Calf Number 3 in 2016

With first time birthing heifers, you never know what you're going to get, but so far both Belties have had their calves without incident, and both at night strangely enough. We think that this calf is a heifer, and if so the girls have decided on "Smore" as her name. She's Dun colored and really is a good looking calf.

Today she did give us some excitement as she kept escaping the paddock and chilling just out of reach of Momma. She doesn't seem to mind us at all, unlike her half brother from the other Beltie who is skiddish as all get out. Hopefully we can get the electric fence grounded well enough in the dry conditions we're facing to help discourage her from roaming about.

She will be the foundation of our homegrown breeding stock moving forward, provided her genetics look right. The cuteness factor at the Snow Compound has gone up considerably this week!

Unabashedly Pro-American Ideal and Anti-Statist

The idea that is America, isn't dead, though it may look as though it's been through a couple of biker bar room brawls. The hope of being able to chart my own course, make the most of the talents I have, and make a living by bettering the life of others may not be unique to the American experience, but it has managed to weave it's way through the American mythos.

Having lived in both L.A., Portlandia minor, and Rhode Island I've seen first hand how much contempt is held for the folks who live in flyover country. Rednecks, white trash, Deplorables, call them what you will, I think more of those Deplorables just want to be left alone. If folks in Portland don't want to have plastic bags in their stores, so be it. If folks in L.A. want to mandate only Prius, Leafs, and Teslas be sold in their town, good for them. If folks in the North East want to disarm so that each and every large city eventually becomes a hybrid cross of Chicago and Detroit, knock yourselves out. Just don't think for a minute that the folks here in Flyover Country are going to go along any longer.

Contrary to popular opinion, we can read, and do so voraciously just of books different than the Cloud People on both coasts. We read Plato, Aristotle, Hemingway, Joyce, and Dumas believing that the classics still matter. We make things, we fix things, we change our own oil, and shoot our own food. If you don't we simply don't care, run your life, but understand we're done being micromanaged by do gooders who couldn't survive a week without chai tea and vegan restuarants.  

If you don't like guns, don't buy one, but until Chicago gets rid of gun violence, until San Francisco solves its homeless problems, until Flint figures out how to produce clean water, and until NYC can conquer rats don't think we'll listen when you tell us how to live. We've read Alinsky, and the more the Cloud People try to control us, the more we'll resist in ways you're powerless against. The Founders understood that the moment you lose the Consent of the Governed you have lost. We're closer to that point than any of the Cloud People can see, and more and more of us are withdrawing that consent each day.

Adventures in Paddocking

Before on top, 3 days later on the bottom.

So last year, before my lovely bride got here I tried to throw together some paddocks, and shift the cattle by myself. To be honest it was a failure. I didn't spend enough time researching best practices, but I learned a lot from that failure. Not running a ground wire allowed the cattle to walk through the fence when the ground got too dry. I didn't have a strong enough shock even when getting a solid ground from the .5 Joule charger. The fence is always going to be way longer than you think it is.

So this year, new start, lots of reading about how to build a fence that will work when it's super dry. I settled on more grounding opportunities. I broke down and bought the three galvanized, 6 foot tall rods that were recommended by Zareba https://amzn.com/B0079GH4HU on the 25 mile charger. Those were grounding rods were banged as far into the ground as I could, then an additional ground (-) line was run in the middle of the fence giving the opportunity to shock the cows twice, from both completing the circuit through the grounding rods if the cattle only tough the top or bottom wire, or if should they grounding rods are too dry to complete a ground if the cows walk into either top of bottom wire and the middle wire, they should, and so far have, receive a healthy shock. So much so that after just a few encounters with the wire, they're giving it a healthy respect.

11 days into this experiment, and I couldn't be happier with the fences, and ease of moving the cattle. After the first shift, they've figured out that the grass is always greener on the other side of the electric fence and run through the gate as soon as they're lowered. 

If you're thinking about buying the polywire, stop thinking and do it if you can afford it. So much easier to work with and visible to the cattle. And after buying 3 rolls at $44 at Tractor Supply of the 1310 foot variety, I found this deal on Amazon:  https://amzn.com/B01BQB5S8A which works out to $40 for the first 1310 feet and 2620 feet free. Best deal I've found.