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- #2,841
Ridgetop
Herd Master
Actually just a lot of grousing on the part of DH and myself. If we decide to sell and get aggro from the children, we will sell anyway. I am not the alpha pack leader of my family for nothing. Business is business as far as I am concerned. It took us a long time of hard work to get where we are. Money may not bring you happiness, but the lack of it sure brings pain and sadness! LOL
Good to know about the blower being good. We bought several string trimmers that took plastic blades as well as string. We kept wearing out the blades and having to buy new so DS2 who was working at the neighbor's sheet metal shop while in college fabricated metal blades for us which worked great. Then when we had to do some clean up in Yelm, the Lowes weed whackers kept clogging and DH finally invested in some commercial Stihl weed whackers. With the sheep nothing gets so heavy that we need the blades anymore and the Stihl heavy duty plastic string works fine. In Texas we will have the tractor and brush hog so should be ok. However, having the Kobalt batteries (we will buy extras) we can get other Kobalt yard tools later.
Here are some pictures of Ozel meeting some of the sheep. Ozel weighs 57 lbs. and is a black masked fawn. She will be a good size when grown. The photo on the right is her with a 7-month-old ewe. In the bottom picture those are adult ewes with her.
The last picture is what Erick says is the perfect picture of an Anatolian guarding her flock! The Anatolian Association magazine is always wanting pix of LGDs working. I told Erick that mine are usually just laying around or sleeping. Any real action happens at night. He said that an Anatolian relaxing by the flock is a picture of correct LGD guarding! LOL I guess I will send in the pictures of my dogs just laying around watching their sheep or sleeping! I really love this last picture of Ozel calmly surveying the flock. Such a pretty girl!
Just so there is no jealousy among the other two, here are pix of them. Harika - 11 years old this month, healthy and looking very good still - Liver masked dark gold fawn. She is a heavier muscled type of Anatolian, not as tall but heavily muscled - about 115 lbs.
And Angel at 4 1/2 years old - showing how Anatolians really fill out and become mature between 3 and 4 years of age. She has broadened through the chest and is now a powerful Anatolian bitch weighing about 130 lbs, several inches taller than Harika. She is a shaded mask silver fawn.
Angel kept her rangy greyhound figure till about age 3
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And the pix would not be complete without darling DH on his tractor mowing the barnyard in Yantis.
He had a good time.
Until he caught the power line to the well pump.
It hangs low - about 5' above the ground. We will be putting those lines in underground. LOL The winter ryegrass was so high DS1 and I had to stand out in the grass waving our arms so DH could avoid holes and other buried debris while turning the truck/trailer around to unload the tractor. I call the tractor "Big Blue" since compared to our baby Kubota it looks enormous. Of course, sitting on our steep ridgetop it looked even bigger and more dangerous. DH's Kubota is the smallest model they made. He calls it his diesel wheelbarrow. DS3 made a special box for the back of it since with anything heavy in the front loader the Kubota tips forward! LOL However, it will be fine for cleaning out the barn, and doing smaller work in the garden and around the property. And we can attach a garden trailer to it too.
Cody will be baling hay on the property in another week or so - if the rain permits. He said he figures he can get 60 round bales from each cutting on the 40 acres of pasture. He figures 3 cuttings during the year and of course, with the chicken poop fertilizer it should really do well for next year haymaking as well even though he will only be able to cut 30 acres. Most of the heavy growth is winter rye at the moment. He and Levi said that the Bahia hasn't come up yet but will come up soon after cutting. We are putting 80 tons of chicken poop at the rate of 2 tons per acre. It just occurred to me that I have to ask about whether we should lime it next year. Chicken poop is pretty acid. I need to do some soil testing too to find out the trace minerals in the ground.
My vet is coming out next week to do some blood work and selenium testing. She said she would bring me a bottle of Bo-Se and give me the dosages and when to vaccinate. I will be breeding the end of May and need to know if I should give it before exposing the ewes to the ram. I used to give Bo-Se to the dairy goats before breeding so probably ok to do the same way. I really like these young large animal vets I found. I thought at first they were kind of pricey, but they are in line with other vets. I just don't need a vet out often so didn't know what the current prices were. Having just located a good vet for the flock who is willing and eager to work with me and the flock, now I will have to locate another one in Sulphur Springs! I found one that does livestock but if I don't like them, I will call my local Dorper Association director. He lives close to SS so will have someone he uses fairly close. He has always been really approachable for any info I need. I voted for him because he was willing to talk to me for quite a while about some concerns I had about Barber Pole, rotational grazing, etc. The people you want on the Board of Directors of the breed societies are people willing to answer questions from the general membership. Both he and the president of the association are good that way.
Good to know about the blower being good. We bought several string trimmers that took plastic blades as well as string. We kept wearing out the blades and having to buy new so DS2 who was working at the neighbor's sheet metal shop while in college fabricated metal blades for us which worked great. Then when we had to do some clean up in Yelm, the Lowes weed whackers kept clogging and DH finally invested in some commercial Stihl weed whackers. With the sheep nothing gets so heavy that we need the blades anymore and the Stihl heavy duty plastic string works fine. In Texas we will have the tractor and brush hog so should be ok. However, having the Kobalt batteries (we will buy extras) we can get other Kobalt yard tools later.
Here are some pictures of Ozel meeting some of the sheep. Ozel weighs 57 lbs. and is a black masked fawn. She will be a good size when grown. The photo on the right is her with a 7-month-old ewe. In the bottom picture those are adult ewes with her.
The last picture is what Erick says is the perfect picture of an Anatolian guarding her flock! The Anatolian Association magazine is always wanting pix of LGDs working. I told Erick that mine are usually just laying around or sleeping. Any real action happens at night. He said that an Anatolian relaxing by the flock is a picture of correct LGD guarding! LOL I guess I will send in the pictures of my dogs just laying around watching their sheep or sleeping! I really love this last picture of Ozel calmly surveying the flock. Such a pretty girl! Just so there is no jealousy among the other two, here are pix of them. Harika - 11 years old this month, healthy and looking very good still - Liver masked dark gold fawn. She is a heavier muscled type of Anatolian, not as tall but heavily muscled - about 115 lbs.
And Angel at 4 1/2 years old - showing how Anatolians really fill out and become mature between 3 and 4 years of age. She has broadened through the chest and is now a powerful Anatolian bitch weighing about 130 lbs, several inches taller than Harika. She is a shaded mask silver fawn.
Angel kept her rangy greyhound figure till about age 3
.And the pix would not be complete without darling DH on his tractor mowing the barnyard in Yantis.
He had a good time.Until he caught the power line to the well pump.
It hangs low - about 5' above the ground. We will be putting those lines in underground. LOL The winter ryegrass was so high DS1 and I had to stand out in the grass waving our arms so DH could avoid holes and other buried debris while turning the truck/trailer around to unload the tractor. I call the tractor "Big Blue" since compared to our baby Kubota it looks enormous. Of course, sitting on our steep ridgetop it looked even bigger and more dangerous. DH's Kubota is the smallest model they made. He calls it his diesel wheelbarrow. DS3 made a special box for the back of it since with anything heavy in the front loader the Kubota tips forward! LOL However, it will be fine for cleaning out the barn, and doing smaller work in the garden and around the property. And we can attach a garden trailer to it too.Cody will be baling hay on the property in another week or so - if the rain permits. He said he figures he can get 60 round bales from each cutting on the 40 acres of pasture. He figures 3 cuttings during the year and of course, with the chicken poop fertilizer it should really do well for next year haymaking as well even though he will only be able to cut 30 acres. Most of the heavy growth is winter rye at the moment. He and Levi said that the Bahia hasn't come up yet but will come up soon after cutting. We are putting 80 tons of chicken poop at the rate of 2 tons per acre. It just occurred to me that I have to ask about whether we should lime it next year. Chicken poop is pretty acid. I need to do some soil testing too to find out the trace minerals in the ground.
My vet is coming out next week to do some blood work and selenium testing. She said she would bring me a bottle of Bo-Se and give me the dosages and when to vaccinate. I will be breeding the end of May and need to know if I should give it before exposing the ewes to the ram. I used to give Bo-Se to the dairy goats before breeding so probably ok to do the same way. I really like these young large animal vets I found. I thought at first they were kind of pricey, but they are in line with other vets. I just don't need a vet out often so didn't know what the current prices were. Having just located a good vet for the flock who is willing and eager to work with me and the flock, now I will have to locate another one in Sulphur Springs! I found one that does livestock but if I don't like them, I will call my local Dorper Association director. He lives close to SS so will have someone he uses fairly close. He has always been really approachable for any info I need. I voted for him because he was willing to talk to me for quite a while about some concerns I had about Barber Pole, rotational grazing, etc. The people you want on the Board of Directors of the breed societies are people willing to answer questions from the general membership. Both he and the president of the association are good that way.
ah yeah - I’d never let most of them near my sheep let alone herd them. Nothing like the shots of dogs full stride and sheep obviously going as fast as they can. I always say good working pics of the dogs are usually not good action pics and good action pics are usually not good working pics.
Oh well, we might have more stretcher bars etc. somewhere in the lower shed. We also have some good sheets of new 3/4" plywood in the barn that I want t take with us. At $40-60 each they might as well be thrown in the flatbed and go back for building projects. i also will start going through the tool shed and pulling out the other stuff I will need - cabinet knobs, hinges, latches, bi-fold hardware, miscellaneous cabinet building supplies, etc. left from our various renovations. It sounds like something that wouldn't be worth packing for a 3 day trip to TX, but even those small items mount up in price when having to buy them. Cabinet knobs are running anywhere from $3-10 and handles the same. I plan to just remove all the hardware from the cabinets, wash them well, and spray paint them with an oiled bronze finish. Then I will scrub the cabinets with TSP, use an oil base polish on them, and reattach the hardware. Saving myself a couple hundred $$ and getting a completely new look for the cost of a can of spray paint. 
