Halfmoon's journal

Where are you and where are you going?
LucyInTheSky
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Joined: Mon Jan 16, 2017 9:23 pm

Re: Halfmoon's journal

Post by LucyInTheSky »

I'm still with you!

halfmoon
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Joined: Mon Nov 07, 2016 10:19 pm

Re: Halfmoon's journal

Post by halfmoon »

Thank you, Lucy! Since you came up with the Halfmoon Saga tag, you HAVE to stick with me. :D

saving-10-years
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Joined: Thu Oct 31, 2013 9:37 am
Location: Warwickshire, UK

Re: Halfmoon's journal

Post by saving-10-years »

@halfmoon, each story you tell dangles the threads of another story to come. So many things you talk about resonate with me, although I have led a far less adventurous life. Dug in for more stories (and yet more).

Hope that your life-as-accountant is now safely done with year end.

halfmoon
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Joined: Mon Nov 07, 2016 10:19 pm

Re: Halfmoon's journal

Post by halfmoon »

saving-10-years wrote:So many things you talk about resonate with me, although I have led a far less adventurous life.
Oh, I don't know about the less adventurous part. I seem to recall something about you dealing with 25 first-time birthing ewes... :shock:

I wish I were done with year-end, but one client-perceived crisis after another seems to persist this year. We also just adopted a miniature border collie who was being sadly neglected by some neighbors. We'd been patting ourselves on the back for remaining dog-free the past year and having more freedom. The universe despises a vacuum. ;)

George the original one
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Joined: Wed Jul 28, 2010 3:28 am
Location: Wettest corner of Orygun

Re: Halfmoon's journal

Post by George the original one »

halfmoon wrote:
saving-10-years wrote:We also just adopted a miniature border collie who was being sadly neglected by some neighbors.
Oh, good lord! Border collies left to inattention produce the most interesting tales... I sure hope yours has not reached the stage of writing its own adventures.

We had a neighbor who was best friends with his border collie. Then the neighbor passed away and his wife was no substitute, so the dog went looking for a new companion without the fine widow's permission... by sneaking out of the 2nd floor window whenever she wasn't looking. Yes, 2nd floor! We played host a few times during the dog's escapades, making sure no harm befell it. Widow did wise up fairly soon, after about dog's 4th visit to us, and got things squared away so she was dog's new best friend for the future!

halfmoon
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Re: Halfmoon's journal

Post by halfmoon »

George the original one wrote:Oh, good lord! Border collies left to inattention produce the most interesting tales... I sure hope yours has not reached the stage of writing its own adventures.
Umm...exactly that stage. He's about two years old and the sweetest little thing you could wish for. The former owners acquired him on Craigslist at six months because they'd just bought a house on 10 acres, so of course they Needed A Dog. They were gone dawn to dusk and couldn't understand why the Dog couldn't happily confine himself to their unfenced land boundaries when left alone. After numerous calls and trips to retrieve him across the countryside, they started tying him up all day. When he managed to escape, they bought new and tighter collars. The day he arrive at our place, his collar was practically choking him. He'd chewed through his rope to escape, because Border Collie.

So, there's that one little flaw where we can't let him off a leash when out walking. We have 30 acres, but I don't think he's impressed. We're working on it.

Thinking of interesting adventures: we took him to the local rail trail the other day for a stroll. When I got out of the car and opened the back door to leash him...no dog. He was gone. I was completely mystified (and a bit freaked out) until I saw the open window on the other side. He had pressed the electric window lever, opened the window and jumped out. I need more coffee to keep up with this one.

Riggerjack
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Joined: Thu Jul 14, 2011 3:09 am

Re: Halfmoon's journal

Post by Riggerjack »

All my dogs have been trained to the property lines. It's easy enough to do as puppies.

Piss in a spray bottle, spray the border you want to enforce, reinforce consistently. This is how dogs mark territory, so it is a pretty easy way to train. I recommend that you tie a ribbon or come up with some other visual cue, to ensure you are training to the same spot, and spraying accurately. Walks a few times a day is necessary. once he has it down, new areas can be established in a few days.

Of course, I was working with lab mixes. Way less energy than border collies. I highly recommend frisbees and tennis ball throwers. We had a Belgian teveran as a kid. Shepards just run too much.

Jason

Re: Halfmoon's journal

Post by Jason »

I'm REALLY trying to keep an open mind here, but I don't ever see a pair of upright bears and suggestions to piss into spray bottles as entering my comfort zone.

halfmoon
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Re: Halfmoon's journal

Post by halfmoon »

Riggerjack wrote:All my dogs have been trained to the property lines. It's easy enough to do as puppies.
Yeah...we're amost 2 years too late on that one, but we may try it anyway. This one loves to hunt like no other dog I've seen. He goes into some sort of zone when he catches a scent, and all else is lost. Speaking of things lost: we just had him neutered (sorry, guys), and we're hoping that will help with the running off to find ladies part. I doubt it will dull his appetite for other sorts of hunting, though.
Jason wrote:I'm REALLY trying to keep an open mind here, but I don't ever see a pair of upright bears and suggestions to piss into spray bottles as entering my comfort zone.
Oh, you've just begun to stray from the comfort zone. Go on over to the toilet paper thread, then you'll see how boring this journal is. :o

Jason

Re: Halfmoon's journal

Post by Jason »

Well, based on what I've seen so far, I'm guessing that in the toilet paper thread, pictures of bears are used for pedagogical purposes.

Let me first work on a general bear acceptance and then we can address the possibility of me shitting like one.

Baby steps.

George the original one
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Re: Halfmoon's journal

Post by George the original one »

There's a difference between bear and bare <ahem>

Jason

Re: Halfmoon's journal

Post by Jason »

Maybe. But if so, bearly.

halfmoon
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Re: Halfmoon's journal

Post by halfmoon »

I can't bear these puns.

halfmoon
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Re: Halfmoon's journal

Post by halfmoon »

THE HOMESTEAD/ACCUMULATION YEARS

To someone from the eastern US, seeing cattle roaming the forest or walking sedately across a public road was a revelation. Our newly adopted county was legally open range, which meant that any land not in an incorporated city was freely available to grazing cattle. If landowners didn’t want other people’s cattle on their property, the burden was on them to fence the animals out. Since DH and I definitely didn’t want cattle on our land,* fencing was the first order of business. Because we were on a budget, we bought most of our fencing (and later building) supplies in the Seattle area and hauled them across the mountains in our ‘64 Chevy pickup. We also had a lot of supplies and tools already, so it made sense.

*I know that cheap grazing is a tradition of the west and contributes to ranchers’ ability to stay in business. We wanted the land to recover from logging and support wildlife, though. Logged land in an arid climate is particularly fragile and vulnerable to invasive plants carried by cattle.

As soon as the snow was gone, we hauled an old 17’ travel trailer stocked with clothes and supplies over to our new property to serve as base camp. At this point, we had reduced our work hours to 3 nights/week so we could have more time to make the 12-hour round trip drive and work on the retirement place.

On our next days off, we headed over with a heavily-loaded truck. In the cab: DH and I, plus two large dogs. Anyone who hasn't driven for 6 hours sharing a truck cab with 2 big dogs just hasn't lived. ;) In the truck bed, in order of layers with railroad ties on the bottom (pay attention, because this is important):

8 railroad ties (weighed over 100lbs each)
An untold number of used bricks
10 4x4 pressure-treated posts
Buckets of fencing hardware
3 full 5-gallon propane tanks
3 full 5-gallon gas cans
Numerous rolls of barbed wire, 2-liter bottles of soda, tools, gloves, food, etc.

We drove over the mountain pass and headed into Eastern Washington. About 10 miles into the east side, we were surprised to hear a car horn blaring. The car passed us, driver gesturing wildly at the back of our truck. We looked out the rear window and saw smoke pouring from the truck bed.

DH quickly pulled across the highway onto an opportunely-placed gravel road, and we piled out. We looked under the truck and saw that the old wooden bed had sagged under the heavy load and made contact with the hot exhaust pipe. The bed was on fire. Due to some sort of brain damage, we had everything in the truck bed except…oh…WATER. Plenty of combustibles, though. DH grabbed several soda bottles and crawled under the truck. His parting words: “If those propane tanks blow, all my troubles are over.”

Meanwhile, I was offloading propane tanks and gas cans like a riot looter. DH managed to put out the active flames under the truck bed, but the creosote-soaked railroad tires were still smoldering. We ended up having to unload every damn thing from the truck so we could get to the railroad ties, pulling them off onto the ground and soaking them with diet 7-Up. I knew that stuff was good for you!

When all the fires were out cold, we loaded everything back onto the truck (bricks on the bottom this time) and drove on with fingers crossed.

halfmoon
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Re: Halfmoon's journal

Post by halfmoon »

THE HOMESTEAD/ACCUMULATION YEARS

(TL;DR: excessive discussion of fencing details and bragging about hard work)

We managed to complete our trip without setting the truck on fire again. Now began the real fun.

It’s odd how there are any number of things that DH and I wouldn’t do for money because they’re miserably hard or nasty, but we’ve done them for ourselves to avoid paying someone else. So I guess we are in a sense doing them for money. ;) High on that list would be digging out a clogged septic line (check), clearing blackberry bushes (yep) and fencing.

Our land was square-shaped with a state road running through it and cattle guards where the road intersected property boundaries. Each side was ¼ mile long, and the fence needed a minimum of 4 barbed-wire runs to reliably keep out cattle. That’s 4 miles of barbed wire, metal posts every 11 feet, railroad ties at each corner and on either side of the cattle guards, 4x4 posts on either side of the RR ties with cross-bracing, approximately 2000 fence clips and a bunch of fence staples for the posts. With no handy mules, ATVs or teenage children, we had to carry everything ourselves. This would be a daunting task on flat, open land. Ours was on a mountainside (quite steep in places) and covered a mix of trees and logging slash.

Before we could do anything else, we needed to set the corners. The property was surveyed and had a monument on each corner, so we knew exactly where to bury the railroad ties. Those old creosote-soaked timbers were incredibly dense. We were able to drive to one corner and the sides of the cattle guards, but three of the railroad ties had to be hand-carried: one downhill and two sharply up. We’re pretty small people, so it took one of us on each end, huffing and puffing for about 20 feet at a time and stopping to recover in between. Breaks were punctuated by gasps of “Damn, this thing is heavy!” That observation never got old.

After the railroad ties, the 4x4 posts seemed almost trivial. We used a (manual) post hole digger to bury the RR ties and posts 3’ deep, then braced them with rebar-pegged cross posts and diagonal wires.

Next we had to lay out the fence line. Because DH is German, this had to run arrow-straight from each corner to the next. Starting with one side at a time, we took a thin string and stretched it the ¼-mile length between two corners. There were lots of bushes, saplings and downed trees in the path, so it was a slow process of running the line as best we could, cutting everything in the assumed path and clearing it away, adjusting the line, cutting/clearing again ad infinitum until the line hung free the entire length. There are certainly easier ways to do this with current technology or more money, but we were working with what we had: our backs, legs and beady eyes.

Once one line was established, we began the spine-jarring process of pounding 120 metal posts into the ground with a hand-held post driver. We traded off between being the post holder and the post banger, with DH taking probably 75% of the latter position. Around that time, DH went to the doctor and said that his back hurt. The doctor asked what he’d been doing lately. DH said “Driving fence posts.” The doctor said “Then of course your back hurts. Stop it.”

All this was good for several weeks of entertainment punctuated by weekends at the restaurant job and the long drive back and forth. Finally we were ready to run the first line of barbed wire, starting with the top wire to avoid tangling. Barbed wire rolls are conveniently sized to run ¼ mile, so we needed 16 rolls at about 80 pounds apiece. We threaded the first roll onto a sturdy stick (again: I’m sure there’s an easier/more expensive way to do this), then carried it between us and let it unroll as we ascended. Felt kind of like holding an angry 80-pound wolverine on a stick while climbing a mountain. We tried to keep it balanced as we stumbled along, because letting the stick slope either way meant one of us would suddenly get a handful of twisting barbed wire. This is not conducive to marital harmony.

When we reached the other corner without killing each other, we stretched the wire with a come-along and stapled it to the railroad tie. After that, the walk back down placing clips was a piece of cake. Where dips in the land made the metal posts want to pull up under the wire’s pressure, we hung big rocks from the posts with barbed wire to weigh them down. Then it was back up with the second roll of wire, lather, rinse, repeat until we had ¼ mile of straight, gleaming fenceline. Wow! :D Only three more sides to go. :evil:

Farm_or
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Re: Halfmoon's journal

Post by Farm_or »

Pretty good fence building skills! It's not easy.

I told my wife to be alert stringing the barb wire because it knows Kung Fu. You relax for a second and it will jump and bite you.

Her least favorite part was packing rocks for the rock jacks that we built for the corners. Those are really hard to build to blm spec, it takes so many smaller rocks; we fudged on those a little bit.

halfmoon
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Re: Halfmoon's journal

Post by halfmoon »

Farm_or wrote:I told my wife to be alert stringing the barb wire because it knows Kung Fu. You relax for a second and it will jump and bite you.
This. Hold onto said wife, because a spouse who will fence with you (other than verbally) is gold. 8-)

Why do you have to fence to BLM spec? My experience is only with state/national forest permittees, and I haven't known them to have fence-building requirements. Is your county not open range?

Farm_or
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Re: Halfmoon's journal

Post by Farm_or »

Touche!

When I was a kid, my dad leased pasture from blm and forest service. We built and rode a lot of fence. I guess it's my own anal retentive notions to keep my fences to that high standard? I especially like using smooth wire on the bottom strand. Saves a lot of baby deers and antelopes from injury.

We spend an all day in the the spring fixing blm fence for our allotment. Strange, but we actually look forward forward to doing it. We pack a picnic and make an event of it. It's six + miles of fence. Every year, I say, "okay, we fixed a lot last year, so this year will be better." But somehow, it's always just as bad.

Eureka
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Re: Halfmoon's journal

Post by Eureka »

No comments, just enjoyed reading through it all.

halfmoon
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Re: Halfmoon's journal

Post by halfmoon »

Farm_or wrote: I especially like using smooth wire on the bottom strand. Saves a lot of baby deers and antelopes from injury.
What a great idea. We used to remove a few rows of fence clips after the grazing season and drop the fence in spots where deer habitually crossed. It was tough for them to jump in deep, soft snow. Of course, the predators counted on those snow-challenged deer. Hard to know whom to root for. We (sort of) tried to adhere to the Starfleet Prime Directive of no interference with alien civilizations/wildlife. Does feeding deer in the winter count? :oops:
Eureka wrote:No comments, just enjoyed reading through it all.
Well, that's a perfect comment. I always hope that people are enjoying the story, and I thrive on feedback. Thank you! :D

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