Pocket Photos in the Pasture
/I like this idea of Pocket Photos. Not pictures of pockets, but just whip the phone out and take photos. These were taken in the pasture yesterday and today. Can you tell what that one is? Look below to see it from the other direction. That web stands out with the sun behind it. Sometimes these are face-height and you really don't want to walk into that. Yesterday afternoon I mowed three paddocks that the sheep had grazed. I will irrigate tomorrow and I hope that by mowing the tall dallisgrass stalks that are left after I move the sheep it will give more opportunity for the annual grasses to start growing. The recent rain started some germination but I think that this last irrigation should bring up more. At one point the mower stopped working. Fortunately Dan had just got home. He doesn't usually work on the tractor in teacher clothes--it's pretty hard to stay clean around tractors and barns. Speaking of barns, see that cement? That used to be a wall that created a doorway in the ram pen. This small area with cement walls is the "whiskey barn" because we were told that whiskey was stored here during Prohibition. The only reinforcement in these cement walls seems to be a few strands of barbed wire running through them. No rebar. I don't know if the rams pushed this by rubbing or if one of them hit it when he was fighting. The rams are feisty. This ewe is obviously in heat because she hung around the outside of the ram pen all day. This is the second day in a row that the rams have broken the electric wire that runs around the inside of their pen. That coincides with the second day that the ewes have been directly across the fence here. Tonight I moved the rams to a more secure location. We have to get through a couple more days without mishap. On Friday one of them will go to Lambtown for the sheep show and the other is sold and will be picked up this weekend. After Lambtown the remaining ram and a new one (as soon as I can get him) will be put with the ewes.
This afternoons's job was to weed-eat the ditches in preparation for irrigating tomorrow. Not only will the water flow better for more effective irrigation but we are working hard with the Mosquito Abatement District to minimize mosquito propagation. That means getting the water off the fields and out of the ditches as quickly as possible once irrigation is finished. We recently bought a trash pump to help with that as well. This is the ditch at the north end of the pasture after weed-eating the north side of it (looking east). This is after I cleaned up the south side of that ditch (looking west). This ditch is at the south end of the property before (looking east)......and after (looking west). I used 3 tanks of gas and had to add more string to the weed-eater to get through this. The sheep don't mind me working while they graze.