Provider: Ryan & Hope
Pjesky
Profession: Farmers/Ranchers
Hometown: Goltry, Oklahoma
Spring 2008 Diary
March
With the month of March comes lambing season. When the ewes are nearing
the time when they will have babies they get penned in a large barn every
night. This ensures that any babies born will stay close to their mothers. Each
morning I check the barn and any lambs and their mothers are moved into 5’x5’ pens
with bedding so that I can closely monitor the health of both the lambs and
their mothers. After three days the ewes and lambs are moved out into
a pen with other ewes and lambs. Before they are turned out lambs get
paint numbered and vaccinated. Paint numbers help us quickly identify
the lambs and their mothers in case there is a problem with either the ewe
or lambs. The shots they receive help immunize them against several
diseases. Much like you need shots when you are little, so do little
lambs. Over a span of 20 days we had 46 baby lambs.
During March we also move cattle off of the wheat we intend to harvest. Over
the span of one week we gather and sort all of our cattle by size and then
put them back out on grass pasture or wheat pasture that we want to graze
off. Grazing off wheat means allowing the cattle to “harvest” the
wheat instead of letting it produce grain for harvest. Cattle gain
up to 3 pounds a day when they are eating wheat and the pounds of beef are
in most years worth more than the grain we would have harvested. We
really make good use of our semi-truck and cattle trailer during this time. Later
in the month is the time when we start fixing fence on all our places. Each
year we go around nearly 20 miles of barbed wire fence making sure the wire
is tight and no posts need to be replaced.
Each day in March is very busy. Early mornings checking ewes, then
working with cattle all day and then more working with lambs and ewes in
the evening. Many nights I get up to go check on the ewes in the middle
of the night, especially if it is cold. Things look really good around
here; I think it’s going to be a great spring.
April
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 then gotten 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 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.
May
The month of May can really get busy for us. In addition to buying
and starting cattle, we begin to get our machinery ready for a summer’s
work. Our tractors need to be serviced. This operation includes
changing oil -10 gallons, hydraulic oil – 25 gallons and transmission
fluid – 10 gallons and the necessary filters. Our tillage equipment
gets checked for bad tires, leaky or worn hydraulic hoses and wheel bearings. Our
wheat trucks get serviced as well. We also get our combines out of
the barn and service and change fluids in them. We make minor repairs
on the farm. If any major work needs to be done the combines are hauled
to a shop that specializes in combine repair.
During May we sell cattle each week off graze-out wheat. This is
really fun, the cattle are big now and selling them is our payday. In
late May we went to Libby, Montana to do our Provider Day at the school that
adopted us this year. The Libby area is really beautiful and very different
from where we live. We enjoyed sharing what we do with the students
and meeting the other providers.
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