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farmerjan
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Been a nice day... is now 70 in the sun....
Things were not great with the new cow this morning... could not get her to stand for the calf... not sure if he got much... and she does not seem to be grain motivated... but since it is such a nice day, I let her out of the barn lot and kept the calves in... I will go up in a little while and bring her back in... I am sure she is going to want to come in... and then go from there. I did not feed the calf any extra this morning... I want him hungry and determined this evening...
Mowed around the outside of the property as much as I could. There is a patch of junk trees.... right along the edge of the grass along the road, that have got to come down... 1 or 2 are dead ash trees and some scrub junk... so will get posts up to them and then see about getting them taken down... mowed all along the property line between me and the Christmas tree farm next door except right through the rough ground where we cleared out from the few big pine trees... several came down in the ice and wind storm last year and the owner pulled them to his side (they are on his property and came down across onto me) and got them out of there. So I got it mostly cleared out where they were, so a straight shot along that line.. I know where I want a gate near the road end, and another at the other end... then it goes down over the hill in a tree/brushy section and will leave that out of the fencing for now... thinking possible hog lot....??? Still thinking that maybe I can buy another 2 acres off them adjoining me where it is often too wet to park and they cannot grow trees on... so want to have a couple gates for "future possibilities... and if our cows get loose from the pasture "behind the house" across the dirt road as they have done in the past... like to have gate options to get them in if necessary.
There are 2 sections where there are a few big pines along the dirt road side I will have to forego for now too... But will get posts all along the split rail fence along the road on the side of the house where the garden is, and then along that split rail fence on the other side of the house that goes out to the "point" where the dirt road comes up to meet the paved road. Might wind up with a few spots where posts might not be spaced evenly once the trees get taken down... but that is okay.
Thinking of doing wood every 16 ft. and T-posts inbetween..... maybe......or just do wood corners/brace posts and for gate sections......T-posts for the stretch inbetween where it is fairly straight...... But, if I can get the fence done on the Christmas tree side, and along the road there, where the garden is, I can easily use some of the electric netting to "section it off" for some grazing... same along the split rail fence where the couple of peach trees are now... it will save me ALOT of distance of electric netting by not having to enclose all 4 sides with it...
The split rail fence would be okay but it is only 2 rails... decorative but not very practical. Wish it was a real "ranch style" split rail fence of 4 rails at least... The 2 rails won't hold in sheep, or even smaller calves if they wanted to get out... and I want something more substantial to keep out things like dogs etc. If I can come off even 1 side of good woven wire it will allow me to make bigger sections with the netting... Plus a couple of posts have rotted... and a few of the rails are rotten... might just relocate the good parts of it, to the short stretch in front of the house.... the lawn etc near the big maple tree....
So, I ran the mower batteries out, and just came in got the other 2, 4 amp ones to use for a little bit more...
I did run the mower and get the grass all around the house completely cut and then took the sweeper and got the bulk of the leaves from in front of the house on the lawn swept up and 4 stuffed full feed bags... like stuffed in hard.... has leaves and some dry grass from the other day and a little bit of green. I will let this stuff I just mowed dry some then run the sweeper behind the mower and sweep it up for the chickens this winter. Trying to make some "paths" so I can run the netting easier to section of some areas...
Ground is way too hard to dig potatoes... UGH....
Going out to mow a little more with the last 2 smaller batteries... then head up to get the cow in and see what we can do... at least she is not trying to "kill it".... and hopefully she will have enough pressure and her calf will want to nurse that I can get this other one over on her without a big battle... Hard enough to do with one that belongs here... this is all so new for her, I am sure she is a little bewildered... but it is definitely a better place than going to slaughter... If she will raise the 2 for me that would be good...
Things were not great with the new cow this morning... could not get her to stand for the calf... not sure if he got much... and she does not seem to be grain motivated... but since it is such a nice day, I let her out of the barn lot and kept the calves in... I will go up in a little while and bring her back in... I am sure she is going to want to come in... and then go from there. I did not feed the calf any extra this morning... I want him hungry and determined this evening...
Mowed around the outside of the property as much as I could. There is a patch of junk trees.... right along the edge of the grass along the road, that have got to come down... 1 or 2 are dead ash trees and some scrub junk... so will get posts up to them and then see about getting them taken down... mowed all along the property line between me and the Christmas tree farm next door except right through the rough ground where we cleared out from the few big pine trees... several came down in the ice and wind storm last year and the owner pulled them to his side (they are on his property and came down across onto me) and got them out of there. So I got it mostly cleared out where they were, so a straight shot along that line.. I know where I want a gate near the road end, and another at the other end... then it goes down over the hill in a tree/brushy section and will leave that out of the fencing for now... thinking possible hog lot....??? Still thinking that maybe I can buy another 2 acres off them adjoining me where it is often too wet to park and they cannot grow trees on... so want to have a couple gates for "future possibilities... and if our cows get loose from the pasture "behind the house" across the dirt road as they have done in the past... like to have gate options to get them in if necessary.
There are 2 sections where there are a few big pines along the dirt road side I will have to forego for now too... But will get posts all along the split rail fence along the road on the side of the house where the garden is, and then along that split rail fence on the other side of the house that goes out to the "point" where the dirt road comes up to meet the paved road. Might wind up with a few spots where posts might not be spaced evenly once the trees get taken down... but that is okay.
Thinking of doing wood every 16 ft. and T-posts inbetween..... maybe......or just do wood corners/brace posts and for gate sections......T-posts for the stretch inbetween where it is fairly straight...... But, if I can get the fence done on the Christmas tree side, and along the road there, where the garden is, I can easily use some of the electric netting to "section it off" for some grazing... same along the split rail fence where the couple of peach trees are now... it will save me ALOT of distance of electric netting by not having to enclose all 4 sides with it...
The split rail fence would be okay but it is only 2 rails... decorative but not very practical. Wish it was a real "ranch style" split rail fence of 4 rails at least... The 2 rails won't hold in sheep, or even smaller calves if they wanted to get out... and I want something more substantial to keep out things like dogs etc. If I can come off even 1 side of good woven wire it will allow me to make bigger sections with the netting... Plus a couple of posts have rotted... and a few of the rails are rotten... might just relocate the good parts of it, to the short stretch in front of the house.... the lawn etc near the big maple tree....
So, I ran the mower batteries out, and just came in got the other 2, 4 amp ones to use for a little bit more...
I did run the mower and get the grass all around the house completely cut and then took the sweeper and got the bulk of the leaves from in front of the house on the lawn swept up and 4 stuffed full feed bags... like stuffed in hard.... has leaves and some dry grass from the other day and a little bit of green. I will let this stuff I just mowed dry some then run the sweeper behind the mower and sweep it up for the chickens this winter. Trying to make some "paths" so I can run the netting easier to section of some areas...
Ground is way too hard to dig potatoes... UGH....
Going out to mow a little more with the last 2 smaller batteries... then head up to get the cow in and see what we can do... at least she is not trying to "kill it".... and hopefully she will have enough pressure and her calf will want to nurse that I can get this other one over on her without a big battle... Hard enough to do with one that belongs here... this is all so new for her, I am sure she is a little bewildered... but it is definitely a better place than going to slaughter... If she will raise the 2 for me that would be good...
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