Decisions.... Decisions....
Every day on the farm I must decide what to do. This amounts to prioritizing a long list. People are generally first on the list, meaning once riding lessons start up again and a calendar is made everything else works round that schedule. Daily feeding chores have a little flexibility time-wise but need to get done. Chores go a little quicker now that lambing is over and the lambs are all strong enough to travel to some of the more distant pastures. I need to decide every day where to graze the sheep and it often means I need to move the temporary electric fence netting. The idea is to use the animals to manage the grass; so the production animals are always eating young, vegetatative forage without overgrazing any pasture. I spent the last few days grazing where the white rail fence is being built because I know they'd have lots of shade these hot days under the nearby trees and it'll make it easier to finish constructing that fence once they "mow" the area.
"Immediate" animal care needs take precedence over other things but often involve weighing pros and cons and priorities. The big fencing project is on my "list" every day but I don't work on it every day because there is often something else that needs to be done. For example, I recently did some work around the horse paddock fence as they were reaching over to get the grass on the other side; and I had to make a new fence before the goats came since I'd removed one of the fences that made the lane to the woods so the logging could be done this past winter. And now I need to get the electric fence around that whole area "hot" because two steers I purchased the other day are arriving sometime this week.
The garden is now moving higher on the priority list now that the danger of frost is less likely and the soil temperature has increased enough to plant the sweet corn and squash. It looks like two cloudy days followed by a chance of rain on Saturday which makes tomorrow and Friday good planting days. I did some field prep today with the tractor and harrow in hopes of getting lots of planting seeds and transplanting the tomatoes, peppers, and eggplant seedlings from where they are "hardening off" outside the greenhouse into the actual garden.
Then there is weeding what is already growing in the garden, arranging to have the flat lawn mower tire repaired as well as the broken 3-point hitch arm on the tractor, repairing the walking plow handle, the weekly scraping of the horse lot, putting the durasole on the horses hooves every 7-10 days, turning the compost pile; various phone and email communication, working out with the trainer, walks with Ann, eating, etc., etc.. I still need to clean out the outdoor wood furnace since I closed it down for the summer and stack the woodpile. And I noticed yesterday all the horses need to have their feet trimmed again soon which is about an 8 hour "hard labor" project. I haven't yet sheared the new ram; and I'm almost out of the winter supply of hay so will need to buy and stack hay as local farmers are cutting and harvesting.
So working with Tucker and Charlie, daily runs for exercise, checking the bee hives, and a few other things get put on the back burner for now... The Covid 19 has had an effect on social obligations, riding lessons, and how some of the other things are approached; but as you can see, there is plenty to do these days on the farm. My plan is to catch up on the garden and some of these other projects this week (although it is already Wednesday!), and hit the big fencing project hard next week.
Meanwhile, I'm still waiting for more info and evaluating when to start up riding lessons again and decide what might happen with the summer riding program; and I need to communicate with all the groups and individuals involved in those programs.
I hope you all have some sort of active "to do" list and aren't getting bored from all the isolation and social distancing!
Photo: The solar powered electric fence charge provides a slight "shock" resulting in a psychological barrier to help keep the animals where I want them.
