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Our good neighbours, Willowtree Farms, have had one of those little compact Kubota tractors with a loader on their farm all summer.  So when it came time to try and clean out these sheep, I asked if maybe we could borrow it to see if it would do the job.  It has a much smaller turning radius than our loader tractor, plus it’s 4wd so it has lots of traction to get that packed down manure out.  Of course they were quite willing and it worked well.

The funny thing is, it isn’t their tractor.  Mike’s , who is a friend of Alex McKay, grandfather left it to his grandkids, and Willowtree is just ‘storing’ it at their farm.  So it’s one of those friend of a friend situations.

Since it worked so well, and we have another couple of barns to clean out over the winter, we have the Kubota parked in our coverall, and since it has the manure fork that we made on it, it is kinda handy to set a round bail in for the sheep every once in a while.  In fact, we are kinda thinking we’d be lost with out it, and need to find one of our own.

Then last week, Jordy from Willowtree, came and borrowed it back to clean out one of their barns.  He was good enough to return it as soon as he was done, so I told him, they could borrow it anytime!?!

Where ever you are Mike, we thank you!

New Years morning saw the arrival of our first lamb of the season.  You’d think we’d planned it that way! ( and we’ll take credit for it anyway!)  May the rest of the lambs to come be as happy, healthy, and easy as this first one was!

I  have the link to the video of us Meaty Guys.

www.meatyguys.ca under ‘What’s New’

facebook page (you don’t need an account to view it!) http://www.facebook.com/pages/Meaty-Guys/156172384417755

direct link http://www.rogerstv.com/page.aspx?lid=237&rid=2&gid=75195

Our Family dog Sophie, is a wonderful, and certainly exuberant, crossbred that we got from the pound.  It is believed she is part Golden Retriever and part Great Pyranise, which are actually a breed associated with guarding sheep.  They are kept right in with the sheep, and will defend their ‘family’ of sheep against any intruder. (when trained properly).  They are not the type of dog who herds sheep like Border Colie’s or such.

Since we got our dog before we ever had sheep, and since it took our dog a week of standing in the barn doorway looking at the pigs, before she actually got up the courage to come in the door, I never had much hope of her becoming much of a ‘sheep’ dog.  (Although she does like to chase coyotes when they come around, and protect her ‘family’ at the house)

Last week, we were doing some pen renovations, with the sheep in the pen still, and had to make sure none of the sheep decided to go for a walk out through the open side where we were working.  Since Sophie was with us, and she likes to chase things, my father-in-law was quite encouraging of her to ‘guard’ the opening.  She actually was quite good at it, venturing as far as the middle of the pen, where she laid down and made sure the sheep stayed at the far side of the pen. 

The trouble is that now, every time we go in that barn, she comes along and chases the sheep back to that far side of the pen!  We have finished the renovations, and the sheep now have a nice long feeder along the length of the pen, but it is hard for them to eat when a dog keeps chasing them away!

I’m back to not having much hope of her becoming much of a ‘sheep’ dog!

  We weaned the first group of lambs that were born on our Farm.  The one grower pen that was empty of pigs got converted for them.  A new water bowl for them, and a place to feed them some corn silage along with the old pig feeder to feed them grain in.  It is a little funny that the newer technology for the pigs is not that usefull for sheep or lambs, but the older type feeders and penning and equipment is a little more versatile and has been coming in pretty handy.

So, the noise level when you enter that barn is a little higher than it was (newly weaned lambs always spend a few days ‘calling’ for mom), but these ones stopped the first time I fed them, and seem to be quite happy. (as long as I bring food all the  time!)

The day started out with a call from my neighbour, (whose fields we rent) Aldon Smith.  He wants to dredge his pond out a needs a place to spread some (very wet) top soil.  I had the perfect place, (where the field had been dug up for the chicken barns across the road), but it still had corn on it.

Since we were all done the soybeans, it would only take an hour or so to change heads on the combine, and adjust the settings, and harvest the acre or so where we wanted to put the top soil.  Not really a whole day changing proposition. Or so I thought..

The trouble started when I tried to adjust the bottom screen for corn.  The whole thing was lose, and the bolts that hold it in place were gone.  Not being able to actually get it back in place, I started the process of pulling out the top screen so I could see what was wrong with the bottom one.  Several bolts, and minutes later, now with the help of ‘senior management’ we pulled out both screens to find out the whole track that the bottom screen mounts on was cracked and broken.  Not sure how we finished the soybeans with it like that! (or how long it had been broken)

Luckily, we have a spare (burnt) combine with just the right replacement part!  Of course this involves one person climbing inside the combine to hold the bolts, while the other person on the outside takes the nuts off, first for the broken one, then for the replacement, and finally to reinstall the replacement.

Now normally I’m a pretty nimble person, but at some point early in the day, I pulled a back muscle, and it just kept getting worse all day.  That left my dear, pretty-darn-nimble dad to do all the climbing into the back of the combine!  (I considered it a victory just to move.)

So us two old folkies (I’m pretty sure I was playing the part better than he was) managed to get it all back together by chore time, and the next morning, 24 hrs later than anticipated, I got that one acre of corn harvested, and ready for some real good top soil!

We have been having a little bit of trouble getting our combine harvester’s engine running well.  It seemed to be a little short or a little variable on power.  Having fixed a few things, (on a cost share warrenty, so it was only half price, thank goodness)  the dealership checked out the fuel filters.  Now I had changed them in the winter, but apparently there are three of them, and I’d only changed 2! (the old combine didn’t have a changeable 3rd one!)  So now it is running adequately, (we might have over fiddled with it trying to get it working better), and we are finally getting some soybeans harvested!

The beans are coming off at 50-60 bu. per acre, which is almost twice what we normally get for yields, so we are pretty happy with that.  The new tractor is working well (although it does get ‘confused’ sometimes, and stops changing gears, but it sorts itself out again!) and we are getting the wheat planted into the soybean fields. 

It is always a little hectic trying to get the soybeans off once they are ready, and the wheat planted as-soon-as-possible after.   Willowtree Farm are glad to hear the combine is back working, and that I’ll be there this week to harvest their beans, so they can get there wheat in too.

It’s hectic, but it’s nice when everything works out and you can take a big sigh and say ‘That’s done” …  and then go on to all the things that got put off while you where doing it.