Teresa & Mike CHS - Our journal

[Bruce]

Its may be wishful thinking but I would like to have the fence up by the end of the day Thursday.

If you can't get it all done, maybe you can at least stretch it and get some of it clipped to the T-posts with the electronet serving as a temporary "end" wherever the clipping stops??

This is the time of year that it takes a little longer. Summer heat turns us into reverse bears-we hibernate after 12 noon!

When @Latestarter gets to work! Maybe you should educate him on working outside in July in northeast TX, seems he's still in CO

 

[Mike CHS]

We came in to eat some lunch and get everybody cooled down. We got all of the T-posts in the ground so the total run for the 3 sides is a little under 900'. We also got all of the electric wire insulators attached so it's just a matter or running the wire after the woven wire is up. I started putting on the cross braces so we can at least get wire tacked up on the short 230' side where there will be a gate on each end and we will call it quits after that before the hottest part of the day.

Wrapping the wire will take a bit of time since we will be stretching, cutting and wrapping the wire since there are 6 places where we will be cutting the wire.

 

[Bruce]

You are a workaholic Mike! Keeps you young and strong

 

[Mike CHS]

Bruce - right now I'm not feeling so young. We got the 270' ran and stapled at both ends but the boys said they had had enough heat for one day so I sent the boys home. I take a BP med that has a tendency to cause my BP to drop really low when I push it too much in the heat and get dehydrated so I'll just do the T-post clips this evening when it cools off and call it quits. We are hoping to stretch the rest of the wire tomorrow then the only major left is hanging the three gates.

 

[Mike CHS]

My body kept telling my brain that neither were going out again this evening so I went ahead and got the t-post clips on all but a couple of the posts. I'll start early in the morning to get ready for the boys to come over so we can put the next run of wire up. I may need to add an H-brace since the anchor posts aren't working out to where I estimated they should be so that may slow things down tomorrow. That might just be a good thing as both the boys and me are dragging. I got dehydrated enough that my voice is hoarse so Teresa had to remind me how much time we have to finish all this stuff. There will be a gate at both ends of this paddock. That will let me feed from/to all three paddocks that join plus let me have access to the 20-40 feet of decent grass the length of the paddock that is outside the fence to let the sheep keep it mowed. The area to the right of this one will be another paddock about the same size as this one but we need to keep it open so we can get a dozer in to fill in a dry pond that has been used for all the slabs and debris that can't go to the dump.

 

[CntryBoy777]

It does take time to recoup after being in the heat....it takes me 2-3 to do so after working out for more than a couple of hours. A 5gal thermos jug would come in handy on the tractor with water or gatorade and ice in it.

 

[Mike CHS]

We keep water out for everyone but it seems like you sweat it faster than you can drink it. This was the last of the long days since it's up in high 90's now. I told the boys that if they want to work at least 3 hours tomorrow they need to be here no later than 8:00 in the morning. I have had enough sun for a bit so it's back to morning hours only.

Before the work started this morning we took our #6 wether in to be processed. That's the one that tried to drop his intestines through his scrotal sack shortly after castration and had to be sewn up. He isn't putting on like the others and you can tell for the last few days that he is in some distress so we weren't doing him a favor letting it go on.

 

[Bruce]

to fill in a dry pond that has been used for all the slabs and debris that can't go to the dump.

Bury that stuff REALLY REALLY DEEP! I don't want anyone hitting buried junk at your place like I am here

My body kept telling my brain that neither were going out again this evening so I went ahead and got the t-post clips on all but a couple of the posts.

You got the clips on WITHOUT your brain OR your body?? You ARE impressive!

With all those paddocks you are going to need a lot more sheep. Otherwise, like me, you will have to mow the paddocks so the grass doesn't get too tall!

 

[Mike CHS]

Our goal for our base flock is 40 - 50 breeders and we will be breeding half every 6 months. That keeps their breeding cycles down to 10 or so months. If that doesn't keep the grass 'mowed' we will up the numbers.

We have been spending a lot of time with our flock and I have a pretty fair idea how fast they can get the grass down just by watching them in the netting. I would like to keep another 6 acres set aside for hay but depends on the availability of the neighbor assessing that small amount of land worth the time to cut hay for shares. If not I'll fence it all in and graze it accordingly.

 

[Southern by choice]

how big are the paddocks ?