Teresa & Mike CHS - Our journal

[Mike CHS]

They are starting off perfectly Bruce. Their realtor called and said they had an offer on their house in Charleston for the ask. Their new employer has made their move painless and I'm amazed at some of the bennies they are getting including moving their household goods, putting them up in an apartment in Reno and several things I had no idea employers would do since my employed life was relatively sheltered.

 

[CntryBoy777]

I never got to experience that either. Sounds like a great place, hope it all works out for them. I did hear on the news that there are fires happening around that area and Sparks, Nv too.

 

[Mike CHS]

The kids left this morning enroute on their way tnew life in Nevada. Just after they left I was walking around and listening because I could hear the electricity clicking in the electric fence. You can't normally hear it this far away from the charger since it is down at the shop 200' away. We went around the fence looking for a short and saw that a snake had fried himself by getting wedged in between the hot wire and the ground connection on the charger. This charger is a 75 mile charger so I doubt it took very long to get fried at 17K volts.

 

[Bruce]

Poor snake, probably never knew what hit it though. The terminals on my Cyclops are a lot farther apart, don't think a snake could fry itself. I was a little concerned the boys could accidentally touch both terminals if they decided to give it a sniff as they passed through the alley to their door. Not so concerned now that I narrowed the alley so I could keep them from turning around in it (which, as you know, they can STILL do, just not easily) but they would have to TRY to touch it.

 

[Mike CHS]

We were sorry to see it happen. That one had been hanging around the shop door for quite awhile now.

 

[Southern by choice]

I just went down to close the gates on the two temp fences and Maisy came down to see what she could do. I'm amazed by her now in spit of the small problems (now that we see what she saw). I moved the netting to an area that is behind the shop and I can't see the critters but when it started to get dark I saw the flock moving back into the main paddock. I went down to close the gate and the painted ewe and her black lambs are at the extreme end of the area and it's obvious they don't want to join the flock. I'm seeing serious issues with segregation with sheep.

I went up to move them down to the gate and Maisy followed along. The lambs started to run back the other direction and she went toward then and turned them back. I am still not sure she knows what I was wanting but she sure acted like it. Either way, the sheep got back in the pen and I didn't have to chase them.

This makes my heart happy!

Our problem is that I have the flock so conditioned to home in on me, it doesn't matter where or how the dog goes, the sheep come to wherever I am. Our next batch of lambs aren't going to be handled any more than absolutely necessary so they stay skittish.

Asking out of ignorance here...
What is wrong with them homing in on you?
I see in large flocks and herds where sheep/goats are so skittish they cannot be handled and I never understand why anyone wants animals that are skittish ...
Andvantages/disadvantages...
Thanks.

 

[Mike CHS]

@Southern by choice there is nothing wrong with it but I need to be able to guide the dog with commands to any place on the field. For our farm use what the sheep are doing is perfect but Lance (the Border Collie) is good enough that I want to be able to work him in trials. We are working around it by just using three of our sheep that aren't as likely to home on me when he is in the pen since they are scared of him and respond accordingly. None of ours are really that skittish and I don't want them to be so we are going to rotate some of the tamer ones with those not as tame if that makes any sense.

There has been so many other things that had higher priority that dog training took a back seat to everything else. I just now have Lance back to just about where he was when we brought the sheep home in November.

Maisy likes Lance enough that I can take him into the pasture with her in there. She goes up and lays in the shade at the back of the shop. I have no doubt that she would probably try to hurt the Aussie if I took her in with Maisy loose.

 

[Mike CHS]

We got part of the area laid out today for the handling chute and tilt table but ran into some large areas of slab rock where the posts can only be driven in about 6" (not enough for a crowd pen so we keep pounding until we find an area that can accept T-posts. We are planning on using electric netting for the exit and sorting area since they are used to it now and don't challenge it.

Since we weren't able to get the chutes ready to use we laid out cattle panels on T-posts that we can temporarily use as a catch pen. Some may remember the lamb we had issues with when he got castrated and although he is doing everything normally he isn't gaining the type of weight that's expected so he will be culled on Wednesday. I have only been feeding the spotted ewe and the black lambs there but the others have been watching for me to call them in. I called them in today after we got the squeeze area ready and they didn't balk at the new setup. It is tight enough that we can catch lamb being culled without causing him too much stress and the pickup will be right at the gate.

I got the fence line laid out for the next paddock that will be a little over 4 1/2 acres and we start driving posts in the morning. I'm hiring two neighbor boys to help so I'm hoping we can knock that out in short order. What that order will be I'm not sure since one of the boys has never done any farm work. I'm laying this one out so I can use the gates in both of the existing paddocks to sort to sort the ewes for breeding which will be starting soon. I need to get all of the piglet lambs off the ewes since several are still nursing. The ewes are in great condition in spite of nursing for 6 months.

 

[Mike CHS]

We got part of the area laid out today for the handling chute and tilt table but ran into some large areas of slab rock where the posts can only be driven in about 6" (not enough for a crowd pen so we keep pounding until we find an area that can accept T-posts. We are planning on using electric netting for the exit and sorting area since they are used to it now and don't challenge it.

Since we weren't able to get the chutes ready to use we laid out cattle panels on T-posts that we can temporarily use as a catch pen. Some may remember the lamb we had issues with when he got castrated and although he is doing everything normally he isn't gaining the type of weight that's expected so he will be culled on Wednesday. I have only been feeding the spotted ewe and the black lambs there but the others have been watching for me to call them in. I called them in today after we got the squeeze area ready and they didn't balk at the new setup. It is tight enough that we can catch lamb being culled without causing him too much stress and the pickup will be right at the gate.

I got the fence line laid out for the next paddock that will be a little over 4 1/2 acres and we start driving posts in the morning. I'm hiring two neighbor boys to help so I'm hoping we can knock that out in short order. What that order will be I'm not sure since one of the boys has never done any farm work.

 

[CntryBoy777]

I'll be cheering ya from the sideline, it is too hot and humid for me to undertake a big project. Although the youngsters shouldn't be bothered by it too much....
Just be sure to stay hydrated....it will sure wear and tear on ya pretty quickly.