Last Calf Born. Farm 1, Predators 0.

We had our last calf born last week sometime.  We are not sure exactly when it happened as the heifer had been hiding him in the tall grass.  I snuck out and took a peak and it is a little boy.  This works out great for us as we will not have to separate them from the adult herd at 6 months of age.  We thought this last heifer (#1121) was a couple of months behind the other two heifers.  We were wrong and the other heifers are probably already pregnant because the bull has been working overtime since those babies were born.  

We have been making plans to start resurfacing our kitchen counters this summer.  We are putting an epoxy based paint on that looks like granite.  We did go and research tiles for back splash and window covering.  Unfortunately, that is going to cost real money, around $1000.  Which is not bad considering we are installing them ourselves.  

 I am back at the fencing with a vengeance.  I enlisted my nephew to help today and tomorrow to get it all completed in time.  The sheep are in the orchard with the cows and the grass is quickly disappearing.  The sheep did a great job on the back hillside there is not a single green leafed any thing left.  I am hoping they will do the same on the rest of the hillside once we let them out.  The current fence will open up the entire lower pasture down to the dividing fence, almost 10 acres.  It should keep the cows and sheep busy for the rest of the summer.  We will water the closer pastures and get them back up to a respectable grass height.  I would like to keep all the animals off of the close pastures till late fall so they can eat the summer grass in the fall and we can delay feeding a couple of weeks.  We will see how it goes.  The wooden stays we purchased earlier had to be moved so the machine shop siding can be installed, we were 44 stays short so I had to contact the seller to send the rest.  My scrap metal guy called last night to ask me if I was still interested in more woven wire fencing.  So this morning I ran out to a neighbor's house and dug out five rolls of woven wire, another 350#.  I have canceled my standing order for fencing as of today.  We have extra fencing now and I think I even have enough to do the upper bottom division next year.  My current request is for four gates.  I am still making monthly payments to the scrap metal guy and have still not received a bill.  I bug him every couple of weeks and have made three months worth of payments without a single bill.  I razzed the secretary today and she told me it was done on her part and waiting for Packy to approve it.  I should have him all paid off by the end of the year.  Regardless, at the end of the year I am stopping all automatic payments and waiting for a bill.  

We were out in the orchard taking pictures of the new baby cow when the sheep came running over to great Annmarie.  Then they got spooked and started jumping around like tops.  

As soon as the fencing is done the barn is next.  I need to fix the floor, do enough siding to get the gate up and running, put on both cupolas on the roof and finish metal roofing.  The only thing I am missing are wind vanes to go on top of the cupolas.  

The mule won't start.  I tried to move it tonight and got nothing.  Annmarie had just told me it would not start and I asked if she had put it in neutral.  The answer was no so I thought I could just go fire it right up.  It did nothing, no noise no nothing.  I need to charge the battery so I can move the mule.  I bought spray last week and need to get it on the weeds.  

I am man hear me roar!  It is nighttime and sprout, our little brussels griffin, rang the bell to go outside.  I told him yes and grabbed my tablet to finish this entry on the front porch.  I started to sit down on the outside chair and then started grumbling about the cats.  I had gotten eggs but forgot to take my basket inside and something had eaten two eggs and tipped the basket over.  I went over and picked up the basket before sitting down.  Then Sprout started throwing a tizzy and barking at the corner of the yard.  I hollered at him to be quite and went back to typing.  He kept it up so I looked up again and saw him dancing around an animal in the front yard.  I thought it was a cat, after further scrutiny it was a black cat with a white stripe down its back, skunk.   I started calling Sprout frantically in an attempt to get him back on the porch before getting sprayed by the skunk.  He was not having any of it, he kept circling the skunk and trying to get at it.  Annmarie came out when I ran inside to grab my walther p-22.  She got Sprout to come up to the porch.  The skunk was limping so it must have been injured elsewhere and was looking for a free chicken dinner!  Luckily, my electric powered automatic chicken door is working.  Amazingly Sprout escaped unscathed and smelling like dog.  I actually let it get out of the front yard before shooting it.  It was very dark and I forgot to get a flashlight in my haste so Annmarie had to bring one out to verify that it was really dead.   The smell eventually hit us and we knew it had expired.  I will take it up to the boneyard in the morning.  Farm 1, Predators 0.