Tree Fodder

We are always searching for ways to cut down on our feed bill.  Luckiy we have a lot of trees on the property.  So every few days I like to cut a couple branches of the trees. 

 The cattle LOVE certain trees and just nibble on others.  Eucalyptus trees are fast growers and the animals love to eat it.  It also has the advantage of seeming to be a fly repellent.  If I can give the cattle several branches of eucalyptus every few days I don’t worry about flies causing problems for the cattle.  The problem is Darling Husband and I have 2 very different styles of cutting trees. 

I like to cut 1 or 3 branches and give that to the cattle every couple days.

  Darling Husband wants to cut a couple big trees and not have to do any cutting for another month. 

In November I convinced him to buy me a small battery powered chain saw and I happily trimmed trees for the last 2 months trying to cut the trees so that the trees would be more bushy along the property line so our neighbor doesn’t have to look at the storage area on the property or just getting some of the trees trimmed nicer. 

I have gotten to the point that there are only a few trees for me to cut that my little chain saw will go through so I have been asking him to cut the bigger trees down so that when they grow big again I will be able to cut those branches with my little saw.  2 weeks ago we cut down several trees that were not giants and the cattle and sheep were in heaven for about 5 days.  This weekend I was determined to have Darling Husband cut one of the mammoth trees down.  This would provide food for the cattle and cut a tree that looked like it was forming a crack and I felt if we cut it down we could control it’s falling. 

Styx likes to play in the sticks as his mom eats near him.

Darling Husband was reluctant.  I said fine! I went to cut one of the small trees that I can cut.  Darling Husband heard that Fine! And thought he better cut a big tree.  Wonderful Husband cut the tree I was hoping he would cut then we started cutting up the branches to give to the cattle. I picked up a branch to throw over the fence, the branch didn’t budge, I realized my foot was on the branch so I lifted up by foot while I was still pulling on the branch and BAM

Darling husband and I had a nice Friday night Date in the local Emergency Room.  I scratched the retina of my right eye with a eucalyptus branch.  

Welcome 2015: Year of the Sheep

Welcome to the world little lamb.  Hopefully having a lamb born on the first day of the Year of the Sheep is a good sign. 

Sheep year is time to heal after the chaos of 2014's Horse year. 

What is of value now is intimacy, family and close friendships.

 We can be more caring, kind and sensitive with each other. 

Develop a gentle heart, open to love and acceptance on all levels.

 Another theme of Sheep year is to express your creative side. Now is the time for art, creativity and cultivation of beauty. If you ever wanted to explore your creative side, this is your year.

Do not give up, be pessimistic or become discouraged because Sheep can only move forward!  From http://www.astrology.com/

May 2015 be a year of healing, happiness, and peace for everyone.  

Cycle of Life

This morning I was distracted and let the turkeys out while the House Ding Bat was out. 

He attacked 2  the turkeys and it looked like so much fun Oakley joined the chase and the dogs killed 2 Red Bourbon Turkeys.  

So my stupidity has killed a bird AND undone weeks of training on Oakley. 

To show that the cycle of life is never ending on the ranch this morning we had twins.

  I have been saying for weeks we could have lambs any day and that day finally came. 

Shelby had twins this morning.  

Hot Rod

When we bought our Pelibuey Sheep they were a price I was willing to pay and the right size to help the other sheep keep the weeds down.  I sent Darling Husband and the 2 oldest girls to pick out the lambs.  I wasn’t ready for a ram and repeatedly told Darling Husband and the girls NO BOY SHEEP.  They brought home Dragster, Dodger, Shelby, and Hot Rod.  Hot Rod was a sweet girl until after a few days of owning her I flipped her over and discovered Darling Husband had bought a boy!  Hot Rod was the sweetest little ram lamb you ever saw!  He quickly learned to walk on a halter, would walk beside me while I scratched under his ears. 

  The problem is rams are dangerous. 

  Rams ram things.

I kept reading about how to raise a ram.  We free range our sheep and that makes life with a ram complicated.  Experts have to schools of thought:  your ram should be afraid of all people – it’s too late for this, or work with it regularly keep the ram in a pen and when you want it to go somewhere walk it on lead. Ranches with a lot of sheep will keep a ram in a separate pen with withers (neutered male sheep) so they have company, and always ALWAYS watch your ram. 

Hot Rod is almost 2, his second batch of babies will be born soon, BUT all of a sudden his ramming has increased.  The cows all move out of his way if he wants their food, they do not want to experience another of his head butts.  This weekend I was working on sprinklers and he kept circling me.  I scratched behind his ear and he wanted more when I turned back to work he rammed my hand.  I grabbed a piece of firewood and the next time he ran at me I hit him on the side of the head with firewood.  He looked like I had hurt his feelings but Hot Rod has to learn not to hit anyone.

I am worried we will soon be having a BBQ with Hot Rod as our guest of honor.   For now we are watching his behavior and I hope the firewood has stopped him from ramming anyone soon.

Feeding Cat Tails?

When we had our bull, he and April would squeeze out of the fence and go down into the pond and eat the cat tails.  

Since he went to Freezer Camp I have been amazed at how fast the cat tails have grown back.  SO I had the brilliant idea that I would let the cows out and encourage them to eat around the pond. We let the pond get 3 feet lower than normal the cows would only have to go over 6 inches of water to eat most of the cat tails.  I wouldn’t feed them in the morning until they went back into the pasture so getting them back in would be easy.    Little did I know that would be the only easy part!

I opened the gate wide enough for the girls to walk through and they just stared at me like what is this crazy lady doing.  Then I herded them out I got 2 out of the gate the other two ran around me like I was trying to spray them with fly spray.  Then the two I got out ran back into the pasture almost knocking me over. 

I decided to grab a handful of hay so the cows would follow me.  The cows followed me nibbling on the hay so I tossed what was left down by the water’s edge and went to let the sheep out.  The cows, seeing I had run out of hay and had stopped paying attention to them, decided to go back into the pasture.

This time I grabbed more hay, kicking the sheep out of the way I coaxed the cows back out of the pasture and left a trail of hay for the girls to follow to the cat tails then I decoratively hung the remaining hay on the cat tails so the cows would see the delicious hay and take a bite out of the cat tails and hay.  Rolo and April followed me to the water’s edge and I knew I was going to be successful.  I knew Onyx and Ruby would soon be jealous and soon start munching on delicious cat tails.  Then Rolo realized she had to stretch her head over 6 inches of water to eat the hay decorated cat tails and she bolted running as fast as she could back to the pasture!  The rest of the girls followed her.  Soon we will have to dig out the cat tails out of the pond because I am smart enough not to try this again.

Growing Turkeys

The turkeys are growing so fast sometimes I think they look bigger every morning. 

We started with getting Luca used to the turkeys.  

Every morning and evening they go out so they can stretch their wings, run, and forage for food. 

When we got Oakley we started working with her right away to train her to not chase the turkeys. 

Unfortunately we had two wild chickens that I didn’t train Oakley with.  I thought I had trained her to turkeys she would accept the chickens…. 

1) Livestock Guardian Dogs are not supposed to be considered trustworthy until they are 2 years old 

2) I didn’t think about how Oakley would respond when the chicken started stealing the turkey’s food 

3) Livestock Guardian’s are supposed to be introduced to animals that are accepted on the property.  

We no longer have wild chickens.  Totally my fault! 

 Oakley is amazing with the turkeys. 

She will watch the turkeys run, flap wings, even chase her and she has not acted aggressive at all.

Teen Son will be selling 5 of the turkeys for Thanksgiving.  That will be a whole new adventure.

Introducing Oakley

We had been looking for a new dog.  I was hoping to find a Livestock Guardian Dog that was needing to be rehomed.  I still am not a puppy person and we have had luck adopting rescue dogs.  There are several wonderful rescue organizations that deal with Livestock Guardian Dogs.  I contacted them but unfortunately our situation is complicated (cats, poultry, other dogs, lots of company, kids) and the only dogs that fit our situation were a pair of adolescent male boys and I was afraid they would overwhelm Luca. 

Luca was being overworked on his own all night long.  I was tired of getting up with a high powered flashlight to help Luca convince the coyotes and stray dogs to stay further away from the fence.  I needed to get Luca help!  And just as I came to this realization I found a breeder of Anatolian Sheppard’s with puppies that were 4 months old. 

Yay!

Tiffany at blackbeautyfarmandkennels.com and I chose the new dog for us.  One Sunday afternoon Oakley arrived a sweet happy puppy! Oakley had spent 10 days in a truck transport and arrived with problems with her front legs.  

I called Tiffany and we spent hours contacting other breeders and looking up information on what had happened and the best way to treat her.  We decided to give it a few days then take her to our vet and see how things were healing if we needed to do anything else.  It took about 2 weeks for her legs to return to normal.