]

I am SO easily distracted!! Outside feeding. Said to self, wow look at plums on the ground from all the rain! Look up and its loaded -- first in 3 yrs. Now splitting from sudden rain. Got the ladder -- picked 8 lbs. At least that many on ground, chickens enjoying them. Walking in house I'm thinking, first fruit in yrs....you didn't even remember you had to pick them??!!! Plum preserves to make tonight.

Plenty more ripening. And apple tree has a few apples!!!! What???? Elders fruiting. Must be my lucky year.