I am really excited to be fully involved in fencing projects that will allow me to expand the sheep operation into much larger areas of the farm. I am currently involved in varmint-proofing my north fence (about 700 ft), which will enable me to shift the sheep to a paddock that is much, much larger, and connected to the main barn. This paddock was once desperately overgrazed, but with some common sense management, and one season so far of raising pastured chickens on it, it is recovering into a stand of beautiful grass and clover.
When we started the fence replacement project many years ago, I spent so many hours and bloodied arms pulling old fencing out of the dirt that I decreed a space of a few inches between the bottom wire and the soil. Fine for horses. It never was an issue until now! Suddenly I have about 2800 feet of fenceline that's lined with a "Welcome Coyotes" mat! I am cutting sections of welded cattle panel, pounding the spikes into the ground and clipping the upper section to the lower edge of the woven wire (on parts of the fence that I can't do anything else about). Gee, I can't believe the huge gaps under the fence in some parts of our uneven ground. An interesting observation today. Armed with a fresh supply of hog rings, I went out to finish clipping a section of reinforced fencing, and discovered that one determined critter had pushed against the wire sufficiently hard that it managed to get the bottom of the field fence hooked over the top of the unattached cattle panel segment. It did not penetrate. It never occurred to me that the reinforcement would also deter racoons, the suspected culprit, which apparently do not dig? I never thought about where the coon that was making tracks behind the barn was coming from. An added bonus - perhaps soon I'll be able to leave food out for the poor barn cat without having several pounds of it shoveled down some hungry gullet every night. Interestingly, along the same fence, the upper electric wire has been broken twice this week. Wonder if the coon attempted to climb over the top? The place seems to be a regular critter superhighway. Right now the resident flock of crows is cleaning up some food that the sheep wouldn't touch and I chucked out of the feed bunk - would you believe, fresh, clean, 14% protein SHEEP RATION pellets, made by a major feed company...only fit for crows. "Processed grain byproducts, plant protein products, grain products, molasses products, ethylenediamine dihydriodide, sodium molybdenate" not a single whole(some) ingredient listed...who says sheep are stupid? At least they recognize junk food when you stick it under their nose, which is more than one could say for a lot of people (eat pizza, it's got LYCOPENE in the processed tomato sauce!). (Grinning broadly!) I love my sheep. Their needs are so simple, and I've officially surpassed a financial investment in meeting those needs that will never be recovered in selling them. But the enjoyment of providing for them is priceless. Regard, Barb Lee =============================================== This message is from the Blackbelly Sheep mailing list (http://www.awrittenword.com/listserv/index.html). To respond to this message, send e-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe or change your membership options, go to http://lists.coyotenet.net/mailman/listinfo/blackbelly To search the archives, go to http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/
