Ridgetop - our place and how we muddle along

[fuzzi]

View attachment 117372 Big Bro (Kuya) Robert already has his babybrother in a headlock. The first of many to come I am sure. DDIL2 has her hands full with 3 babies 2 years apart. Luckily both older boys are in preschool until June.

The pump shed is finally painted and ready for the shelves to go up. DS1 and I worked on them today. The first picture is looking straight back from the shed door. The second picture shows the heavy duty shelf unit installed on the side wall, We put up the upper shelves first then assembed the lower shelf system. The shelves are 24" deep x 6' long. The heavy duty shelf unit is 6' wide x 6' tall x 24" deep. We will pick up another heavy duty shelf unit tomorrow at Costco on the way back from the VA. When we buiot th one there nw, we moved it out 24" from the rear wall to allow enough room for another to fit on the wall where the orange ladder is leaning. It will fit from the corner to the pump pipes. There are several electric outlets in the shed in case we want to instal a freezer or fan for ventilation, or need electric outlets in that area of the field. They still need covers. Can't wait to get all the Christmas stuff out of my front hallway! All my canning jars and equipment can go in there too. I will be bringing some of my orse tack back from California and the winter blankets can go on the top shelves since I won't need them until we have covered barn space for the horses. On the side of the shed over the pump equipment DS1 is planning to put a 30" deep "loft" shelf from wall to wall. It will be 6'+ above the floor so we can get under it to service the pump equipment. Not sure what will be stored there

It is supposed to rain heavily over the weekend so on Monday we will all get out in the fields to drive in the PVC T-posts for the electric fencing. DS1 has laid it out. We just have to decide what kind of gates we want to install and put those posts in with their braces. We will use the auger on the tractor for those posts. We will put the LGD access in those gates. Looking forward to having permanent rotational pastures. The sheep are already starting to ignore some of the lovely tall grass in favor of the new grass growing back in. We moved the rams and lambs into new pasture using our last roll of electric fencing. We have to get a breeding pasture set up too.
View attachment 117374 View attachment 117373

What does the LGD access look like?

 

[Ridgetop]

Tht depends. We have had several kinds. Some were simply low places under the fences where the dogs crawled into adjacent pastures. Not in favor of those althought the sheep don't crawl under fences. Some were low fences that the dogs went over an the sheep ignored. Again, I dont like that option either. The two former options can lead to dogs that learn to jump out of fenced areas or dig under fences. Both are bad.

There are three other access options we are considering. The first is an inverted V opening in a fence or gate. It is usually made wby affixing 1 x 4's or 2 x 4's to frame in the V opening. The LGDs will jump or crawl through it while the sheep don't seem to recognize it as an opening in the fence. The problem with that with very large dogs is that some of th don;t want to jump through it. Bubba (at maximum height for an Anatolian and 160 lbs.) hated it and would never use it because it hit him on the back when he went through. The bitches were fine with it.

Option 2 is one that Bill Turnquist used with his Pyrs on his sheep and Boer goat ranch. He cut 2 holes in the fence wire about 18" x 24". The holes were about 3' apart. Then he hung slightly larger pieces of 3/8" plywood over the holes using wire so the flaps could swing open one way. One flap was on one side of the fence the other on the other side so that he had an "IN" and "OUT" door for the dogs. The sheep couldnt figure it out.

Option 3 is an old fashioned style of ladder steps over a corner post in the fence. This option is more difficult to build and requires more sturdy fence corners and suport posts.

Since we are fencing the separate pastures with 5 strand electric wire, we probably won't go with Option 3. Either Option 1 or 2 will work. DS1 is not a favor of the inverted V gate. He is afraid that the sheep will eventually learn to follow the dogs through the opening into the adjacent pasture, especially if that pasture has better grass. LOL DS1 and DH are leaning towards Option 2 - the In and Out trap doors. We can buy a Priefert gate (seconds or thirds at the factory) and cut the welded wire in 2 places for the openings. Hanging the plywood doors over the holes with wire loops will be the easiest build. Since we have to have gates in each pasture the dogs would have access to all parts of the ranch. The best way would be to place gates at each end of the long narrow pastures for easy human and LGD access, but for now, we will just have one gate at one end. It will be easy to install a second gate at the other end of the pasture at a later date when we will have more money for more gates. (And once we see how the dogs handle the In and Out openings in the original gates.) With good LGD access to all pastures, we can leave the sheep out at night to graze instead of bringing them in.

 

[fuzzi]

Tht depends. We have had several kinds. Some were simply low places under the fences where the dogs crawled into adjacent pastures. Not in favor of those althought the sheep don't crawl under fences. Some were low fences that the dogs went over an the sheep ignored. Again, I dont like that option either. The two former options can lead to dogs that learn to jump out of fenced areas or dig under fences. Both are bad.

There are three other access options we are considering. The first is an inverted V opening in a fence or gate. It is usually made wby affixing 1 x 4's or 2 x 4's to frame in the V opening. The LGDs will jump or crawl through it while the sheep don't seem to recognize it as an opening in the fence. The problem with that with very large dogs is that some of th don;t want to jump through it. Bubba (at maximum height for an Anatolian and 160 lbs.) hated it and would never use it because it hit him on the back when he went through. The bitches were fine with it.

Option 2 is one that Bill Turnquist used with his Pyrs on his sheep and Boer goat ranch. He cut 2 holes in the fence wire about 18" x 24". The holes were about 3' apart. Then he hung slightly larger pieces of 3/8" plywood over the holes using wire so the flaps could swing open one way. One flap was on one side of the fence the other on the other side so that he had an "IN" and "OUT" door for the dogs. The sheep couldnt figure it out.

Option 3 is an old fashioned style of ladder steps over a corner post in the fence. This option is more difficult to build and requires more sturdy fence corners and suport posts.

Since we are fencing the separate pastures with 5 strand electric wire, we probably won't go with Option 3. Either Option 1 or 2 will work. DS1 is not a favor of the inverted V gate. He is afraid that the sheep will eventually learn to follow the dogs through the opening into the adjacent pasture, especially if that pasture has better grass. LOL DS1 and DH are leaning towards Option 2 - the In and Out trap doors. We can buy a Priefert gate (seconds or thirds at the factory) and cut the welded wire in 2 places for the openings. Hanging the plywood doors over the holes with wire loops will be the easiest build. Since we have to have gates in each pasture the dogs would have access to all parts of the ranch. The best way would be to place gates at each end of the long narrow pastures for easy human and LGD access, but for now, we will just have one gate at one end. It will be easy to install a second gate at the other end of the pasture at a later date when we will have more money for more gates. (And once we see how the dogs handle the In and Out openings in the original gates.) With good LGD access to all pastures, we can leave the sheep out at night to graze instead of bringing them in.

Fascinating.