Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Winter or Spring, make up your mind

Mother nature cannot decide whether it should be spring or stay winter.  We had snow this morning, and yesterday the wind was gusting over 50 mph.  One of those gusts blew the front screen door into our porch pillars, denting a section of it.  Truly, if it is not one thing it is another.  I managed to wrestle the screen door into the old house without breaking anything.  The wind managed to break the window out of the back door on the old house.  So now I need to level the old house so I can fix the door then fix the window.  My duct tape fix did not hold the glass in against 50 mph winds, go figure. 

We had another lamb born on March 7, ewe #1 gave birth to a single baby boy.  So now we have two young babies and two very protective mothers.  Zeke and I went out last night to herd the sheep into the barn and the two mommas did not want to move.  The closed ranks and faced Zeke down.  He could not get them to move.  Plus the idiot keeps circling around them and trying to push them away from the gate we are trying to go through.  One time the lead ewe got mad and chased him down and rolled him a couple more times.  He jumped back up and I sicced him on her, he grabbed her by the hair on her shoulder and hung on for 30 feet before I called him off.  The sheep still would not move after that.  I had to help the dog and he was a little gun shy about facing off against them.  We did eventually get the sheep into the barn.  He is getting much better, but our sheep do not want to cooperate. 

Zeke is outside today running around the yard.  He just will not stay inside, rings the bell until someone lets him out.  This morning he ran down to my mother-in-law's house and chased her cats around.  I have been keeping an eye on him since. 

We have decided to purchase a flat bed trailer.  We can haul lumber, hay and sheep (after I build some racks) using our pickup.  I only wanted to spend $1200 for a dual axle, electric brakes, lights, wood decked, stake pockets trailer.  I have just spent three hours on the internet and calling 12 different places, average price $2500.  I found one place that uses tubular steel frame and I can dictate the number of stake pockets.  They will custom paint it and delivered to Hood River, OR for $2000.  We are going to go with them. 

I did get lucky and win a unit of 2x8 x10feet boards at a fundraiser for $200.  This is going to constitute a large portion of the new floor in the barn.  Great deal, just need a trailer now to pick them up.  The water leak from the frozen pipe is getting worse.  So this weekend I need to change out the faucet.  We are starting to get a small swamp in back yard. 

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