High Desert Cowboy- How far is it up north?

[Baymule]

The pigs I raise get wormed, feral hogs get cut in small pieces, carefully gone over and ground for sausage.

 

[High Desert Cowboy]

I dunno I got handed a jar full of large strongyles once and it looked like a bunch of sprouts. Mixed on a plate you’d never know it was a parasite.
We thankfully do not have a large quantity of feral hogs in Utah. Most would say we don’t have any period but they are starting to be seen in the Arizona strip. I don’t know that I’d want to sit there and go through every piece of meat anyway. I have plenty of pig meat in my freezer anyway, I’m set.

 

[High Desert Cowboy]

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday season, I know mine was so busy I haven’t hardly been able to do anything around our place. With all the running around I didn’t get home until very late some nights and Heart the ewe was quick to berate me every time I got in late to get my chores done. She’ll place her front hooves on the gate so that she can try and bring herself to my eye level to give me a piece of her mind. She’s easily my favorite and knows it, I guess that’s why she believes she can start bellering at me the moment I pull in late. But they’re all fat and healthy so there’s not much for her to complain about. Hopefully they’re all bred by now, Shaun went in with everyone on the 2nd of November and immediately got to work.
I spent yesterday walking around surveying the area and drawing up some plans for things I’d like to do in the near future, namely move my horses lean to (it‘s portable enough, just time consuming) to the north side and build a sheep shelter next to it, proving the horses with some better windblock and the sheep with a nicer spot to lamb in. Then move the chicken coop around by there so that I can let them into the sheep pen to scratch around, giving them more protected area to run around in during the day. And move my tack shed if possible over to where I keep the hay now, moving the hay yard over to the southend of the horse corral and setting up a better area to load and unload sheep in the future. What I have works, but I’d like it to look a lot better than it does right now. of course this will all have to happen little by little as funding becomes available, but that’s life. Dream big and take steps to make it happen.

 

[thistlebloom]

It's so nice to have things set up for more efficiency. You sound like me, rearranging shelters and sheds and repurposing areas for better flow. We aren't finished, it seems like the more time we live here the better our ideas get, LOL.
I guess a master plan at the beginning would have been a good idea, but so many things we are doing now were not on the radar back then.
It sure will be satisfying to you when you get it all squared away the way you envision it.

 

[Baymule]

Cow panels. Lordy I loves me some cow panels! I have made so many set ups with cow panels, take them down, move them, set them back up, put them in a pile, then drag them out and do something else with them.

I get the moving things around for a better way of doing things. I built chicken coops on skids so I could drag them around too. I finally figured out where I want the coop. Temporary works and it lets us see how we can make things better.

 

[High Desert Cowboy]

I can honestly say I’ve changed my horse corrals shape, size, and materials at least 4 times by now. When we first moved here he had it set up how he liked it and I was too house poor to set it up how I wanted to. I tried to set it all up close to existing water sources and I’ve changed where I throw my feed a dozen times as well. When I built the sheep pen I had an idea that works with what I have with minimal movement of anything. It works, but it could be a lot better. The set up in my mind should flow better, it’ll be easier to set up some alleys for easier sheep sorting. Last year when I separated Shaun from the ewes I ran them all into my little round corral I built to work with the dogs and had to rope and hog tie him then turn all the ewes back to their pen. Then I untied him. Sure it works, but it could be so much better. Also my tack shed is hidden over behind the garage where it’s invisible from the house. I’d like it where I can see it, makes it easier to watch my kids saddling or if I’m shoeing a horse they can see me. I hate the way the previous owner thought, But now I’m finally in more of a position to do it my way

 

[High Desert Cowboy]

I gotta say this winter has been great! We’ve gotten a little snow but it doesn’t stick around here very long, and it’s been 45 most days. With plenty of snow left on the mountain where it can stay until we need it. It makes everything so much nicer not having to break ice or pack buckets all over creation. I like it.
So I’m going to take a little field trip today to look at some ram lambs, they’ll be a year in April. They’re priced right and they look good in pictures so it’s worth the short trip. Depending on what kind of guarantees I can get I may pick one up who knows. If nothing else it’s a new contact for future possibilities

 

[Baymule]

Take pictures of the ram lamb you buy! I hope you get a good one!

 

[High Desert Cowboy]

So I got there and he had 4 ram lambs, one Suffolk/hamp cross and three polypay. The price was good, and he guaranteed the ram saying if he wound up being a dud he would trade him out. He also had errands to run my way today so he would deliver. So this morning we got our new ram that my daughters have named “Gus Gus”.

Fun fact sheet
He was a triplet
He’s out of the guys favorite ewe and ram
His mother is an older ewe that has consistently thrown triplets and even quads, raising them all
So genetically he has some good history.
depending on how my finances are in the summer I may buy a ewe or two as well from him.

 

[Baymule]

Those are good genetics! Which breed is he?