Fall Is On It's Way

The subtle signs of fall are starting to show. The brush and undergrowth are getting a bit thinner, the leaves are getting just a little less green and the days are getting a just a bit shorter.

All this means that it's time to start planting grass and getting food stored away for the animals for winter.  Also, now that I have a full year of caring for the herd under my belt, it's time to start fixing all the mistakes I made in the first year and making big plans for year 2.

One big mistake I made was intentionally putting gaps between the boards on the side of the shed so they'd have airflow. At the time I built it, the temps were roasting hot so all I could think of was how hot it would be and thought airflow would be a good idea.  The picture below shows Sadie enjoying her airflow.

From 2012-09-10

I didn't realize that the heat isn't a problem as long as there are trees for shade. The real problem is cold. They need protection from the winter winds and airflow isn't a good thing.

Luckily for all, I figured this out before winter and put some tarps around the shed to keep the wind out, but it looked ugly and so I took some time last weekend to fix it.

From 2012-01-03

I think it looks a lot better now. It's not as airtight as it was with the tarp, but it should be good enough.

Our big plan for year two is to increase the herd size.  We're planning a play date for the goats with a billy in October in hopes of having some babies in the spring.

This is a big step and so I want to make sure to fix all the little things that I've let slide like the shed and gaps in the fence etc.  With any luck, we'll have a lot bigger herd next March.

From 2012-09-10

Here's a closeup of the boards.  It looks pretty wind proof.  I guess we'll find out this winter.  If not, I still have all the tarps.

From 2012-09-10

I had a few boards left over so I decided to put them on the tree house. The big question is do you level them with the earth or the tree. Hmmm.  In this pic, they are perfectly level according to the level, but they seem a little slanted to the eye.  Just another reason I avoid finish work.

Below the treehouse is our growing pile of hay.  I'm going to have to get a couple big 5x5 bales to add to the collection.  I really need a barn!

From 2012-09-10

Too Hot to Work

It's been so hot and humid the last couple weeks that I've found it hard to do more than putter around or run the bulldozer.  I'm at a crossroads where the projects are getting big enough that I have to really put some thought into how they are going to fit into the big picture.  Some of the things I'm noodling are:

1) Bringing in electricity.  It looks like I'm going to need at least three poles and maybe up to five (or more!). I'd like to trench it but the engineer seemed to think that might not be doable because of all the rock.  I need to meet up with him and see what my options are.  Hopefully that will help me decide where to put the transformer.

2) Planting grazing grass.  I'd like to put in a big field of Orchard grass but I'm afraid it's going to take a lot of soil amendment to get it to grow.  Need to get the soil tested and find out how bad it is.

3) Build a third corral.  I'd really like to get some Alpacas but if I do, I'm going to need electricity and water as well as third area to separate the males and females.  It'd also be necessary so they don't overgraze. Alpacas aren't as tough as goats and so they'd need grass forage as well as the brush.

4) Building a pole barn.  I'd love get the barn built but I have to lock down the electricity question before I build.  Also need to lock down the orientation.

There are also a million other little projects such as maintenance on gates, fences, trails, equipment, etc.  For example, one of my gates started leaning real bad because the original fence builder didn't put support wire on it, so I ended up having to go back and do it after the fact (pic of tools below).  It helped a little, but the post is cracked so it's not a final solution.  I'm wondering if I have any recourse with the builder after several years?

From 2012-08-27

Another ongoing maintenance project is trail repair.  Since we cut almost all the trails out of raw forest, there are still a lot of stumps, rocks, high spots, etc that need to be smoothed over.  One effective method I've found is dragging logs and tree tops down the trails.

They have a lot of weight and do a great job of smashing the high spots and smoothing it.  I just chain them up, hop on the quad and start riding.  Usually I use three treetops or three logs, but on this particular day, I just used what was laying around.

From 2012-08-27

Another continual source of maintenance is the bulldozer.  My latest mystery is how the fuel filter keeps getting plugged with dirt.  It would appear that someone has dumped dirt in my fuel tank, but for the life of me, I can't figure out the motive.  The dozer is usually parked along the trail somewhere and it would take a fair amount of work just to find it.  The picture below is of the second filter I've replaced in a month.  The first looked as bad as this one.

From 2012-08-27

I scraped some of the mud away to show how thick it's packed around the filter.  That's all I need is some vandal creating havoc.  Maybe my next project will be to string up some "Hunger Games" style booby traps for the interlopers.

From 2012-08-27

Getting Ready for the Bow Hunt

It's that time of year again.  Time to get ready for the bow hunt.  This year we've decided to scout out a couple new locations in some nice hardwood stands towards the back of the property.  Here's my friend Dan demonstrating his tree climber on a nice hickory along a heavily used deer trail.

From 2012-08-27

Tree climbers are probably the best kind of stand to use.  They can easily be moved, are more comfortable and are great for adjusting to local conditions.  About the only drawback is climbing one up a tree in the early morning before the sun comes up.

From 2012-08-27

up we go.

From 2012-08-27

getting higher and higher

From 2012-08-27

Viola!  Ready for some deer hunting.

From 2012-08-27

View from my treestand.  notice the feeder on the right, haning from the tree.

From 2012-08-27

Hay for Winter

Now that we know what a winter feeding is like, we've started stocking up on hay.  My friend Steve hooked me up on a good deal for hay, two dollars a bale for a second cutting.  You can't beat that.

Last year, the Midwest drought caused prices to really jump out here.  Suddenly it was affordable to haul hay from Tennessee to Texas, so a lot of guys put their fields under contract to farms in Texas and are selling their whole crop to them.

 That's good for Texas but not so good for us.  Anyway, here we are, stockpiling hay for the winter.

From 2012-08-20

Digging Fence Post Holes

Sammy and I decided our project for Saturday would be digging fence post holes.  We looked so stylish that we wanted to take a shot together, to show off our cool work clothes.

From 2012-07-24

It'd be nice to have a tractor to do this some day, but for now, it's just a breaker bar and a post hole digger.

Our strategy is to walk the fence line and look for weak spots, then put a post there.  It's similar to putting springs on a trampoline.  Just keep going around the circle, filling in the gaps, until it's done.

When a weak spot is found, we try to make sure it's about 10 paces from another post on either side.  Unfortunately, sometimes there's a big rock sitting right where the post needs to go.

In that case, we try to move a couple feet to either side.  In the case of fence post below, it was rock the entire length of the section.

From 2012-07-24

This particular post was tough.  As you can see from the hole, it's rock all the way down.  It's very tiring to dig because you have to keep slamming it over and over with the breaker bar, which weighs about 45-50 pounds.

From 2012-07-24

The upside is that it makes an unmovable post once the cement dries.

From 2012-07-24

The animals love when we come down to work on the fence.  They are so curious and I think they really like the change of pace, having something interesting to watch.

Below, you can see Gracie trying to eat the quad.  I guess it's true that goats will eat anything, or at least try.

From 2012-07-24

Our other project for Saturday was to work on the barn clearing.  Since Sammy couldn't really help at this point, she documented the knocking down of a cedar.

From 2012-07-24

Uprooted and ready to process.

From 2012-07-24

If wishes were trees the trees would be fallin'

So you might be wondering about the title of this post.  If you don't already know where it's from, see the end of the blog for the answer.

We had a series of thunderstorms come through for about a week straight.  It was great to get the pond filled from all the rain, but winds coming from the northeast played havoc on the trees.

I was surprised to go check the trail after the storms and see six different, large trees that had fallen across it.  With all these trees falling, I'm surprised I have any forest left.

To fix things, I took the chainsaw and waded into the mess.  Let's just say the trees were dispatched with extreme prejudice.

One problem caused when the bigger trees fall is that they take a lot of other trees with them.  In the picture below, you see the big tree in the foreground took out a similarly sized tree just off to the left.

From 2012-07-24

I think this big, old, dead tree just kind of got tired and just fell over, right across my fence on the back property line.

From 2012-07-24

This tree had been leaning for quite some time.  I guess all it needed was a gust of wind to finish the job.

From 2012-07-24

This section of trail seems to be cursed.  We've had several blow downs as well as one that got hit by lightning and cut in half.

From 2012-07-24

JADT.  Just another dead tree.

From 2012-07-24

It looks like a hurricane came through here but the split trees are actually from a bulldozer session I did to widen the trail.  It was surprising to see the one across the trail had just kind of tipped over.  I must have loosened up the soil too much.

From 2012-07-24

The barn area keeps getting closer and closer to being done.  A couple more burn sessions ought to do the trick.  Then it will be time to bring in gravel.  It'll be nice to be finished with this phase of the project and start building.

From 2012-07-24

The answer, to where the post title came from, is Stand by REM.  I'm not sure what it has to do with anything, but they lyrics kept going through my head while I was clearing the trees.

 Your feet are going to be on the ground 
Your head is there to move you around 
If wishes were trees the trees would be falling 
Listen to reason 
Season is calling

Creating a Pond

Despite temperatures above 110 degrees, the show must go on.  As long as your in the shade, it only feels like 109 though, so it makes it much more bearable.

The two main projects going on now are continuing to clear the barn area and working on the pond.

From 2012-07-02

The pond hadn't really been on the radar since it still had water in it, but the hot, dry spell we just went through dried it up much faster than we expected.  I was surprised to come by one morning and see that it was bone dry.  I was also a little stressed because this has become our main water supply for the goats.

However, this was the opportunity I'd been waiting for since the pond filled several months back.  When I originally built it, I had no idea it would work so well and last so long. 

Now that it was dry, I had a small window of time to cut down all the trees that were growing inside the dam and pond perimeter.  I also needed to patch up the leaks and smooth it out to make it look presentable.

The picture below shows how it looked right after drying up.

From 2012-07-02

I can testify that lighting a bonfire in 100+ degree heat is as unpleasant as it sounds.

From 2012-07-02

Luckily I had a tough work crew that was able to handle the heat and was able to stay in the kitchen.

From 2012-07-02

The bulldozer was a great for  digging the pond deeper and building up the sides.

From 2012-07-02

We were able to get the pond dug to around 6 feet at the deepest point.  Luckily it was clay all the way down, so it will be great at holding water.

From 2012-07-02

We didn't finish a moment too soon.  The day after we finished,  a big storm came through and filled the pond up to the first level.  My next task is to get some grass growing so the water doesn't end up getting so muddy.

From 2012-07-02

Most of the water comes down this road and runs right into the pond.  My next plan is crowning the road and making a channel on the side, lined with rock, to divert more of the water directly to the pond.

From 2012-07-02

A drawback to having a fence in a forest is that  trees are constantly falling on it.  After the storm that filled the pond came through,  I was surprised to see  a big tree (cut up in the pic below) laying across the fence.

I was also surprised to see the goats and donkey still in the pen.  Although, as we looked closer, we saw lots of tracks and pellets indicating they spent a fair amount of time playing outside the fence.

When a hurricane knocked down the fence last year, the animals all escaped and went on a three day romp through all the neighboring farms. so it was nice to see they like this pen enough to stick around.

From 2012-07-02

The stump in the bottom center part of the picture is from the tree that fell across the fence.  The post is newly planted in an attempt to fix the damage.

From 2012-07-02

It's kind of hard to see the fence in this shot, but it shows another big branch that's fallen across the fence.  I'm beginning to realize that I really need to get down to the prop and check on things after every big storm, as well as the fact that it's going to be a regular occurrence.

From 2012-07-02