Baby chicks are here.

Baby chicks in dining room

The baby chicks came from Ideal hatchery today.  I spent yesterday building a nursery out of a large blue plastic bin.  I cut the lid and bolted down some rabbit wire on top so the air could circulate and the cats and dogs could not get to the baby chicks.  I had the heat lamp inside the bin but the chicks were getting too hot so I cut a clamp spot and moved it outside the bin.  The chicks seem to like it better.  We ended up with two extra chickens and four of them are yellow and probably not what we ordered.  They are all healthy and we had no deaths out of 100 chickens.  I will be ordering from them again. 
It is a good thing since Sarah only collected four eggs today!  We definitely need some new blood.  In a week or so we will move the chicks out to the coop.  This gives us some time to play with them and keep them nice and warm.  Still no more lambs.  They should be lambing again before the new year.  We figure at least another 3-4 ewes should deliver. 

Barn work commences again.

Last of the sheep pile, fence cleared and ground leveled.

Cow lean too with feeder in it for winter.

 I took the girls out with me today so we could start putting siding back up on the barn.  The South side needs all new facing.  It needs a large window up top, but facing is going to happen first.  First, we had to dig out all the animal feces in between the walls and take nails out of the boards.  Once that was done then I had to cut out some of the old siding.  I am going to salvage as much as I can so a surgical strike with the sawzall was necessary.  I was in a hurry and didn't want to put the harness on.  The girls gave me lots of flack for not being safe.  Sarah kept wanting to know who she should call first 911 or mom.  I told her 911 if I fell from the top of the barn definitely. 
It took a while to get every thing ready before we could start reinstalling the siding.  The prep time seems to always take the longest of every project.  We did finally get to start putting up the siding.  When the girls went in for lunch I worked on the siding around the windows.  They didn't actually go in for lunch, they snuck over and got on the horses Annmarie had just groomed.  The horses were in good spirits and Hogs only slid Monica off her back one time.  We let the sheep and horses in the front yard for the weekend to eat all the leaves and shorten the grass before going into winter.  This is a labor saving tool (who likes raking leaves?) not to be underestimated.

Front of the barn needing to be refaced.

Sawing off the boards with sawzall.

The girls riding the horses.

The large opening at the top of the barn is going to get a large 8 foot x 4 foot window eventually.  The two little windows go into Annmarie's tack room and they let in a large amount of light.  It is easy to see and find things during the day. 

The top left side of the barn needs to have the boards removed so I can use the long horizontal top beam as an anchor point for the siding.  It is 16 feet from the bottom to the upper beam and my boards are 16 feet long so it was important to get those removed.  They did not want to come free easily.
Monica ended up getting a piece of sawdust in her left eye while her and Sarah were sliding one of the 16 foot boards up the wall.  It was just dust from the boards.  We ended up having to go in and try to get it out.  I was unsuccessful but while we waited for the eye doctor to call us back it resolved itself.   So we just went out, put all the tools away and called it a day.  I will get it done eventually. 

Partially completed first layer. 

Catching up.

The straw is in the barn.  I got a great deal, 28 bales = 1 ton for a cost of $60.  Right here so I only had to drive 4 miles.  I unloaded them into the old sheep area and broke open 7 bales to cover the barn floor to a much greater depth.  I have about 6 inches of straw over the entire floor.  Plenty of left over to get us through the winter, hopefully there will be some leftover for next year.
I rehung the main entrance gate into the barn lot.  It keeps coming loose on the top hinge.  I took a hose clamp and an old metal door latch I used as a shim.  Hopefully, this will keep the hinge piece from sliding down.  I scrounged around for the metal pieces to fix the grain bin door in the barn.  I just need to drill a hole in the pipe.  I am using a little wire to hold things together initially.  If this works then I will make a permanent change.
Annmarie wanted handles on both sides of the doors.  The easiest fix was to drill holes in the door, hand size, that can be used.  I still need to drill a handle in the large outer hay room door.
I scraped the last of the sheep manure pile away from the barn lot fence.  I also scraped down the high spot in the barn lot near the gate.  This makes a decent pile of soil that I can use to start building up the back hillside terracing.
I also scraped the upper front creek clean of mud and vegetable matter.  I have one 10 foot section on the upper side that needs some hand digging still.

Big surprise, I still need to finish some fencing.

Chicken financial update

Having gone to quarterly updates i am now able to procrastinate even longer than before.  Unfortunately, they are not true quarterly reports, they are progressive annual report for the first three, six, nine and twelve months of the year.  I will have to talk Annmarie into alterring my report spreadsheet.  She is very busy now at work so it is going to have to wait.  I want a predator tracking section also.  I am thinking about making a tunnel to connect my greenhouse to the chicken coop.  I just need a greenhouse.  I am picking up the windows next week and after taking some measurements I can start working on some dimensional plans for it.

The first six months are on track for a possible break even year.  The sad part is I have stacked all my major expenses in the last quarter.  I dug out the coop and installed new litter and bedding for a cost of $90 and just ordered 25 baby chicks to arrive next month at a cost of $77.  I am still having issues with my chicken door.  It keeps blowing fuses and I am not sure why.
For the first six months of this year I averaged 25.4 laying hens/day,10.7 eggs/day, 43% productivity (slackers), 0.35 lbs feed consumed/egg produced, feed cost $0.09/egg, income $69/month, expenses $46.38/month, net income $22.62/month, profit to date $135.70, amount of feed consumed 640#.
For the first nine months of this year I averaged 23.5 laying hens/day, 9.6 eggs/day, 41% productivity ( should have been better over summer), 0.33# feed consumed/egg produced, feed cost $0.09/egg, income $59.33/month, expenses $37.31/month, net income $22.02/month, profit to date $198.22, amount of feed consumed to date 840#.

Tractor woes.

Monica and Sarah gutting pumpkins.

 Sarah and Monica carved pumpkins for Halloween.  Monica had never done it before.  They also dressed up as superheroes for homecoming.  Monica had not done any costumes before.  She is learning all kinds of Americanisms.  Annmarie made cooked pumpkin seeds after I cleaned the seeds off.  They were very good, the girls weren't that impressed.  We ate them all in three days.

It has rained just over an inch this month as of two days ago.  The 1/4 mile driveway was starting to washboard so I decided it was time to hook up the box blade and smooth out the driveway.  I am really avoiding fencing at all costs.  I got the driveway all smoothed out with very little effort.  It is amazing to me how much easier it was than last year.  Practice is a wonderful teacher.  The driveway is very nice.  I loaded up a bunch of dirt with the tractor and put it in my mother-in-law's yard for her rock garden patch (I think she wants a burial mound in her yard).  The tractor will get it just over the fence with the bucket.  After that I decided to go out into the orchard and level out the far corner.  I needed to build up the ground level where the sheep had been crawling under the fence.  The corner I stole the dirt from had been built up over the years by the animals hanging out and pooping in the same corner.  I just leveled it off with the surrounding ground level.  This built up my low spot by almost two feet.  I just need to dump a bunch of rocks on the backside of the dirt mound so it doesn't all wash away.   I smoothed out the lower orchard a little with the box blade, but I really need to get the disc set up and running to get it truly smooth.
There was one little high spot near the road that had a steep backside near the front creek.  I had a hard time running the mower over it this spring so it needed to be knocked down.  I want to make it safe to mow every where.   Well, the front creek was right there and really needs to be dug out so I used the bucket on the tractor to scoop out a four foot swath.  It was so heavy I could just barely lift the bucket and move it two feet forward and dump it on the back half of the creek.  Unfortunately, the front tires of the tractor where right at the waters edge.  I did this four times and on the last and fifth attempt I could not back up.   The bank was too steep.  Four wheel drive was not enough.  If you cannot back up, go forward is my motto.  Yep, not such a great motto.  The tractor sunk all the way to the foot pedals.  The box blade wedged into the hillside behind me and I could not go anywhere.  I spent two hours lifting the tractor out of the water with the front bucket and tossing rocks and downed tree limbs under the tires in an attempt to get out.  I finally managed to get enough slack in the box blade to remove the pins and get it off the tractor.  Mind you it was still right behind me on the hillside so backing up was still not an option.  I was covered in mud and cow shit, the water stunk something fierce.  Finally, the girls came home from school and I had them get a shovel, chain and bring the pickup around.  I dug into the hillside to make a ramp for the tractor.  Hooked the chain up to the front of the tractor and the hitch on the pickup.  I told Sarah she would have to "make a running start of three feet and hit the chain hard" but not keep going or she was going to pull me over on the tractor.  I got in the tractor seat and buckled up.  It took three jarring attempts to get the tractor out of the ditch.  I was very glad to be out of the ditch and not flipped over.  I then preceded to knock down the high spot so I can safely mow in the spring.  With all this rain I am starting to think about burning...

New momma alcove.

Saddle stand in the new tack room.

Rainy chores

It rained most of the day, which just makes working outside miserable.  I had on two light jackets, a heavy vest, a knit cap, gloves and a baseball cap.  I thought I would be cold.  I was supposed to be working on the barn yard gates but got distracted.  I ended up digging out the front creek.  There was still an upper section that had not been done yet.  I dug it out with a metal rake from each side.  I had to drag over two wooden panels to go over the creek so the sheep cannot crawl under the fence.
Annmarie`s plan was to make the barnyard sheep proof so we could let sheep out both ends of the barn.  Plan B was in order, I cleaned out all my tools in the anteroom just inside the barn in front of the tackroom.  I moved a feeder in and tossed out a bale of straw.  The momma and baby got moved in and now they can get themselves to water and shelter.  We did shut the sliding door tonight so no predators can get them.
I found a local source for straw and am picking up a ton on Monday.  We are using it on the floor.  It was only $60/ton, which is a great price plus I don`t have to drive very far.

Babies... it really is time again.First

 It is that time again.  Annmarie went out to let the sheep out of the barn two days ago and found this little guy laying next to one of the feeders.  She coaxed momma into one of the prepared jugs (sheep creche) so the momma and baby can hang out together separated from everyone else.  This lets the baby get stronger without having to run around everywhere and try to keep up with mom.  It also keeps them out of the weather and warm.  This is our first baby from the new ram.  If you look closely you can see his face is more square than our other babies from years back. 

First baby of the fall and our new ram.

He was also very healthy and strong.  We are not sure if it is because he is a single or if it is the new ram.  The first few twins will tell whether the ram is the cause.  If he is throwing stronger lambs then go boy!  The jugs worked out great.  The only problem now is I don't have the barn subdivided to keep the mommas and babies in one side and everyone else in the other.  Subdividing is not the big deal.  The big deal is there needs to be two separate entrances into the barn and the outside fencing has to keep the two groups separate with both groups having access to running water.  We hate carrying water in the winter and since the front creek never freezes we don't need to as long as the animals can get to it.  This means more fence building for me.  I need to put hanging boards off of two gates so the sheep don't crawl under the gates.  I also need to drive in two metal posts into the ground on the back fence.  Hopefully, this will make the main barn lot sheep proof.  The momma/baby area just needs a panel across the creek so they don't crawl under the fence at this location.  I also need to finish nailing the back barn lot/ram pasture dividing fence in place.  It is currently held in place with two fence tighteners.  Not ideal, but really I have been busy at the new job and haven't had a lot of time. 

I also need to make a metal lid for the grain bin in the barn.  I have decided to do this out of two pieces of tin roofing.  I am just going to beat them flat on the anvil.  I also have to make a handle so you can let the grain out of the bin.  So fencing and grain bin are the next two projects.  I really want to get to the sorting chute, but alas not yet.  This may very well become the Thanksgiving project with Doom. I was hoping to do a closet in the laundry room instead of the chute.  There are still two closets that need to be built in the laundry room. We will see. 

There are seven more ewes that will deliver in the next few months.  Our babies are not old enough, we don't expect any of them to birth until they are over 12 months old.  On a plus note we have already gotten almost 9/10 of an inch of rain this month.  Amazingly, the ground is not muddy and sloppy.  The ground has absorbed every drop of rain and croaked for more.  I think we could tolerate another whole inch before it started to stay on the surface.