Desert Weyr Blog
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The Smell of Winter
When doing chores this evening, I was reminded of the smells of winter. It’s the calm before the storm due tomorrow, and the smell of coal smoke is in the air. I can only catch a faint whiff. It’s not like 30 years ago, when a day like this had an overwhelming smell of coal… Continue reading
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Being Filmed
I was interviewed for the Locavore Movie, which is about local food, sustainable farming, and the state of modern agriculture. I have no idea whether any of my answers will be in the movie. It’s due to be produced only on DVD, and it’ll be available in Spring 2009. Flat Stanley got his picture taken… Continue reading
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Flat Stanley Has a Busy Day
Today was quite a busy day here at the farm. Things didn’t really get started until the afternoon, but we had a lot to do. Our first problem was the septic tank. We’ve had some sewer gas backing up into the house when we do laundry. The plumber came yesterday, and we found a trap… Continue reading
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More Fencing
To get the back cedars section ready for Larry, we had to take down the old fence that was there. This is where the new fence will go. Ken moved a bunch of rocks out and smoothed the ground. Here’s another view of the new fence. A look at where the new fence line will… Continue reading
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New Divider Fence
With the front west orchard pasture now reseeded and back to permanent pasture, we needed to install a more permanent divider fence. The fence is far enough away from the trees that we can get the tractor and marker down beside them, but not too far into the next pasture. With a good, solid welded… Continue reading
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Sheep AI, Day Three
Day three proved to be hectic. We had poor post-thaw motility on the frozen semen for some reason, so we had to rearrange and collect the rams again and use fresh, cooled semen. With 56 ewes to inseminate and 15 rams to collect, it was impossible to get any pictures of the proceedings. Our cell… Continue reading
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Sheep AI, Day One
We volunteered to be a test flock for a new sheep AI procedure. The plan for day 1 was to give the ewes their shots to bring them into heat. I didn’t get any pictures of the procedure, as we were working fast to get them all done. For the actual inseminations, we’ll be putting… Continue reading
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Living With Solar
We’ve finished installing the solar hot water system, and after a month or so, I thought I’d post the first lessons we’ve learned. Installing a solar system will not, in and of itself, make a huge difference. You will also have to change your behavior to take advantage of the system’s strengths and weaknesses. For… Continue reading
