I can't tell you exactly how much fence line we will have when finished. But I can tell you that it is alot.

I spent most of the day yesterday trimming fence line so we can put on the bottom line for the sheep. I went through 4 tanks of gas and an entire spool of line. I calculated I did about 1550 feet of fence line and only finished one and a half pastures.

I cannot begin to express how much I loath trimming. I do whatever I can to reduce the need for trimming. For me it isn't about the job actually, but the equipment.

The trimmers are usually too long, requiring me to hold my body in an uncomfortable position. They are usually also heavy, meaning that the arm that supports the motor is going to hurt alot afterwards, especially if it vibrates alot. Lastly they are almost always difficult to start. With my last one it was so difficult to start that I began praying before I started and then begging it to startup as I continued to pull the string

So for me just the purchase of the trimmer was painful. But off to the Co-Op I went and found a trimmer that was shorter and not so heavy. Hopefully it will be easy to start.

I got to the farm, timmer in hand and proceeded to start the object of my dirision. Of course, it didn't start. So I followed all of the steps in the manual for " if the engine doesn't start", to no avail. Then I got to the part about checking that the spark plug is clean. It was then that I realized that the spark plug wasn't even connected. I plugged it in and it started on the first try, this was way too easy.

So I got into the pasture and started it up again and got to work. It was heavy, but not impossibly so, and it did vibrate my arms a little, but not so much I had to stop. I decided I would work at least until I got to the lower gate, then break for lunch.

When I got back I felt so satisfied by what I had accomplished that I decided to finish the pasture and then go until the gas ran out. Unfortunatley the string ran out before the gas and I had to stop.

My arms were tired and achy, but it was so nice to see those trimmed fence lines this morning when I got back.

Princess Ooyu

It sounds like the name of some anime character. Instead it is the name of our young holstein heifer. Ooyu (spelled phonetically) is the work for 'milk' in Korean and she is such a princess that it just fit.

She is a bit shy, but she really likes to eat and we can almost get close to her if we have some feed with us.

Adventures in ....Chickens?

I have to admit, I haven't checked on these creatures much since we have had them. They live in the shed until they are big enough to go outdoors and Madison takes care of them each morning and night. When we got them 4 weeks ago they were cute little things. It is amazing how fast they grow.

So yesterday I decided to check on them myself and see how big they are. Man are they ugly. Not only that, they are dirty creatures, they mess everywhere. Luckily they are almost big enough for the outdoors.

They are Barred Rock chickens, with black and white stripes. These are just starting to get their stripes. Today Madison came in and told us that 2 of them had escaped and were running around the shed. The girls went out and finally got them back in. Hopefully they stay in for a little while longer.

We have COWS!!

Monday our cows were finally delivered. We were supposed to have them delivered last Wednesday but it rained all last week and most of the weekend. So we have been waiting patiently to have them delivered.

We got over to the farm and still needed to hook up the electric charger to the fence. We finally got the grounding rods in the ground (hit rock twice) and the wires connected. We got the charger attached to fence and grounding rods and Tanner flipped the switch. I got out the fence tester and nothing. Then we realized that is was so sunny we just couldn't see the lights blink.

Then I needed to get in the creek and clean the debris from the barbed wire that had collected after the rain. Wow, was that water cold and deep. I had just enough time to get my boots back on when the truck with the cows started down the road.

It was amazing watching them get out of the trailer. I just kept thinking, these are ours, we have cows!

We have 2 heifers (girls). One is the little red one (angus) that was looking at me, and the other is the tan one (in picture above). We also have a holstein heifer which will be a milker in a year or so.

Sampson was definitely NOT afraid of them. He walked around like he knew just what to do. Then he started eating their food. They came over to see what he was doing and just stood there staring at him for the longest time. We eventually had to pull him back off the food so they could have some.


Tanner was having fun feeding some of the smaller ones. After about 5 minutes he said "I want to chase my cows". We had to explain to him he couldn't do that. His response was a grunt.

Fences are done, now bring on the Beef!!

We spent all of last Saturday, and Sunday working on the fences and mom and the kids and I spent all of Monday finishing the fences. We got almost all of the perimeter posts in the ground with insulators on by Saturday at 5pm (thanks Mary and Kevin for all of your help).

Sunday we planned the first pasture and Mom and Dad and I worked on getting the inner fence line set and insulated. We also got almost all of the barbed wire up for the watering spots for the first 2 pastures (Eric worked really hard to get that finished).

Monday, Mom and the kids and I spent the better part of the morning lugging those heavy rolls of wire around and installing the wire. We got 3 of the 5 lines up with handles and hooks and gates. The girls and I also finished the barbed wire for the first water spot. I wanted to get the electric on, but I was missing 2 grounding rods and the insulated wire.

We all worked really hard, and we all slept really good those nights. During this time I learned the importance of good shoes. I have an old pair of work boots that I bought at Walmart (boys size 6, since they don't carry women's). They really didn't fit well and my feet hurt so much I almost couldn't walk after sitting for an hour. I really do need new boots, but the fence is done!