We're Baaaaaaaack

 The last four years have been a refreshing break for the Small Hold. While not perfect Trump as President at least put a stop to the government and Multi-Cult encroachment on rural (all) America, which was and is the main reason to vote for the man.  He is a speed bump against the big government, old White guy hating types. I know the left hates a lot more than just old White guys but that is one of their main slogans and if you hate old White guys then guess what?  You hate just a bout everything else associated with them and that includes Rural America.

The Small Hold has made some nice strides forward in it's quest for sustainability since Trump was elected. It is of course a road that will never be finished BUT depending on this next election it may indeed be put to the test. The possibility of a win by ol' Joe and his Ho is real and I am sure that will activate another round of government growth and attacks on rural life once again putting us in survival mode. 

There have been some big changes around the Small hold as well. We reduced the sheep flock down by a good amount mostly due to the Barber pole worm issues. Although we have more than enough land to rotate grazing we did not have enough to rotate it and control the recurring exposure to the larvae. Simply put we did not have enough pasture to get them far enough away which allowed the larvae to build up an immunity to the de-wormers and continue to spread. By reducing the flock down to less than 15 sheep and discontinue breeding for a year we have over come the issue it seems without one case of "worm sign" for almost two years now. We allowed one breeding ewe to lamb this last year and did not have an issue at all and are expanding that out to three ewes this season. 

The fencing project which was overwhelming three years ago is now mostly finished. Oh fencing will never be totally done but the actual initial stage is complete now. We now have an East, West and North pasture for rotation. A small South hay field for square bales and a much larger North hay field for round bales. I have made a deal where I do not bale the North field but trade a part of the hay for the baling (if that arrangement continues anyway) and then get round bales small enough to move with my tractors. I use the square bales I do myself for some feeding and now actually have a huge surplus left over. The large growth of alfalfa in the square bale field has almost completely died out since I did not bale it this year so I can use it as either yet another pasture or hay field as need arises. We got rid of one ram so now I effectively have Winter cover for the ewes without needing to use the main barn. This in effect gives me more inside storage for equipment and will allow my next project which is more extensive inside barn repairs. 

The fencing project also gave us two enclosed garden areas and a smaller shed for garden tractor storage as well further opening up inside barn space. Lastly the control paddock doubles as a Winter feed lot for the sheep as I move them from day pasture to night enclosure. That is if I bother to close em out which most of the time there is no need so I just leave it open after putting out the feed and close it up when putting out the grain so I don't get mobbed.

We are down to only eight chickens currently as the night watchman went totally blind and is now an inside fixture. He earned his retirement with over a decade of being the best guard dog God ever created but those days are long gone and his handicap has meant that we had to move the chickens from their carefree life of barn living into a much smaller coop closer to the house. I hope to deal with the predator issue and grow the flock up once again but that has not been on the time or money schedule yet. I also still maintain a few hives but real productive bee keeping growth is also still a back burner. 

As I have preached many times sustainability for now is much different then it will become and my aim from day one has been to have the ability and means to grow when life switches from a paycheck to survival. Projects are meant to be left open for continued growth when the need comes so in many cases growth and then decline in things like bee keeping and other livestock is just a trial run so I know the materials and know how are there when the time comes. Bees were especially like that for me so now I just maintain enough hives to increase it when needed.

Lastly I must sadly report my Mother has passed away. I will not go into details right now but that too brought many changes that are not finished even yet. We were down to only two horses when she passed and they are both young enough that re-homing is possible. Our ancient donkey and two other horses died of old age over a year ago so here soon I may very well have another 15 acre pasture and my old equipment barn free as well. I had been using the equipment barn as the horse barn for decades and just basically ignoring the horse area for any future planning. Part of the horse area had become kinda wooded as well over the years and now if it becomes horse free I may actually get some tree growth down there. Land management with horses is in my opinion impossible which was why I wrote that ground off but if I manage to find a good home for them well that all can change very quickly as well. It has a lot of issues from being occupied by four hooves animals of land destruction for so long. Namely erosion issues and a lack of useful vegetation so I doubt I will ever get it productive again any time soon but I can move some of my more exposure tolerant equipment inside anyway rather then putting their ruggedness to the test like I have been.

Anyway I need to make a feed run today so I will close this post for now. I am going to try and get back into the blogging thing especially if we have a Biden win as I feel it will be very needed under those sad circumstances.

Keep Prepping Everyone!!!!