Blog Archives

June 23 - 29, 2014

6/30/2014

This has been a pretty routine week. We got more rain, and the pastures are continuing to grow like crazy. We had the sheep in the lower main pasture and they finally chomped it down to a reasonable level. They prefer the upper section, but thanks to our electric fence we can keep them where we want them, and it's working out great. When they had finished cleaning up the longer grass, we let them have access to the tender new grass and weeds that are farther up the hill. They just love it up there- each sheep has their own spot where they like to sit on the hillside, and our llama, Dolly, does too. In fact, I watched as she got really annoyed with one of the sheep who moved in on her spot and there was nothing she could do about it- the ewe would not move, Dolly stomped around a little bit and finally conceded defeat and moved down to a different spot.

I had help again this week for weed control. We started in on the new pasture where there is a big patch of Mullein. Two of us working with shovels for 2 hours made excellent progress. There are still some left, but I should be able to pick away at them over the summer and get them before they go to seed.

The garden is starting to produce- we tasted the first raspberry of the year, and the old cherry tree is loaded with more cherries than I have seen in the 6 years I have been here. They are all plump and red and no worms! We don't spray or treat in any way, so this is somewhat of a miracle. I have picked about 12 lbs so far- made clafouti with the first batch, and pitted and froze the rest for future use.

Finally got around to making some more dog treats. We use the livers of the lambs that we butcher, and have a simple recipe that uses whole eggs (including shells), cottage cheese and whole wheat flour. The dogs go crazy over it, but are rationed to one a day. Even so, with 4 dogs, we go through a lot of them.

Week of June 16-22, 2014

6/23/2014

The only good thistle is a dead thistle

This week started out with a big rain. The pastures and garden are loving it! Then the sun came out, and everything seems to be growing before our very eyes, including the weeds, unfortunately. I spent several hours a day attacking them with my trusty shovel. On the good side, the mock orange has burst into bloom. It's lovely at the end of the day to sit on the deck as the sun goes behind the hill and breathe in the sweet scent.

A side benefit of the rain is that it really cleans off the sheep! Here is a photo of Vinnie after her shower showing off her white fleece. The dogs didn't like it much, but they are in a pasture that has good tree cover in one corner, and they found a spot to stay relatively dry. They are still getting used to their short hair, but are pretty much back to their old routine now.

Spoiled Chickens

Our chickens may be the most spoiled ever. A couple of weeks ago I made cream puffs, and a few of them were a little burned on the bottom, so I let the chickens have them. Every crumb was gone within two minutes of the moment they landed on the ground! In other bird news, we have an interesting situation with our hummingbirds. I don't normally use the words "mean" and "hummingbird" in the same sentence, but we seem to have one. We used to have 8-10 hummers at the feeder all day long until a mean one showed up and started chasing all the others away. This lasted for about 3 days, then suddenly the mean one was gone and all the rest came back to their feeder. I guess they got organized.

New fence!

Bill and I really made some progress this weekend. We finished the section of new fence that goes to the base of the hill. The last little section was so steep that we just used some of the boards from our old deck rather than try to stretch fencing at such an angle. While we were up there, we heard a humming noise that was getting louder and louder. We looked at each other and both recognized it immediately as a swarm of bees. It passed over our heads and moved up the hill and out of sight. Amazing how loud it was- sounded like a fleet of old prop planes that you hear in the WW II movies. Bill was worried that it was one of our hives, but when he checked them shortly afterwards, they were all full and the bees looked calm. We spent the rest of the afternoon cleaning up the future garden and greenhouse space and rebuilding a couple of rockeries that were disturbed during the deck construction last year. Sunday was fairly relaxed- Bill cut up some old aspen trees that had fallen in the pasture, and I went to Omak to attend a Fiber Association meeting.

June 15, 2014

6/17/2014

I'm starting our new blog today. It's the first time I've done this, and am excited about sharing our stories with our customers and readers. My intent is to write a periodic summary of what's been going on here, highlighting the events of each week.
Since this is the first posting, I thought I'd give a run down of the past year or so, just touching on the highlights.

Luca (center) with his new friends

2013 was a productive year for us. It was the first year that I was able to be here full time, and it really makes a difference. I was able to put in a full vegetable garden, and keep up with the weeding. Putting up most of the food it produced was nice, too.
We bought a tractor with a backhoe, which has proved very useful for digging fence post holes and irrigation lines. Bill split and stacked all the wood from the 8 large trees we had removed, so staying warm this winter was a breeze! I was able to spend almost all of my time from November through March washing and dyeing our wool, and ended up with over 100 lbs of yarn. We also got another Maremma guard dog to help our two older ones with the guard duties. His name is Luca, and he was 18 months old when we got him. He adjusted right away and has settled in to become a very good hand. He is very alert and good with the lambs and works with the other two as part of the team.

2014 lambs and their moms

2014 has been a good year so far. The snow melted off relatively early and the mud was almost all gone by the time the lambs started arriving. We lambed late this year, because of the shearing schedule, but it proved to be a successful strategy. We had 15 ewes, and even though there were 7 new mothers in the group, they all turned out to be good. Final lamb count was 23, with 7 of those being black. We made some progress on our fence building in April, but are taking a break since our weekends have become busy with other things.

Feeling slightly naked

This last week has been a full one- I've been attacking weeds every chance I get. I hired some help to get the worst of it just outside the pasture fence. We filled about 12 large garbage bags with hounds tongue and cockle burr! I've also been planting the last things in the garden- beans went in about a week ago, and are already about 2 inches high. My experiment with mulching to keep the weeds down is mostly successful. There aren't many, and those that do show are easy to pull out. I'm also pleased with the weed-free paths. Last year I put down cardboard on the path areas and covered it with about 6" of wood chips from the trees that got cut down. So far so good- hardly any weeds are coming through this year. The sheep have been in the new upper pasture all week, and just today we moved them back to the big pasture which has been resting and growing for about 3 weeks. The three dogs all got a summer haircut- a couple of them were starting to get matts, so we had them shaved and cleaned up. They feel so much better, although they seem a little embarrassed to be seen without their fur.

Life on the Ranch

This Blog is intended to be a summary of the events of daily life that take place on our ranch. We hope you find it interesting - feel free to comment if you like.

June 23 - 29, 2014

Week of June 16-22, 2014

June 15, 2014

Life on the Ranch

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