OK, I know it has been over a year since I posted and I really do plan to catch you all up on what is happening here at Crooked Fence but for now I need to take a second and introduce our newest residents. Noah and Sunrise were born at approximately 3:30 this afternoon.

Sunshine had been staying in the barn all day today and when I went to check on her, around three, everything seemed normal. Since this was my first goat birthing I had no idea what normal was. As soon as I walked out of the barn she started grunting, which I had never heard her do before. Within minutes Noah had arrived. He has the distinction of being the first live birth at Crooked Fence. Sunshine went right to work cleaning him up but had to lay back down pretty quickly as Sunrise didn't want to wait anymore.
For a while Sunshine was having a hard time deciding who needed to be cleaned up more.



Proud momma. Sunshine was in labor for less than an hour and she has done a terrific job taking care of her kids.
Yoda, the father, has moved on since his work here was complete but here is a shot of the proud father.

Momma and kids are doing great. More to follow...

Mud and Pedicures

It was a busy week at the homestead. First we got the preliminary house plans from the architect. With only one minor change we gave our blessing and we should have the final blueprints this week.

Next, I contacted the well drillers a couple of weeks ago but due to all the snow we have had they were worried about getting their trucks stuck so they had been holding off. Friday morning I got the much awaited call. They were ready to try and would be there in an hour.Here is a shot of the spot we decided to put the well. Although it sank a little, they didn't have any problems getting the 60,000 pound truck into position.

Getting the truck ready to start the hole.Within an hour of arriving they had started drilling.The first 126 feet was all sand.Its a messy job but someone has to do it.At 126 feet they finally hit solid rock. This shot is of them lowering the first section of 6" casing into the hole. The entire length, down to rock, had to be lined to keep it from collapsing.Friday ended a little disappointingly. They reached 305 feet and there was still no sign of water. They arrived early Saturday morning and continued drilling. Within 30 minutes they were down to 325 feet and were getting between 2 and 3 gallons of water a minute. You have no idea how relieved I was. At my request they drilled down to 345 feet to see if the flow would improve but it stayed the same. It would have been nice to get a little more flow but this meets my requirements so I had them stop.It is always a pleasure to watch someone work who is really good at their job and this was no exception. Shannon and his team at Washington Drilling did an amazing job. I would recommend them to anyone who needs a well.

At the same time as the well drilling was going on, Moses was receiving his first pedicure. Here is another man who is great at his job. Chris is an extremely competent farrier with a calm demeanor that puts both the horses and owners at ease. Moses was a little skittish at first but settled down after he figured out what was going on.

Rusty is an old hand at getting his hooves trimmed and calmly stood by waiting on his reward of grain. Sorry, I got distracted with the well drilling and missed Pretty Boy getting his hooves done. Like Rusty he is an old hand at this and didn't give any problems.

Until next time. Have a great day.

I'm Still Here.

I find I have been remiss in keeping my blog update and I apologize. In my defense I have had a lot going on and the blog fell to the bottom of the list. Today the snow is falling and I'm stuck indoors so I thought I would take the opportunity to let you all know what has been happening.

First and most important I found someone who doesn't run screaming after spending five minutes listening to me. For reasons that I don't fully comprehend this amazing lady has agreed to marry me and move to the boonies. BJ and here daughter, Emily, will be joining me at the Crooked Fence homestead later this year.

Another thing, off the homestead, that has been keeping me busy is a remodel I have been working on. For those who don't know, I have a duplex in town that I lived in prior to moving out here. It has been sitting vacant and used primarily for storage since then. Well, in November I rented out the side that had already been remodeled and decided to get the other side fixed up so I could rent it too. Its kind of off topic for this blog but I will post pictures as things move along.

Now to the homestead:

The solar power system has been working great with one exception. It has worked, without any problems, for so long that I got slack about checking the battery levels daily and about making sure things were turned off when not in use. I found out the hard way what happens when you let them get too low. I was sitting here, on the computer, one morning with lights blazing and the microwave going when suddenly the whole house went dark. My first thought was that my inverter had blown and I shot out the door to check on it. After a brief inspection I found everything in working order except for one little red light labeled "batteries low". It seems my system has a built in safety feature that shuts everything down before the batteries are completely drained. After my heart had slowed back down I hooked up the generator and four hours of charging had everything back to normal. Needless to say, I am back to checking daily battery levels.

The rainwater catchment system has also been doing good but I have decided to bite the bullet and have a well drilled. This decision was based on a couple of different factors. The first is my water storage capacity vs daily rainfall amounts. If you took my yearly rainfall amount and divided it by 365 days it would appear that there is more than enough water but unfortunately it doesn't work like that. Sometimes it rains so much that there is a steady stream of water coming out the overflow but there are also long periods where there is no rain at all and I have to watch the level steadily drop. The second factor is what I want to be able to do. As it stands right now I have enough water for my needs and to keep the animals watered but it was extremely frustrating to watch my garden wither and die last year because I couldn't afford the water to keep it alive. The third and deciding factor is that two more people are going to be living here with me and I'm pretty sure they would like to shower regularly. lol

I have put my efforts to use alternative methods to heat my water on hold for now. The solar water heating panel worked great but, just like last year, I left water standing in the pipe and it busted. You would think I would learn. My experiment with heating water in the chimney worked great but the copper pipe deteriorated so fast that I was lucky for it to make it one winter and I don't want to have to replace it every year. This year I tried running a coil of copper tubing between the wood stove and the heat shield. I think this would have worked ok if I had had more tubing but the water just wasn't near the stove long enough to heat up. When I first moved in here I installed a tankless water heater. All it was lacking was the propane gas hook up so I finally got a bottle and completed the hook up. I am using a 100 lb propane bottle and since that is the only draw it should last for a while. After some initial adjustments I have nothing but good things to say about this thing.

All of the animals are doing great.

Jules is still sure he is the real boss around here.

The Calves have all put on their winter coats so they look a little ruff but they continue to grow.

Like all dairy cows, Babe looks like she could use a little more weight but I assure you she is actually fat.

Top (short for top sirloin) is so round that he looks like a stuffed toy.

Annie has never become completely comfortable around people but she will let me scratch her head every now and again. Especially if she thinks there is some grain in it for her.

The horses continue to enjoy the life of luxury. All they do is eat but there will be a young lady here soon who will make them work for there feed.

This is Moses, our newest addition to the horse herd. Like the other two, he doesn't belong to me. He is my nephew Robert's.

A quick shot of the chickens. I am not very happy with them right now. Some of them have taken to eating eggs and I am afraid all of them are going to end up in the stew pot if I can't figure out who the guilty parties are.

Here are two of the weed eaters. Number three was camera shy. After walking the pasture I have to give them credit. They have done a pretty good job at cleaning out all the saplings and weeds.

And the last animal shot is of some temporary guests at the Crooked Fence homestead. From left to right we have Daisy, Joy and sunshine. These girls are BJ's milk goats and are just staying through the worst of the winter. None of them are in milk right now but Daisy and Sunshine are due to kid later this year. They will be going back to BJ's before their due dates so they can be milked regularly. Never fear, they will be returning this summer.

Wow, my fingers are getting tired from all the hunting and pecking so I will leave you with two more images.

The first is the view from my future front porch. Yes, I am building again. lol This time I am going to let someone else do the hard work.

And finally here is a rough drawing of our future home. I found the plan online and just made the changes we wanted. I was going to the architect this week to start the blueprints but the snow stopped that.
Well thats it for now. I will really try to update this more often.

Another Month Gone

Wow. The time just seems to slip away. I realized this morning it has been almost two months since I updated the blog so I grabbed up the camera and headed out. It has been so hot here that not much has been going on.


Standing at the front gate looking down my drive. If the trees weren't there you would see my house at the right edge of the picture. Looking towards the back of the property. This is the last field I have left to fence in. Probably won't get to it until next year. Jules has been banned from the house, at least for a while. One morning at about 4AM I woke to one of the most terrible smells I have ever experienced. It smelled slightly like burning plastic so I jumped up and started looking for the electrical fire. As I ran from room to room I realized Jules was slobbering all over the place which is a sign he is sick. Then it hit me. Jules had run into an unexpected visitor in the back yard. He had been sprayed by a skunk. He really didn't understand as I stood there and yelled at him to get back outside. Needless to say, my sleep was over so I started scrubbing the floors where Jules had rolled around after meeting his new enemy. It took me almost seven hours of intense cleaning before the smell was gone from the house. Even after a bath, Jules has a slight smell to him so he will stay outside until it is all gone. Fortunately it looks like the culprit was just wondering through and didn't take up residents anywhere close to the house.

The calves are all doing fine. Here is a picture of them at their morning feeding.Babe continues to grow and I have high hopes for her as a surrogate mom once she is old enough. Even now she watches over the other calves like she was their mother.I think I finally had some luck with a bottle calf. Top has been weaned and is growing like a bad weed. I really wish I could justify keeping him around as a herd bull but with only two heifers there is no way. He is destined for the freezer.The chickens have finally started earning their keep. I am averaging about six eggs a day and Rocky and Rufus roosters are a pretty effective alarm clock.The goats continue to keep me amused although they are too small to be very useful as brush cleaners.Pretty Boy and Rusty are still enjoying the life of luxury. Here they are waiting on there grain ration for the day.About the only thing blooming right now is the pink honeysuckle. This heat has been hard on everything.As far as projects go, the only thing I have worked on are some rabbit hutches. I'm building them on commission for someone else and I have three more to go. Some other items of interest:

The Garden. This year has been a real disappointment. It got so hot so early that a lot of the veggies just dried up and blew away. I am still getting a few tomatoes and cucumbers but that is about it.

The Solar Power System. As you might guess, with all of the sun we have been getting, it is still going strong, which is good because I need all the electricity I can get to keep the fans running.

The Solar Hot Water System. Another success. I have had no problem keeping the tank above 125 degrees. Of course, with it being so hot, I'm not interested in super hot showers.

Rain Water Catchment System. We have gotten just enough rain to keep my cistern full. I have had plenty of water for my needs and the animals but I have just about decided that if I want to grow a large garden, I am going to have to drill a well.

Around the Homestead

Feeling a little under the weather this morning or just lazy so I decided it was time for a homestead update.

Not a lot new going on. Just trying to keep up with the upkeep. Now that the temperatures have started to climb, I try to get anything I want done finished by the noon feeding. Then it's time for a siesta.

Jules isn't enjoying the heat. He spends most of the day under the house but as soon as I step off the porch he is by my side. Some times I think he is about worthless but his loyalty makes up for a lot.

It turns out Babe has a jealous streak. She doesn't like the time I spend with Top while feeding. Once she finishes her grain she wonders over and tries to butt Top out of the way so I can curry comb her. So far a couple of well placed slaps have deterred her and I think she is learning.

The new calves are starting to settle in. Annie is calming down and she will even tolerate me getting close as long as I bribe her with grain. She never did take a bottle but she continues to put on weight so I guess I lucked out.

The other night I was feeding Top his bottle and he had a coughing fit. With my track record on bottle calves you could say I am a little paranoid. So off I went to get the syringe of Nuflor. It seems like I learn something new every day and that night I got a double dose. The first thing I learned was that a 2 1/2 week old Hereford bull is stronger than any of the dairy bull calves were. The second thing I learned was that Nuflor, the antibiotic I was giving the calf, tastes terrible. Here is how these life lessons came about. Top took one look at the syringe and decided he wanted nothing to do with it. He went to the farthest corner, turned back toward me and gave me a look that said "you better not try it buddy". He was relatively calm as I got him penned in the corner but little did I know he was just biding his time. As soon as I swung my leg over his back he made a break for it. I clamped my legs around his neck and this was when I found out just how strong he was, as he almost pulled me off my feet. After a little maneuvering/wrestling I had him where I wanted him and it was time for his shot. I had placed the cap back on the needle to keep it clean and I didn't have a spare hand to remove it so I used my teeth. Well, apparently I had gotten some of the Nuflor on the outside of the cap. I can't even start to describe the taste. Suffice to say it is not something you want to try. Top stayed pretty calm during my gagging fit and the shot but I know he will find a way to take his revenge. It has been a few days and even though he still has a little cough, I am cautiously optimistic.This was his reaction last night when he saw me walking toward the paddock with his bottle. As you can probably tell, his illness hasn't effected his appetite.

Each evening I close up the chickens in the chateau to protect against night time predators. I haven't seen any signs of them but better safe than sorry. The other morning I was sitting on the front porch watching the sunrise when I heard the most awful noise coming from inside the chateau. It sounded something like what you might imagine a chicken would sound like if it was being strangled. Just knowing that something was killing my chickens, I took off across the front yard in my socks and sandals. Of course there had been a heavy due that night so my sock were soaked a 1/4 of the way there. About the half way point I heard the noise again and it dawned on me what it was. One of my chickens was definitely a rooster and this was the first morning he had given crowing a try. He has now had some time to practice and can produce quite a respectable sound. Much to my disappointment, a couple of days later, he developed an echo. It turns out that both of my Buff Orpingtons are roosters. Here are a couple of pictures of Rockey and Rufus Rooster and their harem.Zena, Bella and Suzie are starting to do a better job at brush control but I have just about decided that I will have to double or triple their numbers to have any real effect. Since I am not ready to do that, their main value remains the comedy relief.Pretty Boy and Rusty waiting for their ration of grain.I'm not sure how the garden is going to turn out this year. I didn't put up the electric fence and the rabbits have been taking advantage of the fact. It seems that the little white tailed demons love snow peas, bush beans, cabbage and broccoli. I was surprised that they haven't even touched the carrots or lettuce.We haven't had any rain in a while and it is starting to show. I am keeping the tomatoes, bell peppers and cucumbers watered but pretty much everything else has to fend for itself. If nothing happens it looks like I will have a bumper crop of tomatoes and cucumbers.Now for the purely ornamental.

I "acquired" this climbing rose bush from an old homestead on my sisters place. It is amazing how it has responded to a little care.A Day Lilly that I transplanted from the house in town.These iris's were growing wild at the same homestead I got the rose bush from. It is hard to see here but both the plant and the bloom are about half the size of a normal iris.

Well, I figure that is enough for now. More to follow soon.