Saturday, October 24, 2015

Slowly, but surely, I'm getting some spinning done.  I've even dyed some of this.  My photography skills leave something to be desired, but someday (soon I hope!) I will have a real craft studio where I will have room to set up an area to take proper pictures of my work.  A place to set up all of my equipment and have things arranged so I can actually find something when I need it, instead of spending wasted minutes looking for it, sometimes finding it, sometimes not.  At least I have room for the really important spinning wheel!  Right beside the computer, so when the computer decides to take a nap while loading something, I can have a productive moment or five of spinning while waiting. ☺

Today was the first day of the general hunting season for big game.  It is bucks only in the deer department, so since there are very few of those up in this area any more, I didn't hear any shots fired.  Yesterday John and I went out and spent 3 hours working on the forest service road getting it ready for winter.  It was graded this fall, but the grader left a ridge of dirt clods and gravel along most of it, and especially in the turn-outs, so we cleaned it up and made it smooth so the plow wouldn't break hitting all of that when it's frozen.  The road is nice and wide and quite smooth to drive on.  It really needed work, it had been 6 years since it was last graded.  Lots of traffic and some torrential rains made for a rough road.  It's all better now.

The thinning project is all done, except for the slash burning, so the forester is coming out on Monday to inspect and hopefully approve it and sign off on it.  Then we will sign up for another section, maybe the rest of the property, for next year.   Our place is shrinking!  I can see the fence line from the goat pens now.  Before it was so thick out there, one couldn't even walk through it.  The goats are going to love it next year when they get out into that area.  They will be able to see clearly, there will be more vegetation to eat, and the predators have nowhere to hide in there.  Good things all the way around!

I am having all kinds of buck challenges this fall!  It's time to invest in some new fencing and get these guys fully contained again.  Today Midnight was out running with the herd!  I don't think anyone was in heat today anyway.  I wrote it down just in case.  What's that saying about the best laid plans of mice and men?  It seems not much is going according to plan this fall.  Oh well, I'll just go with the flow, remembering that everything happens for a reason, and not stress out about it all.  I might live longer that way. ☺  The goats enjoyed running out and eating the aspen leaves that are falling all over, munching on the slash piles, and then coming back into the pens and eating the wasted hay in each other's pens.  Saves me having to feed them hay in the evenings.  They were all looking quite fat tonight.
  Here are the Akbashes at a year old.  Hard to believe they are 1 year old already!  They are pretty good guard pups/dogs.  They have bonded with the goats and stay with them all the time.  Rocky is the one sitting and Cloud is laying down.  They get into some pretty loud fights at least once a day.  For being a brother/sister duo you would think they would get along good, but they really argue a lot.  Fortunately there is rarely any blood, just lots of growling and yelping.  Cloud is spayed, and Rocky is going in to get neutered next month. Hope that calms things down a bit. I wonder how much they will weigh when they are fully grown.  They are right around a hundred pounds now.  They eat a lot of food!  It's nice not having to bend down to pet them. :-)
   

2 comments:

  1. Great work getting the road winter-ready! And wow, those pups are really growing! Glad they are working out in the job.
    One of the things I loved about having Irish Wolfhounds was that I could pat them without leaning over. And I've taught Piper to hop up on things - big rocks, etc. - so I can brush her without leaning, too. Makes a difference. I fantasize about building a long bench that would hold all the goats when they are tied for their buckets, so when needed, I could also comb and do feet without leaning, and with less change to their daily routine. Building the bench would be doable, but somehow roofing it against rain and snow would be cost-prohibitive, I fear. Still, I'm mulling it over!

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  2. Hi Quinn,
    Could you build a long bench inside your new barn? Do you have some kind of stand to use now when you are combing and trimming feet? I have a stand I built myself that I sit in one of those resin lawn chairs beside and comb. I can trim feet without bending way over, too. Very handy!

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