Teresa & Mike CHS - Our journal

OneFineAcre said:

The pasture can be mowed
I've had to mow it several times over the summer
When it gets knee high and seeds out its not as palatable
We have discussed getting a steer or 2 from Maurines dad
To be honest I didn't anticipate how well the pasture has done
It's the fence lines and everything else around the house that's overgrown that I didn't stay on top off

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How many goats do you have now?

30
Nice even number

We have a wild mustard that grows TAKES OVER our hayfields here and nothing likes to eat it. Also johnson grass that the cows will eat but no one likes it in their small square bales that we sell to several horse people with just pleasure/family horses. So we try to renovate hayfields regularly to keep the saleable hay "clean" and round bale everything else. We use as little pesticides/herbicides as possible.

We got serious this week on our small secure pen in preparation for getting our first sheep hopefully in October. We still have to clean out about 200 feet that is in woods that I'm not sure I'm going to include in the paddock. I am hoping to since this pen will convert to the goat pen after I'm sure what I want to do in the next pen we build. This one is being built tight enough to hold goats and will have one hot top wire and one low at neared to the bottom.

This pen is almost a triangle and runs 300' x 150' by 400'. I already have a 20' x 20' lean-to that is available and we will add another 20' x 15' behind the building on the edge of the pen. This will feed into a paddock that is a little over 6 acres and includes what is currently a garden bed that we are cutting down on the size. We let the neighbor use what is left since we now have all of our beds up closer to the house.

The first couple of pictures are from last year when we were about half through the clean up which included an even dozen pick up loads to the dump (and included a trashed out hot tub).

The picture that shows me trying to help the auger dig into our rocky soil will have a 10' gate that will be our loading area for the livestock. We had to change the run a couple of times to find a run that wasn't solid rock. It narrows to 25' there and we can make a natural chute to control where they go (that is the plan anyway). If you look close you can see how rocky the ground is in that spot.

Just a note - that 3" post leaning up against the corner post is literally just leaning there. I ran out of steam after we got the main posts set and will do the braces later this week.

Mike, you might want to use a bigger gate. I used 12' gates and wish I would have used 16' gates. I have a 16' gate for the front drive, offset from the road to permit a truck and trailer to park while open/closing the gate. I have a 16' gate from the yard to the pipeline for swing room. Since I put a 12' gate from the pipeline to the horse pasture and DH took out the gate post with the flat bed, we will soon be replacing it with a 16' gate. We T-posted the broken gate post, wired it up for a repair until we hitch up the flatbed and go get a few more 16' gates. Lesson learned.

Just went back and re read your post. You are building a loading area. If you think you will ever drive your tractor through the gate, I think I would still go with a 12' gate. I suppose you are going to narrow it down to a loading chute? We still have to build a loading chute. We took 3 lambs to slaughter yesterday and loaded them with a lot of effort called chase and grab.

I get you on the run out of steam. We are S L O W L Y running our last stretch of fence. Life sure has got in the way. If not for things in life that take precedence then it is blistering heat that drains every bit of want-to out of us. You just do what you can do, a little at a time and one day you will wake up and it will be completed.

Thanks Baymule - our road and main pasture gates will all be either 12' or two 8' gates. We will have perimeter fence all around but will be using a lot of portable electric netting for cross fencing for the first year or so. This gate has access for the small lawn tractor and cart but that is about it. I could get in with a tractor but there is no maneuvering room so it is basically an 8' man gate. This area is one of the few that is level and has plenty of room to turn around easily. I am still going to have to cut out several trees in the rear of this pen and there will be a rectangular dog training pen at the end of (and part of the pen) that will be 50' x 100' for young dogs. It is still a work in progress but this is the most secure place we can put sheep until we get an LGD.

Our dogs are still novices like us but we have a good trainer about an hour away. They had a pretty good dog trial over the weekend that everyone enjoyed.

Just as an aside, If you're going to do double gates, I would think a 10/6 or even a 12/4 would be better than an 8/8... With an 8/8 you're pretty much going to always have to open both for a vehicle. With a 10/6 (I'd prefer the 12/4 myself), you can get most regular sized vehicles through the 10' side and the 6' side would be fine for ATV's and humans on foot, or to move animals. With a 12/4, you could have a portable ramp to move into position on the 4' side, and there's your loading ramp. Just a thought.

Thanks LS - that's some more good insight. I'm fixed for handling right now with the pen we are building.

Our loading chute is the fence gate and our stock trailer gate along with some sheep/goat panels to guide them that way.

Mike CHS said:

with some sheep/goat panels to guide them that way.

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I thought that was why you had the pups? Of course I'm sure they'll help get them from the pasture up to the containment/confinement area. Really sounds like your place is coming together for you very nicely. I know the work involved, so it just has to be somewhat satisfying to be able to look out and see what you've accomplished and visualize what's still to come.

Isn't fencing and gates tons of fun?