Teresa & Mike CHS - Our journal

[Mike CHS]

I brought all of the younger sheep in so I could separate Hoss the wether that has been running with them this whole time. I put the younger ewes in with the breeder herd and Ringo so he's a happy camper. Our neighbor Jay has gotten the bug for sheep and is buying two of our ewes once they are bred. He's taking our #34 ewe that we used to call Wild Thing and our #1 that was born here.

Lance isn't fully healed yet so I figured I could easily move one wether over to the boys pen with a halter since they normally lead so well. He didn't agree with me and it was a fight all the way across the field. Hoss weighs 160 pounds which doesn't seem like much when he's standing there getting petted but it sure is when he's jumping straight up and pulling backwards.

 

[Latestarter]

You could always halter/lead train by attaching him to the back of the lawn tractor and taking him for a ride... Just kidding folks!

 

[Bruce]

Hoss weighs 160 pounds which doesn't seem like much when he's standing there getting petted but it sure is when he's jumping straight up and pulling backwards.

And while you likely outweigh him, he has 4 leg drive, you have only 2. He wins if he really wants to.

Too bad Lance wasn't up to the task.

 

[Mike CHS]

We have still been getting quite a few peppers from the few plants that we left in the garden beds. I could probably pick a five gallon bucket of jalapenos but we already have more than we can eat between now and next summer. I'll probably pull the last plants up next week and clean everything up and let them rest. The only cool weather plants we have in now are broccoli and cabbage.

 

[dejavoodoo114]

The people in East TN must not be as friendly as Middle TN. When we first started renovating our place by the time we had made 4 monthly trips here we had met everyone within a few miles of our place since they all made a stop to say hi and introduce themselves. One of the neighbors said we gave them to put on a cookout one weekend and there must have been 100 people there.

For the Amish I just did a search for Amish Markets and got a ton of hits. We went to a Consignment Auction there today that I think is the Amish equivalent to Black Friday. There was so many things that they had 6 auctioneers going at the same time and when we left about 1:00 this afternoon they weren't half way through. The produce market (in Ethrige) sells in bulk to a lot of area restaurants and the Amish farmers are under contract to the local grocery chains for a lot of things. That's where we bought the bulk of our produce for canning this year.

The people/families here have been here so long it is not easy to "get it". However, I think my biggest problem is probably that I am not a very social person. They are friendly I do not believe I have made enough of an effort. I am going to try and rectify that. Getting involved in the Farmer Veteran Coalition should help me do that.

I will try googling it and hope for decent results. I tried when we first got here but none of the businesses up here even use the internet. I rely on my neighbor to tell me where to go for things...

 

[Mike CHS]

@dejavoodoo114 - I'm going to PM you a link I found. It is mostly about the large Amish community that is near us in Ethridge but it also mentions a few other locations in Tennessee. The market here is not owned by Amish but it's business is geared toward providing them a market for their produce and animals. You can drive the back roads here and the individual farms will have signs out by the road showing what they currently have for sale.

 

[greybeard]

Hoss weighs 160 pounds which doesn't seem like much when he's standing there getting petted but it sure is when he's jumping straight up and pulling backwards.

Reminds me of the 1st calf I ever bought..back in 1965..and tried to halter break her. I had been showing swine, but decided I wanted to show a calf. We were raising Herefords atthe time but I wanted a black Angus. Bought a registered heifer about 400lbs and 50 years ago, I weighed about 125 soaking wet. The Angus breed back then wasn't known for docility like they are today, and she wouldn't budge even with me reaching back and twisting her tail. Got brother to hit her in the hip with a hotshot and she promptly ran right over me. She'd just set all 4 legs stiff and never move otherwise. One day, my father was discing up some ground with an 8n tractor and he came over and had me tie the lead rope to the back of the disc frame and me sit on the back of the disc and away we went. After 100 yards of her just bouncing along stiff legged, and never break into a walk, he gave up and we turned her in with the rest of the cattle and that was my 1st, last and only sojourn into black hide fever. Bred her the next year to our polled hereford bull and I got a nice a baldy calf out of her.

 

[Mike CHS]

I don't outweigh this boy by much and got him moved but he made me work at it. If he had been a Dorper without much of a tail he would still be where he wanted.

 

[CntryBoy777]

I sure do miss your avatars Mike....if it is your choice to not have one, that's okay....but, I miss it...I just haven't gotten used to a dull gray symbol being you. Just wanted to let ya know it was missed.....

 

[Mike CHS]

I actually changed it this afternoon and evidently didn't save it.