Teresa & Mike CHS - Our journal

[thistlebloom]

I have a customer that has a narrow 100' driveway. I have to back my little trailer out of there. Sometimes I look like an expert, and sometimes it's oops, pull forward, start again, over and over. The times I get it perfect it's me and the crickets. The days I have to pull forward and straighten it out 100 times is when there are lots of people with nothing better to do than watch me.

 

[farmerjan]

I have a customer that has a narrow 100' driveway. I have to back my little trailer out of there. Sometimes I look like an expert, and sometimes it's oops, pull forward, start again, over and over. The times I get it perfect it's me and the crickets. The days I have to pull forward and straighten it out 100 times is when there are lots of people with nothing better to do than watch me.

Been there, done that... know the feeling....

 

[Mike CHS]

I have a customer that has a narrow 100' driveway. I have to back my little trailer out of there. Sometimes I look like an expert, and sometimes it's oops, pull forward, start again, over and over. The times I get it perfect it's me and the crickets. The days I have to pull forward and straighten it out 100 times is when there are lots of people with nothing better to do than watch me.

I can relate to that. I need to take a picture the next time we load sheep since there is zero room to maneuver where our loading area is. We have had people bring a trailer to load sheep that don't even try it so I do it.

 

[Beekissed]

My difficulty backing my trailer is a key component in how I'm designing my sorting pens and loading chute....the frustration I feel when I back that jackknife dream inspired the whole setup. I can back a huge trailer but the smaller one I use for transporting sheep jack knifes so easily it's nigh impossible to get into tight spaces.

 

[Baymule]

I can relate to that. I need to take a picture the next time we load sheep since there is zero room to maneuver where our loading area is. We have had people bring a trailer to load sheep that don't even try it so I do it.

I KNOW! We didn't have a trailer when we picked up Ringo! LOL You and Teresa picked him up and rolled him into the back of our truck with the camper shell on it. And just backing the truck in there required skill.

Our Pig Palace isn't exactly set up for optimal trailer backing, but BJ pulls it off every time. I stand where he can see me in the side mirror and give him directions, such as STOP! LOL Loading up the steer ought to be fun.......Russell said he'd bring his black mouth cur pup that he is training to be a cow dog. I'll take pictures!

 

[farmerjan]

One word of caution... if the calf is not used to being worked with dogs it could backfire. We do not work our cows with dogs and every time the vet used to bring his dog, the cows would get up in arms and we had a horrible time getting them calmed down. Dogs are great most times... but sometimes it is not the best deal. We have cows that will fight a dog and then they all get riled up. Some comes from being protective and the coyote problems we have had over the years. Most of the time we can do most anything with our cows with buckets and a few prods with a cattle stick. Have used an electric prod a very times on one being real stubborn going into the head chute. But, like with @Mike CHS , his sheep are accustomed to being worked with dogs as well as coming to him so they will do as they are supposed to because it is not a brand new experience.

 

[Bruce]

That little short one can jackknife itself in a matter of inches, and can only be backed by craning around backwards and watching it

I have that problem with both the poly dump cart and the log splitter, the only two "rear implements" I have for my garden tractor. Add seriously unlevel ground and backing straight becomes nearly impossible.

 

[Baymule]

@farmerjan I don’t think it will be a problem. The steer was in a lot with a couple others. Russell used them training his pup. He took the pup in the lot and used him to move them to another lot, then after awhile, he’d have the pup move them back.

 

[farmerjan]

That's great about the steer being used to dogs working him. Ought to be a ++ all the way around.

 

[Mike CHS]

I got two more paddocks over seeded with rye grass seed which is a little over 5 acres. The weather has been perfect fall like weather for the last few weeks and the rye grass that I already broadcast is coming up nice. The two biggest paddocks aren't seeded and probably won't be since they have the nicest stand of graze of cool season grasses. I can probably move the sheep back and forth between those two and they can probably graze them for another month before I need to move them. I'm really curious to see how the grass stands up to their grazing once we get a frost.

The last garden items still active are tomatoes and bell peppers. We have more peppers than we need to get through to next spring but they store great in vacuum sealed bags. This batch of peppers was either the 3rd or 4th over the last week or so and other than leaving a few plants for eating fresh, I'm going to pull up most of them. I spread a lot of composted sheep manure on several of the beds yesterday and they won't be used again this year.