Sunday, April 3, 2016

Sunday Reading - I Guess Spring is Here for Real





We were back up into the mid 70's today. In fact it was a beautiful day except for the 40+ MPH winds. Made it almost impossible to do a few things like cut up the 8x4' sheet of plywood I have in the shop that needs to be gotten out of the way. It's too large to cut up inside my little shop and bringing it out would have been suicide in this wind.

The Plums are blooming so hard now that the air outside smells like them no matter where you go. The bees are working them like crazy until they are blown off course by the wind anyway.




Standing near the hives or down wind of a major flight path almost assures you will be hit with bees blown off course.

Since I was left home alone today I couldn't leave to cut wood like I should have done because someone has to stay close and keep an eye on the ewes so I spent the day getting things caught up for lambing season and finished putting out my swarm traps. I also took the insulation wraps off the hives.

Let me tell you chasing half inch foam insulation panels across the yard or field in this wind is not fun. Luckily only a couple got away from me.

No more lamb births today so far. I really thought Seven was going to have hers last night. I even put her in a birthing stall but this morning no lambs yet. Since it was such a warm day I let the girls back out into the hay field. Once I let the new lambs and Hazel out of the birthing stall they are in I will need to dry lot the rest of the flock until all lambs are old enough to leave the barn lot.

I finished off by repairing a section of fence by the main gate post that needed a bit more than the cross boards I had up. The lambs are able to scurry under and escape while the adults can't and that is never a good thing with lambs.

So far only the two new lambs. Maybe tonight we will get another pair or three.

Keep Prepping Everyone!!!!!!!


18 comments:

  1. We had a lot of wind but it let up finally so I put new plastic on my green house that is made out of pallets. Sounds like you are having a good lambing this year. I cut my wild plums down as they were starting to spread by roots and were going to cause more problems than they are worth. I put some out in the grown up fields for wildlife so they can make a jungle out there. Still getting ice in the morning but spring is here by the look of things.

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    1. Sf - I am attempting to make a hedge on the west side of the yard with the Plums. As long as I keep em mowed it should work.Of course eventually the powerline guys will come and cut em down but then I will have some free firewood!!!!

      Not that plum is good fire wood but heh it does make a good hedge I have noticed.

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  2. It has been real windy as well. That may have something to do with my bees being so aggressive. If you get within 100 feet they will come after you! I needed to do some work near my barn and I finally had to put on a veil to keep the bees out of my face.

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    1. Sd - Hmmmm. Have you been doing inspections without smoking them lately? I find that will keep em upset and me singled out for attack for weeks afterwards.

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    2. I always have my smoker ready, but I rarely smoke my bees. Besides it has been two weeks since I did an inspection. Yesterday my bees seemed to be settled down.

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    3. SD - I can say that the last time I popped the top on a hive by the house and didn't use smoke those bees remembered me for weeks afterwards. They were waiting for me to come out of the door some days. Since that happened I never open a hive near the house without giving them a little smoke. I learned my lesson.

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  3. We used to live on the coast before we came to France, and most days we used to have onshore winds, which in winter would drive the sea foam and rain horizontally across over the land. The winds usually came from the north, (Russia, etc) They were not nice, so we are glad to be in a place which does not have much wind, apart from what the weather brings in, and then it is only temporary.
    Hope the lambing continues to go well.

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    1. Vera - Being on the edge of the plains we get wind. It is just almost always there. Being situated on a high spot makes it that much worse. Least we don;t have it coming off a large body of water like you speak of though :)

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  4. The wind is our biggest issue, the previous owners allowed the hedge lines to grow into trees so there is no wind breaks and no where for stock to shelter from the wind, I am planting up wind breaks of bamboo and willow and we are working on restoring hedges its going to be a long haul

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    1. Dawn - Here we can let Cedar trees grow and they make excellent wind breaks. Problem is they usually end up under power lines and the guys come by and cut them all down :(

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  5. winds were horrible here too, especially on Saturday, made working in the yard and around our little estate miserable. But, we had things that needed to get done.
    Also started planting cypress trees yesterday, so in time it would make a natural fence..gonna take a few years though. We got them from my dad and the first few trees are small.

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    1. JuGM - I love cypress trees but they don't grow here well. The Bald cypress will grow but they take forever to get any real growth on them. Natural fences are the way to go though if you can wait for them :)

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  6. Windy here as well! I guess March is living up to it's reputation as the windy month.

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    1. Lisa - Yep those damned March winds are still going into April :)

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  7. PP,

    Winds were terrible for a couple of days, now were back to calm winds. Fires keep popping up here and there. We pray nothing starts around here. Your fruit tree's are really providing all kinds of nice blossoms for your bee's.
    I giggle when you stated you had to chase foam insulation panels. I had to chase Styrofoam myself when separating it from cardboard.

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    1. Sandy - I noticed Oklahoma is in a drought and exceptionally dry right now. We are also in exceptionally dry. I am hoping we get some rain again soon now. I don't want a repeat of 2012.

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  8. Well 2 weeks ago we were out 4 wheelin and drinking beer in the sunshine. Yesterday we had 3 inches of snow and it was 17 degrees this morning at 6AM.. Wanna trade?

    Carl in the UP

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    1. Carl - Only if we get the moisture. We are moving into exceptionally dry conditions now once again :(

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