Category: Farm Life
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Off to Wales!
While Ken stayed home to care for the farm, I headed off to Wales again to continue my judge training. The goal is to become an approved judge for Black Welsh Mountain sheep eventually. My journey started with an uneventful flight from Grand Junction to Dallas. Next, I flew overnight from Dallas to London Heathrow,… Continue reading
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Welsh Garden
This lovely garden is in the entrance to the Great Tre Rhew B&B. The Beavan family were stars of the BBC’s Lambing Live TV show, and I was privileged to spend a couple of days with them on my trip through the UK. Prompt: How does your garden grow? Make a photo of something growing… Continue reading
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Beautiful Pasture
It figures. The one day I really wanted a nice Mt. Lamborn shot, it’s been cloudy all day! Fortunately, the most beautiful sight is a pasture with plenty of feed and a flock of happy sheep. Prompt: Beauty is all around us. Make a photo of some naturally occurring beauty in your area today. Continue reading
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We’re Ready for Racks
It’s the end of July, and both poles are installed. The first of the brackets and racks that hold the solar panels are in place, too. Continue reading
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Poles and Brackets Are Started
We moved the second pole into position today for the new solar system. Here are some photos of the installation process. Here, we’re mixing mortar and adding brackets. Continue reading
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Erecting the First Pole
Things dried out enough to continue work today. After some initial filling of the holes, we ran wire and conduit from the poles to the hay barn. Below is a view of where the metal pole will fit into the plastic pipe sleeve. Here’s the process of getting the first pole into place. Once the… Continue reading
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Concrete and Rain
The concrete arrived for the piers that we need for the new solar system. We got it all poured in with no problems. However, that evening, it started to rain. Our trenches started to fill up with water. Ken took the backhoe and dug an emergency ditch through the hay barn to keep the water… Continue reading
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Rocks and Holes
Unfortunately, I spoke too soon about the rocks. Together, the second hole and the trench ended up uncovering a whole nest of them. Some were too big for our tractor to pick up, but Ken was at least able to push them around a bit. It’s amazing how far down nine feet is. The forms… Continue reading
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Summer Pasture, Rambo, and Rambutt
It’s time for 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 when we burn it. Here are Rambo and his buddy Rambutt. Rambutt is the one looking at… Continue reading
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Weighing the Hay
All of the first-cutting hay is in. John came down to weigh some bales so that we could pay for it. We buy the hay by weight, not by the bale. The first cut ended up being 664 bales, or 19.3 tons. During good years, we usually get about 45 tons of hay from the… Continue reading
