The dogs are so patient with us- they don't have a nice dry barn, and have been pretty wet lately, but are not complaining at all. And they continue to do their job amazingly well. One day I heard them bark, and then heard some rocks falling on the burned hillside. I looked among the trees and saw a big bear. It wandered slowly up the side of the hill and disappeared over the ridge into the neighbor's hay field. I was on my way to check the water supply screens, but since the bear was headed that direction I decided to wait until the next day when Bill could come with me. We normally see bears around late September- this one was a little later than usual, but probably just had it's fill of fruit from the orchards and was heading to the hills to find a nice cozy spot to sleep for the winter. Callie was the first to sound the alert that time- she's really coming along. And just a few days ago, she barked all night long. We couldn't figure out what was wrong- couldn't see any sign of predators or other problems. Then the next morning, I was outside and heard the unmistakable sound of a coyote yelping, very close by. All 3 dogs were barking like crazy, and it all went on for about 5 minutes. Then the coyote stopped, and all went back to normal. I never did see it- the bare hillside has lots of echoes now that the trees are gone, so it's hard to tell where sounds are actually coming from any more.
We have a roof!!! On the 19th, Sunday evening at dusk, the last roofing panel was installed, just in the nick of time as it turns out. Monday morning it started raining and has hardly stopped since. But, we are nice and dry underneath and it's kind of pleasant to hear the drops falling on the metal roof, knowing that there isn't even a single drip coming through. (The old barn was built with salvaged roofing and there were tons of holes. No matter how much we tried to patch them up, there were always drips that made for a squishy mess on the dirt floor). The crew was Bill and myself, plus Jamie, Polly, Jeff H. and John. Once again, they have our eternal gratitude. On the very next day, my friends Debbie and Mary arrived from Bellingham to help out for a couple of days. I gave them the plans for the feeder bunks, told them I needed 4 of them, and they went right to work. They are both handy with tools- Debbie having helped build a Habitat for Humanity home, and Mary having built her own log cabin in Alaska with no experience, but an instruction book and a heart full of enthusiasm and determination. They brought all those things to the Lamb Ranch and even stayed one extra day to get the job done. When they left we had 3 completed feeders and one almost done- all I had to do was put a few pieces together. I can't thank them enough for their help and support. It is so gratifying to know that our friends are rooting for us! As usual, I haven't been doing much of anything other than barn building. Bill has been very busy with moving his office and his surveying work. We have both been appreciating the change of seasons, though, with the Fall colors appearing in the few trees that are left. We lit the first fire of the season last week, when it finally got too cold in the house. We are really missing all that nice split firewood that burned up. We have stacked a new pile, but it's not under cover, so we are doing the blue tarp hillbilly thing, plus it's not split and it's green. We just look at each other and say, "at least we have wood", which is something. And I continue to be amazed at how persistent Nature is in wanting to grow back. I have seen lupine and other plants that normally grow in the Spring sprouting up all over the place. Seeing Spring flowers at the end of October is just weird, but I am happy they are there.. The dogs are so patient with us- they don't have a nice dry barn, and have been pretty wet lately, but are not complaining at all. And they continue to do their job amazingly well. One day I heard them bark, and then heard some rocks falling on the burned hillside. I looked among the trees and saw a big bear. It wandered slowly up the side of the hill and disappeared over the ridge into the neighbor's hay field. I was on my way to check the water supply screens, but since the bear was headed that direction I decided to wait until the next day when Bill could come with me. We normally see bears around late September- this one was a little later than usual, but probably just had it's fill of fruit from the orchards and was heading to the hills to find a nice cozy spot to sleep for the winter. Callie was the first to sound the alert that time- she's really coming along. And just a few days ago, she barked all night long. We couldn't figure out what was wrong- couldn't see any sign of predators or other problems. Then the next morning, I was outside and heard the unmistakable sound of a coyote yelping, very close by. All 3 dogs were barking like crazy, and it all went on for about 5 minutes. Then the coyote stopped, and all went back to normal. I never did see it- the bare hillside has lots of echoes now that the trees are gone, so it's hard to tell where sounds are actually coming from any more. Bill is on his own this weekend, and is going to work on getting the barn ready for siding. I am spending the weekend attending a class on fiber sorting and grading. It promises to be full of information and I am very excited to learn more about how to produce high quality fiber products. The class is at the old Grange Hall in Molson, WA. When I googled it to get directions, I found that Molson is listed as a ghost town. Appropriate for a class that starts on Halloween! I just returned from the dinner and orientation, and it seems that there are actually a few people still living there. The Grange Hall is a wonderful old building with lots of history on the walls and a big kitchen that has a still-functioning old wood stove. Stay tuned for more news in a couple of weeks.
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Once again, the time has flown by, and with the help of friends and family, the barn continues to take shape. The trusses went up in one day (thanks to Larry and Jerry, who have about 75 years of construction experience between the two of them). The rest of the weekend was devoted to rafters, and by sundown on October 5th we saw our building actually looking like a barn. My job during the following week was to start attaching the skip sheathing, which involves climbing around on the roof, so I only do it when there is someone around to keep an eye on me. My mother came over from Seattle for a few days and helped out with applying sealer to the wood that will be used for the doors, and being my standby while I was on the roof. (Since our guest quarters are gone, she had to stay in a tent, but was a good sport about it. ) I managed to get one lower side done, and then our friends Jeff and Maria came last weekend and we made more progress. Bill and I figured if we worked an hour or so every day after he gets home from work, we can get the rest of it done by this coming weekend. The only glitch in this plan is that it is now getting dark by about 6:30, so I got some big halogen lights so we can work as late as we need to. With any luck we will have the metal roofing on by the end of this weekend (or most of it anyway). The puppy, Callie, is growing like a weed! She stands taller then Nellie now, and is participating more and more with the guarding duties. On at least one occasion she was the first to alert to something outside the pasture, and then all three dogs went together to the fence line and barked until it was gone. (So far I have not seen what they are barking at, but it’s usually deer or a large bird such as grouse). This is a new step for her, as she used to hang back and let the older dogs go to the front line while she continued barking. One of her favorite things is to stand in the water trough- I don't get it, but it doesn't hurt anything so we let her indulge. Our new chicks are finally big enough to avoid being tempting for Lucky the cat, so mama has been taking them outside for the past week or so. They have the full range of the area around the house and lower pasture, and are exploring all of it. The spend a lot of time in the garden, which is normally not allowed, but I just don’t have time to repair the fence so I’m letting them donate compost and dig around in there. It’s amazing how they all manage to stick together- it’s keeping mama busy that’s for sure. We are just thanking our lucky stars about the weather- haven’t had a frost yet, and the days are still warm. We haven’t needed to build a fire yet, which is a good thing as we have not made any effort to stack up fire wood. I’m starting that this week, and keep thinking about the 11 cords that we lost in the fire. So much work up in flames!! My little chainsaw is my new best friend right now. We have a few other things we’re dealing with, too. Last week one of the delivery trucks drove over a water line and we had to dig it up to repair it. In the process, we found the phone line, unfortunately. So part of our precious weekend time was spent repairing that. And of course, another irrigation valve decided to break and I couldn’t shut it off, so that was another 20 mile drive to town for parts, and a couple of hours of time. All I can say is thank goodness for the backhoe! I used to do the digging by hand, but now it’s a relatively quick job and a lot easier on my back. And, although I have not mentioned it because it’s not directly related to the ranch, Bill has moved his Surveying office from Winthrop to Twisp, which is a big deal. He was in the old place for 13 years, so it’s been quite a process to pack everything up and get it all in place without interrupting his work, which is getting very busy these days. Even though it seems that our lives are just overflowing with work, we are taking time to appreciate the little things that we love about this place. Fall is one of our favorite seasons, and I am stopping every once in a while to look around and observe the changing colors. Although both of our big aspen groves are gone, there are a few survivors that are starting to change to yellow, and there are some places along the highway where the sumac is still alive and turning the beautiful brilliant red that I love. I am even looking forward to raking the cottonwood leaves to start another compost pile. And I was very excited this past week to finally see the dahlia that I planted in the Spring. The ones closest to the wood shed burned to a crisp and I feared they were dead, but within days after the fire they started growing back. I had forgotten what the colors were, but the first one just bloomed a few days ago and is a beautiful orange. As I write this on the morning of October 15th, there is a light drizzle outside. It sprinkled off and on all night- it’s the first rain we’ve had in a long time and most welcome. The dust has been getting really bad, and the lawn has been looking brown. I am going to take this opportunity to clean the house and update this blog and have a relatively quiet day. Stay tuned for more news in a couple of weeks. I feel like I don't have much to report, but when I look back at the photos of the past 2 weeks I see that we have actually made a lot of progress. A routine has developed, where we have big work parties on weekends, and Bill and I do what we can during the week. It's working out pretty well. Our friend Jerry, who is a contractor with 35 years experience has volunteered to help out, and we are grateful for his expert advice. I don't know what we would do without him! We got the concrete poured in record time- less than an hour for almost 10 yards. Even the truck driver said "that was a really good pour!" when we were done. All the glulams went up, which turned out to be easier than we thought. The hayloft floor went in (that was my job during the week- screwing down plywood), and we got a start on the rafters. I have to admit to escaping for a few days last weekend to attend my sister's 50th birthday party. I had a great time, and got back on Sunday in time to put in a few hours before the work crew called it a day. Our mother hen continues to cluck over her chicks, although they are really growing up fast. They still have their baby cheep cheep voices, but soon they will start sounding like grown up chickens. I am keeping them in their separate section of the coop for a little while longer, but soon they will be let out to explore the big world. They are still pretty cute, especially since they have started roosting at night on the rail, all lined up in a row with some on the ledge above, and some standing on mama's back. I don't have any recent photos of Callie, the new Maremma puppy, but she is doing great. She had really bonded with the older dogs, and is learning every day. Her guarding instincts are evident, although we haven't had any predators since she's been here. Today she and the other dogs were barking at something on the hillside, but when I looked to see what it was, it turned out to be a grouse. They were pretty serious about alerting the flock and me to this intruder, though. She still doesn't go to the fence line with the other dogs, but hangs back and lets them do the serious work. I think it is only a matter of time. She is growing fast- almost as big as Nellie already, and only 4 1/2 months old!
This weekend we will be setting trusses and hopefully most of the remaining rafters on the barn. It won't be long before we have a roof. I'll post photos and updates in a week or two- stay tuned! I haven't been very good about keeping this blog current, but I have a good excuse. Every spare minute has been devoted to making progress on our clean up and barn building. And we actually have something to show for it. This past weekend with the help of our siblings and their spouses, we got all 25 posts for the new barn in place and braced. They are in sonotubes, 3 1/2 ft in the ground, and will provide the structural support for the barn. Tomorrow the concrete truck will come and fill the tubes, and then we can start building! It was a lot of hard work, but also fun to be around family and see it all coming together. Dave's construction experience made all the difference, and the rest of us just followed along and learned a lot. At the same time the barn work was going on, we had to get our buried power dealt with, as the overhead power lines that the PUD installed for us were just temporary, and hanging too low to get the delivery trucks to the barn site. So Bill hopped on the tractor and dug a trench. It all went well until the very end, when we discovered a huge rock in the way and had to change direction a little bit. It all worked out in the end, and now we have underground power and a much improved view- no more power lines! Our Maremma puppy, Callie, is 4 months old now and has become part of the team. The older dogs weren't very interested in her at first, but they all get along swell now. Nellie is very patient with her and lets her nibble on her ears and jump on her. Casimiro has found his inner puppy, and he occasionally romps and wrestles with her, but very gently as he is so much bigger. When Callie is startled or not sure of what's going on, she runs and stands next to Cas, and considers him her protector. She is also exhibiting guarding behavior in her own puppy way. She will bark at strangers and the occasional deer, but doesn't go to the fence line. She will hang back and let the big dogs do that, but I don't think it will be long before she gets right out there. She's got good teachers and if she just follows their lead, she will be an excellent guard dog. There are still the usual puppy corrections to make with her, like teaching her not to climb through the fence, and not to chase and bite the lambs, but she is making good progress . And she has a sweet personality- eager to please, and very unhappy when she knows she has messed up. Chicken news is good, too. Our mother of the year is still clucking over her 14 chicks, although they are growing up fast. They still all try to get under her at night, which is a funny sight, as she spreads her wings as wide as possible and they all have their heads sticking out around her. We are keeping them in separate quarters for a while longer until he chicks are big enough to not be of interest to Lucky the cat. All in all, our spirits are high and we feel like things are starting to get back to normal. I have resumed some of my normal routine like baking bread and dog treats. I've let the garden go, but I do keep the water on it so there are vegetables growing among the weeds. I'm just not going to have time to put up the bounty, so we go out and gather what we need for dinner, but the rest is going to the sheep and chickens. We are really surprised at how quickly some of the native plants have been growing in the burned areas. The elderberries are 3 ft tall, and the aspen groves are taking over. Hundreds of sprouts are coming up- we are going to have to do some serious thinning if we don;t want to be overcome. I've seen lupine sprouting as if it were Spring, and of course the weeds are making an appearance. But lots of grasses are getting a good hold in the hillsides, which is a good sign. There has been a little deer tribe hanging out around here, too. The surviving deer are going to have a tough winter, as all of their normal food sources are gone. We are curious to see if the usual group of mule deer will pass through this Fall as they usually do. The next few weeks should see lots of progress on the barn- stay tuned! These past two weeks have just flown by, with every day bringing some progress. We are really enjoying having electricity again and finally feel like things are slowly getting back to normal. Victoria came over and helped us fill two huge dumpsters with all of our metal debris, and I spent a couple of days sweeping the areas with a big rolling magnet that I bought. It's amazing to see the amount of nails and small stuff that comes up. It's a very useful tool and hopefully will prevent many flat tires. The only major thing remaining now is the little Ford tractor. We are hoping that our neighbor's big tractor will be able to move it. One of the things that keeps us going is support from family and friends. We got a surprise gift in the mail from sister-in-law Polly who sent us t-shirts and an inspiring note. I have been wearing mine almost every day- I'm afraid if I take it off I will collapse into a pile of quivering jelly. Well, not really, but it does help! Also, we are so grateful to the volunteer groups who have spent time assisting us with the more time consuming tasks- we had some Mennonites from the Othello area come by and spend a day rebuilding the fence in the upper pasture. 4 strong young men who were cheerful and happy to help out. They were all from ranching/farming backgrounds and came prepared with their own tools and know-how. It was such a pleasure to have them here. And then a group of Southern Baptists from California came by with a gas powered chop saw and cut up the remains of the bunk house trailer so that we could put it in the pick up and haul it off. They were so gracious and generous, it really warmed my heart. With the major part of the cleanup behind us, we have started purchasing some of the tools that we need to get work done, but we had nowhere to store them. I checked around and found that the local lumber yard was willing to part with one of their pre-fab storage sheds, and deliver it for free. It's pretty nice- fully insulated and even has a window. We got it in place, and brother-in-law Dave came over and helped install plywood on the inside so we have something to attach shelving to. It will be so nice to have an organized protected spot for tools. One of my favorites so far is a nice little Stihl 211 chainsaw. It's really easy to start and is perfect for me. It's my new best friend! Bill got a couple of larger saws to replace the other ones that he lost. On the 14th, there were some thunderstorms that passed through, and we got a fair amount of rain. As we anticipated, it caused a small slide in the creek drainage above us and we got silted up pretty bad. The creek rose a few inches by the house, but our irrigation line plugged up completely. We thought we were going to have to dig it up, but we let water sit in it all night, and the next morning it was flowing again. Whew- dodged a bullet on that one. In the middle of all this craziness, we had a happy little surprise. We had thought that a skunk got one of our hens a few weeks ago, as we had smelled the vile creature just before she disappeared. Well, it turns out that she was here the whole time- under the big lilac bush, sitting on a clutch of eggs. Last Thursday we were standing outside and here she comes with 14 baby chicks!! We couldn't believe our eyes. It was too late to do anything with her that night, so we just let her be, but the next day we got her in the coop with all her babies. They are happy and healthy as can be, and she has her hands full trying to keep track of all of them. She's doing a great job, though, leading them to the feeder, then the water, and when they are ready for bedtime they all crawl underneath her and snuggle in. Other animal news around here is that we found a home for Luca. He was just not meant to be an outside dog, and never bonded with the sheep, so before the fire we had decided to try to find a new home for him. It turns out that one of the people who helped return him to us after the fire fell in love with him and wanted to take him. So that story has a happy ending. He is living in a larger house, with two people to take care of, which is perfect for him. Meanwhile, we had found a Maremma puppy that we had put a deposit on before the fire, and she finally arrived here at her new home yesterday. She was near Olympia, WA, so Dave generously agreed to pick her up and bring her over here. It turned out to be a 12 hr road trip, but they made it. She has only been here about 24 hours as I write this, but seems to be settling in already. We named her Calliope, after the muse of Epic Poetry , and will call her Callie for short. That's it for this installment- stay tuned for more updates coming soon. As we enter the 3rd week after the fire, we are making progress and starting to feel like we will be able to handle what we have been dealt. I keep remembering that so many people around here are so much worse off than we are. We have been so lucky to have family and friends to help out. On the second day our friend Maria brought her daughter and niece to help us get our water system running again. The pipes in the upper section that were above ground all melted and had to be replaced. With their help we got the system partially working- enough to get water to the house and some of the irrigation lines. On the third day Bill's brother and sister-in-law Polly showed up with food, tools, and words of encouragement. (Almost every tool we owned except a few hand tools that were in the house burned up.) We cleared a bunch of downed trees and got more of the water system patched up. It turned out that a bunch of the fragments of the melted pipes had worked their way through the underground pipes and were clogging the line that goes to the house. Of course, our lifetime collection of pipe fittings was gone, too, so it required several trips to town to get everything going. Every day has some small progress which is gratifying. The PUD is working 18 hr days trying to get power back in our area. They are being so nice to us, and working so hard! They have to remove a bunch of large trees that are in the way of the new power line route, and cut them up into small rounds so we could use them in our little wood stove. We are very grateful, as we lost all of our firewood (11 cords!) that was stacked in the woodshed. This past weekend more help arrived. My sister and brother-in-law came to help sort through the wreckage and make piles for disposal. My mom didn't want to be left out, but since there is no place for her to stay, and it's pretty primitive with no power, she contributed by sending about 2 weeks of prepared meals for us to eat so we don't have to worry about cooking for a while. Jamie and Polly joined us again (and also brought more food!) and we had a very dirty but satisfying day. Straightened and stacked the metal roofing pieces from all three buildings, and piled the remaining metal scraps in neat piles. The next step is to get a dumpster for the metal and haul it away. Our local recycling center has teamed up with the garbage disposal folks to arrange a way for this to happen, and are even offering options on how to handle the sale of the scrap metal. The homeowners can keep it for themselves, or donate it to the local charities that are helping fire victims. August 8, 2014, 2:44 PM. Power is restored!!! 22 days on a generator makes you appreciate it all that much more. Our hook-up is temporary, as we are going to be burying the line from the road to our property, but we don't mind looking at power lines just now. It's a welcome sight. And I never realized how much I enjoy vacuuming! Stay tuned for next week's update. During the past weeks our lives have been turned upside down. On July 17th, a wildfire, known as the Carlton Complex Fire, swept through McFarland Creek and destroyed almost everything. We are among the fortunate- our house survived, as did all of our animals, but we lost our barn, shop and bunkhouse, as well as all the trees and every living plant that was outside the pasture. What used to be lush hillside and creek bottom, is now a barren landscape. It is shocking to look at, but it's also amazing to watch nature start recovering almost immediately. The morning after the fire there was almost no wildlife, but later that day we saw a hummingbird at the feeder, a few quail wandering around, and a trio of deer. In just a few days we could see some little green grass shoots pushing their way through the burned patches. This fire was unlike anything anyone has seen- even the experienced firefighters were stunned by how fast and ferocious it was. Our local newspaper reported that at it's peak it was consuming an average of 3.8 acres per second. We figured it was coming our way, and in the afternoon started making preparations. We thought it might come the next day, as we had driven up the highway earlier and seen it at Gold Creek, which is the next creek drainage north of us. That area had burned last year, so we thought it would move pretty slowly and hoped that the fire crews would be able to control it. How wrong we were… Around 5 pm we were in the upper pasture laying out irrigation line along the perimeter where the fire would come from. We also put out hoses with sprinklers between the house and the county road, and behind the bunkhouse. While we were doing this, Bill heard a sound that he thought was a helicopter, and mentioned that they were coming with water buckets to work on the fire just over the ridge. We listened for a few seconds, and looked at each other realizing that it was not a helicopter, but the sound of the fire. Just then we saw a few flames at the top of the ridge, and within a few minutes it was moving down the hill pretty fast. We got the water running and I ran to the house to gather up a few things, as we knew then that we would be leaving. As I was headed down, the dry field above us exploded and the fire jumped to the trees on the other side of the draw. We made a last minute decision to take some time to move the sheep and dogs into the pasture nearest the creek in the hopes that it was wet enough and wouldn't burn. Bill also had the foresight to move our new tractor into the middle of that pasture away from the tree line. I put Scooter and Lucky (dog and cat) into the back of my truck along with some clothes and a few valuables, while Bill grabbed his box of family photos and treasures. While we were doing this a fire truck roared up the hill and just a few seconds later came down with sirens blasting. That was the extent of the evacuation warning. Bill was ahead of me in his truck, and I followed in mine. As we pulled out of the driveway we saw our shop starting to burn and realized that we would probably return to find everything gone. The fire was so erratic and spreading so fast that it was already at the bottom of our road (1 mile away) by the time we got there. It was burning along the banks of the river, and also in the field on the other side, making a wall of flame between us and the highway. I saw the brake lights come on for a second on Bill's truck, then he gunned it and drove through. We made it to the big gravel parking area next to the river and sat there for about an hour watching the fire. Somewhere during all of this we had managed to contact our friends and family, and our friends from the upper valley came down to help, although by the time they arrived all we could do was watch it burn. It was so good to have them there just for moral support. We went to town, 20 miles away, where the power was out and it was barely controlled chaos. The main grocery store had generators so they were up and running, and we were able to get some food to eat that evening and the next day. We were very fortunate to have my studio to go to- it is near Twisp and was unthreatened at that time. Not able to sleep, we drove back to McFarland Creek around midnight and attempted to get to our house, but the fire was still too intense around the road. We went back to the studio and slept until about 6 :30. The next morning was a bright sunny day, although a bit smoky. When we returned home we saw that the house at the bottom of the road was still standing- the previous evening ti had appeared to go up in flames, but the smoke was so thick we couldn't be sure. That gave us hope, and as we drove up the road we saw some houses burned to the ground and some still standing. Just before coming around the corner we saw our two neighbors, Bob and Art standing in the road talking. I was so relieved, as I knew that Bob and his wife, Fanny, had stayed at their house to fight the fire. From where we were watching on the highway during the fire, it looked as if their house had burned, so to see them alive was a beautiful sight. As we continued up the next 1/4 mile to our place, the landscape was completely barren, and I feared the worst, but it was like seeing a miracle when our little green roof appeared, then the pasture with sheep grazing and dogs barking. I just sobbed with relief. Every one of our animals made it through with almost no injuries. One guard dog, Luca was gone, but the other two remained loyal to their flock and stuck it out. They apparently had some hot embers fall on them, but nothing more than the size of a dime, and only a couple places on each. They are already almost completely healed up. We initially feared that Luca had perished in the flames, but on the 29th, we found out that he was picked up and taken to a shelter about 100 miles away. He is safely home as I write. Now we are facing a daunting clean up task, and dealing with insurance companies. The clean up will start in ernest tomorrow (8/2) when family and friends will be here to help. Bill's brother and sister-in-law came over a couple of days after the fire to bring us some supplies and help us get our water system running and clear out some fallen trees. That was a huge help, as we needed to get water to the animals and keep things irrigated. Our water is gravity fed, so we are almost fully functional in the house as far as toilet and washing water goes. We have a generator that runs the fridge and freezer and charges our phones and computers. We're using a solar shower, which is sometimes too hot as it's 100+ degrees during the day. We have propane cooktop and a BBQ, so we can cook anything. The PUD has been working their hearts out getting power back- we are still several days away, but they are hopeful that we will be up and running later next week. All but 2 poles burned up on our road, so they have a lot to do. Stay tuned for more updates next week!
This past week I made a quick trip to Seattle to deliver lamb to some of our customers, and visit friends and family. When I called Bill to check in and see how things were going, he told me that Scooter (our house dog) had tangled with a skunk up by the irrigation box. Bill found some information on line about a bathing solution that is supposed to work, and I have to give it a big thumbs up. When I got home the next day, there was no trace of skunk. It's a combination of hydrogen peroxide, baking soda and soap. Mr. Skunk is still lurking around, though, as we have smelled him in the evenings around the house, and he killed one of our laying hens. In the coming days my big challenge will be to stay cool. Even though our house is next to a creek which normally has a cooling effect, today the sensor on the deck read 107. It's supposed to be about the same for a few more days before it drops back into the "cool" 90's. I just work a little while until the sweat drips in to my eyes, then I go splash myself with creek water.
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.
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. 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. 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. |
Life on the RanchThis 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. Archives
October 2018
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