Blog Trouble

I'm having trouble with getting photos into the blog.

Nap Time

Whitie and Niobe are relaxing on their new foam pads in their doghouses.  When it's cold out they curl up nicely all in the doghouse.  When it's warm out, they tend to hang out a bit.  Maybe they need pillows.

Fertilizer

These photos show the setup for transferring bulk fertilizer from the supersack to the fertilizer spreader on the back of the Fiat.

The fertilizer is a mixture of urea and potash.   The urea is normally a white pellet,  but they add  a few cups of blue dyed  "Nitrolock", which coats the urea pellets and prevents them from vaporizing in the sun and heat.  Then when it rains, the pellets dissolve, wash into the soil and  provide nitrogen for the plants.

Mulch Ways

I toured some of the pathways made by the mulcher last summer.  They are holding up pretty good with some scattered regrowth that I need to spot spray with broadleaf herbicide.  This path goes along the north side of the "pinelands" area.  On the right goes out into the field, on the left is a good size stream.

End of the road, can't go over this branch that flows into the stream mentioned above.

The branch needs a culvert so we can continue on into the wide open field beyond.

New Gate

Jeffrey and I, under the supervision of Zeus and Anneika, installed a gate on the west side of Reb's field.  This enables access by the sheep to two different zones of oats planted in the west side of the south field.   A cattle panel (3/4 of one) with one end stapled to the wood post comprises the gate.

Backhoe Lights

Jeffrey and Jackie gave me lights for the backhoe for Christmas.  I just finished installing them.  They are quite brilliant, LED light bars.  First photo without flash, second with.

Mushroom Effect

When feeding big round bales to the sheep, the hay does not flow down and we get these mushroom shaped hay bales.  They then tip over, sometimes into the feeder, sometimes out of the feeder, which is more of a problem.   So if I get there in time, I can redistribute the hay so it stays in the feeder.  If I don't get there in time, I can pitchfork the hay back into the feeder, which is a pain.  We are thinking about some hay feeder redesigns.

Oats Again

Ewes and lambs are out on the oats again for some controlled grazing.   Plan is to let them out from the corral area by Ed's for a few hours then bring them back in for their grain ration.

It's been raining off and on for days now, the ground is soft and muddy, especially in traffic areas.  Morning fogs make everything, even stuff under cover damp.