As It Turns Out... Sunday April 2, 2010

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There was another puppy. The neighbor found it. It had missed being road kill, but that might have been merciful.

He kills them. There are three ways he goes about doing this; either by drowning, using them for target practice, or dog training - meaning they become prey.

Spay and neuter, please?

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It was a warm and muggy day here. Early in the morning a turkey hen made her way nearly up to the lawn. She must be still looking for a mate. She comes out of the woods down by the compost bins, and this time walked all the way up through the orchard before veering off into the meadow by the fence charging unit.





Speaking of the fence charging unit...

Saturday we had storms expected, so we did what was advised in the manual, we unplugged the fence before we went to bed, and then got up this morning to plug it in again. Before we made our way to town, I made a quick check of the garden, only to find that there were horse tracks ALL over the whole place! The vegetable garden, the herb garden, the orchard - all around the perimeter of the enclosed pasture for the horses.






The horses were both inside the pasture. Apparently Ginny had jumped out, and then jumped back in again. I've never seen her jump before, much less a fence! Two scary things - she knows exactly when the fence is not electrified, and she now jumps. So we were running a little late by the time we'd finished checking that out.

We were kept amply busy with two office cleanings and a window washing job. We were pretty tired through the whole thing, and we didn't make it to church.

We sufficed it by listening to some really great messages on our iPods while we worked. Sometimes I do like technology.

Coming home late in the evening we added another strand to the fence, bringing the top to about her eye-level. I hope that discourages her enough.





We've had a broody hen for a while and some of her and her friends' eggs have begun to hatch.

She was up here on the wall nests, which obviously need more hay.





So Michael moved her down into this cage. If we hadn't locked her in, she'd have left her eggs and tried to go back into the wall nest to sit there. Chickens are creatures of habit.









Looking forward to seeing those chicks running around the chicken yard!

~Faith

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And All I Got to Show For It Was This.... April 22, 2010

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I hated to do it, my dad has been sick, but I called him and asked for help on that fence. I do not know enough about electricity to figure out what on earth was wrong.

I knew the power unit was fine, the testing showed that. I called the manufacturer twice to ask about what might be wrong. They had no idea what was wrong. I hoped my dad could figure it out for me.

I have no pictures to show you, other than the drinks we made at the beginning of the day.





However, the great news is that we got the fence figured out. Dad was not sure, but he had a suspicion. So we tried it and it worked.

Here's the deal. I'm petrified of these fences not working. I've had so much trouble with them in the past.

When I began it I made up my mind to have the least possible number of potential errors as possible. I eliminated gates, I bought LOOOOOOOOOOOONG spools of wire to eliminate as many splices as possible, and --- here was the fatality --- I left lots of extra wire at each gate so that if I made any sort of error I would have enough wire to rectify it without having to splice 42 times.

To store the extra wire, I brought each one back and wrapped it around and around itself to keep it off the ground.

What I don't understand about electricity is that everytime you wrap the wire that way, it pulls juice. I don't even pretend to get this.

But once we trimmed off the extra wire, it worked perfectly.

YAY!!!!!

~Faith

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No Worky! April 21, 2010

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This electric fence has been a thorn in my side for over a month. We just have to get it done. The horses have nothing to eat and I'm tired of putting upon the neighbors, who have been so generous with their hay. They trade it for our eggs, but we all know they are getting the worst end of the trade!

But we have been having a heck of a time getting it going. Some friends came over and helped us repair an 80 foot section of fence that the horses had pushed over to get into the goat pen. We had also repaired another 50 foot section they had torn up to get into the paddock.

We finally got the wire up, the unit on a post and covered up with a protective box.





No chances this time. This unit is powerful - a 50 mile range and 2 joules, it's attached to electricity rather than a battery, we've got heavy duty wire, and it's strung three times, for now, with more to added later.









And we tested it.









It is not working! GAH!

~Faith

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Grounding the Fence April 7, 2010

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Here's how we put together the grounding system for the electric fence.

The furthest rod away from the unit was easy. You just strip the insulation away from the wire, and clamp it tightly into the clamp you then clamp tightly to the rod.









Whoops! Can't tighten the screw that way. We have to turn the clamp the other way in the ditch to get at it.





Now that we are ready to move on to the next rod up the hill, we discover a problem we foolishly did not even anticipate. I felt a little dumb about that, but it adds to my unique character, don't you think?

Ideally, you should be able to just slide a clamp on, strip a spot on the cable, and move on with it.





The cable was too big to slide through the clamp.





Coming up with another idea, we have to test it out first to see if it will work. Michael begins stripping a spare piece. Not easy. This insulation is tough! It took quite a bit of time, being careful not to take off any wire.









We bend it to fit into the clamp from the side and back out again, rather than going straight through...





Yup, this will work.









So that's what we do for the next two rods, up to the future location of the power unit.









Time to bury that cable.





And go in for some home made chips and home made salsa.





And a plate of whole wheat pasta with last year's canned spaghetti sauce.





Then the neighbor came by to drag the soil so it would be more manageable for running the rototiller over.





Evenings in the country are gorgeous!

~Faith

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Great News!!! April 6, 2010

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I was not sure we would get our garden plot tilled at all this year, but the neighbor came by and turned it over for us. It turns out he does not have a tiller this year, but at least turning it over helps us out a lot.





So we worked at planting trees while he turned the soil.





Diggin Ho-o-oles, diggin.









Two of the trees got sticks with praying mantis egg sacs on them. We'd found them in the garden while clearing it out.





The same area we did last year. He had to go around the tomato bed we'd already planted.





We had him add a little extra area above last year's pea bed, which we'd already tilled and prepped for planting. I'm concerned about excess rain and fusarium wilt, so we are going for "higher" this year.





The posts are now driven in for framing the tomato cage.





We found sweet potatoes, one the size of a football. Good stuff to decompose in the soil. Makes me think I'd like to plant a field full of them, just to add organic matter to the soil.





We took photos of Michael standing by every tree we planted.





This bug was a pretty pewter color. Probably evil.





Friendship arrives in the form of tree planting help.





The ground got harder as we moved uphill.









Watering in 8 beautiful fruit trees.





Now on to a major headache. That electric fence.

We had to drive in three 6' grounding rods, ten feet apart. The first half of each one was not too bad, but by the time they were that far down, it took a lot to drive them. Rocks are EVERYwhere here!

We each took a chair and sledgehammer to our respective rods.













The goal was to actually get them below ground level so we never have to worry about mowing over them, or tripping on them.





Almost done!





Now to dig the ditch, to run the grounding cable between them.





A long day of work, rewarded by relaxing and playing a game of Pirates.





It was a bloodbath.





Good times.

~Faith

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