Baymule’s Farm

[Carol Dee]

OMG, please keep your heat in TX. This week has been lovely. Nights in the 60's days reaching mid 80's. Weekend is looking like a scorcher though. Nearing 100. Ugh. Fingers crossed you all get a break from the heat soon.

 

[baymule]

OMG, please keep your heat in TX. This week has been lovely. Nights in the 60's days reaching mid 80's. Weekend is looking like a scorcher though. Nearing 100. Ugh. Fingers crossed you all get a break from the heat soon.

I hope you don’t get the heat we have!

 

[baymule]

I’ve been looking for a small trailer to build a chicken coop on. I’ve found them in the $700 to $1200 range. Too much! Son found me a lawn mower trailer on FB market place and it is already is built out with a coop on it. It has a roll out nest box, a 55 gallon blue plastic barrel for water with a fitting on the outside that will hook up to a water hose. Also a hanging feeder that will hold 35 pounds of chicken feed and a pop door for the hens to come and go. Also fold down sides that open up for ventilation and more shade. Price? $450! I got up at 4:30 this morning and was outa here at 5:30. It was 86 miles one way.

We hitched it to my truck, the man aired up the tires and put a stap on the front end. I pullled out a strap for the back end, to keep the drop sides from ripping off on the wind, driving home. Lost the front strap in Palestine, stopped at a gas station and tied a rope around the coop, snugged it tight and made it home.

I didn’t get much sleep last night, I was tired. I watered the sheep, let Sentry and Carson in the house and put Sheba and Buford in the front yard. They go under the porch to stay cool. I took a nap. Woke up, watered sheep again, looked at trucks trailer…,.nah, came in, took another nap. LOL

It’s nearly 5:00, time for me to go start chores. It’s 104F outside. I go out, water, come in to cool off. Go back out, feed, come back in. Go out, take hay to two pens of lambs, take hay to the horse and hay for the ewes. Come back in. Feed the dogs and sit with them while they eat, then take them to the field. About 8:00 I put them up for the night.

I need to drop the trailer, I have to leave in the morning at 6:30 or 7:00 to go get feed. It’s 104F now……. It will be 77F in the morning before going to 106F. 104F versus 77F….. 77 sure looks like a winning number to me!

 

[Carol Dee]

I’ve been looking for a small trailer to build a chicken coop on. I’ve found them in the $700 to $1200 range. Too much! Son found me a lawn mower trailer on FB market place and it is already is built out with a coop on it. It has a roll out nest box, a 55 gallon blue plastic barrel for water with a fitting on the outside that will hook up to a water hose. Also a hanging feeder that will hold 35 pounds of chicken feed and a pop door for the hens to come and go. Also fold down sides that open up for ventilation and more shade. Price? $450! I got up at 4:30 this morning and was outa here at 5:30. It was 86 miles one way.

We hitched it to my truck, the man aired up the tires and put a stap on the front end. I pullled out a strap for the back end, to keep the drop sides from ripping off on the wind, driving home. Lost the front strap in Palestine, stopped at a gas station and tied a rope around the coop, snugged it tight and made it home.

I didn’t get much sleep last night, I was tired. I watered the sheep, let Sentry and Carson in the house and put Sheba and Buford in the front yard. They go under the porch to stay cool. I took a nap. Woke up, watered sheep again, looked at trucks trailer…,.nah, came in, took another nap. LOL

It’s nearly 5:00, time for me to go start chores. It’s 104F outside. I go out, water, come in to cool off. Go back out, feed, come back in. Go out, take hay to two pens of lambs, take hay to the horse and hay for the ewes. Come back in. Feed the dogs and sit with them while they eat, then take them to the field. About 8:00 I put them up for the night.

I need to drop the trailer, I have to leave in the morning at 6:30 or 7:00 to go get feed. It’s 104F now……. It will be 77F in the morning before going to 106F. 104F versus 77F….. 77 sure looks like a winning number to me!

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That was a fabulous find! Everything you needed already done and at a fair price. Now if the dang temps would just go down to a respectable number!

 

[AMKuska]

Ugh, that heat sounds awful. Have you lost any animals to the heat?

 

[baymule]

Ugh, that heat sounds awful. Have you lost any animals to the heat?

Nope, haven’t lost any. I’m up early, anything I have to leave for, I get it done early so I can be back home by noon. I put 2 dogs in the house and two in the front yard so they can go under the porch. I water the sheep 4-5 times a day. I pour water on the earth under their shelters and shade tarps that I put up. It gives them a cool spot to lay on.

While I was gone yesterday morning, a neighbor came over and watered the dogs and sheep. I was back at 11:20 and it was already hot.

We have a ladies luncheon every month, just a bunch of old ladies get together and have a good time. I skipped it last week because I wouldn’t get home until around 3PM. I stayed home to care for my animals.

The heat zaps me and leaves me drained. I do what I got to do in the mornings and have to stop frequently to cool off. By noon or sooner I quit, finished with task or not. I check on sheep several times in the afternoons. I have several ewes that look terrible. They are not wormy, they have lambs. I weaned the ram lambs a couple of days ago, left the ewe lambs with their mommas. 4 ewe lambs I’m keeping, on a few weeks I’ll wean them too. Between the lambs , no grass and the heat, some of my girls just got dragged down. Even with extra feed, free choice hay and the alfalfa I bought for them, they are just plain skinny. The flock is eating a round bale a week!

The auction barns are roaring ahead full to the limits. There is no rain, no grass, barely a first cutting of hay, no second or third cutting. Cattlemen are selling. The sale barn in Nacogdoches is now starting their auction 11/2 hours earlier to handle the volume of cattle coming in. They can’t afford to feed their cattle and are selling down their herds or in some cases, totally selling out. Prices are way up because there was a big sell down or sell out last year during the drought. This creates a shortage and prices go up. Normally during drought, prices go way down, due to too many cattle. During Covid, there was a big sell down.

It’s not just Texas, prices on cattle are way up all over the country and have been for the last year or two. Cattlemen are aging out, their kids don’t want the hard work of working at a job, then taking care of cows in the evenings and weekends. This creates a shortage and it will continue.

If y’all like beef, try to find a farmer or rancher that sells direct. Buy a side of beef for the freezer. This cuts out the middle man and puts money in the grower’s pocket. Support your local farmer.

My daughter sent me a picture of hamburger meat, their last package of meat from a steer I raised up to slaughter 2 years ago. LOL
As soon as I get enough fence up, I will raise another steer. I’m spoiled to home raised meat. I won’t buy pork from the store any more. Hopefully in the next year I can get set up to raise feeder pigs again.

This turned into a long post! Didn’t mean to write y’all a book! We already have gardens and raise a lot of our vegetables. Some of us have chickens too. And some of us have other farm animals. We are better off food wise, than 90% of the population. Food prices have already gotten crazy, and will continue to go up.

 

[ducks4you]

I have a lady who is 15 minutes away and bought 2 black angus from her, still hamburger from 2022 in one of our freezers.
Praying for RAIN for you!!!

 

[baymule]

Went to feed store. Forgot a leash for
Carson. He ran in the store behind the counter, wagging his tail, got lots of attention and a dog biscuit. He ran back to me, dropped his dog biscuit and peed on an end cap display. BAD DOG! When scolded, his face is so comical, that he had the employees laughing.

Got back, Bennett and Peggy brought me 5 halves of blue plastic barrels for watering the sheep. Bennett helped unload the feed and poured it in the metal trash cans. Then we went to their cow lot and they gave me 2 feed bunks with the metal bottoms rusted off. Also gave me a feed bunk with 2 liners, each liner busted at opposite ends so they put 2 together to make one. I’m delighted! I put a blue half in the ewe crew pen, filled it and their buckets. We lifted the double liner feed bunk over the fence into Cooper’s pen and he got a blue half too.

I have 3 more half barrels and the two feed bunks with the bottom skids rusted off. I’ll get Chris to weld new ships on them.

 

[baymule]

Doing chores outside. Stopped to come in and cool off. Still need to dump horse water tank, wash it out and fill it back up and feed dogs.

It’s 106F but only 27% humidity. Even the wind is hot.

I dumped buckets on the earth under sheep shelters and filled with fresh water. I gave them hay, will set a new bale in the morning.

Hot. Still gotta go back out and finish up.

 

[Crealcritter]

If y’all like beef, try to find a farmer or rancher that sells direct. Buy a side of beef for the freezer. This cuts out the middle man and puts money in the grower’s pocket. Support your local farmer.

Jesus is Lord and Christ