[dominiquer60]

We are in the process of installing an 8′ high plastic net fence around our main field. After using every stinky repellent on the market and some homemade, applying for a nuisance permit (a few times), and shooting over a dozen deer in one year the situation has not improved. They pull onions out of the ground paw through straw and row cover because they know we have something tasty hiding under it. In the middle of the summer they would hop a two strand 6′ electric fence out of an alfalfa field into my summer crisp lettuce and scallions. They destroyed 2 planting of sweet corn, we couldn’t find enough puny ears to feed the 6 of us out of one field. We are able to shoot deer until 11pm with our permits, they will stay put while we drive up to them on the tractor with the shot gun so they are easy to hunt, but it is only a temporary fix. We are having success with our new fence so far and we will be trying a 6′ electric 3D fence out side of our main field.
Good Luck with keeping them out and hopefully you will have a better time of it than we have had.
Erika

[dominiquer60]

Welcome,

Mother Kathrine has some good advice. I started working with a pair of beef last summer, a heifer and a steer, they have taught me a lot and can be very useful. I am making due with what I have for now and I am passively looking for shorthorns for a future team. Good Luck with your adventures, read what has been written here about cattle and feel free to ask questions.

Erika

[dominiquer60]

Mother hens will risk their lives to protect their young, and some will risk their lives even when they don’t have young to protect.

We once had a Gos Hawk problem with the old hens on a pasture on the hill, my rooster at the time would stand in the middle of the field screaming while the hens took cover, it never got him, but did manage to grab a few hens.

Once a bird of prey got into our greenhouse where the hens live in the winter. My first thought was catch the fool bird and release it 50 miles away like you are not supposed to, so I shut the bird in. It would fly back and forth and try to land on the ground and every time it touched down a dozen hens would pile on top of the poor thing. I managed to grab it, using a grain bag to protect me from the talons. The hens helped by piling on and distracting it. Silly me when I realized that it was just a Sharp Shin Falcon, a mere 1/3 the size of the hens, just big enough to get the girls excited. I promptly released the dazed bird and never saw it bother the hens again.

Animals will do what it takes to protect their young or their group.

Erika

[dominiquer60]

We re-wired an AC with a thermostat that goes cooler than the that comes with the AC and can get it down to 40. It will ice up in extreme heat, but over all for the cost it works great. I have a friend that uses a Koolbot on her new AC, as I recall it did about the same thing, would cool to around 40, maybe a little cooler even. We are happy with our set up and plan on building a second cooler like the firs,t only twice the size for our winter storage vegetables.
Erika

[dominiquer60]

Don,
Sounds like you got a good head start to the hay season. We like to hay a couple good fields the last week of May, but corn and vegetable planting usually get in the way. This year we had such a bad late frost that our orchard grass browned pretty hard and now we are waiting for the fields to green up a little, as well as getting other crop plantings finished first. I hope everyone’s haying goes well this year, my fingers are crossed that it will be a better year for it.

Erika

[dominiquer60]

At school it was drilled into our heads that wilted red maple can kill a horse. live and dead don’t have the same effect supposedly. something about a wilted leaf and compounds breaking down is the key, coming from a university who knows if it is true, just something to consider I guess. Too bad about the horses that died, I hope that they are able to find and afford another team.

Erika

[dominiquer60]

I am coming in late here, but I am glad to have read the entire post, so many good words.

Jenn,
I am just envious that you have a willing animal capable of some plowing and a complete plow, perhaps they both need adjusting, but it is a start. I look forward to experiencing your frustrations someday. Until then my nearly yearling calves are only 400 pounds a piece, they are bottle fed runts, but could be fed up a little better, however they are not mine, just mine to fiddle with. They are under worked and are finally getting comfortable pulling a lightly loaded stoneboat, we have a long way to go until we plow.

The plow, an 8″ Syracuse, although cleaned off and repainted, is missing some key components. After Sam Rich helped me get it going well at last years NEAPFD, he took the point home to touch up for me. He did so, but now it is “somewhere in his shop,” but that is OK because clearly I am in no rush. Handles, I ordered a nice new pair from PA in March and UPS lost them and claims that they were delivered, even the local delivery guy knows that they were never in his truck. Oh well I will have to write another check and John will have to bend another pair. If I am lucky the original order will surface and I will have a spare pair.

I know I will have a hard time too when I finally get to use my plow, but I will be thrilled to have the chance to figure it out and ask for more help.

I am glad that you shared with us and I look forward to you sharing the success of it all coming together at some point.

Erika

P.S. When Sam and I used my single plow, his gelding walked on the land as close to the furrow as possible. He also gave a good tip of using the tractor to plow the first furrow, it gives you and your animal something to follow and a little less to worry about.

[dominiquer60]

Yes Tim, so great that I don’t know where the last 3 weeks have gone.

Well the lime truck guy was a little off, when I got there 2 weeks latter, there were 2 bull calves, a month apart and of 2 very different lineages and body types. Given the business of the season I opted to pass on these calves, he has a couple more due in June.

Farming has consumed my time and except for holding a really well attended Poultry School the only time off the farm has been the farmers’ markets.

[dominiquer60]

My poultry school event was a huge success with 98 attending, poultry husbandry is here to stay.

Dale actually came up with a chore for the calves, I think he has accepted the fact that they are getting integrated into the system. We sowed annual rye between rows of biotello film mulch and I used the calves to pull a tire and work in the seed. The results looked good with few holes in the mulch.

Thursday I was riding in the lime truck and discovered that an old classmate of Dale’s raises Milking Shorthorns, and that they happen to have 3 bull calves that have been born in the last 2 weeks. They keep all calves to raise on the farm. We are going to have a look on Wednesday morning, my fingers are crossed.

Erika

[dominiquer60]

Keep up the good work Jen, I can’t wait to be in the same position!

[dominiquer60]

Sooooooo very nice to be home with my hands in the dirt and my head on my own pillow. I have been finding odd jobs for the calves, today Dale even came up with one. We hand sowed annual rye between rows of biodegradable film mulch, then the calves dragged a tire between the beds to work in the seed, Dale followed with hairy vetch in the Planet Jr. There was a bit of rubbernecking as we were working in the field next to the paved county road. They did well, but there are a few new holes poked in the film, nothing the deer won’t do soon if we don’t get a fence up ASAP.

I was riding with the lime truck driver yesterday and found out that the guys father has a pair of red milking shorthorn bull calves that he may be willing to part with, I hope it pans out.

Erika

[dominiquer60]

This is wonderful news!

On a personal note, sorry to say but Cornell Farm has sold out for the year.

[dominiquer60]

I had a similar start. I have been 25 years with saddle horses, and took 2 semesters worth of draft classes in college, but learned little real life knowledge of working horses, we broke many show horses there. I have spent a day there and few days here at different teamsters places, this has provide me with good examples of their working relationships. I have read books and experimented with friends horses driving, long lining and a little work (mainly dragging a riding ring).

Then I got the Ox bug after watching a few workshops and spending a day in the woods with a young pair in Maine. Much of my inspiration and advice has come from being involved with Northeast Animal Power Field Days, MOFGA’s LIF and all of the great members of DAP. I don’t have the time that I would like to devote to working directly with a mentor, but I feel that with patience, perseverance and a little help from my friends here, I should at some point have a good team and a good working relationship with them.

Erika

[dominiquer60]

I also received this one

[dominiquer60]

12 hours until my departure for Virginia and then on north to NY, just me, the dog, the truck and the open road. The 4 ant bites that I just received may take away from my remaining hours, so just in case I don’t get the time later. I wanted to wish you all a good rest of the year and hope we meet up at one of this years draft events some time. I enjoy my winter DAP days and wireless bliss, but hopefully this is it for my Florida work and chances are highly probable that I will spend next winter where the freezing winds blow and the cattle are friendly.

My best to you all,

Erika

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