The Collie Farm Blog

Here is a nicer photo of the pasture from “up top”; if you view this full size, you can see the new line of fencing here, and some of the beautiful colors coming out on the nursery trees. Now, if only there wasn’t a shipping container out there in the middle of the field…. We’re hoping this will resolved sooner or later.

The rest of the old homestead barn fell down a few months ago, sadly. I have a copy of the building records- the original owner spent $587.67 on the barn and concrete silo, combined, in July, 1902! It was about 8500 square feet, made of fir logged off this site and a cedar shingle roof.

But, unfortunately, it looks like nobody ever re-roofed it, there is still a single layer of old-style, large shingles on it. And, it was lacking in structural supports in the lateral direction. So, there was just no saving it, at this point.

It’s amazing that it lasted as long as it did. Here is a photo of the cleanup effort currently, we have maybe 1/3 of the timbers cleaned up, and maybe 3/4 of the roof taken care of. We are saving any good wood we find, and there is quite a lot, but also much more is not salvageable– either rotted, or too damaged by some kind of wood boring beetle.

 We have been enjoying much of the wood for evening campfires, but have also had some small fires going during the day to help get rid of some of the wood (well, that is, only 3′x3′ campfires, cooking or religious fires are legal, so of course, we’ve never exceeded that! ). There are lots of bathtubs in (well, under, now) the barn that were used for feed and water troughs. So, Kirk is using a couple for shingle burning pits. In the end, they’ll go to the recycle center, but are getting one last use now.

Here is a typical meal that I feed my dogs- well, typical as it gets since they get something different every day. I make their food fresh, “from scratch” each evening. But, it’s really, really easy. This is because, I believe, dogs are evolved scavengers and can live, and thrive, off of almost anything (the fact that most commercial kibble is so full of junk, but so many dogs do OK on it is the ultimate testament to that). So, I follow no recipes, I don’t worry about what AAFCO defines as the daily minimum for niacin or phosphorous; and I don’t really even worry much about the raw versus cooked debate.

Instead, I just feed them whole foods, and shoot for as wide of variety as possible. Because I’ve read that dogs don’t break down fiber well, I do cook their grains, and mostly steam their vegetables. I feed their meat raw most of the time, but they certainly get cooked meat too, and I’ve recently switched the most elderly dog to mostly cooked. I don’t avoid much of anything, except I minimize onions and grape products (recent evidence indicates they’re toxic to dogs in large quantities) and the nightshade family plants (tomato, eggplant, potato) because those contribute to inflammation.

This particular meal has bananas, some leftover bits from a salad, some leftover waffles, duck eggs, and  beef liver. The meat I use most is ground turkey, because I can get it the cheapest. But I try to have them eat red meat at least once a week, as well as organ meat once a week, and canned fish once a week.

I feed them a small piece of meat in the morning (a chicken drumstick or back, usually) and their evening meal is about 1/3 veggies, 1/3 meat and 1/3 grains and legumes. These are very rough proportions. I do add some supplements– glucosamine for the old dogs, and vitamin C, vegetable and fish oil for all. For three of the dogs, I add a supplement powder mixture of lecithin, alfalfa, kelp and nutritional  yeast (my 4th dog seems to be allergic to one of these things, so she doesn’t get this). I try to give them raw meaty bones from the butcher once a week too.

Often-very often-they get leftovers. That’s the best part about all this homemade feeding thing! If we make a recipe that doesn’t turn out so well, or forget to eat some leftovers, or buy too much of something, I never throw it away. It all goes in the dog food. So, pretty much nothing goes to waste in my kitchen. Refrigerator cleanouts go straight into their bowls. They don’t mind things that are a little “off” with too much enzyme activity for our tastes- in fact, I think they digest things better when they are already headed down the path of decomposition!

The results: super healthy dogs that veterinarians always compliment. Their teeth stay healthy and clean without any brushing or anaesthesia -cleanings. Their coats look great. They heal from wounds fast, they  have loads of energy for working, rarely injure, and stay robustly healthy, despite frequent exposure to other dogs at shows and trials. I rarely have to vist the vet. They tolerate fleas (yes- tolerate, like a normal animal should!). Their “output” is small and less offensive than kibble-fed dogs: more like coyote scat. They aren’t perpetually hungry like they were when they ate kibble, and they maintain good weights naturally and easily. And, my old dogs are old: 12+ and 15, and they still look good!

I have been feeding my dogs this way for about 9 years and am so pleased with the results. Once, I did the math, and convinced myself it costs about the same as kibble. For all the people out there who are struggling with disease, dental problems, allergies, infections, behavior problems and other chronic illness in their dogs, I really think this is the way to go. Diet is probably the foremost contributor to all disease in the world, and for us in this country, it’s so easily changed! Plus, I just enjoy making it for  them and seeing how much they love eating it. Bon appetite!

This weekend’s progress included stretching a ~340′ section of fencing. My dad helped out this time. Here is a photo from up above by the house- you can’t really see much of the fencing, but it runs acrosss the field where the lightest mowed patch is. The shipping container is Neighbor Nick’s solution to his storage needs. Much of the background is neighbor Dick’s nursery tree crop. It’s really looking nice this time of year, many vibrant colors!

The fence stretching part goes pretty quick, I just tie off on one end post, unroll (this time, I got smart and used the tractor- I put the roll on a metal rod in the loader and backed up), tie the other end off to a metal tube, hook that to the tractor, and pull it until the tractor starts losing traction-that seems to be about the right tension. Then snip one horizontal wire at a time, wrap it around the end post, secure, and move on. When we got down to 3 wires, we slacked the tension, and then hand-tensioned each one of those using a fence stretcher. That took just a couple of hours.

Then came the hard part, that takes twice as long- the T-post “clippies!” Though only a few per post are required, I prefer to use more, to make the fence stay nice and flat- for aesthetic reasons mostly. So, I bet we put in a several hundred of those things on Saturday! My dad said his hands were cramping that night!

I have a couple of tools for twisting the clips, but my favorite one is the Fence Pro. It makes splendid looking clips, and is easy on the hands. The downside: it’s really easy to fling the tool a few yards by accident- and always, of course, on the opposite side of the fence from where you are working! And, the dang things get lost in the grass too easily, they embed in tall grass like Barbie-sized javelins, never to be spotted again.

I’ve ordered a couple more tonight, both to replace one that I lost, and also so I have more around to share when I have helpers. It’s nice to have a long one for good leverage, and also a half-sized one for tight spaces (you can cut them to your preferred length). It seems a little silly to pay $7.50 + S&H for such a simple thing, but I don’t begrudge the makers, this is indeed a fine tool!

My second favorite tool is the Wire Twist Tool from Kencove Farm Fence Supplies. It works great on the bottom clips that are near the ground. Kencove has a lot of really cool products and advice on their website and in their catalog. They have a good price on wire crimps, which saves me quite a bit compared to buying them five-to-a-packet at my local farm co-op. And, I like their slick (re-used, I think?) spice shaker bottles to hold them- no spewing crimps out of a bag onto the grass! I had some free web dollars to spend from a promotion, and I spent them all on fencing tools from Kencove!

I’ve been setting fence posts the last few weeks, getting ready to stretch another line of field fence. I’ve chosen to do a ratio of one wood post per 9 metal “T” posts. The wood posts are 4×4″ treated, and the T-posts are 8′ heavy duty ones, driven into the ground 3 feet. I’m spacing them 12′ apart. This seems to be strong enough, and balances economy of materials with the need for robust fencing. But, I feel very unsure about what the “right” numbers are, because there is so much varying advice and evidence of application.

One thing I do value is the ability of the fence to “spring” a little bit. Knowing that when working dogs, it’s possible livestock might, ah, occasionally get run into the fence full-boar with a young dog in hot pursuit, I don’t want it to be as hard as a brick wall when they hit it. That’ll either break the fence or break the animal, one of the two! This fence does seem to have good flex, but seems strong enough to resist my hardest pushing, and then some. I’ll report back if I regret any of my decisions once dogs and livestock put it to the test!

I’ve chosen to put concrete around the bottoms of the wood posts. This is a subject of debate for many too– concrete makes them a bear to get out, if you ever need to. And, it’s tough to say whether concrete concentrates water around the post more, making it rot sooner than well-drained soil would. But, the deciding factor for me was, my neighbor Bob, a long-time farmer, warned that if you don’t use concrete in the flood plain (which is where the pasture is), you could find your whole fence afloat when the water comes. He speaks from experience, apparently, so I’m going with his advice.

A handy tip I found in a book is to screw galvanized bolts about halfway into the posts where they will contact the concrete. This binds the concrete and post together, so that the post cannot slide or twist within its concrete shell. Here (left) is what I’ve been doing on the bottoms of my posts.

The wood posts are fairly easy to install since I have a post hole digger on the tractor. Tinkering with getting them aligned with the string line is the biggest hassle. The T-posts, I only drive in barely by hand using a fence post driver. When I have a whole line in, I mark the bottoms at 5′ tall, then drive along with the tractor, and push them in down to their marks using the tractor loader. My dad gave me that tip. They go in “like butter” this way, and it sure saves the hard labor of fence post driving!

Last weekend did prove fruitful for me, despite taking the break to host a family gathering, and all of us staying up late Saturday night around the campfire. Here’s the picnic table chore done:

I had some struggles with the Millstead kit missing some of the lumber, went back to Home Depot to get replacements, only to find the next kit we opened was also defective. So, they gave me a 2×2 and I cut my own mitered angles at home, which was annoying, since the whole point of a kit is to not have the hassle of getting out your saw and measuring things! Oh well, it still went together quickly enough to be ready for use the same day, I’m sure much more quickly than if I had built it from scratch, judging by how long the duck tractor took me. Kirk did the sanding and finishing, it turned out nice! We are enjoying eating on it in the nice weather we’ve been having.

I also got a whole line of fence posts done over the weekend, and finished up the H-braces during the week. So, that side of fence is ready to stretch-that’s Saturday’s task.

The baby ducks are growing, they are almost 4 weeks old. They have very “tweenie” feathers, and their markings continue to hold my interest, wondering how they’ll turn out! This isn’t a very good picture, it was getting dark when I took it…