Preparing the cattle for heat

We have a heat wave anticipated this weekend. The temp on Sunday is projected to be 105F.

We had the cattle in the treeless, shadeless pasture for the past week. We thought about moving them back to the wooded side of the property for the duration of the heatwave, but there is simply no grazing on that side. We have been bone-dry for weeks, and no grass has regenerated.

So, with the permission of the owner, we decided to put the cattle on the "pond property," as the adjacent parcel is called. This is a lovely parcel with a stock pond, trees, and grazing. Normally we move the cattle in mid-August or so; but this summer's weird freaky hot weather is stressing everything early.

Before moving the beasties, though, Don and I needed to walk the fence lines and make sure everything was tight. We went in the morning when the temperature was still cool.

The moment they saw us walking down to the gate, the cattle immediately fell in line, thinking they were in for a treat.

The orderly column soon disintegrated into chaos. Wheeee!

The critters were very disappointed when we didn't let them through the gate.

The pond property hasn't been grazed, so there is much more feed available.

Don and I walked the entire perimeter, mending and tightening as necessary.

It's a good thing we did, too. One whole corner had been cut out of the fencing (possibly by hunters wanting easy access). Don had to go back later with the truck, some sections of field fencing, and more tools.

Here's the view across our pasture toward the pond property, where the trees are.

Yesterday mid-morning, I walked down to open the gate. The animals weren't expecting it, so when I gave my universal cattle call ("Bossy bossy bossy bossy BOSSY!!"), the entire herd literally came galloping in a thundering mass.

When I opened the gate, they poured through.

The grazing on this parcel isn't great this year either. The white-ish grass is called cheatgrass (sometimes wind grass) and is largely inedible, and there's a lot of it. But there's also enough decent stuff to keep the animals happy for several weeks. Once the heat breaks next week, we'll bring them back onto our side and "save" the remaining grazing on the pond property until, hopefully, late July. But no matter what, we're going to have to start feeding much, much earlier this year.

While most of the herd made it through the gate, a few of the babies got lost. They've never been on the pond property before and kinda got turned around. Little Hector was on the other side of the subdividing fence as well.

Jerky and Dina were totally bewildered as to where their mamas went.

The first thing to do was get Hector on the right side of the fence.

So I slipped through the barbed wire and started scooting him along the fence line to where the gate is.

Here he joined the others, but they still couldn't figure out how to get onto the pond property. Don calls this stage in life "puppy-stupid."

I left the calves alone, figuring they'd either figure out where the right gate was, or they wouldn't. A couple hours later, they were reunited with their mamas and all was well.

The combination of shade, water, and fresh grazing will keep the cattle as comfortable as is possible during the heat wave. I'm grateful we can rent the pond property while we can (since it's for sale).

Friday Roundup

Once again it's time for our Friday Roundup, where we all pitch in the things we did during the week -- big or small -- that contributed toward self-sufficiency.

I'll probably routinely start posting these Friday Roundups on Saturday morning since Fridays seem to be very busy days. Here's what we did this week:

• I cleaned the chicken coop in preparation of moving our Jersey Giant chicks out of the house (they're getting too cramped in their box).

We haven't gotten around to moving them yet, but that will be today's chore.

• We're just beginning to freeze strawberries. The berries are starting to peak, so the girls have been picking frequently; but up to this point we've all been eating them as we pick them. This time we had enough of a surplus that I froze six pounds. Hopefully we'll have ten times that amount in the freezer by the end of strawberry season.

• We moved the cattle from the wooded side of our property back to the pasture (no photos, sorry). We're beginning to develop contingency plans for the cattle. Things have been so dry that they're eating down the forage far faster than it can regenerate. Our contingencies so far are: we're putting three cow/calf pairs up for sale; we made arrangements with a neighbor to run the cattle on his adjacent twenty acres in a couple of weeks; and we may have located a source of inexpensive hay from a farmer who wants to get rid of last year's surplus before getting in this year's crop. Right now it looks as it we'll have to start feeding the cattle much, much earlier than we normally do.

• We trapped Victoria and hew new bull calf Jerky in the corral for a few days until the baby was old enough to castrate, which we did before releasing them with the rest of the herd (again no photos, sorry). Jerky is more meat-on-the-hoof in about two years.

• We checked on the bees. They're extremely active and doing fine. At the recommendation of an experienced beekeeper, we shuffled a couple frames around, putting some emptier frames closer in where most of the activity is taking place.

One of the hives had active comb-building on the underside of the roof.

Although it was fascinating to get a glimpse of the inside of the comb (you can see the pupa)...

...we're pretty sure comb-building on the roof is something we're not "supposed" to encourage. Suited up as we were with the hive open, it's not like we could call our beekeeeping mentor right then and there; so, in the absence of knowing what better to do, I scraped the combs off and removed them. I realize it's just a temporary measure and they'll probably rebuild. This hive still has frames that aren't full (meaning, it's too early to put on the supers), so I shuffled one of the emptier frames toward the front where most of the activity is.

I welcome thoughts from more experienced beekeepers to know if scraping that extra comb from the roof was the right thing to do.

• I finally -- finally! -- got the corn beds weeded and turned over with compost. We hauled out the drip irrigation stuff...

...and got hoses on all the tires.

I brought out a few of last year's dried cobs...

...and Don and I rubbed the seed off.

I planted 22 tires' worth of corn (which included a couple of extra tires where I had nothing else planted), then let the drip system give everything a good watering.

• Meanwhile, Don began the task of converting this little shed -- which was originally used as a greenhouse except we couldn't keep the mice out of it, who kept eating seeds and seedlings -- into a chicken coop. We plan to move the shed into the yard and use it as the base of an expanded coop.

Right now we just have garden-related stuff (mostly junk) in it, so we'll clean it out and move it into the yard.

Since no one had been inside the shed in quite some time, we weren't surprised by this little bonus:

Don zapped it with wasp spray.

Then he started removing the windows, but that's as far as we got. We're doing some rush orders for tankards and can't divert our attention too much from our income-producing work.

That's what we accomplished this week. What have you done?

Friday Roundup

Seems like the days fly past since once again it's time for our Friday Roundup, where we all pitch in the things we did during the week -- big or small -- that contributed toward self-sufficiency.

We've had a productive week, even working through an early and nasty heat wave (highs in the low 90s, ug). Here's what we got done this week:

• Our cow Victoria (the dark red animal) had her calf out in the pasture, a little bull (here Polly is sniffing at him).

Victoria is an experienced mama so I wasn't worried. We'll have to capture the little guy and castrate in a few days. Meanwhile Younger Daughter named him Jerky. As in beef.

• Our Jersey Giant chicks arrived at the post office.

Considering the breed is giant, the chicks are sure tiny. But they all looked healthy (we also have one "mystery bird" the hatchery threw in for free).

We set up a box with food and water (and later a heat lamp).

After dipping each one's beak in water (to teach it how to drink)...

... they settled into their new home.

So far they appear to be a very calm breed. The chicks are less "hysterical" when we change their food and water.

• Don worked like mad through that hideous heat wave, finishing up the fence area he tore out last week in order to re-do it properly. He mixed concrete in the tractor bucket...

...straightened all the poles, and set them up.

He took a trip to town and splurged on ten cattle panels (sometimes called hog panels). They're expensive, but we're love them because they're sturdy, long, and portable (meaning, we can move them from place to place as needed). We try to buy a few every year, so this is our year's allotment.

Then he installed the panels to the poles. He wants to fasten boards top and bottom to lock the panels in place (and prevent the animals from pushing them either at top or bottom), but he delayed this step because of the heat.

Doesn't it look great?

• He also set up the cattle panels in a clever gate system to span the driveway and make a "chute" between one pasture and the other, which means we don't have to rotate the cattle around the entire property before putting them in the woods. At sunset the day Don finished the fence, we tried out the system. We can even close the gate at the end of the driveway so the animals can crop the grass growing along the road.

Here Brit is waiting impatiently for Don to open the fence.

The animals all respond to our universal "Bossy bossy bossy" call, and milled around the fence until we opened it up.

Victoria made it through the gate just fine, but little Jerky (only 24 hours old at this point) got lost, so I heaved him up and carried him across the driveway.

But Don's new gate system worked flawlessly. Within moments the cows were on the cooler wooded side of the property, which offered them shade from the broiling temperatures (although as of this writing, the heat wave has broken, whew).

• This isn't really preparedness-related, but I noticed this group of ravens gathered on a distant treetop.

We've been having ravens all over the place lately. Don't know why.

• I skimmed all the cream from the milk which had accumulated in the fridge, and made three pounds of butter (which I froze).

• A neighbor made about a dozen trips over with his trailer to get compost to work into a large garden area. Don loaded it with the tractor.

He cleaned out a lot of our compost, which is great since we now have room to re-pile more as it comes.

• The girls picked strawberries. Third time this week. The berries are starting to ripen fast.

• We got the drip system up for the ancillary vegetables -- bell peppers, cayenne peppers, broccoli -- that I started in the house.

Then I got everything planted. I don't think the broccoli will make it, though.

Here are the cayennes.

• Didn't get photos, but we got the corn tires topped with compost. The next step is to get the drip system in place, and plant seed. It's awfully late to plant corn, but I have enormous confidence that the short-season open-pollinated variety we tried last year, Yukon Chief, will yield successfully. Last year we planted on June 5 and harvested on August 29, and got 600 ears. I'm hooked on this corn variety.

That was our week. What have you done?