Summarizing the past year and a half

I haven't updated since September 2020, but I wanted to get back to using this blog for my own record-keeping. I moved into the new homestead on February 13, 2021, and I don't want to forget all the valuable lessons I've learned over the past year! (Half of them having to do with learning about the timing of the weather and the weed growth.)

But first, a moment of silence for the Great Chicken Massacre of 2020. I was so excited about setting up a huge new pen for them at the new property, with 2x2" fencing, 6' tall, an electric wire running along the outside to deter climbing predators, and buried hardware cloth at the bottom to prevent diggers. But a few months before the move, I woke up one morning to find 6 or 7 chickens missing or maimed. (I don't remember the number 100% at this point.) Based on the details of the attack, I'm guessing it was one or more raccoons. So shitty that I lived at the previous place for nearly 4 years without any predator attacks except for hawks taking just 2 hens, and now this just before I moved them to Chicken Ft Knox.

 

But on to happier news!

The 2.2 acre property was just bare land when I purchased it.

View from the start of the cul-de-sac, toward the north-west

View from the south-west corner, toward the north-east

There is now a happy yellow house with detached garage, a large fenced backyard, and a large pen for the chickens/orchard/garden. Inside the house, I have a whole craft room, guest bedroom, and many many houseplants.

Chipper yellow house!

View of the garage, which has a permanent puppy potty area

Some of my houseplants

Some more houseplants

More houseplants again

My very favorite chicken, the Black Australorp that was among the first 3 peepers I ever got, passed away last year at age 6. My current oldest is the Light Brahma, who will be turning 4 this year.

As of this writing, I have 1 rooster (Buff Orpington), 2 elderly hens who don't lay eggs anymore (Buff Orpington and Easter Egger, taken in from someone who was moving and couldn't keep them), 12 hens of laying age (Light Brahma, Ancona, Splash Hamburg, 2 Norwegian Jaerhons, 2 Easter Eggers, 2 Olive Eggers, Black Australorp, Gold Star, Barred Rock), and 9 2-week old chicks (Silver Laced Wyandotte, Gold Laced Wyandotte, Blue Laced Red Wyandotte, Cuckoo Maran, Welsummer, Barnevelder, Rhode Island Red, Blue Silkie, mystery chick who seems to be a Green Queen with Silkie mixed in). I am raising the chicks in a large tub with a welded wire cover in the backyard so that I can cuddle with them frequently. My goal is to finally have some chickens who like hanging out with me and maybe even being held - all my current ones will come over for food but then say "no touchie."

Most of the adult chickens enjoying food scraps

Current peeper pen by the back door

Cuddling with the Cuckoo Maran chick

Inside the run where the chickens live, I have a corridor for a backyard/hedgerow orchard of 15 fruit trees (5 nectarine/peach, 5 fig, 1 Fuji apple, 1 loquat, 1 Lapins cherry, 1 Fuyu persimmon, 1 sugar prune). I have 2 colorful raised beds (my mom did a lot of the painting for these boards). They aren't planted yet as the infrastructure and tree projects are higher priority, but I wanted to go ahead and set them out to help with planning spacing. Along the eastern fence, I plan to put another chicken-proof corridor for vining plants (tomatoes, peas, cucumbers). Later I'll add raspberry bushes - they'll be surrounded by a fence that will be accessible on all sides by the chickens, which will keep them in check.

Row of fruit trees with fencing to keep chickens out and partially attached weed fabric.

Raised beds with sheep manure and chicken bedding breaking down for compost

The backyard is 6,000 square feet, with 2 retaining walls, a concrete pad, and a french drain to move rainwater away the house. I need to rig up shade/rain cover for the dogs. I hope to install a permanent dog tub for cooling off (I currently have a plastic pool), and an outdoor shower for myself. I had originally planned to install irrigation sprinklers and a drought-tolerant lawn, but for the moment I'm just dealing with the existing plant life and it's not so bad, setting aside the occasional foxtail clump and the yellow star-thistle.

Phoenix in the backyard.

On the east side of the house, I've started planting a succulent garden with gifted agaves and aloes. It is currently totally overgrown with weeds - I let them get tall enough that the baby agaves disappeared, so string trimming would be disastrous. I am partway through trimming out a path and plant clearance with a small sickle.

Hoo boy is that overgrown.

 

The south side of the property has black walnut trees. They provide some nice privacy, but they're growing directly underneath electrical wires and somewhat block the view when driving out of the cul-de-sac. I plan to take them out and plant something different for privacy, farther from the road. Then I am going to replace the shoddy, barely-there fence along that side of the property. Add fencing and a gate along the cul-de-sac, and the property will be fully fenced so the dogs can roam!

Black walnut trees

 

I keep going back and forth on whether to get sheep for grazing down the weeds or a nice riding mower. There are pros and cons for each. Either way, it's a decision that doesn't really need to be made for a few years at least, and in the meantime one of my neighbors allows me to borrow his old, slow riding mower. I just prefer to have things all planned out ahead of time.

Recently mowed front area

 

I brought home an English Shepherd puppy in November of 2020, from a wonderful breeder I'd been in contact with for two years. We're taking ongoing classes for agility and nose work. On my own, I'm slowly working on rally-free, traditional obedience exercises, herding foundation, and tricks. We've had a couple of herding adventures with sheep already, and I hope to do more (one of the potential pros of getting my own sheep).

8 weeks old, during the drive home

All grown up, 1.5 years old

Phoenix loves my dad!

With home ownership, especially in the country and having animals, and even more especially when you're still laying down infrastructure, one has a to-do list a mile long. It is particularly overwhelming during the winter with little sun and Seasonal Affective Disorder. I certainly couldn't do it without the help of my parents and friends and neighbors.

However it's definitely where I want to be and the lifestyle I want to be living, and I know that it will get better and better over time.

Plant Lady

Phoenix's first herding adventure

[Post originally written on March 1st. We've had 1 more penning adventure with these same sheep since then, and it was (of course) smoother and quicker the second time!) ]

My neighbor currently has 8-10 ewes with lambs grazing part of his property, but they have to be put into a large kennel at night so coyotes don’t eat them. At first they’d go in for grain, but as time goes on, they’re getting recalcitrant. I suggested that Phoenix might be helpful. Neighbor asked if I would be able to pen them up on Tuesday evening before sundown, and I said we’d give it our best shot.

I had an idea of how these particular sheep would act based on last summer, when I had some from the same flock grazing my property. They spread out and split into smaller groups easily. They only bunch together if there is a dog around. If you put a lot of pressure on them, they’re likely to scatter rather than all follow a lead ewe. Last year they were too flighty and Phoenix was too excitable for him to be helpful, so I would herd them all by myself each evening.

I also knew that penning is not an entry level exercise for a green sheepdog. But well, might as well give it a try and have an adventure, right? Neighbor assured me that no one would be home - therefore no one would be watching and laughing at us.

Here’s a diagram of the area they're currently grazing. The kennel had a piece of strong metal fencing leaned against it to help funnel the flock into the entrance. Initially the wheelbarrow wasn’t there, so the flock just went around the kennel in a circle. I immediately realized that I needed to block off that space between the kennel and the electric fence, so I dragged the broken wheelbarrow into place, and it worked for a while.

The flock was initially very spooked and ran as far as they could from us, so we spent time circling around the enclosure. Phoenix was excited and barked when they ran quickly, which spooked the sheep further, which excited the dog further…

He was on a 15’ long line, and most of the time I kept him within 6’ so that I would have more control over his movement. If he had been off leash, he would definitely have just continued to chase the sheep in circles. Because I was able to slow his pace, the sheep eventually calmed down, and we could walk up slowly to move them.

Toward the end I had his collar in my hand so that I was guiding him left, right, forward, or to wait. I was essentially using a dog in my hand as a tool to get the sheep to group up and move more easily than they did just for myself alone. (He got a lot of cheese for being calm during this part.) Hardly counts as real sheepdog herding, but it sort of worked. We got 2/3rds of them in, and I closed the kennel up - knowing I wouldn't get anymore sheep in without that group getting out in the meantime, and having to start over again.

Neighbor asked how to went, and I offered to try again with his help after he got home. Phoenix was much calmer after the one hour break. I was able to give him more room to maneuver on the long line, and he was starting to figure out that we wanted the sheep to head in specific directions and stay off the northern hilly area completely.

I positioned Neighbor at the edge of the funnel, so that he could block the penned ones from escaping, and jump in to shut the gate once we (hopefully) got all of them. At first we had a mishap with some of the kenneled sheep escaping, but soon we had all except 1 adult and 2 lambs in. At one point we had them cornered against the wheelbarrow, and they figured out they could hop over it. Fortunately, Neighbor was strong enough to move the kennel until it was right next to the electric fence, blocking off their path completely.

This was how things now stood.

The wayward sheep huddled where the wheelbarrow had been. I led Phoenix to come in closer to the fence line, to get them out of the corner. They made a break for it to the west, bypassing the funnel and Neighbor, then huddled on the other side of where the kennel was against the fence. It was hard to get them out of that deep V, because their instinct was to push in farther, but finally they came out of the corner. At this point, Phoenix had learned the pattern, and went wide to the west to bring them toward the south side of the kennel again.

Neighbor said we could call it a night, and leave these last 3 to fend for themselves. I said "one more try!"

The 3 sheep huddled in the same corner as before. I needed to move them off the fence slowly, and make sure that they then turned to their right and went into the funnel instead of bypassing it again.

I positioned Phoenix so he stood and put pressure on them to stay against the side of the kennel, and told him to wait. I slowly walked up along the fence and waved my hand, then snapped my fingers in front of the ewe's face to get her to move back.

The ewe stepped back a little. A little more. A little more. I was telling Phoenix to "wait" repeatedly, more than I needed to, but I really didn't want him to get excited and rush forward to chase them. He held his position near-perfectly, just moved his front paws twice.

One of the lambs turned and went into the kennel. The ewe hesitated, then turned and walked in. The last lamb followed her.

Phoenix got a LOT of cheese.

Puppy proofing electrical cords

I saw this brilliant idea in one of my dog groups. 1.25" PVC pipe can be used to protect electrical cords, which puppies seem to have a particular attraction to. It's not all perfectly lined up, but it should do.

Crochet stocking

Right before leaving for my parents' house to celebrate Christmas, I grabbed some bulky red and white yarn to crochet a stocking for my dog, Chimera.

There was a toy in it on Christmas Eve. Thanks, Santa!

Farm name

I've finally decided what to call my tiny farmlet:

Little Spaniels Farm

 

In honor of the dogs that live here, amongst my fruits, vegetables, and chickens!