Provider: Ryan & Hope Pjesky
Profession: Farmers/Ranchers
Hometown: Goltry, Oklahoma

April 2008

April is really a month for catching up with all the chores and tasks we were unable to do during the winter months.  We made repairs to fences and corrals.  This is a constant battle we fight; keeping up fences and corrals when they are in constant use requires a lot of time and effort.  Repairing fence requires replacing broken posts, stretching loose wire, and replacing staples and ties that have broken off.  This requires a lot of walking and moving through weeds, brush, and trees.  Doing the work in April assures nice weather and very few bugs.  Repairing corrals involves replacing broken posts and welding broken gate hooks and panels.  This is fun for me, because I really like to weld.  We also took some time to clean up around our places.  We filled a huge roll-away dumpster with junk that had been lying around in our yards and shop for quite awhile.  We also used our four-wheel ATV to spray fence rows around the perimeter of our land and spray the early spring weeds in our yards and around our machinery park.

My ewe’s finally finished having babies, but the ewes and lambs still have to be checked, turned out to pasture, and then put back in each day.  The sheep usually spend about 4 hours a day grazing wheat at the farm where my dad lives.  We ended up with 50 really nice lambs.  They are a lot of fun when they are little; they play all the time.  As with most every other month, we were also busy starting calves.  We usually have all the cattle chores done by noon each day and then spend the rest of the day doing the aforementioned jobs.

One new twist this April is the fact that Hope is in Asia doing her Eisenhower Fellowship.  She has been in Japan and Malaysia this month before moving on to Thailand.  In addition to all my daily chores, I have to cook and clean the house all by myself, which I am definitely not used to.  We are fortunate that our wheat crop appears very good so far this spring.  We have received enough rain and had no bad storms with wind and hail.  If this continues, we have an opportunity for a really good crop.

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