Category: Tips
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Baling Twine Sheep Tie
Eifion showed us how to make a sheep immobilizer from a piece of baling twine. You make a loop around the hind legs, above the hocks. Bring the ends up between the legs and tie a knot at the upper brisket. Put the heat and one front leg through the resulting loop, and the sheep… Continue reading
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Is Wealth Really Gone?
A headline today said that 45% of the world’s wealth has disappeared in the recent economic storm. But is this really true? It depends on how you define wealth. No one has destroyed any gold bars. The semiconductor plants are still operating. Barring soil erosion, farms can still grow food. Snow still falls, generating water… Continue reading
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Lemon (Or Lime) Pie
Here’s my lemon (or lime) pie recipe. Here’s how to make the pie crust. Mix juice, egg yolks, and zest. Blend on medium speed. Add sweetened condensed milk and blend until well-mixed. Pour into a baked pie crust and cook at 325 for 15-20 minutes. The filling should be set and barely jiggly. Cool on… 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
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Federal Flock Inspection and Vaccinations
Yesterday was the yearly Federal flock inspection. We are in the Scrapie Flock Certification program and are certified Scrapie Free. One of the things we have to do is have our flock inspected once per year. The inspector comes out and we run every single sheep through. He checks ear tag numbers against inventory. I… Continue reading
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More Bread Recipes
The bread experiments continue. Our latest recipe has been modified a bit: Mix the dry ingredients. Stir in the wet ones and cover with plastic wrap, then let rest for at least 8 hours. Knead briefly, then place the dough on parchment paper to rise for 2 hours. Shash the top before baking. Preheat a… Continue reading
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Sheep Sorting and Dewormer
Yesterday, we got all the ewes sorted into their secondary breeding groups. We also got their fall/winter worming done. We have to deworm with ivermectin drench after a hard freeze to kill the nose bots that infest the sheep. Well, we had a cold snap, then warm weather, and there was a hatch of flies,… Continue reading
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Bread!
Historically, when I’ve tried to make bread here in Colorado, I’ve gotten hockey pucks, bricks, or other building materials. Bread fails to rise, or rises and falls flat. It’s dense beyond belief, and while tasty, a loaf could feed an army for a week. This most recent loaf came out nearly perfect, though! I used… Continue reading
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Off to Slaughter
This year, I vowed not to go into winter with as many sheep as I had last year. Our fall slaughtering has started. We’ve already done 16 adult ewes, and today we sent off 10 young rams. We have to schedule slaughter dates over a year in advance. I have 66 slots reserved for this… Continue reading
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Back on Pasture and Why Labels Are Misleading
The early snow has pretty much all melted, and we got one batch of ram lambs back out on our triticale pasture regrowth. We made sure they were all pretty full of hay before putting them out, and we made an aisle of electric fencing to prevent too much plugging of the permanent pastures. We’ll… Continue reading