goat toenails

 something i never knew - you have to clip goats' toenails. weird. apparently, they do this every month at the farm. i didn't do it, but happened to be walking by while they were so snapped a few pics. i think we have goat toenail stew once a month also. j/k.

jessica clipping goat

justin, karin, jessica & goats. the white things they're standing on are stanchions.

justin is jessica's husband.

solar electric fence II

walking backwards with the electric wire fence thingy

we staked in plastic stakes for the wires to go in at somewhat regular intervals down the field

important to remember to put the wire on the right side of the insulator. we were going to loop it around and head back the direction we came (to make 2 wires) so this was really important.

attaching wire to post. also important that on these posts the bumpy side is on the inside so insulators stay put.

twisting on the insulator

using the twisty wrench-y tool thingy to twist the wire - but have to be careful not to twist too tight or it breaks off.
 

like that.

you can see how we came down, looped it around and up, and went back.

another nifty contraption was this thing that held the whole spool right onto the post when you were done. then when you take the fence down (b/c this is temporary), you can re-roll the wire and re-use.

solar electric fence I

every monday and thursday they offer classes on various topics - in a classroom type setting. occasionally, they do hands on classes like this one. jessica (the one in the dreads) was teaching us how to put up a temporary electric fence - in this case in a goat pasture - run on a battery connected to a solar panel. (this may be really boring to some of y'all (yes, i get to say y'all since i'm in tx!) but i'm doing this also as a reference for myself for whenever i become a professional solar electric fence installer).

first pic is of a few people from the farm for those of you who aren't avid fans of fence installation and who won't read past this point. on the left is jonathan, the only other catholic, then david, the farm manager, then karin (pronounced CAR-in) who is one of my roommates and in personality totally reminds me of sarah deacon/jablonski :) needless to say, i like her a lot. she's from minnesota and talks funny. ;)

Stuff you need: solar panel thingy (yes, that's the technical term), battery, red clippy things (alligator clips i think they're called), "fencer" which is basically a device that sends out a charge from the battery.

jessica holding the 'fencer', hooking it up to the battery

where you clip the clippy things. one set goes to the solar panel thingy and one set to the fencer? shoot. i'm forgetting already. i'm SO going to be electrocuted when i do this.

clippy things

clippy things to the fence - the fence is live when these are attached

the dealy-o that checks if the fence is working - it reads the charge. the needle thingy goes in the ground, then you hang the meter on the fence to read the charge.

you have to be careful to not get your hair on the fence, esp. if it's windy, or bump your forehead on it. you can only imagine how many fun electrocution stories we got to swap during this whole presentation. :) it was hilarious.

how to attach an insulator by hand if you don't have the turn-y wrench-y thingy. NOTE: all terminology used is the actual technical name

these are insulators. i do know what they're called! (the yellow and black things)

how to make a corner with an insulator

insulators and rod on a straight area. it's important that the wires are placed the correct width apart for your animals.

nifty electric wire spool holder that goes around your neck. you attach the end of your wire to one end of the fence then walk down the field backwards to the other fence and attach it. backwards b/c it can get tangled in the spool - you want to  watch it carefully.

row covers

not super exciting, but a couple of times now i've got to help put row covers over some of the veggies: particularly the tomatoes, newly planted carrots (or onions maybe?), summer squash, and some snap beans. these covers allow sunlight through so the plants keep growing underneath but keeps frost off of them. wish i had some of these in iowa! on the sides we just hold them down with bricks, pieces of concrete, or logs (basically, whatever we can find).

i think this is summer squash - really at the end of it's short little life

tomatoes