Ever Felled a Tree on Top of a Sheep?

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Well the snow is just about all gone now, and the grass is starting to come up along with the trees budding out. I have been clearing pastures for awhile now and the sheep really love the tender buds. Naturally they were lolly-gagging around the trees I was cutting and eating the buds.

When I stepped up to this one tree, I saw my ram standing there ready for the freshest morsel of tree buds. Nothing says tasty eating like tender green Hackmactack buds! Anyway I figured he was smart enough to move once the saw starting boring into the wood.

Nope:

I figured he would be smart enough to run once the tree started leaning over and falling his way.

Nope.

I figured he would run like heck once the tree hit his back.

Nope.

The Ram just looked at me, at the tree and then as it hit his back he nonchalantly started chomping on the buds. Thankfully just the limbs hit his back but I was still yelling "stupid sheep" at him, but after a bit of reflection I realized maybe he was the smart one, or at least efficient. He did not have to waste precious energy walking to his grazing, he simply let his food come to him even if it was through the air and at him at 128 miles per hour.:D

I also came to the conclussion that I have done some truly unique things with a chainsaw. I mean I landed a tree on a powerline last year, and this year I landed a tree on a sheep. I am betting very few people...loggers even...can say they have done those two things.

So has anyone else ever felled a tree on a sheep?:dunno:
 
From your confession Travis, I will make sure never to be around you and a chainsaw.:rofl::rofl: Who ever said sheep were bright. For a moment there I thought you had lost your major producer.:rofl::rofl: The other sheep would be no use without him. But come to think of it his genes have not exactly done you any good this last season. How many lambs did you say you got. I seem to remember calculations where we were to see this herd multiply. Not with more Rams.:rofl::rofl:
 
Maybe it had calculated the trajectory much better than you and knew that fresh and fast food would come from the sky!:rofl::rofl: So it wanted to be first one on the queue.
 
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He's probably getting me back for all the times he has gotten poked by the electric fence. I rotational graze and thus keep my sheep fences quite short in length so that my 15 mile charger might be running only a quarter mile of fence. In other words little resistance. I should be hitting the sheep with 3000-4000 volts, but I am hitting them with 7000 volts.

I kind of need 7000 volts since my sheep are in full fleece and their wool kind of insulates the shock...but if they happen to touch the wire with their nose, they get the full effect. Typically when this happens it will lift all four hooves right off the ground. For the lambs it sets them backwards by about 4 feet as well.

Interestingly enough, when I dropped that tree onto those powerlines it was about 700 volts as well. I'm kind of thinking chainsaws, trees, electricity, sheep and Travis S Johnson just does not mix very well. Maybe I should move to the city?:huh:
 
From your confession Travis, I will make sure never to be around you and a chainsaw.:rofl::rofl: Who ever said sheep were bright. For a moment there I thought you had lost your major producer.:rofl::rofl: The other sheep would be no use without him. But come to think of it his genes have not exactly done you any good this last season. How many lambs did you say you got. I seem to remember calculations where we were to see this herd multiply. Not with more Rams.:rofl::rofl:

I think the Ram is a keeper. He has given me two lambs but both have been quite big in size and both are quite healthy now. I am disappointed with the lambing rate, but I think that had more to do with the ewes then the ram. I got them just as they were entering the breeding season and I think the stress of moving from one farm to another seriously impacted my lambing percentages.

All in all I am happy with how things are going. I am 2 sheep ahead from the numbers I expected, but of course it took buying additional sheep. At $200 bucks though for 7 sheep, I would have probably paid more money to have 7 lambs by birth??? I got a line up on a dozen more black-faced sheep so we'll see if I get them in the next few months.

The paper mills are still shut down pretty much because of mud season here, but the word is they will open up early next month. That's good because I got about 40 cord of wood ready to head to the mill as soon as the gates open. It's all piled up, and ready to go too so I'm in good shape.

But best of all the NCRS (Nature Resources Conservation Service) is hopefully going to build me an access road for my farm this June. Typically they fund all projects at a cost share rate of 75%. This means they come in, figure out what it would cost them to build a road from point a to point be and then give you 75% of that amount. In my case I am looking at 1000 foot road, 15 feet wide, with a foot of gravel, ditching, culverts, and riparian zones so it will come in at 12 grand or so. BUT because this is my first year of having sheep, I am classed as a beginning farmer so I will get an additional 15%. They will pay 90% of the cost. In other words, I paid 600 dollars for 11 sheep and ultimately will gain 1800 dollars for my beginner farmer status because of them. That's a pretty good return on investment!!

Here is how it works. I'll get a check for $10,800 and if it takes me $12,000 to build the road I have to cough up $1200 dollars. BUT if I can build the road for say $8000 bucks, I get to keep the extra $2800. Of course its consider taxable, so a farmers best bet is to reinvest it back into the farm. In my case I'll probably grab more sheep.

Anyway I was pretty happy when I found out in all likelyhood I'll get my road built and get an additional 15% to do it. Since I have my own gravel pit I am sure I can come well under the $10,800 I'll be getting. Hopefully this makes sense to you.
 
Travis, I have one squirrel to my credit. I took down a huge basswood for a friend who wanted it out of his woods to allow the under story to grow. This tree was on a steep stream bank and he was afraid to cut it. I had him stack pallets in the creek and use his backhoe to pack an escape route down in the bank so I could run away when it went over. I notched the trunk standing on the pallets and then back cut it using my 42" bar that just barely made it through the narrow section of the diameter. It was about 42"x 50" The hinge ended up being 6" . As we started delimbing the trunk I got hit with something and looked down to see a dead squirrel that my buddy chucked at me calling me a dang poacher. :D Maybe you should paint a powerline and a ram on the side of your saw just like the fighter pilots used to do. :rofl:
 
... is hopefully going to build me an access road for my farm this June.
...
Hopefully this makes sense to you.

Everything makes sense except the question of why you don't have a road now. How do you get in and out of your place without a road? Or is this in addition to the road you have at your house?
 
in answer to the thread question, cant say Ive ever had the experience.
Never owned any sheep, nor have I chopped down anything larger than a rose bush.


actually, I never understood the way animals think.
Im sure they sense danger, but yet see small animals challenge 75 mph trucks when all they have to do is wait 6 seconds.
I wonder if the sheep actually sensed danger.
 
actually, I never understood the way animals think.
Im sure they sense danger, but yet see small animals challenge 75 mph trucks when all they have to do is wait 6 seconds.
I wonder if the sheep actually sensed danger.

I don't know why the ram did not. I sensed danger as soon as I read the words "tree" and "cut" from Travis's post and I live on the other coast; the ram was right there.
 
I kind of need 7000 volts since my sheep are in full fleece and their wool kind of insulates the shock...but if they happen to touch the wire with their nose, they get the full effect. Typically when this happens it will lift all four hooves right off the ground. For the lambs it sets them backwards by about 4 feet as well.


that's not just good sheep herding, thats entertainment... :D
 
Everything makes sense except the question of why you don't have a road now. How do you get in and out of your place without a road? Or is this in addition to the road you have at your house?

Yeah I have a road that I live on and its even paved, though I am the last house in town on that road.

I actually was not even looking for a road. I have several fields and I run my sheep between them. In this one area the sheep have to cross a stream and the NCRS does not like the sheep and the resulting poo in that stream. So when I asked if they would build a laneway between the two fields they agreed. I have also logged across it so I figured maybe they would spring for not just a laneway but a road wide enough to accomidate tractors and equipment which would save driving through multiple fields to get to the farthest field back. That was when the NCRS guys said, "heck we'd build you a road all the way to the hot top Travis".

It's moved on from there to approval by the local Agriculture board, then an another approval from a secondary financial committee of the county. It has one more approval to go, but it should be approved as I am on the local Ag Board anyway. :)

It will really do me a lot of good because while I admit I have a few acres to play with, I don't have many acres with road frontage. In fact the farthest spot on my land to the nearest road is about a mile and a quarter away. That means when I am cutting wood I have to cut 10-15 trees and then haul them over a mile to the road only to turn around and go back to get 10-15 more. It takes forever to get a truck load of wood because your driving skidder and not cutting wood for most of the time.

This road is not the end-all/be all to my access problems, but it certainly will change how I farm.
 
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