Farm Update

Once in awhile I feel I should write not just about the farm but also the downside of small ranch living. Often I suspect I make it sound pretty idyllic which parts of it can be. They are the ones I prefer to think about the most. It is a way of life that isn't possible everywhere and that's too bad as despite its problems, it teaches a lot about life which means it's often not very easy. I think it also provides a service in terms of food for those who don't want what they eat to come from corporate farms.

When I take photos of this place, I am always careful how I position them because there is a lot of 'stuff' around that's a long way from picturesque. This is not a hobby farm. It's one that raises livestock for someone to eat which does include us; but if we were the only ones eating it, we'd be soon out of the business-- and it is a business as well as a lifestyle.

I grew up living such a life and seeing the downside as well as the up. When my parents felt that long drive for my father, to the job that paid for the farm, was simply too much to keep the farm, I was very unhappy. I loved that place and for years dreamed I had bought it back right up until the day we drove to the end of that road, found out it now went on through, was no longer dead-end, and the whole farm had been broken up into rather ritzy ranchettes. Depressing but it at least ended the dream of having it be mine again.

So when we moved here, I understood a lot of the problems that go with small ranching. I won't go into all of what they were because it depresses me to even write about it. Some we learned and moved on from having to experience again. Some are just part of the life; and if someone doesn't like it, they literally move on.


Much as I enjoy the beauty of these cute little lambs, I can never forget that they are mostly raised to be eaten. The food they provide though is healthier than anybody can get in a regular grocery store since it's without antibiotics or hormones. The cattle are totally grass-fed while the sheep only get grain right now during the time they are producing babies and milk for them. In past years we haven't had to do that but since the coyote attacks have limited what is safe pasture for them, we are supplementing.

The jobs on a place like this are never done. Absolutely never. The mud only ends when it gets dried out for the summer which means irrigating starts. It's the only time I can really walk across the barnyard without going nearly to my knees in mud and getting stuck. I know it won't really suck me clear down. It's not quicksand but walking through it is something I don't do unless I absolutely must until it dries out.

What we more or less know we would like to get done here, say on a week-end like the last one, is apt to get changed in a heartbeat. That week-end as we were in the house, Farm Boss said get a camera. A bobcat just walked down the driveway. Sauntered actually sounded more like it.

I said, camera nothing. Get a gun. We must dissuade that bobcat from returning and the best way is shoot without aiming for it, just to scare it. I didn't see it at all, but he said the squirrels, which had been busy raiding the bird feeder, froze where they were on the side of the trees until it went out of sight.

Given a choice I'd love to see a bobcat on my property. I find it wonderful when I am in Tucson. I'd like to see one up here and not have to think-- it will grab the smallest lambs. The thing is though that it would and that's just nature at work. Can't blame it but do recognize the tiny ones would be tempting fare for it to take home to its probable kittens.

Well I did get the camera and he got the gun; but before we got outside, the bobcat had disappeared downstream. Seeing it right by the house though rearranged our week-end plans.

We recognized we had to fence the sheep away from the area. They were out there a lot with those tiny lamb chops. Animals like bobcats have a circuit, and we are at least for now part of this one's hunting territory. Small lambs are not on any menu we want to provide. We also don't want to have to kill a beautiful predator that is doing what it should to survive.

After the fence was put up, I missed seeing the sheep around the house but hope this will mean we won't hear a ewe calling for a lamb who will never be able to come.


Right now I am feeding the sheep cob which I mentioned before and that's kind of idyllic sounding with them all coming for it-- except the way they come for it is more like an attack. The only way it works well for me is, after getting on muck boots, waterproof pants (it has been raining and wet wool is not a good thing for continuing to wear a pair of jeans), filling the bucket, I have to wait a bit.

Seeing me fill the bucket (on the side of the fence they cannot reach) arouses their interest to the umpteenth degree. So I let them get bored, remember something they wanted to eat elsewhere, and leave. My horned ram is a lot of why I do that as he gets very aggressive when food is involved and being butted by those horns is not my idea of a good time. It's not that he would do it purposely but he's like the bobcat. It's just instinct but instinct broke one of Farm Boss's fingers last month.

I like putting out the grain or I wouldn't have to do it. I don't like being rushed by sheep at knee level intent on knocking me over to get what is still in the bucket.

This week-end besides the fencing problem, we also lost a calf and might lose its mother after a disastrous birthing. We have a second calf whose first-time mother rejected it-- leaving it to be bottle fed until we can sell it.

From the this could happen anywhere category, we experienced quite the storm that broke off the top of one of our small trees. Farm Boss and I were playing [Quiddler] when that hit which was good as I had just come back in from putting out grain and he wasn't quite ready to put out hay. We both hoped it wouldn't knock out our power as it was quite the blow. I think he beat me at the game. He's very very lucky at it which only really irks me when he says-- I have nothing, can't make a word, and then comes up with two complex words using Js, Zs and Xs, thereby getting 60 points and going out.

This will never look like a hobby farm or city person's country estate probably until the time we prepare to move from it. Sometimes that bothers me as I see the piles of this or that, a roll of wire, fence posts, old baling twine, pieces of wood, wire panels, feed bins, etc etc. Sometimes I think well at least people know this land is really used to produce.

Oh and the geese are back. We saw the first vulture this week. Spring really is almost here; and for this summer, we have a plan to reduce the mud-- if nothing else gets in the way.