Desert Weyr Blog
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Quick Note-Taking Systems
A short recap: I needed a faster way to take notes during brainstorming sessions. After reviewing traditional shorthand, LiveScribe, and a few other choices, I narrowed my options down to EasyScript and QuickHand. To get a feel for the two systems, I bought two books off of eBay: EasyScript Express and the QuickHand Self-Teaching Guide.… Continue reading
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Sheep AI Experiment, 2009, Part Three: More Ram Collections
With the USDA folks back, it was time to collect semen again. This time, it will be a slightly different freezing protocol. Here you can see the rams in the sweep, ready to go. They are not happy – they know what’s coming. One ram, Desert Weyr Kai, got to go in with the ewes.… Continue reading
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A Solar Update
It’s been almost a year since we installed the solar hot water system. It provides both domestic hot water and supplemental heat for our radiant floor system. We learned several usage tricks early on, and they have not changed over time. We need to plan on doing most laundry and major hot water usage in… Continue reading
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RMPBS Signal, Lost in Translation
PBS is the only TV channel that we get with useful programs. They air real news via the Nightly Business Report and the News Hour, plus other interesting shows, documentaries, and entertainment. Unfortunately for much of rural America, the vaunted digital transformation is a joke. You see, a little-known exemption means that anyone who receives… Continue reading
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Sheep AI Experiment, 2009, Part Two: Syncing the Ewes
Our next step in the AI project is syncing the ewes’ heat cycles. We put CIDRs in all of the ewes today. The first group will be the AI girls. The second batch is a control group, and they’ll be bred via a live cover ram. He’ll be testing the sync procedure. Here you can… Continue reading
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Ewe Sorting and Lamb Vaccinations
We got one batch of ewes sorted out today. This group will go to the live cover ram as a control for the AI procedure. They’re now all sorted into breeding pens, and they’ve had their fall dewormer to kill nose bots. The potential AI girls are now in the other pen, closest to the… Continue reading
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Sheep AI Experiment, 2009, Part One
Today was the start of another sheep AI experiment. We started our 2009 trials with the USDA-NAGP people. We collected semen from 14 adult Black Welsh Mountain rams. Each ram had its picture taken in front of a size-marked tarp for future reference. While I managed to get pictures of the picture-taking process, I didn’t… Continue reading
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Feeding Sheep
The sheep are in the winter pens now. Here you can see the ewes eating hay and, later, a nearly-empty feeder. We’re going through more hay than normal, but we also have more sheep than normal. A good selection of ewes, ewe lambs, and ram lambs is for sale if you’d like to start your… Continue reading
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Fall in the North Fork
Mt. Lamborn has a skiff of snow on it. This is our view down into the North Fork valley. The fall colors are beautiful this time of year. Continue reading
