High Desert Cowboy- How far is it up north?

[Ridgetop]

I only have all white Dorpers, but have both hair and wool coats in my flock. The curly wooly lambs supposedly will not shed as well as the hairy coated ones. I wanted to only keep the hairy ewe lambs, but unfortunately I have a couple wooly lambs that I have to keep since they are the only ewe lambs from certain mamas. I will watch them to see what they do.

 

[High Desert Cowboy]

You know there are days where despite all this social distancing it’s still pretty much business as normal. Then I have to go in to town and see that everyone has still gone bat turd crazy. People from Las Vegas and Salt Lake are descending on our little area because we have dog food and tomato plants. You can’t find chicks at either feed store. Suddenly everyone wants to be self sufficient which isn’t bad except it sure put a kink in my plans. We finally just ordered chicks that will be here in 5 weeks. But we press on and prepare for expansion. I tore my old coop down and salvaged as much as I could to build a newer, bigger coop back by the sheep. I really only wanted 6 hens which has always been sufficient for our needs but apparently the site my wife got the chicks from charges an extra 35 bucks if you get under 15 so we just bought the 15. They’re throwing in one surprise breed straight run chick as a gift as well, plus they usually send a couple extra for transit so we’ll be at somewhere between 16-19 probably. I also started a new garden plot this year, and it will be fenced off this year to protect it from jackrabbits. They ate everything last year. I’d be so proud “Oh look the peas are starting to grow!” Next day, gone. “Potato plants are all leafy!” Not anymore. “Hey zucchini looks good, nice big plants....hey where’s the actual zucchini?” It was terrible. And I don’t have much of a green thumb to begin with. Murphy’s Law doesn’t help with my limited gardening abilities either, I borrowed a friends tiller and when I picked it up he realized he’d forgotten to fix it from the year before so we had to do some quick repairs and then while I was tilling the muffler fell off! But we’re gonna get this done one way or another.
Still no lambs from Dotty or Bellwether but bellwether is gradually getting a bigger udder. Dotty at this rate is either pregnant or fat as I can’t really see an udder on her yet and she won’t let me get close enough to check. Canine aid is still on hiatus so she’ll either have something or she won’t I guess. Ebony and Ivory are growing and playing and loving life, they have a terrible nap spot though. They love to nap in the feed bunk and nap time seems to coincide with dinner time so I either have to wake them and move them or they get buried under the hay. In the next couple weeks I’m going to be putting up more fencing to shrink the sheep corral down in size. Without being confined to one spot they have decimated all vegetation in their area and graze it before it can get started again. I plan to do a 60x60 drylot pen and then build a second 60x60 pen to put the ram or possibly weanlings. Spring is a busy time of year but hey it keeps us out of trouble

 

[Bruce]

Can you sell excess eggs or does everyone in the area that eats eggs already have hens? Hopefully all these people who suddenly want laying hens understand that by the time their hens start to lay this whole mess will be over and there will be plenty of eggs in the stores.

I feel badly for all those chicks. I'm sure most people will buy the trashy little prebuilt coops "big enough for X chickens" but really not big enough for half the claimed number.

 

[Ridgetop]

Remember when everyone ran out and bought up all the flour? Now there is no pancake mix or Bisquik but plenty of flour! I guess everyone that stocked up on flour realized how much effort it takes to make a loaf of bread. Years ago, baking day took ALL day because you had to male lots of loaves of bread to last all week. Thus the advent of French Toast (fried bread), milk toast and egg, and bread pudding at the end of the week to use up the stale bread! LOL Still not much toilet paper but we are being thrifty and I still have those old magazines just in case!

I haven't been to Lowes yet to look at the vegetables to see if they are all gone. If they are we can blame Blumberg - after all he told everyone you just have to dig a hole and put in a seed. Anyone can be a farmer! I think he should have to live o what he grows and then tell us how hard it really is. LOL

How is the lambing going?

 

[Ridgetop]

OK, looked at the Burpees catalog online and everything I wanted was sold out, including the Pea and Ben inoculant. Wanted the Romano old style pole bean - Burpees doesn't have it anymore had to try Victory Seeds. Sold out again. Not sure if it is the virus or not since when I used to raise a huge garden (at the other house where the soil was wonderful) I used to mail in my order in January. They do have some tomato plants at Lowes so might go pick up a few. Can't trust DS1 since his choice is anything that is not brown and shriveled. LOL

 

[Mike CHS]

OK, looked at the Burpees catalog online and everything I wanted was sold out, including the Pea and Ben inoculant. Wanted the Romano old style pole bean

I just looked at several that I buy from and the only one I'm seeing Romano beans is Morgan County seeds but they only have the bush bean.

 

[Ridgetop]

I did find Roma bush beans, but I really want the yield from pole beans since I have to terrace garden. I did find was pole bens (sold out of course) but Burpees had a spot at each variety that you fill in your email address and they notify you when they are back in stock. I had decided not to plant veggies this year since we are normally gone during most of the summer and miss the harvest. FDIL will pick and water but I roses. Missed the bare root season for them though. Now we will not be taking any trips until September and have to be back for DS2's wedding October 10 early enough to get wedding stuff done. This would be the year to plant a garden so naturally I cant get the seeds!

At the old house I raised the old Romano pole beans on a trellis built above the garden fence. They produced so well I canned enough to feed the family over the winter. Great flavor. Very successful until one day I decided that I would raise the trellis higher to get more yield. I didn't consider the fact that I was building it higher from on top of a ladder until I went to pick the top vines that summer! That winter I removed the top extension. I don't have room for bush beans so need pole beans. I'm considering planting Navajo style this year. A hill with several corn, squash, and pole beans in each. the beans climb the corn stalks, the squash shade the ground keeping in moisture. I don't know if it will work but I thought it would be fun to try.

DH is building more planters, as well as some raised beds where the tree fell down on the house. However, at the rate he is going, they might not be finished until next year, or . . . ? Oh well, I can plant pretty annuals in them when we sell.

Still hopeful! And I will finally get the retaining wall blocks off the sheep pen.

 

[High Desert Cowboy]

Lambing is at a standstill. They look pregnant and bellwether is still bagging up, Dotty has no bag but she’s also a first timer so who knows. I’ll just keep saying any day now and hope and I’ll buy a marking harness for next year. Make sure the deed is being done.
We have plenty of flour in our food storage, at least 3 5 gallon buckets full and several more of grain that can be ground to flour if we truly get desperate. We did add a fun new thing to the kitchen though. A neighbor offered us some sourdough starter that’s 104 years old and we said sure. We made some awesome sour dough biscuits with it last night and decided that starter is definitely staying in the family and name her Ida.

my wife liked the biscuits so much she told me to throw away my old recipe. It’s been raining all weekend so not much got done, and today I’ll be lucky if I Can make enough time to go get hay.

 

[Baymule]

I'll swap you a pint jar of wild plum jam for a start of the sourdough. Wild plum jam on homemade biscuits are darn good! Oh, throw in the recipe for the biscuits too! LOL

I did score 2 bags of flour this morning and I also have buckets of wheat and a grain mill, but that is for just because or desperate times, LOL

 

[Ridgetop]

I used to have a recipe for "friendship bread" that required a starter. It was wonderful I finally got the recipe for the starter too. It's not starter, but you can add chopped apples, raisins, nuts, spices etc. I baked up everything including the starter when I moved and haven't made it since.

We should figure out a swapping run - on our next trip to Texas we have to go first to Washington state. Then we can swing through Utah to see our sheep friend there, stop at High Desert Cowboy for some sourdough starter for Bay. I'll drop off a deposit of apricot jam, continue on and deliver the starter to Bay. Then on the way home we will deliver her trade of Wild Plum Jam to HDC.
We love seeing new parts of the country so anyone else out there with trade goods? LOL