Heading toward Christmas I could see the bellies swelling and the udders filling. I knew we were going to have some winter calves. I pulled two heifers out of the heard (#12 & #21) and put them in a paddock with hay so I could assist with the birth in the event I needed to.
Well 2017 concludes my first year in the cattle business. And I must say, I made some big mistakes. 1. I paid too much for most of my cattle. I was paying premium price on moderate quality animals, and I was paying bred heifer pricing on animals that turned out to be open. Takeaway: a
When I built the pond in front of the house (the one that catches the rainwater overflow) I was left with several yards of spoils. They had been stacked up for several months and were quite unsightly – with weeds growing in great abundance. So I finally broke down and rented a dump trailer from
Hurricane Harvey passed through this month and dumped about 12″ on the ranch over a 5 day period. It was rather insignificant as the water fell at a steady slow rate, and had plenty of time to move through the terrain and make its way off of the property. Of course it all moved towards
If you were with us for And More Water – Part I, you saw the cisterns that we put in to capture rain water from the house. Yesterday I finally got around to completing the system. When I built the cistern, I left a 2″ stub up in order to draw water out of the
Working cattle is a necessary endeavor that every rancher dreads. Lots of pushing and prodding, a few rambunctious animals, and tons of poop and flies. The challenges start when you try to round up the cattle. It’s important to incorporate you’re working area into the cattle’s normal routine – otherwise they’ll know something is up
After several months of waiting, Dunn’s Fish Farm showed up at a local feed store. I bought 200 Channel Catfish, 200 Black Crappie, 100 Copper nose Bluegill, and 10 lbs of Fathead Minnows ($475). Unfortunately, half of the crappie were dead when I got home. The bags, which are filled with 1/4 water and 3/4 oxygen,
So after several weeks of building fences and other preparations, we finally have cattle on the ranch. We have 9 adults and 5 calves that I bought from my father-in-law. The two cows that don’t have calves should be bred, so I’m off to a good start. These are Black Angus crosses. Additionally we purchased
Well, I had my day in court. Totally unsatisfying. If you’re wondering what I’m talking about, read part 1 here. Back to the story. I spent several hours preparing my presentation to face Jon Muran in small claims court. I prepared three copies of my invoices, cashed checks, receipts, text log, etc. I even wrote
Monday, November 18, 2019 We’ve been in the home for 2 months now and are wrapping up the build. Still have a few odds and ends that hopefully will be complete in 2017. But at this time I think it’s safe to publish the numbers – what it took to pull this off. I’ve made
It didn’t take long for the cisterns and small pond to fill up, so I expanded the puddle to a full-fledged pond. This will make a nice water feature in the front of the house and will further aid in providing irrigation to the orchard. The pond holds about another 4,000 gallons – yielding a
As everyone is suffering from post-election exhaustion here in the USA, we at Amber Oaks are focused on ways to distance ourselves from those who wish to rule us. I’m just about finished with our rainwater catchment system. Before we left Santa Fe, I scored three 1500gal direct burial cisterns for $2,400. That’s like waaay
