Sheep Shipped!

Ron Keener picked up 2 rams going to Texas. We're now pretty much sold out of sheep until we wean lambs in the fall. I still have a few adult rams that I could sell but no adult ewes at all.

Shop Work

The shop floor has been sealed and painted and the metal on the sides is up. The metal is to help prevent any fires if sparks from welding bounce around and hit the drywall. We used old leftover metal roofing material from various projects so we have a colorful shop but it will work great.

Visitors

Roy & Pim from the Netherlands arrived for a short visit. We stored a mountain bike for Roy for a couple of years in our garage. I know Pim from my old multimedia programming days.
Here they are getting the bikes ready for some test riding.

We had a fun time visiting with them and I hope they enjoy their US stay and get to do a lot of good trails here.

Construction Again!

9th of July and Bill McKee moved the construction trailer back on site to finish the last of the work on the shop.

Blog updates have been slow. I've had problems getting pictures uploaded which is why all the delays. Should be about caught up now.

End of Lambing

5 th of July and the official end of lambing. 73 lambs born, 6 stillborns. Not too bad. We had 4 ewes who did not lamb. 2 will be butchered and 2 will get a second chance.

July 4th Paonia Cherry Days

Fourth of July is the big local Cherry Days festival. We took the entire day off to enjoy the show. It starts early in the morning with a pancake breakfast benefit for the local fire department. Next is the Cherry Days Parade. If you aren't in the parade you are watching it.



The fire department and anyone with a neat old car is in it. A Cherry Day Queen and King from the high school is crowned.


Clubs and organizations also participate from the Boy Scouts to Rotary.



Of course every politician running for local office is also in and most are handing out candy or something.







Any Paonia High School class that is having a reunion this year will put in an entry.





The clown band has been an institution for at least the last 50 years or longer.



There are wonderful restored old tractors and equipment that get hauled out every year.





Ranchers and horse clubs also turn out. There is a fairly big draft horse group locally and some of the carriages are really nice.





The North Fork Horse Patrol does mountain search and rescues and is made up of local ranchers and anyone with a good mountain horse who is interested. They also sponsor the yearly rodeo and bull riding competitions.





The parade ends at the town park and there is music, a carnival and booths.



We had a great time and then went to the annual Historical Society Ice Cream Social. It's our big fund raiser each year.

Got home to take a picture of Mount Lamborn. The rule of thumb is that if there is snow on Lamborn on July 4th there is decen tirrigation water. We have more snow left than we have had for years.

First Cutting Hay In!

3rd of July and the rest of the first cutting of hay is in the barn. Less than half the hay we got last year, only 23 tons, but it's of good quality. We've already called and reserved another 32 tons from another farmer and we may buy more if second cutting isn't good either. Our late spring that was so cold followed by heat meant the grass never really developed much leaf area before shooting up seed stalks. Once it does that it's time to cut it no matter how much or little there is.

Painting Done and First hay

The painting of the new shop is finished. It came out looking really nice. Just a few more things to finish inside and we'll be done.

Today we got the first of the hay for the year into the barn. 3 loads of about 70 bales each. Then it started to rain. Now we have to wait for the rain to stop and the rest of the hay to get picked up out of the field. All we need is about 4 hours of sun and another 6 hours to get the hay up. Please, no more thunderstorms or rouge clouds till tomorrow afternoon! Hay prices are really rising this year, the cost of diesel is higher than gasoline and it's making the cost to cut and bale hay very high. We lost another custom farmer in our area who retired so the remaining 2 people are so overbooked that it's hard to get stuff done when it's ready. They were a couple of days late cutting and then an extra day late baling and now it's getting rained on. The equipment is too expensive for a small farm like ours to own so we are stuck. If anyone wants a good business there is a huge need for custom farmers in our area. High capital costs to get in, unless you buy used equipment and are able to do most of your own repairs. But a large and growing clientele.