Rain from Hermine

We have been receiving a lot of rain from tropical storm Hermine. Not as much as many areas nearby though which is a good thing since we have so much fresh dirt and gravel that might wash away. Some areas received 8 inches a day, I doubt we have gotten 4 over the last 4 days. We can't tell for sure because we pulled the post up that held up the rain gauge.

It looks like we have a foot left before the water enters the overflow pipe.

Happy horses

The horses put on quite a show after being cooped up for several days while we had work being done. I caught a little of the action.

Fall cleaning...

We are so pleased with how the pasture near the barn looked we got out and worked the last two days cleaning up old piles of lumber and increasing the size of our implement and trailer storage area. Thankfully we had fantastic weather!

I guess I am a homewrecker though... all the critters below (plus some) were in the woodpile we moved.

What a difference!

Graves Excavation finished up the tank and wow, they did a GREAT job. Besides putting in an overflow pipe, they created a great spillway. They also smoothed out some areas were rain had eroded big ditches behind the barn and turnout pens. 

Bob planted rye grass on the fresh dirt.

The llamas watched all the goings on from a safe distance.

The horses finally settled in for some grazing after a quick romp around the pasture bucking and kicking after being penned up for three days.

More progress on the dirt work

More work on the dam on the second day, it is hard to see but there is a huge drop off behind that tree. The spillway has been moved to the near side and the terrace improved to control run off. We had a shower last night and again this morning so I'm not sure if anything will be done today.

Here is a photo of one Blaze's mother, we call her MamaLama. In the background you can see the upper part of the big tank, with the improved dam it should raise the level of the water with the next heavy rain.

What happened to August?

Well, it just flew by, I guess, since I didn't even have time to post on the blog.
We have been fairly busy around the farm while trying to stay cool in a record breaking hot summer with loads of 100+ degree days. But we did have a fair amount of rain so the pastures held up better than normal and hay is more plentiful. In the photos below you will see we still have green grass (weeds).

We have been trying to make some improvements about the farm, grading the gravel drive was way overdue and while the dozer man was out we asked him about repairing the dam of our biggest stock tank. He got right on the project of putting an overflow pipe in the dam and creating a new spillway that will stop the erosion on the back side.

Here is the tank on Monday of this week.

Yesterday it looked like this.

I can't wait to see it this evening. I will try to get an "after" photo tonight.

Of course to do the project we had to pen the horses up and pull up the cross fencing. I guess it will be a good time to revisit the layout of the pastures.

The llamas are loving a bit of extra freedom to visit the other areas of the farm. This is Blaze down near the front gate. Doesn't she look regal, I just love their attitudes.

Happy sheep

The sheep are sporting their new haircuts and loving the green grass.

The fruit trees are doing pretty good this year if the high winds will just die down.

We even have apples on our new apple trees. Apples aren't a fruit that normally grow in central Texas but we are trying. This poor tree is doing great despite the sheep's attempt to kill it by chewing off its bark.

Tunis yearling ewes

Here are two of our yearling ewes. It's time for shearing!

S-t-r-e-t-c-h

That feels sooooo good.

Not a lamb this time...

It's getting into foaling time now... our pretty Mary Jane had a filly! She usually has colts, so we were excited to see this little girl born yesterday. Isn't she a wildly marked little thing! Blue eyes and all. Her dad is our Rowdy Batman.

LambCam ... EweTube

I am really thrilled with our webcam. This is a screenshot of what I can see from any computer with a good internet connection.

That's Lilly facing the camera, she might be next, Ruby is lying next to the water barrel, and Mudpie is the third in the row. In the background is Raquel and her day old lamb, Ursula. I can also pan the camera to view the outside runs to the right.

If anyone is interested in having temporary guest privileges send me an email (texastunis@yahoo.com). Bob was a wee bit exhuberant about giving out passwords to friends, so NOW I have to be careful about what I wear and do in the barn. ;-)

EweTube??

Bob knew how bad I felt about losing our first lamb of the year, so he went and bought a camera set up for the barn. It came with two cameras! They alternate and I can now watch the girls from the house. Right now it is set up in our bathroom because it is on the side of the house closest to the barn and gets the best signal. I will move the ewe "jugs" to the front of the barn soon and then we should be able to move the tv next to my bed.

Right now we have them hooked to an old black and white monitor we used on the miniature horses a long time ago. The camera had been knocked out by lightning but we kept the monitor.

This is the view from the camera aimed at the "Ladies in Waiting" pen. These are the ewes that have started "bagging up" and will be next to deliver.

This is the second camera, aimed at the newborn jug. The new lamb is behind Binkie, that's a feed bowl to the right. I love to watch the baby playing.

Weekend over...

Well, the busy weekend has passed. Thursday evening did bring us some snow!

Friday morning, everything at the farm had a dusting of snow!

But nothing like our son, Jeff received in the DFW area! Their snowfall clobbered the old record from 1888 with 12.5 inches around DFW airport.


Then after a careful drive into Waco on Friday morning, I spent several hours at the hospital with my aunt who was having vertebroplasty to repair 3 vertebrae.

Then off to the show hall to set up for the cat show. Most of it was done by the time I got there. And boy, was it cold! But we got it all ready for the exhibitors to come in Saturday morning.

The weather was better Saturday but there was some freezing fog that iced some of the bridges. I came upon two vehicles who had just lost control. One could have been really bad, she went airborne and landed upside down in a deep ditch. The good Lord must have been watching over her because she crawled out with no injuries. It took DPS over 30 minutes to come and by that time two more vehicles came sliding off the bridge. Luckily no injuries again, but one had traveled about 150 feet to come to rest on the shoulder of the oncoming traffic. Family members arrived to help the girl in the truck and they went to flag traffic down before they hit the icy bridge. I left after the trooper finally came and went on to the cat show.

We had a great entry and lots of great cats. I didn't get around to taking any photos unfortunately, there was some gorgeous cats there.

Pictures of the puppy

This is our new GP puppy... meeting the sheep for the first time.

She thinks this guard thing might be okay.

Horse poop is something new to taste. Batman isn't too sure about this new kid on the farm.

First Frost on the Farm

Oooh, it is a nice and sunny but chilly morning. I noticed we had our first frost this morning on the lower areas of the farm.
It should be another beautiful autumn day. We have been blessed this year to actually have the season, it seems to usually go from summer to winter here in central Texas.
We noticed that the people we have been buying hay from in previous years cut their field yesterday so hopefully we can fill the barn with square bales for what might be a real winter.
We should have LOTS of Tunis lambs next spring, Ralph, our ram has been in with 17 ewes the past month.
The miniature horses are putting on their shaggy coats and feeling fiesty in the cool air. Even the draft mares have been bucking and running a bit.
If I ever charge up my camera battery I will take some photos.

Remember that dry hole?

Our new stock pond has finally filled up. It took exactly a year! I just checked the post I did when it was dug (October 30, 2008). Here is a photo taken at sunrise yesterday with a little fog lifting off it. We actually are seeing a little "color" in the trees. We might actually have an autumn season this year. Beautiful clear, cool days this week!
We had so much rain in October, I hope that the farms we buy hay from can now get in and bale that last crop. We need to fill the barn!

Fairy mushrooms...

We have been getting enough rain, finally, to even grow some mushrooms.

These were so big, I half expected to find a fairy underneath them...

We have dogs...

I haven't been able to say that in over 20 years... we have two new dogs. Zack and Jack are their names and guarding sheep will be their job. We adopted them from the TX Great Pyrenees Rescue group and I just got back home with them. Luckily my friend Lesa rode with me up to Caddo Mills, TX to get them since Bob had to work. Now to get the boys settled in and introduced to the sheep, llamas, horses and cats.

Zack and Jack are 2 year old brothers and have had experience as LGDs (Livestock Guard Dogs). We hope that they will be able to protect the Tunis flock from the coyotes.

*** Follow-up*** 11-2-09

Though we really liked the boys, they just did not fit our needs because they would not bond with the sheep. We returned them to the rescue and will search for other forms of predator protection.

Hay, hay, we need more hay...

With the lack of rains in our area, we are finding it hard to locate good quality coastal bermuda hay for the horses and sheep.

Our pastures have turned to dust and broomweeds so we know that we will need a lot of hay stored.

Bob was able to get a load of rounds brought in from east Texas. This was the first time we have ordered a semi truckload. Thankfully, I work for the manufacturer of material handling equipment. My boss let us move a new model out to the farm to lift the hay off the trailer. That is an MLT 735 model and it is specifically built to be an agricultural machine. It has a hay clamp attachment on it, but can also use a bucket, hay spear, silage facer, etc. to do work on dairy farms, feedlots and ranches. If anyone is interested I'd be glad to help you find a dealer in the U.S. (or world)!!!

It made things much easier, lifting two of the big round bales at a time.

Later that day while taking some scrap metal to the recyclers, we found a field of square bales, freshly baled.

Bob was able to get 62 bales on the trailer which we happened to have with us. It was a case of being in the right place at the right time. While we were there several other people stopped to inquire about the hay. There will be a shortage this year.

I am so proud of Bob, he is amazing, I call him my hero! Less than 3 months after his major surgery and now with his "semi-colon" he is out there in 102 degree temperature loading up hay. The Lord has been good to us!

We will need some more, but we feel much better with having this now stored.

Bottle baby

HURRY UP WITH MY BOTTLE!

Not a lot happening around the farm. I'm still bottle-feeding our last Tunis lamb. His mom just doesn't produce enough milk for him so we supplement him several times a day. We named him... Trouble.But isn't he adorable. It really is nice to have a bottle baby, and since he lives with his mom he isn't totally dependent on us.