Category: Construction and Maintenance
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Getting Ready for Shearing
We got the shearing setup built yesterday. We rebuild the catch pen and shearing floor each year under the hay barn. As always, it looks like we’ll have snow and rain for shearing. I am, yet again, scrambling to see if I can keep all the sheep dry. We will shear 137 sheep this year… Continue reading
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Black Welsh Mountain Sheep in Snow
This is what the front yard looks like today. We finally had to extend the fences. This is one of the adult rams, contemplating trying to jump out. So far, only 1 ram lamb has escaped, but I bet more would’ve been out by tomorrow if we didn’t shore up the fence. Continue reading
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New Feeders
We got the new ram lamb feeders installed today. Here are the boys before we moved them back into their normal pen. The new feeder uses two pieces that connect to make one large feeder. Continue reading
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Winter Pruning
The west side of the orchard has been completely pruned this year, and a majority of the east side has also been pruned. For some of the trees, it’s been nearly two decades since they were last pruned so heavily. There’s a huge amount of brush and wood. We’re trading the wood for part of… 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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Roofing Is Finished!
The porch is nearly finished. Bill got the last of the roof pieces on today. The only task left is to caulk the various pieces and clean everything up. Continue reading
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New Metal Roof Featuring Fall Turkeys
Bill was back to finish the porch roof today. Here you can see him bending and cutting the metal to form various edges. Later this evening, we went to the neighbor’s house for dinner. One of the local turkey flocks came strolling by. A large group of chicks and several hens came, plus a tom.… Continue reading
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Porch Views
Here are some views of the completed porch. All that’s missing now is metal on the roof. Continue reading
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Porch Construction
The porch railing is now complete! The sawn-off piece of concrete from moving the propane tank will now become the bottom step of the porch. Bill used the tractor to move the slab into position. Continue reading
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Porch Work and a Big Frog
The porch is still coming along nicely. The railing is now under construction. Plus, the pond by our house has some rather large frogs in it. This one was about the size of my hand. Continue reading