It is just too hot for too long a time.  This year is almost a repeat of 2002.  The temperatures were in the 110 degree range in 2002 for weeks.  The Grizzly Gulch fire almost burnt Lead and Deadwood.  We have about a thousand acres of hay and crop ground. in 2002 we bales 176 bales.  This year on the same ground we baled about 400 bales.

This a pop can in my forty acre oats field.  The oats was planted April 9 in dry dirt.  The oats didn't get enough moisture to sprout until May 1.  Not enough there to combine.  If it were cut for hay the baler would not get it picked up.  So I guess I will continue to feed the antelope.

This a pop can in my good alfalfa field.   It was planted about three years ago so the plants are very thick spaced and there is not enough moisture for any of them to grow.  We left this field to the antelope, also.  The hay fields that did produce some hay were the old stands of alfalfa where the plants were spaced far apart and had rooted down deep into the soil.   Last year was a very high moisture year and we baled 145 bales on this field of 45 acres.  This year it will barely feed the antelope.

Last week we moved livestock around on the one cool day.  So the yearlings and the sheep and the cows and calves at least had pasture that was new to them.  We are rotating through the pastures the second time, but with no rain it doesn't make much difference.

On a little different note our sheep guard dog had puppies two weeks ago.  They were born under our porch step, so this is the first pictures of them out.

They come out in the cool of the morning and go back under the step for shade in the heat of the day.  They barely have their eyes open.  And they are learning to bark.

We need to figure out a way to put them in the pasture so that they can bond with the sheep and not us.  It would be too tempting to walk out of the house every morning and pick up seven puppies to pet.  So when they get a little older we will move them to the pasture.

Back to laying low with this heat and wind so that we don't start any fires.  I have the disc hooked to the tractor to plow a fire guard if need be and the four wheeler has its water tank ready.