Dreaming of Fencing

We hit a major milestone today - I have retaken the shop. The animals have retreated and I have a firm foothold.

Ever since they started dropping offspring, we have had a mother (or two) living in the shop. Most recently, it was the shetland ewes and the cat. As of today, they are all gone. We finally got the fencing around the upper pasture goat proof (or so we think) and got all the goats moved up there with Justin (the livestock guard dog who is now old enough to be on his own, with the goats - and away from the chickens.) The goats didn't even "test" the electric portions of the fence (there are 2 "hot" wires in front of a 5-wire non-electric horse fence) but poor Justin, who had never experienced electric fence got a couple of shocks-of-a-lifetime. What with the ground being wet from recent rains, that fence is cranking out a full 5,000 volts (I measured) and since 4,000 is enough to knock you on your keister, I can understand why (both times) when he got shocked he yelped for a full 30-seconds. Anyway, the good news is that with the fence at full power, the animals can test it, get a good lesson and then once it dries out and the fence isn't as potent, they won't be anxious to test it anymore.

With the goats in the upper pasture, I turned the ewes with their kids out with the ram in the middle pasture. I consider the lower pasture an electric fence "training pasture" since the perimeter fences are strong enough on their own, but there is one section of electric for them to "learn" about fences with. After a couple of weeks with that, they should be learned enough to move up to the upper pasture too.

On an unrelated note, I took the hydraulic cylinders for the front end loader on the tractor in to "Push'n'Pull" (cool name for a hydraulic shop eh?) to have them rebuilt. My jaw about hit the floor at the price - $160 each! Dad and I had tried to find new surplus units that would work, but couldn't really get any the right size, but dad-gum, at that price, I think next time I might look harder. The good news is that with any luck, the front end loader could be fully operational by this weekend (fingers crossed.)

One last thing. A while back, I bought a small yard trailer for behind lawn tractors at a flea market for $20. It has a 4' x 4' dump bed and while old, is kinda cool. The tires were flat, but I hooked it up and hauled the kids around a bit as we did chores. They loved it and I figure it has to be more gas efficient than firing up the truck right? Maybe.....