Working Hard

These warm and dry days find me working my tail off.  Why, you ask?  The grass is growing, the sheep and cattle are out on pasture - what is there to do, other than watch them eat.  That's a good question.  You see, we use intensive pasture rotation to take maximum advantage of our growing season as well as to reduce the parasite load of our animals.  We have almost 35 acres of pasture, which is a lot of grass.  If we just turned the animals out and let them eat, they would be like kids in a candy shop - eating the things they like best and turning their noses up at the slightly less palatable forage.  And they would keep after the grasses that tasted best, over grazing it and damaging it, to the point that it would have trouble regrowing.  In the meantime, the other grasses that had been initially spurned would grow tall (and tough), eventually going to seed and going dormant.  What was less palatable in May is untouchable in July - not a good way to manage a pasture!

A logical question is why not plant only grasses that they love to eat?  Different varieties of grass grow best under varying conditions.  Orchard grass - very yummy - grows early but peters out by the time we get to the hot weather of July and August.  Fescue - not so yummy - is a later season plant, coming on as the orchard grass slows down.  So the fields are planted in a variety of grasses that take advantage of the weather conditions from April through August.

At this time of year, I am busy creating paddocks or "cells" - temporary subdivisions of the pasture using polytwine that can be electrified together with posts that one pushes into the ground.  Our perimeter fence has a hot wire that runs along the top of it, so I can link the polytwine to the top wire and create a reasonably effective barrier between the paddocks.  Here is the view from my tractor as I mow a strip for the temporary fencing.  The grass has to be mowed so it doesn't short out the electrified twine.

Then I set up the post and polytwine, subdividing the big pasture into smaller units (one of which gets hayed.)  This photo shows the mowed strips as well as the newly installed fencing:

The work itself isn't back breaking by any stretch of the imagination, but it takes time and requires a great deal of walking.  Good news because it keeps this middle aged farmer reasonably fit!  The weather has been unusually warm and dry for this time of year, so my neighbor came over and cut hay, which we hope to get baled and into the barn by the end of this week.  We trade cattle grazing and haying services, a good deal for both of us.  These are the rows of grass that has been cut and conditioned, which means it has been rolled flat as it was cut, making it easier and faster to dry.

Tomorrow, I wean the older lambs the vast majority) with the help of Jessica Epley Henning.  It's fun to really get your hands on the lambs at this point because some are really taking off, while others just poke along - the wheat is separating from the proverbial chaffe.  However this evening, all is quiet out in the pasture as the mamas are still with their offspring.  Tomorrow is guaranteed to be much noisier!

The Grass is Growing!

After a slow start to Spring, we are finally reaping the rewards of all that rain - plenty of grass!  My younger daughter, Maya, and I went out into the pastures the other day to work on our portable fencing and this is what we saw:

 

The application of lime last winter has had a dramatic effect on the health of the sward.  Maya even found a 4 leafed clover - who couldn't use a little luck, now and then?

The lambs are growing rapidly.  Some are going on 5 months old and will soon weigh over 100 lbs.  Next week we'll be weaning - that means a lot of complaining from the flock, but it helps the moms recover and get a little peace and quiet (don't we all know that feeling!)  At this point, the older lambs are so large that when they dive under their mother to nurse, they can actually lift her back end off of the ground.  I'll be taking some of my top natural colored animals to the sheep and wool show in Estes Park, CO in early June - my first sheep related road trip that involves multiple days of travel.  Here is the flock waiting to come in for the night:

Time to Spring to arrive!

I love snow......in winter.  But we are now solidly into March.  Rain and wind are perfectly acceptable weather patterns, but this is not:

Those two greyish blobs in the photo are my yearling rams that I have grown out over the winter.  At least one will be making the trip to Colorado to participate in the National Lincoln Show & Sale at Estes Park in June.  My first major sheep related road trip!

Inside, thank goodness, it is warm and dry.  My best friend lives back east - she sent me a photo of her daughter amongst the crocuses this morning - no such luck here, however my mini roses are doing their best to brighten up the day.

400 Trees

Last year, our farm was awarded a grant for water management in the barn yard.  At the same time, we enrolled in the CREP (Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program) as we have a stream that runs along the edge of our pastures and empties into the North Yamhill River.  In our case, the CREP program seeks to establish trees on the sides of streams, in order to lower the water's average temperature, creating a healthier environment for the beasties that live there (salmon, frogs etc.)  This past weekend, we spent a number of hours planting 400 seedlings on either side of the stream.  Here is Nicholas, getting the soil ready for some Douglas Firs in our western most pasture:

We planted a selection of native trees, including big leaf maples, ash, crab apples, douglas firs, western cedars and willows.  It will be fun to see them grow and create a shaded environment in the years to come.  This is a voluntary land retirement program which allows agricultural producers protect environmentally sensitive land. Will and Pete enjoying a break in the sunshine after planting many trees and flagging them so that we can see them when we mow in the months to come.  It was a bit of a challenge to convince Pete not to "fetch" all the seedlings.......

Too much of a good thing is not a good thing

One can't complain about rain during the winter in western Oregon - it is just part of life.  By the second half of October, we are usually quite wet, and it pretty much stays that way (with the occasional sun break) through May.  This year, our December was unusually dry and it appears that Mother Nature has decided to correct the error of her ways.  After a couple of days of snow, we are now getting pounded with a series of storms coming off of the Pacific.  Just to the south of us, there is a part of the Coastal Range that got 7" of rain over the last 24 hours.  Combine that with snow melt off of the mountains, and we have one heck of a mess on our hands.  Our farm lies between the base of the Coastal Range and the North Yamhill River - which means that every drop of water that rolls down the eastern side of the mountains seems to cross our place before it gets to the river............Let's just say I was surprised not to encounter andy salmon swimming upstream in one of the barns this morning.  Even when the rains stop for a while, there is still so much water coming out of the hills, that it flows in torrents across roads and fields - here are 2 photos of the water coming out of our western most pasture and tumbling down into the stream which runs along our farm.

Lambing has started!

Just a quick note to announce the beginning of lambing.  The girls have started things off with a BANG!  Two sets of triplets were born this morning - a white and a natural colored set.  5 of the 6 lambs are boys, and they are all doing well.  The natural colored triplets were already dry and fed by the time I made it out to the barn this morning, but only one of the white ones was on the ground.  By the way his mother was calling and circling, I knew that there were more in the pipeline, and sure enough, within the span of the next 40 minutes, she produced two more.  The good news is that both of these mothers can count (not always a given in the ovine world.)  Sometimes a sheep mom can't count above "2" and she refuses to accept that she has given birth to 3 children.  Convincing her otherwise can be an arduous task.  Both of these ewes have plenty of milk, so it looks like supplementing won't be necessary. 

Continuing Education

We put a great deal  of emphasis on education in our household.....and sometimes I also like to take classes, to keep my mind sharp and to learn a new skill or brush up on an existing one.  This past fall, I had the opportunity to enroll in a 2 day workshop at Anderson Fiber Works over in Gresham, OR - just on the far side of Portland.  Jen Anderson (of Hanks in the Hood) and her husband Tyler created Anderson Fiber Works earlier this year and it is a great place to shop for original dyed rovings, batts and yarns.  Here is a cowl I made from a Hanks in the Hood batt:

In any case, I signed up for a workshop with Jaycee Boggs.  The topic was making creative and unique yarns.  The class took place in the upstairs of Anderson Fiber Works and there were around 20 of us:

The atmosphere was very friendly and creative......apparently some of us were more prepared than others to get those artistic juices flowing.  I had never seen one of these before and it instantly made its way to the top of my Christmas wish list.

Using fiber from Hanks in the Hood/Anderson Fiber works, we spun a range of funky yarns, with a focus not only on the unique nature of the construction, but also on durability and usefulness.  I personally think this is important when putting together a handspun yarn of any kind.  If  I spend that much time to make something, I want it to last for more than a couple of months.  Below on the left is a single and on the right is that same single after it has been put through a plying process which includes some pushing, pulling and changes in tension between the right and the left hand that strained my brain but left me feeling that I had learned something new and fun.