The day after - digging out

When the snow is the deeper than the height of the porch, I can't just scrape off the porch anymore.  It is so nice and easy just to scrape!   After we got the driveway and paths dug out, I put wood ash down on the slickest corner of the driveway.  We keep a couple of cans on the porch to hold the ash from the woodstove.  It isn't as good as sand if you are stuck, but it isn't bad.   And, it is free.

Storm

Big storm going on out there.  I went to check on the sheep and couldn't find the path to the barn.  I gave up shoveling  a route some time ago.  The wind just blows the snow off the field and piles it between the drive way and the barn.  I've been carefully walking along the route, packing down the snow as I go out and back twice a day.  I'm usually fine as long as I don't step off the hard packed part into deep snow.

Well, there was no way to find out where that hard area was with all the blowing and drifting, so I kept sinking, and it took me awhile to get to the barn.  I came back with my long shepherd's crook, and used it to feel ahead and fine the hard packed area.  That helped.

Spent part of the evening in the basement putting up new grow lights and thinking about getting the onion seed going.   It is a little late, but not too bad.     I put together some little wooden boxes for soil.  No one came down to find out what all the hammering was about.  When it is blowing like this, people stay put where they are, in front of the woodstove or under the covers.

We need to get dug out tomorrow morning so I can go to a gardening workshop.  Spring!!

Ophelia

This is an old photo.  See that brown (moorit) ewe with the white face toward the right?  That's Ophelia.   I was looking for a picture from when she was born, but couldn't put my hands on it.   We put her down this past weekend.  She was 12 1/2 years old and very stiff.   I was worried about her getting sick during the winter.

She was part of what remains of a small flock I had several years ago in another location.  In the picture, the sheep are out front helping to mow the lawn.  From the left, that's Cordelia, then Sparrow in back.  Alice is the brown one in front.  Then comes Chloe, the black ewe in front of a white wether named Pete.  Ophelia is in front, then a big black wether named Sal.  Aurthur is a wether with horns in back of Sal, and I can't see the face of the one in back, but it is probably Lilly.   I still have Sparrow, Alice, Arthur and Sal, and they are all very old.

Ophelia was my best ewe for fleece, from my best ewe for fleece (Cordelia) from my best ram for fleece (Moses).  I'm saying "for fleece", because other sheep were best for other things.  It never all comes in one package.

My husband and I have been taking a cut up apple out to Ophelia each morning since spring.

Late August

Whew, got that second window.   Probably have enough hay in the barn for the winter.  Well maybe.  Ok, we'd like to get a bit more in still.

We're having gorgeous late August Maine weather - cool nights for sleeping and sunny days soft on the skin.  All the wood is in for the winter already, so we'll be snug.

Best part is having family visiting -- family who don't mind hearing the same stories over again, who tell you what they want, and who appreciate the noisy crickets at night.  Only hard part is starting to miss them before they are gone.

Went to the Bangor music festival last night - great chance to dance, be silly, run into friends, and eat too much.  If you haven't been, you really should go.

Still waiting for that second window...

That first haying window in early June has also been the only one.   Some of the hay we cut got rained on a bit.   I think we'll feed it to own animals this winter, because anything we cut now will have less nutritional value.  I tried some of it on the sheep and they gave it a thumbs up.   Sheep are pretty discriminating about hay.  I now have more confidence in it.

We know one buyer who may still want some late-cut hay, and we still plan to cut more.

My husband bush hogged the remaining buckwheat, which is a green manure, in the garden beds this afternoon, then took the cultivator around and turned the beds under.  We'll turn them under once more this evening, and if things look ok, plant winter rye.   It is supposed to rain off and on the next few days, so that should give the rye a good start.  Ordinarily we'd wait a couple of days and let the green stuff break down a bit before planting, but with all the rain in the forecast, we're afraid we'll just grow weeds and undue the good work of the buckwheat, which smothered a lot of the weeds for us.

Open weather window - hay

Wow, we finally got our few days clear weather to hay, but it wasn't until the first week of July.  We've been ready to go since May.  Folks down on the Maine coast got going in May, and Kennebec County hayed in June.  We're in Penobscot County, and have been waiting to go.

This was only our second year haying using our own equipment, and we learned a lot.  Next year we'll know more.   There are so many more variables than appear on the surface.  I cut 2 days and then got rained on.  IOnly twenty percent chance of rain had sounded so good, after no break in the weather during May and June.   The hay I cut just before the rain looked pretty good, so we'll feed it here, if we run out of the later cut hay.   When things finally cleared, we raked and baled one load faster than we've ever done it - gorgeous drying weather - sunny, breezy, and low humidity.   Then, I thought some of the hay was too green, and was scared to keep it in the sheep barn, so we dragged it all outside.  Still not sure if we did the right thing or not.  Oh well.  In between we got in some hay that looks pretty good, if maybe on the dry side. 

Later edit:  Put a "free hay pile" list on Craig's List, and someone took the "too green" hay to feed some local beef, so it didn't go to waste.

I found a dead cat in the field.  I don't think haying machinery killed it - looked mostly eaten, with a head and attached entrails, and two paws left.   Maybe  it was a fox, or fisher, or coyote.  That was sad.   The cat probably belonged to a neighbor.  I walked over and told him, and he said "I try not to get too attached to the cats."  Barn cats have to be able to go outside to do their job, and it is a dangerous world.    I baled a snake, which was the end of the snake.   We managed to avoid the bobolink nest in the front field, which felt good.  Left plenty of room around it too.

Week of Memorial Day Weekend

Been a busy week/weekend, mostly with chores, but the weather makes it pleasant.   Light wind, few biting insects (except at dusk), sun, and mostly only raining at night!   Lovely light.   We saw some eastern blue birds along the driveway.   A friend said that folks along the coast have been haying the last two weeks with beautiful, clear, drying weather.   We've had just enough rain to put off haying here, for the most part.  That's ok.   We'll have a bit more growth when we do cut.

We did a lot of mowing toward the end of last week, so the place looks tidy.   Went over part of the sheep pasture twice, to mulch in the fairly long grass.  Had to cut it because of the large number of buttercups.   They contain a caustic chemical, and animals can't graze them.   Only good news is that once buttercups are cut, the chemical partly breaks down, so buttercups in hay are safe.  

Got two of the handful of old sheep sheared.   This is a long process because my back won't let me do it the "proper" way, and there aren't enough sheep to make it sensible to try to get a shearer.   I put a sheep on a blocking stand and use hand shears, going slowly.   My husband says it takes me about an hour per sheep, but I've never wanted to time it.   I'm not keeping the fleece from the old sheep.  The object is to just get it off, for the health of the animal.  Within a month the rough coats will grow out enough so that my sloppy shearing won't show.   The sheep are helping to improve the pasture.  They've already been wormed this spring, but I'm behind on hoof trimming and shearing.   One or two more next weekends, then will be done.  After than, next thing is to clean out the barn.

Planted one garden bed with buckwheat, and have been watering alot.   Next time we'll try to do it just before a rain.  The new cultivator works great!

Tractor and haying equipment are ready to go, in terms of maintenance.

Preparations

Spring has come so early, that it makes me feel perpetually behind! But, we're getting the preparations done. My husband and I have have gotten the disc mower out of the back shed (I still have to clean it up). This was an iffy proposition, because it had half fallen over, and is extremely heavy - way too heavy for two people to lift. But, we got lucky and it came out easily. Sheep have been wormed. We've started greasing the baler. My husband sharpened the blades on the bush hog this morning.

The new tiller is coming in a few days, and we're excited to see how it works on a couple of old, overgrown garden beds. There is a major weed problem, so we're planning to plant buckwheat first. We'll mow it before it goes to seed, and then till it under. Next, we'll plant winter rye (might have it wrong, but that is what I remember at the moment). Then, that gets tilled under. With luck, that process will choke out the weeds, and we'll have a couple of nice new garden beds next year.

The barn swallows arrived back last night. I'm sorry to say I went out and knocked down their nests from last year this morning. I like a few around, but last year there were so many in the sheep barn that it was very hard to keep the water buckets clean. Would like it if a few stayed around - they do a great job on flying insects, and are just generally very cheerful. But, I need the sheep to have fresh water too.

Always a pleasure to do something new. My husband got me going, and I used the disc mower to cut hay this afternoon. I left lots of "rooster tails" (areas I missed on the corners), but maybe I'll do better next time.

This is very, very late first cut, with little or no nutritional value. But, we're getting what we can get. At least it may keep the sheep's rumens going, and keep the sheep warm this winter. Almost everyone around here is in the same boat after the long, rainy, cool summer. We're all scrambling for hay. I figure that I'm not likely to be able to buy much better. The great hope is that we can bring in a bit of second cut later this month or in September, to have something with some nutrition for January and February. In any case, we'll be feeding more grain than usual.

The vegetable garden didn't fare much better. I'm going to pull up some of the electronet fencing around it tomorrow, and use it to get some sheep out on part of the lawn that looks particularly tasty. It will mean less mowing for my husband, and more nutrition for the sheep. Their pasture is plenty large enough, but with all the rain, the buttercups really took off this year.   Buttercups are no problem in hay, but when they are green in the pasture, they are caustic.

Bobolinks

I was walking home from the back of the hayfield this afternoon, and flushed several birds along the way. Several looked like they were the young from one nest. I was a bit concerned, especially since they headed way over to some woods. I walked a bit away and stayed and watched. Those few were joined by a few more, and a few more - maybe 25 to 35 eventually. They weren't very organized, but seemed to be working on getting things together as a flock. Based on a couple of adults that swooped closer to me, I think this group may be the Bobolink young from several nests. Perhaps they are getting in shape and practicing before taking off for South America. I wonder if the adults lead the young down the first time, for this species. If anyone knows, please let me know. I thought the Bobolinks left by mid July, so I'm not sure if the birds I saw were Bobolinks. In any case, they were a lot of fun to watch, learning to fly together.

There would never have been so many Bobolinks, or any Bobolink young, surviving in a normal year on the hay field, because their nests would have been destroyed when haying. Bobolinks are one of the few ground nesting birds that will not try to re-nest if a nest is destroyed. They just head for their winter home in South America. Because of all the rain this year, haying is very late and it seems to be a very good year for Boblinks. Bobolink populations have been declining rapidly over all, so as much as I'm worried about winter feed, I have to be happy for the Bobolinks.