Desert Weyr Blog
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Federal Flock Inspection and Vaccinations
Yesterday was the yearly Federal flock inspection. We are in the Scrapie Flock Certification program and are certified Scrapie Free. One of the things we have to do is have our flock inspected once per year. The inspector comes out and we run every single sheep through. He checks ear tag numbers against inventory. I… Continue reading
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Shearing Day
Saturday was our sheep shearing day. On Friday, we picked up Eifion – that was the good news. The bad news is that his shearing equipment in his luggage wasn’t on the same plane as he was. He tried to shear the first flick with my Lister shears and got it done, but it was… Continue reading
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Chickens and Geese
The geese are out in the small pen beside the barn during the day, and we’ve gotten our first goose eggs. We’re pulling the eggs from the geese to sell as eating eggs until we decide whether we want goslings. We still don’t have a slaughter facility that can handle plucking. We can process them… Continue reading
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Getting Ready to Shear the Sheep
This weekend is the big sheep shearing day. On Saturday, all the sheep will get shorn, and I’ll have a bunch of new wool to skirt and prepare for sale. We’d hoped the shop would be done so the wool could go upstairs, but it’s not. I’ll be storing the boxes of wool under the… Continue reading
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Insulation and Drywall
I had a bit of a bobble trying to update this blog, so expect a lot of posts all at once today. The insulation people came back and finished installing the blown-in insulation just as the boom truck was delivering the drywall. Fortunately, the drywall contractor was right on time and moved fast. Upstairs, there… Continue reading
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Electric and Some Insulation
The shop is still progressing, but slowly. The roughed-in electric was mostly approved by the inspector. Now we just have to bury the feed line when the ground thaws enough to dig. The insulation contractor was here to put the liners up that hold the insulation in. We’re using blown-in cellulose. Yesterday, most of the… Continue reading
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24 Hours
Yesterday was the first of March. It’s full-on spring – mud season is well underway, and there’s water everywhere. Ditches are starting to run high. We were able to fill the horse and sheep water tanks with water from the pond. The driveway had actually started to dry out a bit, but mud around the… Continue reading
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Shop Electric
Jake’s been hard at work installing the electric service for the shop. There are lots of wires, outlets, and switches to be installed. We’re still waiting for the garage door to come in. Things are moving along well, though. Continue reading
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Food Safety and You
Well, there has been another major food contamination issue with meat. It’s the largest ever beef recall for E. Coli contamination. I want all of you to look behind the headlines to see the system that allowed it to happen. I also want you to consider the problems that it presents to small farmers, and… Continue reading
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Roof and More
The roof of the new shop is finally finished! It looks great. It took a while, given the snow and bad weather, but they got it done. With most of the main work done inside, the construction trailer was moved off the property and down to the next job. This is always a big milestone… Continue reading