Tangle Tree Ranch

I woke up with a migraine this morning at 4am. So I took my medicine and went back to bed. The alarm went off, and then you lay there trying to make a dissention if you are going to be OK to go to work, or not. Half of my face was numb, something new for me, my whole body aced, so I stayed home. My husband had to call in for me, I was too unsteady to walk to the phone. Woke up at 11am, got up, ate, and sat there. Just did not feel good. Still just sitting here, but have folded some laundry, and fed the house lamb. Yes, we have one in the house, to early born, due to deworming. Probably 9 days early, my fault, but it do happened. I did not think his dame was bred, as she was soo skinny, but she was. We use garlic juice for the bred ones, and other commercial dewormed for the unbred. Most commercial brand of dewormer do have a possible abortion as a side effect, so you have to read label, even the fine print!!! Now, I am to tiered to do anything, but when you look around you, and you see all that needs to get done, it is hard to be sick. Hopefully I will feel better tomorrow, we have the day off, so I do not have to call in, something I hate to do. Until next time, hope the sun is shining on you, Marte

It is raining, not pouring, just drizzel. So everything is soaked. The lambs and goat kids are wet, so the dames are all looked in the barn. To carry extra hay fro the big Group in never booring, it is just more work. Our childern and I devormed one Group of dames, so tomorrow the need the second ogaround of devormer. We use garlic juice for most of the internal vorms, easier to administrate. We need to fence today, but we got Cold out there, so we are in the house to warm up.

So what did Bob do at home, while I worked 8 to 4, more like leave at 7am, home before 6pm. He penned up 1 ewe, with 1 lamb, 1 doe with a set of twin does!!! Fixed the grain auger, fed the does and ewes in jugs, watered them, milked 2 goats twice, fed lambs who need extra milk, fed goat kid who needs extra. Nothing to it!!! When the kids and I got home, we made supper, rested, and milked the cow. Our girl is practicing her violin, so she sounds better and better. Now it is bed time, sleep tight, do not let the bed bugs bite.

So since we are in the green time of winter, we are just like everyone else, lambing, kidding and calving!! Going good, but it is cold for the little ones, so they are not free to roam as they should by now. Our hoop house left us last May, just lifted by the wind, not too bad damage, but needs fixing. Bob hurt his shoulder in November, so his has lots of pain, but still gets most of the chores done. We are currently milking 2 goats and 1 cow, so that takes time. The cow we milks just one time a day, due to not needing all her milk. Her calf take care of the rest. The goats are milked 2 times daily, so maybe I can make some cheese in a week or so, who knows. Not sure how big our garden will be this year, but last year we had nothing, so it will be more than that!!! Our livestock count has increased, only 20 head of bovine, 145 head of sheep and goats( together), a few ponies and some big horses. 3 llamas, a mule and a yard full of free range turkeys and chickens. This keeps us busy. Thank you for taking time to read my writing. Marte, the scribe

We have had one female llama fro years, her name in MamaLama. On Friday we increased our herd of llamas with Lola, Lilly and Buster. Buster is a young male, so he is working with MamaLama, his mom and grandma, well they are on vacation in the adjacent pasture.They are all happy. Buster chases the smalle lams and kids, but mama stop him. Interesting to watch.

We are also calving at this time, I know off time, but calving. So last nights the coyotes tried to get closer, that woke the pack of guard dogs up. So it is nice to know our livestock is somewhat protected. The chickens and turkeys, well they are gone to the fox I think. For some odd reason the dogs can not keep the fox out, sad but a fact.

Jep, I can do that. I mainly make hot processed, but have tried some cold process. So today I was going to make cold processed lard, sheabutter and honey. Well, I  am not sure if that one will turn out right. When it was a trace stage, ready to pour, I put the honey in. It turn orange, sharp orange and started to separate!!! I turned more heat on the pot, stirred like crazy, and hope for the best. It is brown soap like substance, in the form, cooling down, so we will see in a day or 2.

I cleaned the pot, put new lard in, and will try another batch, NO HONEY!!! So we will see how that turns out.

WinterSpring is a term used by some of Norway s Same people. It is the time when winter turns to spring like weather, like we have now. We have some snow left, but a lot is melted, due to the too warm temperatures the last days. I like spring, but this is too warm too fast, and we will get a cold spell, trust me!!

The endwalls of our love/hate hoop house blew out last summer, so even with them open, the soil is thawed out in there. So we will be seeding radishes, brasicas and peas this weekend!!!  So now we have to creat a market for our produce that should be ready for sale in 30 to 50 days!!!

We have deer worm in our goats. This little critter will paralyze a goat, so the goat will die sooner or later. NOT FUN, but tear dripping hard work. Who is responsible for the deer????
If my goats damage somebody else animals would I not have to pay????

So who owns the ....Deer???

This is not only costing time, money, loss of animals, but also sleep and energy.

We have to bring every goat and sheep back to the farm, and give the shots for 7 days, then 5 days of oral drench. Not a lot of work, since we only have about 60 head, but ........It cost some money too, so there went the extra money that we where hoping for.

I know I sound mad, but I am frustrated, to no end. To look at the 3 lame goats in the barn, and know it can be half of our herd by the time this is over, well I do not know about you, but it hurts.

We do not have many people to ask to help us, so we are kind of on our own.

So what do we do when it is so hard to dry hay??? Well, we can bale it moist,and then wrap it in plastic, air tight. This way it ensilage it self. Not a commonly used method around here, but used other places where drying hay is like this, rain every other day. 

But you need a different type of round baler to bale up this wetter hay, and we do not have one. So now we have to think........

I am not sure what we should do, the hay sales are down, so there went the extra, but it is farming.

We need sun and wind, so we can finish up our haying season, before freeze up. The way this is going, we will be haying past freeze up. I do not think that is going to be too fun. I am sure the tractors will not over heat at that time, but it is kind of different. 

Weeding and mulching is still an ongoing job. 

Fence building needs to start by it self, so if someone have s machine for that, can I borrow it???????

Time is not on our side, we are 2 adults with 2 small children, and we have too much to do, so things do not always get done the way we wish it should. But we do work on or for our farm about 18 hours a day. Still we feel we are in a stand still.

Until next time, I am heading out to weed.

Our MF1155 busted a back tire, but we use only single wheels, so we had the extra once sitting in the shed. Any tire fixing outfit wanted some money to come out and swap the busted tire with the used one. But right now cash is short, no hay sold yet, so Bob saved us $350 by doing it himself. I had sprayed the nuts with BLAST!!! Some kind of rust looser earlier today, and it helped. In 2 hours the wheels was switched around, by using only hand power. Some times is it neat to be a handyman.

Other that that, neighbors are harvesting barley, and they had a good crop. The price was also good he said, so we are happy for them. At 4:20 am this morning, their sprayer flew out of their yard, I was up with the little guy, so that is how come I know. So when I saw one of the neighbors today, I had to stop him and see if he was awake still. Not him, but on of the other guys, that work for them, came to work at 4am to run the sprayer before it got too warm today. Here is the reason why early bird; their brand new machine, the sprayer, over heats when the temp gets over 75¤F. Not funny in sunny ND.

Our oldest child and I found 8 chicks today, that was fun to watch. So we will make sure she has plenty to eat for her brood.

I am curious to see, what we can accomplish today, some days it seams like nothing, but there is always something getting done.

Like yesterday, one of our automatic water had a leak, so it needed to be fixed ASAP, it could not wait. Water every where, and our livestock need fresh water now, since summer and heat finally got here. We actually have rural water, and uses it for all our watering needs, so leaking water, gets to be expensive. I know our neighbors uses rural water to fill their sprayer tanks, so they go thru alot of water. 

But back to yesterday, I know we fixed the leak, let the ponies to a bigger area, weeded, fed birds, made breakfast, lunch and supper, brought one child to Head Start, that alone takes 2 hours out of our day, due to road construction and where he goes to Head Start. Washed and hung up 2 loads of laundry, got diesel for our up coming haying, and probably some thing more, but I must have forgot it.

So we will see what today bring, of joys, cry and frustration.

Do you remember the song, every were you go, you always take the weather with you???

Well, this is not fun, I got wood stoves going, long pants, shirt and it is cold outside. The only thing that grow is weeds, so this is not funny.

I can only hope for a better tomorrow.

You just make a ditch, with our home made ditcher, that Bob build to my specification, set the crowns in the right spacing, cower and water. Then you come back in a couple of weeks with the hiller, like to hill potatoes. 

I like tractors or horse drawn machinery, less hand labor, more time to do more work, or time with our children.

Other that that, a birthday party, a shopping trip, and bed.

Thank you for following our adventure.

Yep, that is right, I do no longer have a job. I will probably work my butt off, but on MY TIME!!!!!!

Weeds look out, I have time to pull you out, with our machine, not by hand. 

I can get up with the sun, and go to bed with it. I have discover that I am a Day lighter. I neeeeeds lots of sleep in the winter, but lot less in summer, so 18 hrs of work is not unheard of for me in a week or two. I just have to stop to refuel, that is to eat. But I guess I will fit my size 12 pants before to long.

I am BLASTING Scandinavian Summer music, and I am flying, on the feeling of freedom. I like my job, but I need to focus on our farm, so there for no more teachers aid. Just other duties as assigned at home. JIPPI