by OogieFarmBlog | Jan 19, 2013 | Farming Life
The Desert Weyr farm Blog is back in Business. After over a year off I am ready to again start blogging about the farm. I’m hoping to do roughly monthly updates here.
by OogieFarmBlog | Aug 6, 2011 | Black Welsh Mountain Sheep
The Culinary Students All enjoyed watching the two bottle lambs Bo and Peep being fed.
by OogieFarmBlog | Jul 13, 2011 | Black Welsh Mountain Sheep
Desert Weyr Yoda is one of our pet wethers. He is usually fat enough that he looks like he will lamb. In this case as Ken was checking the sheep he noticed that Yoda had managed to snag a set of twins to care for. Mom, Desert Weyr Briallen seems glad to have an...
by OogieFarmBlog | Jul 9, 2011 | Black Welsh Mountain Sheep
Our 2011 lambing season is over. 58 nice lambs but way too many open ewes. Desert Weyr Logan will be guest of honor at Revolution Brewing later this year in smoked kolbassi sausages. He didn’t get a single one of his ewes pregnant. The other ewes will get...
by OogieFarmBlog | Jul 6, 2011 | Weather
Rainbow on Garvin Mesa Desert Weyr Farm Blog
by OogieFarmBlog | Jul 4, 2011 | Farming Life
4th of July, grass is looking good and the lambs are growing very well.The saying in Paonia is if Mt. Lamborn has snow on the 4th of July it’s a good water year. This is a very good year, our cold spring and heavy snow means plenty of irrigation water for later...
by OogieFarmBlog | Jul 2, 2011 | Poultry
With apologies to C.W. McCall,Sleepy hens and tired chicks. Desert Weyr Farm Blog
by OogieFarmBlog | Jun 28, 2011 | Black Welsh Mountain Sheep
Early Morning out checking the feed in the ram pasture. Desert Weyr Farm Blog
by OogieFarmBlog | Jun 27, 2011 | Black Welsh Mountain Sheep
Tanwen lambed a large 9 pound 10 ounce ram lamb with no problems. She still looks fairly wide though.Went down to Black Bridge Winery and took a look at the river. High and muddy but not flooding so far. Desert Weyr Farm Blog
by OogieFarmBlog | Jun 26, 2011 | Farming Life
My Friend Alan was here for a visit on the first part of his tour of the US. We had to take him down to Revolution Brewing where we met Joealan and then Joe. Couldn’t get all 3 to look at the camera at the same time though! Desert Weyr Farm Blog
by OogieFarmBlog | Jun 25, 2011 | Farming Life
Abstract under the big power lines over on the east side of the property.This is Desert Weyr Tanwen, probably the last ewe to lamb for 2011. A wide load indeed! Desert Weyr Farm Blog
by OogieFarmBlog | Jun 24, 2011 | Farming Life
More new lambs. This ewe had twins. First of the new hay is arriving. First cutting was 708 small bales. Desert Weyr Farm Blog
by OogieFarmBlog | Jun 23, 2011 | Farming Life
Time to get the solar panels up onto the shop roof for the PV system. It’s quite a long way and everyone is using safety harnesses and ropes. Hay barn is cleaned out ready for the new hay. SHould be arriving today or tomorrow. My DNA cable sweater is also coming...
by OogieFarmBlog | Jun 21, 2011 | Black Welsh Mountain Sheep
The ram Desert Weyr Kirk died today. We had a veterinarian do a pm. He had a perforated stomach from an ulcer and had peritonitis. Probably the result of the injuries sustained in his feeder accident back the beginning of May. Desert Weyr Farm Blog
by OogieFarmBlog | Jun 20, 2011 | Livestock Guardian Dogs
Winnie is very protective of the younger lambs.This young lamb wanted to play hop on mom. The two lambs in front are being baby sat by this ewe while their mother is off grazing. The babysitter is their aunt. Desert Weyr Farm Blog
by OogieFarmBlog | Jun 18, 2011 | Black Welsh Mountain Sheep, Poultry
The dinner chickens actually arrived 9 June but I didn’t get any pictures until today. We lost more than usual in the first few days but they seem to be ok now. We’ve got sheep on both sides of the center divider fence and a dog in each group. Winnie is...
by OogieFarmBlog | Jun 16, 2011 | Uncategorized
Desert Weyr Alice is a first time ewe and seemed to be having a few problems so Ken was holding her head while I checked to see what we needed to do. She is quite calm which was fortunate. She ended up having a 9 pound 5 ounce ram lamb with horns about half an inch...
by OogieFarmBlog | Jun 15, 2011 | Uncategorized
We’ve had a lot of cold and rain and we had some lambs born in the irrigation ditch that were cold. So we made a small lamb box to put the one colder lamb in for a few hours. It worked well and by the time the lamb got warm and climbed out everything was fine....
by OogieFarmBlog | Jun 11, 2011 | Livestock Guardian Dogs
Here are the triplets. They are doing well and mom appears to be able to feed them all so far.Winnie is doing well protecting her new sheep. Desert Weyr Farm Blog
by OogieFarmBlog | Jun 6, 2011 | Black Welsh Mountain Sheep
First lambs of the second batch. A set of triplet ram lambs. We put them all in a wire panel jug for a few hours just to be sure mom could count to three. She did seem to lose track of one of the lambs when we first moved her out to fresh grass but she is getting...
by OogieFarmBlog | May 28, 2011 | Farming Life
Ken got the mower we got last year working finally. At first it was blowing a lot of oil smoke but that soon cleared up. He had to rebuild the engine.Since the sheep did not finish grazing around the guest house before they had to move to the orchard pasture for...
by OogieFarmBlog | May 25, 2011 | Uncategorized
Today started out rather interesting. We had planned to make a trip to Grand Junction to do the in between batches fo lambs shopping but had to change our plans. First we had a surprise late lamb. 9 pounds 9 ounces and doing fine. Mom had him up dry and nursed when we...
by OogieFarmBlog | May 17, 2011 | Uncategorized
One of the lambs resting on a rock in the pasture. Desert Weyr Farm Blog
by OogieFarmBlog | May 14, 2011 | Uncategorized
Winnie has decided she is now the official lambing pasture guard dog along with Kimball. Winnie seems to take up a station near the youngest lambs and stays there until there are newer ones. She is being very alert and watchful and doing a great job. Desert Weyr Farm...
by OogieFarmBlog | May 8, 2011 | Uncategorized
The ewes are finally lambing. For Mother’s Day we had 3 ewes lamb 5 lambs. 4 ewe lambs and a ram lamb. All are doing well although I had to assist 2 of the ewes. One had twins and legs were back the other was a first timer and didn’t dilate and then the...
by OogieFarmBlog | May 3, 2011 | Uncategorized
We finally were able to get a clear safe shot on the coyote that’s been hanging around. Generally we try to leave the coyotes alone. If they respect the fences and dogs and don’t bother us or the sheep we don’t bother them. The last time we had to...
by OogieFarmBlog | Apr 24, 2011 | Uncategorized
Lovely Easter Dinner: Mutton Racks, Rice, Fresh Salad from Small Potato Farm and a Pinot Noir from Terror Creek Winery. Desert Weyr Farm Blog
by OogieFarmBlog | Apr 22, 2011 | Uncategorized
We’ve had some problems with the sheep sweep over the years. The sheep have worn a path down the middle and the panels have sunk into the ground. This year we decided to put some gravel down on top of weed block and then use old mine belt to make a more durable...
by OogieFarmBlog | Apr 7, 2011 | Uncategorized
Next day, still a burn day so we got the brush from the east orchard done. Desert Weyr Farm Blog
by OogieFarmBlog | Apr 6, 2011 | Uncategorized
Started to burn the west orchard brush piles today. That’s where the ewes will go first for lambing so we need the brush gone. Desert Weyr Farm Blog
by OogieFarmBlog | Apr 2, 2011 | Uncategorized
Larry’s back to build another section of fence. First task was to remove the welded wire panels that made up the temporary fencing. He used the brush rake to move the panels.We built a large stack over by the guest house in front of the shop. Desert Weyr Farm...
by OogieFarmBlog | Mar 26, 2011 | Uncategorized
Shearing done for 2011.Lots of sticky fleeces and hard shearing sheep. Not entirely sure of the issue. Some is probably weather, ours was not the only hard shearing flock, some is also coats. I ran out of larger size coats and so they were on too tight and I think...
by OogieFarmBlog | Mar 23, 2011 | Uncategorized
Black Sheep Power & Light, a photo by Oogie McGuire on Flickr.One of the solar arrays providing sheep shade. Desert Weyr Farm Blog
by OogieFarmBlog | Mar 18, 2011 | Uncategorized
Good thing the ditch got cleaned yesterday!The snow had already started settling and melting by the time I took these pictures. Desert Weyr Farm Blog
by OogieFarmBlog | Mar 17, 2011 | Uncategorized
Spring work has started. We hired a trackhoe to clean the ditch that comes down into our property that carries our water. It hasn’t been cleaned in years and required a bigger machine than our small backhoe.Looking good! Desert Weyr Farm Blog
by OogieFarmBlog | Mar 15, 2011 | Uncategorized
I needed some white wool for blending with our black for new rovings so I went over to one of the big range flock operations during shearing to buy some wool. Getting the next batch of sheep in for shearing.The big flocks hire large crews. This crew had 13 shearing...
by OogieFarmBlog | Feb 19, 2011 | Uncategorized
Not much going on right now. The sheep are getting fat, we fill hay feeders, fill water tanks and repeat. I haven’t been taking many pictures so not much new. Last week we had help and got all the ram lambs toes trimmed. Still have all the ewes, rams and ewe...
by OogieFarmBlog | Jan 10, 2011 | Uncategorized
The elk are back! Desert Weyr Farm Blog
by OogieFarmBlog | Jan 1, 2011 | Uncategorized
One of the issues with the solar panels being up high to keep them out of ram reach is that they are also too high to easily brush the snow off. Now if they were on the roof we’d just have to wait until the snow melted. With them sort of close to the ground we...
by OogieFarmBlog | Aug 31, 2010 | Uncategorized
Whoops, just realized that I was setting my blog posts as drafts by default. Which means they were not getting posted at all! Massive cockpit error. So I will be going in and making sure they are set to be seen today once I get back from the all morning meeting I have...
by OogieFarmBlog | Aug 4, 2010 | Uncategorized
While Ken stayed home to care for the farm I headed off to Wales again to continue training to become an approved judge for Black Welsh Mountain Sheep. After a relatively unevventful plane flight from Grand Junction to Dallas, then overnight flight from Dallas to...
by OogieFarmBlog | Aug 2, 2010 | Uncategorized
Yoda looking particularly majestic. He’s doing well for an old sheep.We have some sheep on the front pear orchard pasture. Desert Weyr Farm Blog
by OogieFarmBlog | Jul 31, 2010 | Uncategorized
End of July and both poles are installed and the first of the brackets and racks to hold the solar panels are in place. Desert Weyr Farm Blog
by OogieFarmBlog | Jul 30, 2010 | Uncategorized
Second big pole being moved into position.Getting it installed.Mixing the mortar that holds it into place.Bracket structure started.First piece of the brackets that will hold the solar panels. Desert Weyr Farm Blog
by OogieFarmBlog | Jul 29, 2010 | Uncategorized
Things dried out enough to continue work. After some initial filling in of the holes the wires and conduit were run from the poles to the hay barn. Looking down where the metal pole will fit into the plastic pipe sleeve.Getting the first pole in place.Once the pole...
by OogieFarmBlog | Jul 28, 2010 | Uncategorized
The next morning we surveyed the damage. There was water in the holes around the forms but things looked ok. However, the barn was a mess. Desert Weyr Farm Blog
by OogieFarmBlog | Jul 27, 2010 | Uncategorized
The concrete came for the piers for the solar system. Got it all poured with no problems.That evening it started to rain and the trenches filled up. Ken took the backhoe and dug an emergency ditch through the hay barn to keep the water away from the precious hay. We...
by OogieFarmBlog | Jul 26, 2010 | Uncategorized
Spoke too soon about the rocks. The second hole and the trench ended up uncovering a nest of rocks. Some were too big for our tractor to pick up but Ken was able to push them around a bit. It’s amazing how far down 9 feet is. The forms are in place to pour the...
by OogieFarmBlog | Jul 24, 2010 | Uncategorized
Late Summer Grazing. The bare patch in the pasture is where we burned the prunings this year. I need to find a different way to deal with the pruning debris because it hurts the pasture to burn it. Rambo and his buddy Rambutt. Rambutt is the one looking at us, he has...
by OogieFarmBlog | Jul 20, 2010 | Uncategorized
All the first cutting hay is in. John came down to weigh some bales so we can pay for it. We buy the hay by weight not by the bale. First cutting ended up being 664 bales and 19.3 tons. Normally we get about 45 tons for the first cutting.After the haying we needed to...
