Ram Lambs on the Run

Look at you!

Are you sitting up there? Are you pulling yourself up on furniture now? Are you getting to be a big boy? Looks like Alex, or Jonah, has— he's gonna herd the chickens into the trailer. But the chickens, if he gets them in the trailer, they're gonna all jump out. They're not ducks or Cornish Cross. We were supposed to lock the chickens up last night and get them in the greenhouse today, but we forgot.

Him trying out things, so he's learning.

I went out there at— what was it, 6? But the chickens were already out. It was a little light and they were already out and I couldn't put them up. We put them up so we can move their coop. I'm like, Rebecca, where are you going? She says, I'm gonna go watch this train. Listen, I don't want to be the guy that says to Jonah, it's not gonna work. Because for one, what if it does work? And two, I don't want to be the— that guy. I don't want to be that parent. I want to— I want to cheer him on, and life will teach him the lessons. He doesn't need me to, to be a dream crusher. But he's roped Alex into this. All right, we'll just see. Let's just go see. I do kind of wish we were all focusing on moving the ramlets, which is what absolutely has to happen. I want to be in the dirt. And if that— it's going to be very unpredictable. See, we need to harvest. We're going to start harvesting. This is our biggest week. We're going to harvest the ramlets to spread out the love. We're going to harvest them on Wednesday. Harvest the sister lambs on Thursday, one pig on Friday, one pig on Saturday. This is the climax of our homesteading season this week. Hey, what are y'all doing? You think it's gonna work?

Yes, if you help us.

If I help you? All right. He helps me with my crazy ideas. Not all my car— not all my ideas work either.

They're going in.

All right, are they gonna stay in when we go to drive? Pathetic. Uh-oh, it's kind of working.

They're thirsty.

Oh, 2 escaped, Jonah. Goose made it. Oh, we lost more. Hey, there's corn over there. Oh, see that chicken just jumped up, Jonah? You don't think they'll do that when we're driving? No. Okay, Jonah. Do you keep letting them go past you, Teddy? You're not helpful. Okay, tighten it up a little bit. We've got to do something on the top of the gate because they're all going to fly out, aren't they? They're already flying out. Yeah, we need to be getting ramlets. We're going to take the pig ramp and let them walk up it. He wants to do this, let's do it. We've got our ramp. We have some, uh, we call them gates, but they're not really gates. They sit over the trailer and it'll prevent the chickens from jumping out. Oh, there's one right there by the porta potty. If it's down by the porta potty, that tells me the kids have done something with them.

We found it.

That kind of makes sense. Maybe this is where we store the trailer, so we would have used it for this last time. This will help them climb.

Yeah.

Okay, Rebecca's gonna put this— let's put this at the end here, and then we can have a funnel. If we're gonna do the impossible, we're gonna do the impossible right, right, Beck? That's right. Many over there. Should we get these back in here, Jonah? Yeah, wait, wait. Okay, well, all right, if only a few are left out, that's fine. There's only two, so that's fine. We can catch them. I need to stay here. They're starting to go in now. Just stand right there, right there. It's good. Don't let them come out. Last bunch right here. If that one goes in, Lilia That's fine. Get in. You kind of stand right there and don't let them go around the coop. Here we go. We got a bunch in the coop, a bunch in the trailer. Jonah caught a couple more. We've got one out of the net and a couple more over in this corner. I could— you stand right there and we'll get them in this corner. I would hate to catch all these birds and then this fall when it goes. So Alex will get the chickshaw. Who's gonna spot Alex? Just make sure his door doesn't open. Gideon's got me. Okay, Gideon's got Alex. Jonah, you'll spot this when I drive. I'll drive real slow. I wanted to get them deep in here because, well, I don't want them getting out. They're going to be in here. Chickens love to work. They got nothing to do but work. Is that your impression of a chicken, Lily? You want to crawl in and push them out? Your new home, guys. You'll be warmer and happier and drier. That's a nice sight. That's one way to move chickens.

Yeah!

Oh wow, well, it's not gonna do a wheelie. They're already— look at them, Alex! They're already so happy. We are pasturing our forests. That machine helps mucho. Basically, we want to make more pasture. Okay, we need more pasture, and there's a patch up above that house I'll take and show you. I can't see out my window. Gotta show Fred what's— what to do. Well, you think that one's obvious, but that's actually the one I want to keep. Is it? Look at that tree limb. The kids love to play on. Oh, I guarantee. So that's it. I mean, there's that walnut there. I wish it was a little straighter, so it's probably gonna— it needs to go. I hate to do an oak, but oh, this is a walnut. Well then, let's keep this straight walnut. Only keep this straight. Don't make no sense. I'm gonna keep this one this straight one and this crooked one. Okay, because, because look at this limb, Fred. The kids love that. They get up on that limb and they— you ain't played on that limb. And I used to play on it when I was a kid. I'll bet. So everything else can go, and then sun can get in here and we'll have pasture. How y'all doing? We're making it.

Come on in.

Okay, is it off? I guess.

Yeah, it's off.

This is good for Josiah. What happened?

Alex got shocked.

You got to turn it off. Well, you're initiated, buddy. And you're still here. Which one? Um, he didn't run off and leave. This is good for him. Why? Because you got to tell everybody how to do this. Alex can milk Phyllis. He did yesterday with her. Yeah, he's good. And you, Lily, and Josiah can milk Flossie. You guys see milking plenty, so I'm gonna go put the time lapse up on Fred. He said he can clear that patch in a day.

Really?

That's crazy. And he's got the little tractor. He's gonna bring the big tractor tomorrow. Oh wow, yeah, for the big forest. You ready to do this?

Wow, I guess we are.

I said, do you want that much work? He's like, we can work. We are done milking. Fred's doing a good job. This is gonna be so cool. Heck yeah. The members asked me in the Abundance Plus webinar the other day what's the most thing I'm most excited about for projects over the winter. This is it, getting more pasture. Very excited about that. I was just telling Alex it's a lot cheaper clear a little bit of forest than to buy pasture, especially when it's not really available around here, like next to the property. Fred's up there clearing the woods with the time lapse. We're going to be down here, we're going to get these, uh, what do I call them? Why am I blanking on this? The ramlets. We got to get the ramlets going. So let's get Willie. We're gonna need two 50-foot nets. I think one's in the back of Sally. We're gonna need gates. There's one up there. We're gonna need to get another gate from behind. T-posts, T-post pounder, earmuffins for the pounding. Uh, we should probably get some, uh, alfalfa. What you doing? I'm hooking the ball. That's the ball for the tractor. We're gonna get the ramlets in the trailer. Hooked up to the tractor to move them to the luchador ring. Mom's got some T-posts here. I'm gonna say we're gonna put up at least one gate on either side, so 4 at least. Here's another gate that's kind of a short one, that gray gate behind there. Let's get something to tie them to the, the T-post to the gate. This metal wire will be perfect. Alex, you picked up the nets? You guys can start building the net funnel from— that's where we're gonna have to pull the trailer right there. Just build the funnel pallets. Well, we're gonna— I'm gonna get, uh, we have metal gates. There's one behind the barn, and then I'm gonna go get one right now. You guys start setting those up. I'll go get the gate. Think that'll do it?

Yeah.

Okay, helpful having a big strong football player.

Yep, that's—

yeah, it's going to give us a physical gate that they're not going to jump through. Let's get Cubby warmed up. This is our setup: 2 solid gates And then I remember what Temple Grandin taught, how when you corral, animals like to curve. So we did a little curve here with our net, and it's wider there so we can get them in, pressure them. Hopefully they'll get right here by the time they want to turn around and not right there. Mom, you'll probably kind of stand further— when we get the animals, you'll stand further back and you'll kind of keep them from coming through this fence. We got the ramlets just eating a little bit, calming down. A good, good spot for you and Gideon is maybe right here. I know we're gonna sit up there, and that will hopefully prevent them from putting pressure on this fence and getting through. Door is ready to shut. Teddy's a wild card. You'll actually hold him. So boys, we don't have to get close to these rams to herd them. We'll be back further and we'll just kind of keep walking them slow and into here. And once they get right here though, we do kind of want to pounce. Jonah's gonna lead with the pail— I'm sorry, a pan— and then I'm gonna get with the other guys and we're gonna do the herding. Yeah, we can go. We don't have to go much. You see how crazy they are? Oh my word, really?

Okay, man, come up here.

They jumped out before we could shut the door. You can do that. Oh, if I know you're in charge of the door. When they get this far, you guys sprint and we can hopefully keep them in this metal corral. That was actually surprising. We didn't expect it to go that well. So next time we're going to get up closer behind them, and we're all three going to be in the metal gates, guys, and we can just grab them if they turn around.

Yeah, they're calm.

Josiah, Alex and I will go down the chute. You kind of keep them from jumping through the gate here, okay? I'm glad I'm doing this today and not the day of the butchering. Come on back, Alex. You will use that. They're afraid of you, so you, you go actually get behind them and push them this way. You guys got crooks. Josiah, there it is! Alex got it.

Oh!

Oh, oh, well, the ramlets got out, both of them, way out there. They got them coming back. I don't know what happened. We were so close to getting them. I'm just kicking myself.

Yeah, we are going to tame all of the sheep. We are going to work so hard at that because this—

we've got it on tape, Beck. Rebecca had an idea, and that's to get their sisters in here. So let's get them back in, and then we'll get their sisters in. I don't know if they're much more tamer, but they are a little more tame, and so maybe they'll lead the way. We haven't tried with them yet, so you saw how easy the ramlings went in at first. So we'll have another chance. So here they come. Okay, so we called the sheep, the sisters, and they came right down. There's such a flock animal, they're going to want to be with their sisters. Kind of let them get acquainted to each other and let them— everybody have a snack. We're gonna have one chance at this again. Who wants— maybe we shouldn't do these so we can just grab them. You're the hero, bud. Yes! Look at Alex's smile. You didn't think it was gonna happen, did you? Look at that smile. He thought he was gonna be late for his flight. Just let them eat. Then we gotta get the girls out, and then we'll get the girls out. That'll be easy. You just want to keep them together, just keep them all in the ramp pen. Yeah, because if they breed— what's worse, okay, they're gonna breed, but they're gonna harvest it tomorrow and the next day.

I doubt they're even gonna breed. Like, it would be too perfect of a scenario, you know?

Yeah, they're not even sure. It doesn't even look like somebody's— they're not even showing interest. All right, let's just— let's put them all out in the luchador pen. The question is, where do we want the luchador pen? The wrestling ring? It's in the yard. Yard right now, but should we put it back in the field?

No, we can leave it in that little yard. Let's just leave it where it's at.

All right, good idea, Beck. Champ, what a good idea. A lot easier to imagine them as a bigger herd. You hold these gates and I'll go over there. You got it?

Yeah, I got it.

Does somebody want to come stand in that crack? Let's go, let's go, come on, come on. There you go. Hey, we did it! Excited? Got it! What a way to end it on the best pasture on our farm. Just gonna get them a little water here. I gotta say this, you know, Rebecca has a point about handling them. That took us an hour. It did, it took us an hour. But if we were gonna have tamed them, it would have taken a lot more than an hour. I mean, it would have been spread over time. Maybe might have been And it's exciting, like a stressful way, but it takes a lot to tame them, a lot of time each day. And that's not a bad thing, it's just we got other things to do. So I'm gonna say— Rebecca will be watching this— if you want to do it, go for it. We're gonna have them in the deep bedding when they're born, great chance, feel a little alfalfa every day.

That is an approach.

Or we can just get a little bit tighter corral. What? What? Probably 2 years worth of firewood, some logs for some timber, more milk for the Rhodes family, more grass-fed lamb, more pastured eggs.

And we kept these beauties.

Well, one ugly and one beauty.