Fire Fighting school continues through 14 Dec and though it can be a pain to drive the 80 miles round trip to school a couple times a week I am finding that its rewarding in many ways. I am certainly learning a lot and I also like the camaraderie from the Fire Fighters from various departments. We have had some drop out but we all just finished the Hazardous Materials Operations level course which is a prerequisite to getting certified as a Level II Fire Fighter and I think the rest of us are hard core enough to stick it out to the end.
We have the fall garden going well, we are getting ready to do our second cutting of hay and as the title of this post alludes to..we have a couple of sheep now. We are also getting ready for number 1 daughter Jenny's wedding next month....and I for one am ready for things to slow down (what happened to the Simple Life?).
We have been getting rain on and off so things are still green here which pleases me as a farmer but its not making the bow hunters too happy...yes its deer season already though I don't hunt until the rifle season in November.
I enjoy these little vignettes around the farm and particularly in fall and spring. The haying equipment is staged waiting for a 4 or 5 day dry period so we can cut, dry, windrow, and bale.
The Black Walnut trees are some of the first trees to start shedding leaves and though they aren't colorful, their scattering on the ground means fall is soon to come even though its still hot during the day. The weather people are saying that we will have a rough winter and a colorful fall...its time (actually passed time) to start thinking of cutting wood for the wood boiler.
We stated at the beginning of the year in a blog post that we were going to start fixing up the old barn this year and get electric to the pole barn shop and we have now started both projects. Maybe a little late in the year but we have been busy and sometimes things just get pushed to one side for awhile.
The previous owner had built barn doors out of interior grade tongue and groove paneling with no cross bracing and he attached everything with paneling nails. I guess it was an attempt but as you can imagine it didn't last long and we have been putting off fixing this issue ever since we bought this place. Holly and I have now replaced a couple of the doors with heavy 2x6 planks with Z bracing and the doors now open to the inside instead of the reverse like they were. Its satisfying work, very satisfying.
And this is why we finally got around to fixing up the barn and doing a bunch of fencing around the place. This is Tulip, a pregnant Dorper Ewe that we traded the old golf cart for (along with a little mixed Ram).
Tulip and Nike have adjusted well to their new surroundings and they have the run of the stall inside the barn, the barnyard in front and the two paddocks behind the barn.
Nike was bottle fed and is very affectionate and likes to be petted and have his ears scratched while Tulip is more reserved.
They make a bit of noise once in a while, Bandit and Rose have already made friends with them, and the cattle are curious as all get out and spend hours next to the paddock fence bellowing to them or just staring at them and watching everything they do. They add a lot to the farm and we hope to grow the herd.
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