Sheep Join the Homestead

Ian, Hilda, Etta, and Mac

Depending on how you look at it, 2016 was either the year we started a new livestock adventure or lost our minds. Adding sheep to our homestead was not a decision we made lightly. We spent years researching breeds, handling requirements, pros and cons, and anything else we could find. In April we finally took the plunge and brought home two ewes and their lambs in the back of our 26 year old Toyota truck. 

After information overload from the internet and talking with other sheep people, we decided on the Shetland breed. Shetlands are small (about half the size of standard sheep) so handling would be a little easier. They are very hardy having been developed on the Shetland Islands north of Scotland and probably bred from sheep left on the islands by the Vikings. Shetlands are also known for the beautiful and very fine wool so they have excellent economic value. And they are incredibly cute. 

Our two ewes, Etta the whiteish one and Hilda the black one, are registered Shetlands. Their lambs are crossbreds. Did I mention that Shetlands are naughty (the breeders' term for their disposition)? Etta's lamb, Mac (named for my Scottish grandmother's family name - MacGinnis), is the result of an unintended breeding to a Soay ram, another very hardy, primitive breed. Hilda's lamb, Ian, is the result of a secret breeding to a Black Welsh Mountain ram. 

After a short period of adjustment, we started them on their main summer job - mowing. Using electrified netting, we move them all around the house and close up pasture areas where we can't or don't want to graze cattle. They are dainty little grazers and fertilizers.

In June they lost their heavy winter fleeces. Initially we thought that might be a job we could learn but have watching numerous YouTube videos we thought better of it and hired a professional shearer. In fifteen minutes Tom had them slick and ready for the summer weather. 

Tom, Etta, and Don

Tom and Hilda

Etta's fleece

My cousin, Margaret, is a long-time spinner and weaver so I sent her the two fleeces. She's washing, carding, and spinning and will return half as ready to use yard. Next year we'll have fleeces from Mac (a beautiful rich brown) and Ian (black, black) and maybe one or two additions to the flock.

Over the summer we've learned more about their grazing preferences and what they consider barriers to movement. Initially we ran temporary fencing along the creek to keep them from crossing or floating away but we've realized that they don't like to get their feet wet so we can use the creek as a "fence" which allows even more grazing opportunities.

Their first home was more of a mobile home - the livestock trailer which provided a safe location for the evenings. From dusk to dawn they are locked in the trailer. When the sun is up they are out on grass. In June we started building their own barn and it should be ready for occupancy in September. 

We still have a lot to learn but I can say this much - the sheep are really enjoyable to have around. They can be naughty and are definitely characters, but they have filled a void I didn't realize I had. 

From Fleur Creek Farm

No. 3

We've had cattle grazing here every summer for the past 10 years or so. They've always been someone else's cattle - a neighbor down the road with cows and calves, a nearby rancher and his yearling replacement heifers, unwanted feral bucking bulls (that's another story) and so on. When we had horses, the cattle and horses grazed together. We've never had one we actually owned until last summer.

Last April the nearby rancher (and now good friend) mentioned that he had a yearling steer he couldn't sell to his normal buyer because of a couple of antibotic shots the steer received for an infection when he was a young calf. Did we want him? Over the years we've considered buying a steer to grass-finish and put in the freezer at the end of the grazing season but we've always resisted because neither of us were entirely sure if we would end up with a freezer full of homegrown beef or a 2000 pound pet oxen. We decided that 2015 was the year to give it a try.

No.3 (his ear tag number) arrived with his half-sisters in early May to graze away the summer. I always work with the cattle over the summer because I enjoy it and it makes them easier to handle. In an attempt to keep our relationship professional, I resisted the urge to scratch No.3's chin, give him a pat on the back or even eye contact, something most of the heifers enjoy. 

About a month before "the End" I started enticing No.3 and an older, barren cow into the corral to enjoy a handful of alfalfa pellets. It didn't take long before they would come in on their own for their little treat. 

In June a new butcher shop opened in town offering on farm processing - the perfect solution to a stress-free experience for everyone involved. On "the Day" we walked No.3 and his friend into the main corral to enjoy their pellets. Then I quietly moved No.3 and his pan of pellets into a smaller corral where the butcher ended his life with one rifle shot. Of course I stood on the other side of the barn. 

I like to think that No.3 enjoyed his last six months of life. He had the company of his siblings, shelter and lots of fresh grass, and then it was over. No time spent at a disgusting feedlot, fed a massive quantity of grains that cause great intestinal distress and illness; no cramped trailer ride to a slaughterhouse when the smell of fear and death permeate everything. 

When I go to the freezer I think about No.3 and thank him for his sacrifice. I also think about how fortunate we are to have meat that was raised in a healthy and humane manner and whose footsteps and manure will help improve our soil for future grazers, both domestic and wild. 

From Fleur Creek Farm

Shelter from the Storm

What makes a house become a home? I know some people use those terms interchangeably but to me they are very different. 

To me a house is just a structure where people reside but a home is something more.

A home is the place that welcomes you back and wraps its arms around you as you enter. A home is the place that shelters you from the storms, both physical and emotional. A home is the place where you feel more content than any where else. 

On this winter morning as I walk up the path to the front steps, I know that I am at home. And what a wonderful feeling that is.

From Fleur Creek Farm

Pygmy Rescue

A loud thump caught Don's attention several mornings ago. This sound usually means a bird has flown into one of the windows so he hustled outside to discover a tiny Northern Pygmy-Owl face down in the snow. Don gathered the little owl up to assess its condition only to be glared at by piercing bright eyes. After five minutes of calm and warmth snuggled into Don's gloved hands the little guy regained its senses and flew off.

The Northern Pygmy-Owl may be tiny (about the size of a bluebird), but it's a ferocious hunter with a taste for songbirds. These owls are mostly dark brown and white with long tails, smoothly rounded heads, and piercing yellow eyes. They hunt during the day by sitting quietly and surprising their prey. As a defensive measure, songbirds often gather to mob sitting owls until they fly away. Mobbing songbirds can help find these unobtrusive owls.

These owls are found in forests ranging from deciduous woods along streams to high-elevation fir and spruce forests at timberline. They also live in cottonwood, aspen, and mixed-conifer forests. In winter, Northern Pygmy-Owls move to lower elevations and may come into towns to hunt songbirds at bird feeders.

Like other cavity nesters, pygmy-owls need standing dead trees as nest sites. Forest management practices that remove dead wood can reduce habitat quality for them. Pygmy-owls rely on other species to excavate holes for them which makes them indirectly dependent on populations of woodpeckers.

Most sources list the Northern Pygmy-Owl as relatively uncommon in Colorado. This is the second time we have seen one on our place. We feel pretty lucky to have enjoyed these special encounters.

From Fleur Creek Farm

Winter Solstice, Christmas Full Moon, and A Wish for You

Winter begins tonight but the days lengthen starting tomorrow. I always find that interesting. You wouldn't think that the two concepts should go together. Maybe it's to give us hope at this difficult time of year.

And then on Christmas Day we will enjoy a full moon but not again for another nineteen years. Maybe that's to remind us of the fullness of life at this moment rather than to always look ahead.

So we send our wishes to all for an inspiring Winter Solstice, a joyous Christmas, and a New Year full of happiness, prosperity, and hope. 

From Fleur Creek Farm

Harvest the Sun with Bees

2015 marked the year when we finally gave into our bee-envy and became beekeepers. Our first exposure to beekeeping came ten years ago when a local beekeeper put ten hives on our place. We quickly became fascinated with these amazing creatures - how their hives were really more like complete communities dedicated to the survival of the whole not the individual.

Last fall Don ordered all the hive components and supplies to start three hives and over the winter he worked on the construction of the hive boxes and the place where we would keep our hives. 

We decided that our challenging elevation and climate could be mitigated somewhat by creating our "bee yard" in a portion of our barn. We re-purposed our old stallion's east-facing stall (he passed away in 2011) so that the hives would enjoy early morning light and warmth. Protected from the strong winter winds, heavy snow and the hot summer sun, this spot seemed perfect. Plus it was easy to add electric fencing to keep out the bears, raccoons, skunks and anything else that thought the bees and their honey were easy food.

Now for the bees. There are multitude of ways to get bees but we thought the best way for totally inexperienced beekeepers was to purchase small colonies know as "nucs". A nuc includes a mated queen, several thousand of her young daughters, developing larvae which would produce more young daughters and several combs of pollen and honey which would serve as early food sources. 

Most of the commercial bees are produced in the south from Florida to Texas because the climate makes it easier but these bees are not always well suited for life in the mountains of the West. After some research we decided to get two nucs from Zia Queenbees from northern New Mexico. 

In early June we traveled to Taos to meet with the Zia folks and pickup our bees. The three hour drive home in our Su-bee-ru with 20,000 bees in the back seat was interesting but uneventful.

Once home we transferred the bees from their nuc boxes into their new permanent hive boxes and added a feeder box on top of each hive. Inside the feeder box was a container of sugar syrup to feed them until they could start foraging on their own.

Zia Queenbees names their "survivor" queens and tracks their life history. Our queens are both daughters of Ester (a two year old breeding queen) who is a daughter of Eclipse (a four year old breeder). Definitely impressive survivors! In keeping with the "E" names, we named our queens Emily and Erin. From this point on the hives are know as Emily's and Erin's. 

Over the next few weeks we added more hive boxes to give them more room for the increasing number of bees and the food storage they were building. We continued feeding them so that all their efforts could go to developing their community.

In early July a neighbor called to report a swarm of bees in her apple tree. We gathered up our swarm catching supplies (thanks YouTube for all the swarm videos) and headed over in the pouring rain. The capture went remarkably well and we installed our new bees in the third hive box collection Don had built. 

Now for a name for the new queen and hive. We decided to honor our location by naming her with an "H". Hannah and her young hive quickly developed over the summer and we added hive boxes as needed.

The bee's forage season winds down in September and its time for the beekeeper to help them focus their winter preparations on the core part of their hive (which in these photos are the lower hive boxes decorated with a flower painted on them). This first season we chose not to collect any honey but rather give all the hive resources to the bees to improve their chances of surviving the winter. 

Don now has the bees tucked in for the winter with their hive reduced to the boxes necessary to overwinter and the hive wrapped in a reflective bubblewrap to help hold in some of their own heat.

We'll check on the bees periodically through the winter to make sure that they have plenty of food stores and if necessary we'll provide both cane sugar and pollen patties. But for the most part, they are on their own and doing what bees do. In February or March the queen will start laying new eggs which under the care of the worker bees will develop into larvae and then new bees and they will be ready for another season.

Our goal from the beginning of this project was to develop a group of bees that could handle our climate and flourish. By starting with survivor bees from Zia and adding a feral swarm with local genetics, we hope we are on track. We're looking forward to the coming years when we will also have a source of very local honey for both eating and medicinal use. But mostly we will have tried to help honeybees in general by nurturing a group of bees in a healthy location.

And we consider the bees one more way to Harvest the Sun!

If you want to learn more about Zia Queenbees, here's a great YouTube video:

Breeding Survivor Queenbees in New Mexico

From Fleur Creek Farm

Hi-tech Harvest of the Sun

Anyone who lives in a rural area usually has multiple plans to handle emergencies from extra food and goods to medical supplies and backup power. You never know when things might go "upside-down". 

We've always had a 5000 watt gas generator that would run about 6 hours on 5 gallons of fuel. It was a good solution for short-term power outages but not such a great idea if the power was out for days or longer. Plus it was noisy and smelly.

Like all other technologies, photovoltaic (solar) systems have been getting less expensive while significantly improving in output and simplicity. With the federal credits for installing a system expiring in 2016, we decided this year was the time to start.

We initially contacted several solar contractors only to be handed estimates that were grossly more power than we needed and grossly more expensive than our budget could handle. 

Finally we found a solar consultant who was perfect - Roger. Roger is a retired chemistry professor who spends his retirement years designing and helping regular people build their own PV solar system. In mid-July we started the process and two weeks ago we "flipped the switch" and started producing our own electricity. 

We did the majority of the slave labor and saved Roger's skills for the technical stuff. Actually Don did the majority of the hard work while I worked on the backup to the solar system - four cords of firewood. In the perfect juxtaposition, the brains of the solar system hang on the outside of the woodshed - the old and the new.

Rather than bore you will all the details I'll just share some photos. 

Layout of the solar panel array

Digging the holes

Setting the panel framework

Pouring concrete

Solar panels installed

Building the battery cellar

Battery cellar housing 8 - 6V batteries

Cabinet for power center

Power center with inverter

Woodshed with solar power center on right side

Our system, as configured, produces between 6 and 9 kilowatt hours per day. We designed it (ok, Roger designed it) so that we could double the output by just adding six more panels. Thus far we have the freezer and office running on 100% solar. Over the next few weeks we'll be adding another freezer and the media center - TV, sound system - plus some lights.

It still amazes me that you can produce your own electricity. And it's nice to know that when the power goes out again we'll have a little more comfort than in years past.

Watch for the next edition of Harvesting the Sun - Beekeeping

From Fleur Creek Farm