Field season in ernest
May. 27th, 2024 12:20 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
unicorndukeI was out and about three work days last week in the heat and one day of shearing on Friday.
Shearing was an interesting day, because the first stop was supposed to be 12 rams and 18 ewe yearlings and we got there, the rams weren't caught (J tends to be late, but they just hadn't caught them yet). We were set up outside in the sheep's field and they had set up a temporary pen for catching them. They were caught relatively quickly and they hadn't gotten a shearing board for me. Got them all done. I did three. Biggest challenge was the slight slope to the field and ram scrotums. They grow wool on them, so you need to shear them. I muddled through it. The flies were out, so I was pleased with my long sleeve shirt. After we finished the rams, then we thought the yearling ewes but the owner just said he didn't want to do them today so we didn't.
The next stops were scheduled for the afternoon, so J and I went and checked on some of his cows that he had at someone else's property. One of the cows was out and we herded her back in. J checked all his fence line for power. Then he found the second out cow, who was no longer alive. So he ran and grabbed a tarp and covered said cow because the farm owner had some airbnb campers coming later in the afternoon.
Then we moved on.
Second stop was one sheep and four goats. I sheared while J did the goats feet. This sheep is a pet and extremely well fed and so fat. It outweighed me by a lot but I got it done. The owner way overpaid me for the work, but hey I'll take it.
Next stop was fourteen or so sheep, mix of ewes, a couple rams of varying ages. All jumpy kickers but I got four of them done. A lady stopped by who knew the owners and was going to take the fleeces and process them, apparently she does a lot of stuff in the grease. There was some odd dynamic there that I could tell something was weird but I couldn't tell what it was. To be fair, I was also distracted. We also drenched the sheep with dewormer.
Then we went just down the road to a place with Icelandics. Not the worst sheep, except the owner had forgotten we were coming, he was at work and the sheep were still in the pasture. Arg. Fine. We did the four sheep that were inside, two ewes with lambs and two rams. While J was doing one of the sheep, I caught the goat and did her hooves. There was two people there, maybe parents of the sheeps owner? Functionally useless for animal handling, they had no idea what they were doing and shouldn't have been anywhere near any of this.
One of them stood and shook the bucket and some of the sheep came into a narrow area and we caught some of them, so sheared what we could. Finally the owner got back and they were able to catch the last three. By this time, my back was really sore and the last sheep I did got so fed up with me, that she started kicking and kicked everything even vaguely near me and I swore a bit and sat on her. J took her and finished the last quarter of her. I did hooves on the rest that he sheared.
Total of ten sheep for the day. In the middle of the day, my boss, C texted and asked if I was willing to work Sunday in exchange for a day off later in the week because corn needed to get in the ground and she had a camping trip later in the week. Plus today it's supposed to rain a lot. Sure, mentioned it to J and he said there was a good chance we could do a big shearing job on thursday. Great.
Saturday, I baked granola and a chocolate custard pie and took the pie over to the farm. B and company had their sister in town plus children, so they were gathering saturday afternoon. I hung out with B and got her loom stabilized and fixed up, then we moved to the main house and had delicious delicious chicken and potato salad. I used to despise potato salad but it's growing on me as long as I don't think too hard about the mayonnaise.
Yesterday, I headed to C's and we planted 2/3 an acre of corn. This is white corn that she's growing out for one of the local tribes who are having trouble with their own growouts for various reasons. So we're doing a little planting trial. We seeded 72 cell trays with one corn per cell, two corn per cell and "direct seeded" in paper pot trays. Then we used the most fun transplanter. It is a bare ground transplanter, where the trays are mounted on a rack in front of you vertically and you pull cells out and drop them in a rotating tube that drops them open. A delight to transplant in, comfy seat, easy on the back. The single corns were planted at 7 inches apart, the doubles at 14 inches apart and then we used the paperpot transplanter to put out the seeds as direct seeding. It's a really nice system, but you need really nice sandy or sandy loam soils that don't clump.
Finished all that up and I got ice cream and headed home. Laid in bed and watched the PWHL finals game, where it went to 2 overtime periods by around 10pm and then there was an overturned goal that would have won the whole thing for Minnesota and then Boston won the game and it's going to a fifth game. If it hadn't ended at 2 overtimes I was going to bed.
Today I'm bumping around the house, ran out for some vegetables from a farm stand this morning, plus yogurt since I had run out. Did some chaotic gardening, planted out 15 or so transplants and all the narcissus bulbs that I was gifted. Pulled some weeds. I desperately need to get compost, so hoping I can do that next weekend.
Full week of work coming up, plus shearing on friday.
Shearing was an interesting day, because the first stop was supposed to be 12 rams and 18 ewe yearlings and we got there, the rams weren't caught (J tends to be late, but they just hadn't caught them yet). We were set up outside in the sheep's field and they had set up a temporary pen for catching them. They were caught relatively quickly and they hadn't gotten a shearing board for me. Got them all done. I did three. Biggest challenge was the slight slope to the field and ram scrotums. They grow wool on them, so you need to shear them. I muddled through it. The flies were out, so I was pleased with my long sleeve shirt. After we finished the rams, then we thought the yearling ewes but the owner just said he didn't want to do them today so we didn't.
The next stops were scheduled for the afternoon, so J and I went and checked on some of his cows that he had at someone else's property. One of the cows was out and we herded her back in. J checked all his fence line for power. Then he found the second out cow, who was no longer alive. So he ran and grabbed a tarp and covered said cow because the farm owner had some airbnb campers coming later in the afternoon.
Then we moved on.
Second stop was one sheep and four goats. I sheared while J did the goats feet. This sheep is a pet and extremely well fed and so fat. It outweighed me by a lot but I got it done. The owner way overpaid me for the work, but hey I'll take it.
Next stop was fourteen or so sheep, mix of ewes, a couple rams of varying ages. All jumpy kickers but I got four of them done. A lady stopped by who knew the owners and was going to take the fleeces and process them, apparently she does a lot of stuff in the grease. There was some odd dynamic there that I could tell something was weird but I couldn't tell what it was. To be fair, I was also distracted. We also drenched the sheep with dewormer.
Then we went just down the road to a place with Icelandics. Not the worst sheep, except the owner had forgotten we were coming, he was at work and the sheep were still in the pasture. Arg. Fine. We did the four sheep that were inside, two ewes with lambs and two rams. While J was doing one of the sheep, I caught the goat and did her hooves. There was two people there, maybe parents of the sheeps owner? Functionally useless for animal handling, they had no idea what they were doing and shouldn't have been anywhere near any of this.
One of them stood and shook the bucket and some of the sheep came into a narrow area and we caught some of them, so sheared what we could. Finally the owner got back and they were able to catch the last three. By this time, my back was really sore and the last sheep I did got so fed up with me, that she started kicking and kicked everything even vaguely near me and I swore a bit and sat on her. J took her and finished the last quarter of her. I did hooves on the rest that he sheared.
Total of ten sheep for the day. In the middle of the day, my boss, C texted and asked if I was willing to work Sunday in exchange for a day off later in the week because corn needed to get in the ground and she had a camping trip later in the week. Plus today it's supposed to rain a lot. Sure, mentioned it to J and he said there was a good chance we could do a big shearing job on thursday. Great.
Saturday, I baked granola and a chocolate custard pie and took the pie over to the farm. B and company had their sister in town plus children, so they were gathering saturday afternoon. I hung out with B and got her loom stabilized and fixed up, then we moved to the main house and had delicious delicious chicken and potato salad. I used to despise potato salad but it's growing on me as long as I don't think too hard about the mayonnaise.
Yesterday, I headed to C's and we planted 2/3 an acre of corn. This is white corn that she's growing out for one of the local tribes who are having trouble with their own growouts for various reasons. So we're doing a little planting trial. We seeded 72 cell trays with one corn per cell, two corn per cell and "direct seeded" in paper pot trays. Then we used the most fun transplanter. It is a bare ground transplanter, where the trays are mounted on a rack in front of you vertically and you pull cells out and drop them in a rotating tube that drops them open. A delight to transplant in, comfy seat, easy on the back. The single corns were planted at 7 inches apart, the doubles at 14 inches apart and then we used the paperpot transplanter to put out the seeds as direct seeding. It's a really nice system, but you need really nice sandy or sandy loam soils that don't clump.
Finished all that up and I got ice cream and headed home. Laid in bed and watched the PWHL finals game, where it went to 2 overtime periods by around 10pm and then there was an overturned goal that would have won the whole thing for Minnesota and then Boston won the game and it's going to a fifth game. If it hadn't ended at 2 overtimes I was going to bed.
Today I'm bumping around the house, ran out for some vegetables from a farm stand this morning, plus yogurt since I had run out. Did some chaotic gardening, planted out 15 or so transplants and all the narcissus bulbs that I was gifted. Pulled some weeds. I desperately need to get compost, so hoping I can do that next weekend.
Full week of work coming up, plus shearing on friday.
no subject
Date: 2024-05-27 04:52 pm (UTC)During shearing, I told the story about meeting you at NYS&W last fall and how Pinxterbloom Farm was trying to convince you to become a shearer. I’m glad you tried it and are finding it worthwhile!
no subject
Date: 2024-05-27 05:31 pm (UTC)