Gathering Alleyway

The wood fence of the alleyway approach to the squeeze tub for working the sheep was rotting out and needed replacement. 

The vertical slats and horizontal rails are oak sawn up with our sawmill.  Not treated, but lasted about seven years. 

The most rot occurred where the planks attached to the rails, where moisture would stay.  No surprise, really. 

We replaced with galvanized livestock wire panels,  should last longer.   Also trimmed up the crepe myrtle bushes.  Here, Jeffrey and Jackie are bringing up a group of sheep to be checked. 

More Than Oatmeal

I was asked about a recipe for the oatmeal dish that I prepare pretty much everyday, here it is:

More Than Oatmeal 

This dish is more than just oatmeal and is good for breakfast, lunch, or a snack.  The recipe makes two robust breakfast servings, or can be divided into a breakfast portion and two snack portions for later in the day.  It is not quick to make, so if one needs to eat and get off to work, making it the night before and eating it cold from the refrigerator works best.  It tastes good whether eating it cold, warm, or hot. If a particular ingredient is missing, no matter, add something else, or go without. After all, this dish is basically just oatmeal with a bunch of other nutritious stuff added to it. If you think oatmeal needs to be creamy, then think of this as something else, this stuff is not creamy. 

From a 14 ounce package of frozen greens (mustard greens, kale, turnip greens, collard greens), pour 5 to 6 ounces into a bowl, cover and microwave on high for 6 minutes. 

While the greens are cooking, in a 1¾ quart Pyrex bowl place:

• 1 cup oatmeal (“Old Fashioned” rolled oats).

• Handful (~ ¼ cup) of raisins.

• 5 or 6 prunes, cut in pieces.

• 3 tablespoons flaxseed meal (or two tablespoons per person eating the dish).

• ¼  teaspoon ground turmeric (or ¼  teaspoon per person eating the dish).

• ½ teaspoon ground rosemary leaves (or ½ teaspoon per person eating the dish).

• 3 or 4 mushrooms, washed and cut in pieces.

• 2 cups water.

Stir all together and microwave uncovered on high for 6 minutes.

While the oatmeal is cooking, prepare:

• 15 - 16 ounce can of red beans or black beans, drained and rinsed to remove some of the other non-bean ingredients.  Add to bowl of cooked greens. (If I have a pot of beans previously cooked, I ladle out a heaping cup of beans without rinsing.)

• 1¼  cups frozen blueberries (sometimes rinsed to remove twigs and trash).

• 1½ cups “Tropical Fruit Salad” from Sam’s Club (or pineapple chunks, or any other kind of cold wet fruit).

After retrieving the oatmeal mixture from the microwave, stir in the greens and beans and microwave at 60% for 4 minutes.

Then stir in the frozen blueberries and divide into the various portions to be eaten.  To the top of each portion, divide the tropical fruit. 

Chill in the refrigerator until hungry.

Ingredients, today I was out of mushrooms. 

Breakfast, part of lunch and a snack. 

Close view of breakfast. 

Cowpeas Versus Bahiagrass

Here in the northeast blueberry field, the cowpeas were planted directly into live, but not lush, bahiagrass sod.  Now in middle August, where they were planted, the cowpeas dominate and will provide lush fall forage.  After grazing, I am curious to see how the bahiagrass base looks.

Jack and New Rams

Jack and the Georgia rams are starting to hangout together, enjoying the shade of the liveoak trees during the heat of the day. 

Summer Forage, Near End

It's almost the peak of summer, yet it is time to start getting ready for the next forage cycle: late fall, winter and spring. 

Mature millet with cowpeas growing up on on them create a dense stand of forage, 3 to 4 feet tall, in the north beaver field.   Sheep were put in here yesterday and they have yet to work their way to this spot.

In the middle beaver field, I am mowing the millet and cowpea stubble and uneaten weeds left by the sheep.  Prior to sheep grazing, it looked much like the north beaver field on the left. 

In the next few weeks we will be planting oats using a seed drill into the mowed fields.  Usually any weed regrowth is sprayed with glyphosate herbicide at planting time. 

The sheep are working here in the bulldozer annexe, which is connected to the north beaver field.   This is a 2-foot tall stand of cowpeas with no millet.  

In the spring when we planted the cowpeas the soils were damp and almost immediately after planting we got a rain that settled the dirt around the seed.   The seed sprouted within a couple days.  Since the millet has to be planted separately from the cowpeas (differential seed settling in the hopper and different optimum planting depths) we ran out of time to plant the millet before the cowpeas started coming up in some of the fields. 

Cat On A Hot Tin Roof

Charcoal is a rather independent cat and roams about a bit.   This morning he climbed up onto the roof of the chick barn.   Actually, the roof is not yet hot, but we are supposed to get heat advisories today with temperatures feeling like 109 degrees.  Heat index values of 111 degrees are forecast for tomorrow.   Yesterday we got some much needed rain.

Hauling Hay

Through her Extension Service support Joy made contact with a new and nearby hay resource.  This source of quality hay is a 25 minute drive away as opposed to our other source which is 1 3/4 hours away.   So, big time and fuel saving.  This Friday and Saturday, Jeffrey and I hauled 94 bales of hay, 10 or 11 bales at a time. 

This is a picture of the hayfield, very weed free.

Hay loaded, ready to go.

Then we load it into our hay barn.  We space the rows out so the hay can breathe while it cools.

With these latest bales, spacing them out, they fill the entire hay barn.

Sunset

The New Orleans weather on channel 8 often shows sunset pictures submitted by viewers.   There usually isn't much to say about the pictures except "look at that color".  I thought the following photo had good color plus the added interest of sheep, so I emailed it in.

Unfortunately, one of the weatherman's buddies also sent in a picture, an airplane view of Louisiana swamp with a little color in the corner, that got used instead.   The viewing public missed an opportunity to see a really nice sunset picture.

Watching Grass Grow

Big bluestem grass seed was planted in these plastic plug containers July 21 in a half and half mixture of two potting soils (regular and cheap stuff).  It sprouted within a few days.  Every container sprouted; very good seed viability. 

July 28:

August 2:

August 8:

Big bluestem is a native warm-season grass that produces well and is more adapted to the acid soils of this area.  We are testing this seed for germination viability and intend to setup a small test plot. 

New (to us) Trailer

This last Sunday, while Joy and I were hauling 4 ram lambs back from Georgia, Jeffrey and Jackie went to Alabama and bought a livestock trailer to refurbish.

Our existing bumper pull trailer allows me to haul 40 lambs to market.  Often I have to make multiple trips.  Once we refurbish this gooseneck trailer, I should be able to haul 80 to 100 lambs at a time.  Possibly more, depending on what we do to the trailer.   Since our primary market is a 2 hour haul from home, this will be significant.  Plus it may open up new market opportunities. 

But first there is work to be done.

Owl

Early this morning, while I was feeding the dogs and checking on the sheep, this owl flew over and perched in a tree.  Owl stayed there allowing these pictures.  The tree overlooks a small clearing on the east side of the Schommer crossing; the sheep were there, having grazed down the millet in the south field. 

This is

A very short video of owl turning its head.

New Sire Rams 2

New ram lambs are out of the trailer getting used to the area in a transition pen, that will also be their feeding pen once they are opened up to Jack's area. 

New Sire Rams

This last weekend we went to the Hound River Farm in Hahira, GA and bought four ram lambs born in January and February, 2019.  Advantages of these rams to us are that they are bred, selected and measured for parasite resistance and they are from a similar environment as our farm:  very southeast United States with bahiagrass pastures. 

Here are a few pictures of their place.

These are the four ram lambs in the trailer before we let them out to their spot by the house with Jack.   We dewormed them heavily the morning of pickup and that evening when we arrived home.