A Productive Weekend on the Farm: Welding and repairs on the Ranch, Cleaning, and Prepping for New Growth

Life on the ranch is always busy, but this weekend was particularly productive. With everyone pitching in, we managed to tackle several important tasks that will keep our operations running smoothly. Here's a peak at what we accomplished over the past couple of days.

John's Welding and Repair Work

Welding and repairs on the ranch are never in shortage. I guess that's why you'll never hear a rancher say he's bored. John took on the critical job of welding and fixing our livestock scales. These scales are essential for accurately weighing our animals, ensuring their health and helping us manage their growth and nutrition efficiently. Over time, wear and tear had taken their toll, and we needed to get new load bars on the sheep scale. Handy as always, John repaired the sliding gates and almost finished getting the load bars set. We'll work on that later this week. His efforts mean we can continue to monitor our livestock accurately, which is crucial for our ranch's productivity.

He also managed to squeeze in building a special stand for the girls' 4-H lambs. It is a platform on an incline that will help the lambs develop toned muscles in their hind quarters.

Working on Alyssa's sheep scale.

Clearing Out the Sheep Corrals

While John was busy welding, I tackled the task of clearing tumbleweeds out of our sheep corrals. The wind this spring has been crazy and the amount of tumbleweeds has been mind blowing. These prickly nuisances had accumulated over the past few weeks. Not only do they make things look run down, they also create a barrier so we can't move the animals through the working facilities easily. I mean if I were a sheep I wouldn't be to interested in going in a pen full of tumbleweeds that could get stuck in my wool. So armed with my pitchfork, I spent a couple hours removing the tumbleweeds. This not only improves the aesthetics of the farm but also helps in maintaining a healthy environment for our animals.

We couldn't even open the gate to the crowd tub for the sheep.

Now the crowd tub is cleared out and ready to weigh lambs.

We have a series of small pens leading to the crowd tub. These were also filled with tumbleweeds.

Now we're ready to bring the sheep over.

Prepping the Fodder Box

The girls focused their efforts on cleaning out our fodder box. The 'fodder box' is a conex that we converted into essentially a green house. We use it to grow the equivalent of micro-green for the cattle (sheep can eat it also, but we don't have enough space to grow fodder for them). We've struggled to sprout the oat seeds efficiently and the trays needed dumped so we can start over. Since it is the end of May and we've had virtually no rain we will have to supplement the momma cows and yearlings with fodder. This will provide the protein they need. The girls got most of the shelves and trays cleared. We just have one more shelf to clear and we're ready to start planting our fodder again.

Teamwork and Preparation

This weekend was a testament to the power of teamwork and preparation. Each task, though different, was equally important for the overall health and efficiency of our farm. From welding and repairs to cleaning and prepping for new growth, every effort contributed to a smoother, more productive operation.

Looking Ahead

With these tasks nearly complete, we're ready to get to work and finish up this weekend. I'm excited to weigh lambs and see how much they've grown the last few months! They start out around 10 pounds at birth and I think we have some lambs close to 90 pounds now.

Thank you for following along with our weekend adventures. Life on the ranch is always an exciting mix of hard work and rewarding achievements. Stay tuned for more updates!