Category: Construction and Maintenance
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Irrigation System Work and Poetry
Today, we had to take a trip up to Juniper Gulch to service the irrigation system. Unfortunately, it hasn’t been working, and the part we’ve needed to fix it isn’t available anymore. Ken spent all day at his metal lathe making a new one, so now we need to go install it and see if… Continue reading
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Checking the Hay
We went out to check on the hay at Juniper Gulch today. It’s ready to bale, so it’s a good thing we took a look. It should be done and baled by this evening. We’re taking bets on how many big round bales there will be. Last year, our first cutting resulted in 24 bales.… Continue reading
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Juniper Gulch Ranch Solar
The project to add a grid-tied solar array to the house site up at Juniper Gulch Ranch is almost complete. Final inspections should be today, and swapping the meter for the net meter may be as soon as tomorrow. We hadn’t really planned on doing this project this year, but the combination of tax credits… Continue reading
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Getting Ready for Winter
We’ve been scraping manure out of winter feeding corrals and rebuilding them. We hadn’t done a full teardown and rebuild in several years, so it was high time. Everything is now up and ready for winter. Continue reading
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Tree Protection
The rams spend a lot of time in the front pear orchard pasture. Unfortunately, they can get bored, and they tend to bash the trees. We finally got the trees protected by some welded wire fencing. Hopefully, that keeps the trees alive. Continue reading
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Removing Old Fences
We’ve started removing old fences around the apple cellar. We’re planning to remove the cellar this spring. We got it all down, just in time for more snow. Continue reading
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Removing Old Corrals
We’ve removed all the old corrals and handling stuff in preparation for rebuilding them later this summer. Continue reading
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Sheep Handling System
We’re planning on reconfiguring the sheep handling system once we put it on the other side of the hay barn. To be sure it’ll fit and see how the sheep work through it, we decided to move it up to the main hay barn area before shearing. Here it is, all set up and ready… Continue reading
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Hay Barn Reconfiguration
Now that we’ve made the transition to large square hay bales, we no longer need the backstop that the old hay stack wagon used to push the small bales up against. We’ve decided to take it down and see if we can move the sheep handling system into its place. That way, we can use… Continue reading
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Digging Out and Turkey Roosting
The gate into the ram pen is finally dug out. We mostly did it by hand. We also saw a turkey flock roosting in the trees on our way up the hill. Continue reading