Horse power

We got the tractor!  A 50min drive up the border between mn and wisconsin to a small holding on the mn side.   A man named earl with a fantastic long grey beard introduced us to our new/old and first real farm tractor.

It's an Allis-Chalmers B series, made in 1939. It's got 20 horsepower, not enough for pulling a huge plow or haying equipment, but enough to pull the implements we really need.  We're pretty excited!

Fern our super model chook.

We agreed to buy it, then headed up to St. Croix Falls, WI to our new favourite Indian restaurant. Over pakora and wonderful curry dishes we chatted about our farm to do list for the year, and tried to identify some priorities.  It was a good chat, but honestly I think we were a little distracted by the amazing food and being tractor owners...I'm happy for G that he's finally got this opportunity.  He's really the least materialistic person I know.  This tractor means a lot! Maybe I should let him guest blog on here to talk about our plans for it.

He brought it over the next day:

Basically the plan is to get a mower (either pull behind or belly mower) to help manage the pastures.  We've almost settled on a type of manure spreader.  Perhaps a larger seed/fertilizer spreader.

The sheep aren't impressed with the loud tractor:

Oakley had an ophthalmic exam yesterday, and his lung recheck.  His heaves were acting up yesterday likely due to getting some dry hay, but Dr. Gen didn't hear anything suggesting that the pneumonia was still present.  PHEW.  I haven't seen any nasal discharge in a few weeks, and he's started being a jerk to Winston again, not in the 'I'm sick and grumpy' way, but in the usual 'I'm the boss' way.

 

He sure is sweet with us though! He loves picking up and holding his feet up, thinking he'll get rewarded for it. He was showing off for the vet yesterday, and being super sweet considering she's much shorter than I am, and he was fighting his instinct to monitor the whereabouts of the scary flock of chickens roaming near the house (head up 8 feet in the air), but was still responding to my 'head down' request so she could do a proper ophthalmic exam.  Both of his nasolacrimal ducts are clogged (a common occurrence here) But he normally requires sedation for that, so we called it a day.  They both need spring vaccines soon, including West Nile, before the mosquitoes start to emerge....shudder. The good news is that his antihistamine is available again after being without it since the middle of last summer.  We tried an alternative (hydroxyzine) that's used in dogs, but in my opinion it didn't work as well for him. 

 

Today I'm going to tack him up, and attempt  fasten some buckets or bags to the saddle and see how he reacts.  Tomorrow will be 15 C so we'd like to get out to the pastures to do some frost seeding, and I'd really like Oak's help! He can walk with us and carry the seed, and we'll just hand sow it.  Maybe Winston will follow behind and stomp the seed into the ground.

Princey has a horn that might present a problem.  It's just over an inch from his eye.  I would really hate to cut it.  If I have our sheep vet come out to do xrays on Winston this spring, then maybe he can cut it back for us....I'm thinking gigli wire would be the best and safest tool to use, especially that close to the eye. Prince trusts us so much, and I would hate to ruin that by holding him down for such a scary procedure.  Trimming feet and examining wounds is one thing, but dealing with horns is pretty personal, especially considering how much sheep and goats HATE having their horns touched or grabbed.

 

 

Much to do today, so I won't have time to put up greenhouse and poly tunnel photos until later.

Will update on possum and a few other animal issues soon!