I really didn’t think there were still this large of an elk herd in southern Colorado, but what do I know. Pretty impressive.
Patrick Encounters Elk Herd on CDT
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Author Archives: Paul McDonald
Finally Spread the Compost on the Back Field
Bought the used manure spreader a few months ago but just couldn’t find time to get the compost spread onto the back field until today. Used the dump trailer to move 5 loads back to the edge of the field first.
Learned a critical lesson when I filled the manure spreader then hitched it to the tractor and pulled it into the back. Well, with the manure spreader fully loaded, going down a very steep hill caused the trailer to start pushing the tractor. Luckily the hill wasn’t that long but it sure was close to pushing the tractor sideways which would have been a disaster.
Actually spreading the compost was pretty easy, especially since my good friend JJ let me borrow his tractor to load the spreader, otherwise I would have had to unhitch, load, then hitch for every spreader load. There were many!
New Chicken Tractor Finally Done
I largely used Joel Salatin’s ‘EggMobile’ chicken tractor design. I like having a tractor that is enclosed and can protect the flock at night when most predators strike. Some notable changes to his design:
- Sloped 1:12 roof
- 16′ boat trailer for the base trailer frame instead of welding my own
- Two automatic chicken doors
- Solar powered lights to attract the chickens in at night
- Roll-out nesting boxes that protrude through the walls with ‘perch poppers’ to release the nesting box perch in the early morning.
Many of these changes have to do with decreased labor requirements. I don’t have a staff of interns to button up the doors manually, or clean the nesting boxes each day.
The boat trailer speeded things up, but I did have to purchase angle iron and have a steel working company cut and drill holes so I could anchor it to the frame. Below is a progression of pictures from the build until occupation.
Emily & Randy Arrived
Emily and Randy arrived from Denver, they are engaged now. Randy is looking for a job, likely as a chef and Emily is going to manage our chickens, the mowing and perhaps other things. So far so good, a few pictures of the first few weeks.
Double Rainbow
Emily and Randy are supposed to arrive shortly, these are a nice sign…
Team Saint Brigid Wins Big!
As a sponsor of the Paul Stefan Crisis Pregnancy Center at their annual golf tournament, we entered a team and won big! $400 bucks to my son Michael and friends. I think they all had a wonderful time and all proceeds go to an excellent cause. A few pictures from the event below.
Bull on the Loose!
Michael was mowing the paths today and he came across a pretty big, albeit friendly, bull. He knew something was amiss when he ran over a pile of fresh cow manure with the mower and shot it all over the place. He then came upon this guy calmly munching on the winter wheat.
The bull wanders back to the edge of his farm and the owner was there and watched as he came back. Turns out he got loose a few days later and traversed our entire farm and ended up over at Chavez’ place where they have a steer and a cow. They finally corralled him and here is the pic of him in the trailer.
Patrick Started the Continental Divide Trail (CDT) Today
After completing the Appalachian trail in 2020 Patrick has mentioned many times doing this trek. He saved a ton of money over the past year while living in Houston, planned out the whole thing. He moved back to the Farm in early April and later flew to Arizon, then took a train to New Mexico and was dropped at the southern most point at the Mexican border today. Here’s the starting shot.
Meat Bourbon & Cigars Night 2024
It’s that time of the year again! We hosted a fund raiser for the Paul Stefan Crisis Pregnancy Center, all you can eat meat, bourbon and cigars, men only! This is the third time we’ve hosted and thankfully the weather cooperated this year. Ryan Hoens made his famous smoked brisket, it was excellent. Randy James cooked the pork and chicken BBQ and my lovely wife Patty provided a number of the sides, notably the crock-pot mac and cheese was a big hit.
After dinner we had a few bourbon drinks and cigars around the bonfire, an excellent time.
A few pictures below, it went well into the night.
Eclipse Watching 2024
This is the last full eclipse visible in North America for a LONG time. Here in Virginia it was about 80% full. We pulled out the big telescope and was not disappointed. When it was as much as it gets here everything got quiet, the animals stopped making noise, the dog laid down and the light was strangely darkened. I can see why it freaked people out in ancient times.
