Patricia Maas

Paul, plotskeer King, I did add a couple bucks and that was all I could spare right now. Love the permie stuff at Wheaton labs. You guys and gals rock! ) If I could would do more, but right now things are tight with no or little rain for pasture here in central NM. I saw the Pizza party part, how fun would that be! )

Just watched and shared that short video with little Buddy and his dad on the rotational grazing. Have to admit, know my ewes would love that tall rye and vetch. Right now it's hay as the pasture needs the rest until we get some significant moisture.

You got me dreaming again about real pasture and being able to rotate grazing. I have taken classes(HMI), gone to ranches and farms and read more than a few good books on the subject as well as doing some here as could.

You may find a crazy Shepherdess looking in the Missoula area for a new home for her and her ewes and pups.

Thank you again for your persistence in Permaculture.

Patricia

I'd love to find a community that wouldn't mind my varied stock. I've worked alone for some time and am slowly learning how to to do different things with my Finnsheep's and other sheep's fleeces. I have breeder Buff ducks and geese, Breeder Pilgrim geese and a a small group of Cayuga ducks. 6 Great Pyrs and crosses with Anatolian. After lamb sales I'll still have 40+ ewes,lambs, wethers and rams. I like to garden and have a decent amount of garden seeds as well as perennial plants. Not a lot of baggage, other than a box of useful books. Also one small Angus heifer that is learning how to watch over weaned lambs. Mira's almost a year old, but won't be ever close to full size, she had a really tough life before me and it took a while to get her going back towards health. I don't have any milk goats right now, but did milk for years before falling in love with my Finns.

In my situation have lots of blow sand, sheep and duck manure. There are 3 constants where am right now.
The blow sand builds up in the barn and have to clean it out on a regular basis, so am wondering if it might be
of any use starting seeds. Any suggestions?

Will be moving soon, so it will be plants for the new place.

Another easy to make Pizza dough is this one from the Pratt Family Cookbook. This is a one rise dough ,Kneaded for 5 minutes Cover and set. Rise depends on temp ( about 30 minutes), I place it under the covers and near the heat source on a water bed this time of year. Summer it goes in a  sunny window. For a cover I just use 2 plastic grocery bags.

3 cups  all-purpose flour
2 1/4 tsps instant yeast
1 T sugar
1 cup water( 120-130 F)
4 T of oil (or 3 T oil and 1 T more warm water) Oil I like olive or sunflower.

In a mixing bowl mix together 2 Cups of flour, yeast, sugar an salt. Add warmed water and oil to flour mixture. Mix well and add the other 1 cup of flour. Mix and Knead for 5 minutes.
Divide dough in 2 with knife.  Cover and let rest. (They say 10 minutes, but my cool house and a waterbed it takes 30 minutes)

I prep the cookie pans with a couple pinches of corn meal, which helps keep the dough from sticking to the pan.
Oven temp 400F

Roll out dough, I use 2 cookie pans that fit in a roaster pan one at a time.
Using margarine or oil wiped, smeared across the crust area and dough in the pan helps keep the crust from being soggy.

I use about 7 oz of tomato sauce, and various herbs and minced onion. Split that between the 2 pizzas after mixing.
Add your toppings like mozzarella (8 oz bag enough for both) and I use the shredded/dry Parmesan to fill in empty spaces.
Chopped green chili, local pork sausage, etc can be used as toppings

Cooking time 25 to 30 minutes.

Mike Turner, you're right. Use that myself.

With my Finnsheep, it can be 140 days. I am careful about the ram lambs generally as Finn ram lambs can  be fertile early on. Guess having been around my ewes enough, the sinking in on either side of the tail, udder usually tight, but not always, restlessness, crying and having a watch ewe start hanging around the heavy bred ewe.

Having had problems with owls as Finn lambs can be quite small, I try to watch my ewes and get them into a lambing jug before lambing. Yes, it can be long hours.

Looking forward to lambing in late April/ May next year. Much easier.

I walk to tend my livestock a couple times day through tall grass and misc. vegetation. Rattle snakes are just part of daily life for me and awareness of path and at the farm make a big difference. Tall work boots and heavier material for jeans help much.

Here hog nose rattle snakes have replaced diamond back and prairie rattlers over the last few years.

John Polk had it right. Some neighbors that are first to warn are the ones that are a problem. Good fences make good neighbors can help tremendously. Then someone else mentioned the neighbor that stirs trouble and then sits back and watches. In my case all the above, they finally have learned to leave me alone for the most part.

Should mention here how important it is to rent in a place before buying? Bad neighbors and other issues can be found out about to some degree if one is renting in  a place for a while.

For me, had been gaining experience for years and without transportation, things had gotten tougher to get done. Was lucky and found work down the road and that is helping me pay the few bills that have and buying things so can get my livestock and poultry out on pasture. Saving will become more practiced as things like a small used truck are high on the list of needed. Working to move away from dependency on store bought feed and groceries, and have gotten some good starts on that.

Having done much restoration work on the bare ground here, managing what do have is important. Have some electric netting, but haven't bought a good solar charger yet.

Much is temporary as plan on leaving this area when have paid down the debt here.

Hi Hans,
I did read that first. The facebook page doesn't seem to be available. I also saw what you had been doing, so maybe able to help you and your wife. Have multiple skills and been taking Holistic Management classes also.